posted June 08, 2000 03:56 PM            

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Acting out an idiotic drama
The celebration being called for to commemorate fifty years of so-called independence for Ceylon, and then Sri Lanka, and then Shri Lanka, and now Sri Lanka, also includes a drama which concerns the Tamils.

This drama is being enacted by a Sinhala government to show the international community and white dignitaries expected for the lopsided celebrations that Tamils - who have been shouting for 50 years that the colonial masters did the dirty by the Tamils when they left the shores of the island in not giving back to them the sovereignty taken from them but instead threw them to the wolves - have now been not only completely silenced to the point of servility but also subdued and subjugated.

This drama has clearly unfolded over the last two months. It will be interesting to go into the various acts that have been staged to date, with doubtless more to come during the next week or two, going upto D-day.

Act one: `Local government elections'.

With a full scale war in the north-east, fondly termed `war for peace', this government has suddenly thought it fit to give democracy or to bring democracy (laudably?) to the Tamils amidst the bombs and the planes that are dropping to the ground from the sky! The Tamils who are not servile say that there is an alien army of occupation that has come to subjugate the Tamils. Since the army will never be able to do that as long as the LTTE is around, they are certainly doing other things like raping, killing and abducting Tamils. In order to keep the Tigers away, there are bunkers and bunds - higher than the bunds of a reservoir. The mobility of the Tamils is much restricted. The insensitive government has now called for elections in a war zone - in the very amphitheatre of action. What lunacy!

The Tamil parties who are all falling over each other to support the government for their survival, first cried halt to the elections because there would not be a free and fair election. They were frightened to mention the presence of the army of the war lest their lifeline would be cut off. They sought an escape valve by saying that the other Tamil parties were armed.

The dishonest government however insisted on having elections in order to create international opinion that normalcy has returned to the north-east and that democracy has been established because the Tamil parties are contesting the elections. This the government wanted to do in time for the independence tamasha. The Tamil parties had no option but to swallow their vomit and agree to contest when the big stick was shown them by government. The Tamil parties started singing the refrain that if they did not contest, stooges of the government would contest. If there were any stooges of the government, they were the disgraceful and servile Tamil parties supporting this degenerate government.

The degree to which the Tamil parties have descended could be gauged from the leadership of the TULF. The leader of that party, at a recent meeting with ministers, begged that when food and medicine are being sent to the Tamils of the north, condoms also must be sent. This has rightly earned him the colourful epithet, `Condom' Sambanddan. The seniormost TULF vice president - who blurted out that the rejection of their lists was a blessing in disguise because they did not have the men - thereafter filed a writ application challenging the rejection. This was because it included two under-16 boys. Wonder where the internationally renowned constitutional lawyers in their party were when all this was happening?

Tamil parties contesting the local bodies elections, then, have now fallen in line with the government's attempts to show the world that normalcy and democracy have returned to Tamil areas. In the past as in 1994, the TULF said there could be no free and fair election in certain places and stood their ground. But not this time because the whip would crack.

If Tamils in the areas where the elections are being held do not show their protest and disgust about a fraud and a farce that is being perpetrated by the government with the help of the Tamil parties, then they, too, will be taken to be equal partners in the fraud that is being perpetrated on the Tamil nation. These has been no enumeration for years. There have been no electoral registers for years. The elections commissioner has still not answered my letter to him dated November 17, 1997 wherein I have raised many queries. Still, this election is being held. There are thousands who are displaced and not in these areas. Those who have returned have not been allowed to stay in their homes. Still this election is being held. Why this fraud? Why this lunacy?

Act two: `Tamil political prisoners and Kalutara'. When Tamil political prisoners at the New Magazine Prison protested delays in bringing before court, the usual assurances were given, this time not only by politicians but also by the attorney general's department. Then Tamil prisoners were assaulted. The next act was to transfer troublesome Tamil elements to Kalutara for `security reasons'. How was Kalutara more secure than Colombo? The real reason was that there would be a security risk if these elements were in Colombo when the dignitaries arrived and the independence celebrations are on.

But what happened? There was a repetition of August 1983 at Welikada prison with Sinhala prisoners assaulting and killing three. This time it was different. Tamil prisoners knew beforehand trouble was brewing and brought it to the notice of the authorities at Kalutara. Nothing was done and the massacre took place. What has the government done after the incident? It has instituted an inquiry which is calling for evidence from the public outside!

Act three: `Attorney general's department and Tamil political prisoners'.

With all the trouble the attorney general's department is helping to heap on top of its own head, is the scandalous affair of S. Muhunthan.

