Reply to Rathika Sitsabaiesan: Upset about the arrests of the Jaffna students in Jaffna

2066 Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1
19 December 2012

Rathika Sitsabaiesan, MP, NDP Member for Scarborough-Rouge River, 
House of Commons, Ottawa.

Dear Rathika:

In your Statement of the arrest of students in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, you said: “Recently the Sri Lankan government arrested and detained students without cause following a silent protest after security forces broke up a lamp lighting ceremony at a woman’s hostel at Jaffna University.  The students, protesting against the lack of freedom of expression, were attacked and beaten by officers, with at least 20 undergraduate students suffering from injuries.”

I well understand why you are so upset about this incident as these students were having a lamp lighting ceremony, to extol the Tamil-martyrdom of the Tami Tiger terrorist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran that you so proudly presented yourself with his Tamil Tiger flag on your Facebook pages no sooner you won your riding’s parliamentary seat.  When it was pointed out that you were a proxy Tamil Tiger, Wow…lady… that Facebook page disappeared into oblivion at a blink of an eye.  Right, Rathika?  The fact is Velupillai Prabhakaran was a Tamil terrorist, whose organization was banned by 31 countries including Canada, thus he and they are illegal entities and they were terrorists. Both the leader  Prabhakaran and his organization were declared as a terrorist and a terrorist organization and was banned in Sri Lanka too, where they killed Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamil parliamentarians and innocent civilians in the thousands.  And that is the backdrop of your protest against the Sri Lankan police and armed forces who are guardians of the law of that island nation.

The fact is that the infamous “Mahaveer Day” which falls on your Tamil terrorist leader Prabhakaran’s birthday was celebrated by the Tamil Tigers and those of the deaths of the suicide bombers, before that terrorist organization was militarily defeated on 19 May 2009. To continue to celebrate the “Mahaveer Day” after the banned Tamil Tigers were vanquished is mischievous and the consequences were predictable.  The authorities intervened.  One cannot penalize the Sri Lankan authorities that had watched their people getting killed and suffer for 27 long bloody years at the hands of these Mahaveer Tamil Tigers, for being alert for possible insurrection moves and were acting on the side of caution. So there was violence.  Then there were protests, and then there were arrests.  If the Jaffna Students who were provoking the Government authorities, giving the impression that every thing what they did on’Mahaveer Day’ was within the law and it was tiketty-boo, then they were  a bunch of fools.  And that is where the Cosmic Law of Cause and Effect comes into play.  To cloak yourselves under the guise of ‘violations of human rights and the right for their freedom of speech’ has little relevance here, as the Jaffna students had crossed the line of relevance and that  too with arrogance and with impunity.  And I would have expected those who participated stand up strong as grown up men and woman and face the music.  But, oh no, Rathika, they were a bunch of weaklings, and they cried foul and the Tamil-Canadian  parliamentarian Rathika Sitsabaiesan supported their venture as she herself told us that she was a supporter of the Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran and the terrorist organization when she quite proudly displayed the Tamil Tiger flag on her Facebook pages after she won the parliamentary seat of Scarborough-Rouge River.

Rathika, perhaps you may want to tell me and the other Canadians, at what point did the human rights of the Jaffna University Tamil students peaceful demonstration get violated by the riot police?  Was it when the riot police had to go after the students to bring about law and order when the policemen had to defend their faces and bodies from striking stones that were thrown at them?  What you did not tell us was that, “Yes, the peaceful demonstration of the Jaffna Tamil Students wasn’t peaceful anymore from the moment when the first stone was thrown by them at the riot police”.  That indeed is the rub.  So stop crying for them.  They were mischievous and they provoked the police  and army with their arsenal of flying stones.

We all have choices in life, you, me and the Jaffna University students and everyone else.  You said: “This clear assault on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and breach of human rights is completely unacceptable.”  Rathika, what is unacceptable to the law makers as  guardians of the society are, being rowdy, terrorism, bullying, and throwing petrol bombs (Molotov cocktails).  The participants should be man and woman enough to accept what comes next in the process of seeking normalcy by the authorities.  That is the Cosmic Law of Cause and Effect.  That is what you have to learn, and that is what these Jaffna students have to learn.  Society, in fact expects us all to learn civility.

Throwing patrol bombs is nasty and disturbs the peace of the community.  It was such a Molotov cocktail thrown into a bar in the resort city of Cancun on September 2, 2010, that killed 8 patrons. Petrol bombs kill and that is the motive of petrol bomb throwers.

It was on August 4, 2010, that a Mother in Ottawa was heard screaming for someone to save her baby as a fire roared outside her apartment door that might trap both inside.  It was believed that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at the door of Apartment 22 inside a four story building at 10:00 P.M.  The Firefighters rescued them.  Such petrol bombs kill.  And it is alleged that this Jaffna Tamil student threw one into an office, and that is what the police are probing,  Until they come to a conclusion it is cunning for you all to request that  this guy be released immediately from custody.

 This student is in custody and probed because of throwing a petrol bomb into an office. He had his motive.   Rathika, just cut out your stupidity and be sensible.  If you had expected the police to dance a Tamil folk dance around this Tamil petrol bomb thrower to celebrate his courage and valour singing – thunai-lakadi, thantha-lakadi, beating tom-toms, then you got that one wrong, another of the incidents that you have always got wrong playing the game of “I am a smart politician.”  You have failed us once again Rathika.

Your motive to get involved in these Jaffna students arrests has its reason.  You just dislike the regime that kicked the butts of your invincible Tamil Tigers, snuffing them out and burying them under 12 inches of soil along the beach of the Nandikadal lagoon.  Thus burying with them your mythical, mono-ethnic, separatist Tamil state, Eelam.  That is what isn’t it?

But, Rathika, that is how the cookie crumbles.  You and your Human Rights organization friends like John Argue of Amnesty International and your parliamentary friends like Patrick Brown who peddled the anti-Sri Lanka Channel 4 videos with you,  can howl as much as they want to, but the Sri Lankan Government will do what they have to do for its 21 million peoples, and continue to perform miracles  as they have done since 19 May, 2009. They have every reason to echo in to your ears what Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister said to a reporter during the FLQ crisis in October 1970, “There are a lot of bleeding-hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns.  All I say is “go on and bleed.” 

 So go on and bleed, Rathika!

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)