Part III:
Narrow ideologies and violent events
H. L. D. MAHINDAPALA
Part II appeared on Tuesday July 15.
The authors of UTHR boast that it “is always impeccable in citing due
processes, principles, norms of conduct etc.” This implies that UTHR
means to uphold the high moral principles in judging the conduct of all
actors in the national crisis.
But if UTHR is serious about this claim how can it twist and turn its
arguments to justify the inhuman violence of the LTTE by blaming it on
the Sri Lankan government - the cheapest trick in the book of all the
fork-tongued Tamil intellectuals who are finding it increasingly
difficult to justify the war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed by the Tigers though they are not averse to bask in the glory
of political gains of Tamil Tiger violence if any should happen to come
their way.
Life is made almost unbearable for those who do not fall in line
with the LTTE |
The incurable malaise of the Tamil intellectuals has been their
failure to the grasp the moral dimensions of a crisis in which they
continue to blame only one side (i.e., “the Sinhala-Buddhist state”) and
not the other side (i.e., the northern racist Vellahala caste which
openly declared war against the rest of the nation in the Vaddukoddai
Resolution, 1976).
Their moral, ideological and political tactic has been to drive hard
the accusations against the Sinhala south withou taking any
responsibility for the crimes emerging from the womb of Jaffna.
One of their biggest industries was to manufacture numerous theories
of victimology (aided and abetted by NGO pundits) to project themselves
as the underdog to win the hearts and minds of the international
community.
This tactic enabled them to deny any responsibility for “the narrow
ideologies” and the violent turn of events that flowed from peninsular
politics which culminated in the racist Vaddukoddai Resolution.
The significance of the Vadukoddai Resolution is not only in the
wording (all of which were endorsed by the bogus Gandhian, S. J. V.
Chelvanayakam) but also in encapsulating the anti-Sinhala ideology that
unleashed the subsequent violence against the nation.
Sweeping under the carpet their responsibility in provoking,
financing, directing, criminalizing inter-ethnic politics they assume,
without any moral justification or credible historical evidence, that
they alone are the pure, the noble and the saintly victims who should be
rewarded with a separate paradise which should be given to them on a
platter by the collective effort of the global community.
Besides, they proclaim proudly that they have already established a
de-facto state with a judiciary, police, army, navy air force. But this
is a state that has failed so far to provide a piece of bread, a drop of
medicine, an education, social services or justice for that matter to
“the prisoners” of Velupillai Prabhakaran’s one-man regime.
Prabhakaran and his financial backers abroad can provide bullets,
planes, guns, landmines - in short, all weapons needed to perpetuate a
needless war — except the essential requirements for day-to-day living,
peace of mind and normalcy for the Tamils to live with some dignity.
Those essentials have to be provided by the Sri Lankan Government and
if there are any shortages they are blamed for that too. Like all
political myths of the Tamils concocted to boost their racist politics
and egos, they publicize the fake glory of running a state without
having to fulfill the obligations of a state.
The tendency of Tamils to believe in their political myths has been
one of the primary causes of their misery. Only a gullible and desperate
community of blinkered Tamil expats and intellectuals, refusing to
accept responsibility for the collapse of the most sacred threads in
their tradition, would hail its destroyer as their “Sun God”!
The slow but steady destruction of Tamil society has been documented
by the authors of UTHR who, ironically, blame all the crimes committed
by the fascist oppressive regime of Prabhakaran on the Sri Lankan
government. Take a look at the list of miseries that bedevil “the
prisoners” of Prabhakaran, as documented by UTHR:
* Life in the Vanni is something between outright fascist repression
and a horrid joke gone too far. The LTTE used to be ambivalent about
university ragging of the freshers during the 1980s. Sometimes they
would oppose ragging, and at other times support it when students
opposed to them were against it. Vanni is one gigantic rag.
* For some time after the outbreak of the current round of war in
2006, old men in their late sixties and mid seventies were forced to do
home defence training. Men who could barely walk were forced to train,
tottering in an attempt to run, carrying poles (made at their expense)
as substitutes for guns. Standing continuously on guard duty was
unbearable torture.
* An aspect of the militarisation and regimentation of life in the
Vanni is that persons are allowed to work only if they have a card
certifying that they had taken home-defence training.
As most work is controlled by the LTTE, full salaries are paid only
to those from martyrs’ families - i.e. ones where a member died fighting
for the LTTE - the others get half salaries. All able males are forced
to do border security duties five days a month or pay Rs. 5000 a month
for exemption.
* Life is thus made almost unbearable for those who do not fall in
line with the LTTE. For those who do not fully conform, it is very
difficult to leave the Vanni even for urgent medical treatment.
Consequently the extreme bitterness against the LTTE also expresses
itself in willingness to act as saboteurs and to set off landmines
provided by the Sri Lankan Army.
* Vanni is a place where there are intelligence units everywhere.(In
other words, it’s a Stalinist gulag).There are intelligence units for
education, for distribution of rations and supply, for agriculture, and
for photography - all persons are photographed - besides the regular
Pottu Amman’s intelligence. The Police do their own intelligence work.
* If people are heard complaining or saying something that hints at
criticism of the regime, often a policemen would walk up to them, warn
them not to walk abreast and that if they want to talk they could come
to the police station and talk.
