William Shakespeare once said, “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends”.
Dear Mr President
First of all, our congratulations to you and the NPP - National People's Power / JVP - Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna for the election victories. In fact, for many decades, we have seen elections, manifestos, changes of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, etc, but no change in our lives.
During the election campaign, all was well and good. I love my homeland, my roots, and many other aspects of the island of Sri Lanka. As you all know, the eighth President of Sri Lanka, Gothabhaya Rajapaksa—GR won the Presidential and Parliamentary elections with a huge majority.
I wrote him three open letters from November 2019 to March 2022. Excerpts are given below, as annexes. Please read those letters in full, as you and your government take almost the same path as GR.
GR’s reaction to my open letters led to death threats against me. Some were hired to finish me off in Paris, arranged by a group that occupies the fourth floor of an office in Paris 75016. I am thankful to the French authorities.
This is my first open letter to you. I hope that your awareness of a few important matters before announcing your new constitution will prevent many challenges in the future. English-born American author, Simon Oliver Sinek, said, “Leadership is not about the next election, it's about the next generation”. I quote this because I presume that you and your colleagues are only concentrating on how to win the next election. Wish you all the best.
FYI – For your information
I was a school-going student during the JVP’s first uprising in 1971, in which the JVP tried to overthrow the government with arms but was unsuccessful. In the recent past, I have met a few JVP cadres who were involved in that uprising. Later, the CJC - Criminal Justice Commission, which served as both a public inquiry and a tribunal, passed sentence on the JVP cadres. The draconian PTA – Prevention of Terrorism Act is worse than the CJC. In 1977, J.R. Jeyawardena came to power and released all JVP political prisoners, including Rohana Wijeweera, whom the CJC sentenced.
In July 1983, thousands of Tamils living in the South were massacred and their economy was destroyed in racial riots against Tamils. It was obvious that the government proscribed JVP and two other political parties, were behind the attacks on Tamils.
In 1987-1989, the second uprising took place and was almost the same as in 1971. During this period, the JVP resorted to subversion, assassinations, raids, and attacks on military and civilian targets, while the government reacted through counter-insurgency operations.
The JVP was against the Indo-Lanka accord in July 1987 and the 13th amendment to the constitution - the Provincial Council devolution of power to the provinces. This led to a bloody conflict in the South and caused severe civilian casualties – intellectuals, academics, professionals, social and religious leaders, students, and security forces. During the same period, the founder of the JVP, Rohana Wijeweera as well as many others were arbitrarily killed.
Between 1987 and 1989, the JVP targeted Indians and launched a campaign to boycott Indian cinema, music, and goods. During this period, the JVP had an anti-India military wing known as Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya—DJV (Patriotic People’s Movement).
Soon after President Premdasa’s death in May 1993, Sri Lankan politics changed in favour of the JVP. At that time, the JVP was still a proscribed party. In the 1994 Presidential election, the JVP worked for Chandrika Kumaratunga. She lifted the ban on the JVP.
Tamil political prisoners
Here, a question arises about the Tamil political prisoners who have been in various prisons for a very long period. Recently, one of your Ministers said to the press that no political prisoners will be released because the courts sentenced them, and they were involved in very serious cases. Well and good.
My question to you all is - have you considered the allegations made under the PTA against Tamil political prisoners? If so, are they more serious than allegations against JVP members who tried to overthrow democratic governments, twice in 1971 and 1989? All Tamil political prisoners were arrested and sentenced under the PTA, which you promised to remove, yet you still use.
Please ask your Minister to explain to the media how members of JVP who were sentenced by the CJC in 1971 and then in 1987, using the PTA, were pardoned by President J. R. Jayewardene and Chandrika Kumaratunga? In early 1990, JVP members were killed or imprisoned, and almost 7,000 suspected members were in prison.
Considering these situations, what is lacking for you or your government to release the Tamil political prisoners who never attempted to overthrow any democratic governments?
D.S. Senanayake to today
After following what has been done from D.S. Senanayake to today, we conclude that, although the South's political parties may have differences, you all follow what your predecessors did when it comes to Tamils. In other words, as far as the ethnic issue is concerned, the head of state, a Sinhala Buddhist, exchanges the ‘baton’ in a relay on ethnic issues. This has continued for eight decades.
Many Presidents have promised to abolish the PTA and the Executive Presidency in the past. It never happened. Can anyone believe that you or your government will remove these now?
Glad to hear that you would like to have a ‘Clean Sri Lanka’. If that’s the case, you have a very important duty to clear the name of the JVP, which was accused of carrying out the worst massacre of Tamils living in the South in July 1983.
Look at the activities of the JVP during the war - collaborating with President Chandrika and Mahinda Rajapaksa on the condition that they would suppress the struggle for the ‘right to self-determination of the Tamils’. This endorses the fact that JVP was behind the attack on the Tamils in July 1983.
