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TAMIL NATIONAL FORUM: 2008
From: One Tamil in Tamil
Eelam, 16
June 2008
Dear Sinhalese:
 I
understand that you are upset by us. Indeed, it
appears that you are quite upset, even angry.
Today, it is the "barbarism of LTTE terrorism",
yesterday it was the Federal
party, before that it was the "favouritism of the
British". It appears that Tamils, who could achieve
equality and who, therefore, could live, upset
you.
Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset by
us. You were upset in 1956, in 1958, in 1961 and in 1977 and went on acts of arson, rape,
pillage, murder and plain barbarity and we were
scornfully asked to go to the
Federal party for help.
Of course, dear Sinhalese, long before there was a
Tamil tiger, we the Tamil people - upset you. And we
go back a long way in the history of Sinhala upset.
We upset the "Great" Sinhala King Dutugemunu and
you still use his "history" to
teach your young ones to be more upset by us.
 Reds are upset
and monks are upset. The radical Sinhalese are upset
and the gentle "Sinhalese moderates" are upset. We
upset the Sinhala Hamudawa who massacred tens of
thousands of us; we upset the Sinhala police who, collaborated with
rioters and killed, burnt and slaughtered untold
numbers of us.
And it is because we became so upset over upsetting
you, dear Sinhalese, that we decided to leave you - in a
manner of speaking - and establish a Tamil state.
The reasoning was that living in close contact with
you, as resident-strangers, we upset you, irritate
you and disturb you. What better notion, then, than
to leave you (and thus love you) - and have you love
us and so, we decided to come home - home to the same
land we were driven to in 1983.
Having left you and your pogroms and riots, having
taken our leave from you to live alone in our own
little state of Tamil Eelam, we continue to upset
you.
Well, dear Sinhalese, consider the reaction of a
normal Tamil from Tamil Eelam:
In 1956 and 1958 and 1961 and 1977, there was no "Tamil terrorism"
to impede peace between Tamils and Sinhalese. Indeed,
there was no Kotias (Tigers) to upset anybody.
Nevertheless, the same Sinhalese slaughtered
thousands of Tamils in Hingurakgoda, Polonnaruwa,
Minneriya and Colombo. Indeed, in 1958 so many Tamil men, women
and children were mercilessly hunted down in
Polonaruwa Sugar plantation.
Dear Sinhalese, why did you massacre hundreds of
Tamils in one day in 1958? Why did you carry
out the1977 pogrom and made 75,000 refugees.
Could it have been your anger over Tiger terrorism in
2007? And why were thousands of Tamil men, women and
children slaughtered in pogroms between 1956-83? Was
it because Sinhalese were upset over Tiger terrorism
in 1996?
The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry
of "para demala" (foreign Tamils!) that we hear and
see today, were seen and heard then. The same people,
the same dream - Sinhala Buddhism only. What you failed
to do yesterday, you dream of today.
Dear Sinhalese, you stood by and cheered on when the
Sinhala police burnt down our beloved Jaffna
library.
You stood by when Sinhala police massacred attendees at an
International Tamil Cultural event in Jaffna.
You contributed and stood by in 1983
genocide, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every
Sinhala town and city in your land.
You drove millions of Tamils to the North-East,
thus suggesting Tamil Eelam is our only Homeland.
When we come here to establish Tamil Eelam, alas that
upsets you again. It appears that you are hard to
please.
And since we know that the Sinhalese dream daily of
our extinction, we will do everything possible to
remain alive in our own homeland. If that bothers
you, dear Sinhalese, well ? - think of how many times
in the past you bothered us.
In any event, dear Sinhalese, if you are bothered by
us, here is one Tamil in Eelam who could not care
less and, frankly doesn't give a damn !
From: Sengodan
Mayuram, 21 March 2008
India's Role on Eelam Issue
I write this in connection with Sabesan's
article on India's role on the Eelam issue. I feel
it is most timely and such an article needs the widest
publicity not only among the Tamils of Tamil Nadu
cutting across all political divisions there but also
to reach all progressive sections in India beyond Tamil
Nadu. We can sense a paradigm shift in the thinking of
some progressive sections in India as reflected in the
speech of Mr. D.Raja the National Secretary of the CPI
in the Rajya Sabha. So we have to press on and drum
harder the Truth.
