‘Against violent oppression, violent resistance is moral’
April 4th, 2008
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Interviewed by Juliette Perrier in Geneva for Afrique Asie
Reputed academic, author of ‘Fidel’s Ethics of Violence’, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka is today the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva. He fervently defends the policy of his government against the Tamil Tigers, the secessionists of the North-East whom he describes as ‘Fanatics’:
Interview
What do you mean by “Ethics of Violence”? Could a violent action be moral?
By “ethics of violence”, I mean a conception of the world and a code of conduct which governs the use of violence. What are the taboos? When is the violence allowed and against whom is it used? These are the questions which are linked with an “ethics of violence”.
The “just war”
Yes, a violent action can be moral. The violent eviction of money lenders from the Temple in Jerusalem by Jesus Christ was moral. The same is true of lethal forms of violence. When there is oppression and violent injustice, unnecessary and intentional cruelty, it is moral to resist, to challenge and to change that situation through violence, that is if all peaceful measures have failed and if violence is not directed towards innocent people, those who are unarmed. In such a situation, I would even say it is immoral not to rise against prolonged violent oppression and cruelty. The Christian theological studies on “just war” are a classic example of what I mean by ‘ethics of violence’. However, there are no just war theories for liberation,
revolutionary or resistance movements. Now, I think that the ideas and practices of Fidel Castro (and those of Che Guevara) contain elements
of such a theory.
What are the root-causes of the terrible civil war that plagues your country?
They are complex and intricate. According to the leader of the Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, there are eighty million Tamils in the world who do not have a country of their own. Sri Lanka would be the only country where they can install such a State because mighty India would not let them create it on their territory. Their ideology could be linked to what Prof. Walter Laqueur, famous researcher, has written in his book, The New Terrorism (1999): “In terms of their fanatism and ruthlessness, I could compare the Tamil Tigers only with the European fascist movement of the 1920s and 30s.” John Burns, Pulitzer Prize Winner and journalist of the New York Times, described the Tiger chief V. Prabhakaran as the “Pol Pot of South Asia”. We should remember that Rajiv Gandhi, the grandson of Nehru and a leader of the non-aligned movement was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber, on the soil of Tamil Nadu, in South India. Quite logically, the Sinhalese majority will not let the small island of Sri Lanka-the
only country in which Sinhalese is still spoken-to become a dismembered and separated State, while Tigers do not accept anything short of a separate independent State. This is why there’s a war going on. There is another factor: the majority chauvinism of the Sinhalese, which was the major cause of the conflict at one time, but which has become a secondary factor, at least since the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace accord in 1987. This accord has offered a solution based on autonomy, which was accepted by the State but was fought against by the armed Tigers.
According to many people, no one can predict how the war would end. Therefore, it is obvious that the repression without limits is not a solution. What does your Government propose concretely to bring the secessionists to the negotiating table?
You have heard the slogan “The revolution by stages” or “the revolution in two stages”. In the same way, the policy of the Government can be called “Decentralization in steps” or “power-sharing by transfer”. It tries to achieve decentralization in two steps or a power sharing with the majority Tamil periphery. The government has called for an all party conference which has come up with the first of two sets of suggestions. The first is about giving back the autonomy to the provinces within the concept of a unitary State. That is what was suggested by the Indo-Lanka accord under the 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution. I was a Minister, probably the youngest, in the North-East Provincial Council which was established in 1988. This effort failed because of the war the Tamil Tigers waged against autonomy. Today, the situation has improved because they have been militarily weakened. During the 7th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva [which was held from 3rd to 28th March, Comment by the writer], the Indian delegation praised the efforts Sri Lanka is taking to implement the 13th Amendment.
Defeat or decapitate
Expected second step: a round table discussion with the concerned political parties to bring about more radical reforms. Why these two steps?
Because, at present, the balance of powers in the Parliament, the arithmetic, does not allow anything more than the autonomy of the provinces within the framework of a unitary state. The reality on the ground is that the Government held local (municipal council) elections only in the Eastern Province, which was for years, under the control of the Tigers. But it is liberated today. However limited it was, this election represents an important reopening of the democratic process. The elections for the Eastern Provincial Council will follow soon, and that will be for the first time in 20 years. I should state a brutal truth: that is, this process takes place while a military offensive of the armed forces of Sri Lanka is going on from multiple fronts. This offensive should either defeat the Tigers or behead them so that we could to bring the survivors to the negotiating table.
