Look at that image .. its the BANNED LTTE flag being waved in front of the UK parliament. Yes, banned in UK.
How long do you think the British government allow an Al Qaeda protest to go on like that?? The double standard is incredible.
LTTE fans, its OVER. If you still believe what the person said in the article above:
The Tamil Tigers are our sole representative. It is not going to be over til we get our own nation that is called Tamil Ealam.Lady, better start looking for a new representative! Please do continue the fight ... in UK, Canada, Australia and more.
We in Sri Lanka just want to live in peace and become the country we know we can be.
12 comments:
with the trend probably in future UK will face a eelam war for separate state with in UK!!
:P
Old habits die hard. The sad thing about all this is that the younger generation is being corrupted (in both Tamil and Sinhala fractions).
Dreams of elusive motherlands, patriotism, all these "virtues" never seem to end. It's as if we will never learn from our mistakes.
don't be surprised if their historians come up with "evidences" to prove UK is one of their native lands..LOL
Reminded me an old saying :)
"What you reap is what you sow!"
I am confused about something. I am no LTTE sympathizer and I definitely think they pretty much deserved what they got but isn't this kind of open disdain for the Tamil population's genuine grievances that led to the LTTE-style insurgency movement in the first place? Aren't you once again mocking the Tamilian population now that their lone representative group (although they are bunch of loonies) has been wiped out?
Even Rajapaksha talked something about inclusive peace or some such. I mean I am not sure if this is the time to gloat.
I got one other question. Now I am pretty sure you are a boundlessly patriotic person with immeasurable love for your country which is what prompts you to lament the inability of people outside Sri Lanka to truly understand the havoc wrought by this decades old conflict. Believe me, I get it.
However being a co-founder of a transnational company that relies on selling its products in the international market, aren't you inviting the ire of potential customers in countries who happen across your blog and read your incessant hammering of any opinion (from any foreign government) that even slightly deviates from advocating something other than total annihilation of LTTE and their cohorts (I understand it needed to be done but is this enormous civilian causalties just collateral damage?)
@Dilip: If you read my blog you'll see that I absolutely believe that getting rid of the LTTE is not a solution to the problem. LTTE was a *symptom* and not the *cause*. The cause started soon after getting independence in 1948: a series of politically motivated government decisions (starting of course with the 1956 Sinhala-only decision) that were designed to alienate the Tamil community. I was there in 1983 (I was sixteen) and have seen with my own eyes a Tamil man being pulled out of a bus thru the window and being beaten with a metal stick. His crime? Being Tamil.
(I was in a car behind them and was shivering when those same people came by the car and looked in to see whether I was Tamil. I was planning to show my Royal College Student Record Book to show that I wasn't.)
Given that one image will never leave my mind, I can only imagine how much hurt, distrust and hatred exists amongst the hundreds of thousands of people who were threatened, attacked and (related to people who were) killed during just that one ugly 3-day period. Now its their children who are protesting in UK, Canada and elsewhere.
And that was not the only time that our Sinhala-majority population has done that.
What we need to do in Sri Lanka is establish a federal government system to give all provinces their own local system to operate in. The majority population needs to understand the responsibilities of being a majority and have South African style truth and reconciliation commissions and record what has happened in the last 30+ years.
More importantly, we need a cultural change - everyone needs to understand the equality of humanity.
Is our government capable of doing it? Not right now IMO :(. However, this war victory (while its bandied about as victory against terrorism .. its not; terrorism is not over, the war is) gives the president an immense, historic opportunity to do the right thing.
Will he do it? Will he be able to get rid of the Sinhala and other fanatics and implement a reasonable structure? Only time will tell.
My plan is to write a lot about what I think we need to do and to go after all forms of extremism .. not just LTTE type terror but also Sinhala Buddhist nonsense.
@Dilip on your second comment- yes I'm CEO of a global company. However, as a person, I cannot ignore the incredible double standards and injustice that has been meted out by some countries in this situation.
I think its important to highlight these because its actually these types of actions that over time give rise to the Al Qaeda's of the world. That doesn't help anyone any more.
Information and communication technology has fundamentally changed the world. I don't think many of the "global leaders" still really get it that the time of dominating other people and forcing ones value system onto another etc. are over. They cling on to a model where the game is a zero-sum one .. in order for one to win the other must lose. That's not the game any more.
The enormous civilian casualties in this war is absolutely a terrible tragedy. I am not excusing anyone for that. However, those that advocated the solution of "settle this by talking with the LTTE" did not understand the ground reality of LTTE's decision making process. Had the government done that, more people would have died and got injured ..
You will see me write more about what I think needs to be done. WE created this problem and WE must solve it.
This blog is my personal blog, but if I ever become an impediment to WSO2 I will be the first to step down.
However, really, WSO2 is an example of what is possible if we get the best of Sri Lanka and compete globally. We don't EVER look at a person's racial, religious or other aspect when hiring - we simply hire the BEST we can and give them an environment to deliver quality results and impact the world in a positive way.
@Sanjiva
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I should've suspected that you would be having a lot more nuanced views about this than what I can glean from your blog posts. Apologies if I didn't make that clear.
BTW, are you surprised by the kind of coverage given by the Indian media regarding this? Except for loonies like Karunanidhi/Vaiko (Full disclosure: I am a Tamilian from Chennai, Tamil Nadu) who won't believe it even if you hand over Prabhakaran's head to them, the general coverage seems to be good riddance to LTTE.
Thought you might be interested in this piece:
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/19/stories/2009051955321000.htm
I hope most of u hav watch this video.But if not just watch it.
This the way to go.What a feedback from Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtm54Y9USEg
We all know Tamil is not LTTE. LTTE is a mix of English, Tamil, Sinhala and couple of other nationalities. So It's better not to mix Tamil with LTTE. But majority of the carder used to fight in the battle fields were innocent Tamils, under aged children.
Sri Lanka is a small country. So there is no chance to hide and form a terrorist group again. But countries like UK, Ausi, Britain are at a greater risk of terror because there is more space to hide, and freedom to commit crimes.! So it's better for them to quit playing games with LTTE and stop them. Other wise LTTE will start the fight for "Eelam" in UK, US, Ausi, or any other country. Sri Lanka is hopeless for them now..
So those 'double standards' countries.. stay alert.! Next "Ealam war is in one of your countries"!!!
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