Karuna Amman: a great hero of our time

By Charles S Perera

(March 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lanka Tamils of the diaspora should take a lesson from Karuna Amman, who defected from the LTTE, and today not only a Minister of the Sri Lanka Government, but also a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

He is a very rare human being who was able to use his intelligence to think and did what he thought was correct in defecting from a terrorist group in which he held a leading position. He did not rest at that but made a further retrospective interrogation, and came out with lot of human wisdom.

His defection from the terrorist group at the proper time caused a crack in that ruthless group of terrorists that finally led to its complete demolition. He took a terrible risk and he is still not completely out of the danger of a probable attempt on his life by the terrorists.

He is a National hero whether one likes it or not. It was again our President Mahinda Rajapakse “ a man for all seasons” who recognised the immense contribution of Karuna Amman to our country which was at the peril of an enemy, who was determined to divided the territory of our beloved Motherland.

Karuna Amman will certainly go down the history of Sri Lanka as a great hero of the modern time, one among thousands of those of the Security Forces who gave their lives and those who risk their lives fighting the terrorists.

While some of those dear heroes, made their supreme sacrifice, others still continue their fight for the cause of freeing our motherland from terrorism, and save the country also from the hordes of Tamils of the diaspora, the Tamil Nadu, and the International Community awaiting to see the failure of the Armed Forces, bent on dividing our country to stop its progress and development.

Karuna Amman is an example to all those politicians who have still not understood the necessity to unite as a nation leaving aside narrow communal identities. Karuna Amman has understood that communal unity is possible not by being cooped into communal ghettoes in an outmoded political party system that had caused all the problems of the country , but by integrating into a national political party system which should finally result in the real unity of the communities, to render unto the future generations , and present to the world a real Nation of Sri Lankans.

It is in that light that we have to understand the immensity of Karuna Ammans act of getting away from the segregation within a strictly communal Political Party, to integrate into a larger Political Party representative of all Communities.

If others like Rauf Hakim, Mano Ganeshan, Chandrasekaran , Thondaman or even Anandasangaree take account of Karuna Amman’s act of joining the SLFP , and do like-wise by giving up their communal identity to integrate wholly into a National Political System, like the SLFP or UNP, it will not then be long that the Government of Sri Lanka will reflect the communities that make up the Sri Lankan Nation, and one day produce a President or a Prime Minister or both from the Minority Communities.

Karuna Amman is not a rabid noise maker like Mano Ganeshan-who uses his political investment for the separation of the Country. Karuna Ammn acts with wisdom to unite the country. His name could easily be put together with those clever and much loved politicians like Douglas Devananda, late Lakshman Kadirgamar, and late Jeyraj Fernandopulle.

This new demarche of Karuna Amman makes the work of the APRC for the devolution of power an unnecessary exercise. Karuna Amman has also removed the distinction of minority communities and the majority community. He has paved the way for a more meaningful communal unity.

This move of Karuna Ammana, should open the eyes of political leaders who have set up political parties for the benefit of their own political future. They should take a lesson from Karuna Amman, to sacrifice their self interests for the greater interest of the country, by agreeing to disband the political parties with communal identities, and join national political parties to make a durable National Unity.

Karuna Amman stands well above the so called educated Tamils of the diaspora such as Narapalasingham, J.B.S.Jeyaraj and such like. Karuna Amman has all the more reason to be a racist against the Sinhala majority. He became a terrorist after the July,1983. As a terrorist he had been hated by the Sinhala people. But today he is neither a racist nor a terrorists with vengeance in his heart.

The same cannot be said of the hate mongering Tamil diaspora, awaiting every opportunity to attack the majority Sinhala Community and accuse the government of genocide and Sinhala Supremacism. The aim of the Tamil diaspora is to divide the country, where as Karuna Amman wants to unite the country.

(The writer can be reached through his blog http://pereracharles.blogspot.com/ ) -Sri Lanka Guardian