My view on the Canadian Emergency Debate in Parliament on Sri Lanka.

CANADIAN 40Th parliament, 2ND Secession
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 : Emergency Debate on Sri Lanka

It was the evening of Wednesday, February 4th of 2009 and it was a cold minus 22 outside in Ottawa and I was glad to be indoors. I switched on the TV at 6:30 to watch Canada’s historic debate on Sri Lanka. It was not too long into the debate that I realized that it was all about the extinction of the Tamil Tigers and nothing else. All the debaters seemed to be ‘Save the Wild Animals’ activists, almost assuring the Tigers – ‘We have got you by your tail, don’t worry we won’t let it go!’

[ad#200×200] I had the feeling that it were the Liberals and the NDPiers who were really concerned about the LTTE, the Tamil Tigers , who were being wiped out by having their butts whipped by Sri Lankan Armed Forces as they had already regained 98% of the territory that the Tamil Tigers had controlled illegally for the past 20 years. This was going to be fascinating viewing, I thought, because of my personal interest in the issue. But what I witnessed for the next four hours or so was a perfect Theatre of the Tamil Tiger Blarney.

My guess was right about the main actors. It was predictable. They were Jack Layton the leader of the NDP, and the Liberals Jim Karygiannis, Maria Minna, Judy Sgro, Derek Lee, John McKay, Bob Rae and Albina Guanieri, and some new actors like Paul Dewar of the NDP and a few other bit players.

When Jack stood up to start off the debate, I said, “Oh, not you again Jack!”. Jack Layton, was the NDP leader who compared the ruthless killer leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Apparently he was the one who had requested the emergency debate.

I wasn’t sure whether Jack Layton knew that Prabhakaran was the terrorist who had assassinated two heads of states, President Premadasa of Sri Lanka and Rajiv Gandhi of India. I wondered whether Jack also knew that this is the terrorist who had perfected the Suicide Bomb Jacket and got 376 suicide bombers to blow themselves up killing thousands of innocent civilians. And that every one of those Suicide Bombers had the final dinner as a martyrdom honour with Prabhakaran the night before he or she blew themselves up killing hundreds of others, mainly Sinhalese. I am not sure whether Jack knew that this was the ruthless killer who had assassinated 31 politicians and among them were 18 Tamil politicians. Three were Mayors of Jaffna, one was the TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingham who was the guest of NDP’s late Pauline Jewett and who was introduced to parliament from the Gallery, and another was Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was also a Tamil. It beats me how Jack could compare this ruthless terrorist to Nelson Mandela in front of 10,000 Tamils at Queens Park during a Pongu Thamil celebration. That comparison was asinine Strange! But then these politicians would prostitute themselves to do anything to claw in the 100,000 Tamil votes in the Greater Toronto Area.

What I really missed in this ACT 1 was showing Jack on stage, going up a hill with Liberal Jim Karygiannis and a voice commenting –

Jack and Jim
went up a Kilinochchi hill
to fetch a pale of muddy water.
Jack fell down and
broke his crown and
Jim came tumbling after.

But it would have been even nicer if this ACT happened to the strains of a Jaffna accented voice singing Maria (Minna) to Blondies tune.

She moves like she don’t care
But she really cares Cool as air
Ooooh it make me wanna’ cry.
She doesn’t know my Tamil name
And my heart beats like a subway train
Oooh don’t you wanna take her
Wanna make her all your own?
Maria, Maria, Maria!

Jack says “…the relentless government campaign against the rebels has devastated the northern region of Sri Lanka.” What he failed to identify is that these Tamil Tigers have been designated as “terrorists” and so have Canada banned them as ‘terrorists’. Ha! I thought. This man is soft peddling the Tamil Tiger separatist cause to garner a portion of the 100,000 Tamil votes in the Greater Toronto Area, leaving the crumbs for the Liberals.

What the heck did you expect Jack Layton, when the Government Forces are facing an onslaught by the Tamil Tigers who were using sophisticated military weapons brought in 11 ship loads during the Ceasefire period between February 22, 2002 and January 16, 2008. For Pete’s sake, Jack I hope you didn’t expect the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to fight these killers with stones and catapults when they were using 120mm, 81mm and 60mm artillery and mortar shells. Isn’t that stupid?

