LEGITIMISING A FASCIST MURDERER
Prabhakaran is scheduled to have a press conference on the 10th somewhere in Vanni. It is expected that more than three hundred journalists from the world would gather to listen to Prabhakaran and the translators of his answers into English and French, who have been trained for the occasion. We do not know whether Anita Pratap would be there but we could expect the majority of the journalists to be from the west and a substantial number from India. After all it is the west that keeps the world, at least the news about the world, going around and what the western journalists say would be the last word on the world. As far as the west is concerned Prabhakaran is no bin Laden and though the Anglophiles in Sri Lanka may continue to believe the September 11 myth, Prabhakaran knows he is safe among the western journalists as well as the western politicians and generals who have been visiting him more frequently than the President of the country.
I wonder whether there would be any journalists from Nepal at the press conference in Vanni. It is very unlikely that any one of the Nepalese media has its correspondent in Colombo and they may have to send somebody from Katmandu for the occasion. If there is going to be a journalist from Nepal he or she could ask Prabhakaran whether he would get down all the LTTE terrorists who are at present training the Maoist terrorists in Nepal. The policy of getting tough with the terrorists after September 11 is not applicable in the non Christian world and Nepal not being a Christian country will have to put up with terrorism until Norway or some other western country, mediates between the Nepalese government and the Maoist terrorists. For the west, Maoist terrorists would have been a terrorist group if the socialist countries were in existence, but now with Fidel Castro not in the habit of exporting revolutions the Maoist or any other Marxist terrorist group operating in a non Christian country is not considered a terrorist group unless, the terrorist group subscribes to some sort of nationalist ideology. The west that does not help the Nepalese government to defeat the Maoist terrorists help Philippines, the only Catholic country in Asia to crush terrorism in that country.
The LTTE may deny that they are training the Maoist terrorists in Nepal. However, if the ambassador of Nepal in Colombo is free to express his views as his counterparts from the western world he would tell the world what he thinks the Norwegians should be doing in his country with respect to the LTTE terrorists. Incidentally the LTTE is not a Marxist group by any stretch of imagination, and what should be of interest to the Hindus world over, especially the Tamil Hindus (except the Tamil Hindu leadership of the TNA who are only interested in their survival), is that this so-called non Marxist Tamil leadership of the LTTE that claims to be the sole representative of the Tamils is helping a Marxist (Maoist) terrorist group against a Hindu state. If the LTTE is based in the Hindu culture, this could not have happened. As some Tamil Hindus like Ms. Arundathi Rajasingham have pointed out the ideology of Tamil nationalism even in India is not Hindu. In an article published in "The Island" of 27th April 2001 she wrote:
"Hindus need to refute the ideology of pro-LTTE outfits such as Tamil Net. These organisations use the rhetoric of the 20th century "Dravidian" nationalism to belittle Hinduism. This nationalism owes much to missionaries such as Bishop Caldwell, Rev. G. U. Pope, Rev. Percival, Rev. Schwarz, Father Heras, Father Gnanapragasar and Father Thanninayagam. The missionaries selectively interpreted early Tamil literature to detach Tamils from the Hindu mainstream...... This colonial historiography was essentially a political exercise to divide India and Sri Lanka. The British supported the creation of the Justice Party based on a narrow Tamil jingoism to counter the Indian freedom struggle led by the Indian National Congress in the 1930s. The British also supported Mr. G. G. Ponnambalam and the Tamil Congress in Sri Lanka until it became clear to them that de-colonization was inevitable.....The greatest proponent of Vedanta was Sankaracharya who lived in Kerala in the 8th century before the Malayalam language had branched off from Tamil. ( As the gentleman who writes to the "Divaina" under the pseudonym "Gandara Vesi" has pointed out not only that a different language has not evolved in Jaffna but the Tamil spoken there is not much different from the Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu indicating that the Tamils in Jaffna would not have settled there many centuries ago. - NdeS.). He spoke Tamil. The Siddha saints who contributed much to Ayurveda, were anchored in the pan-Indian Savite tradition. The efforts of Tamil Net to detach Tamils from the Hindu mainstream will not succeed. Its purported nationalism is a colonial fabrication extraneous to South India's and Jaffna's own historical past."
"Early missionaries like the Italian Jesuit Robert di Nobili in the 1600s, the German Lutheran Zieganbalg in the 1700s and the Italian Jesuit Joseph Beschi in the 1700s realized that the Hindu tradition was too strong to be dislodged from the hearts and minds of the Tamils. Hence, the subsequent attempt to sponsor the so-called Dravidian movement to sideline Hinduism.......Proponents of Tamil separatism have had a disproportionate Christian presence. Tamil Net, with its intimate links to the Tamil service of the BBC, reflects this bias. It should realize, however, that continued attacks on the Hindu identity under the garb of Tamil nationalism will backfire. Hinduism is at the core of the traditional Tamil world view. (Tamil Jathika Chinthanaya- Ndes)".
