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Demand of Discipline
The decimation of TELO and EPRLF and later Tamil National Army (TNA),
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by the LTTE, between 1986 and 1990 had to be interpreted along these
lines. There was much agony among the Eelam Tamils for deterioration of
discipline, especially after the introduction of ‘gun culture’ in the early
1980s. But, discipline in the island’s public life per se had begun to
disintegrate two decades before that, when the Sinhalese politicians wrongly
believed that the maniacal mantra ‘Ape Anduwa’ (Our Government) would
serve as the panacea for their lack of tact and leadership skills.
Demand of Discipline
The curse of post-independent Sri Lankan politics is the lack of discipline
among the politicians who became the representatives of people. This came
to be felt strongly since the ascension of Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the prime
minister. The only Sinhalese politician of note who cared for a little dose of
discipline, when he was offered the proverbial ‘power-stick’ was that
irrepressible eccentric Wijayananda Dahanayake. He even dictated, during
his short tenure of power (late 1959 to early 1960) following the
assassination of padre Bandaranaike, that the ‘D’ in his name stood for
‘discipline’. He was a school teacher during colonial times, before he
plunged into politics in mid 1940s. Thus, Dahanayake knew something
about the value of discipline. When the SLFP kitchen-plotters couldn’t
stand the heat generated by Dahanayake, they dumped him in early 1960
and with that, the essential ingredient which could have saved the island was
also thrown out. Rather than the importance given to ‘the country’, ‘the
people’, and even ‘the party’, the key-word in the SLFP came to be ‘family’
(read it as, Bandaranaike family) and with that Ceylon’s future as a viable
and productive country was sealed.
When Dahanayake cared about discipline, he was in his late 50s, and
Pirabhakaran was only 6 years old. The only island leader, following
Dahanayake, who cared about discipline came to be Pirabhakaran, and when
he instilled the significance of discipline for his cadres, he himself was youth
in his 20s. In his strong adherence to discipline, Pirabhakaran stands
peerless among other Sri Lankans. But other successful freedom fighters
(Mahatma Gandhi for instance) have instructed their followers on the
importance of discipline. Arm chair critics, bourgeoise scholars and
pretentious Poo Bahs who are more literate, but less intelligent than
Pirabhakaran, fault the LTTE leader for his monkish demands in discipline
highlighted by ‘No smoking, No drinking and No sex’ for his cadres.
To assess the success of Pirabhakaran’s discipline, I provide two features
which have appeared in the Time magazine (Asian edition), in a span of six
years.
1. Edward Desmond’s feature entitled, ‘Inside the Tiger Mind’ (Time
magazine, Sept.16, 1991)
2. Tim McGirk’s report from Jaffna entitled, ‘Running Away from the
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Inside the Tiger Mind: Tamil fighters are forged from discipline,
nationalism and worship of their leader
[Time magazine, Asian edition, Sept.16, 1991]
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years ago about the Tigers’ heavy-handed tactics. One of the academics
was shot dead; the others went into hiding in Colombo.
But the weapon of fear alone does not explain the Tigers’ success.
Firm resolve is instilled during intense training and indoctrination. Says
Prabhakaran: ‘Commitment comes from strictly enforced discipline’.
The guerrillas, men and women alike, are not allowed to drink, smoke
or have sex. Anything but unquestioning acceptance of the Tiger credo
– to be loyal to Prabhakaran and to fight and sacrifice body, life and
soul to achieve an independent state of Tamil Eelam – is taboo. Small
infractions result in humiliating tongue lashings, usually in front of
other Tigers; severe offenses such as rape, murder or bribe taking bring
an instant death sentence. Last month a Tiger who had killed a civilian
in a dispute was publicly executed.
Tigers are expected to live austerely. They have no personal
possessions except their weapon and a change of clothes. Family ties
are cut; the new family is the Tiger legion. A Tiger’s weapon, usually
an AK-47, becomes the most important object in his life. The guerrillas
are warned never to let the rifle touch the ground; they are told that at
least 10 comrades might have died in the effort to capture it. Says
Anton Balasingham, a spokesman for the guerrillas; ‘We teach them to
transcend their egos and material pleasure, to subordinate their lives to
a noble cause.’
Discipline is effective because the Tigers’ cause, in the minds of the
typically poor and middle-class young Tamils they recruit, is just. The
Tigers demand the creation of Eelam; they are convinced that the
ethnic Sinhalese who dominate Sri Lanka’s population and government
will not give the Tamil minority a fair share in education, jobs and
government. Over and over, recruits are told of atrocities by the Sri
Lankan army, a point driven home by propagandists who produce
pictures of mutilated bodies and describe torture in horrifying detail.