So ACT 1 of this Theatre of the Tamil Tiger Blarney continued. Then stood up the Liberal Jim Karygiannis, a formidable looking man, large and animated. In fact he stood up several times during the debate to save the Tamil Tigers. He convinced me that he was a true animal lover. It would have been perfect theatre if it had contained the skit :

Jim Humpty Dumpty sat on a Kilinochchi wall and
Jim Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
and the Sun God’s Tigers and his suicide bomber-men
couldn’t put Jim Humpty Dumpty together again.

He debated trying to corner the Conservatives for banning the Tamil Tigers. He said, “a Conservative member of Parliament of Nova Scotia said, ‘As soon as we get in power, we are going to list the LTTE’. As soon as they got elected they listed the WTM.” Of course, they kept their promise by banning the Tamil Tigers within two months of being elected which you Liberals didn’t do for 13 long years.

Jim, coming to WTM, I understand your sentiments. Sure, by banning the WTM, the Conservative Government virtually corked the conduit from which money flowed into Tamil Tiger coffers to buy weapons and explosives to fight the Sri Lankan Government, and kill my innocent Sinhalese civilians, for the want of their separate Tamil state, Eelam. Banning WTM certainly stopped gathering funds for the Tamil Tiger cause, like receiving at least one government grant of $18,690 from the Province of Ontario in 1994 to hire a volunteer coordinator for six months.

It has been public that you and several other Liberals, like Paul Martin, Maria Minna, forked out $60 for a plate of food to contribute to the Fund for the Tamil Tigers organized by FACT an its affiliate WTM. I understand why the corking of that conduit is now pinching your heart.

You said during the debate pointing your finger at the Conservatives, “If you are a Tamil, you are a Tiger and you are a terrorist.” But this is how the cookie crumbles Jim. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. Likewise, if you provide funds for the Tamil Tiger terrorists, thus supporting the Tamil Tiger terrorists, then you must be a sympathizer of Tamil Tiger terrorists, and then you must be a pseudo-Tamil Tiger terrorist.

The Conservatives were aware that the Tamil Tigers posing as the Bangladesh Army used its Canadian accounts to cut a cheque for 7 ½ million dollars from a Vancouver bank to buy 50 tonnes of TNT and 10 tonnes of RDX explosives from the Rubezhone Chemical Plant in the Ukraine in 1994 and shipped it by freighter to Sri Lanka. Those explosives were used to bring down the Central Bank Building in the Fort killing 114 and maiming for life another 1,400. That is why WTM was listed as a front for the LTTE. A good job done by the Conservatives, don’t you think?

Jim, it was sheer arrogance on your part to say, “When is the government going to rise and say that if Sri Lanka does not change its ways, it is going to be kicked out of the Commonwealth?” Wow! That was high and mighty on your part and I noticed a bit of the Whiteman’s colonial patronizing here, an attitude which I resent very much. Perhaps, you may want to entertain this though, Jim. How would you like the Sri Lankan Government having Canada charged at the International Criminal Court for aiding and abetting a terrorist group and surreptitiously funding by allowing them to collect millions of dollars to buy weapons to kill the subjects of Sri Lanka. Think about it. Perhaps you may want to consult Irwin Cotler on that one. You Liberals are no bunch of paragons of virtue. Remember, a knife cut both ways Jim. Especially the ones made in Sri Lanka.

ACT II of the ‘Theatre of Tamil Tiger Blarney’ had the Liberal senior parliamentarians Maria Minna and Albina Guarnieri making their presence vocally trying to save the Tamil Tigers from extinction.

No matter how sweet her name Maria is, which has musicality that would create waves of harmony like Maria Elena, Take me into your heart, A love like mine is great enough for two, To share this love is really all I ask of you; and Maria from West side Story, Maria…The most beautiful sound I have heard, Maria, Maria, Maria…..All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word…. I have taken umbrage what Maria Minna said in the House wanting to save the Tamil Tigers from extinction.

