For a long time, for all rhetorical claims of them
representing the future and reference in fond terms such as ‘boys’, Tamil youth
were seen by the Brahmins of Tamil politics, i.e. the Anglicised, mostly
Christian, Vellala politicians who either lived in or hailed from Jaffna, as
means to an end. They were add-ons, the
energy-givers, the ‘necessary numbers’.
As often happens, though, things did not unfold according to plan. The baby that was fed with communal poison
and whose nails were allowed to grow, clawed and stung the parent. The creator, by and by, was overpowered by
the created. That, ladies and gentlemen,
is the nutshell version of the rise and fall of the TULF and its later avatars,
including the ITAK/TNA.
From Amirthalingam to Sambandan and perhaps, in time, to
Sumanthiran and Wigneswaran, not a whimper of condemnation did the world hear about the
atrocities perpetrated by the LTTE. Not
even when key leaders of that party were killed in cold blood. The perpetrators were referred to (at best)
as unidentified gunmen. There was of
course condemnation, followed by a long wail about problems not being addressed
and emphatic chest-beating about not being ready to give up the struggle. It was a script they had to pull out
regularly for decades. Until 2004, that is.
The year 2004 saw the formalization of reality; the power
imbalance was recognized and acknowledged.
It was put in black and white. There was, thereafter, no need to indulge
in shy making or take refuge in tortuous word-twist and punctuation
rearrangement. The Tamil National
Alliance, in its election manifesto of 2004, made it abundantly clear that it
was Prabhakaran’s mouthpiece. ‘Shame’ was duly abandoned. Those were the shining days of ignominy.
Dignity that is squandered takes time to be regained. Two years
after the slave driver was taken out of the equation, not enough time seems to
have passed for slave to convince himself that the relations of production have
been transformed. Having been echo for
so long, it is perhaps difficult to think of ‘voice’ as option. For tongue to bend to speak of duress,
disagreement and articulate condemnation, echo needs to find tongue. The
LTTE-echo is getting there and even though the confused sounds that comes out
is a throwback to the Square One of the Chelvanayakam Doctrine, ‘A little now,
more later’, and continues to treat myth as fact and regurgitates old
lies.
Most importantly, Tamil politicians can now speak the truth
and lie of their choice without worrying about being shot dead the next
moment. The LTTE assassinated thousands
of Tamils who opposed them. These
included politicians and academics. Some
had known names. Many were names known only to family and friends. They were unarmed. They weren’t militants.
They were not combatants. They were just
peaceful objectors who held different views.
The TULF/TNA knew what the LTTE could do to the unarmed.
They knew what they had done to those who were armed, those who had the guns
and had undergone relevant training. The LTTE annihilated the TELO, and
rendered ineffective the EPDP, the EPRLF and PLOTE. It is in this context that the likes of
Sambandan and Sumanthiran regularly touched Prabhakaran’s feet in veneration.
That’s all gone now.
The ITAK/TNA is yet to admit that Prabhakaran was master and it was
slave. On the other hand, they are not
interjecting ‘LTTE’ after every other word in the sentences they utter and
write. There is no need now to pay
obeisance, no need to acknowledge and salaam, as they were wont to do not too
long ago.
Those who have voice can articulate grievance. Those who
have voice can confess to error. The TNA
is yet to get there of course, but that which had robbed them of humanity and dignity,
the LTTE, is no longer around. Their
servility to anti-intellectualism and penchant for articulating myth belongs to
them; they are not Prabhakaran’s proxies any more.
When the monster spawned by the TULF found voice, the
leadership of that party gradually lost their vocal chords. The TULF’s
political offspring and heir, the ITAK/TNA was offered the echo-option when the
LTTE was vanquished, and they took it.
Today that can legitimately dream of becoming ‘voice’ once again. I am yet to hear them express appreciation to
voice-giver or, let’s say, those who make it possible for echo to be replaced
by voice. Perhaps they lost integrity
along with voice. Perhaps they were born without it, who knows?
All we know is that voice is better than echo, and that
those who are able to voice without being asked to voice are truly blessed. If they know how to use voice that is, let us not forget.
msenevira@gmail.com
1 comments:
Where is the 'superb' check-box?
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