Before 48 hours

By Nilantha Ilangamuwa

(May 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The failed policies of the Manmohan Singh government of India mark historical losses in Indo-Lanka relations after years of close relations in the crucial area of bilateral issues concerning both nations over the war on terror. There is no doubt at present that the Indian government has no thought out policy over Sri Lanka and this has opened the gates wide for China, Pakistan and Iran to have little love affairs with the Government of Sri Lanka. These three nations are kissing the Island Nation, as well as Russia seems to be a new fourth partner in these new friendships. But these four nations cannot understand what the root causes of the conflict in Sri Lanka are. India can with its deep and inextricable bonds to our island nation but is strangely playing dumb.

The Indian government has been increasingly forgetting their responsibilities with respect to the Tamils in Sri Lanka, as they focus on and seek after their economic benefits through good relations with the Government of Sri Lanka. Now both nations are facing a watershed as we people of our Island nation are losing in our struggle against the regime in power. This is a time of huge losses for the struggling people and a time of huge victory for those who lean towards a military government. This is new history in the making.

First of all. Sri Lankan youth must be constantly reminded that the struggle to liberation in Sri Lanka is impossible. The first and second time the Sinhalese dominated youth struggled against the regime we lost more than a hundred thousand youths, most of them from rural areas. Now is the third time – by Tamil militant movements that have destroyed their own people and their own freedom struggle after so many twists and turns under V. Prabhakaran who today is a true nullius filius – a nobody’s son – despite being sought after by international diplomats just 2 years ago. Prabhakaran believed only in weapons; he has never put his trust in the people or their goodness and faith systems and philosophies; nor has he accounted for the reality of politics and its demands in his relations with others. This has been the cause of his political demise. The present situation suggests that he has always thought he can trap all Sinhala dominated governments with his crooked ideas. Now he is clearly failing and the Tamil struggle is moving to the quixotic pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora with its own agendas and separate needs for a definition of what form the struggle will take.

According to King Hammurabi of Babylon in his famous Code of Laws, “If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man, without witnesses or a contract, silver or gold, a male or female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass or anything, or if he take it in charge, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death.” There are no doubts Mr. Prabhakaran must be punished at least by the forces of Nature if he cannot be captured alive, not least because he has mislead the Tamil people and missed many golden opportunities that came the way of the struggle for liberation. Indeed, he has used the people as slaves.

With the end of the Tiger what will happen in Sri Lanka? Of course the Rajapaksa regime will try to continue in power for more than a few decades. The government’s huge victory against the Tamil Tiger rebel is no mean achievement whether they capture or not the Big Tiger. Of course capturing the Big Tiger is not easily accomplished and may well nigh be impossible. But the major result of the war will come out within a few hours from the Final Fire Zone (FFZ) at the sandy strip in the North Eastern part of Sri Lanka.

However the challenge is to keep the victory going for a long time. That can’t be done by making puppets and yes-men of the Tamil community. The Regime must re-read the root causes of the conflict and establish a sustainable solution for all Sri Lankans.

-Sri Lanka Guardian
Unknown said...

Yes, yes, please tell us what the ROOT CAUSE is. Even you have not spelt it out ....no physician can heal an illness without diagnosing it first. And the patient too has to acknowledge that the illness is in himself and not in the body of another person. This is a 3,000 yr old illness, and was there even in the times the Buddha walked the earth in India. The Buddha's "Vasala Suthra' addresses just this illness - briefly, it states thus "by one's birth one is not low born or high born; only by one's actions is one low born or high born". Therein lies the cure. Hopefully, with a little help from the International Community, Tamil Nadu will cure itself of the illness first & then Lanka will be automatically cured. It is, after all, a spiritual problem.

Unknown said...

This article is written by someone with his own devious agenda and obviously somebody who doesn't have much vision. The root cause he talks about can only be abolished by the Tamils themselves. Naturally, it is easy to point your finger at the government and the Sinhalese people [Even though you have a Sinhala name], but truth be told, the change has to come from within the Tamil populations both in Lanka and India. It's the ideology that needs changing more than anything else. Sure, the Sinhalese can help make that change in Sri Lanka, but the task becomes even harder with people like you writing idiotic articles like this one.