I have received numerous e-mails from various and varied corners of this global village since I wrote Satya-Lobby –‘Take up the white man’s burden’. All e-mails were positive except a few with a negative tinge. Some have asked me questions. One journalist based in Washington DC wrote: “I think stories like these show that the real terrorists are the Sri Lankan government and their sponsors in the US.”

Miracle

Some priests, a few Sinhala Reverend Fathers with the old-school Marxist social theory bent have raised some issues. I shall attempt to answer some of those queries in this short piece. A few questions could be answered by simply quoting a few lines from Ben Okri’s poem – An African Elegy:

We are the miracles that God made
To taste the bitter fruit of Time.
We are precious.
And one day our suffering
Will turn into the wonders of the earth…
Do you see the mystery of our pain?
That we bear poverty
And are able to sing and dream sweet things...
We bless things even in our pain
We bless them in silence.
And there is surprise
In every thing the unseen moves.
The ocean is full of songs.
The sky is not an enemy
Destiny is our friend.

Goal

Our sky is Tamil Eelam. Our land is Tamil Eelam. Our sea is Tamil Eelam. It is for that cause alone, with the rationale of freedom in their blood-stream; multitude of precious young lives have perished and are dying as living seeds today but with that sweet dream. One cannot betray one’s mother under international pressure, can you? This is much more than theory; international trend; it is about our mother-land and our inalienable rights and responsibilities. It is with that fervency, deep commitment, pain and suffering that Satya-Lobby is advanced. One thing is for sure. Our goal should not be diluted owing to international pressure or national duplicity. The division of the land is already a spiritual, mental, psychological and more over a political reality. No doctrinaire should try and subvert that true position even in the name of sophisticated arguments.

Tamil Eelam is our goal. The sky is not an enemy; destiny our friend. Such is our conviction and prophetic imagination. What is meant by ‘prophetic’ is not a matter of foretelling; imagination – yes it is; that is not a “pie in the sky” but has firm footing on ground realities yet believing that the dream is at hand. A mountain is not a hindrance it is only a stepping stone. Imagination is a gift of God and it is not to be pilfered. Instead, it has to be harnessed. It is the imagination that took man to the Moon. It is not rocket science for any one to grasp the idea.

Bombings

The bombings over Vanni, Mattakalapu, Tirukonamalai and civilian killings are acts of deliberate genocide. The secret agenda of the state with the possible complicity of the IC seem to be sinister. While these murders are occurring in the Tamil territories the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister is presenting a picture of Sri Lanka in the heart of London at Trafalgar Square as a tranquil island for tourists. One still cannot understand countries like Sweden and its adjoining nations who gave unstinting support to the Apartheid struggle are on reverse gear now when it comes to the Eelam emancipation. When the Sinhala state is engaged in an orgy of violence some Western states are pushing, less openly perhaps for the disarming of the Tamil defensive force.

Off-Shoot

Satya-Lobby is an off-shoot of an indigenous movement that operates with a two-pronged approach. The need for an armed struggle is far from being diminished. Both non-violent and armed struggle are viewed as strategies. The West therefore should not try to water-down our struggle by misrepresentation that the Satya-Lobby is in effect a change of tactics. No, no. That is being economical with the truth. It is the state that dictates the mode of the struggle. The oppressed have the right to its defense. The West must first break its studied silence and stop the vicious cycle of state-sponsored genocide of the Tamils.

Imagination

Satya-Lobby in the West requires to be led by men and women of high calibre, character, gifts and community visibility with moral weight who could truly identify with such a struggle and articulate and gather the masses, not just the Tamils but all [not just a few voted-needing politicians] for the cause of freedom and liberty on a global scale. Should the mission be poorly understood or explained then there will be much noise and fanfare but not the orchestration of music, so to speak. Satya-Lobby does not claim monopoly on truth. It does not sit on a high moral perch. It however, rises up as a truth-witness. In that sense, Satya-Lobby has the markings of a mass movement in the Global North.

