Could promotion of terrorism be considered as art? - thoughts on M.I.A.

Author: Rover

Under the guise of democracy, a lot of things in the world has changed; one of the victims of this unbridled democracy is art. In the good old days, a song, poem, book or a musical concerto was judged by WHO liked it, and not by HOW MANY (liked it). But these dynamics have changed; and given that often a large portion of the population is trashy, any junk can be easily passed off as art.

Junk come in different types - ungainly stuff, indecent stuff, smelly stuff, disgusting stuff, violent stuff, and even ideological stuff. Some of the junk can't cause harm, but some can, like the ideological stuff.

Terrorism is an ideology that the civilized world has issues with right now, because it is trying to destroy the very democratic doctrines that the world has come to accept and respect. Terrorism is the unleashing of violence with the abject intention of terrorizing the civilian population to attain a political goal. The distinction between freedom fighting and terrorism is clear. Freedom fighters do not willfully terrorize a civilian population to reach a political goal. Freedom fighters fight with armies, not with people.

LTTE is a internationally black listed terrorist organization that has killed scores of civilians, heads of states (President Ranasingha Premadasa of Sri Lanka, and Prime Minster of India Mr. Rajiv Gandhi), innocent children, government officers (doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers ect.), Sinhalese, many moderate and educated Tamils and now even Tamil refugees. Here I won't go into too much details on the atrocities committed by the LTTE, as it distracts from my story, but rest assured that it is very very substantial. The enormity of these foul deeds have helped LTTE earn the ignominious title of "the most ruthless terrorist organization of the world".

Enter Maya Arudpragasam, or her more kultur sobriquet M.I.A.(!). Her story is that her father left Sri Lanka with his family as he (they) were under threat from the government security forces. But it IS the right of a democratically elected government to protect its country from terrorist activities. This is what every nation do when threatened by a foul deed such as terrorism. Mr. Arudpragasam (Maya's father) calls himself a former LTTE agent, and hence, the government had every right to pursue the bloody criminal, under the rule of law.

Now, Mr. Arudpragasam, after living in the lap of luxury in UK, for many years, having raised his wonderful children with the generous support of the UK government and its decent people, is using his child to avenge for "what was done to him" by the Sri Lankan government (MIA was just 10 years old when she left Sri Lanka, and hence have no idea about what befell her father). In other words he is seeking revenge for being punished for committing terrorist acts in his motherland, using his daughter - how justified is this?!

Anyway, the sad part of the story is that Western kids flock around this "exotic beauty with a foul mouth" for their kicks, in the process giving hope to hundreds of would be terrorists and other violent people to use ART as a tool to promote unmitigated violence.

However in a corner of my heart, I want to see Maya suceed in life, it would be great to see a Sri Lankan artist (or one having Sri Lanakn roots) win a Grammy, but first she needs to move away from glorifying terrorism. Taking a step back, if I don't really listen to the lyrics, and just watch MIA doing her jig, a Sri Lankan cutie prancing about, I kind of like it, she has talent. And so I hope she improves the morality of her songs, and grab a Grammy next year!