The above sight is one of a kind in the world. -The LTTE cemetery. The world will never again see an organisation so badacious, insurgent and stalwart like the LTTE. The SriLankans are rejoicing their moment of freedom, but as a responsible Tamil, I would like to analyse the Lankan scenario right from the beginning.
Let's get a bit of history first. The dimunitive island, at the base of India was under kingdomatic rule for many years, mainly by the Sinha rulers, Cheras, Cholas, Pallavas, etc.,. The advent of Tamils into Lanka grew prominence when the Britishers decided to infiltrate the island because of its rich tea, cinnamon,rubber,sugar and coffee plantations. Thus Lanka happened to have a considerable number of Tamil inhabitants.
But within a few years of the British departure in February 1948, Sinhalese politicians were banging the drum of ethnic chauvinism. Sinhala became the island's official language and discriminatory laws affecting entry to university and the civil service alienated moderate Tamils. Their were denied education as well as basic amenities. Velupillai Prabakaran was one of the very many, who were affected by these inhuman acts. He was a revolutionary right from his school days.Unable to rein in his activistic nature, he started the LTTE in 1974, with the primary motive as the creation of a separate Tamil State in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
Prabhakaran was one of the best leaders the world has ever witnessed. A single leader commanding the entire organisation for a period of over 30 years is truly amazing. I was reading bout his leadership on a Tamil daily, and every line kept amazing me. His word had so much respect amongst his commandos. A single nod from the leader, and the entire 'black tigers' (the suicide bombing wing of the LTTE) were ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Before the Iraq war, LTTE had the most suicide bombing incidents recorded in entire world history.
Their modus operandi was one of the best planned. Mr.Prabhakaran was believed to have operated from Madras(now Chennai). It was here that he designed the famous LTTE crest, a roaring Tiger atop two crossed rifles and a halo of bullets set against a blood-red background. The Tiger was the cherished symbol of the Cholas.
The discipline in the LTTE camp was nonpareil. There were strict implications on the use of tobacco and alcohol. They were completely banned from their camps. All LTTE commandos were supposed to wear a cyanide vial on their necks, to use in case of capture. Celibacy was strictly practised. Prabhakaran was also a devotee of Hollywood. He watched action movies for inspiration, often using them as a training tool in Tiger camps. And he cited the Legendary Clint Eastwood as his favourite.
The Tamils were made sure to get the best of education in many foreign countries. The LTTE had members in many foreign countries including Netherlands and the UK. The foreign Tamils were the believed to be the primary source of finance for the community. An Anti-government group, to have its own ground force, Air force and navy is fascinating for many. The LTTE credits the formation of the Air Tigers air-wing to Vythialingam Sornalingam, a graduate in Aeronautical Engineering from a reputed university in India!. The LTTE's brain power was well planned out, and was unmatchable.
One of the main reasons the LTTE was branded as a major terrorist organisation in India was the Rajiv gandhi killing in 1992. Though the killing of a country's former Prime Minister can never be justified, the reason for this outrageous and infuriating act was the sudden decision of the Indian Government's IPKF to turn to attacking the LTTE when the purpose of its formation was to protect the Tamils. In an LTTE press conference, Prabhakaran said that the incident was 'tragic'.
Form the procurement of weapons, to the maintenance of secrecy and hierarchy, the LTTE almost benchmarked the standards for even a national Army. They had once run a mini-government in Kilinocchi making it as their de-facto capital, with Prabhakaran as the chief.
There are numerous disputes concerning the death of the leader. The primary reasons for doubt being his possession of an ID card, and the government's claim that he was killed when he was trying to escape in an ambulance. Prabhakaran, being such a devoted and nationalistic leader, would never have committed such a cowardly act. He refused to leave Lanka, though he had numerous opportunities for it, in times when the Lankan army surged into their territory. Aware such a daring personality, does not deter the Lankan government's mockery of his death, calling it as an escape.
Whatever might be, let's pray in unison for the well-being of the Tamils in Lanka. Our solidarity in supporting their cause, would be their only source of happiness and consolation in this dreadful phase of time. "We have sowed the seed of an ideal, we grow it by irrigating with the blood of our martyrs. This seed will grow up into a luxurious tree and make our martyr’s dreams a reality." - Velupillai Prabhakan (November 26, 1954 – May 18, 2009) RIP.
Is this the end of an Era or the beginning of a legacy?
