http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/Political Opinions, South of the Leftpradeep jeganathan 2006-9en-USSquarespace Site Server v5.9.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)SureneysSat, 21 Nov 2009 09:57:50 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/4/24/the-mirage-of-eelam.html#comments4426:551556:comment/6358570Its the Tamil people when they have real freedom to talk and diaspora to say if it was correct''.

LOL!!! You must be joking?

You mean, Pradeep who lives in Sri Lanka does not have the right to say his view, but all other Tamils can, and it is the diaspora who should determine whether something affecting Sri Lanka is right or wrong? This is the funniest and stupidest thing I ever heard.

Time to neutralize the diaspora for good.

You people better look after your own issues and leave the Tamils in Sri Lanka to live in peace with the Sinhalese.]]>SureneySat, 21 Nov 2009 09:45:07 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/5/19/do-the-tamils-need-a-political-package-or-political-process.html#comments4426:551556:comment/6358563
While everybody seems to concerntrate on Tamil vs Sinhala issue, nobody seems to really get to the bottom of the real issues which affected the country as a whole and each of the communities individually. The caste oppression is still an issue in the Tamil community. The Jaffna Boys, who organised themselves to fight the Vellala dominance, were the precurssors to the LTTE. Most of the Sinhalese do not even know about the Temple Entry issue, and that the Vellalas beat the lower caste people who tried to enter temples. This issue is not resolved yet, though it is not very harsh as earlier.

As the author points out, the issues facing the Tamils in different areas are not the same for everyone. We have to get together as a nation, and talk the issues. And Tamils should for God sake stop pressing for socalled Tamil rights and packages and processes. Think as a nation. The Sinhalese and the Muslims are the same as the Tamils. Why is this never ending talk of Tamil issues and Tamil rights? What do they want? And SL-Tamils are not even 10% in Sri Lanka today. What about the Upcountry Tamils? Shouldn't we start looking for ways to better their lives? After all they have been slaving from the day they came to Sri Lanka, and have contributed enormously to the Sri Lankan economy. Shouldn't they be prioritized for once in the sorry post-independence history of our country. They are not Indian Tamils anymore, as both Tamils and Sinhalese call them, they are Sri Lankan as much as anyone of us.

Tamil intellectuals and other people like Pradeep, should start talking more. We have to stand together for our country and our people. The diaspora is doing their best to distort Sri Lankan issues and get their seperate Tamil nation, which they ofcourse do not intend to even live in. Tamils in Sri Lanka, who know the true story, should stand up and neutralize them.]]>Pradeep JeganathanMon, 16 Nov 2009 11:17:01 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/9/27/sri-lanka-whats-left-of-the-national-question.html#comments4426:551556:comment/6292705Thank you reading!]]>SomewhatDisgustedSun, 25 Oct 2009 05:32:55 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/9/27/sri-lanka-whats-left-of-the-national-question.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5994374
You may perhaps recognize my nom-de-plume from a discussion on groundviews you participated in a short while back. Let me compliment you on another excellent article. I hope and believe that your writing will help to bridge this perilous ethnic divide, painstakingly made ever wider by the machinations of the violent nationalists on both sides of the divide. None of their kind of blinkered racial visions can bring about a just, egalitarian society in which all human beings concerned can live in dignity.

I hope you will continue to expand your writings on differing topics. In particular, I would like to hear your opinion on what an ideal Sri Lanka would look like, should all this ethnic nonsense magically vanish overnight, and how such an ideal society would accommodate Sinhala, Tamil and other concerns. In particular language concerns and power sharing concerns (if that's even necessary in such an ideal society). And then perhaps, another, more realistic piece on what we can expect given the stark realities which confront us.]]>Off the CuffMon, 05 Oct 2009 18:49:20 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/4/22/a-reply-to-an-american-and-an-outsider.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5786957
Reading your blog I came across Manoharan's comment requesting your response to the Times story about 20,000 dead due to Army shelling. What follows are my views. I hope it would be of some use to you and your readers.

