There are today an estimated 200,000 Tamil people languishing in displaced camps in the North and the East. There are children born in those camps every day. Even if there were no displaced members who died in the camps or a single death recorded due to spread of diseases, there is little about the plight of the Tamil displaced persons that the country can be proud of.
Then there are those children who were forcibly conscripted for war by the ruthless LTTE, who have known little outside of war and killing, being rehabilitated. Their fears and sentiments are far from healed. It might take all their lives. And this is an entire generation of Tamil children we speak of. A generation denied a normal childhood; schooling and the basic love and care of a mother or father. We haven’t even begun to look at healing the wounds that must fest deep inside the heart of the LTTE cadres today in captivity. Naturally there is little or no room for integration into the rest of Sri Lankan society in these young minds either. Suffice to say they are today more than ever, vulnerable at the hands of political opportunists coming in the guise of speaking for rights.
These are certainly issues of an immediate nature. Issues that cannot be allowed to be ignored, or go un-discussed. But who is discussing them? At what forum do we see the magnanimity of the majority community coming in the form of looking at ways at removing these people from these conditions? Granted, the government seems committed and thankfully the immediate needs of the displaced are being met. It is certainly to the credit of the regime that it did not allow the situation in the Wanni to become another Dafur.
But, can the same be said of the Tamil political leadership? Today, divided as never before, the leadership has left the community at a strange political crossroad. In their grave inability to grab the golden opportunity of bringing the issues facing the community to the open in a rational and responsible manner, the so-called Tamil leaders are doing a grave injustice to its people. If there is no discussion of the issues of the Tamil people in either of the two main political campaigns for the Presidency, it is more to the failure of the Tamil leadership than anything else. It is this opportunist leadership that gained power and thrived under the bargaining power of the militancy of the LTTE that allowed the legitimate concerns of the community go into oblivion.
The sad reality of politics in Sri Lanka is such that the convictions of the majority community would allow little room for the aspirations of the Tamil people to be granted on a platter. However committed President Rajapaksa or Gen. Fonseka in their personal capacities would be to allow for such magnanimity of heart; the reality of being seen as traitors to the victory of the troops by ‘allowing’ anything for the minorities, is what keeps them from bringing the topic, in any meaningful manner to the campaign trail. In a strange twist of fate the arrogance of the Tamil leadership, which first firmly believed the LTTE was invincible and now foolishly follows the myth that the Tamil Diaspora can deliver where terror failed, let better judgment flee.
It’s arrogance in refusing to engage with the government immediately following the end of the war, created for a lacuna of a sensible platform for its issues to come under discussion. If anyone is to be blamed for allowing Tamil grievances to be ignored the foremost blame lay with the Tamil leadership. It can’t deny that it failed to disprove the theory that the cracks within the political structure were due to the lack of a legitimate cause strong enough to hold them together. There is one school of thought that believed strongly that it was the militancy and the rule of the LTTE gun than kept the Tamil political leadership on line. It is pertinent to wonder what happened to the cause now that the guns have been silenced.
And more importantly, how a boycott of the elections as pushed for by some factions within the Tamil National Alliance can provide for these needs to be met? If as is being made evident by the workings of the Sampanthan faction of the TNA, which will push for a silent vote towards the Common candidate, it must be asked if they have been successful in bargaining anything for the community in pushing for support.
It would be very sad if defeating Rajapaksa merely because he ended the militant path of gaining rights, was the only motivating factor. The question demands to be asked how they hope to ensure any rights after the polls, where the lines are so obscure.
In this lacunae, it has become more evident than ever that the peace was forcing more pressures on the Tamil political entity than did the war. In their clear inability to go before the community with one voice and call for their immediate needs to be met through the ballot, the TNA especially has proven beyond doubt that it holds little relevance without the muscle of the LTTE. In the lunacy of purpose that allows both the Sinhala and Tamil political communities to believe that its diasporas will deliver, the politicians are going to leave the communities directionless once more. It is the duty of the leadership to look at ways of working within the political culture than hanging on and allowing its diaspora to dictate terms that have so far proven futile. There is little to suggest that this will change now.
Thirty years of undue suffering by every community after the Sri Lankan polity is back to playing dangerous games with its people. And no one seems to be playing a more vigorous game than the Tamil political leadership. The end of a cruel war has offered little to any of the communities, be they political or economic freedoms. The ongoing political campaign proves beyond any doubt that the people, be they Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim have taken a backseat in their power plays. Nothing about what is being said in the campaign trail has anything to do with raising the standards of their lives, meeting their greater freedoms or allowing for a common path towards a united Sri Lankan state.
Back to their old games of dividing and ruling, there is no attempt to engage any of the communities to allow for greater integration between them. Sadly the year that has just dawned, seems to offer little hope for the post war unity and development that seemed so much a part of our big picture merely six months back.
No comments:
Post a Comment