You can easily knock most article writers and well-spoken famous individuals who support political/moral ideals for not being the hands of feet of any tangible change. But they will keep writing and speaking, and we all will keep listening, but there is a need for this kind of exchange. Because we are not purely physical creatures. They lend logic and purpose to what the rest of know is the right thing to do.

How is this irresponsible? How is this lame? I didn’t really see you give examples of consequences from her words. Really, it seemed you were knit-picking discrepancies and cheapening the expression of principles and ideals through words. No, words aren’t tangible, but they surround, define and sometimes create tangibility. Elegant persuasion is a gift, and I think Arundhati Roy uses hers well.

As Blacker says, if there was a JVP uprising confined to a small point on the Southern Coast I’m pretty sure they’d bomb this shit out of it.

This is not positive though. As you say Vadakathayan, I think we really have to win over the Tamil people here. We have to rush relief there now, followed by rehabilitation and development. We have to respect and care for them as fellow Sri Lankans. I hope in time the diaspora will contribute to development rather than destruction.

I have no doubt that the GoSL would have used arty and airstrikes on a Sinhalese terrorist group holding Sinhalese civilians who were once part of their support base.

How does it help to hurt Sri Lankan people and businesses? All that does is embolden the isolationist forces in our midst, strengthen the totalitarian elements of the state and impoverish people.

I do not support sanctions against Sri Lanka, I think we need more engagement and development, especially in the North and East.

There’re two ways of explaining this. If one wanted to give Sri Lanka the benefit of the doubt, one might say that Sri Lanka didn’t need to use the air force against the South, because the JVP were never as organised a militia as the LTTE. If one doen’t want to give Sri Lanka the benefit of the doubt, one might say that heavy artillery and aerial bombardment were used against the North in ’86 and ’87, when the LTTE wasn’t that much more of a threat than the JVP was during its insurrections, and that operations against the JVP weren’t accompanied by the sort of “glorious Sinhala kingdom overcoming its enemies” imagery that’s shown up time and again in anti-LTTE operations. Ergo, racism.

I’ll rephrase Stephanie’s question the way I hear it tossed out by the more thoughtful sections of the diaspora: “If a few ten thousand Sinhalese were boxed into a few square miles around Hambantota, with scores dying in the crossfire, would they be setting off as many firecrackers in Colombo?” Your typical member of the diaspora would say the answer is obviously, “No” – and that is why they’d see trying to work with the GoSL as being a non-starter. They genuinely believe the Sri Lankan state will never voluntarily let the Tamils live in peace as equal members of the Sri Lankan polity.

Where are they going with the racist / genocidal argument? Digging in for the long run, mostly. Preparing to move the campaign from a military one to one focused more on political lobbying, boycott moves and so on, to put suffocating pressure on Sri Lanka, forcing it to grant equality or self-determination.

So, is the diaspora’s narrative true? I’m not inclined to speak my mind on this blog, but I’ll say this: at the end of the day, if you guys win the local Tamils over to your side, what the diaspora thinks doesn’t matter a whit. That was the formula India used in Punjab – a brutal military operation which destroys the militants, followed by an earnest normalisation campaign which makes a significant number of symbolic concessions and wins back the loyalty of the civilians, thereby rendering the more extremist elements in the diaspora irrelevant. If you guys manage to successfully steer the country away from Sinhala triumphalism (or the variant that “We’ve broken the Tamils’ will so thoroughly that they simply will not have the strength to produce a new generation of militants”) and use the victory to really reach out to the Tamils, you’ll have falsified the diaspora’s narrative.

I do agree with giving civilians a chance to get out and immediate relief. I don’t agree with antagonizing the government.

I also think it’s incredibly arrogant and simply unrealistic to think that an english-language Indian editorial is going to influence anything here. Most Sri Lankans haven’t heard of Arundhati Roy. If there is any influence or change it has to come from the Sri Lankan people. They may not have awards, but they do have a vote, and the ability to participate. I sincerely believe that change has to come from us.

First at groundviews, now here.

You really think you’ve nailed it with this one, don’t you? You’ve found the smoking gun, the bloodied gloves, the lipstick on the collar. Why, it’s elementary, my dear Sinhalese fascists. The Goverment of Sri Lanka committed genocide in the conservatory with the lead pipe.

But let’s stick the facts, ma’am. All you have is a ludicrous hypothetical based on a bad case of apples and oranges. It provides incontrovertible proof of only one thing: that you really haven’t a clue.

If there was another southern insurrection I think they would probably kill the shit out of Sinhala people again. It’s a hypothetical, dunno.

