By Mario Perera, Kadawata

 Much ink is being made to flow on the subject of the relative good performance of the TNA at the recent polls. The elections were especially significant on several counts; the most important of them being the blunder of the government think tanks in holding them at this unpropitious moment. Indeed there was nothing to justify the holding of these elections because nothing had normalized in those parts of the country.

The think tanks were perhaps led by the president’s declarations that henceforth there are no minorities in this country. Where on earth is there a country without minorities? Where on earth is there a country where the minorities are happy with the majority rule? Where on earth is there a country where the minorities do not feel discriminated against? And why should all that no be so here? To expect anything else is to live in a fool’s paradise.

Sri Lanka is indeed a showpiece to the world where so many major ethnic and religious groups live since countless centuries and on such a relatively small territory. Indeed as a distinguished writer to Lankaweb suggested recently we should be declared a UNESCO world heritage site in this regard.

 Yes, ethnicity and religion are so deeply engraved in the national ethos that digging them out is well nigh impossible. Not even a presidential declaration can do that. Our State itself is identified as a Sinhala Buddhist State. Giving credence to this, monks serve as elected representatives and law makers in Parliament. The express desire of our parliamentarian monks was to transform the country into a ‘Dharma’ State, meaning a Buddhist State.

The monks were among the most vociferous elements in inducing the State to an all out war against the LTTE terrorists. Monks here are government makers and government breakers. Think of the pacts that were made on one day and broken the other due to their intervention. The ‘maha sangha’ will never allow anything smacking of separatism, whatever the name by which it is called to make headway. No government will take them head on. One may like this situation or criticize it, but it was always so and will remain so. It may even seem like being obliged to kiss the hand that one would like to cut off.

 The Sinhalese take pride in calling themselves ‘Sinhala Buddhists’. No one faults them for that. In like manner others too could call themselves Tamil Hindus and Muslims. What all this means is that a majority and minorities do exist in this country. What the majority thinks as being good for all may not necessarily be what the minorities think of as being good for themselves. This was what the government learnt at the recent polls in the north. And what is the harm in that? Yet anything is good enough for minorities with separatist tendencies to hang on to.

The TNA victories are, in my opinion being overplayed with imaginations running haywire. The TNA showing has to be seen in the backdrop of the ‘ghetto’ mentality of the voters concerned. For thirty years or more they lived by themselves and for themselves with no other reality but themselves to reckon with. Sure the LTTE brought them misery after misery but yet it all happened among themselves like within a family.

As the saying goes the devil you now is better than the angel you do not know. These people did not know of any angels, only devils posing as princes of light, like in any typical ‘thovil’ ceremony. So for whom could one expect them to vote but for those who remind them of the ‘thovils’ of bygone days? The exact opposite is happening in the rest of the country with the government scoring massive electoral victories one after the other. The north south divide during the last thirty odd years was such that it is now, after the northern polls made to seem of abysmal proportions. All this is more imaginative than anything else. Throw a straw to a drowning man and he will cling on to it with all his might.

 The TNA did not win for what it did for those people. In fact it did nothing other than propaganda work which after all came to naught. The TNA won because they were the ones closest to the crowds in the northern ghettos. They represented what those Tamil populations were able to call ‘ours’. What these mistimed elections did was to bind these voters together to the memories of the past rather than commit themselves to the unknown future. This is also the fragile link in that binding chain; the memories of the past.

Yet with the passage of time sanity must prevail. These people, with the opening of the ghettos and a look over and beyond the wall will seize the opportunities provided for their advancement and development. Then realization will dawn that representatives are elected not only for what they are or seem to be, but more so for what they can do.

 Let the government do the most it can for these people, these poor people who were caught between the devil and deep blue sea for over thirty years. Develop the north. Link it with the rest of the country with an excellent network of roads, rail and transport and communication possibilities. Destroy the ghettos. The government does not need the TNA or anyone else for that matter to do that.

 As for the TNA or others looking for the betterment of the lot of their compatriots of the north, the sooner they realize that there are parameters beyond which they cannot venture the better for all concerned. The LTTE or die hard Ealamists, the pride and glory of most Tamils were reduced to smithereens in spite of massive international support on all relevant counts be it military, financial or other.

A century old dream which began around 1918 was reduced to dust. Trying to reroute the same issues would be absolutely futile. The majority population will never permit a similar movement to rear its head again. Anything that smells of separatism whatever the camouflage is now ‘anathema’ to them. Hence striving for a homeland, federalism, merging of provinces or anything bringing back memories of the thirty year military conflict will be opposed with all the vehemence the overwhelming majority is capable of. And here the government can do nothing, whatever be the pressures brought to bear on it, from within or from without. Any solution will be within the solid boundaries of a ‘Unitary State’ and under one national flag.

 This is not a palatable truth to those who like to speculate and still more to dream of what could have been. So ink will flow in gay abundance. They have to reckon with a 2500 year old Island civilization that will not let go of its birthright. As for the government in power, it is riding the crest of the wave of its massive victory over the LTTE. Parliamentary elections are probably round the corner, and it is expected that the president’s party will sweep the polls with the necessary majority to amend the constitution. Then sweeping changes will be brought in.

