| by Pearl Thevanayagam
(April 03, 2014, Bradford UK, Sri Lanka Guardian) If you do not stand up for yourself someone will sit on you.
This is the essence of what Tamils need to comprehend and stand up for their beliefs and stand up against a government which is suffering from post-war euphoria.
The President has said in no uncertain terms there would be no presidential elections until 2016. Damned right he is. His chances of being a candidate appears increasingly slim, and for a start, at the way he is steering his juggernaut of a cabinet with gay abandon, there is every possibility his tenure might end prematurely.
Proscribing genuine Tamil NGOs which are supported by Tamil refugees under some obscure and questionable UN statute is the government’s desperate attempt to prohibit them from claiming their legitimate rights and banning them from visiting their homeland.
Tamils are made of sterner stuff than the government gives credit to; and if there is something that they would give up is not their inherited and legitimate lands which the government has militarised. Tamils did not toil the arid lands for generations under harsh conditions to hand them over like a piece of cake for the majority Sinhalese now being repatriated in the North and East and reap their hard labour. They will fight with their last breath to reclaim their lands.
Tamils will not let another bloody July 1983 to emerge and this time around they have international support.
The president’s actions post UNHRC sessions in March are hardly aimed at addressing concerns raised in Geneva of the international observer countries who have all the ammo necessary to nail him for kingdom to come. This time around, the UNHRC investigation is intensifying and escalating amidst pressure from countries which have hitherto been sceptical of the role played by the security forces in the massacre of surrendering civilians.
Fresh evidence supported by media coverage, satellite surveillance and eye-witness accounts of local and foreign NGOs who managed to penetrate the war zone during the height of the last offensive, the surrendered LTTE and civilians, medical reports from UNCAT (United Nations Campaign Against Torture) of rape and torture following capture and medical reports of asylum seekers examined by neutral psychologists are emerging to provide enough evidence war crimes were committed under Rajapaksa Government on the direct orders of the President’s brother Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Digging deeper his own grave, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has forthwith proscribed Tamil NGOs abroad under some obscure UN statute post 9/11 they are LTTE fronts. Those who feed to his paranoia are none other than our own Tamil sycophants who are running news websites which are fastly becoming the mouthpiece of the Rajapaksas.
But then we have always had invertebrate (spineless) media goons which include Tamil website owners who could be bought for the price of a bottle of whisky as Mangala Samaraweera noted.
Even Rajpal Abeynaike of Daily News seems to have some semblance of respect compared to our diaspora website managers who impart news in hope the government would award them laurels on par with Pulitzer Prize.
These free-loaders who comprise D.B.S. Jeyaraj and his ilk should thank their lucky stars the LTTE is finished although they are making a futile attempt to fictionally resurrect it. Even Sinhalese websites cringe at DBS’s expose that the LTTE is re-grouping. I hope against hope it is - since it could expose DBS the charlatan he is - and punish him for his random and reckless journalism which is destroying efforts by conscientious Tamil politicians who are embarking on a long and perilous struggle to bring justice to Tamils who are trying to rebuild their shattered lives since 1977.
Of late, he has been casting aspersions on the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, a most respected and impartial former Supreme Court Judge C.V.Wigneswaran, councillor Ms Ananthi Sasitharan and human rights advocates - little 13 year old child Vibushika and her mother Jeyakumari - as LTTE avatars.
We have had not such a leadership for Tamils since S.J.V.Chelvanayakam and it would not bode well for Tamils to castigate him. At long last, Tamils have a statesman with integrity and it would be prudent and wise to cherish him as our last hope in this struggle towards addressing our grievances.
Not attempting to fawn over the CM, the erudite seasoned politician R.Sambanthan, the irrepressible Mavai Senathirajah who calls a spade a spade or the firebrand politician M.A.Sumanthiran, we should consider ourselves lucky we have finally got a political alliance in TNA comprising these members both young and old whatever their shortcomings who are ready to deliver and fight for our rights. Their credentials are impeccable to say the least.
I see the light at the end of the tunnel providing some selfish Tamils with selfish motives refrain from jeopardising our liberty and inheritance which is North and East in Mother Lanka.
(The writer has been a journalist for 25 years and worked in national newspapers as sub-editor, news reporter and news editor. She was Colombo Correspondent for Times of India and has contributed to Wall Street Journal where she was on work experience from The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, California. Currently residing in UK she is also co-founder of EJN (Exiled Journalists Network) UK in 2005 the membership of which is 200 from 40 countries. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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