Looking for Loopholes

TAMIL NATIONAL FORUM

Selected Writings - Fr. Chandiravarman Sinnathurai

Looking for Loopholes
28 February 2006

Much is being said about the peace overtures in Geneva between the Sri Lanka Government (SLG) and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). Balasingham called it a “diplomatic victory”. An over estimation, one would think. The SLG have raised their tails and retorted with a spin that the Tigers agreed to an "Amendment to the original Cease Fire Agreement". Balasingham rejected that as a “bizarre interpretation”.

While this media warfare is being conducted multiple statements have been put out in the public domain by various Tamil organisations. Few are singing praises to the current move. There are others, many of whom under the prestigious banner of “Tamil Intellectuals and Academics”, calling the process quite rightly, a farce. In my humble view, it is a sophisticated way of duplicating the duplicity. Put in another way, it is a bit of a ducking and diving - for sure.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Bob Dylan

Think of the suffering for a moment of all those abducted TRO workers. Are they still alive? Will the quisling forces be disarmed? Now, let’s talk until the cows come home…Bonkers. I have a lurking doubt. These Tamil intelligentsia so-called, are they truly a community of public intellectuals and academics? Are they genuinely the Voice of the people? Certainly yes, we shall say; let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

Now I have a question. Are these mortals simply using this platform to project them as an intellectual aristocracy? That’s possible too, umm. Dangerous! I know that I might have got their backs up now. Stepped on a few pompous toes! You see, this question was buzzing in my ears. I had to cough it up.

These Talks in any shape or form are becoming in the intelligent circuit a Pierre d’achoppement. That’s a mouthful. Anyway, it means a stumbling block. One would think, the LTTE would take, on behalf of the Tamils, a proactive position. As time drags on, Tamils are being abducted, harassed, maimed, killed…everyday. There are nearly 30,000 internally displaced Tamils who are homeless!

The round of Talks are becoming like the aching tooth that we cannot stop testing with our tongue even though it hurts more and more. It seems both parties were focused on the issue of modus vivendi in relation to violence. The Tamils are engaged in an armed struggle and in that context violence and non-violence are strategies, not moral principles. The SLG has a complementary strategy - abduction, shoot-to-kill civilians, collective punishments, state aggression: violence. An honourable Sinhala person pointed out in his piece, (I’m paraphrasing) that without the LTTE, the Tamils will be under the table waiting for the crumbs to fall from the master’s table.

Arundhati Roy in a recent interview (Tehelka.com) said. “Any body with skills and intelligence can be an intellectual. A cobbler is an intellect”. What the Tamils desperately need is not just emotionally constipated pen pushers; we need avant-garde versions of wordsmiths and cobblers. That is what perhaps the Tigers have taught primarily the mainline conservative Tamils.

"How many roads must a (wo)man walk down
before you call him/er a (Wo)man?
How many seas must a white duck sail
before she sleeps in the sand?"
Bob Dylan