by the Nightwatchman
(August 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Wars come in many shapes, sizes, guises and intensities. From the conventional wars of past World Wars to the more unconventional ones fought in South East Asia, South America, the Africas and Central Europe. Each of these had it’s own unique plot line, players, editors, stunt men, comedians, fall guys and in the end, as with all wars, innocents. Wars are actually tragic comedies. Sri Lanka’s war is no exception.
What makes the war in Sri Lanka, is that it is a mixture of everything… a little bit of conventional war here…a little bit of guerilla tactics there… a bit of political wrangling there and a bit of International ‘finger poking’ here, courtesy of a vengeful Diaspora, who will sleep better only after they witness the total annihilation of Sri Lanka and all those living south of the Omanthai checkpoint. To top it all we have had Three Ringed circus administrations for that could have put the best circus troupes in the world to shame.
For this writer, who spent all his childhood and most of his young adult life in the shadows of imminent violent death in the hands of an unknown enemy, this, as the saying goes… was not funny. Not one bit. Seriously!
I still remember very well 1983, I still remember very well the dark times of 87-90, and I still remember like yesterday the despair, the hopelessness and utter human tragedy of the military debacles of the late 90s and 2000. The most profound sight for me during that time was a news clipping I saw while overseas of a SLA strike team being inserted in to the jungles ’somewhere in the north’.
One soldier jumps off the chopper a tad too early and snaps his leg in two at the shin…he hobbles with his broken foot hanging loosely inside his pants while being supported by his comrades and the western anchor (BBC) casually mentioned that this was another day in the war for ‘INDEPENDENCE’ in Sri Lanka!!!!
Hold on… we got our INDEPENDENCE in 1948… Please, Western AnchorMan…read up before hand. We are not fighting for Independence…. We are fighting to keep our Independence!! This single-handedly showed how blasé the western media was to my country’s plight.
Now one must understand, I am child that grew watching people burning inside tyre pyres, being shot in the head with brains splattered all over and bodies floating bloated and maggot ridden in the rivers in Sri Lanka. For me, these sights do not make any impact as it would do any other national in any other ‘peaceful’ country. I can have my dinner while watching these in the evening news.
But for me… I still wonder what happened to that soldier. I still wonder what happened to that team. Did they make it out? Did they survive? That image was that profound and heartbreaking. For me at least…
Which bring me to the reason why I want to put together these random thoughts. I never voted for this government. I voted for the other team… I too enjoyed the CFA… while it lasted. It offered me the chance to travel to places unimaginable 5 years before. I saw my first eastern sunrise from the beaches of Arugam Bay in 2005! Imagine that! After spending your whole life watching the sun set at Galle Face and the sunrise over the tree tops to have actually witnessed the grand spectacle of the sun rising off the sea!! That was all what the CFA meant to me…the damn sunrise in Arugam Bay!
Yet, I was oblivious like everyone else in this country to the deceptive veil that was the CFA. The CFA was a butt ugly bride hiding behind the best silk and satin white veil. This veil hid the killings, the ‘violations’, the obscene degradation and indignity our Security forces were subjected due to this ‘CFA’, (I know because I had and still do have friends who have donned the noble Uniform and that’s what they said. ‘Our hands were tied’).
The CFA was used for the execution of our LRRP teams, the MI Officers, the Agents, the men ‘behind’ the scenes, the list goes on. The CFA cost us a lot. Things that can never be replaced. This ugly bride cost us Lakshman Kadiragamar. This ugly woman took Kethesh Loganathan and with them she lost that veil and exposed her butt ugly face to people like me. That day Arugam Bay sunrises lost its magic for me forever.
The CFA was used to amass weaponry and consolidate defenses, plan offensives and insert sleepers all over Sri Lanka. But fortunately someone on our side during that time was not sleeping, our SLDF was being trained, weapons amassed, defenses planned and most importantly, offensives planned. Thank God that a soldier doesn’t mix politics and military strategy. For him life is simple… be prepared and keep the gun oiled and free of dust… just in case.
