Make
2008 the Brutal End of Tamil Elam
Dilrook Kannangara
Peace never dawns as a result of a compromise between the good and
the bad; any compromise between them only results in the bad overpowering
the good. In 1972 the LTTE was formed after years of attempts to grab
a part of Sri Lanka by many Tamil politicians. Most notably a Tamil
politician demanded from the British in 1924 what he termed Tamil Elam
that comprised of the Northern Province and the Eastern Province. Hence,
the real Tamil Elam struggle began in 1924. Each year saw it gathering
power and valour until in 1983 an open war erupted between the nation
of Sri Lanka and the Tamil separatists. Twenty four years of violence
wiped out complete village communities in the North and the East; hundreds
of thousands left the island. Today Sri Lankan security forces have
rounded up the Tamil Elam fighters’ territory threatening to wipe
them out at any time.
Unfortunately for Sri Lanka’s Tamils some of their leaders haven’t
learnt how to live in this island. Sri Lanka has a history of 2,600
years of Aryan existence. During this time many Dravidian (mostly Tamil)
invasions were launched from South India. A very few Tamils lived from
those days onwards among the Sinhalese majority in peace without any
demands by simply integrating into the society. However, most Tamils
did not integrate well and as a result had to leave Sri Lanka when their
invading forces were violently defeated by Sri Lanka forces. This trend
continued until the 14th century when at last Tamils learnt to live
in a Sinhala majority country just as the 500,000 strong Tamil community
lives in Canada integrating well into the Canadian society. Tamil settlements
that spun up in the 14th century never challenged the Sinhala rulers.
As a result they were allowed to continue in the island. However, time
to time direct majoritarian rule was imposed on these Tamil settlements.
History does not have any major incidents of strife against this rule
whenever it happened.
However, the Northern limited Tamil rule did not last long as it collapsed
within two centuries despite heavy Sinhala support in their war against
the Portuguese. It took another four and a half centuries for Sri Lanka
to unite as an independent country. By that time separatist elements
who had very little knowledge of historical lessons had hijacked the
Tamil community. They instigated separation and violence. They essentially
took their own community to the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa eras and
as a result they found it increasingly difficult to live in Sri Lanka.
These separatist Tamil politicians ensured that no development work
is carried out in Tamil majority areas so that it will provide further
fuel to their separatist campaign.
After years of war 2008 seems to offer hope for peace, real peace for
Sri Lanka. Real peace can only dawn when all threats to the Sri Lankan
security forces disappear. Only an extermination of Tamil Elamists can
bring about real peace. However, the war is only part of the game played
by Tamil Elamists. Some cowardly separatist elements pretend to be patriots
but plan well for their Tamil Elam dreamland without going to war. They
try to get their Tamil Elam on the shoulders of the security forces.
At this crucial moment it is very important to identify these vile elements
that wear innocent masks. They do so not because they are innocent,
but they were marginalized by the LTTE as traitors! Those who engaged
in racial politics against Sri Lanka and were subsequently branded as
traitors by the LTTE indeed are traitors of Sri Lanka as well.
Tri-forces commanders have promised to exterminate the LTTE in early
2008. This is the first time in Sri Lankan conflict such confidence
was shown by them all without aligning to any political agenda. Sri
Lanka’s war is tipped to have a movie finish as donors deserted
Lanka; the UN tried to make military operations difficult and many other
interferers meddled with Lanka’s internal affairs. However, each
of these moves only strengthened the determination of the security forces
to slash down the Tamil Elam struggle. Two years of well planned warfare
has produced fruit; now it is the time to harvest the thousands of terrorists
trapped in Vanni in a massive game hunt.
Many soldiers have sacrificed their lives and limbs for peace in Sri
Lanka; their families and generally all patriotic people have gone through
untold sufferings and sacrifices to defend the territorial integrity
and sovereignty of Sri Lanka. They are going to be the winners of this
war. As the saying goes, the winner must take it all. LTTE is only a
symbol of the Tamil Elam struggle and the cowardly Tamil Elamists should
also be managed following a military victory. Divisive political solutions
must be avoided, especially race-based political solutions. A planned
process of island-wide Srilankanisation must commence following the
war. Disparities in university admission, parliamentary elections and
other matters must be straightened as soon as the war ends. Higher education
opportunities ahead of the district allocation must be granted to family
members of security forces personnel in gratitude of their dedicated
service to the nation. They should also be awarded privileged employment
opportunities.
We should never forget that security forces personnel was the biggest
asset we had in our war against terror. In the same token we should
also appreciate the fact that fighting cadre was the weakest link in
the LTTE. Any future separatism movement must be banned and handled
the same way Malaysia handled Tamil separatism recently. Any let-up
means the tiger will be creeping through the opening into a fully fledged
armed group.
Talks must be initiated with India to allow Tamil national demands in
Tamil Nadu where the entire Tamil infrastructure is already in place
for an autonomous Tamil state. This will make Sri Lanka an unimportant
target for Tamil nationalists. Tamils of recent Indian origin in Sri
Lanka must be given a choice to move back to Tamil Nadu at their discretion.
Little or nothing has improved for them since they were brought here
by the British whereas Tamil Nadu has since grown into an important
industrial region.
Sri Lanka’s true friends including Pakistan, Bangladesh, China,
Israel, Ukraine, Russia, etc. must never be forgotten.
Tough laws need to be introduced to safeguard the territorial integrity
and sovereignty of the nation, to ward-off foreign interference and
to strengthen the armed forces. Above all a capitalist economic structure
must be implanted in this island as there once was during the prosperous
times in the past especially during Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods.
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