Wigneswaran Bids Adieu…
Malinda-Seneviratne
If the TNA’s manifesto with its not-so-subtle separatist posturing dismays those who believe that the TNA has to be part of any discussion on post-conflict resolution, the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate C.V. Wigneswaran must leave them in tears.
First, because his inconsistency plays into the hands of those who harbor apprehensions about the TNA’s political will with respect to reconciliation. He was, ab initio, a ‘problem’ for the hardliners in the TNA. He was a living contradiction of the discrimination gripe. He was ‘Colombo’, an eminent symbol of the city’s cosmopolitan brag.
He also walked into, precipitated and is a symbol of party disunity. The TNA’s constituent parties are not exactly ‘friendly’ to begin with, and Wigneswaran’s arrival, given his professional and public stature, has not exactly elicited cheer from the ‘lesser’ parties of the coalition. He may have been cheered by section of the Sinhala politic for snubbing Tamil Nadu politicians revered by Tamil politicians, but this has clearly irked his detractors within the TNA. Such division stumps the emergence of an authentic and united political voice that can articulate grievance and extract ‘solution’.
The second reason for dismay, clearly evident for example in the long lament of seasoned and well-informed commentator on Tamil politics, D.B.S. Jeyaraj where he refers to the how and why of Wigneswaran praisingPrabhakaran. Jeyaraj details a pandering to hawkishness which many believe detracts from rather than further the cause of reconciliation. Read More
Rendering Pirapaharan Relevant
By Tisaranee Gunasekara -September 19, 2013 |
“People here do not want the war. They say they only want to live with dignity, with powers and rights”. - Rev Thomas Saundranayagam, Bishop of Jaffna[i]
Victor Klemperer, who occupied his purgatory years as a German-Jew in Hitler’s Germany by studying Nazi semantics, warned that “if someone replaces the words ‘heroic’ and ‘virtuous’ with ‘fanatical’ for long enough, he will come to believe that a fanatic is a virtuous hero and that no one can be a hero without fanaticism”[ii].
Vellupillai Pirapaharan can be a hero only if brutality, intolerance and ruthlessness are accepted as essential ingredients of heroism.
LTTE Leader
Does Justice Wigneswaran really believe that murdering unarmed civilians and child conscription constitute no bar to heroism? Or was he playing the politician, wooing the preference of Velvetiturai-voters by praising their native-son? Either way, he had given the Rajapaksas a potent politico-propaganda weapon which they will use to the maximum, against a TNA-led NPC and the Tamils.
Mr. Wigneswaran’s opprobrious remark indicates that Tamils – like Sinhalese and Muslims – continue to be plagued by politicians who place personal agendae above national/popular interests. If the Tamils are to avoid a replication of the homicidal-suicidal politics of the Tiger-decades, they need leaders who not only have the intelligence to understand why the Eelam War ended in total unmitigated defeat but also the courage to tell the truth as it is.
The TNA and Justice Wignewaran have ruled out separation explicitly[iii], much to the wrath of the Diaspora-hardliners. They are certainly not taking the Tiger path. But if they do not draw a clear line of demarcation between their way and Tiger Way, explicitly and publicly, they will fail to build local alliances (especially with Muslims) and gain international support (especially of India) without which they cannot defend the 13thAmendment, let alone achieve a more just political solution.
The LTTE refused to accept that there could be Tamil separatists or Tamil nationalists who are anti-Tiger or even non-Tiger. The Rajapaksas (and Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists) believe that every Tamil nationalist is a separatist and that every separatist is a Tiger. If the next stage of the Tamil struggle is to have a happier ending, democratic Tamil leaders must demonstrate that Tamil nationalists are capable of criticising the inhumane Tiger-ethos and eschewing the homicidal-cum-suicidal Tiger Way.
