THE SLMM, THE SLMC AND THE JVP
The eastern province Muslims are somewhat quiet after the incidents in Muttur, Valachchena and the other places. However the LTTE is not quiet as was shown last week with the abduction of two members of the so called Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The LTTE that attacked the Muslims and towns in the eastern province with mortars killing a number of people, that set fire to bodies of Muslims after exhuming went on to abduct the monitors within weeks. The monitors that did not tell the LTTE that the latter had violated the so-called MOU was forced to say so when two of them, reportedly one being a female, were abducted and manhandled. It appears that Thamilchelvan has said "sorry" to the SLMM and the incident is forgotten in the name of peace. How many more murders, attacks, harassments of civilians, officials by the LTTE are to be forgotten in the name of peace and building confidence meaning of course creating a separate state. The visit of the Prime Minister to the USA his meeting with the President Bush, talks between Anton Balasingham and the Norwegians in London after the "sorry" of Thamilchelvan, meeting of the honourable peace brigade in Ampara, the formation of the Mavubima Surakeeme Shishya Vyaparaya (they had their so called first national convention last week), the over reaction by the government to its formation etc., point towards a turbulent time in the politics of the country.
The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMM) has two wings one led by Mr. Rauf Hakeem and the other by Mrs. Ashraaf. Neither wing had any demonstrations in Colombo or any other part of the country to protest against the killings of the Muslims by the LTTE. The protests and reactions by the Muslims in the eastern province were spontaneous and not organised by any one of the wings. The only response was by Mr. Hakeem to request mildly for amending the treacherous MOU. However, it is not a document that could be ammended at the request of Mr. Hakeem or anybody else as Prabhakaran would not agree to give up any power that he has acquired through it. It is reported that Dr. G.L.Peiris has told a press conference on July 18 that there wont be "any attempt on our part" to review or amend the agreement signed between the Hon. Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
By now Mr. Hakeem should have realised that if at all the MOU could be ammended only to give more powers to Prabhakaran and his fascist gang. Apart from this mild request to amend the MOU what has Mr. Hakeem or Mrs. Ashraaf done? This non reaction in the face of mortar attacks and killings of Muslims should be compared with the reactions after the Uda Thalawinna and the Kegalle incidents. The Muslims were asked to organise protest marches, prayers on Fridays and the media gave publicity to these events. The Ratwattes, Maheepala Heraths became household names and the trial by media found them guilty. The NGO rag sheets in Sinhala language were more vociferous than the government controlled media and they went to town with the "story", though there was nobody to buy the rag sheets not to mention the "story". The Sinhala language media, both electronic and print, are full of "prabuddhayas" (enlightened) who think that by glancing through Mahagama Sekera's "prabuddha", which itself is not that "prabuddha", they could attain the "prabuddha" status. However, these "prabuddhayas" and those left out politicians of the left out left, together with the two wings of the SLMM were silent over the killings of the Muslims in the eastern province. There were no protest marches, no Friday prayer meetings.
One could understand the position of Mr. Hakeem in this regard. He is in the cabinet and as a minister he did not want to upset the "peace apple cart". He is under pressure both from the local Muslim community as well as the "international" community. At present he has yielded to "international" pressure and is prepared to ignore the local pressure. He is in a position to do so since the Muslim community has no alternative effective leadership at present. Mrs. Ashraaf is not in a position to challenge Mr. Hakeem and the other Muslim leaders are Colombo based and attached to the two main political parties. The Muslims in the eastern province are without a "parliamentary" leader and one cannot rule out the possibility of the emergence of Muslim groups that work outside the "democratic" framework. Mrs. Ashraaf and the other leaders in the "honourable" peace bandwagon would not be able to attract the Muslims, however much the JVP repeats its "manthram" of Sinhala Tamil Muslim equality, including in Ampara.