 Parties fighting under ethnic or religious banners will probably be proscribed bringing overt separatist trends to an end. It is simply repugnant that parties be allowed to call themselves Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim. A move to this end is already made, and will be carried through eventually in spite of possible temporary setbacks. National unity cannot be brought about by legislation but clear cut boundaries will be established which say ‘thus far and no further’.

The military will surely be strengthened and vigilance will be at its peak. This is the irreversible trend. New international alliances must be formed to counterbalance the ones whose only pastime is to pressurize us. This is the unshakeable mindset of the overwhelming majority of the population. Naturally there will be much clamour against such snow balls growing in size with passing time. But that is inevitable. A massive terrorist separatist threat was crushed after thirty years of suffering and misery while the world watched and ‘enjoyed’, like the Romans watched the blood sports in the Colliseum.

What could not be obtained by such a brutal terrorist movement will never be obtained through the clamouring of politicians and intellectuals with separatist tendencies. Every foreign involvement in what is a matter for Sri Lanka to solve will not only be counter productive and to no avail but will strengthen the resolve not to cede to pressure. National unity to whatever extent will not come on a golden platter. But one thing is certain. The separatist dream laid to rest on the battlefield will never be revived in the political arena.

By Mario Perera, Kadawata

 No one will forget this utterance of the President when addressing Parliament. I was reminded of this statement with reference to the good showing of the TNA at the recent elections, and also when reading news clips about the attitude of Muslim youth during the last two one day cricket internationals between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, cheering the Pakistanis as if they were strangers to this country, their motherland. The president’s formulation was strictly with reference to the LTTE and its suppression. The declaration could however be interpreted as having a wider fallout.

 As regards the first situation I raised, the low participation of northern voters at the polls; less than 20% on Jaffna and less than 50% in Vavuniya seem to indicate that the voters hearkened to voices of the Tamil diaspora demanding a boycott. As for those who did vote, the victory of the TNA in Vavuniya and their impressive performance in Jaffna were disconcerting for the Government. Could it be argued that these northern voters do not love Sri Lanka? It is certainly not easy to resume complex issues in simplistic phrases.

 The results however are lopsided in that the voters were almost hundred percent Tamils. There was no multi ethnic representation as in the other provinces. We know that the Sinhala and Muslim components of the North were brutally evicted by the LTTE. The government has vowed to resettle these displaced persons in the north. The recent vote was therefore mono-ethnic and to that extent did not represent the Sri Lankan plurality. The results as they stand however demand an explanation. The people who voted are represented as having been ‘liberated’ from the LTTE who were their cruel persecutors. Now the TNA are proxy to the LTTE and were hand in glove with them. They were hand picked by the LTTE and should normally have been looked upon with animosity by the Tamil voters. But lo and behold, what do we see…the persecuted voting for the persecutors! This means that the Government’s perception of things went off at a tangent somewhere. Where did things go wrong? Pundits will discuss whether the elections were premature. Should the government not have waited until the displaced Sinhalese and Muslims were resettled? Yet what happened did happen and needs to be explained. Now there were two sets of Tamil groups contesting these elections. The TNA contested on its own while the EFDP of Douglas Devananda contested under the UPFA ticket. The question I ask myself which of these two parties mirrored back the idea that these voters steeped especially in their own language and with no other to communicate with, have of themselves? These are people who lived among themselves and for themselves during thirty odd years. The TNA was opaque in that it did not show any reality behind it. This was not the case of the EFDP which was like transparent glass revealing the face of the government. The TNA mirror showed the voters what they wanted to see; namely themselves.

 It would be in the interest of the country that the north be made to reflect the social reality it was before the ethnic cleansing by the LTTE by the reintegration of the displaced Sinhala and Muslim population. Also, like in India, let the Tamil political groups fight it out among themselves at the polls and then decide on their alliances with the main contending national parties. This does not mean that the national parties must abstain. Let them participate too if they so wish (at the risk of undermining their potential allies), but under their own banners. It is natural that smaller parties even those of ethnic inspiration seek alliances with the national party best placed to advance their brand of politics within a common vision. What occurred in the north was a direct confrontation between the TNA and the government on a terrain that was not yet salutary for the government considering the isolation of the voters and their psychological trauma.

 The second issue is the exclusive support of the Muslims for Pakistan during the last two one day internationals which Pakistan won convincingly. Does this mean that these Muslim youth do not love Sri Lanka? In this connection I would refer to the article ‘Does cricket have a citizenship? That appeared on August 11 on Infolanka, by Nazeeya Faarooq. The crux of the arguments is that the ethnic and religious communities should not be made to feel like grafts on the national body but as its essential members. This feeling needs to be inculcated from the school atmosphere onwards within the framework of equal opportunities for all. Indeed national unity does not come on a golden platter at the behest of the rulers but through the patient pursuance of an enlightened vision that encompasses the legitimate aspirations of all whatever be their ethnic or religious precedents.

 The issues are therefore much wider than what party politics conceive. I recall an episode pertaining to recent British history. Churchill had won the war for England. He was the toast of his country and the world. Yet at the next elections he was ousted from power with Atlee succeeding him. Memory is like sifting sand, so short lived it is.

