How TNA’s rantings give credence to Darusman Report

Characteristically, Sambandan, the leader of the TNA, has grandly endorsed unequivocally, the Report of Moon’s ‘selected’ panel of ‘Experts’, going to the length of saying “all this is what we have been saying all the time”! One really wonders whether Sambandan comprehends fully, the grave implications of what he so foolhardily mouths. Has he paused for a moment to reflect on the impact this kind of impulsive statement could have on the future of the Tamil minority and on the Sri Lankan polity as a whole? Is he so naive and bigoted as not to realise the irreparable damage he is doing to the reconciliation efforts of the government by needlessly and foolishly opening up old wounds, which would only harden the differences and the cleavage between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhala people?

Tamil diaspora

The LTTE sympathizers in the West including the Tamil diaspora, must expectedly be exhilarated by what Sambandan has said. He should surely have realized by now, the immense relief and the new sense of freedom felt by the majority of Sri Lankans, at the eradication of the harrowing plague of LTTE terrorism from the face of this land. In fact, the Tamil community itself seems to be enjoying the newly won liberty to move around the island without fear of being blown up by the landmine or the lone suicide bomber.

R Sambandan

Bustling Jaffna town. File photo

If one goes to Galle Face Green or to the Dehiwala - Mt. Lavinia beach of an evening, one sees hordes of the Tamil community, most of whom have come down to Colombo from the North, enjoying themselves thoroughly with their families and kith and kin.

This is so even in the North and the East where the government is actively rebuilding the devastated physical infrastructure while simultaneously demining these areas making them safe for the re-settlement of the displaced Tamil people.

Peace and security has been restored in these war torn areas, with the people being able to move about freely and engage in their day-to-day activities without let or hindrance. This is a totally new scenario one never witnessed before the Northern conflict was brought to an end.

War crimes

The Tamil diaspora, happily ensconced in their safe havens abroad, still keep chasing their fond chimera of a Tamil Eelam which has long since dipped and vanished over the horizon, totally unmindful of the misery and the isolation they are once again dragging down the hapless Sri Lankan Tamils to. Certain influential quarters in the US administration, with a uniquely skewed sense of justice and human rights, are trying to force Sri Lanka’s hand by hollering their new ‘mantram’ about ‘accountability preceding reconciliation’, forgetting quickly their own accountability for the horrendous war crimes perpetrated in Iraq and the atrocities they continue to commit in Afghanistan. What despicable humbug!

The majority of the people in the island are indeed beholden to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for destroying the marauding Prabhakaran and his terrorist cadres who had ravaged the island and kept it under a perpetual pall of gloom for over 30 years.

When it comes to a deeply prejudiced report against Sri Lanka, like the one just released by the ‘unholy’ trio selected by Ban ki Moon, which is no more than a vicious and unwarranted intrusion into the sovereignty of an independent state, it behoves all Sri Lankans to rally round the government and oppose the report which is a deliberately prepared, heavily biased document, seething with pure malevolence, with all the vehemence one could command. If certain groups and parties within the national polity, disingenuously, for short-term political expediency, attempt to split hairs by even remotely giving any credence to this vile report, their current low stock with the people is bound to plummet further. They should, for that reason, be acutely conscious of the inevitable political fall out they will eventually have to contend with.

Logical conclusion

The Tamil community, who suffered most when the LTTE’s writ ran over a good part of the North and the East, should be shrewd and discerning enough to assess the current situation and not fall prey to self centred short-term machinations.

Strangely, the TNA, seems to be resorting to some bizarre ploys, encouraged obviously by the release of the Report of the Moon Panel. They have launched an unexpected tirade against all and sundry including their staunch supporters like the ‘International Community’ and Tamil Nadu. The former is being berated for not intervening to stop the war in time and the latter for not bringing enough pressure to bear on the Centre to force Sri Lanka to stop hostilities. The TNA further says that the Tamil Nadu leaders too should bear responsibility for their complicity in war crimes.

The TNA of course, is well known for its compulsive political habit of deflecting blame onto their adversaries wherever possible and even onto their friends, where necessary!

This totally befuddling development is bound to be viewed by both the govt. of India and Tamil Nadu with consternation and incredulity!

Knowing the deviousness of the TNA, one is wont to be wary of looking upon these rather amusing contretemps as the impetuous rantings and ravings of a confused and frustrated TNA. One could discern in all this, a well-calculated ploy, to burden the three parties concerned, with a heavy sense of guilt which the TNA desperately hopes, will be redeemed and expiated by the former, by straining every nerve to ensure that the Moon Panel Report would be pursued to what the TNA imagines, would be its logical conclusion. India, in all its wisdom and wider self-interest, is unlikely to fall for this kind of inane ploy.

- DEMOS