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V Prabaharan: A Forgotten Enigma?

By Chandi Sinnathurai

01November, 2013
Countercurrents.org

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
none but our selves can free our minds”

Bob Marley

When I visited the Tamil Tiger territory in 2005 I was given a rare opportunity to meet and converse with the tiger leaders except Thamil Chelvan. He was abroad at that time involved in peace negotiations.

In November 2007, Thamil Chelvan met his death inside one of the bunkers, in an air raid by the Sri Lankan Forces. How did the Sinhala Forces pin-point the precise timing and location of Thamil Chelvan is anybody’s guess...? Thamil Chelvan’s death virtually was the writing on the wall for the tigers: It began to reveal further cracks within the ‘water-tight’ inner sanctum of the Tiger leadership. Thamil Chelvan was Prabaharan’s loyal lieutenant. He was the ever-smiling public face of the tigers. Pottu Amman, Castro, Soosai – these men were battle hardened strategists in their own right. All of them have given their utmost to the Tamil liberation struggle. Moreover, each of these men, including Prabaharan possessed indomitable spirit. However, with the benefit of hindsight, one cannot help but notice a hairline crack in their thinking: They corporately and unanimously had great faith in their invincibility – almost bordering on insidious hubris. The other side of the coin was a suicidal underestimation of the ‘enemy’. The tiger propaganda machinery kept the Tamil masses gloating over uncritical nationalism. Now, such a fatal opiate had its side effects...

Their collective thinking of invincibility failed to penetrate the seismic paradigm shifts that were taking place in “the West” (post 9/11) in terms of global politics and international relations. The Tamil Diaspora leaders (so-called) overdosed on ‘invincibility pill’ “following orders” in order to use it as a panacea for all doubters. An unashamed childish fantasy developed regarding Norway (the peace broker) among the Diaspora. Such a blind faith led to the naive belief that Norway/Eric Solheim would somehow arm wrestle with the Sinhala government and wrench out Tamil Eelam with the help of the international community!

Prabaharan and his loyal lieutenants were not blind to the facts that they have lost all sympathies for their cause in “the West” in particular. The leadership nonetheless never entertained even a slightest doubt that the world powers might back the Sinhala forces to liquidate the tigers – under the banner of War against terrorism. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist – it depends on the winds of change in global politics! The Sinhala government however, knew that the Tigers did not succeed on the world stage by passing them off as Freedom fighters. They convinced many powerful nations to proscribe the Tigers. Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua supported the Sinhala state! Most of the Tamil lobby groups were simply shadow boxing (sometimes within themselves!). The regional powers including India and “the West” were determined to neutralise the tigers. The Sri Lankan state was demanding the tiger leadership to surrender without any conditions to avoid an all out war. The Government issued such a demand knowing the psychology of Prabaharan: He was no boot-licker (Prabaharan chose to die fighting than surrender). As the war in Sri Lanka progressed in favour of the Sinhala forces, in utter desperation, the tigers seeing no way out, as their Last Stand, resorted to the tactic of human shields. Multitudes of innocent TAMIL civilians lost lives and limbs in the process. The protectors and freedom fighters, in order to protect and free themselves, rapidly ran out of options... Escape routes blocked, last minute surrender negotiation deals failed (the “White flag” incident) ...: It was leading up to an inevitable dead end! By now, in the valley of death, there was no distinction between a fighter and an innocent civilian! The cracks in the fortress of “invincibility” became gaping holes, knocking down the carefully constructed edifice. The whole Tiger fighting force went up, as it were, in a puff of smoke exposing the empty facade.

The news flash on TV screens around the globe announced the demise of the Tiger Supremo. There was however, a counter narrative, spin-doctored by some South Indian politicians, and a Tiger poet Kasi Anandan who resides in Tamil Nadu. They proclaimed Prabaharan is alive and well. As in all wars, truth is the first casualty.