 The question that nevertheless remains to be answered is, does loving Sri Lanka mean loving the party in power and its policies just because it thinks and wants to be seen as the only one that loves Sri Lanka? Compelled as we are to judge the two situations mentioned at the outset in a positive frame of mind without panic but with a realistic appraisal, the answer to this question would have to be ‘no’.

Mario Perera, Kadawata

The President according to top Indian sources has promised to go beyond the 13th amendment.

This is what the news article in BBC Sinhala.com said on an earlier date;

President Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier told an Indian television channel that his government is considering “13 amendment plus” in an attempt to resolve grievances of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community.

India said that a high level Sri Lankan delegation visiting India last week has assured Delhi that a solution better than the 13 amendment will be implemented.

“I was assured that it is the intention of the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the proposal which would be an advance on the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution,” Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna was quoted in the ministry website.

Now during his speech in parliament the President said that solution will be home made and not an experimental one based on foreign models. Yet is not the 13th amendment one such, having been pushed down our throats at the point of a gun by Rajiv Gandhi…not to forget the bag of parippu held over our heads.

Dayan Jayatillake our very distinguished and erudite ambassador in Geneva is for the 13th amendment. He very pointedly says that history has given us another chance to forge ahead of other nations, as we once were at the time of independence before goofing it.

Free lance journalist Malinda Seneviratne who writes relevant and interesting articles, is not for it because of its connection with forced Indian involvement of 1987.

The well balanced article by Gus Mathews asks the Tamils to open their eyes to the ground realities of majority aspirations political and religious that cannot be swept under the carpet.

Regarding Indian assertions about the President’s will to implement the 13th amendment even going beyond it, Education Minister Susil Premajayanth told BBC Sandeshaya that the government has no intention of fully implementing the 13 amendment.

The BBC Sinhala.com published another article with the headline: Government ’stands by13th amendment’; Sri Lankan government has again said that it is committed to implement the 13th amendment to the constitution that provides provision for devolution of power. This utterance comes from the mouth of Anura Priyadharshana Yapa.

Keheliya R ducked the issue by stating that the Government’s priority is the resettlement of the IDP’s and that other matters must be relegated to a later date. And when would that date be one wonders!

So as regards these perspectives, one says that the solution will be a new elaboration, another says the 13th amendment is on, not only in all its force but even beyond…Yet another says it is on but not in all its force, and then comes this declaration; we have not yet thought about it. How’s that?

It is sad to note that one mouth could have so many tongues.

The President has been glorified and enthroned by the monks and people alike and is riding the wave of unprecedented popular support. The phrase ‘monks and people’ is paramount. Would there be the support of the people without that of the monks? We know of pacts that went on the rocks because of opposition from the monks. We know of a great Prime Minister who was assassinated in such a context. Behind the call to rally round the country there is the obvious struggle for survival and reinforcement of entrenched groups, political and religious. Will the president be powerful enough to separate the grain from the chaff? Did he not say and repeat at so many official occasions that his one and only concern was the ‘Mawbima’? (First the Mawbima, second the Mawbima and third the Mawbima)

Up to what point can the President distance himself from the powerful monk lobby? Up to now he is going hand in hand with them. When he speaks, he always turns towards the monks present and seeks confirmation from them with the now famous ‘ehema netha apey hamuduruwane’.

How would this problem be solved? No one knows as yet, but the day of reckoning is looming ahead, much nearer that what Keheliya R would suggest. The great question which somehow forms the background to the issue is; would we antagonize India (whatever it be with the rest of the world, the Tamil diaspora included…which seems so far away anyway)…by over looking the 13th amendment? It must be remembered that tacit and sometimes even overt support of India was crucial to us to crush the LTTE. The Indian government took its stand in our favour in spite of the looming threat of losing Tamil Nadu at the elections. So it took its risks in our favour. The Indian government walked the tight rope taking chances in our favour. Would our government dare do the same? If it does so, then India becomes a guarantor that nothing evil will befall us being morally bound to uphold our trust.

But once again a nation is identifiable with its government. How would it be if the government changes hands in India? Would the commitment be the same? We know the Tamil Nadu if the thorn in the side of Indian politics as regards Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the fly in the soup, not a normal fly mind you but an outrageously stinking ‘goo messa’ at that. In politics the slogan is not ‘play up play up and play the game’, but ‘play the game to the gallery’.

In the midst of this haze there is one beacon of light to be followed imperatively. That is, if we are to go forward as a nation it must be on the ‘wheels of genuine popular consensus’. Otherwise our politics will remain troubled waters with unwanted elements, national and international, throwing nets and other fishing tackle into it to reap their own sordid benefits. Our position today is the same as at decision making time after independence. If thirty years of a gruesome and self destructive was has not taught us anything then nothing ever will. Ultimately the ‘Mawbima’ must prevail over every other vested interest however powerful it be. In such a context, that of the thrice upheld ‘Mawbima’, the ‘Mawbima’ the President worshipped on returning in triumph from an international session, the question; ehema netha hamuduruwane has no relevance.

