Online edition of Daily News

Inside an Elusive Mind - Prabhakaran

by M. R. Narayan Swamy

Vijitha Yapa Publications, Colombo, 2003

Narayan Swamy's intimate and extensive knowledge and lucid understanding of Prabhakaran and his Tigers of Sri Lanka are unquestionably profound. His first book on the Tigers proved his command over material and the militants and leader and the reservoir of substance which he had gathered diligently over the years in a remarkable way. The first book was of a definitive nature as much as the present contribution.

This new book is again proof of the assiduous manner in which he gathered data, checked and rechecked the information and above all wove such a quantity of facts into an extremely readable account. His description is built on a fine scrutiny of facts and personalities, above all of one personality.

Velupillai Prabhakaran needs no introduction to Sri Lanka and to a fair extent he's a familiar figure of whom many others have learned. However there's still much that has to be understood and much that is misunderstood about Prabhakaran, the leader behind the formidable militant outfit the Tigers. The Tigers have become synonymous with the struggle for separatism and emancipation from subordination of the North and East in Sri Lanka.

'The world outside South Asia has not quite fully discovered the story of Prabhakaran in all its gory details'.

Narayan Swamy is quite judicious in this assessment and the author deserves congratulations from the readers for having probed into the elusive mind of an elusive personality, a mystery man. Many have tried to judge, and many have tried to condemn Prabhakaran. At the end of it any reader finds out that whoever often wrote on Prabhakaran knew very little of the enigmatic figure behind his group of terrifying guerrillas and perhaps a little more of his actions and movements of the militants. Nevertheless, Prabhakaran himself had demonstrated that he could be successfully and craftily evasive and kept so many guessing as to his moves in conflict and belligerence.

The author Narayan Swamy has divided the book into parts and all the sub-divisions are relevant to learn of Prabhakaran and provide absorbing reading. The cardinal issues in Part I range under subheadings, 'A mayor slayed', 'Liberation of Tigers born', and the other sub accounts that follow ending up with 'Black July' which none can ever forget for years to come. The wrath of the Sinhalese mobs was unleashed on helpless Tamils, causing mayhem and murder. It is true that the July holocaust has united all sections of the Tamil masses. It has also left the cleavage between the two larger communities of Sri Lanka deeper. While many remember the killings of 13 soldiers only a few can recall gruesome immediate revenge killings of 51 harmless, helpless Tamils by soldiers running amok.

The next part of the book commences with 'India begins training Tigers' and 'A guerrilla army is born'. Here there is much that is appropriate and significant to be read and understood by anyone who is keen to know more about the unending conflict which beleaguered Sri Lankan citizens for so long. At least now there is apparently some respite from fear. To know why attempts at healing the rift were futile and which was kept violently alive by the Tigers, one has really to devote deep and concentrated attention on the content of part two of the book. They have been gathered, and assembled meticulously to indicate Prabhakaran's unfathomable thinking and actions.

Part III will be eagerly lapped up by the readers since it starts off with the 'War with India'. Again the circle seems to have now come a full round because Sri Lanka had been able to persuade India to water down an animosity which had developed when the Indian Peace Keeping Force had endeavoured to keep the Tigers at bay as well as make the Government of Sri Lanka see sense. In haste Sri Lanka's leaders then had acted imprudently and the Tigers and their leader were able to have their way.

The section on 'A guerrilla in glory' tells a story about Prabhakaran himself more fully, and the Tigers which any reader anxious to gain a comprehensive and salient understanding of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka should necessarily follow. It baffles one to continue reading about the tragic and insensible assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the subsequent elimination of many others. The killing of Rajiv Gandhi will always remain and however leave much to learn about it, as it is a puzzle, for this bloody action signified inexplicable irrationality, in the conduct of the guerrillas. The foolish, hasty, impulsive act left much to rue about in Sri Lanka.

Narayan Swamy in the final stages of his book ventures to discuss Prabhakaran's ruthlessness in dealing with those who he imagined have betrayed him. Leading the secretive type of life he did, one could understand that he saw an enemy in many and in all places. No doubt one gets to know from the book that the guerilla leader spend an uneasy existence. To him no one can be wholly trustworthy as anxiety shrouds his life.

The extent to which the guerilla leader would resort in dealing with people was unimaginable as the analytical and critical narrative of Narayan Swamy shows. Finally behind peace the author has appropriately used a question mark. One can agree with him whole heartedly. Peace is earnestly sought and is essential. But decisions remain with one so unpredictable as Prabhakaran, as the writer surmises correctly.

This seminal study of Prabhakaran punctiliously constructed after industrious search, close observation and deep study by Narayan Swamy will remain for long as the definitive story of a guerrilla leader who has baffled the world with his daredevil exploits and sheer cunning in planning and execution of various acts of hostility, destruction and frightening quality. He can be like an Al-Queda and also like Osama Bin Laden but he escaped the eye of all and secretly and successfully wrought fear in the hearts of many.

This book will be read avidly by those who wish to know why violence, belligerence, and militancy along with arms and ammunition upset the lives of so many in Sri Lanka.

The initial cause for dividing the two major communities in Sri Lanka can be traced, to the few of the impolitic actions of some of the leaders of the majority community. For example, the exclusion of the hill country Tamils as a part of the citizenry and the imposition of one language in a multilingual society for administration. The standardisation of marks to admit students into university on community basis and repeated riots of the majority to quell the quest of the minority for a fair deal were catastrophic and created terrorism as a reaction.

As Narayan Swamy shows however the emergence of a terrorist leader like Prabhakaran who could sustain a no-win conflict because of his unexpected way of acting and clever exploitation of the estranged feelings among those in the minorities drove Sri Lanka into dire straits. Lives were lost, destruction occurred and rights were ignored, equality to communities was denied and all these were advantageously exploited by a single minded, hell-bent leader whose next move would never be imagined and who could do the least expected thing to shatter people.

All these can be gleaned from Narayan Swamy's invaluable probing of an elusive mind.