Without a doubt Tamils are happier without the LTTE

by Shenali Waduge

(July 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Connotation for happy will have mixed results. In a Tamil population of just 2.4million wherein 1million are already domiciled (legally or illegally) overseas it is easy to fathom who are likely to be unhappy & happy. In determining who is happier without the LTTE, we need to place the feelings of the North & Eastern Tamils far ahead of others. It is they who suffered the bulk of LTTE terror & it is their lives that have stood still throughout the 3 decades of LTTE terror campaign.

Whatever Tamils may say today, those living in foreign climes & those living outside of the North & East must feel guilty for letting their own people down. With the elimination of the LTTE & for those who traveled to the North & East would have seen the manner in which the people had been living. Despite food provisions sent even during the height of the war, LTTE had denied food for their own people to eat. The suffering that these people had to endure is what should be aired across the world & will shame channel four, the Tamil Diaspora & all others who have been for years using them as scapegoats to allow the LTTE to prevail. This is one reason why most Tamil leaders partial to LTTE are reluctant to conduct a census…the truth will soon emerge about the reality of Tamils actually living in the North & will also perhaps make us open our eyes to the possibility of where these additional “Tamils” would have emerged from. 3 decades is a lot of time & there is just a small space that divides Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu! This is also good enough reason for the interference by India.

The truth is very simple. The Tamil Diaspora may suddenly claim to be interested in the welfare of the Tamil people but the truth is that they never cared for them all through the decades they were helping the LTTE prevail. All those who paid even a dollar to the LTTE kitty stands guilty for this crime. Years that they helped bankroll the LTTE terror, not a single dollar did they send to uplift the lives of their own people in the North or East. Had they been helping whilst also providing for the LTTE kitty there would be evidence but there isn’t! They could have made hospitals with all the dollars that went towards sophisticated weaponry & ammunition, they could have made schools, they could have done so much….but the Tamil diaspora didn’t & they can never escape this home truth & Tamils in Sri Lanka should not feel scared to point fingers. The Tamil Diaspora functioned out of choice, there were no weapons pointing at them to force them to side with the LTTE. They did so for their own selfish reasons. Having the LTTE prevail meant a lot of lucrative opportunities for many & this had nothing to do with Tamil or Sinhalese issue. LTTE terror meant Sri Lanka was listed as a dangerous country & Tamils could easily use the discrimination tag to apply as refugees thus the propaganda spread across globally to enable Tamils to take flight to foreign shores wherein they could help their own.

This is how 1million Tamils have found their way out of Sri Lanka & whilst most of them may have not had time to gain permanent residency status the present agitations are meant to signal to these foreign governments that it is dangerous for them to return. Why would we want people who do not love our country. Instead of creating lies & falsehoods it is best that they remain in these foreign countries & they should never be allowed to come to Sri Lanka even as tourists.

The Tamils who are today living in Sri Lanka must finally be true to their conscience & acknowledge truthfully that without the LTTE they are finally free to live in peace. Freedom of living is something the Tamils in the North & East in particular suffered from far more than others. That feeling of relief is nothing that foreign nations, their leaders or paid representatives of international organizations will ever be able to understand. They cannot understand simply because they are being paid not to understand, they are being paid to vocalize statements that are part & parcel of the policy that is crafted to attack or engage Sri Lanka for their own vested interests that are geographical, political or economical. There is no point in actually finding fault with any of these personalities because most of them are reading of written documents prepared for them to which in honesty they might not personally agree with. These are all hypocrisies in politics. That is why it is important that the public at least become honest & the Tamil public certainly needs to go down memory lane & introspect & see how much they have lost as a result of the LTTE, the Tamil Diaspora & all those others who supported the LTTE including the present set of Tamil leaders who stood mum & watched LTTE systematically ruin generations of Tamils from developing socially & economically. Tamils only allowed only a selected number of Tamils to prosper whilst the majority suffered. Today everyone has been brought on an equal footing.

It is good for Tamils to look back & see how backward their own people have become throughout the LTTE terror, how only a handful have prospered & whether those that prospered did anything to uplift the life of any ordinary Tamil family, whether they even chided the LTTE for recruiting Tamil children & turning them into child terrorists? How unfair have Tamils been to their own people?

International organizations set up to cover war situations need wars to function. Sri Lanka cannot allow its people to suffer in order for international organizations to prevail. Throughout the conflict over 3000 NGOs/INGOs functioned throughout Sri Lanka Post-war we can but ask what have they really done & what were they actually doing? True the country may have gained through the large amounts of foreign revenue they would have brought in but what collateral damage they would have done can be seen by the negative publicity campaigns that still prevail & how far Governments themselves stoop to the level of accepting falsehoods that are paid to be created & published. Then again, we know that these politicians emerge as leaders as a result of the votes that are promised by ethnic groups domiciled in these countries.

Returning to Sri Lanka, it is no denying that without the LTTE the country has seen a major change & all Sri Lankans together will agree that we have been finally blessed to be rid of a terror group.

That Sri Lanka is the only country to have defeated a terrorist organization is undeniable, that Sri Lanka also rescued thousands of Tamil civilians kept as human shields by the LTTE is also an achievement no foreign military has achieved, that Sri Lanka has rehabilitated former LTTE cadres & reintroduced them into civil society is also an achievement that the world cannot deny, some of these cadres have even been given in marriage in a wedding ceremony organized by the Sri Lankan military, that even the hardcore LTTE terrorists are being put through rehabilitation & engaged in development work is also an achievement. Set against this remarkable list of achievements when we equate with the US & allied troops, their governments should certainly feel ashamed. We do not have Guatanamo’s, we do not have terrorists who are inhumanely treated & the guilt of what these soldiers are shouldering can be seen in the amazingly high number of mentally disoriented soldiers a scenario that has become a major issue in the US. Why have the BBC or C4 not used the innumerous videos that have been taken by US & allied soldiers of the inhumane treatment given to Iraqi & Afghan soldiers & people that are freely circulating all over the web some incidents of which soldiers have accepted their guilt.

The Tamil Diaspora it is clear is trying all sorts of tactics to show it is despite the demise of Prabakaran, a key component in the Eelaam equation. That must be firmly denied to them by the Tamil people themselves. Did they send any of their children to fight for the LTTE? Did they send a cent to uplift the lives of ordinary Tamils? All they did was to engage foreign leaders, governments, powerful illegal networks, indulge in nefarious illegal activities on a global scale, purchase weapons & ammunition & pocket some for their own luxurious living…a look at how they live in these foreign climes against how they could afford to live on their qualification would easily reveal the truth.

We cannot stop foreign leaders, governments & other such powerful lobbies from continuing to vilify Sri Lanka. There are likely to be plenty more accusations coming our way. None of these countries are willing to accept or ready to accept Sri Lanka has defeated a terrorist organization. The often said but denied truth that terrorist organizations have had blessings of foreign Governments & leaders has been put to rest by US & allies openly agreeing to even provide military support for Libyan “rebels” despite Libya being a UN member country! This nails the hometruth why terrorism has been used to suppress countries into agreeing to the dictates of powerful nations.

Therefore, the only way we can as a nation stand against the tides of accusations been thrown at us is to remain together. For the Tamils, it is important that they finally come out & fearlessly speak against the LTTE for there is no LTTE today…let them not fear these Tamil Diapora they are only cardboard heroes hiding in foreign shores & trying to again send the Tamil people back to the jungles so they can become richer. Tamils should not fall prey once again.

Reconciliation will certainly start when people become truthful & a good place to start is for Tamils to acknowledge that they lived in fear of the LTTE & that they are today free to live as citizens of Sri Lanka.