“Of the LTTE, For the LTTE and By the LTTE” – So called Tamil National Remembrance Day
(Courtesy of http://dbsjeyaraj.com)
November 27th 1989 was the day on which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) first observed its annual “Maaveerar Naal” or Great Heroes Day (GHD). The LTTE and its leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran are no more after the military defear of the tiger terrorists in May 2009. Yet the Great Heroes Day (GHD) continues to commemorated on a low scale in different forms by tigerish elements in LTTEtish glorification flavour.
Nowadays Nov 27, birthday of the terrorist leader Prabakaran is being propagated as the “Thamizhar Theseeya Ninaivaenthal Thinam” or Tamil National Remembrance Day. Several Tamil political parties claiming to espouse Tamil nationalism – aided and abetted by sections of the Tamil media – have been engaging in the political game of commemorating the “Maaveerar Naal”(GHD) as “Ninaivaenthal Thinam”(Remembrance day). Tamil politicians lead a team of volunteers to clean up cemeteries in advance , make speeches on Nov 27th and thereafter light lamps to commemorate the “lives of those who gave up their lives” for the Tamil people.
Such efforts have hit a roadblock this year. The Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a pre-emptive strike got the Police to obtain court orders in the Tamil areas of the North and East and prevent the event being held publicly. These moves were resisted by the pre-LTTE Tamil terrorist Tamil political parties through legal means. The Attorney – General sent special legal teams by helicopter to several places where the Police moves to seek bans were being contested by Tamil legal eagles.
The main argument of those proposing to conduct commemorative activities was that people especially family members had a right to mourn their dead kith and kin. The state accepted this in principle and said there was no objection to persons mourning their loved ones in a private capacity at their homes or by holding religious ceremonies in places of worship. However, there should be no glorification of the LTTE Tamil terrorism which had been proscribed as a terrorist organization in Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, USA, Canada, UK and the European Union. As such no public ceremonies on a mass scale should be held anywhere particularly in the special cemeteries for deceased members of the LTTE terrorists.
Almost all the different tribunals hearing the related cases ruled that no public event celebrating the LTTE should be held. However, people were free to mourn their loved ones or honour the memory of dead tiger cadres privately in their homes and places of worship. With these judicial rulings the matter ended on a conciliatory note. A joint appeal was publicly announced on behalf of Tamil political parties requesting people to observe the remembranceday in their homes by lighting lamps and torches at the appropriate time.
The irony in this was that ordinary people did not demand a public spectacle. It was the Tamil extremist and pro-LTTE parties who politicised matters by staging annual events publicly. Now they were calling upon the people to commemorate the day at home whereas the people would always have done that as a matter of course if these parties had not tried to play political stuntmanship in the first place.
The current controversy over the November 27th event has once again evoked great interest in what is known as “Maaveerar Naal” or Great Heroes Days. This writer has been inundated with queries from many readers about the event relating to its background and history. Some want to know whether this is a LTTE event or a Tamil national event. The evolution and growth of the “Maaveerar Naal”(GHD) is a topic on which I have written extensively in the past. However I shall focus on it again this week relying on my earlier writings.
Sectarian LTTE
What must be taken note of is that the LTTE never commemorated or mourned the loss of Tamils who belonged to other Tamil militant movements or Tamil civilians. The sectarian LTTE did not regard others as fallen heroes. Only LTTE terrorist members were given that recognition. Families of dead cadres belonging to other movements were not allowed to mourn their loved ones publicly. They could only mourn in secret.
What is disgusting about the politics of mourning adopted by some Tamil political parties is the scale of political hypocrisy! The LTTE now hailed as “Great Heroes” has in the past killed hundreds of Tamils who belonged to the constituent partners of the past and present TNA configuration. The TNA, as a single political entity, is yet to publicly mourn their comrades and colleagues slain by the LTTE. Yet some TNA leaders display no qualms about celebrating fallen Tigers as great heroes.
What is perhaps worse is the deceitful manner in which Tamil political leaders and sections of the media foster the myth that November 27 is a date of overall Tamil sorrow and that Maaveerar Naal is a day of national mourning for the Tamils. If people want to mourn or commemorate fallen LTTE fighters they certainly can do so but they should do it honestly instead of proclaiming dishonestly that they are engaging in a Tamil national remembrance day. If the Tamil politicians are genuine they should observe a national day of mourning for all Tamil fighters and victims of the war instead of confining it to the LTTE alone. The Tamils do have the right to mourn their dead. It will be strengthened further if it is truly for ALL victims instead of SOME.
Objecting to GHD being depicted as a Tamil day of mourning does not mean that Tamils do not mourn the loss of their loved ones. They do! They have suffered innumerable losses in many forms during the long years of the war. There cannot be a single Tamil living who has not suffered the loss of a loved one during the years of violence and war. What is unacceptable, however, is the deception to depict the “Maaveerar Naal” as a day of universal Tamil mourning. It is a gross distortion of the truth to state that the “Maaveerar Naal” of the LTTE is a day of National mourning for the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
Creeping Tigerization
The conduct of the Tamil parties who portray themselves as being politically “moderate” adds to the threat perception of the State regarding the GHD. Unlike the Maithripala Sirisena -Ranil Wickremesinghe Govt, The Gotabaya presidency and Govt came to power on a platform of national security. As such the Rajapaksa regime is acutely sensitive to what it perceives as “creeping tigerization”. Although the LTTE is no more an entity in Sri Lanka and the Great Heroes Day event is only a puny caricature of what it was earlier, the Gota Govt. does not want to take any chances.
The Rajapaksa regime is aware that tiger elements within the global Tamil Diaspora have been trying to foment violence in the Island by paying money to some former tigers and their fellow travellers in Sri Lanka. The objective was to revive political violence. At least eight such attempts have been documented since the war ended. Fortunately, most of them were detected on time and effectively thwarted. Yet such attempts are likely to continue.
Furthermore there are concerns that powerful Western nations may utilize this “Diaspora tiger” factor and de-stabilise Sri Lanka by promoting violence to punish Colombo for its alleged pro- Chinese leanings. As such the Govt. is wary of suspected creeping tigerization and wields the big stick against seemingly innocuous events which could help promote an LTTE revival indirectly.
Of, For and By the Tigers
Notwithstanding brazen efforts by vested interests to depict “Maaveerar Naal” falling on November 27, as a day of general Tamil mourning, let me conclude by reiterating that the so-called “Great Heroes Day” – now being depicted falsely as the Tamil National Remembrance Day – is not and has never been a national day of Tamil mourning. The “Maaveerar Naal” was an intensely conducted partisan event “of the Tigers, for the Tigers and by the Tigers”. Let there be no mistake about it.
DBS Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com
This is an Updated Version of an Article written for the DBS Jeyaraj Column in the “Daily Mirror” of November 28th 2020. It can be accessed here:
119 Viewers
