A Damnable Dependent Relationship
Sanmuga Suntharam
23 December 2006
[see also
Mad Hatters Tea Party and
Sri Lanka Experts Panel Report]
"...Above all,
we are a nation, a people who have needs and legitimate aspirations
to greatness and cannot subordinate them to the glorification of Sinhala
hegemony. We need a state and a voice in the international arena for
economic and educational, cultural, development, to combat injustice, to
counter misrepresentations and to contribute to the efforts to make the
world a little better. We want to form our own alliances and be a
responsible member of the international community. We are not going to
be attache - carriers to Sinhala diplomats!.."
Veera Suthanthiram verndy nintrharr pinnarr
Ve-ron-true kohl-vahro? -
Bharathi
Will those who long sought noble independence
Later settle for something else?
Six Sinhala politicos and some Tamil minions, members of the so
called experts making up part of so named APRC have
plotted a plan of
political arrangement
which is notable for its studied omissions to mention absolute
essentials such as our distinctive nationhood, our homeland and by
default perpetuating the status quo of the execrable unitary
national status than for any practical solutions for the island�s
nationalities conflict. ( The other six members are reported to have
produced three more plans among them which are likely to be more
explicit about liquidating the Tamils.)
The Tamils have every reason to be extremely wary and must
distance themselves as much as possible from this bait and switch
and perhaps any more that might be dangled before them in the
future. The schemes and proposals assuredly would lack a basic
ingredient - good faith, and thus will be a sure swindle and nothing
less. The highest common factor among the Sinhala politicians and
the Sinhala pleb is the unwavering anti-Tamil animus.
Thus, when six Sinhala stalwarts
quarreled with the other six Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim collaborators
in the APRC it was not because the latter group�s proposals were
in anyway acceptable to the Tamils but because they were purported
to be better than anything that an uncomprising Sinhala majoritarian
would ever concede. Not that any of the proposals has the slightest
chance of seeing the daylight considering the ingrained proclivity
of the Sinhala leaders to renege on any and all agreements with the
Tamil leadership even before the ink is dry; it is because the bad
faith is not just in the proposals themselves, but it is ab initio,
pervasive and subliminal in everything they do in respect of the
Tamils.
The Tamil Nation, in reality, is not asking for any kind of
political association with the Sinhala nation. The Sinhala are
deliberately ignoring the existence of the Tamil nation. Even worse,
the Sinhala bluntly and egregiously insist that the Tamils do not
even have a place of refuge - a homeland. It is their dogma that all
the ancestral land, the land of the Tamil culture and institutions
from proto-historic times is Sinhala and the Tamils are there on
Sinhala charity or sufferance. The Sinhala people will not on their
own volition change this idee fixe that the
entire island is theirs for them to hold and rule for ever with
the Tamils in fiefdom.
If reasons need to be adduced beyond existential imperatives the
following are some distilled from experience, why we cannot, will
not and should not have any dependent political relationship with
the Sinhala state.
1. The political leadership and exercise of power had been
through the
extended family, dynastic, corrupt, totally incompetent, and not
infrequently, criminal.
2. The polity and governance of the island are in violation of
the spirit and fundamental tenets of democracy. It is a power
grab by the Sinhala who exercise this power violently,
arrogantly and totally with only the Sinhala in mind. Even for
the
Sinhala it is a pseudo democracy, purely procedural, and
corrupt dictatorship beyond it.
3. The institutions - the bureaucracy, the law enforcement, the
judiciary - are moribund, corrupt, pandering to the politicians
and dysfunctional. The armed forces are undisciplined, a law
unto themselves, sadistic and full of rapists. Verily, it is a
failed state protected by armed thugs.
4. The Sinhala, entirely on their own ethnic voting strength,
frame or revoke any constitution, suspend it, declare emergency
for any length of time in Tamil areas; they arrest, torture the
Tamil residents and force confessions, make them disappear and
it is all legal! The judiciary think Sinhala and is very
"flexible", and political and ethnically partisan. The rule of
law is a chimera.
5. Legislation enacted to provide some measure of relief to
Tamils brought about by years of titanic struggle and agitation,
such as the national (not official) language status to Tamil has
not been adequately implemented. Whereas legislation intended to
punish the Tamils such as the "anti - terrorism" laws are
implemented promptly, harshly and over - zealously. There are no
exceptions; there is an invariant pattern which is part of a
grand plan which is the manifestation of intense anti-Tamil
hostility. There is, thus, no safety for the Tamils in a Sinhala
controlled regime.
We need a haven amongst our people, governed by our people, for
our benefit with justice and fairness which we will never have
with the Sinhala. We have nothing, absolutely nothing to gain
but everything to lose by any dependent political ties with the
Sinhala regime.
