thusitha wrote:
I am sure few other western countries would have this as well (Or might have had this clause). So it is not just SL. So why did you make it such a big issue then?
Well, I dont dispute the fact that americans and australians are racists, I have lived in both countries for a long enough time to know exactly what I am talking about. They exterminated aborigines in vast numbers to entrench themselves in their societies today. The same for the brits. All this does not mean that what the Sinhalese society is doing to the Tamils in SL should not be questioned. Just because you care to see only the India-SL thread does not mean that you know my whines elsewhere on this forum.
If this is such a no, no thing, I am sure this would be fought in International courts.
Well, if anyone and everyone points out that HR violations are taking place in SL, we have buncha posts about how LTTE are evil incarnate and how they did this and that. In this forum, this is called the open-fly torn-shirt analogy, which stands for, "When pointed out that his fly is open, the said person laughs at the other saying the shirt is torn." Sure LTTE are evil incarnate and more than that, but the LTTE never claimed itself to stand for a democratic, socialist republic that the GoSL vouches to stand for. When you claim such hi-falutin and pristine goals, dont get irritated when people point the ills in your society.
The maturity of a nation is reflected by how it treats people who point out the problems in its body politic. India may have its own set of problems, warts, moles and cancers, sure, but indulging in collective punishment for the crime of a few is not something that GoI stands for. Not on paper, not in action as far as I can see, despite tremendous actions to push it to act. Heck, it does not even act against a terrorist state that has vowed to give it death by a 1008 cuts. There is a reason to that and it is the same reason why the 47 partition was accepted silently unlike the chinis who went on a civil war to throw away the "others." And in case GoI indulges in any collective punishment for the crime of a few, I will have no shame in saying shame upon GoI. I am not going to sit around and defend the indefensible. Unfortunately, come what may, and independent of the discriminations that GoSL persisted with before and now, there is a vocal buncha Sinhalese who will defend GoSL to the hilt. That is the point. Jingoism is one thing, maturity is yet another thing often times orthogonal to it.
Having said, that I don't see any point in having this clause. Any more discriminatory clauses in the constitution?
Boss, the problem with Sinhalese is that discrimination of Tamils has been so firmly engendered in the post-48 phase and pushed forward by such acts like the Mahavamsam chronicles that they have the gumption to ask "what discrimination giscrimination?" when the apparent contradictions of their polity stares at their face like a leviathan. I posted two rather brief exercepts on how the SLFP and UNP became more and more Sinhala-chauvinist to the point of acting contrary to democratic norms and liquidating Tamil representation in the parliament. Unfortunately, you could question my points from your constitution, but you could nt dispute the facts that I posted here. For the record, here are the two links:
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 24#p748624
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 30#p748730
[Why dont you tell me why these two posts above are not proper reflections of a discriminatory Sri Lankan society at large? The onus is on you to explain why your former president Jayawardene acted in a way that he did and why did it take so long for Tamil language to be put on a decent footing at least on paper, let alone on the ground. We too had our phases of insecurity, we had tons of them somuchso that one famous author wrote a book titled "A million mutinies now." Despite all that, despite all the issues that runs through our system, collective punishment is a phrase that is neither propagated by GoI in form, nor actions. Instead of asking me to supply more and more proof of discrimination, please examine the excerpts and tear it to shreds or learn to learn.]
The Tamils took to arms not instantaneously, TULF came around only in the early 70s. That is a good 20 years post-independence. TULF was a kid when compared with the rubbish of LTTE, PLOTE, EPDP etc. The very act of dis-enfranchising TULF because they openly advocated secessionism albeit in a democratic and more or less peaceful means (sure there were contradictions in their methods and aims too) by the Sinhalese polity ensured that they pushed many Tamils towards the more violent idiots. LTTE did not become a big beast out of thin air, many people did and still support its methods, means and actions. The question is why are people getting alienated if there is no discrimination in SL. Either there is a contradiction in the claim that there is no discrimination or there is something fundamentally wrong with the Tamils as some of the propagandists here would like everyone in the world to believe. For me, it is 400% clear that it is the former. If you choose to believe the latter, dont take takleef if I choose to tear such an argument down.
