From Myths to Maths
by : Chandi Sinnathurai
NONE, not even one with an ounce of compassion should be able to sit on their posterior and go Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Multiple murders of civilians including children are becoming a daily affair.
The Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka aims to annihilate the Tamil Tigers first in the East and then in the North. Of course. The fact remains that it is not really the Tigers who gets shot down and booted out. It is THE CIVILIANS – the likes of you and me, who gets liquidated. Dead and very quickly erased from memory.
There needs to be some quiet reflection, reckoning and simple factual finger-counting. Since President Rajapaksha took hold of the reins of power, within a space of just 13 months, over 600 Tamil civilians have simply gone missing – “Involuntary disappearance.” Some 2,100 known cases of Tamil civilian killings have occurred on his watch. Myths about democracy, negotiations, federalism, provincial state, Interim self-governance ─ all of these discussions pale into insignificance in the context of continuing appalling human tragedy.
The worst of all, children are being murdered. Vaharai in the east, Tamils are being trapped and starved to death! Dare I add, like animals. If these were animals, the Animal Rights Movement in the West will make a lot of noise on their behalf – but in this case, its just Tamils in a distant land. Foreigners.
Truth is being systematically kidnapped.
It was Francis Fukuyama, the American Historian who wrote (‘The End of History?’ Summer 1989.) that the speed in which the spread of global democracy is happening is indeed a victory of consumer culture not as the triumph of an ideal. There is much to think through here. In every side there needs to be economic calculation. Whether we like it or not, both the Tamils and the Sinhalas are not immune to consumerism and its fan fare. Could it be, that in this world, there is now a ‘massive impoverishment of what we are as human beings’ without ideals. This must apply to both sides of the divide, more or less.
The Sinhala Armed Forces are in full swing in their killing spree. The Tigers have almost gone quiet – so it seems. 
I’m reminded here of Mohamed Ali. Ali was equally at his best out side the ring. He was a master at psychological warfare. He made his opposite number to punch, punch again and yet again in order to get him exhausted. He carefully covered himself and waited till he sapped the fighting power. He gave the impression that he is at the verge of losing. He worked the opponent to exhaustion. Ali made his opponent tired and weighed down until he “flew like a butterfly” with the knock-out punch. Master stroke.
Enough said.
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Keyword: Children.
Suggested reading: Shusaku Endo, Silence(1969).