Category Archives: discrimination

September 20, 2023 · 12:32 pm

Ranil confronted with UNFAIR Question

Fair Dinkum responding to an EMAIL CIRCULAR sent by Victor Melder, 20 September 2023 …..  bearing this You-Tube ………………

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtxKRZNhXwcqdggGVBwdQpGTTj?projector=1

I gather some Sri Lankan sent it to him with the question, “Are you pro=Indian or pro Chinese?” which is an unfair question because it is framed in such a way as to create and reinforce division, and doesn’t allow for the possibility for one to be both, or to be neutral, or to consider the possibility that Sri Lanka should engage with both India and China when it is in their interests to do so, without interference.
I would say Sri Lankans should be pro-Sri Lanka and then at the next level down, regard India and China as partners, as SL should do with all countries.

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September 12, 2023 · 7:28 pm

Sri Lanka Confronts OHCHR in Geneva Foursquare

Statement by Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva in response to the Report by the Office of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights ………… https://mfa.gov.lk/gosl-statement-54th-unhrc/ *+*

Mr. President,

At the outset, let me reiterate that the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has consistently rejected Resolution 46/1 and 51/1 that led to the setting up of the so-called ‘Accountability Project’. We also reject the written update, its conclusions and recommendations.

We recall that the majority of the Member States either opposed or abstained from voting on these Resolutions, in fundamental disagreement with its unacceptable content in particular the so-called evidence gathering mechanism, the establishment of which is unprecedented. We reiterate that it goes beyond the mandate that Member States conferred on the Council by UNGA Resolution 60/251.

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September 3, 2023 · 8:22 pm

The Growth of Police Subservience to Political Overlords in Sri Lanka, 1948-2023

Merril Gunaratne, a Retd Senior DIG, in The Island, 3 September 2023, where the title runs thus: “Police subservience made political interference possible”  …. while highlighting has been imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

This writing was inspired by the topical essay of Kingsley Wickramasuriya, retired Senior DIG, which dealt with the impact of politics on the police, and the pithy observation made by Rajan Phillips in his column in the Sunday Island of August 20 where he has, whilst discussing dangers that may affect provincial policing under the 13th Amendment, stated “Nothing can be done provincially unless everything is reformed nationally”.

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August 28, 2023 · 7:24 pm

Sinhalese & Tamils Locked in Prejudice?

Michael Roberts 

An interesting chat with Mark LaBrooy in Melbourne on the phoe today induced me to re-visit my old SIGNATURE PIECE on “The Sinhala Mindset” in my Thuppahi site ….. Some of the commentary is as enlightening today as refreshing. That inserted by Jane Russell on 1 March 2012 and Chandre Dharmawardena’s  response  should continue to stimulate our thinking TODAY.

The problems of YESTERDAY still persist today.

Note that Jane is an Oxford graduate who secured her Ph.D in History at Peradeniya under KM de Silva’s supervision in Peradeniya in the 1970s. She has lived for lengthy spells in Sri Lanka since then because of her deep commitment to individuals and places within the land.

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August 22, 2023 · 10:32 am

Reflections on Eustace Rulach’s Satire of January 1985

Michael Roberts

On the 27th of January 1985 The lsland newspaper presented a cartoon sketch of a lion being confronted by a cockroach possessing the same physical scale as the lion under the caption “Hoisting the Flag for Lansi Eelam.” The lion denoted the Sinhala people, that is, the Sinhala nation in all its deep history and majesty. The cockroach signified the Burgher people of Sri Lanka, namely the “lansi.” The cartoon was supported by a letter attributed to a “Sharm De Alwis.”

   Voila! So, it has come, but sooner than I expected: the call for a unified Lansieelam.

When I anticipated such a move I did tell a friend that were I the President I’d give the Burghers the Bambalapitiya Flats with the sea frontage thrown in for good measure. They would then be free to harness their intrinsic but long-forgotten skills in reclaiming the sea and build derricks to Mozambique or even Rotterdam.

But what bugged me was when my friend took me at my word and produced the next day the visual of the Lansieelam map. Not that I would have any objections to the apt depiction of the cockroach but that the pest had assumed the same proportions of the Sinhala Lion.

My friend re-assures me that what she has in mind is not a separate state but an isolated plot fully integrated with the Sinhala state and the cockroach, large as it now is, gives ample muscle aid to the Lion to combat other opposing factors.

Sharm de Alwis, 82/1, Kandy Road,, Kiribathgoda

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August 14, 2023 · 12:10 am

The Expulsion of Muslims from the North by the LTTE in October 1990: Raison Détre

DBS Jeyaraj, whose chosen title is “How and Why the LTTE Evicted Muslims from the Northern Province in “Black October 1990,” when placed in DBSJeyaraj.com on 22 October 2020, …… This article was written in 2015 to mark the Twenty–Fifth Anniversary of Muslim Mass Expulsion From North by the LTTE. It is being re-posted without any changes to denote the 32nd annivrsary of the tragic event.

The Investigation launched by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has in accordance with its terms of reference probed the period of time from the 2002 February ceasefire until the end of the war in May 2009 to ascertain whether war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations occurred in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the war as alleged. The focus on these particular years has naturally led to the overlooking of many other terrible incidents which happened in the years preceding 2002. Notable among these horrors is the mass expulsion of Muslims from the North by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE).

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July 30, 2023 · 9:12 pm

Canadian Double Standards ….. Both At Home & In Lanka

Professor Chandre Dharmawardena

According to The Island newspaper, 25 of July 2023 [1], the Canadian High Commissioner Eric Walsh in Colombo has barged into the controversy on the Kurundi archeological site. The Canadian HC had met T. Raviharan, a politician who spearheads the protests at the Kurundi site. HC Walsh’s explanation is that “Meeting people in different parts of the country, to better understand their priorities and perspectives, is a normal part of a High Commissioner’s role.”  These words ring hollow if he does NOT meet anyone from the “other side”, or the Archaeological Commissioner and other technical people.

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July 28, 2023 · 11:35 pm

The DRS in Cricket: Weeraratna’s Claim as “Inventor”

Senaka Weeraratna, whose preferred title is “My short encounters with Peter Roebuck and Haroon Lorgat in Colombo (Sept. 18 -20, 2011)”

Roebuck & Lorgat

I wish to record my two short meetings with Mr. Peter Roebuck at the SSC Grounds (Sept. 18 -20, 2011) and my subsequent meeting with Mr. Haroon Lorgat on Sept. 20, 2011, at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

It happened in the last three days of the Third and Final Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia played at the SSC Grounds in Colombo (Sept. 18 – 20, 2011).

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July 26, 2023 · 12:32 am

Reflections: My Engagement with the Pogrom of July 1983 in Sri Lanka

Michael Roberts

The attacks on Tamils living and/or working in the southern and central parts of island Sri Lanka by elements of the Sinhala population were indefensible, horrible and disastrous for the country.  It is not adequate to depict them as “riots.” They constituted a “pogrom” – with all the pejorative colourings attached to that concept.[1]

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July 16, 2023 · 3:05 pm

The World’s Propaganda War Today: Take Keating Seriously

An Observer in A Black Sea Town

The opinion writers for The Australian newspaper, like Peter Jennings, who adopt anti-Chinese, anti Russian, and pro American positions, do not critically analyse the subjects they write on. There is no critical analysis in their writings. Their purpose in writing is to propagate official Australian-American perspectives to educate/propagandize ordinary Australians into being good little Australian citizens, very nationalistic and pro-American. At present, their role is to demonize China and Russia as the bad guys, America and the West as the good guys, so that if war comes, Australians will go along with it.
Keating …. a lesson for Jennings ….

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