Reply #175: The article you have linked is OPINION, not a news story. [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

I've been looking for background on the author, can't locate any biographical material, but this response to another of his opinion pieces is very interesting:

An open letter to The Editor,The Guardian,UK by Ira de Silva London, Canada.

I just read the commentary by Nash Colundalur on Sri Lanka. The writers bias is evident in the very first sentence when he states that a bloody civil war followed an oppressive history of the Tamils. He has obviously read only the false propaganda of the LTTE. I will point a few of the falsehoods on which he bases his comments/arguments.

The oppression in Sri Lanka was by the British during their colonial rule where thousands of people, all Sinhalese, were murdered, driven from their homes, all male children killed just so they could subjugate the Sinhalese. This is documented in the British colonial records available to him in London. These records will also provide information that the Tamils were only in the northern Jaffna peninsular when the British arrived which makes the statement that “Sri Lankan Tamils have been living in the northern and eastern areas of the island state since 3 BC”, a figment of his imagination. The Tamils became the favoured people of the British in Sri Lanka, a true example of the world famous British policy of divide and rule. When the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka would not work for the British they imported cheap Tamil labour from South India. I refer him to a transcript by the British governor in his own handwriting which is available in the Public Records Office dated March 14,1880 – “my suggestion to your Excellency is to look to South Indian Labour. They come to us from a condition of poverty. They are often lowly in their caste system too. In a foreign land they will serve us well”. Please note – FOREIGN LAND. The British did not take these Tamil British citizens with them when they left in 1948. They remained in a “foreign land” namely Sri Lanka.

~snip~
He states” patriotism is riding high in the Sri Lankan diaspora in the UK with 99.33 % of them in favour of an independent state”. It is NOT the Sri Lankan diaspora in the U.K. that voted in these elections but the Tamil LTTE supporters in the U.K. If they are British citizens and want an independent state they can vote for it in Britain. They have no vote in Sri Lanka. The people of Sri Lanka have just voted in a general election and the Government of Sri Lanka I hope will listen to it’s people as the voters of Sri Lanka have rejected the LTTE and the political party that represented the LTTE. If it is argued that the Sri Lankan diaspora in the U.K. have ”rights” in Sri Lanka, then Sri Lankans should have the same right to vote on British policies. Do they? Please let the people of Sri Lanka know immediately so they can vote in your up-coming general election.

There are many other falsehoods and illustrations of the writers bias and ignorance of Sri Lanka but I believe that the above examples will suffice. If he wants to write on Sri Lanka, I suggest that he at least check British records for the period pre-1948 as well as post 1948 and not depend solely on LTTE propaganda.

http://sinhale.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/sri-lanka-%E2%80%93-must-listen-to-it%E2%80%99s-people/

Here's a YouTube video of him reading to a group of spellbound people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nyMZERygxw