RAVIRAJ, A 9, AND VAKARAI
We condemn unreservedly the assassination of Mr. Nadaraja Raviraj last week in Colombo, and at the same time commend the President for immediately ordering the police to probe into the matter even with the assistance of Scotland Yard. Though the police would have done their duty even without a special order from the President, his intervention and requesting the help of the Scotland Yard from Britain that baptised Tamil racism in Sri Lanka, would help even in a small way to dispel the rumours to the effect that the government is involved in the assassination. It is very likely that it is another dastardly act of the LTTE to put the blame on the government. While we sympathise with the family of Mr. Raviraj, we cannot refrain from reminding the readers of the Sinhala saying Yaka bendagatththa Vage (like employing the devil). When one employs Yaka or the devil one has to satisfy him and meet all his demands. The moment Yaka is not happy with what has been offered he would harm the employer sometimes even going to extent of killing him.
It is known that though as a member of the TNA, the proxy party of the LTTE, Mr. Raviraj had been supportive of the terrorists, he had been critical of the LTTE specially with respect to proscription of children. The LTTE would not have liked it especially when criticism came from members of their proxy party, and would have decided to end criticism the only way known to them. When the journalist Taraki was killed not many moons ago the free media mafia in the country maintained by the NGOs tried to put the blame on the Sinhala people and their parties but it soon transpired who the assassinators were. Taraki was made a Mahavir by the Mahathrasathaya posthumously and it is very likely that the latter will make Mr. Raviraj also a Mahavir on the annual Mahavir day coming very shortly. We do not know how many Mahavir had been killed on the orders of the fascist leader, and how many others would be killed and then elevated to Mahavir status.
It is an irony that the Yaka when employed is sometimes not satisfied even with the killing of the employer. In the case of Mr. Raviraj the LTTE wanted political mileage at the expense of his body. No prizes are offered to guess who is behind the "request" by the relatives of Mr. Raviraj to take the body of Mr. Raviraj to Jaffna along A 9. The government has to be congratulated for not giving into the demand of the LTTE. The terrorists' tactics seem to boomerang on them since recently, and it is a good opportunity for the government to expose the LTTE still further.
It is true that A 9 was earlier closed by the LTTE for some reason or other and later on opened as a result of the infamous MoU between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prabhakaran, or the so called ceasefire agreement. After the A 9 was opened the LTTE took advantage of it to impose tax on goods transported to the peninsula, and also to send terrorists to Colombo and the suburbs freely. The government may have closed the road for these reasons, but has made sure that provisions are transported to Jaffna by sea. However, it appears that the LTTE is preventing the vendors from selling the goods to the people thus creating an artificial food shortage in the area. The so called humanitarians who produce films on behalf of Tamil racism, and a critic who could not obtain his Ph. D. from a University in England, but subsequently managed to get one from his gurus in Sri Lanka, and who tries to be a hero by praising Tamil racism, have held a press conference to protest against the closing down of A 9. These humanitarians have appealed in the name of the starving people in Jaffna and have demanded that A 9 should be opened without any delay. If the government was able to supply the needs of the people in Jaffna before A 9 was opened as a result of the treacherous CFA, then there is no reason why the government machinery cannot do it this time. If there is a food shortage in Jaffna, then it has to be due to the interference of the LTTE, and the humanitarians should go to Killinichchi where killing is planned by the fascist leader, and appeal to the brute not to interfere with the distribution of food in the peninsula.
This brings us to the incidents in Vakarai, where innocent people have been killed as a result of the LTTE using them as a human shield. Here again the paid humanitarians, they are paid in various forms, it could be monthly salaries, funds to produce anti Sinhala Buddhist films, awards for these third rate films, foreign trips (why should Sri Lankans and other Asians, and Africans be fond of these foreign trips), scholarships, fellowships, seminars with per diem, and other perks, and also non monetary pleasures, should meet the terrorist leader to request him not to use people as a human shield. Incidentally I am yet to come across an appeal made by the paid humanitarians to the terrorists not to conscript children. It may be that the humanitarians are not paid for such requests.
If the LTTE continues to use people as a human shield and attack the armed forces, what course of action is left to the generals. Do they have to turn a blind eye on those soldiers who die without firing a shot? Is that humanitarianism? Or are they supposed to sacrifice the sovereignty of the country in the name of humanitarianism? We have mentioned this on several occasions but it is very much appropriate to remind it again. The foremost duty of a government and the armed forces is the protection of the sovereignty of the state, and all the other factors pale into insignificance in comparison to it. Let the paid humanitarians appeal to the fascist terrorists not to use people as a human shield, and if it continues to happen then the government and the armed forces have no option but to retaliate even if the shield is pierced. These words may sound brutal to the Tamil racists and the paid humanitarians and also to some Olcott Buddhists, but if anyone of them can suggest an alternative for the armed forces in the face of attacks by the LTTE covered with a human shield, I shall be thankful.
I know some pundits both here and abroad would say there is no military solution and peace can be achieved only through negotiations. This is old hat and the mot recent Geneva talks provide ample proof that the LTTE is not interested in a negotiated settlement. The pundits who pronounce from roof tops, rather from the studios of television channels, and hotels and other places where they hold their regular press conferences, before the camera, that twenty year "war" has not produced anything significant, have to be asked what the negotiations have brought to the country so far. It is true that money is spent on "war" but how much is spent on so called peace talks or the peace process a term that is fondly used by the paid humanitarians? The only way to achieve peace is through defeating the LTTE, and anybody who stands against it has to be considered as an agent of Tamil racism and western colonialism that created, baptised and nurtured Tamil racism in Sri Lanka. If a Thambiah or any other so called sociologist, anthropologist, social anthropologist, after all none of them has contributed any theoretical knowledge in these fields and they are merely applying the theories of other people, would like to remind us of Buddhism Betrayed, and Rohini Ganga and Buddha, all that we have to say is that we do not have Buddhas among ourselves though there may be Bodhisatvas, who follow Mahaushada Pandithuma of Ummagga Jathaka and the crab in the Baka Jathaka. If a Thambiah is interested in reading the Baka Jathaka he or she, or is it she or he according to the latest wisdom of the western intellectuals, could consult an upasakamma.
If India or Britain or USA or Netherlands is opposed to defeating the LTTE even by piercing the human shields, they have to reminded of Golden Temple of Sikhs, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries more recently and the western colonial history of more than five hundred years, where millions of people were killed not to safeguard the sovereignty of the European countries, but to demolish the sovereignty of the other countries. We have had enough of preaching from the altar, and if not for the support that was given to the LTTE terrorists by the western countries and India, the terrorists would have been defeated long time ago. In this regard the intervention of these countries has to be deplored and it appears that pressure is being mounted to merge the northern and the eastern provinces by the westerners as well as the Indians. Sri Lanka is neither India nor UK, with Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and Ireland, Scotland, the later being colonies of England, and all these advisors who visit us, are they really concerned with us, have to be reminded that we have a history of our own, albeit distorted by the British, and nobody could solve the problem in Sri Lanka without listening to the Sinhala people. Northern and Eastern provinces were demarcated by the British in the present form only in 1889, and there is no evidence to suggest that these provinces have been the Historical habitats or traditional homeland of the Tamils. If these advisors are prepared to spend time while they are here they could read my submissions to the APRC on the historical evolution of the problem. The submissions give only a summary, and if they are prepared to spend a longer time we may even have a discussion comparing with Ireland, Scotland and other colonies of England. If one thinks of finding a "solution" by merging the eastern and northern provinces it is only wishful thinking.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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