Appeasing separatists: The road to nowhere
Janaka Perera
The recent suicide of a Tamil teenager, Senthuran Rajeswaran, demanding the release of LTTE detainees is a perfect example of how Sri Lanka has spoilt the military over the Tigers. Both the previous and present governments should share the blame for this unfortunate state of affairs.
Among the first things the Western Allies and the Soviets did after Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War II was to launch a programme of De-Nazification at all levels of German society. That is to eradicate Nazi racist ideas as far as possible from the minds of the German people.
In Sri Lanka however hardly any effective attempt was made to uproot Tamil racist separatist ideology from the minds of the young Tamils. The so-called rehabilitation was mainly confined to advising them against resorting to violence and to finding for them legitimate employment.
The suicide victim Rajeswaran had been born in 1997 which means he must have been 12 years old at the time when the LTTE was militarily crushed in 2009. If soon after the military victory the then Government had introduced at school level a strong anti-LTTE, anti-Prabhakaran programme exposing how the Tigers misled the Tamil people perhaps this tragedy could have been prevented.
Now some cockeyed ‘pundit’ might argue that World War II was a war between Nazi Germany and its opponents and therefore a De-Nazification type programme is not applicable to Sri Lanka. Those who raise this argument forget that the LTTE and their sympathizers never accepted and still do not accept that the armed conflict was within one country but within two states.
It is for this reason they created a racist rogue state in the island’s North and East and hoped the UN would recognize it. If it was only an internal conflict why did Ranil Wickremesinghe sign a so-called MOU (‘ceasefire’) with Prabhakaran and almost paved the way for legitimizing ‘Tamil Eelam’? Did any Sri Lankan President or PM sign an MOU with JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera to usher in ‘peace’?
Now, the present regime has taken a step towards giving official recognition to LTTE aspirations, in the name of so-called reconciliation. It is the de-proscription of eight pro-separatist Tamil organisations.
The question is have any of these outfits publicly proclaimed that they have given up their separatist ideas and are willing to work for protection of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Have they severed links with Tamil Nadu racists like Vaiko and Seeman?
Among organisations which are no longer banned is the Global Tamil Forum, the President of which is Fr. S.J. Emmanuel, who re-Christened the LTTE cadres as ‘soldiers of Christ and LTTE suicide bombers as ‘martyrs’. Has Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera asked Emmanuel whether he is still believes in that garbage? We wonder whether Samaraweera is aware that Emmanuel has been banned from entering India.
And what about the LTTE detainees which the Government is planning to release? Can the ruling circles guarantee to the peace-loving, law-abiding citizens that these men would never resort to separatist terrorist violence again?
This government seems to be bending over backwards to appease the so-called international community and Tiger proxies in and outside Parliament by releasing LTTE detainees, de-proscribing pro separatist organisations and arresting security forces members who fought for the country’s defence, instead of taking into custody those in the North commemorating Prabhakaran’s birthday and ‘Maveer Day,’ even going to the extent of closing schools. The government’s reaction to these events is obviously lukewarm so as not to displease in its opinion the Tamil community. The rulers apparently think that the majority Sinhala opinion does not count on these issues.
We wonder which other country acted in this manner after crushing a separatist terrorist insurgency.
The time has come for patriots to voice their strong protests against these treacherous moves which are bound to drag the nation along the road to nowhere.
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