Shenali D Waduge

Certain quarters of the Tamil polity are worried. They need to worry. They should now be more worried for their own future in the event India does turn Sri Lanka into an Indian territory thus realizing a very long historically failed goal. The manner the Sirisena-Ranil-CBK Government is allowing Indians to walk all over Sri Lanka will spell doom for the Tamils first in their new nation after devolving powers. Most Tamil leaders and high class Tamils are already weighing these consequences. The manner the Tamil demands are getting fast-forwarded most Tamils now realize is not in the interest of the Tamils but to fulfil the geopolitical objectives of both India and the West. Leaving aside ordinary Tamils the first casualties are likely to be the Tamil politicians and the high caste Tamils who had been calling the shots all the while. For when India does turn Sri Lanka into an Indian Territory, it would be Indians at the helm at every level and Sri Lankan Tamils would get pushed into a corner. This was what Prabakaran was quick to realize and why he decided the break the umbilical chord between LTTE and India by ordering the killing of Rajiv Gandhi!

There are something’s that need to be made clear. One of the first is that while LTTE was a creation of India over the years the assistance of other foreign forces was required to purchase arms, ammunition and carry out mass propaganda. That’s how the LTTE Diaspora came into the picture and obviously why these same heads have lobbied to force yahapalana government to remove the status as LTTE fronts. It takes no rocket science to now realize that the global bans on LTTE was just a smokescreen and a whitewash when none of these entities were investigated for materially supporting the LTTE. That was unlikely to happen when the very countries now screaming for greater autonomy for the Tamils vis a vis self-determination or Eelam was all part of the West’s ploy to cunningly use LTTE as first phase and Tamil grievances as next phase to realize their final objective of a separated area which they would have free license to use to manipulate the trade routes and slowly move inwards destroying all nations along the path to annihilating China and Russia. Tamils securing benefits for themselves were fine with either deal.

Prabakaran having created a very powerful version of a demi-god of himself and an outfit willing to take any order given was not ready to succumb and take orders from India.

 That India was toying with the idea of removing Prabakaran from the picture was evident in the declarations of Maj. Gen. Harkirat Singh commander of the IPKF who in his book ‘Intervention in Sri Lanka’ said that he was ordered twice by J N Dixit India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka to eliminate Prabakaran.

India’s intervention in 1987 and forcing constitutional amendment of the country’s constitution to introduce the 13^th amendment tying the north and east and claiming both to be historical habitats of the Tamils had nothing to do with bringing peace but to enable India to take over these two areas having eliminated Prabakaran. It is also poignant to recall that Prabakaran was flown back to Sri Lanka on 2^nd August 1987 only after the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987. Whatever Prabakaran felt about the accord he would have had to keep quiet or he may not have been allowed to return to Sri Lanka! That the IPKF went on a killing rampage eliminating Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims goes to show the mentality of the Indian establishment and their strategy. What is often removed from discussion is that RAW were already training another lot of civilians and armed them having decided to use the new ENDLF entity instead of LTTE. Another reason for Prabakaran not to trust the Indians and why present Sri Lankan Tamils must think of these examples before trusting India any further.

If India assured the Sri Lankan government to disarm the LTTE in 72 hours what was India doing training and arming the ENDLF? A factor that Prabakaran picked up far before the Sri Lankan Government.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed on 21 May 1991. In 1998 Indian judge V Navaneetham convicted Prabakaran and 28 others for the assassination. Prabakaran, Pottu Amman and Akila were sentenced to death in absentia. Why was India making a fuss over Prabakaran’s death in 2009? LTTE did apologize for the killing in 2006 through Anton Balasingham but India’s response through Indian External Affairs Minister Anand Sharma was the people of India cannot forget the dastardly crime that was committed by the LTTE…..confession on their part of their complicity in the assassination of our former prime minister. This has been a well-known fact for the last 15 years. LTTE leaders have been charge-sheeted and declared proclaimed offenders”.

What if Gen. Harikat had carried out India’s orders and killed Prabakaran and IPKF decided to stay on using the ENDLF to squash any resistance whether from Sri Lankan Tamils or the Sri Lankan Government?

Prabakaran successfully kept India at arm’s length which has been reversed by certain members of the former Government and is now at ridiculous levels with the decision to build a rail/road link with India. A mistake successive governments are committing is to align with the very nations that have been the creators of the problems Sri Lanka suffers from. No government had the pluck to completely revoke or dilute the powers of the 13^th amendment/provincial council system which was introduced by India for India’s own future advantage.

Let’s look from a Tamil perspective

The call for a separate state came from Tamil politicians well before LTTE hijacked it.

