Siri Fernando

 Perspective on the LTTE & the Separatist Movement in Sri Lanka.  

 

From my past observances regarding the 30 year war in Sri Lanka I would like to express my humble opinion from a detached point of view.

 

There was a time when we were growing up in Sri Lanka, we never noticed any inferiority or discrimination against the Tamils. In fact our confidants were Tamil people who we trusted to even to look after our bank accounts. My trusted friend who I admired most was a Tamil  in my University days & thanks to those honest loving teachers we are what we are today. There was not one iota of mistrust or hatred or unfriendliness among us. However we were associating the educated Tamil people. Most of them were Hindus & in fact the Christians we thought were a bit aristocratic .

 

There were the estate Tamil population who kept a different profile & led their own lives & presumably happy.

 

It was in this climate that delusion, hatred endless desire crept into some evil minds who then resorted to undemocratic methods and in secret planned  and plotted division in the country. There were many untrue stories that were created and cleverly circulated   to achieve  their goal, and worst of all planted  in the minds of the younger population, a stark hatred which no Sinhalese deserved.

This is   the  poison  that the present younger generation is also injected with.

 

This is where the title of my article shows relevance. Antho Jata  means Entangled inside. Prabhakaran was entangled  in a vicious  web, with him in the centre weaving like a spider with enough venom to destroy many , many  lives. He founded the LTTE movement   on  fabrications and exaggerations and accused all the Sinhalese of being racist and discriminatory.

 

So where were we in this equation?. There were many like myself who would never be guilty of these accusations. In fact when the violent rioters, who wait for opportunities to show their calibre  went on the rampage following the massacre of the 13 soldiers,  it was the Sinhalese who gave refuge to these people in their homes, and protected them. A few weeks back a story emerged that Prabhakaran’s organisation had supplied the rioting  mob  the list of addresses of Tamils living in Wellawatta and led them to attack, to tarnish the name of the Sinhalese and also send their own people to the gallows.

 

   Tamil  leader Prabhakaran created this venom & infected the immediate believers and his followers who fell victim to his fabrications, which demanded the total rejection of the Sinhala community and go for an independent Tamil state. Of course they would have planned to take over the whole country. Thus Prabhakaran was twisted and was in a tangled mess.

 

 The second part of my title is Bahi Jata. This means entangled well and truly outside the country. Prabhakaran’s  plan  was to get  assistance from overseas on the pretext of discrimination. So he made way for  the refugee category  of   Tamils who suffered at the hands of violence, orchestrated by himself,  and  sent overseas to fight his case with international aid. Thus the West was very cunningly entangled.  The Western countries opened their hearts to this refugee crisis and allowed all the  Tamil people who left, to walk into their countries.  These countries  are Canada,  United Kingdom, Europe and Australia mainly. They carried with them the hatred towards the Sinhala people. They  were given  their own agenda by the LTTE. They had to collect funds to finance the movement as they needed a force to fight and also  provide  weapons. Some refugees became  paid workers of the movement. These migrants  had to earn their living  or  live on what they received from social benefits from these governments.

 

 

What they thus earned, had to be given to the movement. Not only this they knew in a democracy, parliamentary decisions are important  and this led to the next step of getting into politics to influence the foreign governments. They have achieved most of these.

Even today the young sympathisers are carrying on a campaign to restart division with false accusations that their seniors have brain washed  them to  believe. I was  appalled to hear sometime back,  that they were taught to say that they would like to wear  shoe laces with the skins of Sinhalese.

 

 

It is unfortunate that the SriLankan government representatives overseas were inefficient or corrupt to notice what was happening and slept on these issues or totally ignored them hoping that things would look after themselves. This was god send for the LTTE and they made the maximum use to become the world’s most ruthless terror group and the most well equipped.

 

 

Thanks to a foreseeing  President Mahinda  who loves his country and Defence Secretary  Gothabhaya Rajapakse who stood for the same principles  and the  well informed  and determined Sri Lankan Forces,  Terror has been defeated militarily.

 

Now it is high time after the destruction of so many innocent lives on both sides

 

1-The Sinhalese who fell victim to the numerous bombs that were detonated by the terrorists,

2The Presidents of governments, 

3Politicians on both sides , Sinhalese and Tamil,

4Christian Buddhist and Hindu  Clergy,

5 Tamils who were gunned down for refusing to tow Prabhakaran’s line and

6 Thousands of  civilians who were used as the human shield to save terrorist lives

 

That the Tamil  LTTE supporters in the Western countries , misled politicians,

 

 Human Rights groups and the sympathetic westerners  take stock of the devastation

 

And put an end to further devastation  by encouraging all support groups to 

 

learn  to live and let live  as one nation

 

They must encourage peaceful solutions. They have to respect what the Sri Lankan government is striving to achieve by giving them the full support and not as some say try  the government for human rights violations. The government deserve all the credit for putting an end to blood thirsty schedules of Prabhakaran and his aids in Sri  Lanka and Overseas.

 

 

The president in his speeches has reiterated time and time again that there is no room for ethnic division and that everyone is a Sri Lankan and will be recognised as such.

 

 

Everyone should hail this as a positive outcome and give it credit and restore the good old days where everyone calls themselves proud Sri Lankans and not identify themselves as Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims,  Burghers  or Chinese.

 

The sympathisers should also realize that these supporters are  not talking about the people in need at this moment – all those waiting to be resettled in their homes but protesting against how the West let LTTE down with the fall of Prabhakaran. All they wanted was to separate a country that did not deserve separatism.

 

To conclude I would like to add that it is hard to live a fabricated lie  for too long as the truth will prevail in the end. Otherwise there is no righteousness in this world.

I was compelled  to write this to safeguard my country of birth  from future violence and unrest.

Hoping to see the good old days where all communities  live with mutual respect for each other and be a shining star to the rest of the world.

 

“May everyone live in peace and happiness!”  is my wish.