THE MISSIOON OF THE TNA
The so called leader of the political wing of the LTTE, Thamilselvam who has not given up terrorism has "ordered" the TNA MPs to canvass other countries including India to request the government of Sri Lanka to commence the "peace talks" after yielding to the LTTE demand of an ISGA. The TNA MPs who met the terrorists in Killinochchi have no choice but to visit the countries that the LTTE wants and try to force the Sri Lankan government to come to the negotiating table. What has to be understood is that Thamilselvam is no Karuna and the former can only obey the terrorist leader Prabhakaran who is the de facto leader of the political wing of the LTTE. If anybody thinks that Thamilselvam is the leader of the political wing of the LTTE then he/she should ask what Prabhakaran is doing in the LTTE. Is he not involved in making political decisions of the LTTE?
Thamilselvam is the political leader of the LTTE as much as the TNA MPs are "independent" of the terrorist outfit. These titles are only facades and what is operative is the law of the LTTE which is nothing but the word of Prabhakaran. The TNA MPs whether they had an "audience" with the terrorist leader or not in Killinochci, would only be carrying Prabhakaran's demands to the leaders of the countries they visit. The proxy party of the LTTE want the governments of other countries including India to apply pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to accept the ISGA.
It is clear that the ISGA is not an interim set up. If it is established it would give the terrorists powers equivalent to that of a government and having got the ISGA the LTTE would ask for more powers. The LTTE would end up with a federal structure, then a co-federation and finally the Eelam. The LTTE would never be satisfied without a separate country for the Tamils for the first time in history not only in Sri Lanka but India as well. It has to be emphasised that though there had been Chola, Pandya. Chera, Pallava, Vijayanagar states in India there had never been a Tamil state. The western countries that support Tamil racism in this country would welcome a separate state for number of reasons though India may have difficulties in agreeing to such a "solution" to the Tamil racist problem.
The only argument that the LTTE has in favour of the ISGA is the welfare of the people. Now it is obvious that if the LTTE allows the government to attend to the development work in the northern province the people would be better off. This does not mean that the people living in the northern province would be provided with the facilities available in the western countries. They would have the facilities that are "enjoyed" by the others in the country. For the last twenty five years it is the LTTE that has obstructed all the development work in the northern province. They have made sure that the people living in that part of the country do not even have the facilities that existed prior to, say, 1980. If trains are not running beyond Vavunia it is not the fault of the Sri Lankan government that has made sure that the trains run in other parts of the country, though not on time. It is the LTTE that has been against even maintaining some of the "essential" services that should be provided to the people.
This is a fact that the people living in the northern province know very well. Anybody who can afford to come to Colombo and other parts of the country, flee Jaffna and other areas in the northern province for the simple reason that they find the environment provided by the government in those parts is much better than what they get from the LTTE. On the other hand how many people, including families of some of the TNA MPs living in Colombo and other areas among the Sinhalas have left those areas to live with the terrorists in the northern province? The Tamils including the TNA MPs and their families are better off outside the northern province and would never dream of returning to the "dream land (country)" promised by Prabhakaran.
There are some so-called moderates writing to the newspapers who blame the Sinhala intolerance for the problems in the north and the east. The Sinhalas do not want the laws that protect the Muslims in Malaysia discriminating the Chinese population living in that country. In Sri Lanka there is a Bhoomiputhra Party but there is no Bhoomiputhra policy as in Malaysia. However, the so called Muslim moderates in this country when they compare Sri Lanka and Malaysia speak in favour of the latter country ignoring even simple facts such as returning of many Muslim MPs to the parliament by the Sinhala Buddhists. Not only Mohammeds of the UNP and Fowzies of the SLFP but Anjan Ummas of the JVP are elected thanks to the Sinhala Buddhists. Would the Tamils elect Muslim MPs in the proportions they are elected by the Sinhala Buddhists. Would the Muslims elect a Sinhala Buddhist if they can vote for a Muslim? It is not the intolerance of the Sinhalas especially the Sinhala Buddhists that have created the problems in the country but their kindness and hospitality.
As we have mentioned on previous occasions the westerners who force us to "understand" the world in terms of their theories have made the Olcott Buddhists and many so called educated people in the country to look at the world through the prism of the westerners. An educated person in this country is very often one who has been forced with a western education whether in the English Medium or Sinhala (Tamil) medium. We have been saying that knowledge is created not in a vacuum but in a culture relative to a culture for nearly twenty years but the so-called educated people never listened to us. However soon they would be again forced to accept some parts of the knowledge we have created if the west accepts recent research by some academics in the west. Last year a paper appeared in a "reputed" research journal in Philosophy of Science, and not in "The Island", "Divaina" and "Vidusara" where we publish our "research", that claimed that modern science, meaning of course western science, is a product of the western culture and not the result of a luxury of contemplative thinking of people who had leisure to do so. The paper relies heavily on the work of Nisbet and not of Jathika Chinthanaya school.
What we have been trying to show is that the western knowledge, not only western science, but western political science including Marxism, as well as western sociology has been created by westerners relative to their culture and that they look at the world through their theories that depend on their experience and attitudes. The theories on so called nation building is a good example for the dependence of western knowledge on their limited experience and their arrogance of trying to push down their theories through our throats. When they hold us by our throats this is not a formidable task as any Olcott Buddhist would demonstrate by his/her behaviour.
The west has not successfully defined what a nation is though they have many theories on nation building and nation states. All that they can finally say is that a nation is a group of people living in a country and governed by a state. The westerners are guided in coming to this tautology by their experience in England, later Britain and UK. France, USA and other such countries that had neither states nor nations before the sixteenth century. Thus as far as they are concerned nation could be a myth and they could speak in the same vein of making and unmaking of nations.
In Sri Lanka the Sinhala state and the Sinhala nation was established during the time of king Pandukabhaya and there is no necessity to create a new nation. Those who came to the country as invaders or immigrants mainly from South India were absorbed into the Sinhala nation within a generation or two. This process was terminated by the Europeans, especially the Dutch and the British who imported labour from South India for their cultivations. The problem today is not due to intolerance of Sinhalas but due to the refusal by the Tamil racists and the others to recognise the significance of the Sinhala Buddhist culture in the country. The TNA mission should be reminded that by ignoring the Sinhala sentiments the ordinary Tamil families would not be able to go back to Jaffna since as long as Prabhakaran is not defeated those families would find life difficult in those areas.
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>