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Pirabhakaran’s ‘Judgement’
Leave it to Bertrand Russell for explaining in simple sentences, the distilled
essence of principles in logic and life. Here is one of his gems about what we
usually call as ‘judgement’ – a gift few leaders are blessed with.
“One of the most important parts of education, and one of the most
neglected, is that which teaches how to reach true conclusions on
insufficient data. As a logician I am conscious of uttering what is,
in strict logic, mere nonsense when I say this; nevertheless all
success in practical life depends upon ability to perform this
apparently impossible feat. The successful general is the one who
guesses correctly what his opponent will do; the successful
organizer is the one who can choose good subordinates after brief
interviews. Even the successful man of science makes a guess,
which afterwards is verified. In politics, the data are hardly ever
sufficient to enable a rational man to reach a reasoned conclusion,
but they are often such as to enable a man who is both rational and
shrewd to reach a sagacious conclusion. To do this, requires the
scientific absence of bias and power of hypothetical thought, but it
requires also something else – that quality which is vaguely called
‘judgement’.”
[Russell, in Education and the Social Order, 1932, p.227]
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Implications-wise, among these three outcomes, the first one was positive;
the second one was neutral; and the third one was negative. Two reasons
allow me to mark the second outcome (Expansion of the Sri Lankan Army)
in the neutral column. First, LTTE also benefited to an extent from the
capture of arms stored in the military camps which fell to them, thus
subsidizing their own armament purchase budget. Secondly, it accelerates
the process of ‘breaking the will of the Sinhalese foot-soldiers’ to fight an
unwanted war, despite the prodding by desk-top generals and the jingoist
vultures of their society.
How many other Sri Lankan politicians (prime ministers and presidents,
both past and present) had their faces presented in the first page of New
York Times. Probably none. Or, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike could be the
only one other than Pirabhakaran to receive such coverage in 1960. This is
my conjecture, and need to be verified in the Times archives.
On August 5, 1987, the lead editorial of the New York Times carried the
caption, ‘Going for Broke in Sri Lanka’. Commenting on the then recently
announced Rajiv Gandhi-Jayewardene Peace Accord of 1987, the
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editorialist mused,
The New York Times editorialist was naïve to expect such ‘a modicum of
sanity’ among the politicians and the Intelligence agencies of India and Sri
Lanka. Thus, both tests mentioned by him failed miserably, and the political
game of ‘Going for Broke in Sri Lanka’ is still being passionately played out
in Colombo.
Pirabhakaran was neither a Cabinet minister nor a titular head of Sri Lanka;
he was neither an author nor a banker; he was neither an entertainer nor a
Nobelist. Still, he made it to the International Who’s Who on his own
merits as a ‘guerrilla leader’.
A more objective indicator on the success of any leader, any idea or any
movement comes from the recognition received, not in regular mass media,
but in history books or other reliable reference sources such as dictionaries
and encyclopedias. Hundreds of politicians capture attention of the media
by devious means (Pirabhakaran’s critics such as Subramanian Swamy,
Lakshman Kadirgamar are good examples in this game.) But what counts
ultimately is how their deeds are inscribed in the historical sources, for
reflection, study and remembrance by the posterity.
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dictionary, under the term ‘Tamil Tigers, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE)’. This recognition was made, obviously due to LTTE’s relevance in
the South Asian politics since mid-1980s and its confrontation with the
Indian army during the 1987-89 period. It is interesting to note that none of
the other Sri Lankan political leaders receive any recognition in this
dictionary. Compared to the entry on ‘Tamil Tigers’, there is a half-page
entry on ‘non-aligned movement’ and an eight-line entry on ‘Bandung
Conference’ and even under these two entries, the names of padre
Bandaranaike or Sirimavo Bandaranaike are missing.
I list these more than 20 movements to indicate that LTTE, as its detractors
and adversaries want to deny, is a liberation movement and shares quite a
number of distinct features which are common to many of its sister
organizations formed in the 20th century in other countries. In the eyes of
their oppressors, all these movements (many which were older than LTTE)
carried the label of ‘terrorists’.
Total armed forces: some 48,000, including active reservists. Army = 40,000
including recalled reservists; Navy = 5,500; Air Force = 3,700.
To explain how the Sri Lankan army has expanded, I provide a longitudinal
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scan of Sri Lankan news items I have gathered, since the Indian army packed
up and left the island. First, a 1990 Reuter news commentary from my files.