These are the stories in question

1. Times photographs expose Sri Lanka’s lie on civilian deaths at beach
By Catherine Philp and Michael Evans datelined May 29, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6383477.ece

2. The hidden massacre: Sri Lanka’s final offensive against Tamil Tigers
By Catherine Philp in Colombo, date lined May 29, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6383449.ece

3. Slaughter in Sri Lanka
Evidence gathered by The Times has revealed that at least 20,000 Tamils were killed on the beach by shelling as the army closed in on the Tigers
Date lined May 29, 2009
No byline but the video carries a commentary by the Foreign Editor Richard Beeston
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6382706.ece

The first thing that one notices is that there are THREE stories on the SAME DATE with different headlines, using the same data

Three pictures are used in their video presentation
1. a part of the NFZ
2. Picture of an LTTE grave yard (not from the NFZ)
3. another part of NFZ showing earth mounds (possibly graves)

This is a transcript of Foreign Editor Richard Beeston’s commentary

“In the first photograph you can see the remains of what was a refugee camp for some 100,000 Tamil civilians. In the center you can see the destroyed dwellings these wretched people were trying to live in. To the South out of the shot is the sea. Between them and the sea are Tamil Tiger gun emplacements you can see them they are mortar pits circular, bottom center, bottom right you can see what we believe is a command center, ammunition trucks, so effectively you had a population, the size of a large football stadium packed with civilians trapped here for weeks upon weeks under the merciless bombardment of the govt offensive”

Note – the mortar pits, command center and ammunition trucks are highlighted by graying out the background but they fail to highlight any ground impact bomb crater or any “Burnt Out Tree Stumps” that they claim were “one of the sights seen frequently in The Times photographs.” Very strangely this allegedly frequent sight, is no where to be seen in ANY of the three photos used by them (see story 1 para 19). In fact you can see that ALL vegetation is intact and still standing

Transcript continues…
“In the second picture we can see what looks like a strange crop in the center of the photograph these are in fact we believe Tamil tiger graves, hundreds of them neatly laid in the fields buried presumably near where they fell.

Note – This picture is not of a LTTE grave yard WITHIN the NFZ. It is an LTTE graveyard far removed from the NFZ. Observe the COMPLETE absence of any war damage. There are no bomb craters. Even the vegetation is intact, not a single bush, let alone a tree, shows signs of ANY damage. This UNRELATED photograph has been surreptitiously introduced to hoodwink the reader

Transcript continues…
(focus moves now to the third photo)
“In contrast to the Tamil Tiger dead, in this photograph is what we believe are the civilian mass graves down to the right these will be men women and children killed in the fighting and hurriedly buried by their relatives in between lulls in the onslaught”
End of transcript

Note the use of the words “In contrast to the Tamil Tiger dead” Mr Beeston is DELIBERATELY misleading the reader into believing that the LTTE buries their dead in “Lines and Columns” even during “weeks upon weeks under the merciless bombardment of the govt offensive” which forces civilians to bury their dead “in between lulls in the onslaught” haphazardly but allows the LTTE to bury their dead at leisure, in ordered rows and columns, completely unaffected by the same bombardment of the same area!!!!

The Times states
“It looks more likely that the firing position has been located by the Sri Lankan Army and it has then been targeted with air-burst and ground-impact mortars,” said Charles Heyman, editor of the magazine Armed Forces of the UK” (see story 2 para 7)

“Air-burst and ground-impact mortars can cause wide destruction and reduce trees to burnt stumps — one of the sights seen frequently in The Times photographs.” (see story 1 para 19)

This statement means that this type of intense bombardment creates an intense HEAT capable of burning down LIVE trees to Burnt Stumps

Strangely, such an intense heat had failed to burn down the FLIMSY TENTS. The story teller wants you the reader to believe that Plastic and Cloth tents cannot be burnt even by an inferno that can burn “Live trees to Stumps”

These Times stories contradicts itself big time. Someone some where has been on the uptake big time. LTTE millions at work.

