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Who can fulfil Prabakaran's Dream?

Shenali Waduge

Martin Luther King had a dream.........it was to see people of all countries, races, and religions living together in harmony. He was assassinated before he could "see" that dream. But he is fondly remembered globally for that dream lives on in many of us.

Velupillai Prabakaran too has a dream...it is to see a Tamil Eelam. It has been over 25 years & he still continues to have that dream ....there is of course a difference...Martin Luther King was anything but violent but his dream met with a violent end. Velupillai Prabakaran follows nothing but violence...his dream centers upon himself and perhaps those of his trusted coteries leaving nothing but nightmares for the entire nation.

So this has been the status quo of Sri Lanka for the past 25 years. It is interesting how the period that saw Sri Lanka's rise - the late 1970s, was also timed with the beginning of Sri Lanka's fall.

Sri Lanka's colonial masters ensured through their "divide & rule" policy that differences between the majority Sinhalese & minority Tamils prevailed, divisions they carefully orchestrated leaving the people of Sri Lanka to be tagged & differentiated as Sinhalese, Tamil & Muslims. Even the Donoughmore Commission recognized that communal representation introduced by the British as an " ... experiment has not given the desired results, but has had, if anything, the opposite effect. The representatives of the various communities do not trust one another, and communal representation has not helped to develop an uniting bond or link" (Donoughmore Commission Report, p. 91).

It was the culmination of several factors that created tensions over the years & left what the West prefers to describe as a "civil war" instead of admitting to a terrorist problem for possible reasons best known to themselves & for others to find out & expose. Thus, the "Civil war". "Ethnic problem" tag gives credibility to offshore activities to bear their legitimate presence in Sri Lanka, apply pressure internationally on Sri Lanka, deny aid, development & other assistance on the grounds that issues like "human rights", "discrimination", "racism" exist - things that are so abstract yet allow players like NGO's & media channels to feed upon & excite euphoria with rhetoric locally & globally against a Government... all the while neglecting to point the finger upon the real perpetrators - the Terrorists. In many ways the present NGOs with their boundryless influence over countries & accountability to none call to mind the British East India Company & the stealth in which they managed to maneuver & reign an entire region during their heyday.

There is however something very much amiss in the interpretation of civil war or ethnic problem for in reality the enemy was a common enemy to both the Tamils & Sinhalese...or was it? Are their sufficient evidence to prove that a fair number of Tamils do shelter the notion of a separate Tamil kingdom, is there silence against the LTTE for fear for do they really nurse notions for a separate land & are they really prepared to forfeit the life they have been leading for scores of years amongst their Sinhalese brethren for an illusive Eelaam?

Each time this notion springs up why is it that the Vaddukoddai Resolution comes into focus & we should also recall how the Tamil politicos at the time of Independence wanted equal representation in par with the Sinhalese to which the British had refused. The Soulbury Commission stated unequivocally that the processes at work in Sri Lanka were attempts to redress decades of neglect and injustice perpetrated on the larger Sri Lankan nation most of whom were Sinhalese, and that these processes were not in any way attempts to discriminate against the minority Tamils. The adjustments that had to be made by the privileged Sinhalese and Tamils must be seen as corrections for purposes of social justice that were long overdue. Therefore, the Sri Lankan Tamils have no justification to claim external self determination on the grounds of internal colonialism.

Thus whether the eventual LTTE hegemony of military rule with a propaganda slogan for a separate homeland was actually shared by the Tamil people is important to the resolution of the supposed conflict. If not, there is no basis for any of the discriminations, racism etc that the Sinhalese are being accused of. To argue this case, we may have to leave aside the Tamil's presently living on foreign shores for their views are very much triggered by an innate reason to force the issue of discrimination & fear on the global platform to delay their return to Sri Lanka so as to "buy" time to obtain their permanent residency status. It is natural & we should not blame most Tamil people for utilizing the internationalization of the issue to seek a life in greener pastures using the "ethnic discrimination" theme... yet considering the suffering that the public face ...this includes people of all the communities...surely they must realize their folly in supporting terrorism. There have been many surveys over the years but it would be interesting to find out exactly how many Tamils really wish for a separate homeland which would of course mean that those who are presently living amongst the Sinhalese would have to change their residence & start life afresh in tiger territory.

