UNP & Tamils hijack Sirisena in London

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Practically every visiting Sri Lankan dignitary to UK – from the head of state downward – is honored  with an official reception accorded at the London High Commission. Following this time-tested tradition the reception for the visiting President Maithripala Sirisena to meet the Sri Lankan Diaspora should have been held at the High Commission. These receptions maintain dignity, decorum and diplomatic protocol fitting for the visiting dignitaries. But this time the reception to receive President Sirisena was not held at the High Commission. It was held at Lancaster Hotel.

Why?

The Tamil Diaspora in UK refused to attend the reception if it was going  to be held at the High Commission – the little bit of Sri Lanka in UK which they refuse to recognize. The Tamil diaspora was, as usual, taking their politics to the extreme. They were bluntly refusing to acknowledge the state that President Sirisena was representing. In other words, they were dictating terms to President Sirisena. They were telling him bluntly: You come to us because we are not going to come to you.  So the President of Sri Lanka went down to Lancaster Hotel abandoning Sri Lankan territory in London.

Of course, this was done with good intentions of appeasing the aggressive Tamil Diaspora in UK.  He was hoping to win over the intransigent Tamils in the Diaspora. But that was not forthcoming.

To begin with the reception itself was disorderly. Every Tom, Dick and Harry walked in without any security checks. It posed a serious security risk to the President. The neutral attendees, whether Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese, were puzzled by the unruly goings-on at the reception. They were served only fruit drinks and nuts which was quite appropriate for some who behaved as if they were in the simian section of a zoo. One Tamil participant described it as a veritable cattle market.”

But that can be overlooked. What is most significant are the political undercurrents that dominated the reception. The President, in his usual quiet  manner, was relegated to corner where he sat with a permanent smile on his face. The show was taken over D.M. Swaminathan, the UNP Cabinet Minister for Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs, who was babbling most of the time, with the President smiling in  his corner. Asath Sally was acting in a similar authoritative mode, running the show for the Muslims. The Sinhalese were most disappointed because they felt that they had no place in interacting with the President.

Swaminathan was virtually the master of ceremonies. He was trying  to boost the image of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government as the next best thing for the Tamils since Prabhakaran went down Nandikadal. His message to the Tamils was essentially a vote-winning exercise. He promised the Tamils that they will get almost everything that is nearest to Eelam when the UNP comes into power. He promised Police powers, land, employment  and release of LTTE prisoners etc. Asath Sally, not to be outdone, echoed similar sentiments to the Muslims. There was none from the Sinhala community to voice their opinions.

President Sirisena sat in his corner smiling all the time without commenting, creating the impression that Swaminathan was not only right but will get everything that he wants. After the meeting the Tamils were cock-a-hoop. They were crowing that they got the President down to them instead of them going to him.

Mangala Samaraweera, the Foreign Minister, in the meantime, had one-to-one meetings with Suren Surendran, the vociferous spokesperson for the Global Tamil Forum and its patron saint, Fr. S.J. Emmanuel.

Sinhalese and Tamil moderates who defy Tamil politics linked to Prabhakaranism are bitter with the manner in which Swaminathan and Asath Sally hijacked President Sirisena. They consider this event as the shape of things to come. They feel that President Sirisena has been pushed into an embarrassing corner by the UNPers. They argue that the future depends in getting President Sirisena  out of the clutches of the UNP.

The Tamils, as usual, are playing their game of pyromaniacs and fire fighters simultaneously. This has been their traditional duplicitous role. They pretend to be peace-loving fire fighters to the world at large while covertly and overtly lighting unmanageable fires in every little corner of the globe.  While one  section of the Tamil Diaspora was pressuring President Sirisena to give into their demands at Lancaster Hotel the other section took to the streets accusing  him of committing genocide”. They were reminding him that he was the Acting Defence Minister in the last stage of the war and he too is responsible for the genocide” of Tamils. In a conciliatory gesture President Sirisena waved to the protesters before he got into the car and drove away.

The Tamil Diaspora was confident that they had won the day by conveying their message to the President. The message was clear : Neither the President’s smile nor his presence was going to appease the Tamils who find their new anti-Sri Lankan politics in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) resolution that accuses all Sri Lankan leaders – including President Sirisena – of committing genocide”.

The Tamil Diaspora has been given another propaganda tool to reinforce their anti-Sri Lankan politics by the Chief Minister of NPC, C. V. Wigneswaran, who speaks in forked tongues. He told the President, with a broad smile, that the NPC resolution was not against him or his government though, in fact, President’s name is listed in black and white in the resolution as one of the leaders who had committed genocide”. .

 Coming events have unmistakably and unequivocally cast their shadows at Lancaster Hotel

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