New Dream for Tear Drop Island – Part 2

Atricle Continuation from New Dream for Tear Drop Island.

Regrouping

Under the circumstances, it is impossible for the LTTE   to regroup.  Numerous factors that favoured the LTTE in their early stages  had turned against them  today.

The changing regional and international political scenarios virtually crippled the LTTE with India, Pakistan China and Russia standing behind Sri Lankan government while   Western countries especially, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France and even distant Australia, though under pressure from the Tamil population in their respective countries, were unable to support the LTTE.

Three decades after today where do the northern Tamils stand? Their cities and villages destroyed. The entire   community is in shambles .Their source of livelihood and social life in tatters. There is hardly a northern Tamil family living together as they remain scattered all over. More than 70,000 sacrificed their precious lives. This is the cream of the society. Their blood is bound to haunt the LTTE  and their supporters for generations to come. 

Almost a million Tamils settled   all over the world. Their economic conditions and living standards improved and they are unlikely to return to the island as the second and third generations have been absorbed into the society and culture in their host countries. There are more than 65,000 unmarried Tamil women living all over due to lack of marriage partners .Thus the social problems have been immense and complicated. 

What do the numerous graveyards of those innocent young men and women who sacrificed their lives in the destructive path to the failed statehood all over north convey?  Under the circumstance, the defeat of the LTTE is certainly not the end of Tamils and their grievances remain in spite of LTTE. In his address to the nation President Mahinda Rajapakse assured that the victory over LTTE is not a victory over the Tamils. This is a welcome sign and the   need of the hour is for a genuine political solution acceptable to all.

This is assuring.

Prabhakaran foiled every effort by the government to redress the Tamil grievances to ensure he remains the sole leader .Under this policy there was no place for any moderate Tamil parties, group or leader. Any such attempt to nurture a leader or group was crushed by assassinations and one after the other he wiped out the moderate Tamil politicians in the 1980s.

Though the LTTE strengthened bargaining position, they were the biggest obstacles to a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict. Now that Prabhakaran is no more that obstacles was removed, though the Tamils remain weak in bargaining a deal.   

The wound is too deep and hatred and mistrust remain too intense and thus the need of the hour is   for reconciliation and healing. It is also time for stocktaking, shed the communal politics that   brought the country to where it is today and introduce a package that would be acceptable to   all.  

The average Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others live in peace and harmony despite the LTTE and its atrocities .Thus the required ingredients for unity and lead the country towards peace and progress are already there. It is also a welcome sign that   already, in the wake of the LTTE defeat, responsible elements from the majority community started emphasizing the need for unity among the communities. Ends

Communal Politics

Sri Lanka’s ruling elite from all shades of political opinion began indulging in communal politics even before the country’s independence in 1948 to either gain or retain power. This small but powerful section, though not the perfect representation of the majority community, always behaved in a manner that this country belongs only to Sinhala Buddhists and the rest were migrants allowed to live in the country with their consent.  

 In doing so, they only thought of next elections and not the next generation. Seldom had they realized that this was blood sport that could turn this paradise   island into one of the worst killing fields in the world.

This trend was accelerated in the post independence era when mainstream political parties started to compete in fanning the flame of communalism as they thought it was the best means of votes catching. The inevitable result was the polarization of the communities to the detriment of all. As rightly pointed out by the island’s Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, it was the Sinhala Only Act in 1956 that brought the country to what it is today.

Tamil Tigers were not a bunch of terrorists who abruptly descended in this island from another planet. Instead, they were the product of communal politics for which the country has paid a dear price. However, they went too far in their atrocities, committed heinous crimes, held the entire country to ransom and further polarized the society.

They only believed in gun, violence and terrorism in their drive to achieve a    separate state for Tamils and failed to grasp many opportunities offered by the government to redress the grievances of Tamils and enter mainstream politics. The result was death, destruction and devastation leading to their own end to the joy of the nation but to the disillusionment of northern Tamils.

It is time that everyone realizes   the reality that Sri Lanka is a multi racial, multi lingual, multi racial and multi cultural country where all could live in peace and harmony as we had lived for centuries before this barbaric war erupted.

Fortunately, for the country there are positive signs even during these dark times. That is the earnest desire of the average Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others to live together in peace and harmony since almost three decades of bloodshed and destruction have brought all full circle to the gross realization that destinies of all communities share common goals and are inextricably interwoven. 

 Shattered Dream

Violence and ruthlessness have been the only means known to LTTE in their so-called road to their now shattered dream of separate state of Tamil Eelam. . 

During the early stages, they killed their rivals and emerged as the sole Tamil militant group. Then they eliminated their own moderate politicians, intellectuals and all others on slightest dissent on any issue. Their indiscriminate killings, extortion, enforced child recruitment and other such atrocities silenced the very Tamils whom they claimed to liberate.

They defeated the Indian Peace Keeping Force with the Sri Lankan government’s help and won the admiration of donors, Tamil diaspora, media and others. However, they failed to exploit these achievements to enter into mainstream politics and win the rights of Tamils. 

Instead, they unleashed wave of terror and killed Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan President R Premadasa and numerous ministers, politicians and others. They ethnic cleansed the entire Muslim population from north and Jaffna Muslims within two hours with empty hands and looted their wealth. In the east, they indiscriminately killed Muslims, including those while praying in the mosques, grabbed their lands, deprived them of their livelihood and rendered them miserable paupers.

Thus, the north was emptied of non-Tamils though Tamils, Muslims and all others continue to live in peace in the south. Their frequent violence held the country to ransom and people lived in fear.

A separate state of a kind was almost given in silver plate under the 2002 February Ceasefire Agreement.  Yet they violated the CFA more than 5500 times. They stopped people in the north from voting and helped bring Mahinda Rajapakse to power. They dismissed even President Rajapakse’s peace offer and solely depended on violence to achieve nothing but separate state of Tamil Elam.

The irony is that it was President Mahinda Rajapakse, convinced that the LTTE would never agree to any peace moves, planned and executed the war and brought the end of Prabhakaran. Today, the LTTE is a banned terrorist outfit in more than 30 countries where Tamils failed to win the hearts of their host countries due to their violence and support to the LTTE, under compulsion or by conviction.

The irony was that despite the LTTE’s crime records professionals, intellectuals and many others from north supported the LTTE in the hope that its violence would bring them the Tamil Eelam.

The question is three decades later today what is the plight of northern Tamils?