The secretary of the Hindu Vishva Parishad in India, Mr. Ashok Singhal has said that the LTTE is an army of the church. Though the missionaries failed to arouse a Tamil nationalism devoid of Hinduism in India, in Sri Lanka a non Hindu Tamil racism, that goes against not only the Sinhalas but the entire South Asian region has been created. While the missionaries tried to create a "Dravidian" nationalism detached from Hinduism, in Sri Lanka Olcott Buddhism has been successful in inventing an "international" "rational" "intellectual" Buddhism devoid of the Sinhalaness. The leaders of the Sinhalas come mainly from the Olcott Buddhists and this has helped the west to manoeuvre and make them (the Sinhala leaders) kneel down before Tamil racism. It is to this "international" "rational" "intellectual" Buddhism that the Tamil racists, the NGOs, the western intellectuals, and the leaders of the Christian church appeal against the Sinhala Buddhists in this country. When western academics such as the sociologists Drs. Thambiah and Seneviratne talk of Buddhism betrayed and the role of the Sangha, they have in mind this "intellectual" Buddhism and not Sinhala Buddhism. We in Sri Lanka are today at the mercy of the Norwegians and the other westerners due to a Buddhism detached from Sinhalaness and a Tamil racism separated from Hinduism. The western media have propagated the view that the Tamil Hindus are fighting against the injustices due to the Sinhala Buddhists. However, what is happening is a continuation of colonialism to destroy Sinhalathva in this country, this time using Tamil racism.
The Tamil racists have no injustices and what they have is an inspiration to deprive Sinhalathva its rightful place in this country. They are being supported by the west and the western NGOs, the hierarchy of the Church and so-called civil or sival societies. In order to achieve this objective the LTTE, which only continues the politics of the Christian and Catholic leaders SJV Chelvanayakam and EMV Naganathan by other means. The LTTE has taken the path of terrorism with the killing of Alfred Duraiappah, the SLFP organiser in Jaffna, that saw mass killings, bombing in Pettah and other places in Colombo and in the suburbs, attack on the Dalada Maligawa, killings in the vicinity of Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura, murdering of Bhikkus in Arantalawa, President Premadasa, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, leaders such as Messrs. Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. The LTTE has also established connections with other terrorist groups in the world and the west had no choice but to proscribe it in some of the countries.
The LTTE that has realised that an eelam could not be established by fighting has given the impression that it wants peace. They are now trying to achieve their objective through so-called negotiations. They are presented as people who want peace and the Sinhala Buddhists, in general have been portrayed as war mongers. Ms. Rasanayagam has said that Tamil separatism has a disproportionate number of Christians. Even in the so-called peace movement one finds a disproportionate representation of the Christians. The picture given to the world is that while the Christians, the LTTE and the NGOs want peace, the Sinhala Buddhists want war. But what is not said is that the so-called peace is not peace but a step in the direction of establishing an eelam. The Sinhala Buddhists are for peace, but not for the so-called peace promoted by the Norwegians, the west in general, Tamil racists and the hierarchy of the Church.
In any event it has become necessary to present Prabhakaran as a peace loving person to the world. The LTTE is still a proscribed organisation in USA, UK, and the other Anglo American countries, at least theoretically, though in practice Balasingham could talk to the Norwegians in London, a facility not available to the Al Quaeda or bin Laden, and it is clear that the west wants to de-proscribe the LTTE. The Safari kit of Prabhakaran and the press conference in Vanni will do the trick. The LTTE would be presented as a peace loving national liberation organisation and any stigma attached to it as a fascist terrorist movement would be erased. The press conference would legitimize Prabhakaran, a fascist murderer.
However, what the press conference would not highlight is that the LTTE has violated even the MOU signed recently. The monitors/mission have turned a blind eye to the complaints made by various organisations or they pretend that everything is rosy. Section 2.1 of the MOU reads: The Parties shall in accordance with the international law abstain from hostile acts against the civilian population, including such acts as torture, intimidation, abduction, extortion and harassment," When the monitors were informed that the LTTE was continuing with extortions, no action was taken. The monitors had apparently said that complaints of such nature should be made to the police! Then the section 2.10 states: " The Parties shall open the Kandy-Jaffna road (A9) to non military traffic of goods and passengers. Specific modalities shall be worked out by the Parties with the Assistance of the Royal Norwegian Government by D-day +30 at the latest." This particular section does not speak of any conditions but the LTTE has come forward with its demands in order to open the A9 road. I am not trying to say that the MOU should be implemented. The MOU is binding on the government but not on the LTTE and is against the interests of the Sinhala people in the country. All that I want to emphasise is that the monitoring mission who are on the side of the LTTE are having a paid holiday in Sri Lanka. Somebody should take them to Nilaweli and Pasikuda after the press conference. Perhaps, Prabhakaran who would be presented as a national liberation leader could join them in his safari kit.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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