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Home > Tamil National Forum > Selected Writings by Sachi Sri Kantha > On the Mischievous Game of Muslims Selected Writings by Sachi Sri Kantha On the Mischievous Game of Muslims 27 January 2006 Tamils or other non-Tamil peaceniks shouldn’t underestimate the delicate skill of Sri Lankan Muslims in playing their own tune, even when propriety demands otherwise. Let me present two recent news reports, and my thoughts on these reports. News item 1: No to separate Muslim delegation [Colombo Daily Mirror, Jan.19, 2006]
New item 2: Muslim Council wants Muslim delegation to be included in peace talks between Govt.and LTTE [Colombo Daily Mirror, Jan.26, 2006]
My Thoughts I had inferred that asserting ‘No to separate Muslim delegation’ was the only correct decision the current President Mahinda Rajapakse had taken in his two month-old presidency. Cheers for his courage. Logically speaking, isn’t the Muslim demand for “separate representation” at the Government of Sri Lanka-LTTE Peace talks akin to a wedding guest demanding a seat in the honeymoon bed of newly-wed couple? For the Peace talks to happen, first there was a war between two parties, namely the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE. What did Muslims do, between 1983 and 2002? By calculated design, they were with the Government of Sri Lanka. Covertly and overtly, the Muslim politicians and businessmen organized the Pakistan sponsorship for the Sri Lankan armed forces. Now, by wearing another hat, the Muslims want a separate chair in the proposed Peace talks, which is nothing but irrational and ridiculous. I think what President Rajapakse stated is valid; “the Sinhalese would also be asking a separate Sinhala delegation if a Muslim delegation were to be permitted.” One never knows what factors made President Rajapakse to reject the Muslim demand. May be, he wanted to be fair with the Eelam Tamils. May be, he was pissed off by the anti-vote of Muslims (organized by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress) against him in the November 2005 presidential elections. Whether the will of President Rajapakse on this issue will hold forever needs to be seen. The childish nonsense of the Muslim demand for a separate Muslim delegation in the proposed Peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE, can be superbly illustrated by a cartoon panel from ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ of reclusive cartoonist Bill Watterson.
Like the lovable rascal Calvin, the Sri Lankan Muslims also wish to ‘inherit the fortune’ without working for it for the past two decades. The claim of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL) of “the ethnic cleansing of some 100,000 Muslims in the North by the Tigers” is a malicious canard, which is repeatedly circulated in the Colombo press by the Muslims and by the anti-LTTE analysts like D.B.S.Jeyaraj and K.T.Rajasingham. Recently I have cited non-LTTE sources (including the report from the Amnesty International) to rebut this bloated claim of “some 100,000 Muslims in the North”. It should also be noted that the on-going ethnic cleansing of Tamils perpetrated by the Muslims in the Amparai (Digamadulla) district of Eastern Eelam since 1980s do not register in the heads of wisemen representing the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka. For the record, I’m duty bound to acknowledge the following contributions by K.N.Tharmalingam, a courageous veteran journalist from Amparai, who had described the anti-Tamil activities carried out by the Muslim Homeguards and the supporters of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress party, in collusion with the Sri Lankan army.
What the late Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, a Tamil legislator from the Amparai district, in his September 2003 discussions with the visiting Press and Public Affairs division of the British Embassy (High Commission) in Sri Lanka stated on the ethnic cleansing operations of the Eastern province Muslims against the Tamils deserve reminding.
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