I’m not sure where you go with the racist/genocidal argument. Then what? Overthrow the government? Who’s going to protect people from the LTTE? Who’s going to run the hospitals? What positive action to actually improve Sri Lankan lives comes out of your arguments?

I do support my elected government. I want it to succeed. I consider myself loyal opposition.

I don’t even think tyranny is the biggest problem anymore, I think apathy is. Not apathy as in complaining, I mean apathy in actually doing something. I’ve tried to do stuff and people who complained the most didn’t help. People I never expected support from have. It’s changing my perspective.

if those in the so-called ‘safe zone’ were sinhala and were held “hostage” by the LTTE do you think the GOSL would be bombing & shelling them not allowing adequate food & medicine to be taken to them?

you probably won’t answer, but we all know the answer don’t we?

this is why the Govt is considered racist and it is genocide

I think there was once a time when you yourself said it was so silly that the GoSL tried to justify all the horrible, unlawful things it did in the name of defeating the terrorists by saying ‘Oh what about all the stuff the LTTE is doing?’. Don’t forget that you once believed that it’s absurd for the military that represents a state to take its moral standards from a bunch of ruthless terrorists. The government, and yes I understand the difficulty of its position, has not been fair as a government, to its people. It’s ONLY job is not to fight the war, where as for the terrorists, they can afford to make that their only priority. It’s main job is to run a democratic nation. The GoSL has worsened the way it looks to everyone by creating an atmosphere where everything can be justified because it is ‘winning’ the war. It has banished the media and the INGOS. It has threatened everyone who isn’t ‘with’ them. So it is tyrannical. You cannot say this is untrue. Of course I realise the situation is not black and white. But let’s not forget.

Having to work with a government is one thing, and I completely agree with you on this point, but supporting them is quite something else.

However, as a democratically elected entity, I strongly believe that the government of Sri Lanka is not taking itself or its commitments seriously. The recent medical supplies sent to hospitals in the north did not contain basic items such as anasthetic and others required to perform minor operations. When most affected civilians suffer from shrapnel wounds, this is an absolute necessity to save lives. Aid is restricted, the media is restricted and it is still uncertain whether the mercy mission to Vanni will be allowed to deliver on ground. The government’s actions lack the key ingredient of transparency. Things could very well be not as bad as people such as Ms. Roy think. However, it is ultimately up to the Sri Lankan government to prove with simple steps likes allowing access to the media and aid organisations the real plight of the people trapped in the north and east.

The LTTE are certainly to be held responsible for this mess but somehow it seems worse to see the government of Sri Lanka stooping to the level of the very terrorists they condemn.

If anything you’re talking to yourself here because I don’t see any substantial discussion of these points.

Reading Ms. Roy’s article made be feel sympathetic towards the government and military for the first time since this war began. But Ms. Roy’s effects are sadly ephemeral; within minutes the usual loathing had returned.

Indi: “I think Ms. Roy’s absolutist stance is the immature one”
I think Indi is tryning to say that his/her article too is to be accepted on relativistic valueles grounds.

I finished my studies in 2004. I’ve been doing this since then and have evolved a lot, I think, over the last 5 years. I’m pretty much a veteran in the Sri Lankan blogosphere. I don’t know who you are.

When I was younger I used to rail against everyone, now I realize that getting things done requires understanding and compromise. I think Ms. Roy’s absolutist stance is the immature one.

Arundhati Roy is in my mind activist and business women. I guess she appeared from no where to sympathize terrorists and get some publicity for her books. I am pretty sure there must be another book coming soon where she needs cheap publicity.

That having been said, I’ve been bothered by something in the article, which I haven’t been able to put my finger on until just now. I’ve long been quite angry about the hypocricy of the stance various players in India are taking. For all the hot air that’s been coming out of Tamil Nadu about the “camps” the Sri Lankan Government is building, the conditions there are going to be far, far better than the conditions in which Tamil refugees live in India. I think what’s been bothering me is her failure to really address the miserable way in which India has treated the Tamils (all Sri Lankans, for that matter, but the Tamils most of all) and the sheer extent to which India is the cause of the current situation. This isn’t just RAW’s meddling, but the utterly cold-blooded way in which India’s used the grievances of the Sri Lankan Tamils to further its own short-term strategic ends, regardless of the cost to Sri Lanka (including to the Tamils, whose interests it’s supposedly been championing).

I suppose this means I’ve come around to a point of view that is not too far from yours! I still don’t quite agree with your suggestion of moral self-righteousness. What I’d have liked to see, I suppose, was calling for international pressure to be put not only on Sri Lanka, but also on India, because without the latter we’re only going to see temporary armistices in Sri Lanka, not a permanent peace.

Wrote more about it here: Vanni Mercy Mission Is A Cynical Ploy