"Lessons unlearnt" by our Journalists writing about Sri Lanka's problem.

by Sebastian Rasalingam

(December 03, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have often read the columns by a writer named Tisaranee Gunasekara (TG) and wondered what she or he is trying to say, although the common thread seems to attack the government for not devolving power. The name itself, Tisaranee, could be a name for the Trinity or for the Buddhist triple gem, and it could be that of a man or a women. Not being one of those upper class Colombo types, but a low-class Jaffna Tamil with connections to the less-esteemed hill-country Tamil sector, I cannot claim to have any acquaintance with the haughty members of the chattering class. However, on reading TG's article in the Island, "Lessons unlearnt" (Extenal Link) that appeared on the 30th November, I decided to try to present my consternation to the reading public. This gives me an opportunity to comment on Sri Lanka's current national question as well.

"Fanatically persuing the war" - what else can we do?

TG's veiled objective is to attack the current government, as nowhere in her columns has TG, in the past or present, commented on the achievements of the current government. In the past TG used to equate the government of Sri Lanka with the "de facto government" of the LTTE, giving the reader the appearance of "being even handed". In this article also, TG compares the LTTE policy of 30 years and the mere three-years of the present government, and condemns them both for "maximality". TG even says "the Rajapakse regime, in its fanatical determination to win the war at any cost..", after telling us that Pirapaharan would not accept any compromises. Isn't this a starkly absurd thing to say? If Pirapaharan will not compromise, what alternative could MR, or Chandrika, or Premadasa, or JR-Rajeeve muster against Pirapaharan? And if war is the only alternative left, is it "fanatical" to aim to win the war? Is TG advocating that we go to war half-heartedly? MR has called Piraharan to lay down arms and come to negotiate. Ananadsangaree has said the same thing. Rajeev tried to impose that in 1987. The CFA called for disarming by the LTTE within a short time frame, as Kadirgamar repeatedly pointed out, and paid for it with his life. All that has been said and done. But yet, fighting the war, the only thing left to do, is claimed to be fanatical! Perhaps TG should look up the word in the dictionary. In Tamil we have various words for "fanatic", varying from "veera-musti", "murulan" to "vairakkiyam", where the latter means perseverance. Perhaps TG knows every western language but would consider it very genteel and appropriate to let it be known that she/he does not know much Tamil or Sinhala. We are charmed.

When MR came to power I was deeply disappointed when, during the first 6-9 months he played the old game of appeasement of the LTTE, even bringing Daya Master to a hospital in Colombo, instead of going for the jugular of the LTTE. Unlike Tisaranee G who flourishes in Colombo, my people are perishing under the jackboot of the LTTE. A whole generation has been destroyed and the new generation has been killed as cannon fodder. I have lost a grandchild to the machine of the LTTE. Instead of urging the overnment to put down this fascist inhuman leader, TG and other journalists talk of fanaticism when at last we have a determined leader and an army attacking this national cancer that is blood-sucking the Tamils.

Let me say very clearly that I do not support the corruption and scandal that surrounds many members of the MR regime. MR came to power on a minority government and he has adumbrated his power by welcoming all and sundry, fair and foul, into his big tent - a "Mandala", if I were to use a Sanskrit-Tamil word which probably also occurs in Sinhala. But the corruption and scandal is no worse than what exists in other war-mongering countries, be it the USA with its vast Haliberton operation of Dick Cheney, or the sanitized immorality of Switzerland which banks the filthy lucre of all the crooks of all nations.

It is also interesting that TG has to support her/his comments by referring to Moroccan journalists and other foreign journalists, not only in the Nov-30 article, but in other articles. Most of the time, the quote is irrelevant, empty, and just meant as a bit of decoration? A journalist should go and feel the pulse of the people, and not report ethereal tales of what the Moroccan Mullah told the Macedonian mendicant.

