Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (Exodus 9: 1)
‘The New Internationalist’ is considered by some as a left-wing political magazine. Now left-wingers are notorious for assuming that all struggles against the ruling class or the state are noble and support worthy. This is perhaps why those who think they are ‘left’ will salute any rebel but in particular those operating in other countries. In their own land, there can be only one set of rebels as far as leftists are concerned, i.e. those who share membership in one’s organization. The others are counter-revolutionaries, running dogs of imperialism, reactionaries, this, that and the other, but not deserving revolutionary-tag.
 Osama bin Laden |
‘The New Internationalist’ had a reputation and its content was serious and informative. The editorial management, one assumed, was therefore more circumspect that the run-of-the-mill leftist. In the mid-1990’s, the NI carried a letter-to-the-editor under the time-worn and tired title, ‘Let my people go!’ It brought back all the misgivings I’ve had about things labeled or perceived to be ‘left’.
Economic refugees
Father S.J. Emmanuel, the author of that piece, referred to the LTTE as ‘boys’. In affectionate terms. In the past 16 years, he has never once condemned the ‘boys’ for crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of freedom for the Tamil people. Fr. Emmanuel’s ‘boys’ ethnically cleaned the Jaffna Peninsula of Muslims and Tamils. The ‘boys’ pushed one in every 10 Muslims into IDP camps. The ‘boys’ have a fantastic curriculum vitae in the matter of terrorism. Fr. Emmanuel’s ‘boys’ were no choir boys.
Fr. Emmanuel, to my knowledge is yet to be excommunicated, knuckle-rapped or even chided by the Vatican. What we know for a fact is that Fr. Emmanuel lectured the ‘boys’ about how to deal with ‘white people’, how to raise money (not to buy soft toys or marshmellows, but guns, bullets, grenades and such), how to engage in propaganda (read ‘lying’) and so on. Today, as the President of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Fr. Emmanuel has become the logical successor of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the world’s most ruthless terrorist outfit.
Global Tamil Forum
 David Cameron |
What has this good father’s work produced for ‘his people’ over the past two decades though? He earned for Tamil people a pariah status in the West. The economic refugees who left Sri Lanka wearing a cloak called ‘Political Persecution’ that was disguise enough to fool the likes of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were either forced to justify their refugee status by perpetuating the lie that got them to the proverbial greener pastures in the first place or were willing partners-in-lying of the likes of Fr. Emmanuel. They either contributed money or had it robbed at gunpoint by LTTE operatives or coughed up out of fear that families back home would have to pay with life and limb if they refused. Thousands upon thousands by circumstances or choice took part in gun-running, credit card fraud, human smuggling, drug-trafficking or extortion.
Back home, Fr. Emmanuel’s Blue Eyed Boy, Velupillai Prabhakaran was using Emmanuel-dollars to buy Emmanuel-guns to send Emmanuel Child ‘Boys’ dressed in suicide jackets to kill innocent people. Emmanuel-lies gave a cloak of respectability and justification. For a while. It all came apart a few years ago. Today there are no home-‘boys’, and the Tamils by and large are thrilled about the fact. Today there are foreign-‘boys’, led by the Father of All Boys, the Rev. S.J. Emmanuel.
This big boy, now the President of the terrorist-backing Global Tamil Forum, chit-chats with the likes of former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and current Deputy Secretary, US State Department (South Asian Affairs) Robert O Blake. Got me imagining. It’s like Osama bin Laden’s principle propagandist being entertained in Washington. It’s like a key financier of the Taliban being feted at the British House of Commons. I am not sure if this would make Blake or Cameron squirm, but they are top names in countries that have a long and horrendous track record in crimes against humanity, dating back several centuries and right up to the point at which you happen to be reading this article.
 Robert O Blake |
Maximum security
The bottom line is that Fr. Emmanuel not just batted for the ‘Boys’ Team’, he helped directly and indirectly procure bats, pads, balls, ball-guards, head-gear, boots and other paraphernalia for his team mates. If the child who blew himself up because ‘Annai said’ is a terrorist, then those who helped strap the boy’s chest with explosives or collected money so that someone could thrust a gun in his hand so he could kill innocent people is called ‘terrorist’, the Fr. Emmanuel is no ‘boy’. He may have been boy-toy at some point, but he became ‘man-boy’ quite fast. He still is.
He’s a smart ‘boy’, this priest. He’s got celebrities to salute him, confer title and so on. The ignorance of this world should not amaze any of us. He’s a smart ‘boy’ because he knows how to pick and choose relevant Biblical quote. That NI article was fascinating, come to think of it. The ‘people’ did go, in the end. They left the ‘boys’ and sought refuge among those that Fr. Emmanuel vilified and continues to vilify.
Now Fr. Emmanuel only has foreign ‘boys’, some white and some not. Very soon he will have to quote Exedus 9:1. He will have to beg that his criminal ‘people’ are released from the maximum security facilities they are bound to find residence in, sooner or later. In fact he might drop the ‘pluralling’ and say ‘Let me go’.
In the afterlife, after his faith, it is unlikely that he will have voice to even utter those words. Unless of course his maker forgives him provided he demonstrates true penitence. I am sure the Almighty (if such an entity exists) would go easy on the folk who ran the ‘New Internationalist’. They might have not known what they were doing. Not Fr. Emmanuel though.
http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/07/23/fea02.asp
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