Sunday Leader Column: Article 14
The late editor of the Sunday Leader.
I’ve started writing a column for the Sunday Leader (the late Lasantha’s paper). The first one is out this Sunday, being today. I generally avoid the local papers, because I don’t want to spend the day weeping uncontrollably. But I suppose i’ll venture out to the kade. The article is online anyways. I think the Leader is third in circulation behind the Observer (for the classifieds) and the Sunday Times, but it’s always been first in balls. I actually edit the stuff I do for Montage or now the Sunday Leader, so it’s a different form of writing. I find it much more difficult, blog I just type and hit publish, but print requires more thought, research, and fact-checking. We shall see. It’s called Article 14.
I was born in 1982 and I have never known a Sri Lanka without war. I have never known a life free of terrorism. I have never known a state that was not in Emergency, nor the full benefits of our constitution. I was born at the same time as our tragic riots and the rise of the LTTE. I have seen them take a real Tamil struggle and pervert it into a suicide pact run by criminals. I have seen them blacken youth and send them to die in charred buses and planes, with the wreckage of the innocent. (read more)
Also, the Point Pedro economist Sarvi has an interesting piece on MIA
Good pieces, by you and Sarvi.
First of all sorry for not mentioning my name. You know, if I open my mouth then next day I’ll be taken away in white van.
Your article was interesting but I’d like bring in some points.
//I like to think that northern and eastern youth want the same.//
They want to preserve their identity and wanna live in their homeland without being disturbed by anyone.. it can be either LTTE or SL army who can’t speak a word in Tamil.
//Yet the people I see screaming ‘Eelam or Bust!’ are quite safe and comfortable abroad. //
100% True
//The LTTE has killed Sinhala leaders, Tamil leaders, Indian leaders, and countless civilians.//
As far as I know, they’ve killed only one leader in India, which turned out to be the mass mistake LTTE has ever done.
You’ve written well about LTTE’s dark site but you simply with a sentence you skip the discrimination faced by Tamils in Sri Lanka.
For your information, Just like LTTE, SL forced acted cruelly when they captured Jaffna. Tamil youths were killed, women were raped, and massive number of Tamils disappeared. You must know why Tamil people see SL forces as some occupational forces but not as a real heroes or saviors.
Being a Tamil I can hardly walk in Street. Everywhere SL army check my ID and see I’m a Tamil and first question is what are you doing in Colombo as I can’t come to Colombo. Each and every citizen of Sri Lanka has right to move anywhere he wishes to move.
Once Mihin’s forces defeated LTTE will you guarantee me followings?
1. Sinhalese will not be given land in north and east for free so that Tamil will be minority in those areas? (This is one of the reasons for Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka)
2. There will not be another Black July?
3. Mahinda’s monkey brigade Pillayan, Karuna, Douglas will not harass and get ransom from innocent Tamils, kill people for talking against them, etc.?
When I talk like this, first comment come to me is, “Umma niyama kottiyek ban!!!†So I rather keep my mouth shut and keep my family safe.
@ Indi – Concisely thought out. But is it fact or fiction? As it’s in first person and 26 years of your life was spent in Sri Lanka? I understand that your teenage and young adult life was in the west? Please do clarify.
Article per say I agree with you.
@someone – I fully agree with you that Tamil Sri Lankans do suffer in Sri Lanka. What I derived from Indi’s article is that did the LTTE really make it better or was a fight for a separation from the Sri Lanka Country apparatus better handled through dialogue and proper international intervention?
Please do not forget;
- Jaffna was a thriving commercial capital prior to LTTE. In fact it was only second to Colombo.
- 99% of the Tamil scholars and businessman fled to Colombo to escape the LTTE.
- Take every private company in Sri Lanka. There is at least one Tamil represented there.
- The professionals who fled to the west where they now do very well, have no sympathy for the LTTE and any support for the LTTE is largely as even in the west their support is through force.
- The LTTE did kill most of the committed political leaders in Sri Lanka. When we watch any international news channel and see Sri Lankan coverage the lack of intelligentsia to articulate the Tamil or Sinhala sides to the conflict is sad, pathetic. Why? The Kadiragama’s, Thriuchelvams, Athulathmudali’s… were all assassinated by the LTTE.
How can you articulate a sustainable solution and rights of the Tamil when even your ex-freedom fighters have been lured to mainstream politics by what ever means necessary.
I draw your attention to Malcolm X – Any means necessary. The current government right or wrong have adopted this same policy. AS DID THE LTTE.
The SLGov have finally won enough battles to win the war. Please do not confuse the rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka vs. Terrorism by the LTTE.
It’s sad that the Tamil’s no longer have any leaders who can intelligently articulate their needs. It’s sad that the Tamil diaspora who support the LTTE cannot accept that it’s over. Finished. Lets work towards finding a sustainable political non-violent solution.
The fat lady has sung.
I don’t think it implies that I was in Sri Lanka the whole time. The verb is ‘known’. I’ve only been in Sri Lanka from about 1984-1986 and 2004-now.
Oh my goodness me Indi the rightful journo to inherit the Lasantha throne.
As for the DD, just a few questions.
Who killed Joseph Parajasingham on Christmas Eve ?
What do you mean we don’t have any leaders, we’ve got Karuna. Come on Indi, here’s your chance do an expose on him, lead the way, nail that child recruiting bastard, gang raping moron.
What Sri Lankans with half a brain cannot and will not accept (including more and more of the rest of the world) is that what is happening to Tamil Civilians is Genocide and closet racists like you are quietly pleased about it.
If anyone is stupid enough to think that the LTTE are hanging around to get done over by the GOSL thats fine but I doubt it. They are long gone. It’s the innocents that are now coping the worst of it. While Indi tries to elevate himself to some sort of glorified opposition spokesperson status.
Crap.
good piece. interesting read..
both articles were great.. good job guys.