So what does Tisaranee want? Does she want MR to stop the war, and devolve power to Piraharan? Does he/she, like the Bishop Duleep Chikera, want to buy Killinochchi wine from Piraharan and treat him as a gentle trader friend that you invite to the parish pastry sale? The lunatic fringe of the Tamil diaspora, and the misguided diaspora bitten by the racist bug would love that. But the Tamils of the Vanni, large sections of Tamil Nadu, the Indian government and the International community cannot accept that solution. TG says that Piraharan is part of the problem. In fact, Piraharan has dominated the problem and consolidated the problem around himself. This Gordian knot has to be cut before you can go any further. JR-Rajeev understood this, and Premadasa understood this after Piraharan and Balasingham murdered 600 policemen who had surrendered. But TG does not seem to understand this. TG's mission seems to be plain and simple - undermine and denounce the SL government, and condemn its resolve as "fanaticism"?

Disarming the LTTE is part of the 13th amendment.

TG and other journalists of the same Ilk have stated, in various articles, that the MR regime is not seriously implementing the 13th amendment, issuing from the Indo-SL agreement of 1987. One of the prime conditions of the 13th amendment is the disarming of the LTTE. The current war IS the only feasible way of disarming the LTTE.

Thus, "fanatically" following the war is a necessary corollary thrust upon the state to go to war if it wants to implement the 13th amendment, or indeed, to implement any other constitutional reform. The problem is, TG and others, as well as some client intellectuals of Marxist persuasion want the war to stop, so that the LTTE gets a breather. They want MR to devolve power into the hand of the LTTE. Please, please, the Tamils have suffered enough. We do not need to buttress this Fascist warlord any more.

There are many people who would like to go back to the days of the notorious "cease-fire agreement". The Duleep Chikeras, the immoral TNA, Ranil Wickremasinges and some of the "policy alternatives" types would welcome that, for what ever reasons best known to themselves. They even pose as friends of the minorities. But the CFA, imposed without the consent of anybody, did NOT bring any relief to the ordinary Tamils living in the Vanni, ever under the Jackboot of Piraharan. In fact, the CFA sealed the fate of the Tamils, until Karuna took a decisive step and broke off from that Tyranny. Tamils will for ever be thankful to Karuna for that death-defying act. Journalists like T Gunasekara should be required by their Editors to spend a few months in the Vanni, hand over their children to the foster-homes of the LTTE which train suicide killers, and then they would understand the agony of the ordinary poor Tamils. This agony is NOT reflected by Tamils like Prof. Cherans, Loganathans, Sri-Skandarajas, Ponnamabalams, and other LTTE-TNA stooges thriving out on the diaspora.

Vanni tamils are not willing soldiers of the LTTE.

Neville Laduwahetty also writes to the Island newspaper, and usually has something of substance and wisdom to offer. However, in his recent article (30-Dec), he attempts to present the Tamil civilians of the Vanni as part and parcel of the LTTE armed forces. It is true that the ordinary civilians are forced to build bunkers, dig trenches, and do all sorts of things in support of the LTTE army. They even have to face the supreme duty of becoming human shields. But, unlike in the early Eelam wars, they are NOT doing it willingly. Hence Neville Ladduwahetti's conclusion that the civilians can be targeted in the war is wrong and he is moving totally off the moral compass. The government has a supreme duty to the helpless Vanni Tamils who are hostages of the LTTE and the war-mongering Tamil diaspora. The LTTE has to be eliminated, but the hostage Tamils have to be safeguarded as far as possible.

What can we do after the LTTE is battered down?

The Thesavalam law requires that you get the consent of your neighbours before the Vellar sells his land. Well then, in the same spirit, if any accord is to be settled for the Vanni, it needs a ratification from the whole country, and indeed even the tacit consent of India. However, I advise you to not to create any geographic divisions based on race or religion. The best solution to the ethnic woos of the country is diversification. Many Tamils have moved to the south in the past three decades. Let the Sinhalese and the Muslims who were driven from the North and the East go and resettle in their old homes. Let the Thesavalam law be abolished, and let the up-country Tamils, and the Sinhalese, or everybody else who so desire, migrate to the North and the East, so that we have a true tapestry of multi-ethnicity in the whole country, just as we have in Colombo today.

Meanwhile if a journalist has nothing but double entendre, empty rhetoric or inconsistent nonsense to dish out, he or she should spare us their hogwash.
- Sri Lanka Guardian