Relating to the Reality

By N Sathiya Moorthy

(June 22, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Reports attributed to ‘KP’, declaring the creation of a ‘provisional transnational government” to pursue self-rule for the Tamil minorities in Sri Lanka is fraught with consequences that the world needs to take note of. The Tamil polity in the country, as also the Government in Colombo cannot overlook them either, both for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons.

This is not the first time that a ‘virtual government’ transcending political borders and national territories is being mentioned by the Tamil Diaspora. In recent years, the post-Maavilaru phase in 2006-07 had witnessed Diaspora intellectuals descending on Tamil Nadu in particular, conceptualizing on such themes – and indicating that the struggle for a ‘separate Tamil nation’ would not die with the possible exit of the LTTE or its leadership.

In a way, the TNA took off from where they left, though the latter’s role, aspirations and expectations were not all that futuristic. If anything, theirs was a ‘grounded approach’ as they visualized it. However, the end-game saw their hope wiped out nearer home in Sri Lanka with the military defeat of the LTTE. In India, they saw the pan-Tamil polity unable to deliver on the promise that they had kindled in more realistic electoral terms.

Throughout the career of the Tamil national movement in Sri Lanka, successive leadership – moderate or militant – have always displayed a knack for thinking way ahead of the governmental competition, whether it pertained to concepts or methodology, or both. To the extent the overseas elements were able to think ahead of the times, to be able to visualize a world without the LTTE should be commendable in its own way.

Yet, the fact remains that the ‘new phase’ of the ‘Tamil national struggle’ could make things difficult, not only for the Tamil polity and community back home but also for the larger Diaspora in their host nations. Having been identified with the LTTE, whatever the reason, the TNA would now have to bend backwards to prove its credibility and impartiality in a post-LTTE scenario, if it has to be taken seriously.

If nothing else, they cannot be seen as speaking for the ‘post-Prabhakaran LTTE’, and not for the Tamil community, particularly those who have stayed behind in the country to face the travails and tribulations of the ‘national struggle’. That the LTTE was as much a part of the problem, and was also a hurdle to a permanent solution, should make the ‘left-over’ Tamils in Sri Lanka to look at this ‘virtual LTTE’ and its not-so-virtual spokesmen nearer home with greater concern, if not outright suspicion.

This could also be the case with the Sri Lankan Government and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who have been extending off-again-on-again invitations to the TNA and the rest of the Tamil polity in the country for talks to find a political solution to the decades-old ethnic issue. If friendly and supportive nations like those in India and the West begin looking at the TNA with the kind of discomfort that they had not displayed in the past, their position and predicament should be understandable. The TNA’s role then could become even more tentative and tenuous than already.

It is understandable that the Tamil community and polity in Sri Lanka, particularly those that have remained LTTE-centric and supportive for long, is yet to come to terms with the conclusion of the war. Some blame for this should go to pro-LTTE elements that sought to make out that Prabhakaran was still alive and would return another day to prosecute the war. Credit should thus go to KP for nailing this lie, quick and fast – even though he had also lent credence to such populist disbelief only a day earlier.

Yet, for KP to launch a ‘virtual Tamil State’ is fraught with consequences that host nations, the West in particular, may have problems accepting. Despite street protests and media hype to the contrary, the Tamils in India voted last month’s ‘Elections-09’not on any-pan Tamil issue. Instead, their choices were made on bread-and-butter issues that were of greater and more immediate concern to individual voters.

This need not be the case with the Sri Lankan Diaspora Tamils in the West. To begin with, they are immediate to the physical, political and emotional concerns arising out of the long drawn-out ethnic crisis, war and violence. Their say in the elections of their host nations would thus be influenced by individual candidates’ known disposition towards the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka. It’s a reality flowing out this of the ‘virtual world’ reality of globalization and global migration.

Nearer home in India, the pan-Tamil sentiments whipped up by in recent months could continue to reverberate even more, particularly if the groups that protested across the world in recent months continued to target New Delhi for their own failures to comprehend the non-existing realities. These in turn were based on what the LTTE ultimately turned into a propaganda war – and confusing it for ‘psy-war’. Even psychological wars have any use only if it is accompanied by military prowess – which the LTTE sourly lacked after a time.

For Sri Lanka, such a turn would imply the existence of a psychological adversary, to fight whom in a un-fought war, the Government would have to continue to keep procuring weapons worth billions. These monies could be safely diverted towards much-awaited and even more promised funding, the absence of which has already put the clock back, by decades if not centuries.

Negotiations is the name of the game, as a peace settlement would ensure that the Tamil community in Sri Lanka could feel confident to repose its faith in the State and the Sinhala polity, one after the other. The Tamil community too needs to decide if they would continue to fight the Sri Lankan State eternally – for a real State, or through a ‘virtual State’.

But then, this is the question that the TNA and the rest of the Tamil polity too should ask even more – if they have to continue to remain relevant over the medium and the long terms. By going to the Tamil masses over the head of the existing polity, President Rajapaksa or anyone else in his place could undermine their effectiveness and relevance – if they decide to take a more appropriate course, quick and fast. Conversely, lingering suspicions of the Sri Lankan State could end up making every Tamil a suspect in the eyes of the Sri Lankan troops long after the LTTE was gone.

Conversely, fresh from past experiences with the LTTE, the Government and the President need to think about the consequences of a psychological war of an LTTE kind. The LTTE had won such wars, basing them on even non-existent incidents involving the armed forces and Tamil civilians would often get exaggerated, if not wholly twisted, publicity that had gone wrong. Such publicity would rock and shock the Tamils in India, and also elsewhere in the world – with electoral consequences of a kind that was not possible as long as the ‘terrorist’ LTTE was still around.

-Sri Lanka Guardian