Sudath Gunasekara (PhD, SLAS) President Mahanuwara Senior Citizens Movement 5.8.2010.

I reproduce below a news item that appeared in the BBC on 2nd August 2010 Govt. ‘trying to change’ demography– Tamil National Alliance
 “The major Tamil political party in Sri Lanka has accused the government of trying to change the demography in the north taken over by the military following the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels over a year ago.
The TNA also accused the government of breaching pledges made to India and the international community over resettling internally displaced people (IDP).
Suresh Premachandran, MP, said nearly 75 percent of the affected IDPs are Tamils of Indian origin who were chased away from the upcountry in 1977 and 1983 racial riots.
“Displaced people are not allowed to resettle in their ancestral lands,’ says the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
Mr. Sumanthiran who recalled a statement by the military chief of plans to establish special villages in the north for predominantly Sinhala military families, questioned whether the intention of the government is to change the demography in the”
The above statements by the TNA imply few serious misconceptions and disinformation about Sri Lankan history and the actions of the Government.
Firstly it implies that the said land where military and other settlements are purported to be coming up belonged to the Tamils (who never think they are a part of this country) and it is their traditional Home Land on earth where no member of any other community can step in while the Tamils want to live, work and own property all over the Island.
Secondly they were taken over illegally by the Sri Lankan Government by force through military operations and as such the Sri Lankan Government has invaded the Tamil land.
Thirdly the military and other installations required for national security of this country should not be established in the North or the East.
Fourthly the Sri Lankan government has no right to take the necessary steps to safeguard its national security or territorial integrity.
Fifthly the government is doing this to change the demography of the north and the east, which they consider as their historical Home Land (where as the Tami Home Land is actually found in South India)
Sixth the IDPs are denied resettling on their own land and they are being discriminated.
Seventh there are no Tamils officers in the armed forces. Those Estate Tamils who are there are people who have been chased out from the Sinhala areas by the Sinhalese and they are not people who were selectively and meticulously settled on these barren crown lands by the TNA led communal Tamil politicians during the past few decades, in collaboration with the old CWE leadership   as an important part of their EELAM programme. The Estate Tamils who are there in the N&E are also traditional lad owners in those regions. 
Finally no community other than the Tamils has a right to settle down or live in the north or the east of Sri Lanka as the final goal of these Tamil politicians is the establishment of the Tamil EELAM covering these two provinces.
 It is more than clear that the bottom line of all these allegations and arguments is communal Tamil politics which is fanning communal hatred against the Sinhalese and the Government which they have been engaged from early 1920s that culminated in mass destruction an untold misery during the last 30 odd years. 
 Why can’t these modern Hanumans learn a lesson from what has happened during the past few decades as adirect retribution of their follies and at least now stop this communal hatred against the Sinhala people and also learn to live with other communities in this country without trying to set communal fire again, that will drag this country from bad to worse.
Are they not the people who have brought misery and destruction firstly to the Tamil and then to the entire country during the last 90 odd years starting from 1920s? How long are they going to follow this same path of destruction, never ending enmity and misery?
 To begin with, who gave this part of the country exclusively for Tamils and at what stage of history of this Island nation? Other than for a very short period in the medieval times before the arrival of the Portuguese in the unusually long span of 2500 year Sri Lankan history, do they know that the entire country had been ruled by Sinhala Kings as one country, sometimes with minor regional kingdoms under the suzerainty of one King reigning over the whole Island? Also do they know that even the last four Nayakar Kings of Kandy (whom the present day Tamils politicians claim to be Tamil Kings) were crowned as Sinhala Kings with Sinhala names only after they took an oath in front of the Mahanayaka Theros of the two chapters at the Nathadevala premises to protect the Buddha Sasana and carry on the duties of the State in accordance with the customs and traditions of the Sinhale Kingdom,? None of them reigned as Rajasinhams but they all were Rajasinhas; Nayakkars transformed in to Sinhala nationals.
 If they declined to adapt they would never have been Kings in this country.  Do they know that what an 11 year old non-Hindu boy (Chelvanayagam) who migrated from Singapore and his anti Sri Lankan anti-Hindu outfit has invented as Sri Lankan history (the history of the Tamil EELAM) is a diabolical fabrication of myths that will never be accepted by any sensible historian as long as the sun and the moon shall last? Have they forgotten that through out history both Sinhala and Muslim people also have been living in these areas, the north and the east?
Don’t they realize that both Sinhalese and Muslims have a right to live any where in this country as much as a Tamil man or a woman has to do so? Are they not aware that the government of the country has a legal right to take over any land any where in the country for a public purpose? Even though it is inordinately late by centuries, in my opinion the Government is doing the right thing just now by relocating the Sinhala people on their ancestral lands after 1000 odd years since they were chased out from the Dry Zone low lands by the Magha invaders in the 12th century.
