DOUBLE TALK AT LOAN TALKS
Has Thamilselvan displaced Anton Balasingham in the so called peace talks. Thamilselvan may not be as sophisticated as Balasingham or G L Peiris but unlike the latter duo is very easy to understand. G L Peiris has a habit of saying two different things using more or less the same words but Thamilselvan having not gone to Oxford or even to Peradeniya or Colombo speaks the same thing with different words. So when Thamilselvan says the LTTE wants an interim administration fully autonomous, completely controlled by the LTTE and entirely outside the Sri Lankan constitution he is very clear of what the LTTE, meaning his chief Prabhakaran, wants.
If Balasingham has been replaced by Thamilselvan, we do not know what exactly has happened and it may that the former has a genuine health problem, then it shows how powerful the LTTE is. They do not have to depend on a person who had been a translator at the British High Commission in Colombo. Balasingham can be the translator but not the spokesman. The spokesman is now Thamilselvan. Even if Balasingham has gone on sick leave, when he comes back he would be a less powerful man in the hierarchy of the LTTE.
Prabhakaran, in spite of the visits by Akashi, Helgesen and the crowd, and in spite of the visits of Rocca of the US state department and of Peterson the Norwegian Foreign minister to Sri Lanka, has not changed his mind. Thanks to the support given by the western powers, that includes Japan that dances to the tune of the USA state department, Prabhakaran has become one of the most powerful people in the world controlled by the USA. Prabhakaran speaks from a position of strength, whereas the weak kneed "government" of Sri Lanka would not know how to respond to Thamilselvan statement without consulting some third (rate) secretary in a western embassy. Thamilselvan has said that the LTTE would not attend the "loan talks" ("naya katha" in Sinhala. It is "naya katha" in more than one way) unless the government gives a written pledge to establish and recognise a so called interim administration completely for the LTTE and entirely outside the constitution of Sri Lanka.
Will the governmental apparatus decide to give the LTTE an "interim administration" for the north and the east? Already two cabinet ministers have spoken in favour of the "interim administration". Arumugam Thondaman of the Ceylon Workers Congress has reminded the public how his grandfather had wanted to give an interim administration some fifteen years ago. Thondaman senior wanted to do so many things and he was able to get many of them done because of the power hungry Sinhala politicians who entered into various agreements with him with the sole intention of coming into power. In no other country including the so called liberal west a man like Thondaman senior would have been tolerated. If not for the leaders who listened to and obeyed the British, we could have asked the latter to take all the so called estate workers of Indian origin to Britain after the "independence". Unfortunately we are still not independent of the British, and now of the Americans as well, and neither the present President nor the Prime Minister would say anything against the British. The utterances of Thondaman senior who was biassed against the Sinhalas are not important and his grandson who has more interests in India than in Sri Lanka should not be used by the "government" to create a public opinion in favour of the "interim administration".
The other cabinet minister to be used by the "government" is the dentist Rajitha Senaratne. Through the "boruwahini" called the "rupawahini" he told the public that the PA had proposed to give an interim administration to the LTTE sometime ago. Does the "government" do the other things that the PA did? The PA had in their own way had begun to fight against the LTTE and had set up the Millennium City Complex intelligence unit that was very successful in taking steps to eliminate the LTTE terrorist leadership. What did the "government" of which Senaratne is a minister did? They not only got the police to raid the safe house in the Millennium City Complex, but allowed the LTTE to eliminate the Tamil members of the intelligence unit. Rajitha Senaratne who with S B Dissanayake, both of whom had been very close to Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, being used by the "government" to attack the PA could say that they are only following the good work done by the PA, or words to that effect. If he makes a statement along those lines we would be in a position to define "good" and "bad" with respect to Senaratne and his friends.
It is true that the PA proposed some kind of an "interim administration" sometime ago. The nationalists were against it then and the UNP made use of the campaign by the nationalists to defeat the PA. In any event the LTTE has gone far beyond what the PA proposed and now they want an "interim administration" exclusively for the LTTE outside the constitution od Sri Lanka. This is typical of "little now more later" policy of the Tamil racists since the days of S J V Chelvanayakam and the LTTE is now on the verge of establishing the Eelam, the Tamil racists had been interested in from the very beginning.
Would Senaratne, Thondaman or anybody else in the cabinet tell us what is meant by an "interim administration" outside the constitution of Sri Lanka. If they cannot, would their white skinned masters from the west enlighten us on this aspect. If Solheims, Helgesens, Roccas and Armitages cannot, we do not mind even if the Akashis try their hand at giving an answer. Would these ladies and gentlemen ever concede to consider anything that is outside the constitutions of their respective countries?