It may be useful to have this article printed in
other major Indian languages including Hindi. There are
two aspects to be considered. One, our (Eelam Tamils')
attitude towards India and the other India's attitude
towards Eelam. The latter is beyond our control though
we can do our best to influence same. Our attitude
towards India will naturally be friendly all the time
because of natural affinities through our close cousins
in Tamil Nadu and extensions of same beyond. There is
no basic enmity between us and India and it is this
fact that Sabesan has possibly sought to spell out more
elaborately.
Unfortunately a handful of old codgers like
Narayanan are trying to mislead India because of their
personal prejudices. But this cannot go on for long. It
may take a little time for the greater number of
Indians to wake up to reality as only about 15% of the
total Indian population could be considered to be truly
literate at present. We should show patience but make a
determined consistent effort. We can never fail.
Response by tamilnation.org
We agree that we must show patience and make a
determined consistent effort - and it is true that
Tamil Eelam has no 'basic enmity' with India. It will
be equally true to say that Tamil Eelam has no 'basic
enmity' with the US or for that matter the United
Kingdom or the European Union. Said that, we would
imagine that so long as the world 'is not rotating on
the axis of human justice' Tamil Eelam too will be
guided by that which Lord Palmerston declared many
years ago - "We have no eternal allies and we have no
perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and
perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to
follow." However unlike British Foreign Secretary Lord
Palmerston, the people of Tamil Eelam do not seek to
build empires - their interests, which are eternal and
perpetual, are founded on their
democratic right to govern themselves.
 We ourselves
do not see 'a paradigm shift in the thinking of some
progressive sections in India as reflected in the
speech of Mr. D.Raja the National Secretary of
the CPI in the Rajya Sabha' on 18 March 2008.
Mr.D.Raja has called upon the Indian government to
state openly that it is training the Sri Lankan army.
However he has not expressed his support for the Tamil
Eelam struggle for freedom. Nor has he called for the
de proscription of the LTTE. Here, we need to bear in
mind the recent concerns expressed by
B.Raman, who is certainly no friend of the Tamil
Eelam freedom struggle, that the Indian military should
refrain from crossing the 'Laxman Rekha' - the dividing
line between covert and overt Indian assistance to the
Sri Lanka military.
Again, we do not believe that the Indian state or
the sophisticated Research Analysis Wing are arming Sri
Lanka because 'a handful of old codgers like Narayanan
are trying to mislead India'. The Indian state is not
foolish. It will be foolish on our part to believe
that it is. As we pointed out in our
comment to Mr.Sabesan's article, we agree with that
which former Indian Foreign Secretary Mr.Bhandari
declared in the Hindustan Times in July 1987 -
" ..No one individual formulates and decides
(Indian)Government's policy. There are always in
depth internal consultations and discussions. There
are several inputs before decisions are taken. Any
individual entrusted with a task does so on
directions..."
It is not that the Indian state is unaware of the
moral legitimacy of the Tamil Eelam struggle
for freedom. It is not that the Indian state is
unaware of the justice of Gandhian leader S.J.V.
Chelvanayagam's Independence Declaration of 7
February 1975 -
"Throughout the ages the Sinhalese and Tamils in
the country lived as distinct sovereign
people till they were brought under foreign
domination...We have for the last 25 years made every
effort to secure our political rights on the
basis of equality with the Sinhalese in a united
Ceylon....It is a regrettable fact that successive
Sinhalese governments have used the power that flows
from independence to deny us our fundamental rights
and reduce us to the position of a subject
people. I wish to announce to my people and to
the country that I consider the verdict at this
election as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam nation should exercise the
sovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and
become free."
The fact is that the Indian state which armed and
trained Tamil militants in the 1980s, today arms and
supports the Sri Lanka military - for the same reasons.
The Indian state acts in the way it does not because it is 'misled' (by a few bad
guys) but because, on the contrary, it is sharply
focused on what it perceives to be the national
interests of India. And it is those perceived national
interests that we need to confront.
Here it has to be said that the LTTE itself has at
times contributed to this 'India has been misled'
syndrome. The LTTE as a 'de facto State actor' may have
had its reasons for adopting this particular
'diplomatic phraseology' or 'anuku murai' but an
unfortunate result is that the same phraseology is
adopted often blindly, by supporters of the Tamil Eelam
freedom struggle. Though some supporters may see 'the
India has been misled' gambit as an 'anuku murai'
others may actually believe that the Indian state is
being 'misled' by 'a few bad guys'. And this leads to
confusion amongst sections of the Tamil people - a
confusion which weakens our focus and dissipates our
efforts.
