Government of Sri Lanka must first solve the racial problem

Nayanti Rameswaran reporting from Colombo

Madam HIgh Commissioner, you are off the mark

Her Excellency Ms Chitranganee Wagiswara, High Commissioner for Sri
Lanka in Canada has rushed in where angels fear to tread and taken the
devil’s gauntlet to attack Canada for its just criticism of the
government of the island nation in respect of human rights violations
in that country.
 

Views expressed by certain groups, a mere handful of them among the
Tamil Diaspora in Canada, do not in any way reflect the hopes and
aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. The same is true of
the large majority of the Tamils in Canada too.

Her Excellency, it is regretted has not understood and appreciated
that there is no support for LTTE ideas anymore among the Diaspora
except that funds collected in the name of this terror contraption are
in the hands of certain groups and individuals and it is they who
advocate views that are unacceptable to both Sri Lanka and Canada.

These groups cause no impact whatsoever in Sri Lanka and in fact they
are considered a serious obstacle to the Tamil community in its
struggle to attain equal opportunities as citizens of the country.

The unfortunate comment of the High Commissioner is being played like
an HMV gramophone to help forestall a solution to the highly
discriminatory racial situation in Sri Lanka. As long as Sinhala
racism persists, raising its horrible Gorgon’s head from time to time,
and with the kind of statements made by the country’s representatives
abroad, it could be construed that the fundamental rights of the
Tamils will never be restored.

In Minister Douglas Devananda, the Sri Lankan government has its own
hit man to neutralize any voice of reason among the Tamils. The very
fact this man continues to be in the government is an insult to the
Tamil community and a threat to any voice expressed for the tights of
the Tamils.

When the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party were
advocating the just rights of the Tamils during the 1950s and
thereafter, there were Tamil groups that supported Sinhala racist
politics especially of the United National Party.

Who will ever forget the betrayal of the Indian Tamil community by G G
Ponnambalam of the Tamil Congress? Ironically, there is in operation
in Canada a Ceylon Tamil Congress whose voice and utterances can only
provoke racist actions against the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

These are the elite Tamils who had the best of fortune to migrate to
the western world under the pretext of racial discrimination and LTTE
terrorism who feel the need to ensure Sri Lanka maintains its racist
policies. Sri Lankan representatives abroad find the activities of
such groups a convenient excuse to tell the world that LTTE terrorism
is being nurtured in countries like Canada in order to counteract the
charges of human rights violations of the Sri Lankan government.

Corruption is rampant in the country especially in the north where the
police is not trusted. Sinhala-speaking Tamil bullies hand in glove
with corrupt policemen are holding law-keeping to ransom. Army camps
are too many; before an individual sneezes a second time he would have
passed two camps in the north.

What the Government of Sri Lanka is unwilling to admit that there are
no Tigers in Sri Lanka and Tamils in Sri Lanka will never ever fall
into any type of LTTE lair anymore.

The Government of Sri Lanka surely knows that the groups that are
prospering on LTTE funds amassed from people using all kinds of
persuasive means, even violence, have shown no interest in the
war-affected people, their kith and kin in Sri Lanka.

Canada is not supporting violence in any form but the country is
concerned the Government of Sri Lanka has not been genuine in solving
the country’s racial problems. The anti-Tamil phobia persists like a
perpetual paranoia. Her Excellency Chitranganee Wagiswara will do well
to probe into the activities of groups in Canada that supported the
LTTE unless she wants to be accused as Her Master’s Voice (HMV).