Confronting the Death of Prabhakaran
On 18 June 2009,
the 31st Day of Prabhakaran's Death
I have never met Velupillai Prabhakaran. Neither have
I ever spoken to him. I did not know him personally.
Again, it is not that I have agreed with everything that
he said or did. Yet, when he died on 17 May 2009, I felt
a deep sense of personal loss. I grieved. In my grief I
was moved to revisit the words of Fidel Castro Ruz at his
trial in October 1953 -
'...The man who abides by unjust
laws and permits any man to trample and mistreat the
country in which he was born is not an honorable man.
When there are many men without honor, there are always
others who bear in themselves the honor of many men.
These are the men who rebel with great force against
those who steal the people's freedom, that is to say,
against those who steal honor itself. In those men
thousands more are contained, an entire people is
contained, human dignity is contained ... "
Velupillai Prabhakaran rebelled with
great force against those who stole his people's freedom.
In him, something of the honour and dignity of an entire
people, an entire nation was contained. It is not
surprising therefore that his death evoked a deep sense
of personal loss amongst those who feel - and who feel
deeply - that they belong to that people and to that
nation. It would have been surprising if it had
not.
It is also understandable that there
are those amongst the Tamil people, in Tamil Nadu and
elsewhere, who have found it difficult to reconcile
themselves to his death and want to believe that he
continues to live. Understandable, but they do a great
disservice both to Velupillai Prabhakaran and to the
cause for which he gave more than 37 years of his life. I
agree with Krishna Ambalavanar who wrote from
Switzerland on 31 May 2009 -
" ...
மேதகு வே.
பிரபாகரன்
அவர்களின்
மரணம்
தொடர்பாக
இருக்கின்ற
முரண்பாடான
கருத்துகள்,
அடுத்த
கட்டம்
பற்றிய
எமது
சிந்தனைகளையும்
மாற்று
நடவடிக்கைகளையும்
முடக்கிப்
போட்டிருக்கிறது.
அந்த
மரணம்
ஈழத்
தமிழனத்தால்
மட்டுமன்றி
உலகத்
தமிழினத்தாலேயே
ஏற்றுக்
கொள்ள
முடியாத
ஒன்றாக -
ஜீரணிக்க
முடியாத
ஒன்றாக
இருப்பினும்
யதார்த்த
நிலையில்
இருந்து
தான் அதை
நாம்
நோக்க
வேண்டும்...
இந்த
விடயத்தில்
ஈழத்
தமிழினம்
பிளவுபட்டு
நிற்பது
வேதனைக்கு
உரியது.
வெட்கத்துக்கு
உரியது.
தனது
வாழ்வின்
37
வருடங்களை
முழுமையாகவே
ஈழத்
தமிழருக்காகவே
அர்ப்பணித்த
ஒரு
ஒப்பற்ற
தலைவனுக்கு
இறுதி
மரியாதை
கூடச்
செய்ய
முடியாதளவுக்கு
நாம்
முட்டாள்களாக
நிற்கிறோம்..."
கிருஸ்ணா
அம்பலவாணர்,
31 May 2009
I said that I did not know
Velupillai Prabhakaran personally. But I knew some who
had worked with him closely and many who had met with him
and had spoken with him.
Sathasivam Krishnakumar
(Kittu) was one who had worked closely with
Prabhakaran and I came to know Kittu well during his stay
in the United Kingdom and in Europe in the 1990s. On
Kittu's death in January 1993, I wrote -
"...Kittu belonged to the
true intelligentsia of Tamil Eelam. Not to the pseudo
intelligentsia which reads books that other people
write to find ideas which they can then expound or
worse still, pass off as their own. Not to the pseudo
intelligentsia which writes and thinks in English and
has little understanding of that which is felt and
thought by the Tamil people. Not to the pseudo
intelligentsia which quarrels endlessly about what
ought to be done without knowing how or when to start.
