Author - Rover
"Victory breeds hatred
The defeated live in pain
Happily the peaceful live
Giving up victory and defeat"
- Dammapada
Buddha of course got it right, and this has exactly been my experience.
When I got the good news that the top LTTE terrorists in Sri Lankan had been defeated, the relief that ran through me was inexorable. I wanted to be in Sri Lanka, celebrating with my people, the resounding victory we had. But soon the realization hit me about the people who have made the real sacrifices for this war could never be as jubilant as the people who were mindlessly dancing on the streets, drunk. These more subdued people would be the widows, children and parents of fallen army folks, IDPs who lost pretty much everything and the SLDF folks that got badly injured.
Of course, then hooligans took the celebrations too far, as they did when we won the 1996 Cricket World Cup; the guys who danced on the streets drunk then never understood what cricket was about. One of my relatives was stopped by a group of hooligans and was asked why she was not flying the Sri Lankan flag on her vehicle. While they were gathering around her car, another guy ran and got a flag and put it up on the car, without her consent. She is patriotic (read - want Sri Lanka to do well in all aspects) to the core, but she is not the type that would show her emotions in public, there are people with a diversity of temperaments you know, and after this experience she was quite subdued, and contributed to further dampen my spirits as well. Anyway no harm done to our national interests, at least not yet.
But concerning the LTTE supporting hooligans, our victory, when outlandishly expressed, breeds even more hatred. Do we need to see the genesis of more and more hatred at this juncture? Isn't it the time for reconciliation and putting our nation back on track?
Out officials make blunders too. It was a pretty pathetic to see pictures of Prabhakaran in a thong. A singularly unattractive human being to begin with, it was quite a jarring sight to see him thonged! Whose bright idea was it to put it up on the MOD site? Do you think it would serve a progressive purpose? I don't; please explain to me if any of you think it does.
Furthermore, the defeated also live in pain and it is obvious from the numerous statements that they make. The Wold Tamil Forum in Canada for example, a proxy of the LTTE, has said that they "will bring Sri Lanka to its knees". These would be the folks that aided and abetted the destruction of Sri Lanka and drew schadenfreude from witnessing our distress. Even so lets not breed hatred by overly expressing ourselves, thus causing deeper pain in others, in our victory. Lets show some humility, its always for the best. Lets try to show these anti-Sri Lankan elements, by example that we are not like them.
Ah, and the peaceful, the moderate Sri Lankans (both Tamil and Sinhalese) are just happy of the realization that there is a great chance to rebuild Sri Lanka if our president plays his cards effectively. With the executive presidential powers he has, he can make a huge difference, and lets hope he does.However, lets not put all our problems for the president to address. There is much we can do as individuals; for starters, lets remember the people who sacrificed most towards the victory, and contribute however we can to make their lives brighter. This humanistic gesture would certainly help us to become better citizens and contribute more profoundly to the development of our nation.
Humility in victory is wonderful trait but does seem to be lacking in many parts of Sri Lanka today if one looks at what folks are saying across the blogs.
ReplyDeleteThere is also something of a disconnect with many Sri Lankans looking to put blame for national problems anywhere but on their own doorsteps.
I remind you that the diapsora dilemma in places like the UK and Canada is a result of GoSL failings in '83 and none of those communities would exist today if...
A: the GoSL had protected Tamils from Sinhala retributions for the LTTE killing of those policemen in the first place.
B: Those countries had not generously opened their doors to the refugees of that slaughter.
The diaspora issue needs to be dealt with by the Governments of those and other countries and they need to do a better job than they did before but the entire issue is fruit from the tree of Sri Lankan failure.
Humility in victory as well as a reasonable bit of self examination and criticism will go a long way to mending the many broken fences both in and outside of Sri Lanka and now is the time for MR to really step up and lead by example.
I concur that MR has plenty of political goodwill at his disposal at home and can afford to be both magnanimous towards the vanquished and firm with the chauvinists presently strutting about.
As for LTTE fronts like the World Tamil Forum in Canada, they can be pushed towards oblivion by a combination of true statesmanship in Sri Lanka that leads to palpable change for the Tamils concerned in addition to more stringent applications of existing anti-terrorist laws in Canada, the UK and elsewhere.
The problem with the second part is that as long as the GoSL refuse to accept any fair criticism from the west those governments will continue to see what appears to be a failing democracy that is leaning heavily towards communist backers who have basically shown up with piles of money and weapons at the right time for the wrong reasons.
(I do not recall China or Russia offering to take in hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans fleeing the bloodbath of '83)
Until the GoSL starts being honest and open with the world (press freedom is a good start... elimination of white van syndrome another) there will be suspicion in many circles as to just how committed the GoSL is to the democracy it once was and the constitution it has been skirting.
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So Rover... how's MR doing on those promises to the hostages, now "freed", and is their present internment not an affront to decency and democracy?
ReplyDeleteAll this time later and still over a quarter-million being held against their will.
Shameful my friend... shameful and many of us saw it coming.
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Where are these "moderates" you spoke of Rover and what have they to say about the diminishing freedoms and erosion of democracy the GoSL is propagating of late?
ReplyDeleteHave you given up hope?
It is very quiet here these days.
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