Damnable Dependent Relationship

by Suthanthiran, December 21, 2006

Veera Suthanthiram verndy nintrharr pinnarrVe-ron-true kohl-vahro?

- Bharathi

[Will those who long sought noble independence
Will they later settle for something else?]

Six Sinhala politicos and some Tamil minions, members of the so-called 'experts' making up part of the so-named APRC, have plotted a plan of political arrangement. This arrangement is notable for its studied omissions to mention absolute essentials, such as our distinctive nationhood and our homeland, and, by default, perpetuating the status quo of the execrable unitary national status rather than proposing 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 such plans that might be dangled before them in the future.

These 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 their unwavering anti-Tamil animus.

When those 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.

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 will not on their own volition change this idee fixe that the entire island is theirs for them to hold and rule forever 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 in Sinhala and is very ‘flexible’, and political and ethnically partisan. The rule of law is a chimera.

5. Legislations 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, have not been adequately implemented. In contrast, 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, a 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 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 voter registers 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 forever 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 to crush us as a nation and also to deprive us of the inalienable right to ownership and paths to progress. We must consolidate our land in a separate state before it is all robbed from us.

10. The Sinhala leadership has never officially acknowledged, not to mention apologized for, the repeated pogroms organized by the Sinhala leaders themselves. The fact that there was never a Sinhala public outcry is already good grounds for not having any dependent political relationship. 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 the 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 ourselves 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 thousands 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 wounds, the TRO, the GOSL-approved relief organization that 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 a 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 fostered 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 hundreds of thousands 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 Sinhale will be Sinhalese Let’s go separate ways, please!

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