She said during the debate, “…the lack of interest in the peace discussion is what we have today which is horrible humanitarian crisis which has trapped some 240,000 people in the area that they cannot get out at the moment.” She was not being honest.

Hello…Hello, Maria, wake up and please have a reality check on what is going on in Sri Lanka before you utter another word about that island nation.

Didn’t you know that on January 29, President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran 48 hours to release civilians in his clutches so that they could reach the ‘safe zones’ created by the armed forces. “Let my people go”, he said. But that rascal Prabhakaran didn’t comply keeping the civilians as a human shield. So don’t blame the Sri Lanka Government, Maria. Point your accusing finger at Prabhakaran, the Leader of the Tamil Tigers whose tail you are hanging on to. Let it go, Maria.

You were disingenuous when you said, “lack of interest in peace discussions”. Where were you all these days since 2002, when the Norwegians got the two parties together six times to talk peace? And what did Prabhakaran do? He didn’t want peace, it was a case of nothing but Eelam for him, so he converted the Peace Talks to Gong Shows. The last time they met was in 2006. And don’t pretend to the Canadians that you did not know what happened.

When June 2006 came along further peace talks were scheduled in Oslo, Norway between 8th and 9th June, but they were cancelled when the Tamil Tigers refused meeting directly with the government delegation claiming its fighters were not allowed safe passage to travel to talks. This was after the delegations arrived in Oslo. Eric Solheim of Norway who had been negotiating these Peace Talks told journalists that the Tamil Tigers should take direct responsibility for the collapse of the Talks. You certainly have been mischievous with your statement wanting to save the Tamil Tigers from extinction. You certainly tried to fool me but I saw your treachery right between your eyes. Just too bad, Maria. Perhaps, you may want to try that ‘Save the Tamil Tiger” trick again!

Do you know why the Tamil Tigers were not wiped out completely from their last hold out in 180 square kilometers in the Wanni jungles? President Rajapaksa was concerned of the presence of the civilians. “No victory is worth achieving at the expense of innocent, men, women and children”, he said. He is a honourable man.

President Rajapaksa understands his Humanitarian responsibilities. But I caution all you Liberals who are active to save the Tamil Tigers, just let go of their tails, as we Canadians have very little to talk of human rights as today’s (February 6) Ottawa Citizen says, “Canada’s rights record under fire. UN critics include notorious abusers. Canada’s human rights record has come under a blistering attack by members of a Unites Nations body that includes some of the world’s worst right violators.”

Be careful, you lot. President Rajapaksa, will very well tell you all to go fly a kite and requesting you all to clean up your house before you come with your mops to clean up his house. I would consider that a fair comment.

Let me pose a mathematical riddle to you regarding your statement, “…humanitarian crisis which has trapped some 240,000 people”. Your conscience will tell you that you have joined the bandwagon of the international campaign which is underway to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka. Pulling numbers from the air doesn’t help the cause as you all are slowly sinking in quick sand.

Here is the riddle and here are the numbers, and let me know how you got the figure of 240,000 trapped in Mullaitivu jungles, as I certainly don’t buy it.

The 1981 census says that the Sri Lankan Tamils numbered 1,871,535 which was 12.6% of the total population of 14,850,001. Two years down the road in July 1983 there were riots in Colombo, and sure, the Tamils got the brunt of it, and that is another story. These riots gave a window of opportunity for Tamils from around Sri Lanka to fly out, over their

Motherland, Tamil Nadu, where 55 million Tamils lived. Having fanned themselves around the world, the Sri Lankan Tamil population has been reduced to 3.9% of the total population of 21 million people (World Watch 2008), and 54% of this number lives in the south with the majority Sinhalese. Thus, there are no more 1.8 million Tamils living in Sri Lanka anymore. And that is a fact. The thousand dollar question to you is how did you and other mischievous international voices, INGOs and all come up with the figure of 240,000 Tamils being trapped in Mullaitivu.

