The Rajpal Abeynayake Column

Rebels with no causes as such...

What happened to the bright young Canuck who was of Sri Lankan descent? The same thing that happened to some bright young whites in England who turned Muslims and joined the growing global Islamic militant terror movement. Last week I read somewhere also, that next to Sri Lankans, there were more Canucks compelled to flee the fighting in Lebanon. The writer ended up saying that “most of these fleeing Sri Lankans would have been cleaning the tables of the fleeing Canucks.” Not a totally relevant detail if you ask me — but that’s the kind of insensitivity that probably sends bright young Sri Lankans in Canada into the hands of the Tiger movement, and bright but underprivileged whites in England (..and sometimes in Canada) into the ranks of Islamic terrorist movements. Who knows? There is probably a better chance that fleeing Canadians would join Islamic terror outfits, than there is a chance that a fleeing Sri Lankan housemaid would join any kind of militant uprising.

Also appearing this week was the article —- highlighted in an international news magazine — which reviewed the story of a Russian teenager who got sent to Siberia, along with her entire family, for writing in her teenager’s diary that “Stalin is a dictator who is ruining all of Russia.” For that, and for writing about teenage love and angst. She survived six years in Siberia, was eventually pardoned by Khrushchev, and met a “handsome face” that she pined for in her diary. Eventually, she married that man she met in Siberia, and lived to be seventy-five, even though the words in her teenage diary were the only ones she ever wrote. This was the Ann Frank story with the happy ending.

Goes to show that in every society, there are those who feel alienated enough to push the envelope upon the system, which is perceived sometimes accurately, and sometimes exaggeratedly, as oppressive, insensitive and overwhelming.

Quite a roundabout way perhaps to arrive at the issue of the reported suicide attacks against the LTTE by the Karuna group. If those who committed suicide for the LTTE did so for the Tamil cause, are those who are motivated to commit suicide on behalf of Karuna doing so AGAINST the Tamil cause??? Or are they committing suicide for Batticoloa, and for the glories of Eastern Sri Lanka and all its silvery lagoons?

We do not know, except to say that in the midst of mounting evidence that there are suicide attacks being carried out now by the Karuna group, that we should re-visit Richard Pape. Pape did the authoritative handbook on suicide terrorism, and his thesis revolves round the same thesis of marginalisation alienation and angst that this article began with.

The sufficiently alienated, are willing to kill, and are willing to kill themselves “for a cause” or so is what could be gathered from the Pape thesis. Talking of killing, there is time here for an interesting aside that concerns Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda who grants an interesting interview to Rediff., which we reproduce elsewhere in this newspaper.

Uyangoda is asked “what do you think of Prabhakaran?” With his usual display of extraordinary courage under pressure, Uyangoda says “Prabhakaran is a controversial figure. I cannot say much about him. I have to live in Colombo.” With his characteristic bravura, Uyangoda wants to evade the issue. There are thousands of prominent persons in Colombo who have said both kind and unkind things about Prabhakaran and continued to live. Nobody has been killed by either side in Colombo at least, for making a stray comment in an interview.

With this line, Jayadeva Uyangoda distinguishes himself by his mendacity. He does not have the courage of any conviction that he carries. Colombo society’s alienation is seen to be complete with this kind of timidity at its disposal. Whom do the young look to for leadership, when a man who cannot say boo to any goose or gander passes for a political analyst?

Anyway, there is alienation and marginalisation in society, without any overarching cause for it; but often the cause is somebody’s desire for economic advantage over another group.
John Kenneth Galbraith said so in his book “The affluent class”, where he wrote something to the effect “whenever anybody espouses a cause, be careful — he is talking of economic dominance over the other.” There can be no doubt that this is the gist of what Galbraith wrote; he is a Nobel prize winning economist, not a Nobel prize winning political scientist.

Tailpiece:

One Quadri Ismail writing in the Lies magazine, oops, Lines magazine, takes issue with the late Kethesh Loganathan for joining the government Peace Secretariat — his last bold professional move which almost certainly earned him his eventual death sentence. Kethesh is portrayed as a naive man with a good heart, who sought peace but joined the wrong folks with whom to do so.

What a ghastly piece for something masquerading as a tribute. First, tribute it isn’t, as it is tantamount to justification for the murder of the man. Writes Ismail that Mahinda Rajapaksa reminds one of the terrible days of the war criminal J. R. Jayewardene.

Quadri Ismail’s memory does not retain any memories -- pity -- about the times of the war criminal V. Prabhakaran, the here and the now. No mention of the LTTE’s attack in Kebbilithigolewa -- on a busload full of civilians - - which precipitated this round of violence against civilians.

At times of conflict, spiralling violence against civilians is almost inevitability — as Gandhi said, violence begets violence. Most everybody is repulsed by any kind of violence, but that does not mean most everybody wants to distort the cause for it.

What precipitated this round of violence? The LTTE wanted Rajapaksa elected — but he sued for peace upon being elected. How did the LTTE respond? With Kebbilithigolewa, an attack on the army commander etc., Nothing earthshaking here, the LTTE having killed the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister last year, when Rajapaksa had still not dreamt of being elected President.

Ismail writes that among Rajapaksa’s first acts was to appoint Sarath Fonseka and H.M.G.B Kotakadeniya, Sinhala supremacists — to leading positions in the defence establishment.

Maybe the President should have called Ismail to obtain his opinion on whom to appoint as the Army commander, and Ismail would have probably said smartly “go ahead appoint me.” But with a marauding Tiger which had sabotaged a free and fair election in the north and the east of the country, killed a Foreign Minister and killed over a hundred intelligence operatives in the country - - while establishing camps in the Sampur area in strict contravention of the ceasefire agreement, it will be comic if Rajapaksa isn’t entitled to appoint his best man to lead his army. Sinhala supremacist?? The guy had a record of military successes against the Tiger, and if that makes him a Sinhala supremacist, what does Spassky’s genius in successfully defending his world championship chess title make him —- a communist imperialist?

If a Commander in Chief is not entitled to appoint his best soldier for his job — what is he supposed to do, appoint some armchair pundit’s’ pet Doberman pincher? Kethesh made no mistake, he knew that, peace without appeasement, means precisely that the President should appoint his best General. I mean, who is this guy, who titles his article Peace without appeasement (he speaks of appeasement of the LTTE!) and then grudges President Rajapaksa for appointing his best general — precisely because he wanted peace without appeasement.

Kethesh hadn’t jerked off his memory or his ratiocinating power. He worked for a tough Commander in Chief, who did not appease — but sued for peace, calling for talks from the moment he assumed office. He still calls for talks. That’s what peace without appeasement means. You don’t need a degree in English to decipher the meaning of the words and act upon them - -as Kethesh showed, so let the man rest in peace without anybody having to do any violence to his legacy, or to his memory....