The JVP and the PA san the MEP are not interested in the rights of the Sinhala people. Recently the secretariat of the President called for proposals to establish a so-called plural society in Sri Lanka. What these pluralists including the JVP that talks of equal rights for Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities do not realise is that there are equal rights for all of them in this country. In fact these communities enjoy equal rights in this country that are not found in many countries including USA, UK and certainly Norway and India. What the Tamil racists insist is not merely equal rights for individuals before the law but equal status for Sinhala culture and the other cultures. They want to erase the significance of the Sinhala history in this country with their bogus history. In general the Tamil racists want to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country. In no other country with a history of even two hundred years this has happened. In the USA the Anglo Saxon White Male Christian (ASWMC) culture occupies a special place that is not enjoyed by any other culture including the Black American culture and the Tamil Hindu culture. In all the ASWMC countries such as UK, Australia, Canada, the situation is the same. I have called this multi culturalism in a weak sense where the significance of the culture that reflects the history, even if it is less than few hundred years as in the cases of countries mentioned above other than UK, is recognised. In fact in those countries it is more than that. The ASWMC culture is not only the most significant culture but it is the dominant culture in them. In Sri Lanka the Tamil racists when they talk of a plural society or multi culturalism they insist on multi culturalism in a strong sense, where all the cultures are equated. It is not just a case of recognising equality for individuals before the law but equality for all the cultures. By insisting on multi culturalism in a strong sense the Tamil racists deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in the country. The ASWMC culture is not only the dominant culture in USA, UK and others. The western colonialism that began in the fifteenth century wants that culture to be the dominant culture in the whole world. Under western globalism, the present phase of western colonialism, they want to achieve this and have already worked towards this end. The so called popular culture in the Asian and African countries is a result of the western cultural colonialism that has dominance of western knowledge as one aspect. Some leading Christian and Catholic clergy as well as elites are with the Tamil racists to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place. They are interested in denying the Sinhala Buddhist culture its rightful place.
The JVP and some elements in the PA corrupted not by outdated Marxist theories but by Marxist theories that have never being valid talk of equal rights for Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities. By doing so true to their Marxism they follow an anti national line in these countries and their rhetoric only confirms this fact. Ms. Kumaratunga the pink socialist of the yesteryear having hijacked the SLFP is implementing the SLMP policies through it. However, in spite of these anti national Marxist policies the SLFP led PA and the JVP do not get many votes from the Muslims and the Tamils. It is the Sinhala, especially the Sinhala Buddhist voters that vote for these parties though the leaders think that they are being supported by the non Sinhalas as well. They are no better than some Sinhala entrepreneurs who think that once the so-called peace is achieved they would be able to invest in the northern and the eastern provinces. They will realise their mistake only when the LTTE having established its dictatorship in those provinces would kick out all the Sinhala and Muslim people from the two provinces under its ethnic cleansing programme. A party that chased out small scale Sinhala businessmen in the form of bakers would never allow any Sinhalas to invest in the north and the east. However, I must add that the born again business people are supporting Tamil racism not with the intention of selling insurance policies nor to provide banking facilities to the Tamils but with the sole intention of depriving Sinhalathva which is influenced by Sinhala Buddhism, its rightful place in the country true to their born again character.
The Sinhala businessmen and others should not expect much from the discussions between Mr. Bush and Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. The USA and UK governments never gave Ms. Kumaratunga an opportunity to meet the leaders showing that it is the UNP(F) and not the SLFP(PA) that is the direct agent of those countries in Sri Lanka. Ms. Kumaratunga was supported by the non national forces in 1994 in order to get her to abdicate power to Tamil racists with the support of the Sinhala people. However that did not work and she is no longer the favourite of the non national forces though she has failed to realise that. The non national forces support MR. Ranil Wickremesinghe to the hilt and he may be given an additional quota for garments and would be asked to speak to the LTTE as soon as possible. Anton Balasingham who refused to meet the Norwegians in London claiming among other things that the government has not implemented the MOU has agreed to meet a Norwegian delegation. However, the LTTE would try its best to postpone the "peace talks" as it knows that it could establish an Eelam through the MOU alone. It is the west that wants the "peace talks" and not the LTTE that sees the MOU as a gold mine. The MOU should be thrown out completely and not simply amended as the SLMC wanted first. What we should realise is that if not for India then and the western powers now the LTTE would have been defeated long time ago. It is the western media that made a superman out of Prabhakaran who is no more than a fascist thug who could have been easily defeated.
The abduction of two monitors by the LTTE clearly demonstrated that the MOU is in favour of the LTTE. This treacherous document not only equated the army with the terrorist outfit, or as Thamilchelvan has said recognised the existence of two armies, it also completely inactivated the navy. The navy is only an observer that cannot take any action. Only a peace idiot will not admit that the sea has been surrendered completely to the sea tigers and that the LTTE is happily bringing arms to the country without any obstructions. The governments in Colombo, they are not Sinhala governments by any stretch of imagination, have repeatedly betrayed their police force, the army, the navy and the air force and one wonders how we have been able to survive with all these betrayals by the so-called leaders.
At this crucial juncture the JVP or any other party that is against the LTTE, though they may not be for the Sinhala cause should be very careful not to give any ammunition to the LTTE, the non national forces and the government. While criticising the LTTE for abducting children for the army no party should try to use school children to achieve their political ambitions. The government is only waiting for a chance and the JVP could be proscribed while lifting the ban on the LTTE. If the JVP is banned no NGO "human rights group" would come to their aid and the presence of sixteen members in the parliament would not help them either. The last thing the Sinhala people want is a repeat of 1987-90 even on a small scale.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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