Sri Lanka wins the gold, silver and bronze for poor governance, and ethnic politics.

From today's Wall Street Journal Asia

Sri Lanka wins the gold, silver and bronze for poor governance, and ethnic politics.

While I appreciate your arguments, there is a lot more that can be said about this issue. Through six decades of independence, Sri Lanka has proven to be good at only one thing -- "ethnic politics." If they gave out Olympic medals for poor governance, Sri Lanka would take the gold, silver and bronze. Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis is a self-inflicted wound and an accurate description of poor governance by its leaders. What is less accurate is the lack of its reputation that Sri Lanka is a terror state whose predatory territorial aims are anchored in intolerance, discrimination and destruction of the Tamil minority.

Decades of bellicose response from the "government" resurrected negative sentiments among the Tamil minority, so they assembled, organized and resisted, first peacefully, then by armed insurrection -- to contend or suggest otherwise is, at best, poor history. Tamils much prefer a homeland of their own, which includes ample constitutional protection with no room for abuses by the state, than the one in which they are currently living where atrocities are inflicted upon them daily by a thug state run by goons in suits masquerading as defenders of democracy and eradicators of terror.

It is high time for Tamils to be able to live in a country of their own without looking back, given the less than hospitable treatment that they have received from Sri Lanka. We, in the democratic tradition, must respond in kind by firmly supporting indigenous peoples' right to freedom and right for their own state after such protracted suffering -- a state that seeks to protect and advance the welfare of Tamils and dwell in peace and harmony with neighbors. The sad reality is that Sri Lanka's aim is more about eradication of Tamils than eradication of terror, while the West looks on tacitly supporting Sri Lankan tyranny.

Roy Ratnavel
Vancouver, British Columbia


Sri Lanka's Tamils Deserve More Freedom
September 3, 2008

(From today's Wall Street Journal Asia)

Your Aug. 28 editorial, "The Sri Lankan Solution" is incomplete and misleading. The majority Sinhalese government did not gain control over the eastern province. They have been accused of holding improper elections (under military rule) in the east, where the government's paramilitary partner allegedly was the winner.

In the early 1950s, the majority Sinhalese began dividing Sri Lanka along ethnic lines, denying Tamils their civil rights. Since the militarization of the Tamil liberation struggle in the early 1970s, this division has become semi-permanent. From the Tamils' point of view -- 50 years of painful memory -- the Sinhalese will never agree to treat the Tamils equally and as such there can be no peace for the Sinhalese and Tamils within a united Sri Lanka.

Only international intervention, forceful implementation of an equitable devolution package with internationally guaranteed safeguards may create a peaceful, united Sri Lanka. The leaders in the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and even here in the United States have begun to understand the true intentions of the Sinhalese and their government against the minority Tamils.

Siva Sivalogan
Dedham, Mass.