 Where were these TNA politicians when Pirapaharan was butchering thousands innocent people. Have they ever made any statement to any media on his atrocities committed at least against their own community? Why can’t these petty minded power hungry communal politicians at least now come to terms with reality and stop this disastrous one way traffic without making this country once again a land of brutal killing and disaster.
Have you people ever made any statement  regarding the resettlement of Sinhala and Muslim people who were chased out from the north and the east from their traditional lands and got displaced long before these Tamil IDPs who were displaced only last year due to atrocities committed by your own hero Pirapaharan since 1983? Communal segregation and hatred my dear friends will never take us any where. You have to learn to live with other communities in peace.
 If you find it impossible the only alternative for you is to go back to India that you call your own country and worship  as your motherland and live in the lap of luxury of Karunanidhi without sawing the seeds of communal hatred making this blessed country a virtual hell once again to everybody.
 Regarding the settlement of Sinhala people in the northern and Eastern areas I would like to make this clarification not only for he benefit of the TNA but also for all those national ad international sections who are ignorant of the real facts on this issue. The whole Island was populated by the Sinhala people before 1200 AD. And it was as a result of Magha invasion of the 12th century those who survived were forced to abandon their once prosperous traditional home land and migrate to the south west of the Island. Ever since, these lands have remained thick jungle, inhabited by wild animals, except for few isolated settlements in the interior with sporadic pockets of coastal settlements of Tamils on the littorals.
The Colonial powers particularly the Dutch brought south Indian Malabar settlers in large numbers to Jaffna to work on their tobacco plantations and the British made several unsuccessful attempts to populate these areas with south Indians. During the Kandyan Kingdon Senarat settled Muslims in large numbers in the eastern Panampattu area as a favour to those who fled Portuguese repression and atrocities from the South West.
 So what ever settlement whether it is the so-called colonization (which should have been properly named re-settlement) or the, resettlement of those who were chased out by the LTTE in recent times are only all re-settlement of original settlers on their own ancestral home lands. Therefore no one should try to distort historical facts for political or other reasons. Resettlemen of Sinhala people is only a natural rectification of historical injustice done to the original settlers of these lands. Therefore no one, either here or outside, has any moral or ethical right to accuse the government on this issue.
 The TNA also accuses the government of Sri Lanka that it has breached pledges made   to India and the international Community. As regard to any pledge the government has made to India or the so-called International Community, we do not know. But even if the government had given any promise, I can state categorically here that neither India nor the International community has any legal or moral right to interfere with our domestic affairs. These politicians may be making this kind of stupid statement to win over their sympathy for the future EELAM. But I can vouch you that that is only a day dream that will never come true on the soils of this land of the Sinhalese. Sri Lanka is an independent sovereign Sate.
 As such no international law could be binding on us unless we have subscribed to it. This country will be governed by laws enacted by our legislators based on its customs and legal practices that guarantee justice and equality before law to its own citizens. Therefore no other country could dictate terms to us. The TNA and all those minorities who live in a world of imagination of their own with only their physical bodies here (which also are floating around the world wooing for support for their dream EELAM) with their minds and eternal love to India should understand this naked truth.
 What I find difficult to understand is as to why those in authority not taking any action to ban these communal political parties along with all such other communal and separatist groups who are trying to ruin this beautiful Island nation by sowing the seeds of ethnic hatred and animosity that perpetuate ethnic conflict and destroy political stability. These are the  two key factors that hinder nation building. Our governments should have nipped it in the bud in 1947 when Chelvanayagam officially declared his Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi meaning Lanka Demala Rajay Paksaya. What we are paying dearly today is for the sins and gross negligence and short sightedness of those who ran the country at that time. In order to hood wink the Sinhalese the architects of this new communal party labeled it as the Federal Party in English. But our rulers did not have eyes to see through the future dangers of this communal monster.
 What force on earth prevents a government elected by its majority people in taking such bold decisions in the long term interests of the country’s destiny? It is a tragedy that minorities in Sri Lanka of late try to identify as distinctive nations (Jati) For example as Demala  Jatiya and Muslim Jatiya. Historically this notion is identified as a new development that has emerged towards the latter part of the colonial period.
 Probably it is a sad legacy handed down from colonial administration. Because prior to 1815 there was only one nation (Jatiyak) in this country and that was Sinhala. The country was known as Sinhale and the Europeans called it Ceylon meaning the land of the Sinhala people. In fact this was the name used to describe this country up to 1972. From time immemorial it had been Sinhala or Lankadeepa. It will definitely continue to be so until the last Sinhala man is buried under the good earth.