According to my own theoretical grid, there should be a typology of armed movements. One cannot consider them all in the same manner. Most of them have longstanding demands and if the political environment is open to them, they would transform into peaceful movements. But, certain movements are led by fanatics, irrational fundamentalists, who engage in barbaric forms of violence. For example, the movement of the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot, as well as the Shining Path in Peru, Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden, or the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Tamil Tigersbelong to this category. This neo barbarism should be combated, if+necessary, militarily.
I would like to make another point. The anti-imperialist movement should seriously reflect upon the breaking up of the ethno-federal system of the former USSR and the former Yugoslavia. The Sri Lankan public is quite aware of the conspiracy to divide Serbia by recognizing the secession of Kosovo. Iraq’s Kurdistan could perhaps be the next Kosovo. Today, it is necessary to prevent centrifugal trendS which try to destroy States. An excessive decentralization should be avoided to the same extent as we avoid an excessive centralization.
The sovereignty of a State is a necessary protection against projects of unipolarity, hegemony and interventionism.
” The Tamil Tigers: Neo-barbarians who should be combated, if necessary, militarily.”
A young revolutionary
“I was a militant revolutionary and was condemned in absentia: I was in clandestinity. The police officer who was assigned to arrest me was the former chief of the special paramilitary police who had been trained in Israel. Had I been arrested, I would have either been judged and sentenced to prison for a long time or would have simply ‘disappeared’. In fact, I was sentenced in absentia by the High Court of Colombo on 14 charges under the law on Prevention of Terrorism and Emergency legislation. I was mainly accused of conspiring to overthrow the government through violence. I was the accused number one.
My motives were varied. I wanted to help the socialist revolution take place in my country. In the mid 1970s, while I was only a high school-leaving adolescent, I had already been arrested and questioned by the police for being involved with a secret armed revolutionary group organizing against an authoritarian and capitalist regime. While I was still very young, I had Marxist-Leninist, socialist and revolutionary ideas. I had been influenced by Vietnam, by Che and Fidel, by Lenin and Mao.
During the events in 1968, I was able to travel through Europe with my parents. My father was an editor and a journalist and was a very well-known figure in South Asia. He took me to the Non-Aligned Movement’s Conference in Cairo in 1964 when I was still a 7 year old. In 1965, I was in Indonesia, just before the coup d’Etat. My parents were invited by Dr. Subandrio, the foreign Minister of Sukarno on the occasion of an Afro-Asian solidarity meeting. My father was the last journalist to interview D. N. Aidit, the leader of the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party. After the massacre of the unarmed Indonesian communist movement and, later, the bloody overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, I was among those in the world who were convinced that the Right would not allow peaceful transformations. At the same time, having had the opportunity to be present when my father interviewed the “biggest terrorist in the world”, at the time, Abu Nidal, in 1975 in Bagdad, I could also reflect on the issue of terrorism and the attacks against civilian targets.
My revolutionary engagement in the 1980s was concerned however with more urgent motives. I was striving to overthrow a right-wing government which had, then, simply “postponed” the legislative elections and had become an authoritarian or a dictatorial regime. I also had a third objective: overcome ethnic divisions in my country and stimulate a common revolutionary combat which would reunite, on internationalist foundations, the Marxists among the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils.”
[Afrique-Asie, the leading French language periodical on Third World affairs and international politics from a Third World perspective, has in its current (April 2008) issue, a two page interview with and profile of Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. The interview is part of a major feature on the global implications of the secession of Kosovo, entitled “Kosovo: The Balkanisation of the World?”
