A Preface To Peace In Sri Lanka: Tamil Self-Rule? Part I

Introductory

We live in a world in which the imperium is constantly suppressing the emergence of multi-polarity. The terms, if not clichés like ‘terrorists’, ‘anti-terrorism’ ‘War on terror’ etc; in spite of emanating imagined or real security threats are, increasingly becoming a text devoid of context. In the process, people’s hopes, aspirations, human rights and civil liberties are dashed. In other words, the US is finding persistent pretexts to becoming an authoritarian regime. It is all done conspicuously.

On the one hand, at home, claiming to be model democracies yet when crucial decisions are rushed through the corridors of power, under the guise of national security, the voting public has no power of sanction. Even the UN in these matters has become a hapless instrument. What imperialism demands of us is consent without consensus. Every thing unfortunately falls within the sphere of spin doctoring: twisting of facts, falsifying ‘intelligence and information’ dossiers – articulated with the clash of civilisations rhetoric.

And on the other hand, the spreading of “democracy” around the globe. The “gospel according to USA” propagated through various disseminative institutions – one of which is the corporate media. Such an insidious project is undertaken in evangelical zeal with an apocalyptical urgency. While this ‘moral crusade’ is launched; the masquerading imperialist long-arm is equally active in promoting authoritarian regimes, state terror, puppet governments and client states dotted around the world – particularly in the global south. On one strict condition none the less, as long as ‘you are not against us’.

In order to glean a best understanding of the Sri Lankan conflict, we will have to locate it within the current global “democratic” trend and it is from this geo-political vantage point, one has to view the Tamil liberation struggle. The government of the people, by the people, for the people has become a façade in the ‘free world’. It is a pretext and sadly, a mere distant cry from Gettysburg [1]. The corporate giants nonetheless, roam and rule the globalised world. They strive tirelessly for the monopoly of power. Nothing in this world is hanging loose in a vacuum. Globalisation as we all know is a complete system that is filling every nook and corner of this earth. Peoples, communities, indigenous cultures, traditions, customs, their rights and liberty have less or no value. Power and wealth – materialism, exploitation, greed, profit-making, social control, manufacturing consent (Walter Lippman’s catch phrase used by Chomsky) have all assumed currency. The world is becoming like a spiritless body – a corpse. The power-holders speak of the rights of people – the minority rights, human rights etc. However, it is neither the rights of the poor nor the human rights of the dispossessed. On the contrary, it is about “the minority of the opulent” [2]. The developing world is dependant on the crumbs that fall off the imperialist high table. One must take into account the strategic location of Sri Lanka in the south Asian region including geo-political and mercantile interests of Western powers not forgetting the lion-share of profit revenue from wide range of investments and both cheap human (modern slavery) and natural resources (Oil deposits etc). We therefore must be acutely aware that the Sri Lankan conflict is not simply a localised communal issue – perhaps the Sri Lankan Government [SLG] would want us to believe a stereo-typing over simplification: a ‘fall-out’ of the Tamils with the Sinhalas; ruthless terrorists versus a democratic state; bad guys against the good ones…. There are however, global powers (not forgetting Sri Lanka’s neighbouring emerging economic-nuclear power India and its sworn enemy Pakistan; and its competitor China) with multi-layered selfish economic interests at work in the background.

Brief History

Before going any further, one must refresh our memory by speeding through the history of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) [3].

The Sinhalas are believed to have arrived from Bengal in 544 BC. Tamils perhaps would have migrated by foot, believed then to be just dry land, some 30 miles from the Southern tip of India in times immemorial. In 2nd century BC the whole island – a Tamil king ruled Eelam. There were times that the Sinhala kings ruled the whole island when they conquered the Tamil kings and drove them back to the North. The Tamils established an independent kingdom in the North in 1240 AD.

It is futile an argument now as to nitpick who came first and who has the rightful claim to the island. Both, the Sinhalas and the Tamils are the original inhabitants of the land and they both have birthright (not forgetting the rights of all other minorities). The conflict arises only when the Sinhalas claim to be the sole sons of the soil (Bhumi putra). As a result, instead of holding arms together in harmony and sharing resources and building the country, the situation continuously erupts into chaos and carnage by holding Arms against one another.

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