The upper elite classes of both Sinhala & Tamils were to take over post-independence politics. Their affluence questioned how well they could understand the needs of the larger populace. Differences of opinion were bound to set in, reversals to status quos obviously would mean contentions thus the hand over from western to indigenous rule did have its ups & downs. The colonial policies ensured discrepancies in education & employment & a very noticeable difference between Sinhalese & Tamils. It then came as no surprise that these issues would soon add political flavor & the minorities were unlikely to be prepared to give up all the benefits heaped upon them by the British. These issues wrongfully handled eventually set the stage for the differences that today take international platforms & become subject matter & merits interference by external forces to realize their hidden agendas.

If the first constitution of Sri Lanka was accused of disenfranchising Indian Tamils, neglect of human rights etc..it was in 1956 that S W R D Bandaranaike was to make another faux pas in the Sinhala Only policy. To his credit he immediately signed an agreement with the head of the Federal Party - S J V Chelvanayagam. The agreement didn't go beyond fulfilling the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act in 1958 for Bandaranaike was assassinated. A similar agreement between Dudley Senanayake & Chelvanayagam was again disrupted due to objections by leaders of the present opposition. But in all fairness these "Sinhala" leaders did make attempts to address their "mistakes" purely for political mileage & not desirous of instigating any "discrimination" against the Tamils per se. It is really the greed for "political mileage" that has dragged the country from really finding any solution to the present predicament. Practically all of the Governments in power since independence have sought short term solutions, failing to identify a long term action plan for the nation & completely failing to identify areas & issues that could have been averted by sound policy decisions.

Lack of a cohesive program for the country, a national agenda for development & integration of its peoples are only some of the aspects that past politicians overlooked & present politicians ignored before the issues climaxed into pitiable heights. Seeds of disharmony were allowed to fester instead of alternatives being sought, shortcomings should have been easily addressed & corrected at least explained if they could not be changed. This provided scope for opportunistic politicians from either sides making use of the public to gain the limelight & confuse the problem beyond comprehension aggravating the situation further, though essentially the public by & large do not share or conform to any of the "differences' that the politicos seem to project.

In deed, the majority leaders of the day should have adopted a better approach than the actions that were taken creating the "differences' that would bring to light dark chapters in the history books of Sri Lanka. The Tamil politicians had to answer to the "changes" that were taking place. It was perhaps the inability to obtain the path they sought politically that motivated them to turn to the youth brigade to realize their objectives - Amirthalingam & other such leaders did treat the LTTE as boy cubs before they began to dictate terms to the TULF. Thus, we can perhaps presume that the seeds of separatism certainly did not start with Prabakaran. It was very much in the minds of Tamil politicians who thought Prabakaran or the other paramilitaries could be used to realize their "right to self-determination". This was the cue for Prabakaran to start his "dream" & eventually set the stage to become the self proclaimed "soul representative" of the Tamil people eliminating all Tamil leaders who came in his way.

Giving thrust to the argument that the seeds of separatism did not stem from Prabakaran is the Vaddukoddai Resolution adopted at the National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) on 14 May 1976 where the TULF declared the interest of forming a sovereign Tamil state - it was presided by S J V Chelvanaygam....it gave enough & more reasons for the need for a separate state & at the conclusion of the resolution it states "this Convention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam is reached" it is obviously this "come forward" signal that urged Prabakaran to take up arms. The decision of Prabakaran to take on an armed struggle worked well with India's own obliterated desires upon Sri Lanka by creating a destabilized nation through paramilitary outfits that would ensure Sri Lanka's development is curtailed & prolonged & India's intervention is all but a call away. Through the long years of strife India has played a silent though prominent role in Sri Lanka even through each of the peace talks & cease fire agreements.

With the internationalizing of the civil war it took away any chances Sri Lanka had of internally solving the crisis. It made many wonder whether this was really the ultimate agenda of these forces to make the Sri Lankan Government as well as the LTTE pawns in realizing this objective. From this stems many of the much discussed conspiracy theories prompting the importance of Sri Lanka geographical location as a gateway to both East & West, thus making the Western forces wish to use Sri Lanka as a base while the Eastern bloc wish to deny that right considering its damaging affects to the region in general. In this context we are presently hearing of a need for a League of Democracies in the light of the disagreements in the Security Council members. This also created the launch of an equally powerful Eastern pact through the Shanghai Cooperation Council (an answer to NATO) to which even India, Pakistan & Iran hold membership as observers. Perhaps it would do Sri Lanka well to seek membership in this entity as well.