The pre-war (1983) population of the Killinochchi District was 127,000 and in the District of Mullaitivu was 122,000. Let us not lose track of the trapped numbers. You said that there were 240,000 Tamils trapped in Mullaituvi. The pre-war total between the two Districts comes to 249,000 individuals. Let us not forget that hundreds of thousands of Tamils flew out of the cuckoo’s nest seeking greener pastures, and it only makes sense that the pe-war numbers of this two Districts may have been reduced by scores of thousands of Tamils. And let us not forget that over 20,000 Tamils in the north died fighting as soldiers. Lets keep our eyes on your figure of 240,000 still trapped. This number could only happen if Tamils who did not flee Sri Lanka would have dragged themselves into Tamil Tiger country from Colombo, Kandy and everywhere else. Unless this would happen which is unlikely, you will not get that 240,000. So I have concluded that you guys are up to a lot of mischief wanting to destroy Sri Lanka. And let me inform you Maria, when it comes to this sort of ugly shenanigans to destroy Sri Lanka, I as a Canadian will stand firm behind my Motherland and tell you Liberals, go drown yourselves in the Ottawa River, because I demand honesty from you lot.

Maria Minna during your Act to save the Tamil Tigers, you said, “…what is called responsibility to protect (R2P), which is a declaration of the UN now. This is something that we need to act on to protect the people. That was put in place to protect people and states that are not able to protect their own citizens.”

You are being irresponsible with that loaded assumption. And that was silly. Do you know what this R2P reminded me of, Maria? My kindergarten days when I put my right hand up so my teacher could notice, and with my left palm on my crotch asking for my ‘Right to Pee’.

Who are the people that you asking the UN to protect? Every morning there are thousands of Sinhalese who use public transport to get to work during rush hour. It has become a habit for them who make the sign of the cross or put their palms together in prayer, before they get onto a bus. Do you know why Maria? Because they want to reach their destination in one piece without being blown to smithereens by the Tamil Tiger planted claymore mines. Are these the people whom you want the UN to protect?

Here are some of the buses the Tamil Tigers bombed which has created a fear for the citizens to travel in buses. Those who have no choice but to use buses pray before they get on them:

Seenigama bus blast killed 15 and injured 40; Cheddikulum Bus Blast killed 7 and injured 37; Nittambuwa Bus Blast killed 6 and injured 63; Kebitigollawa Bus Massacre killed 64 and injured 39 and the menu goes on and on. Maria, your Tamil Tigers are no playful cuddly cubs, they have fangs that even could bite you as they did to people who helped them in the past.

When the Sinhalese Mothers tuck their kids into bed at night in their fishermen’s and farmer’s adobe huts and say a prayer to the deities asking them to protect their kids and infants so that they could wake up to see another day, but only to be woken up during the dark indigo mornings by creeping Tamil Tigers who shoot and hack them to death and massacring their parents who would try to save their lives. Are these the people that you want the UN to protect, Maria? There were such killings by the Tamil Tigers on the Dollar and Kent Farms in Welioya; at Mahakonbgaskada at Medavachchiya; Vahalkada in Padaviya; at Konwewa at Welioya and hundreds more.

Maria, don’t you ever, ever ignore my Sinhalese people in your quest to save the Tamil Tigers from extinction. You bet, I will be resentful. At least I am honest with you.

The ACT II also had an amazing stint which needed a prop of a Mirror on stage in the House. Albina Guarnieri should have gone to this mirror and asked “Mirror, mirror on the wall, and who is the liar of them all.”

Her diatribe was amazing. She read from a script, obviously authored by a Tamil Tiger.

Albina, you really need a history lesson on Sri Lanka. Let me give you one right now so that you know what the heck you are talking about. And don’t be too hasty to take the words from your Tamil constituents as they certainly have done a bad make-over job on you to look like a joker in a pack of cards.

“As early as 1948, many Tamils were denied citizenship and rendered stateless,” you said. That was the Tamil Truth. But, here is the Tamil Fact. Did you know that you were speaking of the Indian Tamils in the hill country in Sri Lanka. They are not seeking a separate state as your constituents, as they are with the government and their leader is a Minister with the present government.

Your assertion was too simplistic and facile. The fact is that British planters imported cheap and amenable indentured labour from Tangore, Tirunelveli and Ramnad districts of South India to work in the coffee and tea plantations from about 1820.

With the emergence of popular politics in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) after the First World War, a controversy developed as to whether these people were bona fide Ceylonese, or more birds of passage looking towards India as their motherland.