6. The Sinhala leaders have
never honored even the most solemn agreement with the Tamil
leadership. In fact that is the most dependable characteristic
of the Sinhala leadership. It is so fundamental, so deeply
ingrained that it is futile to contemplate any agreement with
the Sinhala leadership; any agreement with them can be enforced
only by armed strength. It is as if they would not stop at a red
lights, only at a physical barrier. This is why the Tamils have
to have an armed force, very strong and ready. An agreement with
them is then a rationale for having strong armed forces, if only
to enforce the agreements!
7. The
Sinhala leaders have at their command mobs that (will search
with voters register if need be) and kill with glee in the most
savage manner any innocent Tamil unlucky enough to be found by
them, and they will go scot free. This has happened time and
time again and as long as Tamils are not in a position to
retaliate with equal ferocity we run a great risk of being wiped
out. A retaliatory capacity goes with an independent statehood.
8. The Sinhala polity is for ever mired in
theocratic Buddhism,
fascistic/marxist, ethnic populism and dominated by
political families that compete with each other to unleash
destructive forces against the Tamils as the easy method to
capture and remain in power. The way for the Tamils to survive
is to have our own state.
9. There exists the political imperative for the Tamils to
prevent our precious assets being confiscated for the benefit of
the Sinhala and alienated to enemies of India, our valued
neighbor, schemed by the Sinhala leadership to not only put
India in peril but primarily to crush us as a nation and also to
deprive us the inalienable right to ownership and path to
progress. We must consolidate
our land in a
separate state before it is all robbed of us.
10. The Sinhala leadership has never officially acknowledged,
not to mention apologized for,
the repeated pogroms organized by the Sinhala leaders
themselves and the fact that there was never a Sinhala public
outcry is already good grounds for not having any dependent
political relationship. But what has happened since then has
irrevocably clinched the issue - never again trust our safety in
the hands of the Sinhala. We must control our own resources to
protect ourselves.
11. We do not relish the Sinhala practice of dividing the Tamils
by promoting degenerates toadying up to the Sinhala political
bosses for personal aggrandizement at the expense of Tamil
interests and those who do not, resulting in the people being
sold down the river as it is happening now. The solution to our
problem must be sought within our territory and our leadership
and not through pandering and ingratiating with Sinhala power
brokers of the Sinhala government.
12. Above all,
we are a nation, a people who have needs and legitimate
aspirations to greatness and cannot subordinate them to the
glorification of Sinhala hegemony. We need a state and a voice
in the international arena for economic and educational,
cultural, development, to combat injustice, to counter
misrepresentations and to contribute to the efforts to make the
world a little better. We want to form our own alliances and be
a responsible member of the international community. We are not
going to be attache - carriers to Sinhala diplomats!
13. When the terrible and terrifying Tsunami struck thousand of
Tamil people were swept away and those who survived live as
destitutes inconsolably grieving and languishing in shelters
that do not shelter them from anything. Yet the Sinhala leaders
whose hatred for Tamils is so overwhelming, denied these
wretched Tamils even a modicum of solatium even though
international aid of nearly $2 billion was given and nearly two
thirds of those affected by the Tsunami were Tamils. And believe
it or not, to rub salt into wound, TRO, the GOSL- approved
relief organization which performed such timely and great
service to the refugees through much harassment and threat to
the lives of the workers
had its funds frozen by the GOSL! Yet the Sinhala leadership
wants the Tamils to think that they have a future in the Sinhala
dominated nation!! Tamils may have produced some traitors
(Traitors do not belong; they only betray. Therefore, there are
no "Tamil traitors" only those who betrayed the Tamils) but the
overwhelming majority of loyal Tamils have learnt their lessons.
They want no part of this despicable government.
14. We want to leave the Sinhala land exclusively for the
Sinhala so their Buddhist - Sinhala culture can be fosted
unencumbered by the Tamil "problem", their economy developed,
not having to spend billions in killing the Tamils so that the
Eelam state and the Sinhala state could have very profitable
inter-national trade and commerce, tourism and, yes, a healthy
rivalry and a very friendly relationship. Could the Sinhala wish
for anything better?
So why would the Sinhala
kill tens of thousand of us, devastate half of our land, make
hundreds of thousands flee their land and make many more hundreds of
thousands refugees, blockade our land and starve many more hundreds
of thousands, condemn us to preventable death by interdicting drugs
from reaching us, constantly shell and bombard refugee camps,
schools and hospitals and reduce us to a frightened, besieged
cowering nation of malnourished disease ridden physically stunted
people without access to proper education and economic development?
 Why
don�t they leave us alone to mind our own business, develop our
potential and to be a free and contended people? The most
"charitable" reason I can think of is that they are impelled by the
Nazi concept of lebensraum - the
greed for our land for Sinhala expansionism. Look at the way the
Sinhala are treating us now. It would be considerably worse (those
who think it cannot get any worse do not yet know the Sinhala well)
with the Sinhala "flogging when we stand and kicking us when we sit"
until we are dead! Tamils are Tamils and Sinhalese will be
Sinhalese. Let�s go separate ways, please!
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