Why Sri Lanka is important for Asian supremacy

This small island nation of Sri Lanka has become a focus of world attention not so much for the "conflict" prevalent internally but more so for its geographical & invariably political significance to the world's superpowers. Cushioned in the Indian Ocean, its strategic placed has benefit for trade routes as well as for political mileage. It is why Asia's giants are competing for supremacy. China & India are both on a course to expand their control of the waters. Countries like Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka have benefited by this drive by aid given under friendship pacts. Obviously these aid packages may look commercially inclined but in reality it may not be so. So what should we make of China's aid to develop the Hambantota port or India's aid to develop Myanmar....& let us also observe how the US & Japan are silently nodding with approval upon India's expansion drives in Asia too. So, these expansions are clearly viewed as possible naval bases in time to come. Adding to speculation is the establishments of listening stations by India in Madagascar, Mozambique, and an air base in Kazakhstan, space monitoring post in Mongolia as well as plans to place nuclear submarines at sea & opening of air force bases near Chinese border. Adding to this
notion of a build of supremacy between India & China we can but wonder at the additions to military arsenal coming India's way courtesy of the
US.

The issue of Human Rights?

It does tickle anyone's fancy how the promoters of human rights...the activists that are so concerned about protecting human rights are perhaps "unknowingly" whitewashing the perpetrators! Unless of course these "activists" are working to an agenda that aims to direct the attention of world bodies away from the perpetrators & to an easier more tangible target - a Government? Doesn't Governments make easy target for world bodies to demand why they have failed to protect civilian life? This is a plausible explanation in the light of continued LTTE massacres & the international community as well as the UN maintains through its statements that the Government must protect its civilians. Now the catch here is that when action is being taken by the Government to address this need....casualties to the LTTE immediately garners a plethora of "activists" to jump & cry "foul" ....attract international attention & even pressure the Government to halt military operations. Lest we have mistaken ourselves in assuming who the civilians are we should again remind ourselves that civilians are all those who have perished for no fault of theirs as a result of the bombs & suicides carefully planned & carried out by the LTTE - civilians are not LTTE members, even those who are "civilians by day & terrorists by night & vice versa", all those Sinhala traitors should also be categorized as LTTE terrorists.

The path of democracy means associating one self with all the fads & hype associated with the term democracy. Any strife would of course immediately necessitate "negotiations" "discussions" "deliberations" "reconciliations" as opposed to deciding to perhaps nip things in the bud. Thus, like good students of democracy the Government though the status of the other "student" is questionable indulged in peace talks, cease-fires, negotiations even in changing weathers to see if differences could be sorted out. The interesting factor here was that while the Government could send representatives in view of their representing the people by virtue of being voted in to Parliament, the LTTE was minus its leader who alone had vested upon himself supreme power. Thus, it was little wonder where these talks were in fact heading though it did provide scope for many "international forces" to align themselves to Sri Lanka's problem & project themselves as best suited to bring about the solution.

The issue with peace talks is that while the central reason becomes the need to cease hostilities & end shooting indiscriminately or otherwise it ultimately gets entangled with governing systems & become precursors to changing constitutions or bringing amendments without seeking the "consent" of the people. Thus, there enters the players who feel that the North-East should not be demerged, the 17th Amendment should be enforced.....etc...all the while forgetting that the country is striven with nothing other than a terrorist problem. If the world thinks that there are "discriminations" ask the Tamils why should the LTTE provide the answers.

Peace talks have essentially become a farce not only in Sri Lanka's context but in relation to all other conflicts presently prevalent in the light of all the parties in the strife very much aware of their role in stupefying the public who ends up having to lamely accept whatever decisions that are derived at. This was the case with the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (22 February), signed in secrecy at a time when the US coined the war on terror slogan following attacks upon its territory. It was a queue for the LTTE to ward of any US actions upon its network & provided the opportunity for Wickremasinghe to project himself as Lanka's savior since road blocks were to be removed & every one given the right to move as they so pleased, though his party came between a solution introduced in 2000 by the Kumaratunga Government which eventually resulted in its author (Neelan Tiruchelvam) a Tamil being assassinated by the LTTE, obviously this solution was not what the LTTE was looking for. The LTTE made use of the Wickremasinghe rule to arrange many ships carrying arms to Sri Lanka, stocked & safely stashed away, information divulged by the Wickremasinghe Government too helped in assuring the slow elimination of members of a secret unit designed to target LTTE operatives.

Yet, it must be highlighted that certain facts cannot go unnoticed. The Sinhalese are the majority race. Tamils have their origins from Tamil Nadu - it is their homeland. This then raises the question of how the Tamils can demand two homelands!?! There is no place for the Sinhalese to go to other than Sri Lanka. The crusaders for minority rights internationally & locally must not assume that such rights can be derived overlooking the rights of the majority. Provision for one at the sacrifice or denial of the other will lead to & confuse the issue further. It then brings us to the question of who are asking for minority rights.... The international media .... The international community... There are many who feel that a new form of imperialism is taking place - to some they opt to refer to its neocolonialism & all these are manifest in groups that call themselves NGOs some acting on the behest of prominent Governments while others style themselves as the World Government.