Judging from the top news story in Lankaweb this morning the President appears to have taken his stand in the face of internal opposition;
“An angry President yesterday warned Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka not to hinder his efforts to implement 13th Amendment to the Constitution and guarantee devolution of power to the provinces. Now that a 30-year war had been brought to an end, the aspirations of the people of the North and East should be met, he told a group of government ministers at Temple Trees yesterday, according to highly placed sources”.

Acting only in the interest of the ‘Mawbima’ will abound with everlasting glory for this uncrowned king of Lanka
Mario Perera,
Kadawata

By: Mario Perera, Kadawata

The ecstasy of the previous three matches gave way to the agony of the last. Lowly Ireland nearly humbled the giant killers that we were. The previous matches were mainly won on the strength of the opening partnerships and of course the inevitably brilliant contributions of the three bowling ‘M’s; Murali, Mendis and Malinga. Yesterday the batting extravaganza of Mahela saved us the blushes. According to commentators we were expected to score anything between 180-200 runs against the Irish fledglings. But the end result was more than pathetic. The captain as he normally does in his post match comments, waxed eloquent about his boys while acknowledging that some further work had to be done. Not a word of praise however for the gallant Irish which would have been a sporting gesture.

 Our openers got us off to flying starts. Yet Jayasuriya’s 81 came under the scrutiny of Ian Chapel. For the second time J’s hook shot was miss timed. According to Chappel, a better fielding side would have done him in. For the second time in this series Jayasuriya got out to the same stroke, an attempted pull on bended knee (as also happened in the IPL). He seemed dissatisfied with the decision which all the commentators thought was the right one. Our openers are very strong on their drives (ground and lofted) and their cuts. They are however vulnerable with the pull, and the hook. Our lads are relatively short in stature. The opposing opening bowlers generally tower over them. Rankin was 6′8 or so. Now the shorter the batsman the lower the swing, while taller the bowler the higher the bounce he gets. A low swinging bat gets the top edge with the resulting long walk to the dug-out. The lesson to learn is; do not pull and hook without observing the bowler and his bounce for a brief spell. Yesterday Dilshan tried it on the second ball of the match. As for Jayasuriya, he should not pull straight balls on bended knee, which has proved his undoing on so many occasions. At 39 he is not the man he was. Our openers must play to their strength and avoid unnecessary risks, all the more because when they fail, the rest flounder. As for Sanga and Mahela, they should avoid the attempted lofted shot over extra cover when the fielder is standing back because they do not clear him. They get most of their sixers with heaves over mid wicket. Our great weakness for the T20 game is that we do not have big hitters like Yuvraj, Pathan and a host of others. This makes the middle and final overs look very unenterprising and listless. In short the game “gets lifted” when the ball is lifted over the ropes and herein lies our problem. We sadly have not shown depth in batting and hardly anyone lower down is capable of “|lifting the game”.

 Now as regards our batting form. Sanga scored once, and Jayawardene too. Mubarak’s two sixers off Brett Lee got us past the Aussies. The rest has been dismal. Look at yesterday’s scoreboard; only three reached double figures, the next highest was 4. Now should there be changes for the remaining matches? I would think so. Chamara has talent and flare, but nevertheless has not delivered. Indika de Saram should fill that slot. In any case he cannot do worse. As for the bowlers the three magnificent ‘M’s account only for 12 out of the 20 overs. Udana was tried and found wanting. Now, I believe, it is Kulasekara’s turn to return to the benches. His final over yesterday was certainly not what the doctor ordered for blood pressure. I believe that we should revert to Mahroof. The latter can also wield the long handle which is all the more relevant when considering our brittle middle order batting and its debacles.

Mario Perera, Kadawata

A thought to ponder; Hannibal’s victory which was considered the model of warfare in Germany. From a letter from my French friends Pierre and Suzanne (with my english translation below).

 Le carthaginois Hannibal, qui fut un très valeureux chef, combattit à Cannes, c’était 2 siècles avant Christ, et par une organisation de ses troupes remporta une complète victoire sur les romains.

Il disposait de 40.000 soldats, alors que les romains disposaient de 80.000 hommes plus 6.000 cavaliers

Il y a 80 ans, en Allemagne, cette bataille était considérée comme le modèle encore inégalé de la victoire intégrale ; celle qui bat l’ennemi après l’avoir encerclé, non seulement le bat mais le supprime.

La victoire n’est complète qu’avec la suppression des prisonniers.

 Hannibal the Carthaginian who was a very intrepid general, fought at Cannes, two centuries before Christ, and by organizing his troupes won a complete victory over the Romans.

He had 40,000 soldiers, while the Romans had 80,000 men plus 6000 horsemen.

Until eighty years ago, in Germany, this battle was considered the unmatched model of total victory; one that defeats the enemy after having encircled him, not only routs him, but also annihilates him.

Victory was not complete until the prisoners were eliminated.

