When a war ends
and there is a victorious and a defeated party, there is a natural tendency of
the Victorious to celebrate this victory, as many died for this result, and it
is more of a tribute to them, that the carnage is finally over. The vanquished
are in shock!
That said, when
one reflects on it once the initial exuberance dies down and one realizes that
it was a Civil War where it was one’s own Countrymen ON BOTH sides that
perished, it is more apt to remember those who died on both sides, one side one
may say were led to their deaths by an ideology that led their followers to
believe in their goal of independence that turned out more to be the fantasy of
their leader, much like the Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin mold of demagogues,
Prabarkaran being hardly any different!
The problem is
that there are those in thee TNA who still insist on calling this a Mahaveer or
some such week, that glorifies this flawed man, for some kind of need to find
succor in his suicidal endeavor that reduced the Tamil population in the areas
that he claimed, to less than half of what they were when the movement started.
In essence nullifying the whole process. Many left his terror, not that of the
Sinhala army!! And it is time this is laid bare.
In reality the
war has ended, and not even the Tamil refugees in a far tougher land of India
wish to return to Sri Lanka, which says a lot for the perception of Tamil
people, of Sri Lanka as refuge for them from hereinafter.
There are more
Tamil people in Canada than there are in the Northern Province, negating their
homeland issue for a mere 500,000 people! In a land of 20M where more Tamil
people live amongst Sinhala, and would not leave those areas for all the tea in
China. Time for the Diaspora to come to their senses that there is nothing for
them to fight for or complain anymore except feel good that one day they may
escape the misery of their adopted lands.
True there is
much we can do to ensure that the people living in the North live in dignity,
with NO fear, and are provided with basics of life available to all, and that
does not mean roads. People still require the basics of life, and security to
families led by women, who still have not got over the PTSD they have suffered
due to the hostilities.
It is therefore
VERY APT that as a mark of reconciliation with the vanquished, and oneness of
the Sri Lankan people we all remember this war as one we should never wish to
repeat and one we must always work to avoid. In that context it is important
that the political parties representing the Tamils also join in this, as
otherwise they are shown not to have accepted the Olive Branch offered as
reconciliation. They must in that same vein STOP this Genocide Week stories
also, and grow up and realize that it takes two to tango into the
reconciliatory mode.
Similarly the jokers
in the Rajapakse camp that are harping on the need for a Victory Parade should
be publicly branded traitors, as being the reason for the lack of
reconciliation and division in our society and treated like the lepers they are,
for such divisive ideas that only SEPARATE us and NOT UNITE, as being traitors
in the progress to a more tolerant and inclusive state where all those who do
otherwise are shown up as the cause of separatism!!