Dr D.Chandraratna. Perth W.Australia

Remember the time that Sri Lankans were under the hammer from the terrorists; the Central bank bombing, Anuradhapura massacre, the Airport destruction to name just a few. And every time we were exhorted to talk to the terrorists and soon forgotten and shelved until the next carnage eventuated. Sri Lankans felt the abject neglect and indifference on the part of the West, even unwilling to help with the economic loss, which was so great when the country was teetering on the brink of collapse. Well, is it some providence that the West is really wreaking under the threat of the Muslim youth just the same now? They have woken up to the dreadful impact of terror. The Muslim intifada against the West is really serious. The minority who are fighting with ISIS is only a tiny fraction of the youth but a vast majority feel much solidarity with the jihadists than with their fellow citizens in the respective countries, according to social media. The ISIS sympathetic Muslims are expressing their hatred towards westerners and the leaders of these countries are looking for reasons why this should be so.  It seems ludicrous to reflect that even for small incidents of religious extremism in Sri Lanka the UNHRC was like the Gestapo reaching out to the agents in the NGO sector, the US, UK and Canadian embassies in Sri Lanka for evidence, factual or otherwise, mostly otherwise.  The blame on the majority community and the incumbent government was unabashed and direct. The US officials, Human Rights Watch and every Tom, Dick and Harry came out of the woods like vultures to a carcass. It will be perverse on my part to either condone the current terrorist attacks, however miniscule, or even derive some sort of vicarious satisfaction out of the fear engendered in the minds of ordinary people in the Western world but it is interesting to examine the meaninglessness of the charges outsiders levelled at Sri Lankans for the violence which was more or less interpreted as deserving for the alleged unfair treatment meted out the minority communities in general. I will not touch on matters of fairness here; suffice to say they are mostly untrue.

 When reality awakens the slumbering minds of the journalists do a 360-degree turn. The West is reporting the crisis of the ISIS very differently now.  One journo says in the Australian daily that ‘While they are opposed to war in general the situation (now that it affects them) is different. The ethnic cleansing, genocide, human shields and slaughter of innocent civilians cannot be tolerated.  It is morally necessary to assist the Iraqi government to restore peace for the longer term’.  They go on to state that their common ideals of humanity, care, decency, respect for life and freedom altruism, calls for degrading (new term) and decimating ISIS terror.  The allies and US must minimise the human toll and social and cultural costs. (One has to ask, tongue in cheek how bombing from 30,000 ft. will avoid civilian casualties?). The press gallery has now awaken to the fact that ‘this is a group striking at the heart of peaceful societies with no regard to human life. Their targets include playgrounds, cafes, and places of worship, schools and so on. This is what terrorism is. There is no reason for the Western world to sit back and do nothing’. The West has suddenly realized the importance of Edmund Burke’s aphorism that ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. These good men did nothing for us in our hour of need.  The terrorist threat and the fear that it engulfs are difficult for the affluent foreigners to experience until it hits them right in their face. That may be the reason why the Western Press thought very differently of our struggle with terrorism? OR was it because the victims were non-white, non-Christian or what? Difficult to fathom.

 Why is it that many of its political leaders rarely gave us any credit in dealing with terror when it is more or less similar to what they are facing? Why is it only now that they realise that to sit back and do nothing when millions of people are engulfed in a fear psychosis is callous of civilized nations. We were telling the whole world that there is no religious, racial or any malevolent intent on the part the majority community. Terrorism was part and parcel of a malicious political scheme to inflict maximum damage to a functioning society to call it a failed state and achieve their objective of a separate state, a proposition so unviable and dangerous given the geography and ‘smallness’. The sick minds of the terrorist leaders are such that no decent reasonable overtures for a negotiated settlement were ever going to bring them to sanity. 

 When Sri Lanka was battling terrorism the UN agencies at every point pressed the government for proportionality in response under humanitarian law but no such strictures are applied to the current conflict. One is tempted to ask why they did not extend the same courtesy to us when the LTTE were killing aid workers, security forces, civilians and any other who stood in their way. We were saddened by the sanctions, embargoes, and travel advisories extended to us in good measure adding insult to injury.

 There is one other thing that the readers must be told. Looking back it seems to me that how the entire country kept the peace for thirty years not displaying outwardly any violence towards the Tamil community even when the bombs were making such an existential threat to all around. While many quite rightly railed against the brutality of the terrorists against the crimes of humanity, the Sinhalese in particular did not demonise the ordinary Tamils. There may have been self-serving groups who attempted to whip up fear and blind hatred towards a scapegoat for political gains. But the stoic resolve of many was not admired enough. Today the Australian Muslim community is heavily guarded by the government because the possibility is ever present to whip up fury by the latest key board warriors of the social media intent on instigating hate crimes. Unlike in Sri Lanka it must be stated in fairness to the Islamic community that there are many groups who have spared no effort in denouncing the terror. But we were saddened by the silence of the Tamil Community at the height of the brutality not to condemn the LTTE. Was it fear of retaliation or was it the prophesied probability by many at the time that the LTTE victory was in sight. I fervently hope that it was the former.