Penning the famous founder editor Simon Malley’s obituary in The Guardian, Victoria Brittain referred to Afrique-Asie as the main source of information on the Third World for a whole generation of Western journalists. What follows is a translation of the Afrique-Asie feature from French into English, by Dr. Subhashinie Punchihetti of the original report from Geneva by Juliette Perrier]
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11 Comments Add your own
1. ilaya seran senguttuvan | April 5th, 2008 at 3:54 am
One could not fault if a reader was to conclude what is stated in the article above justifies the stand of LTTE’s Prabakaran, viz:
“when there is oppression and violent injustice, unnecessary and intentional cruelty, it is MORAL to resist, to challenge and to change that situation through violence - that is if all peaceful means have
failed..In such a situation I would even say it is IMMORAL NOT TO RISE against prolonged violence, oppression and cruelty”
This has been the lot of the Sri Lankan Tamils for decades including those few years the Writer joined the Tamil side as a moral crusader (which we deeply appreciate for they contain shades of his principled father)
This is as true of Fidel’s Cuba as it is of Prabakaran’s Lankan struggle. Dayan J being MR’s advisor should impress upon the
President the need to accept the reality as propounded by the author…..In answering the question as to the genesis of the problem, I am afraid Dayan is somewhat misleading in that he says VP’s central objective is to create a Tamil homeland
for 80 million Tamils in the world now that India will not allow such a thing in Tamilnadu. Hog-wash!!! Readers can easil detect the mischief here. Then he brings in a virtual minor addendum and admits Sinhala chauvinism has a role in the matter - obliquely suggesting it is only a minor part. Methinks its the other way around. The issue came to a head and gathered momentum in the 1950s and exploded in 1983 ONLY because of Sinhala chauvinism, obstinacy and continuing hegemony. Dayan J is not an ordinary Sinhalese in the street. He is an intellectually inclined young educated Lankan whose fidelity to the truth and history must rise above other considerations - particularly when the interviewer is trying to learn in perspective the Sri Lankan question.
2. aratai | April 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Question: What are the root causes?
DJ replies: …the majority chauvinism of the Sinhalese, which was the major cause of the conflict at one time…..
It’s not one time Dr. DJ, still it’s the major cause.
Once this is controlled, the other ’symptoms’ will go away.
.
3. R.Goonetilake | April 5th, 2008 at 11:04 am
If V.Prabhakaran can be acounted for Rajiv Gandhi murder and still be extradited to India to face the consequences, then Dayan Jayatilake is no exception.
Dayan on the contrary, plotted to overthrow the LEGITIMATE GOVT OF SL, and took up arms, killed many of his own, cannot be pardoned off by a president or any other.
The same goes to Karuna and Pillyan. Those took to arms and killed wanton of innocent civilians, sl forces, budhist clergy should stand trial and meet the consequences of their actions.
This article, based on Dayan being the “AMBASSADOR”, has no value! He still is a murderer, convicted and escaped punishment,because Sri Lankan Rulers DO NOT enforce Law & Order as they are also do the same.
As for ordinary civilian like me who value life and livelihood of everyone and have caused no harm to anyone all my life, him being awarded the “Ambassador” position is the last nail in thecoffin to live the way we ought to live.
WE ALL MIGHT AS WELL KILL AND ACTIVELY TAKE PART IN ARMS STRUGGLE OF SORTS AND BECOME POPULAR.
THIS ALSO SHOWS WHAT SORT OF A COUNTRY IS SRI LANKA THAT AWARDS MILITANTS WITH ALL POMP AND POSTS.
SRI LANKA DESERVES IYS CURRENT PREDICAMENT AND A POSSIBLE BIFURCATION NO MATTER WHAT DAYAN GOT TO SAY. ON THE GROUND WAR IS UNWINNABLE AND SRI LANKA WILL BECOME THE POOREST NATION IN THE WORLD. DAYAN WOULD HAPPILY LIVE EVER AFTER WITH HIS 60000 DOLLAR US, SALARY WHILE ORDINARY CIVILIANS CANNOT AFFORD EVEN A BOWL OF RICE.
4. 2ndClassTamil | April 5th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
On the ‘just war’ he missed an opportunity to say where he disagrees with the Tigers. On the ‘root-cause of civil war’ he extricates himself by simply saying it is ‘complex and intricate’ and slings mud with ‘fanaticism’, ‘ruthlessness’, ‘fascism’, ‘neo-barbarians’, ‘Pol Pot’, ‘Rajiv’, ‘Bin Laden’, and ‘Taliban’ (did he miss anybody else/labels of note?) at the LTTE, which refuses to stick. Dayan should leave that job to other less worthy, though immensely capable hands employed by GoSL (for e.g. In SCOPP).
This is the first time we are hearing “Decentralization in steps” or “power-sharing by transfer” concept. Perhaps he will elucidate the ignorant masses as to what that vision is, now that he indirectly acknowledges the death of APRC an the imminent birth of another ’round table’. Or is it also censored information due to the national security threats faced by the govt?
