Life after Prabhakaran
Gomin DAYASRI
A Prabhakaran dead can be more menacing than a Prabhakaran alive.
Prabhakaran missing could be still worse. The call to surrender laying
down arms is to place the pill under his tongue - Prabhakaran fears to
face Tamils without arms and ammunition. Prabhakaran dead or alive would
not matter, if the legitimate grievances of the Tamils are attended
without leaving it in the freezer.
Tamils fleeing the northern sector (except those planted by the LTTE
as moles to cause economic and military damage) know Prabhakaran better
than those in the South. They had to escape from him to tell the sorry
story.
To the parents- Prabhakaran is the prime child snatcher; to the
children-Prabhakaran has ruined their future; to all- the man has
rendered them homeless by ethnically cleansing his own creed.
Resurrection conjures reincarnation from the grave, icons can become
idols; the second coming of Prabhakaran is possible through fable and
legend in the form of fairy tale and folk lore, mime and music.
J.R. Jayewardene |
R. Wijeweera |
Prabhakaran |
Referendum
Prabhakaran and Wijeweera are the anarchist children of J.R.
Jayewardene. He fathered them when he aborted the election and gave
birth to a referendum. Instead of becoming babes in Parliament they went
into the woods to emerge as killers in battle dress.
Prodigies became megastars with a dream in mind and a gun in hand.
Holding out as freedom fighters they hunted and killed their own kith
and kin which made them fall from grace with division within their own
divisions.
The student circles destroyed Wijeweera in hiding - military cadres
are doing the same to Prabhakaran in hiding. To operate from hiding with
a remote controller is handing power to others to make grave mistakes.
History will show cadres alienate the people more rapidly than the
leader, in isolation, to accelerate his downfall.
JVP has to still depend on support and funding from abroad as they
live off their diaspora. So is the LTTE. After Wijeweera, the JVP
entered the democratic process. So will follow suit, the remainder of
the LTTE after Prabhakaran; the JVP politicians who remained at home in
search of occupational therapy became parliamentarians. JVP keeps
metamorphosing into further fractions.
It will happen to the LTTE more so with a political vacuum. JVP blow
themselves big with small and energetic cadres. LTTE does it better. The
post Wijeweera youthful leadership in the JVP made a greater impact as
democrats winning 40 seats in parliament than their discredited
revolutionaries whose exit only their families mourn. The breakaway
former LTTE group captured power in the East at the first democratic
opportunity. Out of crushed revolutions grow meaningful evolutions.
JVP hardly talks of Wijeweera and his fighting forces except on the
commemoration day.
Still less would know Prabhakaran, living in splendid isolation, and
few would care to talk of him endearingly. Like Wijeweera in the JVP,
Prabhakaran will live more in the minds of the diaspora who are living
overseas seeking attention for a moment when they come home on furlough
to be recognised and willing to pay for it. Prabhakaran will be made the
fall guy like Wijeweera and blamed for killing fields-a topic JVP
assiduously avoids.
It is the governments by procrastination and neglect that can make
northern homes decorate with garlands the photographs of a murderer. If
the legitimate grievances are attended to, in a reasonably satisfactory
manner, Tamil will put his picture in the dustbin.
The greatest setback for the launching of the Federal concept for the
Federalists was the emergence of Prabhakaran; not the Sinhala
nationalists who energized the federalists. Prabhakaran destroyed it for
more than a generation.
He inherited the federal trappings and killed those propelling it and
converted the weaklings to be his mouthpiece. He made an exhibition by
deed and act, that federalism will lead to secession.
It is to the credit of Anandasangaree that he fearlessly stood alone
on the deck when others deserted him. It is ironical that a Tamil
fighting for a homeland pulled the curtain down on federalism
eliminating it from the constitutional choreography. Now is the time to
move the idol from iconology- by being genuine towards Tamil grievances.
The priority must be the Tamil people and not the Tamil politicians.
The lesson to be learnt is from the CWC which has been warming Cabinet
seats uninterruptedly under every administration for 30 years, while the
Indian Tamil community has hardly progressed; the beneficial flow has
been to the party officials and the community still deems it to be
neglected.
