by Shenali Waduge
The views expressed in this report are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of
the Sri Lanka Guardian
(May 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The present scenario that prevails is opportune to reflect. Eelaam still remains the key stratagem. While India may have created the concept of Eelaam to prevail in Sri Lanka, India would never allow Eelaam to see fruition in either Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka though the West is attempting to revive the Eelaam cause. For the West an Eelaam in Sri Lanka becomes a perfect ploy to destabilize India. What Tamils on both sides of the Palk Straits need to remember is that Eelaam promoted by India or the West would never give the type of “independence” Tamils in India or Sri Lanka are aspiring for. Eelaam is only a ploy for a bigger gameplan for both India & the West but with separate agendas. The Tamil people of both countries have the power to stop this treacherous gameplan from ruining the lives of innocent people who are likely to be again fooled into taking arms for a struggle that will not lead anywhere for them.
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“Sri Lanka must thank late President Premadasa for sending off the IPKF from Sri Lanka for it denied India their plan to set up base in Sri Lanka. However, today Sri Lanka’s Government is giving in too much to Indian pressure & wisdom must prevail. India’s desire to have LTTE prevail but within India’s control is evident & despite LTTE assassinating Rajiv Gandhi when this could have been the best reason for India to eliminate the LTTE, did not do so. This becomes the best example of hypocrisy by India where it was not ready to crush LTTE in 1992 as India wanted to use LTTE for bigger plans.” |
So Eelaam has become a much abused ideology. Used first by India to divert separatist tendencies from South India, Eelaam eventually became a bread & butter to Sri Lanka’s Tamil tiger fighters resourceful enough to use the theme to create a nefarious international network that included extortion, human smuggling, illegal narcotics, illegal weapons flow & to internationally lobby for the creation of Eelaam by buying over foreign politicians, foreign organizations & foreign lobbies. Ironically, they didn’t even have to be bought because the plan of the West was always to use Eelaam as a means to enter India. Everything else were camouflages. For the West the gameplan was to buy time by fooling not only the South Indian Tamils, but the Sri Lankan Tamils &Tamil Diaspora as well. Sri Lanka’s politicians joining the bandwagon ended up fooling the public so that they would remain in power. For India, it was a means to delay & divert separatist tendencies from India’s South & it was also a strategy to one day annex Sri Lanka to India if India was left with no choice. This alternative still prevails & it is something Sri Lankans need to be mindful of at all times.
The question is who is orchestrating these plans? India may have come up with the strategy to use Eelaam but no sooner it became an international issue, India lost control as the West was quick to realize that it was a perfect means to use Sri Lanka as a platform to destabilize India. Everything else that took place along this path was merely collateral damage thus the reason why 3 decades of terrorism prevailed. It was easy to proscribe the outfit internationally yet allow the LTTE to function. How else would a bandful of men & women end up procuring arms far more sophisticated than what the Sri Lanka military possessed? Prevalence of terrorism meant that powerful nations using the UN had every right to send foreign representatives, foreign peace keepers & other such facilitators to be used to further plan & fund regime change conducive for western presence.
What India will not forget & should not forget is that it belongs to the Asian subcontinent. India, Russia & China will be key players as the future belongs to Asia. India would be committing hara-kiri if it chooses to side with the West against its allegiance with Russia & China. The West will always be watchful of the progress these threesome are making economically & plans must already be afoot to devise ways to destabilize these countries. India’s bullying of its neighbors need to be reassessed. Yet, what India finds difficulty to do is to depart from its superior mentality syndrome.
Opportunism will become the hallmark of diplomacy that will prevail. India opened its economy when Russia was facing difficulties & the West started investing heavily in India but no sooner Russia re-emerged from its downward economy, India was quick to renew ties with Russia. China-India relations are also going smoothly. Yet the West has managed to make inroads into Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Nagaland, Karnataka & through Maoists we see what India will be faced with – more calls for separatism.
India’s thirst for domination was easy to foresee. The signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord in 1987 resulted in over 125,000 Indian soldiers landing in Sri Lanka. There was a reason why the LTTE was not eliminated by the IPKF & it wasn’t because the LTTE were stronger than the IPKF…India simply wanted to stay in Sri Lanka since they were manipulating the LTTE. It was from Sri Lanka that the Indian army sent Tamil mercenaries’ to Maldives in an attempt to overthrow the then President in 1988 & the Indian army paratroopers sent was simply a whitewash to show India’s concern & India was able to create a permanent base in Maldives.
Sri Lanka must thank late President Premadasa for sending off the IPKF from Sri Lanka for it denied India their plan to set up base in Sri Lanka. However, today Sri Lanka’s Government is giving in too much to Indian pressure & wisdom must prevail. India’s desire to have LTTE prevail but within India’s control is evident & despite LTTE assassinating Rajiv Gandhi when this could have been the best reason for India to eliminate the LTTE, India did not do so. This becomes the best example of hypocrisy by India where it was not ready to crush LTTE in 1992 as India wanted to use LTTE for bigger plans. Nevertheless, India took quick action following the 9/11 by crafting the Cease Fire Agreement to ensure that LTTE would prevail by bringing them again to the negotiation table. West & India pretending to be friends in the so called war on terror but both conniving separate plans using LTTE & the Eelaam theme.
