Do Sri Lanka’s Tamils want Eelam?

LTTE hijacked Tamil Eelam to give itself an international reason to exist. Tamil politicians chant Eelam but cloak it under numerous terminologies. We know too that there are scores of Tamils having left Sri Lanka as refugees, Sri Lankan by only name and holding foreign citizenship are chanting demands for Eelam too. We also know that Western imperial policy makers have bagged corrupt UN officials to legalize their illegal adventures calling it ‘humanitarian military interventions’. What Tamils need to understand is that the West divided Serbia and gave independence to Kosovo based on the ‘ethnic’ disharmony theme. The West took the side of the Albanian Muslims but the newly granted independent Kosovo was not given to Albanians to control. In fact they have absolutely no say in governance. Today, Kosovo is a drug transit hub, its citizens have to resort to prostitution to survive, over 40% are unemployed. No one cares or dares to speak on behalf of them because media is controlled by the imperialists and why should they find fault with their own. Kosovo is an irreparable – irreversible independence. Tamils may have problems with the Sinhalese, they may hate them but Tamils need to now begin to seriously question whether, what they are doing in demanding Tamil Eelam is wise for if, like the Albanians they end up with an Eelam that they have no control over it would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire and the worst scenario is that they would have no recourse and no one to turn to, to reverse the damage done.

There are some hometruths we need to accept:

The British divide and rule policy and similar polices followed by the Portuguese and the Dutch created

• Divisions among the Sinhalese, Tamils within themselves
• Divisions between the main ethnic communities
• A new bourgeoisie class of people who were English educated, converted to Christianity, elite, rich and taught to think and behave like the whites. They were essentially being groomed to function as Uncle Toms & Aunt Sallys and nurtured in such a way that in the event that the colonial offices had to shut down they would take over and passing the mantle from white man to black/brown or brown sahibs would not be much different. Thus, no post-independent leaders ever desired to address the injustices that prevailed to the community from whom the country was taken over. No post-independent leader craved to undo the colonial policies that purposely denied and discriminated those from whom the West usurped control. Over 60 years into post-independence the grievances of the Sinhalese Buddhists are yet to be addressed and people do not realize this.
• It was this elite English speaking, English thinking class of people that became representatives of the people. Some of them held strong nationalist views but they had to function within a Western system – nevertheless we must note great Tamil leaders like Ponnambalam Ramanathan who was representative of not only Tamils but of Sinhalese as well stood out from the rest.
• Real reason for opposing standardization – The Tamil elite that opposed the 1957 social disabilities act introduced by SWRD Bandaranaike was because these Tamil elite high caste did not want fellow Tamils (low caste and poor) to gain education and be on par with them. These elite went so far as to go lodge opposition with the UK Government. Even in schools when the orders were given allowing low castes to study, the Tamils did not allow these low castes to sit on chairs and they had to sit on the floor and study. The standardization introduced to universities enabled thus far denied Tamils in Trincomalee and Batticoloa to enter university based on a quota that had been monopolized by the North elite Tamils since they were privy to English education at a level disproportionate with their population numbers.
• No need to apologize for Sinhala Only – Those who use Sinhala Only policy as a battering ram need to explain in what language post-independent leaders could function when only a handful were educated and functioned in English whereas 99% of the population had only local education opportunities and the majority spoke only Sinhalese? Could the country have run on its own in English when the majority of people did not know the language?
• It must also be noted that the British signed the Kandy Convention with the Sinhale people in 1815 but independence was given to Ceylon – our leaders failed to see the difference.
• The Western Christian influence was such resulting in people like Chelvanayagam emerging forming a party that in Tamil clearly meant separate Tamil State but hid itself behind the word Federal Party. These supposed Tamil leaders went on to establish the Vaddukoddai Resolution in 1976 calling for youth to take up arms.
• The Tamils have been able to cite a handful of instances to argue discrimination though these isolated incidents have not been without incitement and definitely have two versions to balance the argument. Yet, have people suffering similar instances in other parts also demanded a ‘separate state’ as solution? In terms of discrimination how far can Tamils in reality claim to live happily in a separate state when caste issues discriminate Tamils themselves and not only caste issues Tamils also have strong discrimination against Tamils living in Trincomalee, in Batticoloa and even estate Tamils. How fair is it to call each other Tamils fighting for a separate state but that state would not welcome estate Tamils?

For 30 years LTTE used Tamil Eelam – what did the Tamil people get?