Posted by
Corleone
Thursday, May 21, 2009
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16 comments:
I agree completely that he was one of the best leaders the planet has ever seen! But it is tragic that such an organization lost to the lankan army because of total strategic failure! One last black mark in the career of VP as a leader!
Awesome blog.. Keep it up.. The way you have pointed the events in chronological order reflects ur deep knowledge. The title and the image further complements the blog. Expecting more blogs from you..
you are rite.. what is the point of using women and children in war...?
I don get u clearly. If u mean the woman commandos in the LTTE, this is my answer. When Your are fighting to survive in a discriministic environment, sex is immaterial. Their interests were nationalistic.
//Prabhakaran was one of the best leaders the world has ever witnessed. A single leader commanding the entire organisation for a period of over 30 years is truly amazing//
Pick of the lot of ur blog machi awesome line... though its gud or bad...+ve or -ve no one can argue on Prabhakaran's commanding.... he ruled..ruling will rule.... still ter is many confusion on his death statemnt.. it gud to point out LTTE biggest and major fault was assassination of Rajiv....
even they felt for it....
nothing can be done....
Btw awesome blog frm u once again....
keep going
I don get u clearly. If u mean the woman commandos in the LTTE, this is my answer. When Your are fighting to survive in a discriministic environment, sex is immaterial. Their interests were nationalistic.hmm... i accept tat when u fight to survive in discriministic environment, sex is immaterial..
but wi child soldiers in LTTE..
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/12/30/new01.asp
They fight for their children and future. but its absolutely awful to use them in war..
Explaining your point again, If the children don't join the LTTE, they would be brutally murdered by the Lankan army. A few days back, i saw a goresome video in which the Lankan army sexually abused the dead body of a minor girl. With incidents like these, its better the kids die in sacrifice for their nationalistic cause, rather than die a cruel, purposeless death.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/599/prabhakaran.jpg
chk tis....[;)]..
While the courage of Prabhakaran has few parallels in history ,his tactics and motives as a leader invokes lot of reasoning.He used the concept of tamil eezham as a cause to achieve his self centered motives rather than having a broader vision for the tamils in lanka. For instant ,his personal life largely contradicted his rules for his organisation. He didnt practice celibacy while he insisted on others.He was completely intolerant against singhalese and detested any leadership which fought for the tamil cause.He largely concealed his motive of being the sole dictatorial leader of new nation by his inspirational speeches..Always history rewards leaders who put the cause before themselves and their opinions.History has been proved right once again
We said Paraa. Totally true.
I totally disagree with you Para. While running a rebel army, you cannot trust anyone who is with the government. Secrecy was one of the primary traits of the LTTE. If he wanted to accomplish his self-centred motives, lakhs and lakhs of LTTE personnel would have certainly rebelled against him, and that certainly did not happen. Although he broke the LTTE's cardinal rule of celibacy, he relaxed the rule thereafter. And there is no reason whatsoever for him not to be the leader of the new nation. After all, he had spent his entire life fighting for it. Take Fidel Castro. Same thing happened there too. Only a good leader will have lakhs and lakhs of devoted people below him, who are ready to give anything and everyhthing for him.
Well,what you said is partly true,but it is not essential that even if you run a rebel army , your own individual thoughts are the voice of the people you are fighting for. You compared Cuba and tamil cause in lanka,you cant generalize both the freedom struggles as one so easily ,fidel tried to free the complete nation from a mask rule by totally another country and philosophy but what prabhakaran tries to do is entirely seperate 20 percent of population from a country where they have peacefully existed not long before.There are lot of political solutions to this problem but what he did was ,he tried to portray the entire singhalese population as tamil haters and achieved quite success in it.The closest parallel to his actions were what the seperatist movements in kashmir want to do,to spread a belief that Muslims can never co exist with hindus in kashmir.His egotist actions has not gone with himself,the damage he has caused to innocent singhalese civilians life have made the common singhali develop lot of mistrust about the tamils in lanka.This has eventually made the singhalese to elect a hardcore singhalese patron like mahindra ,whereas he missed numerous opportunities to make peace durin the time of Ranil wickeramasinghe who had genuine interest in the welfare of tamils(irony is ,when peace talks failed he asked tamil people to vote against Ranil which lead to mahindra coming into power who totally demolished LTTE while Ranil recognised LTTE as an organisation and was willing to make peace with them)You also talked about there would have been rebels if his motives were self centered,indeed there were,he cruelly decimated any leadership in tamil diaspora who had differing views than him .He killed almost all other leaders who faught for the tamil cause(Amirthalingam,padmanaba ,to name a few )and crushed political organisations like Telo and Tulf who had political solutions to the tamil struggle.Things would have been much better for the tamils if the militant power of LTTE has co operated with the political ability of these organisations ,all but for prabhakaran's ego and adamant personality .Any leader who fights for his people's cause has lot to learn from Prabhakaran's mistakes and actions.What i am worried about,is Srilanka is now in the hands of Singhalese version of Prabhakaran
A good elaborate explanation of your point of view da Paraa. I never disagreed with the fact that he illtreated the Sinhalese population. But if you look back at history, It were the Sinhalese who started to show discrimination towards the Tamils. And you cannot relate the LTTE situation in Lanka to the Kashmir situation in India. There is absolutely no righteousness in Pakistan's terrorists claiming Kashmir. They already had the partition of a free state on 14th,August,1947 due to the efforts of Dr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In SriLanka, that was what the Tamils were fighting for-PARTITION. And their leader was Prabhakaran. If The free state had become a reality, he certainly would have become the "Father of Eelam" in the similar fashion as Jinnah is portrayed as the "Father of Pakistan", rather being held up as an International terrorist. If Gandhi and Nehru and the British had not consented for Pakistan, We can say for sure that India or Hindustan would have faced a similar situation. The Indians had good neutral leaders like Gandhi. The Lankans have lacked it. Till even now.