The present provincial council system was set up following the Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord - in essence it was an imposition succeeding the parippu drops that led to the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. The welcome garlands by Jaffna Tamils were soon to turn to cries of agony & calls for their return to India. Host turned hostile as an unusual partnership of LTTE & Premadasa led to the IPKF troops returning to India. The euphoria was soon to turn bloody following the very arms sent as promised by President Premadasa being used to nullify some 600 policemen who were asked to dig their own graves before they were shot one by one from the arms given by President Premadasa to the LTTE. The deaths of these policemen were never mourned or remembered & a few days back the Government has decided to take up the investigation into their deaths....it is timely in the light of the isolated cases that are being targeted at the Government on issues of human rights. Perhaps we can see what the world will say regarding the human rights of these policemen killed by the LTTE.

Denial of Sri Lanka's internal self-determination

The present scenario & the interference's that are taking place reveal a shadow form of colonial rule starting out with the intervention by India again outside of the UN system just because India was acting on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils. The action can be considered as a violation of the Algiers Declaration on the Rights of the People....with a preamble which states...."new forms of imperialism evolve to press & exploit the peoples of the world...through direct & indirect intervention, through multimational enterprises, through manipulation of corrupt local politicians..." Does this not sound too familiar in the context of our country - Sri Lanka?

Why is that the human rights violations....discriminations are all seen as targeting only the minorities of the country...it is as if the majority lead a very comfortable life ....& if at all discriminations & violations are to be looked into the world should first investigate how the human right of the majority populace in Sri Lanka were violated by India in imposing the provincial council system.

Apart from what the LTTE promotes through international propaganda, we really don't know what the Sri Lankan Tamils seek - autonomy, separation....is it due to cultural differences, discrimination....!!! They started out first with the discrimination theme & now moved on to right to self-determination. It makes understanding the issue all the more complicated when over half of the entire Tamil populace are actually living outside of predominantly Tamil areas....had their being such deplorable conditions they would surely have opted to stay where things were far safer in the arms of the LTTE..perhaps. This really does complicate the scenario....where we have an armed terrorist group...holding a small number of Tamil people kept confined to the North (most of whom have somehow escaped LTTE control & traveled South) asking for a separate homeland. The Tamil community themselves must recognize that they are in fact a minority, a rather small one at that & realistically ask themselves if at any time did they suffer any of the atrocities that the world has seen.

A rigid caste system amongst Tamils separates them amongst each other than any of the discrimination they currently project. It is a silent killer as caste affects, traditions, marriage, education & careers. There are presently over 40 million Tamils scattered all over the world. Their plan to create Tamil ghettos spanning Malaysia, Singapore & Sri Lanka is evident (Dr. Robert Kearney of Syracuse University, USA). The "We Tamil Movement" launched by a few ambitious Tamils of South India was quickly squashed by Indian authorities considering the dire consequences if allowed to gather momentum throughout the State & possibly into the minds of the 40 million or so Tamils. It would have created a far worse situation than what Sri Lanka is presently faced with. The myth of a Tamil Eelam suits them well & keeps a live an intangible dream nursed militarily by the LTTE & possibly likes to stretch borders with time. Prabarakan saw to it that the northern part of Sri Lanka was occupied ONLY by Tamils having chased out both Sinhalese & Muslims living a 20 mile stretch between Tamil Nadu the actual homeland of the Tamils & the north of Sri Lanka.

Terrorists are not concerned with rights, liberties, equality ...any of the virtues associated with democracy. They have no friends & their interests are only self-serving. Their limits know no bounds which is why we see a growing interconnectivity amongst terror groups globally. Just as Governments are steadily beginning to work in cohesion against terrorism, terrorists are getting together to see that such doesn't occur. Sri Lanka cannot deal with terrorism unless & until such time countries that allow LTTE leaders, LTTE sleeper cells & funds to continue unnoticed.

All issues that the international community accuses the Government of in the present context are incongruous until such time the threat of terrorism has been eliminated from Sri Lanka. Since we are presently dealing with a dream that has gone on for over 25 years we may possibly face a time where that dream may become obsolete & the fate of the dreamer may be compared to that of Adolf Hitler...how disappointing it would be but our nightmares would be finally over. A man whose power seemed invincible finally had to take his own life to save face to a sterile cause.

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