Mario Perera, Kadawata

The office you were called to hold

Is not for those who favours seek

Its meant for people strong and bold

No place there for the weak and meek

The post which holds out bounteous hope

To the suffering and the needy

As livelong they through tunnels grope

With nothing to feel cheery

We looked upon your name with glee

There was ‘Bank’ and there was ‘Moon’

It augured our tryst with destiny

Your name did herald such a boon

And when you put on Annan’s shoes

We hoped for sunrise from the East

But soon you learnt the donts and the does

You learned to scratch the western beast

Our forces fought their battles hard

Conquered the hateful insidious foe

We thought you’ll be our thankful bard

And let your verse unhindered flow

Nothing of all that was to be

You a man from an Asian land

Were only working for a fee

The fiddler of the European band

For thirty years our blood was shed

Drenching Lanka’s blessed land

We fete the living and mourn the dead

With joy not writ on sifting sand

Stop the war dance you did shout

But is that not what warriors do?

The scum of terrorism we did rout

You only echoed the white man’s boo

So now we know you Ban Ky-Moon

We know the meaning of your name

Our people call you Ban ‘KIMUNG’

A boring yawn a lasting shame

By Mario Perera, Kadawata Sri Lanka

Everyone, both here and abroad now knows that the LTTE has gone very much and irreparably ‘down under’. During thirty years this diabolical organization aided and abetted by foreign financing and arms fought for what was nationally and internationally called ‘the rights of the Tamils of Sri Lanka’. The LTTE also arrogated to themselves the label ‘sole representatives of the Tamil People of the Island’. The only question I wish to ask those Tamil MP’s, globe trotting mouth pieces of the LTTE is this; Tell us of one (just ONE, do not rack your brains to find several) development project launched by the LTTE during these thirty years to alleviate the poverty of the Tamil population whose cause you championed with lip service much the same way as wind blowing through hollow coconut shells.

 The Ealam war with a view to establishing a so-called Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka was never close to the end. Even the Ceasefire Agreement was very much temporary as ether party could easily have rescinded it without much ado (as it did eventually happen). Now for how long would the Ealam war have gone on? No one knows. But if our governments vacillated in indecision on tight ropes held out by those European nations the self titled ‘international community’ as the previous ones did, the Ealam war would have gone on and on indefinitely. What does that mean? Just that thirty would well have become sixty and ninety and so on. Just look at the weapons the LTTE left for public show, and consider the funds the Diaspora was willing to provide for a war without end with the pious message to Prabha; Thy kingdom come. We know that even heavenly kingdoms take an infinitely long time in coming, that is if they come at all… Was the Ealam dream achievable? Many said yes but many more said no. One thing is certain that neither the overpowering majority of Sri Lankans nor India wanted it, and Prabha did not want anything less either. So on weighing the pros and the cons it could very reasonably be assumed that the only purpose of the Ealam war was to make Sri Lanka uninhabitable, making the exodus of Tamils to overwhelmingly richer climes very much a reality. All this meant chaos for Sri Lanka in a purposeless war of attrition from which the suppliers of money and military hardware and dishonest politicians had all to gain. What all this meant to the Tamils was that they would have become poorer and poorer, even becoming the poorest of the poor in a country condemned to a lingering struggle for survival. Just watching the mass exodus of refugees from LTTE held land drove home this point without the least shade of ambiguity.

 An examination of this question is relevant because now the moralizers, the ‘holiest of the holies’ who gleefully watched the sinking ship while taking bets and staking claims like ringside punters, now want ‘justice’ done to the Tamils. They even want it done soon! Even poor Ban Ky-Moon can ask for nothing better drawing as he does his fat check from these blood suckers. (By the way stopping in a wayside tea room recently I heard the Sinhalese version of old Ban’s name. A tea boutique political analyst was pronouncing his name ‘KIMUNG’; Kimung mahatthaya. Indeed that is what Ban has become; a big ‘YAWN’). So people who sat and watched or to adopt Milton’s phrase ‘stood and waited’ indefinitely and unendingly while their palms were being oiled and their pockets replenished, now want quick action for ‘justice to the Tamils’ whom they had sentenced through massive support for the war, to burning over the slow excruciating fire of despair and impoverishment.

 As for the pro LTTE Tamil MP’s who watched so patiently while the Tamil population lived on an ever diminishing dole, they have lost all moral right to call for rapid development now. The point is, can people who made wallowing in a horizonless immoral war a way of life develop moral values overnight? The question might probably raise another big ‘yawn’ (‘Kimung’ now synonymous with Ky-Moon) in the guise of an answer.

 Mario Perera, Kadawata Sri Lanka

By Mario Perera, Kadawata

It was Anton Balasingham who bore the tag of ‘LTTE theoretician’. What that meant, in the final analysis was that he was a glorified spokesman of the terrorists. He was called Dr.A.B, although we know he did not have a doctorate. Even if he did… so what ? In the world of today when titles are cheaper by the buckets, what matters is the quality of the holder and not of the label. We know that Dr.Colvin R.D de Silva refused the title ‘Queens Counsel’. That did not diminish his stature, rather the contrary. Balasingham espoused the classical ideals of the LTTE all centering on the concept of a separate state called ‘Ealam’. When ‘Dr’ AB crossed the great divide his mantle fell on Thamilchelvam and after him on Nadesan. What all this means is that the word ‘theoretician’ was nothing more than a puff of air used to inflate the title holders concerned.