• The Tamils lost all their moderate Tamil leaders who were all gunned down by the LTTE. The LTTE that claimed to represent the Tamil people.
• The Tamils became hostage to LTTE and LTTE appointed Tamil politicians while the Tamils were happy to avail of the opportunity made available for Tamils to appeal as refugees and take residence in foreign climes.
• Can Tamils be happy in taking stock of the scores of Tamil youth and Tamil children that became sacrificed for a ‘cause’ that in reality originated not in Sri Lanka and but through non-Hindus?
• What have the Tamil Hindus achieved in terms of protecting any Hindu culture, Hindu values throughout this period of 3 decades having handed to LTTE and partners to run how Tamils lived?
• Can Tamils be happy with what their Tamil politicians have given them – the chief minister himself having lived virtually all his life in Colombo and living only now in the North is taking Tamils for a ride taking Tamils again into the wilderness. Tamils must not allow their lives to be hijacked again.
• For Tamils to be part of Sri Lanka, to be at one with the communities Tamils must learn to live within the community of Sri Lankans. Tamils cannot have one leg here and another leg there. Tamils must now learn to protect the territory of Sri Lanka together with the rest of the communities and not claim a part only while living all round the country. Tamils must realize that it is unfair to demand a separate State for Tamils when more than half of the remaining Tamils are living amongst Sinhalese outside of the territory being demanded.
• How happy can Tamils be about the loss of productivity of Tamil youth and children whose educative years was robbed by LTTE denying them chance to become learned men and women of society at local and international levels? Is this not a major tragedy for Hindu children that their educative years was robbed by supposed Tamil representatives whose orders were not to study and place Tamils on the global/local scene but to take up arms?
• Have Tamils not questioned why elements of Tamil Diaspora attached to LTTE, enjoying from the LTTE kitty ensured their children held foreign passports, were educated in the best of foreign schools, had the best of luxuries while middle class and poor Tamils were asked to chant slogans for Tamil Eelam while the low caste Wanni Tamils became the suppliers of LTTE foot soldiers?
• Have Tamils not wondered for what reasons Tamil Diaspora, foreign passport holding Tamils are demanding Eelam in Sri Lanka when they are unlikely to ever come and make it their home? Should Tamils not wonder how representative of the Tamil sentiment these LTTE diaspora are and if so why none of them sacrificed their children to be LTTE foot soldiers?
• An important incident took place in April this year. The TNA accompanied by Ananthi Sasitharan who had filed a case against her missing husband and on behalf of missing children were confronted by an angry crowd of Tamils. These Tamils had a grievance against Ananthi – her husband the ‘missing’ LTTE leader, the protestors accused of taking their children forcibly and these children have never returned. The protest showed that the Tamils are now no longer prepared to take lies from Tamil politicians and are now coming forward to challenge the status quo. They are finally opening their eyes after decades of brainwashing, propaganda lies and distortions.
• This incident is important primarily because Tamils are beginning to question their supposed leaders and not remaining docile as they had to do because of the gun.
• In terms of the false projections being made, can Tamils deny that:
• Sri Lankas largest supermarket chain is owned by Tamils

Sri Lankas largest brewery owned by Tamils
Sri Lankas largest private media conglomerate owned by Tamils
Sri Lankas only family owned insurance company owned by Tamils
Sri Lankas jewellery industry dominated by Tamils
Sri Lankas wholesale trade dominated by Tamils
Sri Lankas commercial capital apartments largely owned by Tamils

• Can you think of any other country with over 20 million population that has been so prosperous for minorities?

What is most important for Tamils today is to realize that intervention is a better name for invasion. A good look at all the countries where people are supposed to have problems with their leaders were promised to be ‘liberated’. That liberation came to selected nations only. The selected nations were those that had oil, natural resources, gas, formed a strategic link/base, important as commercial trade lanes, geopolitical advantage with ability to create choke points for enemies. It was in these countries that suddenly issues sprang and were promoted globally by Western-biased paid media sufficient enough to raise the international cries for their governments to take action through the UN which has heads functioning as puppets for imperial agendas. Taking over nations on the pretext of ‘ethnic cleansing’ ‘ethnic discrimination’ ‘mass murder’ ‘genocide’ ‘rape’ is a piece of cake and there are NGOs/INGOs/Humanitarian Organizations all paid to do the dirty work who work in partnership with a set of local uncle Toms and aunt Sallys ever ready to worship everything that the West dishes out for they are promised not only handsome remunerations but the assurance that trouble in their country would ensure their right of stay in foreign climes. These transit local opinion makers are destroying the unity of the countries they were born to.

What Tamils need to realize is that Iraq was promised liberation from Saddam. What is Iraq today? It is a land destroyed, its people are living in fear, the Muslims in Iraq are armed and well supplied to kill each other because they have difference in ‘ideology’. The environment is ruined because of the NATO bombings and now Iraq is to be further divided.

What Tamils need to ask is what happened to Libya, a country that has no debt is no different to Iraq.

What Tamils need to ask is what happened to South Sudan or Kosovo given independence on ‘ethnic-based’ solution but today Kosovo is controlled by US and NATO with a gigantic military base and Albanians have absolutely no control on governance of ‘independent’ Kosovo. Tamils cannot be naïve to think that Tamil Eelam given by these same players now involved in investigating Sri Lanka will give to Tamils what they did not give Iraqis, Libyans, Kosovians, Afghans… before the same damage is done to Sri Lanka, the Tamils in particular the Tamil Hindus must realize the dangers lurking and resort to build up a national theme to ensure that the unitary status of Sri Lanka remains untouched.

Shenali D Waduge

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