MIA is an incredible artist, but she is not the spokesperson that Sri Lanka needs right now

Sri Lanka isn't the same island that MIA left behind many moons ago

By Ravi Amaratunga - From The Independent (UK) 

I’ve just re-watched MIA’s interview on Channel 4 News about the recent Sri Lankan elections.

I love her music, and being a British Sri Lankan myself, I think it’s great that she’s been so successful.

But I’m cringing. Why? MIA (real name Mathangi Arulpragasam) has a lot of valid concerns over the make up of Sri Lanka’s newly elected administration. But she refers to “the Tamils” as a unified minority race, and claims that there's an “ethnic conflict” that still needs to be resolved.

According to her, it's a conflict that dominates the future of the island. “Right now we need to focus on what Tamil people need,” she says. According to her, it's the Tamils and not the Sinhalese majority who “embraced peace” since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended five years ago.

It’s a bit odd for me that the 39-year-old rapper, who hasn’t been back to Sri Lanka for over a decade (after she was banned in 2001), is being wheeled out as "spokesperson of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka’" by the British media.

By her own admission she’s only seen the plight of the Tamils via “videos on YouTube” and “Amnesty International” in recent years. That’s not necessarily her fault and, in her defence, she has had gory encounters with the Sri Lankan government in the past.

But as a half-Sinhalese, half-Tamil Brit a generation below her, she’s certainly not speaking for me. I feel it’s time for some alternative viewpoints on Sri Lanka here in the UK.

In her recent interview, MIA displays a disconnect with what’s actually happening on the island. Sri Lanka isn't an island defined by a Tamil minority at war with a Sinhalese majority. MIA left that island behind many moons ago. Tamils live across the island, and alongside Muslim, Christian, Chinese and other minorities, all of whom have a part to play in Sri Lanka’s future.

When you visit, it’s hard to ignore the younger generation of Sri Lankans of all races, who have a totally different vision of their Island’s future to MIA. It is these new voters who helped vote in the island’s first new president in over a decade, and against all odds.

The previous president, Mahinda Rajapakse, brought about the end of a bitter war, but did so in the most controversial, brutal of ways, which has been well-documented by many human rights organisations. During his tenure there have rightly been fears over free speech and democratic freedoms, in spite of significant economic growth.

MIA is an incredible artist, and it’s amazing to have a Sri Lankan pop warrior like her. So it’s weird for me that part of her modus operandi appears to be to drive a race-based perception of Sri Lanka solely focused on its 26-year civil war, which ended in 2009.

Sri Lankan society is a lot more complex and vibrant than that now. And most importantly, most young Sri Lankan’s who actually live on the island just want to move on from its bitter war.

Danasiri Amaratunga’s Misleading Propaganda Campaign Embarrasses Rajapaksa

From Asian Mirror

Danasiri Amaratunga, Mayor of Dehiwala- Mt. Lavinia Municipal Council, and several other supporters of the UPFA are engaging in a propaganda campaign on social media, inciting communal feelings against the Tamil community of Sri Lanka.

Amaratunga and his fellow UPFA supporters have shared old pictures of Pro-LTTE protests in other countries to portray that the Tamil Diaspora members are celebrating the victory of Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena. Unfortunately, the pictures they had used clearly showed that the protests had been held on March 22.

Therefore, such social media posts have become a serious embarrassment for former President Rajapaksa, wittingly or otherwise.

The Mayor of Dehiwala – Mt. Lavinia MC also shared another post using derogatory terms to refer to ethnic and religious minorities of Sri Lanka. The derogatory post says those who are protesting against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa are members of ethnic and religious minorities in Sri Lanka.

The constituency of Amaratunga has a sizable proportion of Tamils and Muslims. The Mayor of Dehiwala-Mt. Lavinia is bound to serve the people residing in his constituency, irrespective of their race, religion and political beliefs.

The United People’s Freedom Alliance presidential candidate, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the Dehiwala  - Mt. Lavinia polling division with a huge margin at the recently held presidential election

Tamil diaspora keen to engage

The Tamil Diaspora have called on the new Government and President Maithripala Sirisena to engage with the Diaspora in good faith and in a meaningful and constructive way.