It was authored by Feizal Samath, from Colombo. Excerpts:
Five months later, after Ranjan Wijeratne’s departure from the scene,
S.Sivanayagam, the then editor of Tamil Nation monthly, wrote a sarcasm-
tinged editorial on the expansion of the Sri Lankan army. It is worth a
re-read for its splendid distillation on the history of a laboring army, from
1948 to 1990. But, this editorial will never be read by the Sri Lankan army’s
fresh recruits. Excerpts:
“Have you noticed? – the plethora of Army Generals that Sri Lanka
has been producing lately? With pips, stars, medals, ribbons and the
whole trappings?… How did Sri Lanka manage to give birth to so
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Year Defence % of
Expenditure Government
($ million) Expenditure
“Sri Lankans have a sense of exhaustion. Now in its eleventh year, the
war between government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) who are fighting for a separate state in the north is
slowly bleeding the country. Keeping the guerrillas at bay costs $1
million a day and siphons off most of the rewards of the country’s
burgeoning economy. Strain on the army has a taken a harsh toll.
Suicide and desertion are common…” [Asiaweek, July 27, 1994,
pp.20-22]
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Sinhalese by donning the peace mask. But what happened during the last
seven years is best told by the bulging numbers of army generals and their
foot soldiers. At the end of 2000, the Sri Lankan armed forces has been
expanded, according to the US State Department’s Country Reports on
Human Rights –2000 (Sri Lanka), as follows:
And, when the then Deputy Defense Minister G.L.Peiris, while presenting
the Budget Appropriation Bill in the Sri Lankan parliament on February 8,
2001, recorded that the military spending for the year 2001 had leapt to 63
billion rupees (= 720 million dollars, at the currency exchange rate of $1 =
88 rupees). This staggering amount, according to the Ceylon Daily News
report of Feb.9, 2001, is being split into four components as follows:
Army - $2,765
Navy - $5,519
Air Force - $6,572
Now the Sri Lankan ‘composite’ army (consisting of army, navy and air
force personnel numbering 155,500 individuals) bills itself as the biggest
‘employer’ in Sri Lanka.
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a perennially sick person. What was responsible for the Sri Lankan army to
be assessed in such contemptuous terms? – a larger share of credit should go
to Pirabhakaran’s ‘judgement’. One should also not discount the ineptitude
leadership of Anuruddha Ratwatte and paranoia of Chandrika Kumaratunga.
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In the last quarter of 2001, the partisan press which had serenaded
Chandrika and pilloried Pirabhakaran during 1995-97, has turned around
and unabashedly pricks the façade of Chandrika’s peace mask. ‘Arrogance
of Power’ stated a reecent editorial caption in the Island newspaper of
Colombo. ‘Authoritarian disdain’ lamented the self-righteous Hindu
newspaper of Chennai. Let me cite the relevant passages from these two
editorials:
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Editorial 1:
“Innumerable reasons can be cited for the collapse of the People’s
Alliance government within one year. They could all be summed up in
a single expression – arrogance of power. President Kumaratunga and
her government simply did not give a damn about what was said about
her and her government and proceeded to rule on the presumption of
being blessed with eternal power…
The 1994 election manifesto’s pledges were soon forgotten. Pledges
such as to bring down the cost of living, cleanse public life, conduct a
transparent government, end political interference in the public service
and end abuse of power by politicians, all fell by the wayside. Its
ventriloquism on the North-East conflict – promoting anti-war
campaigns such as the islandwide Tawalama campaign while at the
same time appealing for recruits for the armed services and escalating
the war, not only resulted in military disasters but also took for granted
that the masses were naïve enough to believe their propaganda…”
[Colombo Island editorial, Oct.12, 2001]
Editorial 2:
“…the President Ms.Chandrika Kumaratunga, has once again acted
with authoritarian disdain for political propriety by dissolving
parliament with unseemly haste in a cynical attempt to confound her
opponents… it is evident that she has soft-pedaled in respect of several
economic and political policies including her one-time preference for a
quick and fair resolution of Sri Lanka’s national question about the
rights of the Tamil people….” [Chennai Hindu editorial, Oct.13, 2001]
“My companion seated on the same bench started off with a veritable
pithy statement – ‘Balloon eka pipuruwa’ – the balloon has burst…
All of those who ran the show, from the apex, centre and periphery
exerted their energies to inflate the balloon. With nothing substantial,
but just a volume of hot air – ‘Ralu Hulang’.
Swollen pride, false utterances, deceptive tactics, incessant ‘mafia’ talk
from a spokesperson nicknamed ‘mafia man’ multiple – duplicity and
contradictory views were the order of the day and these would gather
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greater momentum once again in the run upto the upcoming elections
as well.
They inflated their balloon to such unlimited uncontrollable extent
that it burst with a bang – exploded with cataclysmic sound and
fury….” [Island, Colombo, Oct.23, 2001]
While Mr. Dassanayake’s letter had appeared, I doubt that a letter I wrote to
the same Island newspaper last week about Pirabhakaran’s judgement on
Chandrika Kumaratunga will be published. It was about Pirabhakaran, Sri
Lankan army and the hypocrisy of Colombo’s partisan press. Thus I
reproduce relevant excerpts of this letter sent by email on October 19.
The Editor,
Island,
Colombo.
Dear Mr.Weerakoon:
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All three themes are inter-related and available literature remains scattered. I
will try to analyze the material, which I have gathered during the past
decade (Continued)
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