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General News 1/14/2008 at 11:29 AM EST

From Ceylon to Sri Lanka

By Iftekhar Sayeed (Page 2 of 2 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page. No comments

When the Government Parliamentary Group met on June 3, the hysterical MPs made remarks like: "The Tamils are gaining strength in all parts of the country where they are. Is this government going to stand for this nonsense? The Sinhalese are in danger of being liquidated by them", "Destroy them!" Two years ago these newly-elected MPs had encouraged the Apey Aanduwa (the government is ours) mentality : they had publicly denounced the police as being anti-people, walked into police stations to have suspects immediately released, ordered the police not to interfere even when Tamils were beaten within a hundred yards of Parliament.

Thus began the tragedy of the island as it moved from Ceylon to Sri Lanka – democracy, and its "poisonous fruit", nationalism, ignited a flame that was to continue for decades. And, as coda, it must be noted that these twin ideas were imported into the island by an elite educated in, and by, the western world.

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Iftekhar Sayeed Social Media Pages:

Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English and economics. He was born and lives in Dhaka, � ��ŽBangladesh. He has contributed to AXIS OF LOGIC, ENTER TEXT, POSTCOLONIAL � ��ŽTEXT, LEFT CURVE, MOBIUS, ERBACCE, THE JOURNAL, and other publications. � ��ŽHe (more...)

Related Topic(s): Democracy; Fear; Ideas; Language; People; Sri Lanka; Violence, Add Tags
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