By Vishwamithra –

“What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.”  ~ David Levithan

Maaveerar Naal is a remembrance day observed by Sri Lankan Tamils to remember the deaths of militants who fought with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to achieve an independent Tamil homeland. It is held each year on 27 November, the date on which the first LTTE cadre, Lt. Shankar, Sathiyanathan alias Suresh, died in combat in 1982. The fight they fought was gruesome; the cruelties and irreparable racial fissures caused by both sides were unspeakable. The unpardonable murders so committed by the LTTE at the Dollar and Kent farms up North and killings of 33 Bhikkhus (Buddhist clergy), including many ‘Samaneras’ (unordained Monks), sent chills up the national spine of the nation.

The LTTE was named a terrorist organization by many countries including the United States of America. Yet the sympathy it drew from some Western European countries was aplenty. Thanks mainly to a very active and determined Tamil Diaspora, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the LTTE, was recognized as a ‘freedom fighter’. The fighting youth under his charismatic leadership were single-minded, devoted to their own perspectives of Tamil nationhood and equally ruthless in daring to kill the ‘enemy’ and with undefined rules of engagement.

As much as the LTTE and its soldiers engaged in this macabre enterprise of murder, which they called fight for a ‘Tamil Homeland’, could the Sinhalese soldiers be forgiven for what they committed that bordered on the fringes of brutal killings of Tamil civilians? But the feelings amongst the Southern Sinhalese population had reached a boiling point. No compromise could be reached; no reconciliation and no relaxing of a staunch stance on the side of Sinhalese ‘racial superiority’ was possible.

But there is one stark difference between the two sides: Tamil militants and their fighting armies were not official armies of a nation or a country. They allegedly represented the whole of the Tamil population in the country whereas the Sri Lankan army, Navy and Air Force represented Sri Lanka’s properly elected government, they were the country’s military forces. Therefore, Sri Lankan military simply cannot engage in extra-military killings; nor can they operate on the fringes of the rules of engagement. These are the blurry and misty lines along which the various pundits on both sides attempt to tread and find themselves lost and driven to extremes, depending the degree of their perceived commitment to either of the causes: Tamil Homeland or sovereignty of the rightfully elected Sri Lankan government.

Where can we go from here? The war is over. A crushing defeat for Tamil militants; fallen pride for the Tamil Diaspora and affluent Colombo-seven Tamil businessmen and triumphalism for Southern Sinhalese. Celebration of the end of a thirty-year war is completely within the realm of civil liberties and constitutional rights. Busloads of Sinhalese traveling to Jaffna and other northern cities with provocative banners pasted across their bonnets were a normal scene those days, especially in the the immediate aftermath of the war victory in 2009. The Rajapaksas were on top of the world; some journalists addressed Mahinda Rajapaksa as ‘King’ and by doing such slavish knee-bending, they placed their time-revered occupation up for sale. All signs of a third world country were in clear and present visibility.

But there is one undisputed fact amongst all this national chaos and national confusion. Sins and unpardonable acts were committed by both parties. Patriotism cannot be defined in terms of commitment to a geographical landmass. In other words, in the strictest personal terms of the author,  love for a so-called ‘motherland’, patriotism has been, since the dawn of time, a dangerous and destructive emotional feel of man that has contributed to the reversal of the evolution the human family. True patriotism is a commitment to the sublime characteristics and values that separate man from the animal. Treating each man and woman as equal to all others living in a vast universe of the same human family might be the ultimate state of perfection of man. Nevertheless, attaining such a lofty goal may be a Utopian dream!

In the meantime, why don’t we allow ourselves to dwell more in the more mundane enclaves. A conflict between a government’s military forces and the so-called ‘freedom fighters’ whose fight was allegedly for their own homeland can never be devoid of human rights violations. To paraphrase Leonard Woolf, all wars are evil and the war between Sri Lankan military and Tamil militants has never been less evil. The crucial issue is whether remembrance of the fallen ‘heroes’ of Tamil militants is legitimate and should be allowed to be held with at least the minimum of fanfare.

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) committed unspeakable crimes during their two revolutionary wars in 1971 and in the ’87-’89 period. National People’s Power (NPP) is nothing but another term for the old JVP. During those violent uprisings, as per Rohana Wijeweera’s address to the Criminal Justice Commission Courts in 1971, the commitment of the then JVP was a genuine and legitimate expression of the youth of the country towards the eradication of the ill-effects of the class struggle.

If the JVP could celebrate its participation in the 1971 and ’87-’89 uprisings and remember their comrades’ struggles and suffering, why can’t our Tamil brothers in the North engage in a similar activity. The obvious answer the Sinhalese chauvinist advance is: Tamils were engaged in a war  for the division of the country which cannot be justified in whatever the circumstances. Furthermore, the fighting armies of northern Tamils were fully backed by a foreign power, India and especially the Tamil Nadu state. That in itself consists of an affront to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

No power on earth can stop an ordinary Tamil family in Jaffna lighting a lamp for the loss or disappearance of their loved son or daughter. No government would be able to put a stop to a small village from organizing a unadorned religious ceremony at their village Hindu Temple. But the state machinery might go all out and prohibit ‘wild’ celebrations of remembrance of their fallen heroes. What the substance of such celebrations would consist of, one might not know. I certainly don’t.

A philosophical approach might be redundant at this time. Skirting around the nuanced aspects of the issue, going more into the inscrutable components of the overall content is utterly meaningless and useless. A simple approach in search of a simpler answer would be more reasonable and more long-lasting. Can the NPP government offer such a simple resolution to this issue.

The plain question is, as a matter of fact, simpler than it tends to look: Can a once-terrorist organization turn into a legitimate political organization? For that matters, the LTTE, at least inside Sri Lankan shores, is not active, nor in existence. If such an organization is dead, who wants to celebrate and remember the ‘fallen heroes’? If any Tamils in the north or anywhere in the country wants to celebrate and remember their ‘fallen heroes’, they should be allowed. No, ifs or buts.

If King Dutu Gamunu erected a ‘remembrance pillar’ for the fallen Elara and asked his subject people to remove their headwear and footwear while they happen to pass the pillar, why cannot the central government of Sri Lanka headed by a Sinhalese President elected by all the people, including a majority of Tamils in the North and East allow Tamils to hold their celebrations and other activities in remembrance of their ‘fallen heroes’?

Menachem Begin, the late Prime Minister of Israel, before the creation of the state of Israel,  was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He was, in terms of the then British rulers, a ‘terrorist’. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the current President of Sri Lanka was an active member of the then JVP, the political entity that was primarily engaged in most of the killings of innocent civilians in the country. There is no evidence whatsoever about AKDs participation in those killings. On the contrary, he was in hiding during that period as the then Police department may have been searching for all JVP activists during that period. This is the broad context within which the government must take a decision on the celebrations of the Heroes Day scheduled for November 27.

Would the government not take any action against those who choose to engage in the celebration activities of their ‘fallen heroes’? A conscientious decision needs to be taken, not only in the broader interests of the country and its sociocultural growth, but also within the enclave of a simple man’s conscience.

*The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com