Since Rohana Wijeweera changed the JVP’s policy on the right to self-determination of Tamils, no doubt, your party was involved in many anti-Tamil activities. But unlike the Rajapaksas and the other worse open racists in the South, you all speak softly with attractive terminologies and do maximum damage to the Tamils following a silent path.
Regarding the JVP disappearances from 1987 onwards, your supporters, like Mahinda Rajapaksa, Vasutheva Nanayakara, Mangala Samaraweera, and a few others worked internationally. This makes your government not to investigate Mahinda Rajapaksa for any wrong-doing.
During the peak hours of disappearances 1987-1989, my wife rescued some important JVP-ers from Sri Lanka. If you do not know these realities, learn from your old colleagues. That was a risky operation. Unfortunately, Mangala Samaraweera is not alive to relate many more stories.
Recently, one of many actions taken by your government made us form the opinion that you people are worse than GR! For example, the way the ‘nominations for the local government elections in the Jaffna district’ was deliberately rejected. There was a pre-planned agenda, exactly like GR. This was done to ensure the NPP won in those areas, eventually….. It's shameful.
The JVP and their supporters experienced the grave story of only one Premawathi Manamperi of Kataragama, where we Tamils know thousands of Premawathi Manamperis in the North and East. I believe that during your second uprising, JVP has taken revenge on one of the accused of Premathi Manamperi. If so, can you presume how many thousands of revenge we should......
New Constitution
I have many questions about the new constitution. Your election manifesto said that the proposed constitutional reforms will guarantee equality, democracy, devolution, and administrative power to every local government, district, and province so that all people can be involved in governance within one country.
We Tamils who experience continuous discrimination, disappointment, bogus promises, etc, cannot be easily duped by this fictional statement purely targeting the ‘vote bank’ of the north and east, the homeland of the Tamils.
In 1972, the SLFP, in coalition with the Communist Party (CP) and Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), produced the ‘Republican constitution,’ and we Tamils lost our minimum rights, which had been guaranteed in the earlier constitution. This new constitution gave birth to the TULF-Tamil United Liberation Front, motivating them to demand an independent state, “Tamil Eelam.” That opened a path for the Tamil youth’s ‘armed struggle’, which lasted nearly three decades.
Even after renaming the JVP as NPP, you have opposed the 13th Amendment. This leads any sensible person to believe that your impending new constitution will not have anything to settle the aspirations of the Tamil ‘Nation’ - people in the North and East. So, who is fooling whom?
The impending new constitution will be another disaster for the ‘Tamil Nation’ - in your term, the ‘national question’. Your new constitution will undoubtedly consider the bogus archaeological findings to claim that the North and East are the historical territories of the Sinhala Buddhists. It will also say that, as citizens of Sri Lanka, any ethnic race can live in any part of the regions, towns, as well as the province of their choice in Sri Lanka and engage in trade, business, tourism, maritime activities, etc.
As long as Sinhala Buddhists fail to understand that differences exist between them and the Tamils – Sivaites/Hindus, Christians, as well as Muslims - in language, ethics of religions, culture, values, traditions, etc, no doubt the ethnic issue will continue. Failing to understand that the diversity of people and the universality of human dignity can coexist, you treat Tamils negatively in every approach and affair. This will not work. Change should not be just in words, it should be in hearts, minds as well as in actions.
You claim internationally that you have three parliamentarians from the Jaffna district. There is nothing for any sensible person to boast. In the past, UNP and SLFP candidates Mrs. Vijayakala Maheswaran and Angajan Ramanathan won the parliamentary elections in the Jaffna district. Then Douglas Devananada of EPDP, who was always holding candles to Chandrika Kumaratunga, Rajapaksas, and Ranil Wickremasinghe, was also elected in the past.
Whatever you and your government said, very recently, one of the famous xenophobes in the South said that your government is a ‘Terrorist Led government’.
P-TOMS & Demerger
However, your party was the main one, filing a case against the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) in Sri Lanka in July 2005 and also a case on the demerger of the North and East in October 2006. The North and East have been the homeland of the Tamils for thousands of years.
If you maintain there should be nothing on ethnic grounds, how about you resettling the Tamils who were chased away from Kataragrama and other parts of the South? Let's be frank: Who developed Kataragama? Initially, how many Buddhist temples were there and in the surrounding area? I started visiting there in the 1960s, and have seen the changes made there under the pretext of creating a ‘Holy City’. Since 1970, the Saiva temples have lost their importance, and the Ramakrishna Mission in Kataragama was dismantled.
Before I conclude this letter, I would like to raise a question concerning the connection between the JVP and armed groups in the North. What is your opinion regarding this? You and your party's hostile attitude toward armed groups in the North and East during the war show that you all have forgotten your past. Here, I am not ‘talking through the hat’, if necessary, I will write everything in detail, hopefully in my next letter.
You and your government say that you favour unity, equality, and security on a meaningful path. In that case, why haven’t you proposed any solution to the issue of the Buddhist Temple being built on private land in Thaiddy, Jaffna? Until today, you all have been bluffing about the ‘Raja Lunu’, which is enough for us to presume what is in your government’s mind about the 'national question'.