Balkanisation is essentially an ethnic division. Social revolutionary theories don’t quite fit here. Thus we see the difficulty of Dr Dayan to theorize the Tamil struggle.
5. Christian | April 5th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I am presuming Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka to be a Christian (as mentioned by him in one of his earlier writings in the column) and if this not so please disregards these comments
Would it not be hypocrisy on the part of Christ to be violent (If the act of eviction of money lenders from the Temple in Jerusalem by him can irrefutably seen as violent) and to Preach ‘But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ And doubly so to have called the Pharisees Whitewashed Tombs.
I do not request of Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka or his government to turn the other cheek, but let him know that, to say that Christian principle justify war in specific cases, is very unchristian. Just because there was war in the early Christians and present Christian civilizations does not mean Christianity as preached by Christ justifies war but that those human who felt justified in extending the conflict (The conflict between what one wants reality to be and what reality is) within themselves and finding themselves lame for reason have used the crutches of Christianity to extend an argument of just war
I fail to understand the necessity of Christian theology to answer the question of morality of violence, unless of course his argument is on the premise that the present interpretation of Christ preaching’s in the form of Christian theology as absolute and hence all other religious theology is wrong.
May be he should try Leo Tolstoy’s argument against Just War theology in his book ‘The Kingdom of God is within You’
I do not agree with him or his government or the LTTE to justify the war for reason that it exhibits hypocrisy in whatever all three of them profess
1 Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka (if he is one )as Christian (Christ Preached Non Violence)
2. Government as Buddhist (Buddha preached Non Violence)
3. LTTE as Tamils (Because of the Ancient Tamil Saying ‘All nations are one, all are my Kin’)
But if the conflict is because of rights of citizen then violence is not the answer, may be sane reasoning on the basis of present realities could lead to the answer.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
‘How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not murder?’
-Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is within You
-That this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disaster would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all this is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it and they are ten times as numerous ‘think and say quite the contrary.’
-Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is within You
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
-Matthew 5:38-42, NIV
-Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is within You
But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
-Luke 6:27-31. NIV
-Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is within You
6. Taraki-Kumar | April 5th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
1. The simple truth is that there is no God. The mere existence of any contradiction in this world is sufficient proof of that. To those who need elaboration on this point, an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God is incompatible with any contradiction.
2. Marxism-Leninism is incompatible with any religion. It is sheer idiocy for people who claim they are Marxist-Leninist to say they are also Christians.
3. Even if one ignores the truth that there is no God and accepts the basis of Christianity, any kind of war is incompatible with Christianity. That some useless theologians might write about ‘Just War’ does not make it compatible with Christianity.
The interviewee here is hypocritical at every level, on every point above. Only ignoramuses will fall for this the claims made in the interview.
That said, the Tamil armed struggle is moral. The GoSL is not fighting the LTTE as such, but is, in concert with Sinhalese extremist forces, intent on exterminating Tamils. LTTE’s actions have elements of fascism–no doubt–but the GoSL is also fascist, much worse than the LTTE; in the context of this Tamil struggle, Tamil people have to defeat first the GoSL’s oppression and then the fascist elements of the LTTE. So, those who reflexively take the side of the GoSL are clearly immoral.
7. M.Thiru | April 6th, 2008 at 12:07 am
WHY THE SRILANKAN PUBLIC SHOULD NOT ACCEPT HYPOCRISY OF THEIR SINHALESE LEADERS AND THEIR MINISTERS AND AMBASSADORS.
Instead
SRILANKAN PUBLIC SHOULD EXPECT HIGHER STANDARDS FROM THEIR POLITICAL LEADERS :
I refer to the question put to Dr Dayan Jayatilleke ans his answer What are the root-causes of the terrible civil war that plagues your country?
A: They are complex and intricate
I believe Dayan has missed the point altogether. The problem with political leaders of SL since 1948 and particularly Mahinda now and US leaders such as Mr Eliot Spitzer and Mr Bill Clinton, or any among the endless string of exposed politicians worldwide, is not simply about popular support, demeocratic power through majority vote which give them license to unleash state terror ,corruption,adultery. The problem is about their dishonesty and hypocrisy.