At this point it is pertinent to point out that these countries, though they do not work outside the constitutions of their countries, have no inhibitions in resorting to acts that are outside the constitutions of the other countries. The US - UK invasion of Iraq, though may be within the constitutions of the former was certainly not within the constitution of the latter, even if in Iraq the constitution meant the word of Sadam Hussein. The readers of "The Island" know that few days ago the ABC in its telecast in a certain region in the USA had referred to the recent floods in Sri Lanka showing a map of the country together with the LTTE flag and the emblem of the LTTE terrorists. It may be that some of the news editors of the USA media are such an ignorant set that they do not know that the LTTE is proscribed in their country and that the national flag of Sri Lanka is not that of the terrorist organisation. Or it may be that they know that their government is not serious about the proscription of the LTTE and that following the government all assistance should be given to the LTTE that has a Christian ideology against the Sinhala Buddhists. The terrorist flag and the emblem could have been shown by a Tamil racist working for the ABC with the connivance of the news editors.
Irrespective of how it was done has the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington protested against the ABC to the relevant authorities? Our embassies are well known for the support that they have given to Tamil racism and it is unlikely that the embassy in Washington would take up the matter. What would have happened if the ABC referred to UK with the flag and the emblem of the IRA? Would they ever do anything like that? In Sinhala there is a saying "api kaluda" (are we dark)? We are not only "kalu" but happen to be a country that has a culture based on Buddhism. The west in spite of their lip service to religious harmony etc., are fighting against the Muslim cultures and the Buddhist cultures. In the middle east they are using advanced technology to fight against Iraq and the other countries. In the Buddhist countries they are using other means to weaken the Buddhist cultures. South Korea that was a Buddhist country few years ago is now a Christian country. In Mianmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia the other four Theravadi countries in the world the western Christian hegemony is adopting different tactics to undermine the Buddhist cultures. The west does not feel any threat from Hindu culture as Hinduism is not a world religion as such. Most of the Hindus whether in India or outside are descendants of Hindu Indians and Hinduism is propagated mainly through individual migration. It appears that the local affiliate of the ABC has now apologised for displaying the LTTE flag and the emblem. According to them they had downloaded the wrong flag! It is as simple as that! It just shows how much respect that these American journalists have for the countries of cultures other than Christian. Knowing how they behaved during the war against Iraq nothing more could be expected from them though they pretend to be very liberal in their attitudes.
Coming back to the "interim administration" would the so called donor countries who give loans and not aid, agree to the demand of the LTTE. In these matters we should not go by the statements made by the embassies as the diplomats are supposed to lie for their countries. We do not know what is in the script of the US state department and how the LTTE would react next. The loan talks in Tokyo are bound to commence and what cannot be understood is why the LTTE should take part in these talks. After all it is a loan that is given to the "government" of Sri Lanka that has to be paid back. It is not the LTTE that has to pay back the loan but the "government". Are the so called donors insisting that part of the loan should be spent on the development of the north and the east. What is the role that the LTTE has to play in these talks? Why attach a condition that part of the loan should be spent on the development of the northern and the eastern provinces as demarcated by the British.? Isn't it only to justify, if one has to use that word, the participation of a terrorist organisation that cannot claim that it is the democratically elected representative of the Tamils in those two provinces. Besides there are non Tamils in those two provinces and why should only the LTTE, that is supposed to be a proscribed party in the USA be present at these talks.
Even without the recent floods the Southern province especially the Matara and Hambantota districts are in need of development. Why not attach a condition that part of the loan should be spent on the development of the Hambantota district and invite the JVP for the loan talks. After all the JVP can claim to be a representative of the people in the Hambantota district with much more credibility than the LTTE that claims to be the sole representative of the Tamils. I am not trying to say that the so called donors who give loans and not aid should be allowed to impose conditions such as above nor that the LTTE or any other organisation should take part in the talks. I am only trying to expose the hypocrisy of the so called donors.
The Norwegians and Akashi with instructions from the US state department must be working overtime to get the LTTE to the Tokyo loan talks and tone down the LTTE demand for an "interim administration" outside the constitution. English language could be used for double talk and it is not beyond the capabilities of the state department to provide G L Peiris with words that pretend to say something else than what the state department has in store for the country.
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>