Hats off to the Sri Lankan government. A small country is showing the world how to correctly deal with terrorists. After years of dilly-dallying and endless (and fruitless) soft-touch intervention by the Norwegians, somebody has finally dared to catch the bull by its horns, just as our own Brinda and KPS Gill, the then Chief Minister and Police Chief of Punjab, once did to quell the rampaging insurgency in the state. To me, President Rajapakse is doing even better – he is taking care to keep the civilian losses to the minimum, and also he understands the importance of explaining to the Tamils that the war is not against them but against their real tormentors -- the LTTE. Now, even some Sri Lankan origin Tamil human rights activists are able to come to the fore and let the world know that the vast majority of Tamils of Sri Lanka have always been actually longing for a long time to come out of the clutches of the LTTE. These Tamil HR activists were earler scared to come to the open or their voices were simply not heard. I am sure we will soon come to hear more tales of horror of how the LTTE had been using the entrenched Tamils as shields once the rest of their area is liberated by the SL army.
Hope the SL Government brings the whole thing to its logical end and does not develop cold feet at the last moment, and by this I mean catching Prabhakaran and his cohorts and punishing them. It is always important to root out the leaders. Hope the government ignores all sorts of international pressure (from people who remain strangely silent at human rights violations by the terrorists) and also the numerous mass petitions that are being generated in India urging to stall the assault, and instead proceed determinedly to finish the agenda.
It is indeed shocking that the SL cricket team has been attacked in Pakistan today, and we can expect Pakistan to even try to put the blame for it, at least initially, on SL’s current domestic strife. (The next day's input: Pakistan has begun blaming India instead. . . should have occured to me that they were going to do this.) It also proves, albeit with the benefit of hindsight, that visiting Pakistan when other teams including that from India already refused to do so, was an extremely unwise decision . . .was probably done to show solidarity between small neighbours of a big brother . . . it also shows that one sometimes has to pay a heavy price for such political one-upmanship.
you know the media and it's foot soldiers in india have totally lost their perspective on issues or incidents occuring in india or our neighbouring countries.
many a times i find that important topics or issues are trivilised and some inane topics are discussed!.
as you so rightly put it. The situation in a small country like srilanka is being handled so well and in a forthright manner. India recently has been totally lacking in any sort of forthright and honest appraisal of the dangerous situation we are in, vis a vis pakistan, afghanistan, bangladesh.
god bless or country. All we can do is hope things will turn around for the better.
i loved what u wrote in the last para. having said that, i wish i could summon ur tone of absolute authority when u praise the lankan govt's handling of the LTTE menace. every uprising comes about as a result of some injustice - perceived or real. in this case, the nation's constitution does not grant statehood & other priviledges to its substantial tamil population. did we do something like that with the sikhs in khalistan? no. so comparing the two is inaccurate. i think i'm a lil more sensitive to this lankan issue on a/c of a tamil friend of ours who actually gave us a diff perspective. for these guys, prabhakaran will always remain a hero. u must also read adaiga's piece in the daily beast on the same issue.
DW, I am aware how the Tamils have always been discriminated in Srilanka, and being a Bengali from Assam where the situation is somewhat similar, I also know how it feels to be discriminated against. However, after leading his people to a very just uprising (and up to this point he is my hero too), he turned into a complete autocrat (as it happens with almost all revolutionaries); he silenced (thru assassination, pure and simple) all other Tamil Rights groups (TULF, etc), recruited children and girls for his army and controlled them thru brutal force. The Srilankan Govt had made some very good offers for talks at various points of time, but he never accepted. He rather used these periods for regrouping. He was not amenable to any settlement that would have fallen short of his own goals. He was, in his final years, like a rogue elephant whom either you put down or get yourself killed. I am optimistic that Rajapakse will deliver now, because firstly he has vanquished his only obstacle, and secondly, he has got the goodwill of the Sinhalese population on his side that will allow him to be generous towards the Tamils. But let’s keep our fingers crossed till we see him actually doing these things (granting the Tamils equal rights, opportunities, benefits, and perhaps some sort of autonomy). Here India has a role to play -- should keep some sort of behind-the-scene pressure on the Srilanka Govt.
4 comments:
you know the media and it's foot soldiers in india have totally lost their perspective on issues or incidents occuring in india or our neighbouring countries.
many a times i find that important topics or issues are trivilised and some inane topics are discussed!.
as you so rightly put it. The situation in a small country like srilanka is being handled so well and in a forthright manner. India recently has been totally lacking in any sort of forthright and honest appraisal of the dangerous situation we are in, vis a vis pakistan, afghanistan, bangladesh.
god bless or country. All we can do is hope things will turn around for the better.
jaidev
i loved what u wrote in the last para.
having said that, i wish i could summon ur tone of absolute authority when u praise the lankan govt's handling of the LTTE menace. every uprising comes about as a result of some injustice - perceived or real. in this case, the nation's constitution does not grant statehood & other priviledges to its substantial tamil population. did we do something like that with the sikhs in khalistan? no. so comparing the two is inaccurate.
i think i'm a lil more sensitive to this lankan issue on a/c of a tamil friend of ours who actually gave us a diff perspective. for these guys, prabhakaran will always remain a hero. u must also read adaiga's piece in the daily beast on the same issue.
DW, I am aware how the Tamils have always been discriminated in Srilanka, and being a Bengali from Assam where the situation is somewhat similar, I also know how it feels to be discriminated against. However, after leading his people to a very just uprising (and up to this point he is my hero too), he turned into a complete autocrat (as it happens with almost all revolutionaries); he silenced (thru assassination, pure and simple) all other Tamil Rights groups (TULF, etc), recruited children and girls for his army and controlled them thru brutal force. The Srilankan Govt had made some very good offers for talks at various points of time, but he never accepted. He rather used these periods for regrouping. He was not amenable to any settlement that would have fallen short of his own goals. He was, in his final years, like a rogue elephant whom either you put down or get yourself killed. I am optimistic that Rajapakse will deliver now, because firstly he has vanquished his only obstacle, and secondly, he has got the goodwill of the Sinhalese population on his side that will allow him to be generous towards the Tamils. But let’s keep our fingers crossed till we see him actually doing these things (granting the Tamils equal rights, opportunities, benefits, and perhaps some sort of autonomy). Here India has a role to play -- should keep some sort of behind-the-scene pressure on the Srilanka Govt.
ok, i get your point. why is it that more people cannot argue or reason the way u do? its so refreshing coming across a blogger like u!
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