* There are hardly any services but mainly extortion. The LTTE has
virtually taken over all enterprises except those of dhobis (washermen)
and barbers. Everyone selling something or doing a service must issue a
receipt so that tax could be collected. The combined intelligence
services prevent evasion.
Receipts must be issued whether it is fixing a punctured bicycle tyre
or selling a dried palm leaf pyramidal basket for steaming “pittu.” When
the LTTE took over houses, and if the owners were lucky enough for the
LTTE to agree to return them, they were given huge bills for fictitious
improvements.
* Another function of intelligence is to prevent people from
listening to the “Ithayaveenai” Tamil programme broadcast by government
radio, just as people outside browse “TamilNet” because they don’t
believe the Defence Ministry’s propaganda. The LTTE punishes offenders
by sending them to dig bunkers.
* The LTTE’s control hinges on “poruppalars” (persons-in-charge or
divisional heads). The official may be in charge of a political,
administrative or a security division. They are the virtual maharajahs
or fiefs. Many of them live in luxury houses amidst so much drabness and
poverty. While ordinary people could hardly afford the highly inflated
prices at which the LTTE sells cement, the “poruppalars” frequently have
garden walls with well-shaped black stones. Anyone peeping inside would
see a well-maintained garden.
* The “poruppalars” duly acquire the mannerisms showing off their
absolute power and the lowliness of anyone else besides them. They grow
into the habit of commanding by grunts and a non-vocal economy of
gestures, such as thrusting the thumb behind over the shoulder or
ordering a person to come by lightly flicking the forefinger.
* Of course, the people resent these impositions and curse the
plundering “poruppalars”; “peeping, eavesdropping and harassing
intelligence officials and LTTE-appointed bureaucrats. But strangely
they don’t blame the Leader. The typical remark is,” ”if only the Leader
knows what the others do in his name, he will not permit it”.’
The LTTE too encourages this game of good cop-bad cop. Similarly
there was genuine grief when Tamil Chelvan was killed in an aerial
attack on 2nd November 2007. Criticism of the Leader is confined to
peripheral matters like his marriage to a high caste girl while
denouncing caste. The really grave issues like the thousands of Tamils
he has murdered are taboo subjects.
* We (UTHR) reliably understand that it is actually LTTE dropouts and
other Tamils working under Military Intelligence, who are responsible
for the overwhelming bulk of the killings. Some of the figures are quite
well known in Jaffna. One called Yarl Nambi was during the last
ceasefire attached to the LTTE office in Kayts. His score is reputed to
number several dozens.
Another was Gunaratnam Suhatheepan, a former medical student of the
University of Jaffna. He was earlier with the LTTE and left after a
quarrel with Paapaa, its former deputy political leader for Jaffna. He
later worked for Military Intelligence and was shot dead in Potpathy
Rd., Kokkuvil, on 30 th April 2008. That is a comment also on the
political emptiness that characterises the LTTE.
* The pro-LTTE stance of a large section of Tamil expatriates has
been callous without any real concern for the people and morally
repugnant….. They may in fact make life worse for those at home…. But
they can and will damage the State and the country quite effectively at
every opportunity.
Is there anything in this list drawn up by the UTHR that could blame
the Sri Lankan government? The LTTE claims to be the sole representative
of the Tamils. It is an autonomous body run by the whims and fancies of
one-man who dictates the policy of the de-facto state of Ee(vi)laam.
It has the power to act and not to act, especially in brutalizing its
own people. It has the power to wage war and wage peace. It has the
power to negotiate and also withdraw from negotiations.
With all these powers and more, UTHR twists everything around to say:
“The manner in which the LTTE manipulates Tamils cannot last without the
seemingly unyielding malevolence of the Government.” This tendency to
blame the government is the common ploy of the intellectuals who have
exhausted all excuses, especially excuses to justify the violence of the
LTTE.
The common tactic of the pro-Tiger supporters is to make the LTTE
look good by blaming the government.
The UTHR argument of blaming the “malevolence of the Government” for
all the evils of the LTTE smacks of intellectual dishonesty and even a
callous disregard for the consequences endured by the helpless
“prisoners” of Prabhakaran in the Vanni.
Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that the government goes
back to the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) and hands over the north and east
to the LTTE: will that put an end to the crimes committed by the LTTE
against its own people? Can UTHR guarantee that if the CFA is restored
the LTTE will participate in elections and stop killing their Tamil
rivals?
After writing 46 Bulletins, documenting horrendous brutalities of the
war, UTHR has a duty to pause and identify the one single message that
comes out of its reports. Doesn’t the outstanding message reveal that
the path to peace has been blocked by the autonomous and armed group of
deadly terrorists who had engaged in a futile war, refusing to observe
basic humanitarian laws and show the slightest inclination to negotiate
peace except under its own terms?
In its own devious way, UTHR goes along with the Tiger violence when
it says: “The pro-LTTE stance of a large section of Tamil expatriates
has been callous without any real concern for the people and morally
repugnant. Even without the LTTE, the present Government’s course would
drive many Tamil expatriates to act in anger and feel justified in so
doing. They may in fact make life worse for those at home. But they can
and will damage the State and the country quite effectively at every
opportunity.
By not resolving this problem, lots of people who should be batting
for Sri Lanka would spend their energies advancing its ruin for
generations to come. The country will remain condemned to perpetual
anarchy.”
(To be continued) |