We must take serious note of that which Mamanithar Sivaram
said, though it was said five years ago in May 2003
-
"...Any foreign force can have its way in a
country only if its people are divided, politically
obfuscated and are irredeemably sunk in political
stupor. The creeping intellectual/political
barrenness in the northeast should be stopped without
further delay. LTTE officials too should stop making
pedestrian, boringly predictable utterances on public
forums and, instead, make every endeavour to stir the
people's reason, intellectual curiosity, their sense
of community, their imagination and their
intellectual fervour. This is the only way forward to
decisively break the vicious circle of political
obfuscation by which our people- are deeply but
blissfully afflicted today."
We agree that "we have to press on and drum harder
the Truth" but we need to recognise that that 'Truth'
includes the dynamics of the
power balances in the Indian Ocean region - and its
impact on the Tamil Eelam struggle for freedom. And it
is this 'whole truth' that we
need to 'drum harder' so that those who pretend to be
asleep will find it increasingly difficult to continue
with their pretence with any semblance of credibility.
Here, we would repeat that which we said in our comment
on Mr.Sabesan's article -
"...Why has India not supported the demand for
Tamil Eelam? Is it because India has not heard that
which the LTTE has been saying for the past several
years (that it is India's friend)? Or is it because
that India does not believe the LTTE? Or is it
because that even if India believes the LTTE, it
(India) is concerned that it may not have the power
to prevent that which happened to its friend Mujib
Rahman after it had supported the creation of
Bangladesh? Or again is it that India fears that if
it supports an independent Tamil Eelam, such support
will lead to Sri Lanka turning to US and/or China and
this may result in a permanent US and/or China
presence being embedded in Sri Lanka - and that such
an embedded US and/or China presence would pose a
strategic threat to India. Unsurprisingly, perhaps,
the limits of India's power determine its foreign
policy. "
The Achilles heel of India's foreign policy
is in fact India's compelling need for Laxman's Rekha. 'An Achilles'
heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength,
actually or potentially leading to downfall.'
Statue of Achilles thniskon (dying) at
the Corfu Achilleion
Whether India is right to take the view that the
people of Tamil Nadu will accept as 'plausible' the
efforts made by the Indian State to conceal its covert
assistance to Sinhala Sri Lanka is something that time
will tell. Policy makers in New Delhi may be wrong in
belittling the intelligence and understanding of the
Dravidian Tamil - despite the assistance that New Delhi
may seek and receive in this regard from the likes of
V.Anandasangaree and S.C.Chandrahasan.
We may need to remind India (and perhaps, some of us
as well) about something that Velupillai Pirabakaran said long years ago
in 1985 -
"... We don't want to pass the
burden of a liberation struggle to the next
generation: they must enjoy the fruits of our
toil.....Fight we must, till our goal is achieved.
India's sympathy is a morale-booster, but should
India withdraw support it would not mean the end of
our liberation struggle. After all we did not start
our liberation movement with India's support or with
the help of some other external forces. We will fight
till we die. When I die someone else will take over.
As Subhas Chandra Bose said, 'No
liberation fighter can delude himself that he alone
can deliver freedom.' If my generation dies without
attaining freedom the next generation will carry on
the struggle..."
But, then again it may be that India's policy makers
are not unaware of something that two of India's
greatest sons, Sri Aurobindo and Subhas Chandra Bose
said many years ago -
"The mistake which despots,
benevolent or malevolent, have been making ever since
organised states came into existence and which, it
seems, they will go on making to the end of the
chapter, is that they overestimate their coercive power,
which is physical and material and therefore
palpable, and underestimate the power and vitality of
ideas and sentiments. A feeling or a thought,
the
aspiration towards liberty, cannot be estimated
in the terms of concrete power, in so many fighting
men, so many armed police, so many guns, so many
prisons, such and such laws, ukases, and executive
powers. But such feelings and thoughts are more
powerful than fighting men and guns and prisons and
laws and ukases. Their beginnings are feeble, their
end is mighty. But of despotic repression the
beginnings are mighty, the end is feeble... But the
despot will not recognise this superiority, the
teachings of history have no meaning for him.
..He is deceived also by the temporary triumph of his
repressive
measures.. and thinks,
"Oh, the circumstances in my case
are quite different, I am a different thing from
any yet recorded in history, stronger, more
virtuous and moral, better organised. I am God's
favourite and can never come to harm."
And so the old drama is staged again
and acted till it reaches the old catastrophe..."
Sri Aurobindo
"..Freedom is not given, it is taken.. One
individual may die for an idea;
but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself
in a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of
evolution moves on and the ideas and dreams of one
nation are bequeathed to the next..." Subhas
Chandra Bose
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