I have never forgotton Sri Lanka – Matheesha Wijekoon, UK

People were sharing #notmyindependenceday on instagram without truly understanding the backstory.

An international politics student in the UK with original roots in Sri Lanka recently posted a communication addressing her concerns regarding the damaging propaganda broadcasted on social media on Sri Lankan Independence Day. While it is a day to celebrate Sri Lanka’s liberation, most were playing into false agendas of the LTTE.  LTTE has been designated as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries, including the European Union, Canada and the United States and was responsible for using child soldiers, women and suicide bombers to conduct and further their cause for a second Tamil homeland state in Sri Lanka.

Unfortunately, social media has become a powerful tool that can be a force of both good and evil. People were sharing #notmyindependenceday on instagram without truly understanding the backstory. Many Tamil refugees escaped to western world and started a world movement of pro-LTTE ideology to pressure the foreign policy in an attempt to erase the history of suffering of all Sri Lankans at the hands of LTTE terrorists. One word had stood out for them that lead to their support on social media and that was “genocide”. United Nations defines, to constitute genocide there must be proven intent on the part of perpetrators to intentionally destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Sri Lankan government never tried or wanted to eradicate the Tamil people. Their problem was always with the LTTE terrorist organization who for 30 years waged war against all Sri Lankan people, Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Christian. This has set Sri Lanka back by 30 years as they always had to focus on peace before prosperity. Even now, Sri Lanka is desperately struggling to rebuild its socio-economic structure while maintaining peace. Labeling the armed conflict with a terrorist organisation in Sri Lanka as genocide without considering all evidence will ensure that this set back in development will continue for many more years.

Unfortunately, it is known that pro-LTTE diaspora approach many backbench politicians in many countries with the proven false pretenses of “Tamil Vote”. They also mislead the western world by pushing their agendas as a unified Tamil voice, while it has become clear that most Sri Lankan Tamils stand with them through fear and intimidation. This encourages an unnecessary divide among Sinhalese and Tamil who are making an effort to co-exist in harmony. This will create many generations of hatred between Sinhalese and Tamil and hinder us from seeing Sri Lanka as one united country.