The Citizenship Act was not discriminatory of any particular person or group of persons. The local Courts and the Privy Council decided it to be non-discriminatory (Hope you got that clear, Albina). The fact remained that there were hundreds of thousands of migrant-floating Indian labourers already possessing the vote in Ceylon but having no firm roots in Ceylon, often enjoying dual-citizenship and remitting all their savings to their folks in India.

It is important for you to note Albina, that the Indian-Tamil citizenship issue did not, at the time, create a rift between the respective influential sections of the Ceylon-Tamils and the Sinhalese. There were three Ceylon-Tamils elected from the North and East of Ceylon functioning as Cabinet Ministers in Ceylon’s post-independence Government then. These Indian indentured labourers in Ceylon had only a limited franchise even under the British rule, anyway. (I hope you are still with me, Albina).

After Independence in 1948, the Ceylon (Citizenship) Act of 1949, and the Parliamentary Election (Amendment) Act of 1949 were enacted. It was against this scenario that then Prime Ministers D.S.Senanayake of Ceylon and Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru of India met to solve citizenship problems of the Indian indentured labourers.

It may be worthwhile for me to quote for you to understand, D.S.Senanayake’s Aide Memoire to Prime Minister Pundit Nehru:

“The qualifications that I have proposed are the minimum I consider necessary to ensure that the Indians applying for registration have a genuine desire to settle down in Ceylon. In fact, I have laid myself open to the charge of having consulted the interests of the indigenous population insufficiently or not at all. Far from being merged in the permanent population of the Island and identifying themselves with its interests and development, they have grown into a bloc quite distinct from other communities. I admire the affection they still have for their mother country but note with regret the absence of even the beginning of a similar affection for the country of ‘adoption’…You have my assurance that we do not wish to deny the right of citizenship to any Indian who can justly claim it.” (Senanayake to Nehru: No. 07.08.1948, found in Sessional Paper 22 of 1948).

Albina, I hope you understood all this? So stop getting on your high horse and denounce Sri Lanka just because you want to hang on to the Tamil Tiger’s tail. I say, “cut it” Albina and be fair without spreading irresponsible lies about this issue and Sri Lanka.

“Buddhism became an exclusive state religion, again denying the Tamil identity”, you said. Albina, you must be joking. You must be hallucinating. From where the heck did you get that information?

Their identity as Tamils is sewn into the National flag. The yellow stripe on the side of the national flag represents the Tamils and the green stripe represent the Muslims. Their identity is well engraved in postage stamps and monetary coins and bills. They celebrate their religious days and they are public holidays – Thai Pongal in January, Maha Sivarathri Day in February, Sinhala & Tamil New Year in April, Deepavali Festival in October, and for Christian Tamils they get their Christmas Holidays. They also enjoy the Kataragama Hindu religious festival in July and the Vel Hindu Festival in August.

The Tamil female identity is stamped with pride with the crimson thumb print between the eye brows and they wear their gorgeous saris when they walk around town and to work, et cetera. The Tamil identity is shown on sign boards on their retail and grocery stores every where in the island and not restricted to one language as in the Province of Quebec.

Albina, what you said during that debate was absolutely pathetic. Just stop your vile contribution to polarize the Sri Lankan-Canadian community of the Sinhalese and Tamils further.

“Tamils were discriminated against in schools, the public service and the military”, you said, Albina.

You know Albina, if I were your teacher and you were my student, I would make you write “I am sorry that I lied about Sri Lanka ” a 1000 times and show it to me. That prop of a mirror in the House would have served you well during your act in the Theatre of the Tamil Tiger Blarney, where you could have gone to ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the liar of them all?” and shown some contrition.

Presently the second, third and fourth ranking commanders of the Air Force are Tamils. That would kill your thesis, won’t it Albina? Now that I killed your thesis let me thrash it to the ground by letting you know that when during the time the Tamils were agitating that they were discriminated, the Inspector general of Police was Rudra Rajasingham, a Jaffna Tamil. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was S. Sharvananda, a Jaffna Tamil, and the Attorney General too was a Jaffna Tamil, Siva Pasupathy. When riots took place in July 1983, there were several Tamil diplomats serving Sri Lanka abroad. Three were heads of Missions and one was in London. I could go on Albina, but I will spare you any more embarrassment.