Muhunthan has about half a dozen cases against him based on one alleged confession. These cases were in the Colombo high courts for about two years. Then one case commenced and it was proved to court that the alleged confession which was allegedly recorded on a particular date was found pasted in the relevant police books on a date before the alleged date of recording! This sent not only the attorney general's department spinning but also the police running round in circles. The prosecution asked for postponements in an efforts to get a miracle to work. Then suddenly we were informed that Muhunthan was being transferred to Kalutara for `security reasons'. This was many many months before the exodus of Tamil prisoners from the New Magazine Prison. The reason given for him being singled out was because he was indicted with conspiring to kill the president of Sri Lanka. But when it was asked how Muhunthan was kept in Colombo for years without this security risk being realised and why this sudden discovery of him being a security risk after the discovery about his alleged confession, there was no answer from the attorney general's department.

The latest we hear is that all Muhunthan's cases, too, have been transferred to the Kalutara high court including the case which is almost over. Is the attorney general's department opening the floodgates for a new and dangerous phenomenon when they can have two bites at the cherry in order to get a conviction? How will the government answer this charge?

Act four: `The Thimpu principles'.

The Thimpu principles of July 1985 were resurrected in May/June 1996 in Australia and have been lurking on the horizon until Prabhakaran laid emphasis on these, once again, in his martyr's day speech in November 1997. With the Thimpu principles coming into sharp focus with that policy speech, the president was quick to denounce it in a television interview called Janamandali and naturally said that she was offering more the the Tamils in her devolution proposals. She fails to realise the two are different qualitatively. The Thimpu principles refer to the aspiration of the Tamils, whilst the devolution proposals is only a search for a system of government. What the president did not say in the interview was in what respects her proposals go beyond Thimpu. She did not because she cannot! A member of her team, however - Minister PeirisJ- at a meeting in New Delhi to which he was invited, said categorically that Thimpu had to be considered seriously. It is not clear whether the Janamandali interview was earlier than the New Delhi meeting or later. If this is known, we can say who denounced whom!

The president's cohorts and collaborators who are today contesting the local government elections in Tamil areas - whilst frightened out of their wits to go counter to the Thimpu principles - are also frightened to clash with madam president by holding aloft the Thimpu principles. So what do they do? They dare not say that the devolution proposals go beyond Thimpu. But they ask inane questions, like the one asked by Sivasithamparam on television: "Is it not all right if the Thimpu principles are given effect to in the proposals?" This, without telling the Tamils in what way Thimpu has been dealt with in the devolution proposals.

So, who do we believe? President Kumaratunga or her most illustrious Minister Peiris?

Act Five: `Tamil speeches of the two Ks'.

On a misguided efforts to get `Tamil' support, President Kumaratunga delivered a Thai Pongal speech in `Tamil' over Rupavahini on January 14. Whether the Tamil speech was written in Sinhala or English, the effect and effort was disastrous. But what was pathetic was for her excellency to have thought that Tamils were such poor material that they would be taken up by such nonsensical gimmicks. Perhaps she was judging the Tamil nation by the calibre of the Tamil cohorts and collaborators supporting her?

Not to be outdone, on January 13, the `Tamil' Minister Kadirgamar, speaking about the Jaffna library, did the same thing and suffered the same consequences. It must not be forgotten that this `Tamil' minister has had the singular and significant distinction of either not giving an interview or not being asked for an interview by any Tamil newspaper or periodical in this island or outside! Neither has he voluntarily made a speech in Tamil ever before.

At least this must be stated in favour of my friend and teacher, Lalith Athulathmudali, who was equally hated by the Tamils like the two `K's. He studied Tamil for years from the same great Tamil teacher who taught me. Even when Lalith made speeches in Tamil after studying Tamil, they never went down with the Tamils. How can the two `K's, who have never studied Tamil, try to impress the Tamils with their `Tamil'? What lunacy!

Act six: Jaffna public library.

This was opened on Thai Pongal day 1998 after pirith was chanted. It is situated in the very centre of a full scale war. Therefore, no Tamil from Jaffna went for the opening. Not even the Tamil Minister Kadirgamar. Any Tamil who staggered there was promptly asked to go home. Those who were garlanded were the army commander and the Sudu Nelum experts. Will any Tamil be interested, today, in the Jaffna public library with bombs falling on his head and the prospect of the library again being destroyed due to bombing or war activity? What has come of the ` brick and book' warcry? Has it been abandoned? If not, why this temporary soft opening? Was not this show also an effort to impress the international community in time for the independence celebrations? What lunacy!

No, sir. This independence or its celebration is not for the Tamils. Not even the Tamil cohorts and collaborators will sit with the government on this affair, for some have already left the country on `urgent business'. The Tamils have been saying for 50 years that they have not got independence. That is the truth.

What today is still the lot of the Tamils, is akin to what Churchill emotionally said on May 13, 1940, in the house of commons : "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, by land and air, with all our might and with all the strength God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human word; Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised."

This will be the lot of the Tamils till they, too, win independence. Or, till lunacy ceases.

The writer of the above point of view is general secretary, All Ceylon Tamil Congress.

Date: Jan 30, 1998