Here are some parallels between two US leaders and the cureent MR and his regime though the acts are different.
Mr Spitzer made his name as a vice-fighting Governor, and now he is known as a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is the worse form of lying, for it not only hides the truth, it also promotes another falsehood. If a politician can declare to the public that he has a habit of engaging high-class prostitutes and at the same time, fight prostitution, and still manage to get elected, then more power to him. Similalrly with Clinton over Monica issue
In the case of Mahinda he aborted CFA , made use of armed groups and state terror to get rid of bigger armed group ( or only terrorists in SL from their point of view ) in the name of democracy and making use of the cover of ” global fight against terrorism after9/11) from the East and making use of those armed groups to be part of SL style democracy in the east. This has given more power to him from the Sinhalese masses in the South and he is continuing the same thing in the North with IC closing one eye and giving economic and military support.
However, I seriously doubt if his party and the alliance can be elected on such a platform in the provincial election on May 10th in the east The problem is that he is cheating not just his armed alliance groups, but the Srilankan public particularly the poor Sinhalese masses as well. Once he gain more power the Tamil and Muslim armed groups from the east will be replaced by JVP and JHU who are in theory unarmed now but can call their loyal members from the armed forces and mobilise them any time to control the whole of east. That should be one of the reasons JVP is adamant that TMVP is unarmed before the elections.
The integral and inseparable part of public office is public trust. By definition, this calls for a person or a system that is trustworthy; not a leader who says one thing, but does another. It is as simple as that. REMEBER MAHINDA ONCE FOUGHT FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF JVP MEMBERS tooth and nail simply because majority of them are from down south and Uva. When it comes to Tamil youths kill them first then talk about the solution much later.
REMEMBER MAHINDA ONCE FOUGHT AGAINST RAJIV’s 1987 accord and supported JVP indirectly which gave more power to JVP uprising in 1989. Now Dayan is with MR and playing different orchestral tune.
In the case of STATE TERROR , we are looking at Sinhalese leaders ( note : Laxman kadirgamar was never allowed to become a leader ) who had once made a solemn vow ( uphold democratic principles ) to be loyal to his/her country ( means to the all citicens ).
It is, therefore, very reasonable to conclude that if this leaders can break their democratic vows to all citizens, whom he presumably professed to love unconditionally, then
he may not be trusted in other aspects of life.
One may say that Democracy and running a country is a very tricky business, and even the best among the Sinhalese leaders can fail at it. But, what Mr MR has done is very different
from a systematic engagement to cheat. To brush such dishonesty aside with the support of IC is simply mind-boggling.
Dayan jayatilleke on behalf of his master MR also seems to imply that “everybody is doing it”, so “let us not be so naive”. Is this really the case? Even if it is so, should the
moral standards and expectations of public office be determined by what everybody else is doing? WHERE IS SRILANKA’S UNIQUNESS ?
I believe that there are many things in life that are beyond the typical “MAJORITY VOTE - POWER ” democratic formula, and that it is still the right of the public to expect higher moral standards from those who are leading the nation. Has Buddhism and buddhist monks contributing positively in this regard since 1947 ? On the contrary.
One political commentator wrote that “finally, I can tell my children that
they can look at their President and follow his example”.
The golden test, therefore, is this Mr. Dayan Jayatilleke : Can we look our children in the eye and tell them to do the same things their national leaders do to the Tamil youths ?
Can we tell them that the ends always justify the means, and that as long as the Sinhalese leaders “do a good job” to uphold Sinhala Buddhist hegemony , it is all right to lie and cheat, to be morally corrupted, to unleash state terror etc because the world is kind of grey or ” rather complex and intricate ” anyway?
The truth is that values that are black and white to children must
definitely not be grey for adults Mr. Dayan Jayatileke.
Dr. D.jayatilleke, As a strong believer in Christianity and its crusades and supporter of Sinhala Nation what is the moral message you carry from Christ to Sinhalese masses and the democratic world except “the issue in Srilanka is Tamil terrorism and state terror and reducing the Tamil youth population as per Sarath Fonseka/ Gothabaya Rajapakse’s vow is the moral anwer - amen ”
If Buddha to reincarnate in SL today I am sure he will say since 1947 the simple problem ( not complex and intricate ) in SL has been about dishonesty and hypocrisy by the Sinhala Buddhist Political Leaders in taking the country backwards.