 But there are more than normal nincompoops vying for that honour. These are persons whose theories could rightly be considered as smacking of ‘insanity’. First a man called (prof.dr…) Peter Schalk. After critical analysis of his literature intellectuals of our own consider him to be ‘nuts’. His pretensions are vast and he vaunts them without the least scruples. What he purports to display is something akin to omniscience which reminds us of that comic film personality with a similar claim couched in the phrase: “I know the law”. This person Peter Schalk is a Swede. One of his principal contributions is as regards LTTE suicide bombers. He tries to set up an ideological framework in which to justify and enthrone these killers. There is no need to delve into European literature that investigates the psychic set up of these suicide squad members, the so called ‘black tigers’. Their religion, sadly like every other, would also seem to provide ideological platforms for supporting their misguided self destructive and murderous fervour. Krishna’s discourse to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita illustrates this point. If you are convinced of your cause, go to war and kill, for ultimately ‘no one kills no one’. The one and only ONE is the indestructible immortal SELF, and what is human history but a projection of empty forms within that SELF; mere mental effusions without ‘real’ content, a drama, a ‘lila’ within the mind of the great Observer. The only reality is ‘THAT’ (TAT TVAM ASI-Thou art That).

 We find such ideas in other civilizations too. Take the Enneades of Plotinus where we are confronted once again with the notion of the shadow shapes interwoven in life and death encounters. “Murders, death in all its guises, the reduction and sacking of cities, all must be to us just such a spectacle as the changing scenes of a play; all is but the varied incident of a plot, costume on and off, acted grief and lament. For on earth, in all the succession of life, it is not the Soul within but the Shadow outside of the authentic man, that grieves and complains and acts out the plot on this world stage which men have dotted with stages of their own constructing”. The phenomena are similar to a city of Gandharva, an optic illusion, a foam, a bubble, an emanation, a dream, and a halo of light produced by the whirling of the glowing tip of a stick.

 A judge of the House of Lord once said that not even the devil knows the mind of man, which suggests that the human mind could be more than diabolical! It is not because such thoughts float about in the world of ideas that they should be appropriated and concretized. For this to materialize there should be a motivation for dying which is as strong as or stronger than the attachment to life itself. This is where these theoreticians and ideologues make their worse than diabolical contributions. As defenders and advocates of such ideals they are promoters of the cult of death. They not only vindicate suicide killers but also encourage others to do the same. As such would they not be accomplices of suicide and murder? Once again if life and death are dream phenomena would not death for a cause or a ‘higher cause’ be also an exercise in self deception and futility? Does a ‘no one’ dying for a ‘no thing’ have any sense? But this is the paradox of it all. “Die because nothing in you dies, but what you die for is something worth the annihilation of your nothingness”. What is all this but insanity? Psychiatrist say that humans all suffer from the insanity syndrome, the difference being one of degrees. Yet the ideas mentioned above defy even the common notion of insanity for not all insane individuals want to self destruct and commit mass murder at the same time. As regards the Bhagavad-Gita what is of paramount importance is ‘righteous action for its own sake, and not for the fruit it produces’. Now the murderous suicides may think that their action is righteous, yet they commit it exclusively for the fruit others will enjoy. This intent empties the action of its righteous content thereby making it iniquitous. The unholy is therefore clothed with pseudo-holiness, appearing to be what it essentially is not. Hence any thought of clothing terrorism with Hindu spirituality is another version of the Emperor’s new clothes.

 As for Peter Schalk, the Scandinavian, he comes from a region where the suicide rate is very high and caused by nothing less than boredom with life. Some such countries are welfare states to such an extent that not working is a better option than working. Now it is a pithy saying that the idle mind is the devils workshop. So Peter Schalk justifying and encouraging suicide would appear to be a matter of second nature to him. What he says implicitly is: I am a potential suicide but being afraid of death (as Prabhakaran, Pulidevan, Nadesan and their ilk ultimately were…) I like to see others blowing themselves up. He is so fascinated by the cult of death that he consciously or sub conscientiously identifies himself with these destroyers of life and goads them on, what else for than his sadistic pleasure and self realization.

 Why were Peter Schalk and others like him so involved at all with the LTTE? The apparent answer is besides the boredom with life itself, that their countries provide them with nothing to identify themselves with. There is nothing in place to bloat their egos and gloat on them. This attempt to identify self with something transpiring beyond their physical and mental (including cultural) horizons is also a confession of the backwardness of their cultures. Stagnant civilizations like stagnant waters are devoid of light; hence the search for light and glory elsewhere. We know that in these materially super abundant countries night is like day yielding the confusion between the real and its self created substitutes. Now where better to indulge in such hyper diabolical phantasies than somewhere in or around the Indian subcontinent. Here there is an overflowing wealth of culture and civilization, and also hope for a glorious future. But foremost for people like Schalk a small country like Sri Lanka still tied down with the chains of colonial excesses, is fertile ground to sow the seeds of their own vain glory. The quagmire of divisive politics created by the British is now metaphorically made into something akin to a brothel of sorts for use and abuse by a small group of countries audaciously pretending to be the international community. We know where swine like to wallow.

