Field Marshal tells Wiggy not to try to emulate Prabhakaran

By Saman Indrajith

SJB Gampaha District MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told TMTK MP C.V. Wigneswaran not to try to emulate Velupillai Prabhakaran by making racist statements because he was too old for that.

Participating in the debate on Vote on Account, Field Marshal Fonseka said:  “It was sad to observe MP Wigneswaran making a statement undermining other communities. MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, too, supported Wigneswaran’s views. I would like to tell both of them that we consider it as an insult to us by denigrating the motherland in this House and violating the honour of this august assembly. According to Wigneswaran the oldest language in this country is spoken by the Tamil people. That means according to him Sinhala people came to this country after the Tamil people. I would like to remind him that we would never bow our heads to anyone who attempts to undermine the Sinhala nation in this country and any such movement undermining the Sinhala nation would not last long. Wigneswaran must remember that there were people in the past, too, who tried to undermine the status of the Sinhalese.  Amirthalingam instigated Tamil youth against Sinhalese and finally he got a bullet from the very same Tamil youth. Then there was Prabhakaran, who thought that they could carve out a separate state in this country. You saw what happened to him. Unfortunately, Wigneswaran cannot be Prabhakaran because he is too old to emulate Prabhakaran.I am telling you to be happy with what you have and never try to undermine the Sinhalese of this country. If you try to do that you’ll face consequences and you’ll repent.”

Participating in the debate Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said: “There is a spree of media reports on controversial statements made by MPs CV Wingeswaran and Selvam Adaikkilanathan.  There is an enormous public displeasure against what they had said. There is no need to repeat those racist sentiments. It is sad to notice that MP Adaikkilanathan too made a statement conforming with what MP Wigneswaran said. I request them not to make such inflammatory statements which would pave the way for another communal conflict in this country. We have no need to see a war in this country again. The hope of this government and the President is to create an environment where Sinhala, Muslim, Tamil, Malay and other communities live as one nation and each citizen enjoys his or her citizenry rights irrespective of his or her communal identity. We have no hope of favouring any single community or to discriminate against any community. We know that you are making fiery speeches to rouse communal feelings among people in your electorates and to show off as the saviours of your community. But those statements would result in disharmony among communities at a time when these communities are working together.”