The power of imagination is limitless. Our imagination has to be an articulation of theoretical praxis. Simply put: Applied thought under girded by practical theory. And that thought ought to have a considered motivational rationale. The actions of the communities must be under girded by persuasive logic. It must venture to expose the coercive nature of the opponent in the simplest format. People must get the idea and catch the vision. That was the power of mass-appeal in Gandhi.

Walter Sisulu shares a story:

While working in the quarry, gang members began to sing songs mocking the political prisoners, such as ‘What did you want at Rivonia, did you think you would become the government?’ The political prisoners responded by singing freedom songs. The singing contest went on for several weeks and gradually the political prisoners out sang their rivals. Eventually the authorities became concerned about the political content of the songs and banned all singing. Walter was angered by this and complained: ‘We must have been the only prisoners in the country who were not allowed to sing while working.’  [Sisulu, 2002]

Multi-Faith

The genocide of the Tamils has to be told and re-told to the world until it is ready not just to hear but to painfully listen. State terror is another urgent matter the religious forums in Eelam will need to voice to the world in strongest possible terms along with the Satya-Lobby. One would think why there is a reluctance to form in the North-east an Inter-faith Forum for Human Rights. Such groups might not have ‘power and clout’ but that is to only underplay its influence. An articulate, intelligent and vibrant multi-faith group will be able to advance cogent reasoning in the context and be influential in shaping opinions on grass-roots to a supranational level.

An old priest has written to me with a patronising air chiding me for not taking into account the separation between Church and politics. I do not know whether to laugh or cry. Papa! Having witnessed the suffering and blood-letting at your door step how could you say that? I wonder why it is to the oppressed that the Oppressor always wants to lecture. The application of the Gospel always seems to narrowly escape the Rulers of this world! Complacency should worry and disturb us! Sin and evil cannot be condoned.

Another correspondent of priestly nature quoted Maimonides: ‘One may never wage war with anyone until one has first made an offer of peace’. Splendid; Peace-making is not mainly about the avoidance of war. Without justice there can be no honourable peace. This is not just a fashionable cliché. This is indeed the ground reality. Obfuscation of core issues is not peace talks. That is why I consistently hold a dim view of the Oslo-initiated peace process.

Ceylon Crabs

Satya-Lobby has strategies in place to avoid clashes of personalities. I am reminded of the Ceylon Crab-story. There was an international competition for athletic Crabs. Each team of crabs that represented their respective countries were brought in baskets and put before the judges. Now the winning team must get them selves out of this tall basket in shortest possible time. Most baskets were becoming empty and crabs were sprinting out of the baskets with an idea to win for their country. But the Judges by now were becoming suspicious of the Sri Lankan Crab team. No crab seems to come out of it. So they sent a security person to see what was happening. He went near to see what was happening and he was lost for words! When each team member was sprinting out to exit out of the Basket the other crabs were pulling the one down who had gone to the top. Hence no crab showed up victoriously in the Ceylon team.

This is of course a caricature. In Tamil there is a phrase: “Nee munthi; Nann munthi”. Who gets out first is NOT the nature of this particular competition. None can wriggle out of team building and team-work if one is focussed to win in the end! Each building block is absolutely vital to the end result.

The Ceylon crabs missed the whole point.

Voice

Finally, Satya-Lobby should be clear in its aims and purposes. It works to convince minds and convict conscience of both the masses and the respective governments. This requires considerable skills. It cannot be therefore headed by an “invisible force” with ad-hoc name droppings. Such a masked technique will fail to convince let alone convict any one. Satya-Lobby is a dynamic public movement; hence it needs to be effective in its visionary focus and be dynamic in its approach. With out that, protest communities will become noise but not a voice. A heap of stones but not structured building blocks. The impact will be lost and the momentum will not be gained. In other words we will be found to be “doing” some thing but missing the whole point!

There was a Prophet named John – forerunner of Jesus. He was called: A voice in the wilderness. A voice that shook the conscience of the Religious establishment of his day; convicted the State of its moral lapses and human rights breaches; and made the masses to awake from its spiritual slumber. Of course, in the end that cost his head.

Quite frankly, it is for such a collective Voice of intellectual integrity and spiritual conviction we plead. [The post is still vacant]