The 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution was approved by Tamils who made the TULF win enough votes to become the Opposition. However the emergence of the LTTE saw misery for some Tamils but benefit for most. Yet, Tamils continue to be divided by their own caste & class systems far stronger and crueller than the differences between Sinhalese & Muslims. The same politicians calling for separatism even opposed equal status in education for their own low caste Tamils and even wrote to the British to remove legislation introduced by S W R D Bandaranaike via the Social Disabilities Act.

Already the cracks are showing. The Northern Chief Minister bemoaned that the Northern youth are either drinking or smoking and the number of pregnant teenage girls has arisen. A regular writer to forums says thus even today-idle youth who greeted me with good morning amma started laughing as soon as my back was turned” That’s the kind of culture that now exists. Her response to this is the moment they know that there are no benefits to come from a person of higher status, they start showing their true ways which is to ridicule the higher order. LTTE kept them in control under fear and then once they felt they were better off with LTTE than through any other pathway they stayed on voluntarily”. Another poignant part of her write-up touches upon a crucial area of concern to all and that was to question why we are ‘importing’ externals to head organizations while our own live overseas serving others. There are obviously some Sri Lankan Tamils who are now loathing the idea of Indians taking over the island and making Sri Lanka the 37^th political territory of India.

With no Sri Lankan Tamil political opposition to India’s designs it is only natural that the Indians are coming out with bolder statements having swept aside India’s own accountability for creating militancy, raping 3000 Sri Lankan Tamil women, Jaffna hospital massacre, killing scores of Sinhalese and Muslims and chasing them out of the region and training another militant unit in Sri Lanka.

The plot has now thickened with the yahapalana government rolling out the red carpet to all the players that were responsible for the 30 years of misery all the communities of Sri Lanka suffered from. Yahapalana leaders with no sincere intention to serve the people or nation but to remain in power at any cost and reeling with revenge and spite that rules their every decision has found it a better option to hand over the planning of governance to external quarters.

The plan being rolled out to neutralize all forces

• Weaken the military and law & order with orders to kill (intention to reduce another lot of Sinhalese as done using the JVP in the 1970s, 1980s and by LTTE)
• Place in all administrative positions lapdogs and officials who are ‘yes men’ with no patriotism
• Break up the power the Sinhalese hold by historical right through a new constitution and devolution of power removing the powers at the centre.
• Establishing a federal system dividing Sri Lanka to conclaves that will leave the Sinhalese divided and the minorities with their long aspired target of a separate state by name only.
• For India’s role India that is fully funding the road and rail will take over entire North making it an Indian protectorate
• The next question is what will happen to the all-important and much sought after East in view of the Trincomalee harbour. India may secure that too on the assurance that the West would be able to use it whenever required. An Okinawa type set up may be created for the West.
• The new constitution will seek to remove the Buddhist identity of Sri Lanka, another long and unfulfilled endeavor of the West though many people in the West are now abandoning their faith to embrace the teachings of Buddhism having now realized the futility of the capitalist system.
• Turning Sri Lanka into an Indian protectorate would mean a flood of Indians to Sri Lanka. It is likely that the Indian bureaucracy would prefer North Indians rather than deal with the South Indian influx into Sri Lanka. North Indians and South Indians never see eye to eye and many forget that Tamil Nadu has been seeking self-determination far before the Vaddukoddai Resolution was established. Many need to also be reminded that there was never a nation called India until the British christened it because what we call India today was made up of independent princely kingdoms and territories which is the argument scholars in Tamil Nadu used to demand separation from the Indian Central Government and were refused.
• Transform the education system to denationalize children and remove any linkage to feeling proud of their nation and their historical heritage and making them ‘dependent’ to importing all instead of self-sustaining their nation.
• FCID, special courts above country law and similar authoritative commissions currently being set up alongside hate speech legislation and attempts to subdue the Buddhist clergy are all aligned to stifling opposition to put behind bars anyone going against the current destabalizing changes.
• The unpatriotic foreign funded media will provide necessary anti-Sinhala, anti-Buddhist anti-unitary and pro-federal, pro-devolution propaganda through all forms of media to brainwash the general public.

Have the yahapalana leaders and the Sri Lankan Tamil politicians and their cohorts thought about what will be the status quo after the Indians have secured what they want and the West have infiltrated into areas through their NGOs and other ‘invisible investors’ and faith healers?

The yahapalana leaders and opposition are currently trading verbal abuse at each other little realizing that with each day their power periphery is being taken away by their own foolishness in devolving what they currently control to external sources unlikely to return what was given. Having weakened the military and law and order will they have the necessary reinforcements when things go contrary to what they plan and even the people will look away to suffer in silence the fate of their karma.

These scenarios have been laid out but obviously greed for power and revenge have taken over. The same fate awaits the Tamil politicians who will find sooner than later what it is like to serve under Indian masters. Good for the Tamil people to think about life under Indians now itself or perhaps ask the Nepalese or Bangladeshi’s of what they think of the Indian incursions in their countries!

Shenali D Waduge