Namo buddham sharanam gacchami. Namo dharmam sharanam gacchami. Namo sangham sharanam gacchami.
8. Sri | April 6th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Now Dayan Jayathilake has become a pacifist, thanks to the present post he is holding and started quoting Jesus in addition to his traditional heroes such as Castro, Che guevara,, Lenin and Stalin.
Did anyone of them ever been Christians?
Religion may be the opium of the people!Marxists!
Now Dayan wants to tell us about clean guerrilla warfare.
Could Dayan tell us a single guerrilla movement that had not adopted terrorist tactics?
Revolution without Bloodshed! Revolution is a picnic!
Does this mean that Mao’s Guerrillas, Vietcong and all the Palestinian groups adopted violent but non terrorist methods and when the opportunity opened they had become real democrats and democracy is practiced in China and Vietnam since then!
Who started hijacking of civilian aircrafts? suicide bombings of civilian targets?
But you don’t want to call Al Fatah, Hemas, Hisbulla as Terrorist?.
Even if Governments adopt or engage in barbaric forms of violence against unarmed civilians, will they not be called barbaric terrorists?
Further Dr Dayan says that the Sinhalese majority will not let the small island of Sri Lanka -only country in which Sinhalese is still spoken-to become a dismembered and separated state,
Here Dr Dayan admits that the anti Tamil tigers who had already been liberated from the East and others soon to be liberated from the North and Muslims are indifferent to this Just war waged by the Majority!
Sinhalese and this is a war waged only by the Majority Sinhalese? Dayan be careful!, you may fall into trouble. This is not a diplomatically correct stand!
Again Dayan says ‘Had I been arrested, I would have either been judged and sentenced to prison for a long time or would have simply ‘disappeared’?
So Dayan admits that disappearance is not something novel in Sri Lanka!.
Now Dayan I am curious to find out how you became a minister from the uncontested North or from the contested East? Or nominated thanks to IPKF!
Now Federalism and Devolution had become dirty words, Hence we have re discovered an old nomenclature ‘Decentralization in steps’
For the first step you have to go back 20 years,
For the second step you may have to go back further 10 years then you will get District Development Councils!
Was it Lenin who said two steps backwards and three steps forward or something like that!
9. Navalan | April 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
DJs’ theory on “just war” fully justifies the Tamil struggle for statehood sperheaded by LITTE,this man is either totally confused or his sinhalese chauvinism does not allow him to think rationally.DJ is heaping praise on Rajiv…..Neru’s grand son,leader of the non - alingned movement…so what?utter BS,If only Rajiv had listened to the sound advice given by great people of the likes of late Parthasarathy,three thousand innocent Tamil lives would’nt have been lost on the streets of Jaffna during the disastrous Indian adventure.The fact is Rajiv was so inexperienced he was out foxed by JR …DJ very well knows this still he wants to be in the good books of the Indian ruling circle,his comparison of our liberation movement and its’ leader to PolPot and ALquaida only goes to show his ignorance if not prejudice.This chauvinistic Sinhalese JOKER shouln’t be taken seriously.
10. dingiri | April 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Whats wrong with Balkanisation if it can put an end to otherwise eternal conflicts? If a group of people want to secede from a previously united nation with just their portion of the land in which they constitute almost 100% of the population what could morally be wrong with it? If seceding does not adversely affect the lives of the rest is there any justification in resisting?
However, the problem is that the LTTE wishes to secede with such a disproportionate portion of the land, that the inhabitants of Tamil Eeelam end up with 4 times as much land as those remaining in the South-West.
Therein lies Prabakaran’s extremism. While denouncing Sinhalese racism and chauvinism he attempts to impose an utterly racist and chauvanist outcome on the other communities in Sri Lanka. Establishing a large lebensraum for himself and his people and leaving just scraps for the rest to fight over.
The current fighting is merely an expensive means of negotiating a compromise between the two extreme positions of the Sinhalese and Tamils.
More principled and capable leaders would have tried to avoid this human cost by trying to negotiate a fair compromise based on equality and the acceptance of the right to self determination for those who wish to secede.
11. Donga | April 8th, 2008 at 1:07 am
First time I heart about staged power sharing proposals coming out from the SL Govt mouth piece. I think its another bullshit bluffing.
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