 There is then this ideologue of somewhat a different hue. He is also a ‘Prof.Dr’, Seemampillai Joseph Emmanuel by name. He ones declared in public that the suicide killers were martyrs and that the Church recognized this by giving them a catholic burial. Now here is another hyper diabolical initiative linking terrorism with the spirituality of the Catholic Church. The perpetrator is a Roman Catholic priest who was the Vicar General (meaning second in command of the diocese) of the Jaffna Bishop Deogupillai and the Rector of the Major Seminary (St.Francis Xavier Seminary) in Jaffna. When a priest of that rank embraces and enthrones suicide killers elevating them to the ranks of the martyrs without the least reprimand of his hierarchical superiors call them bishop, archbishop or Bishop’s conference or whatever, one has an insight into the mind set of these colourfully robed Church elite. Furthermore that this man was appointed Rector of the Major Seminary of Jaffna, the training ground of Tamil Catholic priests is an obvious indication that the hierarchy did not mind, to say the least, that future Tamil priests be indoctrinated and embrace the same convictions. The progression of the insanity of this Prof. Dr and Rev. is absolutely astounding. He wrote a book titled “Let my people go” and canvassed international support for his theories. He even enticed Desmond Tutu into subscribing to his views. Now this gentleman went still further on this unending highway that is lunacy. He was trying to concoct a ‘liberation theology’ FOR TAMILS ONLY! He has gone on record as likening PRABHAKARAN to…guess whom; none other than JESUS CHRIST. An all this while the colourful hierarchy who launched a hilarious outright war on Rev.Fr.Tissa Balasuriya about some personal ideas affecting only himself and his intimate literary circle, finally excommunicating him (which is the death knell for a Catholic as it literally means being sent to hell), said absolutely nothing. No such excommunication for Prof. Dr. Rev. SJE. This is probably explainable in that only human beings go to hell, while those who surpass devils in the evil they represent, surely have no place even with the devils themselves!

 Let me comment on the phrase ‘Let my people go’. This is a reference to the Book of exodus of the Bible. The reference is more animatedly recapitulated in the verses of a Negro spiritual which I quote.

“When Israel was in Egypt’s land; let my people go. Oppressed so much they could not stand; Let my people go. Go down Moses, way down in Egypt’s land. Tell Old Pharoah; Let my people go.

Thus sayeth the Lord Old Moses said. Let my People go. Or else I’ll strike your newborn dead. Let my people go”.

 That these suicide killers (the Prof. Dr. Rev.’s catholic martyrs) struck down newborns is known to all and sundry. The title however is as insane as the rest. There is absolutely no comparison between the parties in question; Egypt, Israel, God and Moses on one side, and the Democratic socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and a group of secessionists thriving within its territory. So the god S.J.Emmanuel invokes cannot be the God of Israel and S.J.E cannot don the identity of Moses. The Epistle to the Hebrews says that Moses walked as if he saw the Invisible One (He.11, 27). But identifying Prabha with Jesus, S.J.E’s eyes were well on the corpulent figure of Prabha and Prabha’s Ealam. Moses was shown the promised land from afar. He did not enter it but saw it nevertheless. S.J.E saw his Ealam only within the perimeters of his mind. There was no real Ealam either to see or enter into. He will probably never again enter into this land the unitary State of Sri Lanka, the only one he can call his own, living as he does in exile in Germany. That the Catholic Church looked on without a frown of dissent is a devastating condemnation of its role in the Ealam war.

 S.J.E.was grappling with the idea of writing a liberation theology for Tamils only to the total exclusion of the Sinhalese. What is liberation theology? Catholic theology is based on classical western (basically Greek) thinking. It is a descending theology, the heavens opening and revealing its treasures. It is a triumphant theology in which Christ conquers, Christ reigns and Christ commands (Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat). It is the theology of miracles, of divine grace, of heavenly apparitions, of human beings endowed with powers to forgive sins, bring down Jesus on altars, to bind and lose on earth, the validity of which is endorsed in heaven. It is the theology of a Kingdom replete with power and glory intermingling and coalescing with earth. It is the theology of a new city, the heavenly Jerusalem, now symbolically the Vatican…and who knows, if SJE’s wishes were fulfilled, of Tamil Ealam.

 Liberation theology was propounded by South American countries, ruled by dictators at the service of imperialist capitalist USA. These liberation theologians have recourse to Marxist economic policies to obtain and claim an equitable distribution of wealth to the poor. It is an ‘ascending theology’, one of the poor and the needy whose blood cries out to God for Justice. This theology was condemned by the Vatican, and the person mainly instrumental in procuring this judgment was a cardinal who is the present Pope. Incidental it was he who was deeply involved in the excommunication of Fr.Balasuriya at the behest of the Sri Lankan bishops. There is no liberation theology in Latin America for a secessionist movement to carve a separate State out of any of those countries. The prayer of Latin America’s liberation theologians is ‘Thy Kingdom come’. Their contention with the western block is about the nature of this Kingdom. They never ever said: Let my people go! So SJE has once again led himself down the garden path. In any case his liberation theology for Tamils never saw the light of day.

