Let genie be kept in bottle
Posted on November 17th, 2017

Editorial Courtesy The Island


Police have reportedly been ordered to take legal action against anyone who will commemorate the dead Tigers including LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Nov. 27. Curiously, if it is against the law to commemorate the slain Tigers how come the same law does not apply to the commemoration of the dead JVP leaders and cadres responsible for the reign of terror which plagued the country from 1987 to 1989? True, the JVP did not ask for a separate state, but the fact remains that what it employed in an abortive bid to achieve its goal of capturing state power was naked terrorism. It killed members of the armed forces and the police, civilians, destroyed public property worth billions of rupees, extorted money and robbed banks and people. It also suppressed political dissent in the most barbaric manner and killed people for exercising their franchise while involving children in subversive activities.

The LTTE, in its heyday, turned the areas under its control into an open prison. Child abductions were galore. Dissenters were gunned down. Politicians were kept under its jackboot. Illegal taxes were collected. Rights and freedoms were conspicuous by their absence in those parts of the country. Anyone who commemorates those who kept people in such inhuman conditions and advocates the LTTE’s cause has no moral right to speak of human rights let alone champion them.

Reconciliation is the new buzzword in this country. The Rajapaksa government branded anyone who refused to toe its line a ‘traitor’. The yahapalana administration pillories the opponents of its constitution-making project as ‘enemies of reconciliation’. The TNA was the mouthpiece of the LTTE. It went so far as to announce the LTTE’s presidential election boycott in 2005 and even recognised the LTTE, which was responsible for heinous crimes against civilians, as the sole representative of Tamils. It was the main beneficiary of the LTTE’s violence spree aimed at sabotaging parliamentary polls as the EU monitors noted in their report on the 2004 general election. Even the TNA is in reconciliation mode now! On Thursday, its leader R. Sampanthan treated former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament to a long lecture on the value of communal harmony and how to keep the country undivided!

Rajapaksa needs to be told some home truths though the TNA leader may not be the right person to do so. He, as the war-winning President, did not care to grab the opportunity which presented itself after the conclusion of the war to rise above petty partisan politics, as a statesman, and win the hearts and minds of the people he had liberated from the clutches of terrorism in the North and the East. His mega infrastructural development drive stood the victims of war in good stead but the trust deficit remained. Politically motivated victory celebrations etc prevented the healing of wounds of war. His failure to manage the war victory and reach out to the people in the former conflict zone and reassure them enabled the extremist political groups to crawl out of the woodwork and tap public resentment to fuel their separatist project.

The biggest enemies of reconciliation are those who try to keep the LTTE flag flying on some pretext or the other. Former LTTE combatants must not be discriminated against in any manner. They must be able to live as equal citizens just like their JVP counterparts who are currently engaged in democratic politics. The onus is on the state to ensure that all ex-Tigers are properly rehabilitated and gainfully employed. But, not-so-surreptitious efforts being made in some quarters to revive the LTTE’s macabre cause must be thwarted for the sake of democracy lest the genie should be out of the bottle once again.

The present government consists of some leaders who once grovelled before the LTTE, turning as they did a blind eye to its terrorist activities and compromised national security to placate the big Tigers in the name of a ceasefire agreement. Their henchmen even hosted barbecue dinners for LTTE leaders at the BIA, which had come under devastating terrorist attacks. In an interesting turn of events replete with irony, they are today all out to prevent the commemoration of the slain LTTE leaders they shamelessly kowtowed to!

2 Responses to “Let genie be kept in bottle”

  1. Senerath Says:

    Fresh condemnation LTTE action is required. This should be done by the governement, not only media. What they have done shall be reminded to the world again and again and TNA and the lot hsould be asked to condemn them too.

  2. Chanaka B Says:

    ‘Curiously, if it is against the law to commemorate the slain Tigers how come the same law does not apply to the commemoration of the dead JVP leaders and cadres responsible for the reign of terror which plagued the country from 1987 to 1989?’

    With respect,

    this type of statements by the Island Editorial gives ammunition to those who want to commemorate the dead Tigers including LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Nov. 26. Rather than trying to crush the effort, the Island Editorial should not give any form of incentive.

    It is ludicrous to compare JVP with the LTTE.

    Please note according to the US State Department, LTTE was the most dangerous terrorist group of the recent world, more dangerous than Al Qaeda. It was banned in about 16 countries.

    Thank you.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

 

 


Copyright © 2024 LankaWeb.com. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Wordpress