If you want to know the mockery the Tamils face in Lanka, have a look at this website http://www.tamilnet.tv/index.php/ . The Tamils are portrayed as donkeys and goats and whatever. Think of it. Although you seem to think in a global manner, first you are a Tamil. And when you see the atrocities committed against them, blood boils.
An coming to your views on Prabhakaran again, "Under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, who has been killed aged 54 during fighting with the Sri Lankan army, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were moulded, and refined, into one of the world's deadliest insurgent groups, and rigid discipline was instilled through his personal example." quotes The Guardian, one of the highly respected dailies all across the world. Although I agree that he defied the peace processes, you and I are not aware of the inside reasons for the same. He showed disbelief in the peace process, and you must be well aware that "not in any point of time" , the Srilankan Government consented to the motives and claims of the LTTE. When you are sure that U are not gonna get what u want, best way is to continue fighting, rather than arrive at a peace agreement which is butted against u for sure.
By mid- 1982 the number of Tamil militant groups had proliferated to five: LTTE, PLOTE, TELO, EPRLF and EROS. There were personal rivalries among the leaders, though not as intense as the conflict between Pirapaharan and Uma. EPRLF’s K. Padmanaba had differences with Uma. Intrigues and undercutting among militant leaders and their cadres were common.
Those differences were encouraged and to some extent promoted by Tamil Nadu politicians. The LTTE was aligned with Nedumaran’s Kamaraj Congress and K. Veeramani’s Diravida Kazhagam. Sri Sabaratnam pulled TELO towards M. Karunanithi’s Diravida Munnetta Kazhagam. PLOTE was aligned with Perum Chitranar’s Thani Thamil Iyakam and the Communist Party of India (Moscow Wing), and EPRLF had established links with the Communist Party of India (China Wing. EROS was the only group that tried to keep away from aligning itself with any group or party in Tamil Nadu.
In political philosophy the militant groups also differed. Though all professed Marxism and socialism, they differed in the intensity of their commitment to that ideal. The LTTE’s commitment to Marxism was peripheral. Its commitment was confined to eradication of the caste system, abolition of the dowry system and other forms of social evils. EPRLF, on the other hand, was fundamentally Marxist and was concentrating on mobilizing the various sections of the people: women, youth, students, workers, peasants and fishermen.
Though again, we can never justify the killing of a fellow leader, Prabhakaran oredered the assasination of Amirthalingam due to the inclination of TULF with Jayawardene, and due to the fact that Amithalingam supported the Indian Army intervention in 1987.
Well, i tried to convey a neutralistic view of the tamils cause in lanka because both sides have always told only their side of the story,while as a Tamilian its really hurting to see the plight of our race there . But, sad to say this,blame it on several factors , lack of unity among us,strategic failures of LTTE or dishonest political parties ,the goal of tamil eezham seems far ,far away.We as a race have failed to have the passion , hunger and discipline to be united and fight for a cause .We have loads of lessons to learn from the jews.
Ya da Paraa! Absolutely right. The TamilNadu Government in Particular has a lot to be blamed. BTW, LTTE has confirmed the death of its leader. Let's hope all goes well for the Tamil brothers and sisters in Lanka.
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