These fabrications add insult to injury as these people were flown over the NFZ by the SL Govt in Air Force copters. Not something a govt would do IF it wants to hide the NFZ from sight.

Blatant and damaging fabrications such as this and Channel 4 is sufficient reason for the Govt to shut out such media institutions. Media freedom or freedom to slander?]]>SharmalaSat, 03 Oct 2009 03:52:16 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/9/27/sri-lanka-whats-left-of-the-national-question.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5727570
But yet, as SL history itself has shown, ethnic identifications, no doubt generated by the colonial regime, are stronger, have more extensive bases. As you say, the parliamentary left opted for a Sinhalized social democracy. The de-colonizing movement itself was based on ethnic identifications and on racial rights to the territory/land, where the Brits had to be thrown out as the racial 'other'. Given this, was it not inevitable that post-colonial politics would continue on that ethnic wave, leading to fractures? As your narrative itself shows, leftist non-ethnic based alliances with the Tamils could not disrupt militant Tamil nationalism nor hinder the formation of an overwhelming leftist Sinhalese-based movement. These leftist non-ethnic based groups were small. It's a question of numbers (the overwhelming size of the Sinhalese population) combined with the continued power of the colonial legacy of racialising. If now the Tamil cause were to be fought through inter-ethnic group alliances, as one cause among many, it would sink in a sea of Sinhalese triumphalism (as colonial memory returns again).

Is it not more urgent to take the sting out of the race card once and for all by acceding to Tamil rights--not necessarily through self-ruled autonomous territories, but by setting up political and social institutions/mechanisms that would guarantee Tamil access to economic, education opportunities, protect the group's rights. For instance, obviously, Tamils must be given sufficient parliamentary power to throw out legislation that goes against their interests (as in Sinhala-only language policy) without however having the means to autonomously legislate for their own interests. Displaced Tamils must also be allowed safe return to their homes, and some areas guaranteed occupation of up to 70 percent Tamils. I say this not for 'nationalist' reasons but because any community needs some areas of its own that possesses the critical mass required to preserve its own ethnic culture. With ethnic claims thus sorted out, the stage can then be set for other struggles for equality that can now include that cross-ethnic dimension.]]>Pradeep JeganathanMon, 28 Sep 2009 04:28:34 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/9/27/sri-lanka-whats-left-of-the-national-question.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5638340 'indirect rule' didn't really help the 'natives' in my book. i think 'the tamils' need to look to a broad based radical democratic politics, not a narrow one.]]>sivamSun, 27 Sep 2009 16:40:47 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/9/27/sri-lanka-whats-left-of-the-national-question.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5635735
Wonder if you would consider the older colonial practice and concept of setting up "protectorates" . If I understand this concept, it was set up by the Brits for those who need protection from themselves. Perhaps they found may tribes incapable or lacking the moral infrastructure and thus needed the protection from the Brits for their own benefit. The Tamil intelligentsia - through their support for the LTTE seem to have put the Tamil people in a similar condition, where they need to be protected from their nasty influence.

But generally, protectorates are setup by those who see themselves on higher moral grounds than those who need protection. This may be hard to come by in the post colonial situation in Sri Lanka.

Your thoughts on this please.]]>Pradeep JeganathanWed, 23 Sep 2009 19:26:48 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/7/20/sri-lankas-common-future.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5603153tribal -- yes, some 'educated tamils' do act tribal, but hey -- tamil society is has a complex structure. valuing dissent and real democracy is a long way off, in any sri lankan community, i think.]]>sivamSat, 19 Sep 2009 13:59:56 +0000http://www.pjeganathan.org/south-paw/2009/7/20/sri-lankas-common-future.html#comments4426:551556:comment/5571625
" i think we can make more democratic communities happen " - think this is what the Brits try to do when they deserted us, but the natives did not get it - still don't , it took them over so many decades after that to back to tribal formation - without a tribal council. A family council may be one step a head.

Sivam]]>