Provincial Council is side stepping the issues affecting the Tamil
people. The 13th Amendment was never sought-it was imposed and accepted
by a weak leader who was a thug only at home. It has stands flawed
fractured flayed because the present constitution was plotted at a ‘mad
hatters’ tea party- an Indian midsummer nights dream. It could be said a
programmed coup is worthwhile merely to rewrite a constitution.
A sub-committee headed by the distinguished jurist Nirmala Naganathan
identified areas which can be treated as minority grievances -listed
broadly under the headings (1) Language (2) Security (3) Land (4) Water
(5) Employment (6) Development (7) Abductions and Kidnappings (8) High
Security Zones (9) Multi Ethnic Security Forces (10) Child Recruitment.
The sub committee was an off shoot of the barren experts committee which
the President with wisdom disbanded swiftly having appointed ill
advisedly.
Grievances
Though many of the problems of the aforesaid grievances touch the
majority community, current country situation warrants solutions on a
fast track to the grievances of the minorities, if found to be
legitimate.
The nature of the grievances requires the intervention of the centre
which must act with speed courage and determination. A federal solution
is most unhealthy as it will result in an inevitable clash between the
existing centre and the emerging periphery.
It will again aggravate and revivificate the existing grievances with
interested parties waiting to exploit political advantages to lead to
another explosion and revive secession. After the elimination of the
prime LTTE military structure, there will surface again the federal
school of thought engineered by INGOs, closeted government federal
agents posing off as intellectuals, decrepit leftists, Tamil politicians
now in hiding and foreign advisors.
The inside story of the Burghof Foundations intrusions into the
activities of a Ministry to propagate federalism as stated in the
Parliamentary Select Committee Report on the INGOs has sufficient source
material for a future researcher to write a paper.
Their combined threat could be as deadly as that of the LTTE , as it
will lead to the revival of the LTTE under another name; the same voices
that once convinced society that the security forces cannot defeat the
terrorists, will raise the federal issue.
If the war was fought at the costs of so many valuable lives at such
great costs, to usher federalism, totally rejected by the people
consistently at elections, it may have been more prudent to hand over
the North and East to the LTTE without spilling blood.
A clash between the centre and periphery would mean the legitimate
grievances of the minorities will remain to fester while politicians
posture to gain mileage- the prescription of the LTTE medicine man.
Reaching the people and attending to their grievances is a fast
forward approach to eliminate the problem without placing power in
peripheral political units more enthusiastic in widening their political
cult than solving problems. The lesson learnt in the East is an
intensive course in adult education and a learning curve to handle a
more complex North.
The answers to the listed grievances can be assuaged without
constitutional amendments by legislative and administrative measures by
the central government through the existing peripheral units. The speed
has to be accelerated by Presidential Directives.
The All Party Representative Committee [APRC]. It cannot justify its
existence or continuation. It has become a convenient facade to do
nothing on the national problem.
With the successful completion of the war, must emerge an immediate
formula as a reasonably feasible solution to the problem. It will not be
a perfect solution to satisfy all stakeholders but with time it can be
perfected but yet it will never be and/or expect to be the flawless
resolution to the issue-that is to live in cuckoo land.
13th amendment
The resolution of the APRC- of fulfilling the terms of the 13th
Amendment- is not an answer to the question but a question to answer, as
to whether the 13th amendment which has lasted as long as the war, has
created rather than solved problems?.
An instant IQ test- name one benefit conferred by the 13th Amendment
to the people?
The Constitution cannot be amended to change its character due to its
in built locking system. The eerie spirit of J.R. Jayewardene, still
hovers over it to exorcise any efforts to dismantle the structure he
constructed to permanently disable any tinkering that will bring down
the house that Dick built. The curse of Jayewardene has outlived his
life and times.
If the grievances remain unattended it will be the Sinhalese who will
be unwittingly restoring the image of Prabhakaran. The streets of the
peninsula will be decorated with graffiti in praise of the LTTE by their
underground remnants, to be scored off by their competing rivals.
The danger will be when photographs of Prabhakaran will be restored
in the homes from where he ejected the occupants to build a safety net
for himself.
The spectre of federalism may raise its head, unwittingly, through
the forces which fought terrorism- the founding fathers of terrorism
were those who originated federalism. |