Prabhakaran – a symbol of shame to the Tamils

By H. L. D. Mahindapala

(February 25, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Velupillai Prabhakaran was a hero to the Tamils as long as he held territory with the promise of taking them to Eelam. Now that he is without territory he is a zero. But more than his military defeat it his conduct as “the sole representative of the Tamils” – a claim that the Tamils, mainly those in the Tamil diaspora, were willing to concede – that that has brought him down in the eyes of the world. After all, the conduct of “a sole representative” automatically gets reflected on the people. And the role played by Prabhakaran is no exception.

In the late nineties he acquired the ignominious title of being the only Tamil leader who had killed more Tamils than all the other forces (Indian and Sri Lankan) put together. Is this what the Jaffna Tamils wanted from their leader? He has also acquired the opprobrium of being the only Tamil leader who has brought death, destruction and disgrace to the Tamils on an unprecedented scale. (Thanks to him the Tamils are known the world over as ruthless terrorists than as decent human beings.) Is this what the Jaffna Tamils wanted from their thalaivar? He will also be remembered as the only Tamil leader who organized Tamil violence to its vile extreme and failed to achieve his political goals. Is this what the Tamils wanted from their “sole representative”?

Now he has notched another unforgivable crime to his name. History will record that the last stand of Velupillai Prabhakaran was to shoot his own people in the back when they were running away to safe havens which he could not provide to the Tamils throughout his career. This is the hour that the Tamils trapped in the middle of war need protection. But when they run, seeking safety in the security zone set up by the government to shelter the unarmed, helpless Tamil civilians, he unashamedly shoots them in the back.

Leaders have earned their place in history by doing their utmost to save civilian lives in times of war. Seeing the inevitable blood bath in the last battle at Vijithpura, Dutugemunu, for instance, offered to engage King Elara in a one-to-one contest. To the undying honour and glory of King Elara he accepted the offer. Both camps witnessing the contest would have had their hearts beating in their hands. It stands out as the greatest dramatic moment in ancient history. Both kings were willing to sacrifice their lives to save the lives of their people. But Prabhakaran is fighting to save his life and his political future, if he has any at all.

From his point of view Prabhakaran feels justified in continuing his futile war, despite appeals from the international community and even Tamil Churchmen. But how can he justify shooting Tamils fleeing from his grip and the horrors of war? It is this cowardly act that brings shame to the Tamils who looked up to him as their leader/saviour. When the Tamils have leaders like Prabhakaran why blame those whom they were taught to perceive as enemies? Has there ever been an enemy of the Tamils more cruel and vindictive than Prabhakaran? It was a courageous decision on the part of elderly King Elara to engage in a personal combat with young Dutugemunu, It reveals the commitment of King Elara to a higher humane value: protection of innocent civilians takes priority over self-preservation. What principle does Prabhakaran represent when he shoots the Tamil people who sacrificed their lives and teen-age children to protect him as far as they could?

Prabhakaran is the opposite of King Elara. He is hiding behind the Tamil people and is not only forcing them to fight a war that he has lost but using them as a human shield to gain more time for him not to win the war but to either escape or to find an external miracle, in the form of Indian intervention, for instance, to save him. But India has stated categorically that it will not come to his rescue. This has sealed his fate.

Anyone who can read the signs of the time will know that nothing can save him now. So why is he using his Tamil people as a human shield? Instead of prolonging the agony of war by making his people face the brunt of his brutal war he has three options: 1. he can lay down his arms and surrender, as requested by the international community; 2. he can try to escape and go abroad and 3. he can swallow the pill which he hands out to his suicide cadres. He may yet do 2 and 3. But he is unlikely to lay down arms and surrender. According to an article in Puthinam written by Yogi the order has gone out to fight to the last man. This is partly due to his resolve to come back and fight another day. And partly due to his hubris that to lay down arms is to admit his failure to achieve his goal of Eelam in which case he has to commit suicide, as declared by him earlier to his guards.

But must he put the lives of Tamils in jeopardy purely to save his ego, and his desperate attempt to survive when there is nothing to save him? Whatever the reason, is there any morality that can excuse his act of shooting the unarmed Tamils in the back, which can only make him the worst coward in Tamil – nay human -- history? Why is he using the bodies of Tamil people to protect him when he knows the game is up? Which Tamil can now boast of Prabhakaran being the hero of Tamil politics?

Dropping his arrogant pose as the reclusive demigod, holding sway way above the mortal Tamil robots trained to follow his commands, he was shown, for the first time, throwing his arms round the two Tamil pilots who did a dash to bomb Colombo to commit suicide – the last gasp of Prabhakaran. What did this desperate act achieve? Of course, it means that if he survives he will send more Tamils to die for him. But, as in the suicide mission that flew to Colombo, is it going to change his fortunes in the future? He had tried suicide bombing as a weapon of indiscriminate destruction before mainly to strike fear. But it has failed to achieve his goals. Whether he gets his target (Rajiv Gandhi) or whether he misses the targets (Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and Gotabaya Rajapakse) he is going to be the loser. Suicide bombing is a crime against humanity because it kills people indiscriminately. In any case, how is he going to save the Tamils when he sends Tamils to kill others, including Tamils? How many Tamils will be there to be saved after he keeps sending his suicide missions and fighting losing battles?

