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| Sunday, 27 November 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Need of the hour: Stop the murders by Shanthan Thambiah Kanapathipillai Rajathurai (55), an eminent educationalist and the principal of Jaffna Central College; one of the premiere secondary boys' schools in Jaffna was shot and fatally wounded by the members of the LTTE death squads on 12th 0f October 2005 at 3:30 p.m. He was rushed to the hospital but later succumbed to his injuries. He is from Manthuvil in Thenmaradchi and the father of three children. At the time of the shooting, he was returning from Veerasingam Hall where he was the chief guest of a cultural festival. In another dastardly incident Nadaraja Sivakadadcham, Principal of Kopay Christian College was gunned down on October 11, 2005 in front of his young children. The assassins of these two incidents came on a motorbike and shot them at point blank and ran away. They would have returned to the base and would have been felicitated in secrecy by the recluse leader or one of his henchmen. The name of the assassins will never be known like so many other assassins who killed prominent personalities. Those who ordered the killing will never have the guts or the courage to tell the people or his immediate family or more than thousands of their pupils, why they killed them. Imagine the trauma those pupils would have been subjected to on hearing this news. For the pupils of these prestigious schools they are giants of men who eloquently presented morning assemblies, in which they would have talked about religion, society, responsibilities of citizens, the need to work hard, importance of sports and the need for team work and so many other relevant matters. There would have been times he would have celebrated victories of their schools' sporting successes or shared disappointments and consoled their teams of the need to accept victory and loss with grace and dignity. Most of the people of any consequence have a role model in their life. In most cases it is their dedicated teachers, parents, social activists or even some selfless political leaders. One can be certain that many hundreds of pupils would have liked to emulate their Principal Mr. Rajathurai and Mr. Sivakadadcham. Imagine the anxieties those pupils are going through at this tragic time. Heinous crime If a similar incident happened in a 'civilised' society that would be a matter of serious national significance and would have been the focus of news and debate for many days and something would have been done about it. Almost one year ago a head teacher of a north London school was tragically killed by a knife wielding youth when he attempted to intervene to a save a pupil from a knifeman. That became a matter for national discussion, society was shocked to see such things could happen and the government was under pressure to legislate severe measures to prevent such incidents. Above all pupils of that school were counselled for many days by professionals to overcome the trauma. Scenes of distressed pupils laying flowers and cards at the spot where their head teacher was felled remained in the memories of all those who are concerned with children. It is natural human response to be emotional and passionate about such incidents, which resulted in collective national response. In any society a response to such lethargic incidents should be a barometer to determine whether it functions or is capable of functioning as a social group. What is the response of the remnant of the Tamil society going to be to this heinous crime? It is true that the Tamil society is fast becoming dysfunctional as a social group. It is driven by fear and selfishness. The pro LTTE Jaffna Tamil tabloid stooped to the level of covering up the culprits by claiming that the withdrawal of the LTTE office in Jaffna paved the way for these murders. The perverted nature of the Tamil media to justify, celebrate and encourage these cruel murders is a sure sign of pathological disorder of our society. So it is indeed too much to expect that our society which is in decay to respond in a civilised manner to these incidents. There is killing everyday in the Tamil areas. Blood dripping photographs of the victims are published within minutes of the murder by a number of web sites. These victims are the unfortunate ones who could not flee the country or stayed back with the hope that one day normalcy would return. Most of these victims are family men and women with young children. Nobody would ever say why these people are being killed or who ordered these killings. One does not need to claim these murders. Everyone even children of this area know who is the master executioner. They are working full - time, warning leaflets in the name of Elara Force, and Sangilian Forces are distributed from time to time to instruct the people, of the consequences of defying their dictate. Tiger message is very simple and straight forward, Tigers are in charge of Tamils and they will decide everything political, economic, cultural, and even personnel matters of their 'subjects'. Psychopaths The myth of Tamil national resistance against Sinhalese oppression is nonsensical. Today's reality is both major Sinhalese parties are competing with each other to grant concessions to the Tigers to rule the Tamils. When Mr. Rajathurai was shot the drivers of the three wheelers or any other vehicles in that vicinity were reluctant to take him to the hospital fearing reprisals from Tigers. In the meantime a Tiger operative was injured in a clash with another faction of the Tiger and he was immediately flown to Colombo's specialist hospital with full state security. This contrast amply illustrates the present form of the state oppression and the Tamil resistance. Those who still think that there is an element of resistance within Tigers to win Tamil rights are either totally ignorant who live in clouded cuckoo land or perverted psychopaths who derive sadistic pleasure from these murders. Sri Lankan Tamil society has long lost its once logical claim for nationhood. In that fateful month of April 1986, hundreds of TELO fighters were mercilessly massacred by the LTTE and some were burnt alive on the streets of Jaffna. This signalled the beginning of the end of the struggle for Tamil Eelam. The ethnic cleansing and the macabre massacre of hundreds of Muslim men women and children was the last nail on the coffin of Tamil struggle. Hundreds of youths fled to every corner of the world in despair, unable to comprehend these nihilist acts. This exodus is continuing unabatedly to this date. Those innocent peace makers, donor countries, human rights activists and other assorted personalities who are cleverly and painstakingly attempting to give a new meaning that the peace process and appeasement of Tigers are two sides of the same coin. While appreciating their good intentions we must appeal to them that every concerned mind should be focussed towards the immediate halt of the ongoing murders. All other activities relating to the peace process should be stopped because it only helps to deviate from the singularity of purpose and inadvertently encourage the murderers. Mollycoddling Our society must make a conscious and determined effort to get our acts together and demonstrate in the ways we can to send a clear message that first and foremost, we are opposed to any murders. We should declare ourselves to celebrate every day that passes without murders, amongst the Tamils. Our society has been pushed to the edge of the abyss and we do not have much choice or time before extinction. The need of the hour for our society is to decide whether we continue to mollycoddle the Tigers and jump into the abyss or attempt to survive by making a determined stand against these murders. Ultimately the choice is ours. |
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