Reacting to the defeat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the election, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) said that the Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims had rejected the way the minority communities were treated under former Government by coming out and voting unprecedentedly in high numbers.

“Final results show, although President Sirisena had support in the South, the overwhelming support he gained from people in North, East and Up-country reversed any majority that Mahinda Rajapaksa won in other parts of the country and made him the victor,” GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran said.

He said the GTF hopes President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and their coalition government will reciprocate the support rendered by these communities.

“We hope that they will be honourable and reverse the many historic injustices served upon our people by engaging the elected representatives of Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims as a matter of urgency. We also hope that the new administration will engage the Diaspora in good faith and in a meaningful and constructive way,” he said.

The GTF said it will continue to work with the international community to ensure that this new beginning also entails obtaining long overdue justice for past violations of international law and international humanitarian law.

Meanwhile the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) said that it should be noted that the Tamil people have always used the elections to use their votes tactically on issues that mattered to them.

“Their active participation in this ballot should be seen as a vote for elimination of a leader they despised rather than as an expression of their preference for or a faith in the new leader. The true desire of the Tamil is for an opportunity to express their right to self-determination and their nationhood. So, if the 6th Amendment to the Constitution is rescinded and the right space created for a vote, that will be when the Tamil people will truly demonstrate their preferences,” TGTE leader V. Rudrakumaran said.

He also insisted that the ouster of Rajapaksa in itself does not mean anything for Tamil aspirations in Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)

Ranil Meeting Sri Lankan Diaspora

by Rajasingham Jayadevan

( October 20, 2014, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Campaign orchestrated by the wings of the Sri Lankan government against the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe is clearly a calculated, diabolical and depraved drive of harassment to gain petty parochial mileage to overshadow the political setbacks experienced by the Rajapakse family.

I write as one of those who had the opportunity to meet the Opposition Leader in London. I together with Tamils representing diverse Tamil polity excluding the LTTE met Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe and discussed wide ranging issues centred on the authoritarian governance in Sri Lanka. We were one of the Tamil groups. He was frank and forthright in his comments and reflected the maturity of a seasoned and an educated politician to explain the way forward to overcome the difficulties.

He said thirteenth amendment is in the statute and affirmed the need to implement it properly and sincerely. He confirmed his priority is to implement the 13th amendment for the people of Sri Lanka to enjoy the devolvement already available in the constitution.

Those who met Ranil had engaged with President Mahinda Rajapakse, former President Chandrika Kumaratunge, and many other leaders of the Sri Lankan polity. The meeting we had did not reflect any sectarian discussions and issues of progressive decay in the governance and being the Opposition Leader, he very well articulated the need to redeem Sri Lanka from its gloom.

We came to know through the UNP organisers, that Ranil could not meet the exhaustive demand for meetings with the diverse Sri Lankan community due to time constraints. They expressed their overwhelming enthusiasm that cross section of the Sri Lankan community had met him.

According to the report in the Sunday Times, Global Tamil Forum refused to meet Ranil Wickramasinghe on the grounds that he had appointed Sajith Premadasa as the Deputy Leader whom they branded as an anti-Tamil racist. When I contacted the GTF to explain the opportunity missed to meet the Opposition Leader, Suren Surendran was categorical that their decision was justified.

I came to know members of the TNGT or BTF did not meet the Opposition Leader. The decaying political thinking of the government only confirm its lack of farsightedness to reason out whey these groups will not meet the Opposition Leader.

When I spoke to few from the Muslim and Sinhala community who met Ranil, they all confirmed the same views we held.

The anti-Ranil campaign only confirms that the government is panicking. One Sinhalese who was until recently associated with the government was disgusted with the progressing failures in governance and confirmed to me in writing that ‘the Sinhalese, are beginning to say Ranil is a good man, not a hora (thief) and they would vote for Aliya (Elephant) and that the UNP should swim with this tide and strengthen itself to correct the malaise experienced under the present Mahinda rule’.