 A final word abut SJE’s liberation theology being only for the Tamils to the total exclusion of the Sinhalese. This might have a semblance of validity if God created the Tamils through a separate and unique mould in his mind. If he did so, on the final day of reckoning as described in the gospels, he would invite the righteous Tamils into heaven with the words: Well done my good and faithful TAMIL servant. Yet this is what SJE wants the Tamil Church to endorse. He said; I was born a Tamil and then became a Catholic. But it is the common teaching of the Universal Church that God created man to HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS. If SJE was born a TAMIL, this can only mean to him that GOD IS ALSO A TAMIL; that HE has the image and likeness of a Tamil.

 We know through the bible that when God wants to destroy his enemies, He clouds their minds. This means in very plain words that HE makes them go NUTS. Really, about this thirty year madness that was the Ealam war, one could exclaim with Shakespeare: O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason.

Mario Perera,Kadawata

This morning seeing our President return from abroad, descending from the plane, kneeling and worshiping the soil of Sri Lanka would no doubt have brought tears to many an eye, in any case it did to mine. If these white “hypocrisies” watched the reception accorded to our president, and the heart warming discourses of one and all that form the fabric of our civil society, they would perhaps realize, if they have eyes to see, that the entire nation is with its leader, that this leader is the embodiment of our fondest national aspiration, that of being ONE.

We celebrate the 4th of February as our National Independence day. We know however that our independence was an adjunct of Indian independence. We benefited from the struggle India undertook to rid herself of the white man’s rule. Furthermore, that independence was inserted into the history of our party politics which has been the bane of our civic lives. Long ago I expressed the view that we will never feel independent unless we win it, like so many others did, with our blood. That utterance shocked some of my friends. Do you want to see bloodshed in our country they asked? Nobody wants bloodshed, but freedom is somehow synonymous with blood, as shown in history. Our independence of the 4th of February was a paperwork effort, a lip service endeavour. We were paper lions, the beneficiaries of the Indian struggle, the struggle that saw the emergence of the Congress as the governing body. And today quite unexpectedly, surprisingly and surely SYMBOLICALLY, the same scenario has once again unfolded itself before our eyes. We have gained our Independence, our real one this time with our blood, and the Congress has swept the polls in India. Our destiny is somehow irrevocably tied together with that of India. The Congress victory in the whole of India and in TAMIL NADU especially, just goes to show the ‘eye-wash’ that is party politics. In Tamil Nadu the parties that espoused the so called ‘Sri Lankan Tamil cause’ were swept aside by Indian Tamil voters. They voted for the Congress knowing very well that it has no sympathy for the LTTE the murderers of Rajiv Gandhi. These ordinary voters, especially those of Tamil Nadu overtly accepted the fact that the internal matters of Sri Lanka are for Sri Lanka to solve. They have accepted the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka, which the white so called ‘democratic hypocrisies’ could not see in their power hunger and greed for filthy lucre.

The arrival of our President into a reunified country is also symbolic. No one with even an iota of knowledge of our history will forget the arrival of MAHINDA the arahat on our soil. He too came through the air and from abroad. He came with the message of liberation, liberation from suffering. Independence is primarily freedom from suffering. It is freedom from chains, from bondage. The 4th of February event did nothing of that sort. From a colonial dominated country we made a transit to a neo-colonial dominated nation seeing nothing else but carrots and sticks held by white fingers, dangling before us, exactly as at this present moment. Just a few days ago Gordon Brown was menacingly pointing his finger at our President. My feelings of decency prevent me from telling the ‘White-Brown’ bluntly where to stick his finger. Moreover he has a multiple choice for inserting his digital suppository; himself, Hilary Clinton, Miliband, Kouchner among others. “Do it on your vile bodies, Brown”. We resisted them all and we conquered. Rudyard Kipling perhaps thought of Sri Lanka when he penned the ringing lines;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools;

Yes, we did just that and so witnessed the dawn of our real independence. We won it with our blood, our own our very own, the blood of the flower of our youth, the blood of our future. The blood that was shed, was not that of those nurtured in the colonial culture, but of those soaked in the “wewa (lake),gama (village),daboba (temple), civilization. No one will ever contest that.

Let us relegate the so called political party ushered independence dates, such as that of 1948, or that of 1956 or any other to their due places within their due perspectives. That was the paper independence wrought by cardboard giants for the vain glory of family power blocks, as a heritage for their scions. The independence of the 17th May 2009 is the reality we have dreamt about, the reality that has come about. We did it against all odds of crooked men and women hiding behind State power and State sponsored organizations and individuals working according to their egoistic agendas. We fought the terrorists of our own soil, and the State terrorists, the white ones of the USA and the European Union, headed by the detestable erstwhile colonial pirate and swindler.

And in this hour of our glory, our reunification written in the red letters of the blood of our youth, let us be grateful to those who stood by us to the last: India, China, Japan, Russia, Iran, Lybia, Turkey, many Muslim nations and the rest. Let us espouse their causes against these white hypocrites. Let us vote with them and for them at all international forums, without fear as they did for us. The day of victory has dawned; the day of truth has risen. The masks have been rent aside, the true faces exposed. We have won, the truth has won, and we are ONE.