Chill the Big Cat Before its
Too Late
Dilrook Kannangara
The peace dove was plotting another bloodbath somewhere when he was
called to hell; what else he was doing in a fortified bunker at 6 am
in the morning! The SLAF must be congratulated for their precision target
acquiring capability and the clean execution. Whatever the theories
behind Tamilselvam’s execution, one indisputable truth emerged
from the incident. For the first time the SLAF has carried out a deliberate
strike targeting a top LTTE leader. This was not seen in the past 24
years of war and hence the war now takes a dramatic turn with the SLAF
calling the shots. This historical event is also important in that it
was just the second instance when SLDFs managed to execute a member
of the LTTE apex; the last one was Shankar killed by the LRRP in 2001.
These are indisputable facts of the 24 year old war they and speak volumes
of the ineffectiveness of military campaigns by successive governments.
Just two instances of targeted killing of LTTE leaders for 24 long years!!
Of course there have been numerous attempts to do so but for many excuses
they all failed. No doubt this is a very slow run rate, unseen elsewhere
in the world. Twenty four years we have been living next door to Parabakaran
and something must be done to eliminate him soon. He is already the
21st longest reigning ‘monarch’ in the modern world, though
he is by no means a ‘monarch’ in spite of running a jungle
kingdom for 24 years. His violence has outlived ten (10) Sri Lankan
administrations and six (6) heads of state. This is far too long for
a terrorist and reflects very poorly on the capabilities of the security
forces. Apart from this record, he has made his dirty appearance in
the Asian power fifty a few years back. This may be the only official
recognition of his power to prevail than anything else.
Parabakaran’s reign of his Terroristan was marked by unprecedented
defection of his subjects to areas ruled by the ‘Sinhala governments’
(according to him); not even during times of peace did Tamils move to
Sinhala majority areas in such large numbers! The biggest sufferers
of the decades old Tamil armed struggle have been Tamils themselves
and the biggest winners are Parabakaran, his wife and children who travel
around the world with no shortage of money. Could a fisherman from Velvetthurei
ever afford this type of luxury if not of the war? Hence why stop the
armed struggle!!
The emergence of this kind of a ‘monarch’ was partly due to
the short sighted acts of politicians including SWRD Bandaranaike who
passed laws to abolish the brutal caste system that prevailed in the
North. Had the caste system (akin to that of Tamil Nadu) continued,
Parabakaran could never have raised his ugly head and the Jaffna upper
class families would remain the darlings of ‘Sinhala governments’.
On the other hand, the government could easily rout any rebellious movement
using the ‘divide and rule’ method amply used by both regional
and ‘federal’ political forces in India. It could also have
stopped some up-country Tamil politicians from patronising the terrorists.
Parabakaran has always been the real military, political and moral leader
of the LTTE; he was the founder and patron of the terror group. His
foresight has kept the LTTE in good thread amidst many global changes.
The order of these changes is as follows: the emergence of India as
a nuclear super power, Sri Lanka finding new allegiance during the Cold
War, the ending of the Cold War, India’s falling out with the LTTE,
9/11 and the war on terror, post war on terror lukewarm climate, the
re-emergence of another arms race. He stirred the LTTE ship through
all these turbulences converting each change into a point of strength.
He used dollars collected in Canada to buy weapons from North Korea,
China and India with only delivering taking place in Sri Lanka. At one
point his ‘blue water’ capability made the SLN looks like
a dwarf. He is the backbone of the LTTE and his demise would be the
real body blow to the terror outfit. Sri Lanka security forces have
all the benefits of time if they move in to kill Parabakaran sometime
soon. His ferocious elimination of dissidents has left a big vacuum
in the LTTE and this can be exploited to wipe out the LTTE for good.
Therefore, all peace loving Sri Lankans earnestly demand their elected
government to use their tax money to put this menace out of business
and out of life without wasting any more time and resources. Going at
the current rate, it will take another six years to execute the next
LTTE leader and by that time Charles Anthony will be fully groomed to
take over the LTTE.
If Parabakaran is left to celebrate another birthday (fancifully dubbed
‘heroes day’), that will show the continuing incompetency
of the Sri Lanka defence establishment costing USD 1.5 billion a year!
Hopefully the Defence Secretary talked sense when he declared that the
terrorist burden will not be passed on to the next generation; he should
bat to win the match not merely to set a personal record. There are
20 days for him to hunt down the big cat and create history. Both pro-LTTE
and anti-LTTE forces silently countdown to this event. Who will celebrate
the next heroes’ day?
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