Emerging Scenarios Of An Independent State Of Thamil Eelam; Lessons From East Timor
By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe –October 21, 2016
Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe
My intention here is to analyze a probable emerging scenario that could have the most consequential effects and decide our future for decades to come. This is in order to alert all concerned that unless serious and principled steps are taken to address and resolve the National Question on a democratic basis, we may be faced with some such eventuality as described here in the case of East Timor. It is to alert all concerned that if the government fails to act resolutely in all good faith, and if the chauvinist-fascist forces get command of the situation, such a scenario as in East Timor could very well be at our doorstep. The dynamics shall be different, and no doubt the case in Lanka is different from that of East Timor. But the lessons are there for those who care to learn. I personally do not favor separation and have consistently advocated a negotiated political settlement that would honor the dignity, equality, security, autonomy and democratic freedom of the Tamil nation- that is, the right of self-determination, within an undivided country. This is the only basis for a voluntary union that could withstand all obstacles and enemies-internal and external. The politics of division has always played into the hands of foreign powers. I do not wish for the Tamil nation to be played by foreign powers and become another puppet neo-colony. Nor certainly do I wish for the Tamil Nation to be held hostage to the geo-political strategic agendas of either the US, India, Britain, China, Russia, Japan, EU or any other foreign power to function as a military outpost. This is as much as I do not wish for the Land and the people of Lanka to become a hapless geo-strategic pawn in this deadly game of imperialist chess for world supremacy.
The Politics of Supremacy and Duplicity
I do not have much faith in the government to act accordingly to meet the national-democratic rights and aspirations of the Tamil people. That would require exceptional leadership and statesmanship, which no leader, ruling party or government has displayed in our sordid legacy of sheer duplicity and betrayal. The present government is an integral part of the feudal-colonial status quo, although now tempered with some new constitutional gimmickry to appease the UN and the US and stay afloat somehow. There is also so much diabolical wheeling and dealing going on between these rival fractions of the ruling class. Or else, how could Mahinda Rajapaksa, in cahoots with Basil Rajapaksa and Tiran Alles, who are alleged to have bribed Prabhakaran to the tune of some hundred million to have him demand the Tamil people to boycott the presidential election, not be prosecuted under the PTA? This was even obliquely referred to by Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe at the recent UNP Convention. Is this not an act of ‘national betrayal’ by the self-appointed sole savior of the ‘Motherland’ and the sworn liberator of the Sinhala-Buddhist nation? Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka was simply and ingloriously hauled in jail for some relatively minor crime of corruption! How could Mahinda Rajapaksa not be prosecuted for plotting a coup to retain power when he had clearly lost the presidential election, and there is so much damning evidence and witnesses, including the Attorney General, Elections Commissioner, Chief Justice, Wimal Weerawansa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had arrived at the scene later? Are these not crimes of high treason? How could he not be prosecuted when there are so many well-grounded allegations of astronomical corruption and naked abuse of power? Is this the Rule of Law under the so-called government of ‘good governance’? What a travesty of justice and criminal reneging on the pledges made to the people! There is both contention and collusion between these rival fractions of the ruling class as they all cater to the chauvinist-supremacist aspirations of the masses in their respective electorates, which they have themselves whipped up! Nor do I have any faith that the chauvinist-fascist forces shall have any regard whatsoever for the unity and integrity of the people and the independence of the country, let alone for the national-democratic rights of the Tamil Nation, since they are driven by a supremacist political agenda simply to seize power, at whatever cost. This former regime had mortgaged the country to China and international lending agencies for endless generations. Such is the nature of their deceiving, diabolical ‘patriotism’. That despicable regime institutionalized graft and corruption throughout the length and breadth of the entire state apparatus, including the judiciary, bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies.
