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Wednesday, 22 April 2015 01:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
ing the Sinhala people, he is holding back on making a public correction for his lapse.
While responding to a letter from the Sri Lanka High Commission, which took up the issue after the Sri Lankan community brought it to the notice of the mission and called for action to rectify an obvious insult, Miliband has belatedly wished both communities for the New Year.
But while Miliband’s original greetings for what he called the Tamil New Year were released as a public statement, he has held back from making his amended remarks public.
Miliband was taken to task by a substantial segment of the Sri Lankan community, including some Tamils for this decidedly biased greeting resulting in the Diaspora using emails and social media to launch an anti-Labour campaign less than three weeks before a crucial general election.
Media messages crisscrossing Diaspora groups are asking Sri Lankans to turn away Labour campaigners at their doors saying they will not vote Labour for this insult to Sri Lanka’s major community. One of those who has launched this boycott-Labour move is Douglas Wickremaratne, President of the Sinhala Association, a longtime critic of western bias against Sri Lanka.
Immediately Miliband’s first message was made public, Sri Lankans including some Tamils, bombarded Miliband’s Twitter, and the Labour Party communications network and recent Labour MPs, criticising the remarks of Labour leader aspiring to be next prime minister.
Sri Lankans also communicated with the High Commission drawing its attention in the hope of activating it into taking it up with Miliband, without which Sri Lanka would not have been able to draw a response.
Miliband’s decision to only write to the diplomatic mission and not make his amended message public shows that he is does not wish to upset the Tamil community because of its vote bank which is unfortunate commented Upul Goonewardena, a longtime resident and Labour supporter who has written to his MP John McDonnell saying he and his family will not vote Labour next month.
There are many like Goonewardena who have been writing to their MPs causing concern among Labour candidates fighting a tough and extremely close election.
