Right of Reply: A Week to Remember Fallen Freedom Fighters

 "Freedom, once realized is never lost. The more we show expectations for others to endorse us, the more we confirm that we had never realized Freedom even amongst ourselves."

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

Dear Mr. Satheesan Kumaaran,


(November 26, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I refer to your article about Remembering our dead ones. Freedom Fighters’ bodies may fall but the real freedom fighters never fall. They would find freedom through defeat also.

The world in common sees the events of last year as an end to the armed war in Sri Lanka. As per the system of democracy, we need to accept the genuine expressions of majority at that time and place and proceed to base our logical actions in that environment, to sustain ourselves as a culture beyond time and space borders. If the picture we see through allocation of rights and wrongs as per our feelings and thinking is stronger than the picture shown by majority force and we are not able to override our picture through feelings of ownership – then we do need to change our environment.

There is often a conflict between the two when we invest in higher education that covers wider area than that covered by our cultural borders. This is an inherent weakness of this ethnic issue, especially from the Tamil side which tends to invest more in Higher Education than other Sri Lankan cultures. To the extent our investment in Higher Education was damaged by the war more than pre-war times, we Tamils are responsible for not prioritizing the allocation of resources on Equal Opportunity basis. We need to ask ourselves whether we would have felt more ‘free’ as a community if those dead soldiers had lived and contributed to our investment in Higher Education through which we could have improved our strength of International forces.

I worked with LTTE Administration and I do identify with the beliefs of most of the cadre in Vanni. Hence even though I was a democratic opposition of armed action – I was careful not to damage the value of the work of the believers – but helped them preserve it anyway they could. To me, belief is real. Hence if someone believed in armed action – the reason to me - is isolation from the more educated parts of our culture that had the alternate avenues to self governance and the positions that personified self governance.

I expect in return for others, including freedom fighters to respect my investment in other avenues towards self governance. The LTTE members who worked with me did not interfere with my work. They just said ‘Akka we do not know Administration. We know to fight’ and as per my observations – they kept going. My belief in freedom helped me identify with other genuine freedom fighters – who usually had ‘other better alternatives’. There were not many of them but few good ones were enough for me to be able to feel with them. The value of their work and sacrifices needs to be valued and preserved and they must be remembered and honored by the community. If even One genuine Tamil genuinely remembers and feels appreciation – they are honored.

On the other hand even if millions gather to ‘show’ others they are dishonored. One who is driven by wins – above upholding Dharma does not contribute to real freedom but apparent freedom. This is why Lord Krishna said to Prince Arjuna to fight to uphold Dharma – even against his own immediate relatives. The moment majority LTTE fought to show win more than to uphold their freedom earned one way or the other and we as a community did not stop them from going further any ‘wins’ were temporary shows to impress others. To the extent the Government also did likewise – the current defeat is temporary.

Freedom, once realized is never lost. The more we show expectations for others to endorse us, the more we confirm that we had never realized Freedom even amongst ourselves. To me, we as a community are continuing to suffer from the effects of caste discrimination unless those who enjoy higher status due to caste share that with the lower caste – at least through common activities. THAT is when we would be entitled to claim the right to self governance. Like with racism caste based discrimination is largely habitual and subconscious for most Tamils. Accepting this is made easy when there are handouts – which was not uncommon amongst those who displaced themselves to be close to the LTTE. This is recognized as a major problem by local administrators in terms of welfare funds from foreign agencies.

It is important that we invest in common rather than at bilateral level. The more we invest at bilateral level the more fragmented we become. Those of us who seek International investment in our community need to invest in values and standards ‘common’ to the global community. Hence it is important to celebrate remembrance day on 11 November and not on 27 November – unless you seek to live as a local in majority LTTE areas only. I do not mean just the physical areas that were controlled by the LTTE but all places where majority believe in the path chosen by the LTTE above any other path including the path of education.

Without this discipline, your actions in promoting 27 November is intrusive and indicates a control culture which is diametrically opposed to ‘freedom’. Also, please note that Remembrance Day is to honor as per our beliefs and not to celebrate victories. I am a free Tamil. If you are also one – you would identify with my belief – even though our expressions may differ and sometimes even oppose each other’s. Now that we have a group that calls itself Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, you ought to not have much difficulty in getting a vote on this from ALL Tamils outside Sri Lanka. When you confirm that majority in our community voted in favor of 27 November as opposed to 11 November – as our Remembrance day – I would accept that without analyzing logically. Until then you need to show the logic of One. Majority vote is like guru’s statements and actions. They are taken as being right for that time and place, provided it is obtained without enforcement. Otherwise the outcomes would not have ‘happened’.

Some Tamils moved inwards to local Tamil areas and others moved outwards to countries outside Sri Lanka as well as to Colombo. The way the two groups would Remember would ‘look’ different and needs to be so if we are to pass on the structures of our work to the next generation. We need to respect and value Diversity towards this. Otherwise we are likely to become ‘uniform’ and lose our urge to be enterprising and creative.

Majority vote carries with it the value of opposition. To use statements such as ‘Great Heroes Day addresses set the tone for future Tamil freedom strategies’ and ‘Tamils all over the world are waiting to see how their freedom will be attained’ indicates an urge to be uniform ‘looking’ and given that there is a global ‘look’ for this, your push is taken by this Free Tamil as an attempt at being ‘intrusive’ . To the extent we are truly free we would value freedom of choice exercised by others and therefore not use the word Tamils to show totality except through majority vote duly obtained.

In summary – please use the right word to describe your group which in this instance is LTTE and not Tamils. Otherwise, to me, you are NOT fighting for freedom but for control.