Besides, suicide missions in the future will bring down the international community like a ton of brick on him in the future. It will weaken his cause and that of the Tamil diaspora on whom he depends for his survival, if he survives at all.

His picture with the two Tamil pilots goes to signal, if anything at all, that he is still somewhere in Mullativu directing operations. That is all. Nothing more! It was taken more to impress the Tamil diaspora than to achieve any meaningful military objective. Of course, suicide missions give him a sense of power – power to kill his perceived enemies, if he gets it right. Prabhakaran comes alive and feels important only under two conditions: 1. when he kills other human beings or 2. when he sends other human beings to die for him. Both missions have been tragic and futile.

Prabhakaran was projected as the last great hope of the Tamils to a win a state just not for the Sri Lankan Tamils but for the stateless 70 million Tamils in the world. He has played all his cards and he is now left with only a dwindling patch of land and dwindling cadres in the north-east corner of Sri Lanka. In this last stage his resistance would have some value and meaning if he has a chance of winning. But when he knows that the world he built has collapsed why is he sacrificing the lives of his civilian population? Or even his cadres? What does he hope to achieve?

Prabhakaran had the choice of going down with all his guns blazing if he fought soldier-to-soldier, making every attempt to save his people. That would have given him some stature as the hero of the Tamils. But to go down as a coward hiding behind the people – and worse still, to shoot men, women and children when they run away from him – is to disgrace himself and the Tamil people. Prabhakaran’s last stand of hiding behind his people reveals the deplorable depths to which deluded Tamil politics has fallen.

The world is shocked by his cowardly actions. The Churches, the UN, the Co-Chairs, India and even the pro-Tamil Tiger Erik Solheim, have been pleading with Prabhakaran to let the Tamil people go. But Prabhakaran is refusing to release the Tamil civilians because they are the last weapon available to him (1) to use against the advancing Security Forces that have demolished his pseudo-state and his political myths of invincibility and (2) to use the youth and even the aged among the Tamil hostages to fill his depleted cadres. It is also his way of deluding himself with the belief that the Tamil people are still with him. The Tamils are running away as fast as they could which, in itself, is a telling commentary on his leadership.

Prabhakaran’s loss of the nations that were inclined to back him covertly and overtly is understandable because in this game of power politics each nation will pursue its own self-interests by switching over to the winners and scuttling the losers. That loss, perhaps, is bearable, if the people are behind you. But when the people for whom you are fighting abandons you then you cease to be the leader. A leader gains power and turns into a formidable force only when the people rally round him/her. An army is somewhat different: it can survive with or without the people. It depends on the state for survival. But a non-state movement depends entirely on the people. Mao said that he was a fish who swam in the sea of the people. What future has Prabhakaran when his sea has dried up?

If the Tamil people were with Prabhakaran, as he claims, he would not be in this plight. It is because the people have more faith in the Government of Sri Lanka that he is losing. The Tamil people prefer to cross over to the Sri Lankan forces that were vilified and demonized than to be with Prabhakaran who was deified. Of course, the hard core in the diaspora, particularly the misguided doctors and other professionals, who are in limbo, is likely to be with him. But that is not going to save Prabhakaran.

The most remarkable feature, not highlighted in the current offensive against the Tamil Tigers, is the fact that the Tamil people have expressed their faith in the Security Forces by risking their lives to cross over to the government-controlled areas. This is a factor that has contributed significantly to the success of the advance of the Security Forces so swiftly. If the Tamil people were not with the Security Forces the task for the foot soldiers would have been almost impossible. They would have had to fight the Tigers and the Tamil people on ground, every inch of the way. If a Tamil intifada did materialize to oppose the Forces neither the speed nor the ultimate success of the military offensive could have been guaranteed.

The war-weary Tamils want an end to the war – not a prolongation of their misery. Intelligence and Deep Penetration Units confirm that their best sources of information have been the disillusioned and frustrated Tamils living under Prabhakaran. Maj-Gen. Janaka Perera told me once that he could not have held Jaffna for one day if the Tamil people rose in rebellion.

The Jaffna Tamils are now divided between living in a permanent state of violence under Prabhakaran or relative peace under the Security Forces. They also know that the promise of Prabhakaran to deliver them into an Eelam is a “day dream”, to use Prabhakaran’s phrase. The pragmatic Jaffna Tamils are wise enough to know that one in the hand is worth two in the Prabhakaran’s bush.

Living with Prabhakaran would have given them a taste of suffering to last a life time. Their existential conditions under the one-man regime would have revealed the difference between co-existing in harmony with the other communities and dreaming of elusive Eelam. The TULF leader V. Anandasangaree summarized the existential conditions experience by the Tamils when he said that they had the privilege of demonstrating against Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranike the time she came to open the Jaffna University. “Now,” he said, “I can’t even step into Jaffna”.

The time is not far away when the Tamils can re-enter Jaffna without looking over the shoulder or fear of being bumped off by their thalaivar who, once upon a time, claimed to be their sole representative.

Finally, those who opposed Prabhakaran and what he stood for could rightly quote Homer and say: “See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.”(Odyssey)
-Sri Lanka Guardian