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Editorial
He’s dead. Is cause too?
 Sri Lanka is an
example of the might of the state. No individual, no forum can be
capable of as much ruthlessness as can be a nation state when it
shuns all scruples. Colombo has chosen a path to solve an
intractable problem that can only be ruinous by definition. If the
world is found amiss in not stating as much, then expect an end to
poverty in the world very soon. All you need is to carpet bomb the
poor and the areas where they live, then send some sharp shooters to
clean out any poor left in the nooks and crannies of your cities and
villages.
Sri Lanka under
the presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse has eliminated the top
leadership of the LTTE after a period of 26 years. It was swift end.
Which earlier PM could not have done it had he or she mustered the
courage to kill hundreds and thousands of his/her own countrymen and
render millions refugees? It could have been done swiftly any day.
All they needed was to shun the scruples.
Velupillai
Prabhakaran lived by the edge of a sword, he was to die by one.
The blood bath
is over. Rajapakse is behaving as a hero. This is the worst example
that he could have set. There is no end to the singing and dancing
on the streets by the Sinhala community common folk who too, by any
stretch of imagination, have been a victim of the violence. The
scenes of celebrations being telecast world wide come at a time when
hundreds of thousands of Tamil origin citizens of Sri Lanka are
displaced, braving death and destruction, and scraping for food amid
bloodied areas. In what kind of a country can the head of a state
set such an example?
There is little
sign of the majority Sinhala Buddhist community accepting the
minority communities as equals and not as a vanquished people. By
all means, the Sinahalese also have been the victims of the long and
unending cycle of violence and their sense of a liberation from
permanent feeling of fear is understandable. But they need to
understand that a Motherland cannot live in permanent peace by
discriminating against a lot of her sons.
Whether
Prabhakaran is dead or not, the Tamil struggle for rights and status
has received a severe beating and the phase of armed struggle in the
island nation appears to have come to a halt for the time being.
The strong and
vibrant Tamil Diaspora is likely to continue its efforts for
proclamation, protection and preservation of Tamil Rights.
After the fall
of Killonichchi and Mulaivitu, it was a matter of time as the Sri
Lankan army had defied all international opprobrium and was
continuing its military offensive in a ruthless manner, even
unmindful of the displacement, destruction and deaths of millions of
civilians who were trapped in the battle zone.
The fall of the
strategic Elephant pass provided the route for the Sri Lankan army
as the pass and the entire area beyond it was under the control of
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
In the last few
years, many of the faces of the struggle like Anton Balsingham and
Tamilchelvan died and Prabhakaran was virtually left alone at the
drawing board to chart out the next phase of the struggle after the
Norwegian brokered peace plan was discarded by the Sri Lankan
government.
The battle is
over. Velupillai Prabhakaran is no more. One hopes that the struggle
will now take a new approach without the use of arms. The role of
the Lankan Diaspora is likely to become huge now.
There are many
lessons in this end. Political militant movements need to understand
that politics must not be overpowered by violence and armed
components must be subservient to not just violence but even to the
notions of natural justice. The LTTE at some point of time forgot
this. Today, if some people hold back their tears, it is because
senseless violence does not pay.Time that Rajapakse also learns
that.
20 May 2009
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