Not to the pseudo intelligentsia which, deprived of
direction, is intent on getting there fast. Sathasivam
Krishnakumar, abstracted and conceptualised his own
experience, read widely, sought to integrate that which
he read with his life and then set about influencing a
people to action. To him, theory was a very practical
thing." - Sathisivam Krishnakumar, the
Struggle was his Life, 1 February 1993
And I have always felt that if Velupillai Prabhakaran
was able to command the unswerving loyalty of a person
such as Kittu, then Prabhakaran too must have had
qualities which matched or bettered those that Kittu had.
Kittu would often speak of Prabhakaran and of some of the
things that he had said to him. Some of those statements
have stayed with me over these many years. Statements
such as 'Orators do not become leaders but leaders may
become orators', 'You can wakeup someone who is sleeping
but you cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be
asleep'. 'New Delhi are traders - வியாபாரிகள்
- they want to bargain with our demand for freedom -
விலை
பேசுகிறார்கள்
'. I remember on one occasion Kittu telling a Tamil Eelam
activist in London who had complained to Kittu about the
lethargic response of a Tamil expatriate - 'What is your
problem. Go and meet him again. After all Thalaivar came
to my home six or seven times to persuade me to
join.'
There are also other memories that I have.
An Australian Tamil Eelam expatriate who I have known
personally for many years, visited the Vanni in 2003 and
met with Prabhakaran. In the course of a conversation,
Prabhakaran remarked casually to him in Tamil -
'
உயிரைக்
கொடுக்கத்
தயாராய்
இருக்கிறவர்களைத்தான்
அவர்கள்
வேட்டையாடுகார்கள்'.
- 'You know, it is those who are prepared to give
their lives that they hunt. '
A UK medical consultant and his wife for both of whom
I have a high regard spoke to me
about their meeting with Prabhakaran and his family in
the Vanni in October 2004 -
"... To us Pirabaharan came across
primarily as a soft spoken, deep thinking person with
considerable depth of knowledge in what ever topic we
discussed, with a keen desire to gain a proper
understanding of each and every matter that he came
across during our conversation... At lunch our two
hosts made sure that my wife had her vegetarian dishes
and both supervised personally the servings and
Pirabaharan took a great pride in explaining the
various dishes and how many vegetables and fruits were
now grown in Vanni. He made sure all others at the
lunch table ate well too. It was typical Thamil
hospitality at it�s best, showered on
us by a person who could have been very aloof and
remote to the two unknown visitors but chose to be a
ordinary man doing his duties as a host as expected by
our traditions and customs, with out any effort but
naturally as it would come to a brother feeding his
long lost family..."
And I can understand the feelings
that moved M.Thanapalasingham,
an erudite Tamil scholar, a citizen of Australia, an
accountant by profession, and a brother of a Maha Veeran
who had given his life in the struggle for
Eelam, to tell two police officers from
India when they interviewed him in Sydney in 2001
-
'... I have but
a feeble and weak body and lack the courage and
commitment required for membership of the LTTE. To be
eligible for membership of the LTTE requires a level of
determination and fearlessness that cries out 'I will not lose my
freedom except with my life'. This I do not have.
No, I am not a member of LTTE.... No, I have not met
Pirabaharan. Like millions of Tamils
living in many lands and across distant
seas, I do dream of meeting him one day. To meet
him so that I could bow my head in front of him and
with all humility say to him: 'Thank you, thank you for
restoring our dignity. Because of you, we Tamils are
walking with our heads held high'. This is my dream.
.' -
An Australian Tamil Stands Up for that which he
believes..., 31 May 2001
Today, as I reflect on Velupillai Prabhakaran's life
and death, I take some solace from
the words of
Subhas
Chandra Bose many years ago
-
'..It is our duty
to pay for our liberty with our own blood. The freedom
that we shall win through our sacrifice and exertions,
we shall be able to preserve with our own
strength.... 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......'
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.