The infallible ‘Talaivar’ Prabaharan, to the shock and horror of Tamils, became a casualty because of fatal miscalculations and costly errors of judgement. There are many legendary stories about Prabaharan’s acute sense of strategy. Yet, one has to question as to how best he grasped and located the Tamil struggle within the context of rapid geo-political changes occurring in the post 9/11 world. The bubble in which the tiger leadership were living had to burst eventually. Prabaharan was a proud man who believed in fighting for the emancipation of his people. Nevertheless, his vision had limitations owing to his isolation and his stubborn view of isolationism (in an ever-shrinking Global village). Such was the irony and crippling consequence of “obscurity” – being the world-renowned Tamil Tiger leader. The propaganda machinery of course, cultivated an apotheosis cult about the Leader - Talaivar. As always, myth does not measure up with reality.

Prabaharan no doubt possessed great qualities. Beyond all characteristics, one dominant trait in his life was that Prabaharan would not sell out. He was true to what he believed in. He never wavered in his commitment to the cause of his people. He sacrificed not only his life but also the life of his whole family in the battlefield. Such commitment speaks for itself.

The Tamils overall are going through a cathartic ‘withdrawal symptoms’. They have indeed learnt the lesson the hard way that counter terror or retaliatory violence has a way of slowly eroding the common humanity from within. The might of the gun is not always right! All humans are equal. The struggle of the Tamils was about equal human rights in the land of their ancestors. However, when the non-violent struggle transformed into an armed warfare, both sides, in the scourge of war and terror, lost sight of the first principle: All humans are humans. It does not matter to which community they belong. Both sides committed crimes against humanity: The primary crime was the de-humanisation. I am not saying one side was right and the opposite-other was wrong. What I am saying is, both sides faltered in the intrinsic reality of what it means to be human. That is indeed a sacred duty. YES, both sides failed in this regard colossally!

Innocent Tamils endured untold sufferings, caught in the crossfire, in the latter stages of the war, mercilessly attacked by both sides.

Imagine the scars and wounds sustained by many, generations of emotionally crippled children, war widows, orphans and all the destruction and deaths...thousands of internally displaced people... Where is justice for the dispossessed? Who will give voice to these people?

Now, justice is not achieved by apportioning blame. However, the world must pay close attention to the STATE TERROR aimed against its own people (especially the minority).

Prabaharan was reclusive, down-to-earth, jovial, softly spoken in colloquial Tamil: Yet, seen to be ruthless in his actions. Prabaharan was also a spiritual man. In private, he was a devotee of the Tamil warrior-god Murugan.

The vanquished do not write history. However, there is always more than one side to a story. Generations to come will indeed research and study the history of the Tamil struggle and will come to their conclusions: From the 1950s until the end of war in 2009 - Have the Tamils shifted in their thinking fundamentally in terms of emancipating themselves both intrinsically as well as extrinsically? Has the tiger struggle for liberation contributed to such a giant leap towards the freeing of Tamil minds from its own shackles? One hopes such searching questions be asked by enlightened future generations and arrive at a considered response. They will, we hope, have the freedom to think, to decide objectively and voice their findings cogently and independently without any fear of persecution or being silenced by the gun.

One has to discern in light of insightful reasoning, without any contamination of misconceptions and trappings of propaganda in the guise of ‘authorised’ information often disguised as “received wisdom.” The daughters and sons of a truly emancipated tomorrow might see through the farce of “history” and could detect and discard BULL SHIT. ‘History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce’ pointed out Karl Marx.

One need NOT be told what to think, perhaps be taught HOW to think...

Let’s not get bogged down with too much history and lose sight of a fresh history-making tomorrow...If there is any legacy left behind by the long and hard tiger struggle, surely the generations of the future, will applaud, and uphold it by examining the existential realities. As a result, they might choose to remember Vellupillai Prabaharan as a warrior-leader with warts and all. The freedom of choice is theirs alone.

Only the test of time will be the true judge.

Thiruvenkadam Velupillai Prabaharan (November 26, 1954 – May 18, 2009)

Chandi Sinnathurai is a peasant priest



 

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