{"id":94346,"date":"2019-10-26T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94346"},"modified":"2019-10-26T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T18:56:00","slug":"bible-and-tamil-muni-predicted-the-end-of-elam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/26\/bible-and-tamil-muni-predicted-the-end-of-elam\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible and Tamil muni predicted the end of Elam"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Having lost their\nmost powerful bargaining chip at Nandikadal, the Tamil leadership, lured by\nRanil Wickremesinghe, embraced Gen Sarath Fonseka, the much-decorated head of\nthe Army who, along with the heads of Navy and the Air force, inflicted the\nmost humiliating defeat on the Tamils. The votes given to Gen. Fonseka at the\npresidential election of 2010 were the biggest pooja ever offered by the Tamils\nto a Sinhala candidate. When the Tamils trekked to vote for Gen. Fonseka, the\ngeneral that beat  their hero -\u2013 irony of ironies! — it was tantamount to\nthe  Tamils performing their political ritual of offering their thanks and\nworshipping him in the polling kovils for eliminating an evil force that\nplagued them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verily, it can be\nsaid that the Tamils owe their peace of mind,  their right to send their\nchildren to school without being abducted forcibly by the Tamil Army, the right\nto live without the  bullets from both sides hitting them, their right to\ngo about their daily lives without being bombed, their right to get their due\nshare of free medical, food, and social services etc., from the\nSinhala-Buddhist state\u201d without being hijacked by the Tamil Army, their right\nto live without going through the daily pain of losing their kith and kin in a\nfutile war waged by the Tamil Army, thanks to the war-winning Rajapakses who\nappointed Gen. Fonseka and gave him all the resources and political backing at\nhome and diplomatic backing abroad to save the Tamils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Tamils\nvoted for Gen. Fonseka who defeated their Surya Devan\u201d there is no reason why\nthey can\u2019t vote for the Commander-in-Chief and his Defence Secretary, Gotabaya,\nwho gave protection to the Tamil leadership hunted by their Suriya Devan\u201d.\nBesides, the UN commended the Rajapakse regime as the only government that\nprovided medical, food and other non-military necessities to the civilians in a\nrebel-held territory. Besides, it is the Rajapakse duo that handpicked Gen.\nFonseka, who was about to be retired, and backed him all the way to save the\nTamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, if they\ncould vote for Gen. Fonseka they could on the same logic vote for Gota. But\nthey are dithering now. Or they are pretending to be undecided though in their\nminds they know that they will eventually vote for Ranil\u2019s nominee,\nSajith.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, the\ndithering is symptomatic of the plight of the Tamil who do not know which way\nto turn. They see the polling booth as the only tool available for them to\nbargain with the two major parties. So they have come up with a 13-point\nstatement laying down conditions that could only lead to Nandikadal again. They\nhave presented their 13-point demands to the two rival presidential candidates\nurging them to reply. Quite pragmatically, neither of the candidates had\ndeigned to reply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This document\ncontains all the characteristics needed to lay the foundations for the capture\nof Tamil Elam they could not win in Nandikadal. It has been authored by the\nUniversity students and lecturers of the Jaffna and Eastern Universities. By\nfar, this team can be considered to be the latest cream of the Tamil\nintelligentsia rising together to give new directions to Tamils politics which,\nunfortunately, is stuck hopelessly in the mud of its bloody past. Standing\nsolidly behind this document is the Tamil leadership. Five Tamil parties have\nput their signatures to it. They are Maavai Senathiraja (ITAK), Selvam Adaikalanathan\n(TELO), Darmalingam Siddharthan (PLOTE), Suresh Premachandran (EPRLF) and C. V.\nVigneswaran (TPA), Consequently, the Tamil leaders expect the world to\nconsider it as a serious document. Besides, it comes from the next crop of\nTamil intellectuals who are likely to take over the Tamil leadership from the\nageing Sampanthans, Sumanthirams and Wigneswarans.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those looking\nfor new insights that could (1) deal positively with a win-win result for all\ncommunities, (2) or move away from their failed historical past, (3) or show a\nnew way out to the vexed demands of the Tamils since independence, will be most\ndisappointed because there is absolutely nothing new in it. M. A. Sumanthiram,\na Christian Tamil aspiring to be the leader of the Hindu Tamils, admits that\nthere is nothing new it. The 13 demands listed are nothing but a carbon copy of\nthe usual litany of complaints that has been regurgitated time and time again\nby the failed Tamil leadership. Even a cursory glance will confirm that all\nTamil activities and ideologies, including the failed Batakotte (Tamilised as\nVadukoddai) War, are wrapped round these age-old demands. To all intents and\npurposes this document exposes the bankruptcy of the Tamil intelligentsia who\nare intransigently refusing to accept the new realities facing them. The Tamil\nleadership presented the 13-point statement to the two leading presidential\ncandidates hoping to use it as a bargaining chip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are arguing\nas if they are still in the period when the Batakotte Resolution was drafted\n(May 14, 1976). This is one of fatal flaws of Tamil intellectuals. They are\nstuck in a failed past and are refusing to move forward accepting the new\nrealities. Take for instance the Batakotte War (aka Eelam War) which was\ndeclared in the Batakotte Resolution (1976). In it the Tamil leadership urged\nthe Tamil youth to take up arms and fight until they achieved Elam. It was the\nlast throw of the Tamil dice. They threw everything they had into it. They even\nallowed their Suriya Devan\u201d (Sun God), Velupillai Prabhakaran, to abduct their\nchildren and throw them into the depleted ranks of the defeated Tigers who were\nlimping all the way to Nandikadal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tamil\nChristians, particularly the Tamil Catholics, were in the forefront foraging\nevery nook and corner to ferret any Christian tool\/<\/strong>argument to boost the\nsinking morale of the Tamil Tigers. It was a time when the invincible Tamil\nTigers were fleeing desperately to find escape routes away from the advancing\nSri Lanka Security Forces. Apart from the Tamil diaspora they had the added\nadvantage of a global pastoral community of Christians ready to aid and abet\nthe Tamil Christian minority being persecuted by the brutal Sinhala-Buddhist\nmajority.\u201d  In desperation some Christian Churchmen and lay priests dug up\nreferences to Elam in the Bible to boost the declining morale of the misguided\nElamites. For instance, Prof. C. J. Eliezer of the La Trobe University,\nMelbourne, was one of the lay priests who linked up with the Uniting Church to\nmobilise the church against the Sri Lankans. He was\nthe head of the Tamil community in Australia mobilising all available sources \u2013\nChurches, media, academia, parliamentarians etc \u2013 against the\nSinhala-Buddhist  state\u201d, even though his sister-in-law, Rangi Handy, was\nmarried to Maithripala Senanayake, one of the leading Sinhala-Buddhist minister\nin the Bandaranaike governments.  They would pick up every scrap\nfrom anywhere to believe in the inevitable victory of the invincible Tamil\nSurya Devan\u201d. But, as usual, they read the Bible in their own distorted way,\nas they read their history, to confirm their delusions and not the reality\nfacing them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that\nElam is mentioned in several places in the Bible, from Isaiah to the Acts. But\nthe Tamils deliberately overlooked the critical pronouncements of Prophet\nJeremiah who virtually cursed Elam and prophesied the end of it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jeremiah<\/em><\/strong>\nthe Lord speaks and says (49 :<\/strong> 34- 37):<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