I also take some solace from the reflections of
Velupillai Prabhakaran himself -
"'...Perform your duty without regard
to the fruits of action', says the Bhagavad Gita. I grasped this profound
truth when I read the Mahabharata. When I read the
great didactic works, they impressed on me the need to
lead a good, disciplined life and roused in me the
desire to be of service to the community. Above all,
Subhash Chandra Bose's life was a beacon
to me, lighting up the path I should follow. His
disciplined life and his total commitment and
dedication to the cause of his country's freedom deeply
impressed me and served as my guiding light."
Velupillai
Prabhakaran, How I became a freedom fighter -
Interview, April 1994
"Nature is my friend. Life is my
teacher of philosophy. History is my guide... Not the
existence of man, but the action of man sets the wheel
of history of the struggle in motion...History is not a
divine force outside man. It is not the meaning of an
aphorism that determines the fate of man. History is an
expression of the dynamism of man. Man creates history.
Man also determines his own fate... Simplicity is born
as the highest fruit of wisdom; simplicity appears
devoid of selfishness and pride. This simplicity makes
one a handsome man; a cultured man...Fear is the image
of weakness, the comrade of timidity, the enemy of
steadfastness/ determination. Fear of death is the
cause of every human fear. Who conquers this fear of
death, conquers over himself. This person also reaches
liberation from the prison of his mind.. Even an
ordinary human being can create history if he is
determined to die for truth..." Reflections of the Leader: Quotes by
Veluppillai Prabhakaran Translation of Tamil
Original by Peter Schalk and Alvappillai Velupillai.
Published by Uppasala University, Sweden
Perform your duty without regard to the
fruits of action.
"...That which was said by Lord Krishna to Arujna in
the battlefield was both simple and fundamental -
simple to declare but fundamental in content. It was a
call for action in the battlefield and where else is
there a greater need for action. And Lord Krishna
urging Arjuna to do battle against those whom Arjuna
regarded as his friends, his teachers and his
relations, tells Arujna, "To action you have a right, but
not to the fruits thereof."
This oft repeated statement of the Gita is of very
direct relevance to all of us who are engaged in
activity or action of one kind or another. The
detachment which the Gita speaks about is not the
opposite of attachment. It is not a dead detachment. It
is not a negative detachment. Understanding the Gita is
not a mere intellectual exercise in the trap of opposites....
There is in each one of us a path of harmony, our
dharma, and it is this path of harmony which the Gita
enjoins us to follow. For Arujna that
path was to engage in battle." - Reflections on the Gita -
Nadesan Satyendra, 1981
For Velupillai Prabhakaran, his dharma as
he saw it, was to engage in battle. But Velupillai
Prabhakaran was no sun god. Neither was the LTTE without
its failings. Nevertheless, Velupillai Prabhakaran will
live in the hearts and minds of generations of Tamils yet
unborn as the undying and heroic symbol of Tamil
resistance to alien rule - a Tamil resistance rooted in
the moral legitimacy
of the Tamil Eelam struggle for freedom from oppressive alien Sinhala
rule.
  அச்சம்
என்பது
மடமையடா
அஞ்சாமை
திராவிடர்
உடமையடா
ஆறிலும்
சாவு
நூறிலும்
சாவு
தாயகம்
காப்பது
கடமையடா
வாழ்ந்தவர்
கோடி
மறைந்தவர்
கோடி
மக்களின்
மனதில்
நிற்பவர்
யார்
மாபெரும்
வீரர்
மானம்
காப்போர்
சரித்திரம்
தனிலே
நிற்க்கின்றார்.
Kaviarasu
Kannadasan
And as Tamils living in many lands and
across distant seas face the future, they will remind
themselves yet again of the words of Ernest Renan more
than a hundred years ago -
"Where national memories are concerned,
griefs are of more value than triumphs, for they impose
duties, and require a common effort. A nation is
therefore a large-scale solidarity, constituted by the
feeling of the sacrifices that one has made in the past
and of those that one is prepared to make in the
future. " Ernest Renan in
What is a Nation, 1885
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