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Don t divide the East!
Thursday, 15 May 2008 - 8:13 AM SL Time
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Victory can at times be more problematic than defeat. The government, having bagged the Eastern Province, is said to be in a quandary over the appointment of the Chief Minister. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the appointing authority, sounds confident that he can settle the dispute amicably, as he has told this newspaper. Unfortunately, sinister attempts are being made to give an ethnic twist to an otherwise political issue.
Some political leaders threw caution to the wind and launched their campaigns on a platform of ethnicity to secure block votes in the East, to hell with ethnic harmony. This has been the name of the game in Sri Lankan politics since the inception of representative democracy.
All political parties are guilty of this sordid practice which has cost the country national integration. The two main parties, the SLFP and the UNP, have imposed a political glass ceiling to prevent members of minority communities from reaching the level of national leadership and the reaction of the disgruntled leaders of the affected communities has resulted in polarization of the Sri Lankan society as well as the creation of conditions for terrorism.
Making an already bad situation worse, at the recently concluded election, some political leaders driven by lust for short term political gain gave the East a choice between a Muslim Chief Minister and a Tamil Chief Minister. An attempt was also made to play on the religious prejudices of the people. The visit of a foreign dignitary was made out to be part of a conspiracy by Shia Muslims to get rid of their Sunni counterparts in the Eastern Province and Hambantota!
Today, we see a well orchestrated campaign to pit Hisbullah against Pillaiyan over the question of chief ministership. The Save the Tigers activists who first went all out to have the elections in the EP cancelled but in vain and then expended their money and energy to ruin Pillaiyan s chances of being returned so as to prevent the LTTE s sole representative claim being exploded have implemented their Plan B. They are doing their damndest to scuttle the new PC even before its inauguration by causing a rift in the winning team.
If they manage to thwart Pillaiyan s effort to be Chief Minister, they will be able to project him as a failure and claim it is his fate that awaits anyone who breaks away from the LTTE and that the racist Sinhala State does not give Tamils their due place. Speculation is that if Pillaiyan becomes Chief Minister, they might even try to make Hisbullah and his councillors defect so that the UPFA will lose its majority.
The pro-LTTE lobby and its hangers on have apparently succeeded in turning a political issue into a prestige battle between the Tamil and Muslim communities. This they have done while mouthing platitudes about ethnic harmony. What those worthies must be told is that it is a crime to ethnically charge an internal political problem of a party and cause it to spill over into a fissiparous polity.
The onus is on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to settle the dispute once and for all. Ethnicity must not be the criterion for making the appointment in question. One way of achieving that objective is to rotate the chief ministership letting it be shared by the deserving aspirants.
The genie of ethnic rivalry must be kept in the bottle of political wisdom.
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wick
Joined: Sep 2007
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 15 May 2008 10:46:44 GMT Report for Abuse
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Don't divide the East! Yes!
But divide people in the East.
Then it is easy to rule.
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Sintamus
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 15 May 2008 15:13:49 GMT Report for Abuse
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If there is a bend in the beginning it will bend the whole - Tamil proverb.
Sinhala ONLY Act was forced on Tamil speaking minorities thus creating an ethnic discord.
Transporting Maradana thugs in 4 lorries to Batticaloa to burn and bomb Tamil businesses and houses were to drive a wedge between the Muslim and Tamil communities.
Arming Karuna /Pillaiyan Group is to encorage the group to attack Muslims to create strain between the communities.
Even the EPC election was intended to create tension by primising Chief Minister post to both Pillaiyan and Hisbullah instead of letting democracy determine who it is.
Edited By - Sintamus - 15 May 2008 15:14:28 GMT |
DVLADV
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 15 May 2008 17:19:09 GMT Report for Abuse
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Jathika Hela Urumaya told media today that they are against the idea of giving powers to the Eastern Provincial Council.
The president and the government should seek the opinion of the Sinhala councilors in deciding a chief minister for the Eastern Provincial Council, the Jathika Hela Urumaya has said.
The SLMC Leader Rauff Hakeem said that the appointment of Pillayan as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council was the plan of the Government well before the East elections, and accused Muslim Ministers saying that they took this long to understand this fact.
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Magnum357
Joined: Oct 2007
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16 May 2008 06:02:33 GMT Report for Abuse
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| United we stand as a Nation and devided we fall as a Nation. We are certainly not united as a Nation and we can see how the Nation is falling amidst disunity! |
alwaysalion
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 16 May 2008 08:59:34 GMT Report for Abuse
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The best MR can do is to make Hon.Dr.Mervin Silva the cheap
minister and the problems will be solved! |
SenaM
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 16 May 2008 15:45:57 GMT Report for Abuse
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Hisbullah does not have 'military clout', like Pillaiyan .. but he wants to be CM. (He likes to have a 'hand' in the disbursements of moneys/funds, positions & posts etc). Feel sure, these 'needs' could be accommodated ..
Let Pillaiyan 'maintain the PEACE' .. so necessary for Developmental Work in the Eastern Province to continue ..
Detach the 'Commercial' angle (of Developmental Programs) from Pillaiyan's control to a sufficient degree .. so that Hisbullah's 'needs' are met. (For instance Hisbullah could have prime 'say' in developmental works in Muslim areas).
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gamiya
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 16 May 2008 17:20:39 GMT Report for Abuse
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| The ordinary people of the East will decide the political fate of all Eastern PC member's who can't respect the mandate of the people and work for the people in the East to the best of their abilities. |
zenith
Joined: Mar 2006
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17 May 2008 02:46:32 GMT Report for Abuse
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Now Piieyan is the CM.
Any one can decide to take his own path.
Being together or seperating.(one way or another)
Face or fate!
Remember it's Pilleyan! |
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