If your government is really for unity and equality, it should build a Saiva (Hindu) temple next to this Buddhist temple on government land in Thaiddy with government funds. Your government should also compensate the landowner where the Buddhist temple is being built.
FYI – Wherever any building is constructed with Sri Lanka's Defence funds, it means that underneath those buildings, there are the human bodies and skeletons of those who disappeared in the North and East. For example, a building was built in Mahajana College in Tellipalai and also under this present Buddhist temple in Thaiddy.
Straightforward questions
Hope Buddhists have not forgotten that in March 2001, two monumental Buddhist statues were destroyed by the Taliban in Bamiyal Valley, located Northeast of Kabul in Afghanistan. Buddhists in Sri Lanka seriously and angrily reacted to it. The then Sri Lankan President called on the World to safeguard the Buddhist heritage in Afghanistan. Sri Lanka also co-sponsored a resolution against Afghanistan at the UN General Assembly. In the meantime, a mass protest and Satyagraha led by four Mahanayakes were held in Colombo. Thousands of monks, members of various Buddhist groups, as well as others, joined this protest. Does this mean that Buddhists only understand the value of Buddhism and the statue of Buddha, not the value of other people and Religions?
Now the same Buddhist identity, in the form of the NPP/JVP standing for ‘unity, equality and security’, is destroying Saiva/Hindu temples and erecting Buddhist statues and Buddhist temples. The International community is laughing.
I listened to your speech at Kiddu Park in Jaffna on 17 April 2025. To be frank, your almost 55-minute speech was good for your supporters. But it only covered “development”- nothing else. Not a single word about political prisoners or the Tamils' eight decades of political grievances. Now the people in our homeland are beginning to understand the cunningness of you and your government. You all will fail in your hidden agenda in the North and East.
I feel sorry that none of you have realised or all of you have deliberately ignored the reasons why the people of the North and East have sacrificed so much……Do you think it is because of a lack of development or an international stadium? In the name of development, you look for venues for more colonisation and Buddhisation. Like previous governments, you are trying to put the “cart before the bull/horse”. This will never work. If you haven't understood the sacrifices of the people of the North and East for their political aspirations, they are ready to sacrifice them in the future as well.
In your speech, you requested that Tamils forget their past. This is nothing other than what Rajapaksas said soon after the end of the war. Can JVP, you and your family forget the past? If so, why are you talking about your past on every platform?
‘Blood on your hands’
Then you say that ‘Politicians are racist’! If so, who are you? You say that you are worried about the security of the people. Isn’t this hypocrisy? We knew the contribution of the JVP during the war. You JVP/NPP have ‘blood on your hands’. Every rape, disappearance, massacre, etc in the North and East was done by the security forces with the blessings of the JVP as well.
Today, you investigate the Rajapaksas family members for mishandling State Finance. Don’t you realise that the JVP’s blind support for the war made the Rajapaksas benefit and mishandle the funds?
In your speech, you said that your government, the JVP/NPP, has clean hands. Here, I would raise two issues. Don’t you all realise that you have an Ambassador in Geneva who was guilty of a violation of labour law by the Australian courts? The JVP / NPP is not qualified to talk about workers' rights.
Then, please tell us who your present Ambassador to Cuba is — the friendliest country to your government. If this person can be the Ambassador to Cuba, then why did you remove your original speaker of the parliament?
By the way, I was told that a person involved in the first JVP uprising sought asylum in 2000s in Switzerland, pretending that he was one of your advisors. If this is true, we feel ashamed of you. Primarily, his corrupt social background. Secondly, I know how he manipulated a group photograph taken with Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed to give the impression that he had a one to one special meeting with Mohamed Nasheed.
On 12 September 2011, the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, made a speech at one of the meetings organised by Sri Lanka. As soon as the meeting ended, the Maldivian President came from the podium and chatted with some of us. We, TCHR – Tamil Centre for Human Rights, helped the lobby group of Mohamed Nasheed in 1997-1998 when it was the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. This gentleman sneaked into our discussion and manipulated the group photograph taken with Mohamed Nasheed for his name and fame. If you are with these individuals, how can you claim that you, NPP/JVP, are clean and honest?
My last but not least point to you is that we may have differences, and we know very well that your government will not settle the aspirations of the Tamil Nation. There is nothing to worry about - we can find our path. But we are not doing anything for you to run away like GR. If you mistakenly listen to the fake Prof RG’s advice, you will end up like GR. He is advising you with an ulterior motive, to ignore freedom of expression, movement and to have a ‘dictatorial’ regime.
The same thing with Ranil, the fox of the 21st century, who co-sponsored the UN HRC resolution against Sri Lanka, now asking you to withdraw from the UN HRC. Be cautious about these culprits. They have blood on their hands. They are moving things for you to collapse!