And Sri Lanka has been blessed with plenty of those kinds of soldiers.
Yet, peace was good. Many were happy, still many were making money, and all was all well…so when the time to vote suddenly came, we voted….We Sri Lankans do not want to change the status quo, no matter what. We love to keep the things the way they are. We have a ‘if it ain’t broke’ don’t fix it’ mentality. Nothing wrong with that, I think. So I voted for the ‘other’ team. Soon after all hell broke loose. I don’t want to dwell in all that has taken place till now. Enough has been written on all that by experts with all kinds of qualifications, experiences, wallets, agendas and brain capacities. I am not any one of them.
Just an ordinary Sri Lankan, who gets in a bus daily, hoping my name is not on a ball bearing inside a 4kg Semtex parcel innocently pretending to be an Odel bag. Or being blown to smithereens by the innocent looking chap riding a bike alongside the bus, who will ram and explode his bike on the next available Montero with tinted windows, taking down the bus, passers by and the said Montero with tinted windows taking 3 rich kids to their swimming lessons.
We all know now what’s going on. This last 2 years we learned who the real heroes are, the real cowards, who is on our side, who is on ‘their’ side, the heroes, the survivors, the traitors and who the war profiteers are.
We learned! We one day woke up collectively and said to ourselves, ‘This is not how it will end’. ‘This not the way we will settle the score’. ‘We are not going to go quietly in to the night’.
We learned all that in the last 2 years, not bad for a country that for the last 20+ years was the squatting pan toilet with no flushing mechanism for the rest of the world.
And I am glad my team lost, even with my vote! Hell, my whole family voted and they still lost. I couldn’t have been happier.
So here we are, at a crossroad. Probably the greatest cross road we have come across yet. And I think we are taking the right road towards our destiny. Whatever it may be… I know we are heading the right way. I think my children will grow up and never see a maggot ridden human body rotting inside a half burnt tyre outside their school or a decapitated head of a suicide bomber showing her teeth in a comical yet tragic grimace!
That alone is worth something, I am sure!
- Sri Lanka Guardian
(August 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Wars come in many shapes, sizes, guises and intensities. From the conventional wars of past World Wars to the more unconventional ones fought in South East Asia, South America, the Africas and Central Europe. Each of these had it’s own unique plot line, players, editors, stunt men, comedians, fall guys and in the end, as with all wars, innocents. Wars are actually tragic comedies. Sri Lanka’s war is no exception.
What makes the war in Sri Lanka, is that it is a mixture of everything… a little bit of conventional war here…a little bit of guerilla tactics there… a bit of political wrangling there and a bit of International ‘finger poking’ here, courtesy of a vengeful Diaspora, who will sleep better only after they witness the total annihilation of Sri Lanka and all those living south of the Omanthai checkpoint. To top it all we have had Three Ringed circus administrations for that could have put the best circus troupes in the world to shame.
For this writer, who spent all his childhood and most of his young adult life in the shadows of imminent violent death in the hands of an unknown enemy, this, as the saying goes… was not funny. Not one bit. Seriously!
I still remember very well 1983, I still remember very well the dark times of 87-90, and I still remember like yesterday the despair, the hopelessness and utter human tragedy of the military debacles of the late 90s and 2000. The most profound sight for me during that time was a news clipping I saw while overseas of a SLA strike team being inserted in to the jungles ’somewhere in the north’.
One soldier jumps off the chopper a tad too early and snaps his leg in two at the shin…he hobbles with his broken foot hanging loosely inside his pants while being supported by his comrades and the western anchor (BBC) casually mentioned that this was another day in the war for ‘INDEPENDENCE’ in Sri Lanka!!!!
Hold on… we got our INDEPENDENCE in 1948… Please, Western AnchorMan…read up before hand. We are not fighting for Independence…. We are fighting to keep our Independence!! This single-handedly showed how blasé the western media was to my country’s plight.