Thus, we see the clandestine ties by the West & LTTE hopeful of a Kosovo type solution which India will never allow to happen. So what Sri Lanka & especially its politicians need to remember at all times is that there is no single policy at play but the theme behind these policies is to have Sri Lanka in the hands of either the West or India. It is left to Sri Lanka to decide which way it goes or whether it can be strong enough to remain independent.
Independent Sri Lanka in short lies in the hands of Sri Lanka’s politicians & how they can weather the political storms & their own strategies. The people will always back the Government that strives to protect the integrity of the nation & assures the safety of its people. If Sri Lanka is thankful for Premadasa for sending IPKF back to India, Sri Lanka must be thankful for China’s presence in Hambantota as it has certainly changed a bit of the main gameplan whether it shifts towards the West or India.
To reiterate again India would never allow Eelaam to be created in Sri Lanka for it would mean a separatist struggle in India that is why India strictly opposed elections to the Transnational Government to be held in India. Nevertheless, the present voices raised by the West favoring Tamil Diaspora despite the elimination of the ruthless LTTE fighters in Sri Lanka foretells that there are still plans afoot to revive the struggle & plans remain afoot to continue to destabilize India.
Nevertheless dangers prevail as India’s intelligence agency has often worked on its own without keeping Indian Government informed. Much of the time LTTE was supported by RAW more than the Indian Government. This is where it becomes difficult for us to understand actions by the Indian Government. Thus, India needs to first take better control over its own intelligence before its intelligences forsakes India’s sovereignty! Yet for us in Sri Lanka whether it is Indian Government or RAW….Sri Lanka remains angry & hurt by the manner India has treated Sri Lanka & that will never change. We are well aware that India will never terminate its subversive activities against, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Maldives or Sri Lanka. The call is for these countries to establish a joint intelligence to fight off RAW, Mossad & CIA sponsored terrorism in the region & in these countries.
When Sri Lanka eliminated the LTTE instead of praise it was greeted with criticisms. Sri Lanka’s counterinsurgency doctrine was said to have followed 8 principles – political will, ignoring domestic & international criticism, denying negotiation calls, regulating media, saying no to ceasefire calls, follow operation freedom, leverage young commanders to key roles & communicate & keep neighbors in the loop. Rajapakse administration followed this to precision. Success & victory resulted in widespread celebration for a nation suffering 3 decades but the world advised the nation not to indulge in “triumphalism”. Bin Laden was killed after just 12 years but a colossal damage created to not only one country but to so many with millions dying & trillions being spent on the war on terror…nevertheless celebrations over Bin Laden appears far more important than Prabakaran who had prevailed for 3 decades! Osama bin Laden was anyway irrelevant to the Al Qaeda though he created it. The prestige certainly falls at the doorstep of the Obama Government with a new boost on home soil but the US knows that Al Qaeda & its offshoots still prevail primarily as a result of its own silent backing for the existence of terrorism in reality has helped US advance its strategic interests throughout the world.
Alongside the players set out to destabilize countries are the local stooges some of whom are being used in countries throughout the middle east to create the regime change desired by the West. The west have openly declared it is arming these opposition rebels some of whom are youngsters blinded by one single word – “democracy”. In Sri Lanka’s case the western forces that are using the local set of NGO leaders would need to seriously think how far their cheques to them have actually paid off…other than living & leading lavish lives these local stooges have failed to create a local lobby against the Government necessary for any regime change. At best all they have done it to meet in Colombo over cocktails &write to the English dailies. Therefore, so long as such local stooges prevail the West will not be able to advance any pro-West agendas & we should not worry over the capabilities or rather inabilities!
Looking back Sri Lanka has certainly had to face numerous seismic shifts….but the balance of power has shifted towards the Sri Lanka Government despite the present calls of investigations into war crimes. At the back of these allegations, fact or fiction will easily prevail & it is upto a dormant external affairs Minister to finally wake up & ensure that fact & differentiated from fiction with proof. Alongside the military leadership, the Governmental backing, the new tactics deployed was assistance from China, Pakistan & Russia which countered the criticism of the west by using the excuse of civilians to force Sri Lankan Government to stop its military from going forward to eliminate the LTTE…so much for the so called war on terror. For whatever oxygen given externally, LTTE ended up the opposite of its former self & it could not match the will of the Sri Lankan troops. LTTE’s miscalculations starting from post 9/11 ended up sealing its fate & now with no ground initiative all that remains is the virtual dream of the transnational government.
Nevertheless, as a nation our victory over terrorism in 2009 has not allowed us to continue life in peace to pick up the pieces & to push our leaders to continue the next phase of economic & social development. Obviously, these are all calculated measures being taken. The next step is to envision what we need to do to tackle these covert tactics at play. The panel report is just one of the many other tsunami’s likely to come our way…at all times we must remember we have 3 choices – go West, go India or remain United Sri Lanka.
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