34 The word of\nthe Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet against Elam in the beginning of\nthe reign of Zed-e-kiah king of Judah, saying,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

35 Thus said the\nLord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

36 And upon Elam\nwill I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter\nthem toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts\nof Elam shall not come,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

37 For I will\ncause Elam to be dismayed before  their enemies; and before them that seek\ntheir life; and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the\nLord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the Elam\nmentioned in the Bible refers to a region of modern Iran the graphic\ndescription rings so true as if they were prophesied specifically to the\ndestruction of the Elamites of Jaffna forever. It has, in its own way,\nprophesied practically every key aspect of the Batakotte War moving inexorably\nto its humiliating end in Nandikadal. But the Tamils Christians went into war\nas if God was on their side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example is\nBishop Rayappu Joseph ruling the bishopric of Madhu,a sacred Christian venue\nfor Sinhala and Tamil Catholics, and some non-Catholics too. Bishop Rayappu,\nhowever, is the kind of priest who believed in his Tamilness first and\nChristianity later. He is the absolute anti-thesis of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.\nBoth represent the two ends of the Catholic Church divided on political\nperspectives. At the first sign of the Security Forces advancing to the\nTiger-held territory in Mannar, with the Forces nearing the sacred Madhu\nChurch, Bishop Rayappa\u2019s priests grabbed the Holy Statue of Mary, and ran deep\ninto LTTE- held territory in Mannar with his advice and consent. His distorted\ntheology made his flock believe that the statue of Holy Mary is the exclusive\nproperty of the Tamil Catholics and not the Sinhala Catholics. When the Holy\nStatue returned, to Madhu it proved, like Jeremiah\u2019s prophesy, that God was not\non the side of the Tamil Elamites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An equally telling\nprophesy was told to King Pararajsekaran by Supathidda-muni, a sage revered by\nthe king. Yalpana-Vaipava-Malai<\/em><\/strong>, history of Jaffna, written by\npoet Mylvakanam, records this event. It is a book written at the request of the\nDutch Governor Jan Maccara (1736). Mylvakanam says: The king received him\n(muni) with all the marks of reverence due to his exalted sanctity and when he\nwas seated, the king ventured to speak, saying Lord and Master! Thou\nforetoldest future events to this thy slave\u2019s father. Thy slave has not been\nable to learn them properly. Deign to enlighten him with a knowledge of what\nshall happen to this kingdom\u201d (p. 27 \u2013 The Yalpana – Vaipava \u2013 Malai<\/em><\/strong>\n\u2013 translated by C. Britto, 1879 ). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  Muni\nthen traces a long line of successors and explain that  the kingdom will\nfall into the hands of Parangis (Portuguese) , Ulanthese (Dutch) the \nInthiresu (English), the Piragnchu (French) and subsequent rulers and concludes\n: The sovereignty  will never again come  back to your\ndynasty.\u201d     ( p.29 \u2013 Ibid). <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala Having lost their most powerful bargaining chip at Nandikadal, the Tamil leadership, lured by Ranil Wickremesinghe, embraced Gen Sarath Fonseka, the much-decorated head of the Army who, along with the heads of Navy and the Air force, inflicted the most humiliating defeat on the Tamils. The votes given to Gen. Fonseka […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}