Now one must understand, I am child that grew watching people burning inside tyre pyres, being shot in the head with brains splattered all over and bodies floating bloated and maggot ridden in the rivers in Sri Lanka. For me, these sights do not make any impact as it would do any other national in any other ‘peaceful’ country. I can have my dinner while watching these in the evening news.
But for me… I still wonder what happened to that soldier. I still wonder what happened to that team. Did they make it out? Did they survive? That image was that profound and heartbreaking. For me at least…
Which bring me to the reason why I want to put together these random thoughts. I never voted for this government. I voted for the other team… I too enjoyed the CFA… while it lasted. It offered me the chance to travel to places unimaginable 5 years before. I saw my first eastern sunrise from the beaches of Arugam Bay in 2005! Imagine that! After spending your whole life watching the sun set at Galle Face and the sunrise over the tree tops to have actually witnessed the grand spectacle of the sun rising off the sea!! That was all what the CFA meant to me…the damn sunrise in Arugam Bay!
Yet, I was oblivious like everyone else in this country to the deceptive veil that was the CFA. The CFA was a butt ugly bride hiding behind the best silk and satin white veil. This veil hid the killings, the ‘violations’, the obscene degradation and indignity our Security forces were subjected due to this ‘CFA’, (I know because I had and still do have friends who have donned the noble Uniform and that’s what they said. ‘Our hands were tied’).
The CFA was used for the execution of our LRRP teams, the MI Officers, the Agents, the men ‘behind’ the scenes, the list goes on. The CFA cost us a lot. Things that can never be replaced. This ugly bride cost us Lakshman Kadiragamar. This ugly woman took Kethesh Loganathan and with them she lost that veil and exposed her butt ugly face to people like me. That day Arugam Bay sunrises lost its magic for me forever.
The CFA was used to amass weaponry and consolidate defenses, plan offensives and insert sleepers all over Sri Lanka. But fortunately someone on our side during that time was not sleeping, our SLDF was being trained, weapons amassed, defenses planned and most importantly, offensives planned. Thank God that a soldier doesn’t mix politics and military strategy. For him life is simple… be prepared and keep the gun oiled and free of dust… just in case.
And Sri Lanka has been blessed with plenty of those kinds of soldiers.
Yet, peace was good. Many were happy, still many were making money, and all was all well…so when the time to vote suddenly came, we voted….We Sri Lankans do not want to change the status quo, no matter what. We love to keep the things the way they are. We have a ‘if it ain’t broke’ don’t fix it’ mentality. Nothing wrong with that, I think. So I voted for the ‘other’ team. Soon after all hell broke loose. I don’t want to dwell in all that has taken place till now. Enough has been written on all that by experts with all kinds of qualifications, experiences, wallets, agendas and brain capacities. I am not any one of them.
Just an ordinary Sri Lankan, who gets in a bus daily, hoping my name is not on a ball bearing inside a 4kg Semtex parcel innocently pretending to be an Odel bag. Or being blown to smithereens by the innocent looking chap riding a bike alongside the bus, who will ram and explode his bike on the next available Montero with tinted windows, taking down the bus, passers by and the said Montero with tinted windows taking 3 rich kids to their swimming lessons.
We all know now what’s going on. This last 2 years we learned who the real heroes are, the real cowards, who is on our side, who is on ‘their’ side, the heroes, the survivors, the traitors and who the war profiteers are.
We learned! We one day woke up collectively and said to ourselves, ‘This is not how it will end’. ‘This not the way we will settle the score’. ‘We are not going to go quietly in to the night’.
We learned all that in the last 2 years, not bad for a country that for the last 20+ years was the squatting pan toilet with no flushing mechanism for the rest of the world.
And I am glad my team lost, even with my vote! Hell, my whole family voted and they still lost. I couldn’t have been happier.
So here we are, at a crossroad. Probably the greatest cross road we have come across yet. And I think we are taking the right road towards our destiny. Whatever it may be… I know we are heading the right way. I think my children will grow up and never see a maggot ridden human body rotting inside a half burnt tyre outside their school or a decapitated head of a suicide bomber showing her teeth in a comical yet tragic grimace!
That alone is worth something, I am sure!
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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