The Tigers develop a passionate veneration of Prabhakaran, their
36-year-old political and military leader. There is Prabhakaran the war
hero, who led the now famous ambush of a Sri Lankan army patrol in
1983 that touched off the Tamil-Sinhalese war. There is Prabhakaran
the incorruptible, who refuses to deviate from his goal of Eelam despite
military pressure from India, despite offers of money and power from
Colombo and New Delhi that turned the heads of less resolute Tamil
leaders. There is also the Prabhakaran who embodies the spirit of a
glorious Tamil past, especially the Chola dynasty, a line of belligerent
kings in southern India who in the 11th century invaded what is now
northern India, Java, Sumatra and Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran plays on
such history in political classes; he borrowed the Tiger symbol from
the Cholas’ imperial crest.
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It is in the end Prabhakaran whose will binds the Tigers. His followers
call him Annai, or elder brother, and talk of him with wide-eyed awe,
their only far the possibility that they might let him down. ‘He is
mother, father and god all rolled into one’, says a guerrilla named
Sunil. Government soldiers tell of a badly wounded female Tiger they
captured at Elephant Pass. Her dying words were not a call for mother
but for ‘Annai, Annai’. [p.20]
For reasons of shock, slant and surprise as well as due to deadline pressure,
journalists are known to use words and phrases which sometimes appear less
accurate, unless the context and nuance is understood clearly. In the above
sketch on Tiger psychology, some specific citations need comment. First,
Desmond describes that ‘firm resolve is instilled during intense training and
indoctrination’. Here, ‘indoctrination’ is not the appropriate word. By the
same yardstick, my daytime job also involves ‘indoctrination’ – teaching
undergraduate and graduate students the discipline of lab research and
related protocols. I also ‘indoctrinate’ students about how to communicate
effectively with non-Japanese and even with laboratory rats. Secondly,
details on the mention of ‘the group of Jaffna University professors’ who
complained about the ‘Tigers’ heavy-handed tactics’ was also technically
inaccurate in that only four individuals made that ‘group’, and none of them
were ‘professors’ at that time, by the American or British criteria of
academics.
Tim McGirk’s 1997 report presents a Sri Lankan army’s foot soldier, who is
on the run. He was also upset that his discipline-challenged superiors stole
his food ration.
“Corporal Rana is on the run. A tank gunner, Rana, 26, is one of the
Sri Lankan army’s 23,000 deserters. He fidgets with a lucky amulet
hanging around his neck, one that has shielded him in battle against the
Tamil Tigers and, more recently, from arrest by military police. He was
not the only soldier to go AWOL [absence without leave] from his
800-man unit; Rana reckons 300 others slipped away into the jungle or
simply never returned from home leave. After serving nine straight
months inside a war zone, facing a fanatical enemy who embraces
martyrdom on the battlefield, Rana (not his real name) couldn’t take it
any longer. Besides, he says, the officers stole his food rations. So
during a furlough, Rana ran away. Now he spends his time at his
parents’ village home, dodging the police and teasing his hair out into a
‘50s-style quiff. ‘This amulet? A Buddhist monk made it for me before
I went away to war’, says Rana, still fingering the tiny golden cylinder.
‘There’s a prayer inside. It’s supposed to guard me.’
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The punch-line that the officer who stole the food rations of foot soldier
Rana also deserted the Sri Lankan army is humorous and ironic. It reveals
that the officers in the Sri Lankan army may have surplus food and drinks,
but they starve from surplus dose of discipline.
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What is Discipline?
The 1991 feature on LTTE mentions about the importance of discipline to
its success. That the Sri Lankan army couldn’t break the backbone of LTTE,
during the passage of ten years vindicates the beliefs and claims of
Pirabhakaran related to discipline. What in fact is discipline?
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1. “LTTE is also clear that the ideal woman remains a virgin; sexuality
is seen as an evil, debilitating force… Self-sacrifice, austerity and
androgyny are put forward as ideals.”
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Mahatma Gandhi has shown the lead in this adoptive strategy and
Pirabhakaran has followed the steps of Gandhi, in inculcating sexual
discipline among his cadres. In one of his early works, to appear in print, (‘A
Guide to Health’, originally published in Madras by S.Ganesan in 1921),
Gandhi preached about sexual discipline. Following passages are excerpted
from the chapter on Sexual Relations:
“Many are the keys to health, and they are all quite essential: but the
one thing needful, above all others, is Brahmacharya… What do we
mean by Brahmacharya? We mean by it that men and women should
refrain from enjoying each other. That is to say, they should not touch
each other with a carnal thought, they should not think of it even in
their dreams. Their mutual glances should be free from all suggestion
of carnality. The hidden strength that God has given us should be
conserved by rigid self-discipline, and transmuted into energy and
power not merely of body, but also of mind and soul.” [Mahatma
Gandhi, The Health Guide, 1965 edition, pp.145-166]
This Health Guide of Gandhi, first appeared when he was 42, and a quarter
century before India received its independence. Ms. Coomaraswamy’s
lament on the ‘celebration of death’ seen among the LTTE women has been
answered by Gandhi 80 years ago, as follows:
Kindly note that Gandhi had used the word brahmachari in a gender-
neutral context. His healthy advice on sexual discipline seems more relevant
for achievers, considering the pathos in the careers of John F.Kennedy and
Bill Clinton, who were found lacking in this component.
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