Michael Roberts
At a press conference today in Perth the Immigration Minister, Brendan O’Connor, announced that 20 (twenty) “Sri Lankans” had been placed on a plane and deported back to Sri Lanka. This despatch meant that a total of 963 “Sri Lankans” had been sent back to Sri Lanka since August 2012, for the most part “involuntarily.” This would, said O’Connor, send a clear message to would-be asylum seekers and people smugglers. It would save people from “dangerous journeys.”
None of the media personnel asked O’Connor for an ethnic breakdown of the 20 or 963 deportees or questioned the premise of inevitably dangerous voyages. So much for acumen and background nous. For my part speaking as a Thuppahi [mongrel], I wondered if all TWENTY were either Väddas orThuppahi. That would please me no end. Sri Lanka needs more thuppahi in order to reduce the scourge of Sinhala extremism and Tamil extremism. The pukka Burghers left long ago so that problem no longer exists as a major force.
Asylum seeking boats
Alex the famed spokesman and con-artist now in jail in Thailand
Deportees being marched to court hearing in Negombo, 2012
some Tamil Vaddas today
*****
More Lankans deported from Australia ….http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/04/05/news13.asp
Australia’s Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor says the country would deport dozens more rejected asylum seekers if not for the political self-interest of federal opposition leader Tony Abbott. 
A further 20 Sri Lankans have been sent home after their asylum seeker claims were rejected, bringing to 936 the number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers returned since August 13. But Brendan O’Connor said that number would be a lot higher without the obstruction of Abbott and the opposition.
“We have sent more people back in this manner than the entire period of the Howard government. This is the most effective means by which we can do that,” O’Connor told reporters in Perth.
“We could return more, and deter people getting on these vessels, if Tony Abbott would put the national interest ahead of his own interest. My real concern is that Tony Abbott does not support the Malaysian arrangement not because it won’t work but because he fears that it will. “Of those returned to Sri Lanka, 756 have been returned involuntarily, “the government said. “This sends the most powerful message one can send to those people who are looking to come in a dangerous fashion to Australia,” O’Connor said.”To those people who would get on unseaworthy vessels that they should not be giving money to people smugglers, and they should not endanger their lives at sea. We have seen too many fatalities already.” (AAP)
ALSO SEE A Flourishing Bibliographical Tree: Tamil Migration, Asylum-Seekers and Australia …. July 30, 2012 http://thuppahis.com/2012/07/30/a-flourishing-bibliographical-tree-tamil-migration-asylum-seekers-and-australia/#more-6461
Ferdinando, Shamindra “Tackling illegal immigrants: Australia’s SLN role,” Island, 22 Oct. 2010.
Ferdinando, Shamindra 2012 “British HC denies claims of deportee abuse,” 20 June 2012, http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=54899
Ferdinando, Shamindra 2012 “Deportation only antidote to human smuggling– SLN Chief tells Aussie HC,” Island, 21 July 2012, http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=57282.
Roberts, Michael 2012 “Australian Gullibility: forgeries, lies and manipulation in the netherworld of in-migration,” 26 July 2012,http://thuppahis.com/2012/07/26/australian-gullibility-forgeries-lies-and-manipulation-in-the-netherworld-of-in-migration/
Roberts, Michael2012 “Amanda Hodge adds twist to Dayan Anthony’s tale,” 28 July 2012, http://thuppahis.com/2012/07/28/6405/
Roberts, Michael 2012 “Deported from Britain: back to ‘duress’ or ordinariness in Sri Lanka?” 11 August 2011, http://thuppahis.com/2012/08/11/deported-from-britain-back-to-duress-or-ordinariness-in-sri-lanka/
Mongrels were never called Thuppahiya. You are inventing new meanings. Thuppahi was a high rank held by aristocrats during British times. The Thuppahi Mudaliyar was tasked with translating. There were those who translated wrongly for their own advantage. Thus those who did such things were called Thuppahi – like the deceitful Thuppahi Mudliyars!
The term “mongrel” is my invention to convey to a Western audience both the EXACT and the RAMIFIED meanings of thuppahi. Thuppahiyā may have had some etymological roots in the information you have supplied. But as used in the 20th century it referred to NICA people and to people of mixed caste or people of mixed “race.” Thus ,Burghers could be denigrated as Thuppahi.
This latter usage is not surprising because the Portuguese Burghers were called TUPAS or TOPAZ in the 18th century and nineteenth century too [in distinction from the LANSI].
But over time all Lansi could be depicted as Thuppahi or worse still as thuppahiyā . They were so disparaged in some of Piyadasa Sirisena’s novels. One needs to read the first chapter in PEOPLE INBETWEEN, which is entitled “Pejorative Phrases: Sinhalese Perceptions of the Self through Images of the Burghers” to address this issue.
It is because of its association with promiscuity and mixed blood – rather like any para balla – that I consider MONGREL a good translation for the benefit of those not versed in contemporary Sinhala argot. The Sinhala used in the late 18th century or that among the mudaliyar classes in yesteryear is not pertinent for this moment of time.
Anyway I consider myself to be THUPPAHI –happily so.