Unmasking 'Prabhas' in the South

by Wijitha NAKKAWITA

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces are the talk of the town today. But here it is not the usual small talk or even scandal that is the substance of the talk. One had to see the spontaneous reaction of people from all walks of life who listen into news broadcasts, telecasts or read the news in newspaper headlines with an interest not found in the past as the Forces had exploded the myth that the LTTE was some sort of a super force and its cadres were superior to those of the Three Armed Forces.

However during the last two years as well as during the few weeks of this year, the Forces, especially the Army had proven it could take on any enemy whether they were guerillas or simply terrorists of whatever calibre.

However besides the victory the political element is also present with pronouncements made by certain politicians who unlike their counterparts in other countries go on to criticise and in some instances seek to belittle the achievement of the Forces made over sweat, blood and grit that the LTTE could not match.

Why, people ask, do some of the politicians want to detract from the victories and paint a picture of hopelessness about the war effort? In the first place how the Tamil youth, at least a minority among them were lured into the ranks of the terrorist groups by the so-called democratic or moderate Tamil politicians like Amirthalingam. In the very interesting Sansoni Commission report it was clearly stated that Amirthalingam exhorted the youth to flout the law and take up arms to fight for what he called "One religion and one nation that is Tamil." He urged the youth to take up arms and told them all they could expect would be arrests, imprisonment, torture and may be heroic death.

That was how Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Sabharatnam, or even the lesser lights like Kuttimany or Pottu Amman became infected with the idea of winning or fighting for a separate state within the country. But of course none of the leaders of the TELO, EPRLF, LTTE or any other terrorist outfits were historians or for that matter even educated enough to understand that the North and East were never a separate of the Tamils or any other ethnic group but were parts of the same country governed by the kings of the country other than when the South Indian invaders held the North for a while after defeating the local forces.

Once someone takes up any cause however unreasonable it may be excuses had to be found to justify it. Therefore when the extremist politicians like Amirthalingam egged on the youth of the North to violence it was on the excuse that one day the Tamil youth will achieve the objective of creating a separate state. Now the present day successors to Amirthalingam especially the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi members had during the past several years prescribed only one cure to resolve the conflict.

They had always insisted that the government should talk peace with the LTTE or otherwise the terrorist group will carve out the separate state at any cost. Some leaders were browbeaten and made overtures to Prabhakaran who was too well known to be unsympathetic for peace but had achieved notoriety for murder or mass murder.

So here we are at last, Prabhakaran is now on the run with his Forces in disorder and battle worn. But still he should be a happy man even when he breathes his last.

For in the South there are a large number of politicians, although they are a minority, who try to humiliate the Armed Forces and show they disbelieve the achievement of the soldiers and officers who are defeating the LTTE and capturing their bastions one after the other.

Some think that the Elephant Pass is just outside Colombo at a place called Pamankada and that Kilinochchi and Medawachchiya are synonymous. Yet the tragedy is the people know that Kilinochchi and Elephant pass are in the North and were captured by the Armed Forces and most people think, probably, such politicians may be agents of the LTTE.

Now that some such politicians were unmasked in public by their own utterances they should at least try to study the problem of terrorism not only here but also in other countries and understand that the difference between terrorism and democratic governance is vast. But the public are not fooled.