Let me pick your comment about Tamils being discriminated in schools. That is a load of hog wash Albina, and you had the gall to stand up in the House and spew out those lies reading the script as if you were standing in church pew and reading the Holy Bible. Shame on you Albina.

By 1981, two years prior to the riots in 1983, when thousands of Tamils took off saying that they were discriminated and some landing in your riding, the mainly Jaffna District had 555 government schools for a Tamil student population of 207,524, and the capital city Colombo with a multi-ethnic student population of 231,690 had only 251 government schools. That doesn’t equate into discrimination, does it now Albina? Let me give you one more statistic for 1981. In the Jaffna District schools 41% had government approved science laboratories compared to an island average of 19.6%. The Tamils were the privileged minority and the Sinhalese were the wronged majority. I hope you are rightfully getting embarrassed for your misinformation about Sri Lanka. I will spare you by not asking you, “How dare you!”

I could deal with your comments about the discrimination of the Tamils in the public service, but I don’t want to rubbish you anymore. On second thoughts let me inform you how wrong you were, anyway, as this happens to be a lesson on Sri Lanka for you.

By 1981, two years prior to the riots and some Tamils landed in your riding saying that they were discriminated in the public sector, the Tamil population was 12.6%

However the employment of the Tamils in the various professions were” Doctors 35.1%, Dentists 24.7%; Vet. Surgeons 38.8%; Life Sciences 41.5 %; Medical technicians 30.2%; engineers 34.9%; Surveyors 29.9%; Engineering technicians 24.3%; Survey Draughtsman 27.8%; top public service administrators 15.9%. I never was good in my simple arithmetic. But you could study these numbers and let me know whether the Tamils were really discriminated, or whether they took you well and truly down the garden path singing, “O Canada, how I made a fool of thee!”

While the Tamil students walk the corridors of all the Universities in the south, in places like Colombo, Kandy, Ruhuna, et cetara, there isn’t a single Sinhalese undergraduate studying at the Jaffna University. Do you know why Albina? On August 17, 1977, the Tamils stoned and chased 400 Sinhalese undergraduates and lecturers from the Jaffna campus. They were brought south in buses escorted by the army and the police, lying prostrate on the floor of the buses out of line from the stones and rocks that were hailing like meteorites. And now the Tamils have their own University in Jaffna, and they also have the luxury of attending the Universities in the south. And so you had the gall to stand up in the House and tell your parliamentary colleagues a bunch of lies about the Tamils being discriminated in education. This wasn’t nice. That wasn’t Kosher. And that wasn’t Canadian.

It would have been perfect theater if only you would have been speaking to the strains of

Call me irresponsible.
Call me unreliable
Throw in undependable, too
Do my foolish alibis bore you?
Well, I am not too clever,
I just adore you,

Now that you tried your hand in trying to save the Tamil Tigers, here’s just a wee bit of advice to you. If I were you, I would let the topic of Sri Lanka pass by you, and not expose yourself the way you did in the House where you looked like a joker in a pack of cards, because you knew absolutely nothing about Sri Lanka, its past as well as the present. It has been embarrassing for me even to comment on your foolishness.

I did enjoy this Theatre of the Tamil Tiger Blarney, and along the way understood how Canadian politicians prostitute themselves to get re-elected to parliament, and also have that tinge of patronizing Whiteman’s Colonial Master attitude. I would have loved to have made my observations on ACT III with actors John McKay (Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood) and Derek Lee (Liberal MP for Scarborough –Rough River), and of ACT IV of the bit players, but lack of time has made me let them slip away from my pen. However, if I can manage to make time during the next few days I will make an effort to let you all read my observations.

The Theater of the Tamil Tiger Blarney was an amazing exercise of lies and spins, especially by the Liberals, to save the Tamil Tiger terrorist from extinction, whom the Liberal Party on November 6, 2007 christened as “Doves of Peace”.

Asoka Weerasinghe. Ottawa, Ontario