Law and Order in the East

“We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. But the task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.” - Albert Camus

By A. M. M. Naoshaad

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.

(January 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Since my entry into Parliament in April of 2008, I have always maintained that I am an opponent of war. I would like to start with what Henry Ford said in his writings, “My Life and Work.” It states, I quote:

“My opposition to war is not based upon pacifist or non-resistant principles. It may be that the present state of civilization is such that certain international questions cannot be discussed; it may be that they have to be fought out. But the fighting never settles the question. It only gets the participants around to a frame of mind where they will agree to discuss what they were fighting about.”

Since the advent of this problem in this country and the many wars that we have fought, we have finally always tried to settle down to discuss the ultimate solution to this problem. Now, we have in this House a classic example of how youth of the minority community emotionally got sucked into this war. We have Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran alias Karuna who belonged to the generation which came of age with the Black July. His is not just the story of one man; it is symbolic of the tragedy of an entire generation compelled by circumstances beyond their control to make choices which enmeshed them, their community and the country, in a cycle of vicious and deadly errors. It was a generation which came of age witnessing the spectacle of innocent Tamil men, women and children being brutally murdered by rioters while a majority of Southern society watched in silence. But, we all know that there were quite a lot of Southern people who risked their lives to save thousands of more lives. It was the most courageous and idealistic among that generation who joined the militant movements only to have their dreams shattered or characters degenerated by an unforgiving reality.

In a few short years, they were either killing fellow Tamil militants or being killed by fellow Tamil militants, supposedly brothers in arms against a common oppressor. Some died, some left, others stayed and died or prospered. Karuna stayed and prospered. But, I must remind Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran what Albert Camus said or Albert Cami as pronounced in French said, I quote:

“We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. But the task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.”

Now, this is the plight of this community and the country. What we need to understand is that the situation today, the military victory in Kilinochchi and the push forward to the North and the eventual or inevitable defeat of the LTTE, looking at the numbers should teach all of us a lesson in that this event that we are witnessing today and some being forced to celebrate is of our making. This is not something that was born out of nothing. I have said this in the House before. That when a section of the population finds that it is being deceived at every turn, when every democratic option is denied to them, then they have to resort to what they think is fair.

Now, we have members of the Government constantly harping on the CFA. I was a vociferous critic of the CFA. In fact I did not belong to the UNP at that time, and I was one of the vociferous critics of the CFA. And, you must remember that the Muslim community of the East suffered the most under the CFA. Under the CFA the events of Trincomalee, the events of Valaichchenai all happened when Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran was a part of the LTTE fighting machinery. He was commanding the East. We suffered the most but what we need to understand is that if not for the shrewd tactics of the then UNF Government and its leader, we would not be in this position today. You have to understand that. In fact, when I was the Assistant Secretary of the United National Party, I used to have long discussions with the Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe, Leader of the Opposition with regard to how to approach this issue. He would always say that the only option left is to agree to a ceasefire at any cost and hold it as long as possible.

Now, if you look back, if not for the CFA, if that then Government had kept on fighting, Pillayan would not be the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province today. Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran would not be a Member of Parliament. He would still be a part of the LTTE fighting machinery. It was the CFA, the resultant peace talks, the exposure to the outside world, the mechanizations of so many foreign bodies that eventually made Karuna Amman leave the LTTE and fight the very forces that he had helped to build. If not for the CFA the international safety net would not have been established and the abandoning of the LTTE by the international community would not have taken place.

In fact, it was the CFA, the very CFA that destroyed the Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe’s chances of becoming the President of this country. He paid the price for that. If the LTTE did not fear him, he would have perhaps been His Excellency Ranil Wickremasinghe. It was the biggest mistake that the LTTE did that brought this curse upon the Tamil community. If the LTTE had sat down genuinely and worked towards a peaceful solution they would not be in this situation today. We would not have lost thousands of lives on both sides, thousands of young men and women maimed for life and we would not have been discussing what we are discussing today. So, it is easy to heap the blame on one side when the other side comes to power. And, that is why I was reluctantly compelled to interrupt the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs when he spoke about the CFA. If not for the CFA, what we have achieved or what the State has achieved today would not be a reality because you can keep fighting a war. You do not need the Opposition to fight a war. All you need is dedicated, well directed armed forces to fight a war. And, I must commend the Government for the leadership it has given to the forces and what they have achieved. As proud Sri Lankans we have to give credit where it is due and I am reminded of the situation that His Excellency the President is in today . In a letter that Winston Churchill wrote to a friend in 1916 he said, I quote:
“I think a curse should rest on me - because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment - and yet - I can’t help it - I enjoy every second of it.”

This is what Winston Churchill wrote to a friend in 1916. As I said before, you do not need the Opposition to fight a war and the Government is doing a good job of fighting the war. But, what are we fighting the war for? Is it just to gain territory? No. The ultimate objective of fighting this war is to bring about peace. To bring about peace what do you need? You need consensus. Finally, you need consensus of this House and all those who sit here to bring about durable peace. So, how do you build consensus when you keep on blaming the other side for everything that has happened in the past? You cannot bring about consensus. You are basically dividing the country further. Anybody who speaks against the war is a traitor. Anybody who is associated with the UNP is a traitor. But, you must remember that 48 per cent of the people of this country voted for the UNP or for Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe. So, how do you bring the leadership of these millions of people to reconcile to peace? How do you bring peace without a consensus? Today Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran is in this House. He fought with the LTTE. Now he is with the Government and when we sit down to talk peace, he will definitely have his say. The JVP basically brought victory to his Excellency the President. But, today a section of the JVP is opposed to him.

The reality is that all these forces will have to come together and sit down to decide as to how we are going to take this country forward. Today you are in power, tomorrow you can be in the Opposition. But, that does not mean that you should continue to antagonize each other and not work towards building a consensus. You fight the war. Nobody can stop this Government from fighting the war. You have caught the Tiger by the tail. You cannot let go; you have to finish it. But, finishing it militarily, you must remember, does not necessarily mean that you are not leaving room for young people of 1983 like Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran who felt like what Albert Camus o said, I quote :

“rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way you are justified”

In 1983, he felt that somewhere, in some way he was justified in what he was doing. This is not going to prevent other Tamil youths thinking in the same way. So, we do not want to re-invent the wheel. We need to work towards a consensus now, a Sri Lankan consensus, not a Sinhala-Buddhist consensus or a Sinhala consensus. It is a Sri Lankan consensus where everybody - every Sinhalese, every Tamil, every Muslim, every Burgher - in this country feels that he is a part of this solution and that he is a part of a new Sri Lanka. But, this cannot be achieved in the way we are going, my Friends, not by people being forced to fire crackers, to gather around the roundabout to prevent the Opposition Leader coming to the House or trying to intimidate us. Anyway, I do not get intimidated. All I can get is killed. But you have to die some day. But we have to speak out as to the dangerous trend that we are setting with the events of these few days such as burning of the MTV studios. I have never appeared on MTV. I do not attend those talk shows. But, that is a necessary element of our society.

So, I as a representative of the Tamil-speaking people of the East, I humbly request every member of this House to forget their political differences and work towards a solution by consensus and not by blame.

(The write is a member of parliament in Sri Lanka) - Sri Lanka Guardian