Non-Violence : Tiger's New Hope!!!

Its official now: the Tamil Tigers have pledged to give up violence which they inherited and embraced from the Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976. Tamil leaders in the diaspora – the last refuge of Prabhakaranist politics wrapped in the Tiger flag – are urging their followers to focus their energies now in “re-mandating the Vadukoddai Resolution through unblemished popular politics.” (TamilNet Sunday May 24, 2009). Sivarasa Pathmanathan (KP), the last remaining Tiger spokesman, has confirmed this in a signed statement.

BBC News (Sunday, May 24, 2009) also announced that Pathmanathan in a telephone interview had said: “Prabhakaran had died on 17 May but did not give details of the circumstances. Mr Pathmanathan said the Tigers would now use non-violent methods to fight for the rights of Tamils. "We have already announced that we have given up violence and agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the Tamil (self) determination of our people," he said. The BBC added: “The statement called on Tamils all over the world to "restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief".

This statement comes a bit too late for the 70,000 Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and non-Sri Lankans like Rajiv Gandhi who died as a result of the violence declared unilaterally in the Vadukoddai Resolution. Nevertheless, it is most welcome even at this late stage because there is no alternative to peace for any productive political process.

The timing of this statement is also significant: it has come simultaneously with the admission by the Tiger loyalists that Prabhakaran is dead. After all, he was their chosen instrument of violence and no one is there in the horizon to take on his role. Besides, without another Prabhakaran there is no future for violent Tamil politics. He was the epitome of the most brutal violence that reduced his own people to subhuman levels. He was the evil genius that came out of the womb of Jaffna. With the whole world denouncing Tamil violence the only way to redeem the Tamils and regain their lost image in the eyes of the world is to renounce violence.

Ending of violence is also a pragmatic approach to the future of Tamil politics that had gone astray and landed in a dead-end. With the Sri Lankan forces positioned now as the most effective military outfit to combat peripheral violence challenging the centre it will be suicidal once again for any minority leadership to go down the failed path of Prabhakaran.

Besides, returning to violence would have been counter-productive to the Tigers (or whatever is left of it) because it will not take them anywhere near the goal of a separate state. Prabhakaran had failed to deliver his promise even when he was at the peak of his power. What chances have the Tiger loyalists to achieve it after he was defeated? Hopefully, Pathmanathan’s statement is a sign that the Tamils do not want to make the same mistake twice. It also amounts to an admission of the fact that Tamil violence has been a failure, though a new rhetoric is being manufactured once again to elevate Prabhakaran into mythic proportions of an “incomparable leader who did not abandon the people to the last”.

On the positive side, if total peace dawns with this statement, then it would remove all excuses for the so-called international community (IC) to poke their unwanted fingers in the Sri Lankan pie. The fear was that hidden Tigers would resort to sporadic violence targeting strategic political, economic and military targets to keep the ghost of Prabhakaran alive and kicking. But if the statement of Pathmanathan, the anointed legatee of Prabhakaran, is to be taken seriously then the foreseeable future has the potential to open up an era of peace and prosperity equaling, if not surpassing, that of Singapore.

The combined pool of multicultural talent, as demonstrated in the Sri Lankan cricket team, is hard to beat. Most of all, the war-weary Tamils, who had faced the brunt of this futile war, will derive maximum benefits from peace. Returning to normalcy, after leading nomadic lives in make-shift camps alone would be a blessing without having to sacrifice their children or their blood for an elusive dream. It also reassures the rest of the nation that their nightmare is over. It will put an end to the common fear that though the Tigers were defeated they will continue to carry on a subterranean warfare through hit-and-run violence.

This commitment to non-violence, if true, should guarantee President Rajapakse the breathing space he needs for bringing the nation together through reconciliation and rebuilding of the war-torn nation.

Though the comprehensive defeat of the Tigers and the latest statement that Tamil politics intends to return to the democratic stream adopting non-violent parliamentary processes augurs well for the future there is still a menacing threat in the Tamil agenda as stated by the various spokespersons.

The war-weary nation will hope that it will not come to that. The nation can heave a sigh of great relief in hearing the words of Pathmanathan who says that they “have given up violence and agreed to enter a democratic process to achieve the rights for the Tamil (self) determination of our people." This is the icing topping the victory cake of President Mahinda Rajapakse. This is a direct result of his pulling out the claws and the teeth of the Tigers. By de-territorializing and de-militarizing the Tigers he has taken away the option of violence available to them and re-directed Tamil politics to return to parliamentary non-violence – a principle which was abandoned when the Jaffna elite passed the infamous Vadukoddai Resolution.

So it can be argued that after the first great victory of defeating the Tigers militarily, the deflecting of Tamil politics into non-violence is the second great victory of President Mahinda Rajapakse. This reversal of Tamil politics could have come only as a result of the total liquidation of the Tiger leadership and its killing machine. The Security Forces that chopped the head off left no room for the tail to wag. The total annihilation of the Tiger leadership, the destruction of the pseudo-state of Eelam, the deprivation of their claims to territory, the decimation of the Tiger cadres, and the demolition of their killing machine along with its military hardware had delivered the final blow to Tamil violence, leaving no room for them to return to the gory (not glory) days of violence.

The promise of Tigers to return to the democratic stream is another proof of the capacity of the Sri Lankan state to weather violent storms. First President Ranasinghe Premadasa crushed decisively the fascist terrorists of the south when the Sri Lankan forces captured Rohana Wijeweera, the JVP leader. Once the head was decapitated the tail returned to parliamentary politics. President Mahinda Rajapakse has won even a greater victory in defeating the fascist terrorists of the north. He crushed not only the head of the Tamil Tigers but the entire killing machine, leaving hardly any ammunition in their armoury to wage a war.