Setting the hands of the clock right

The events of the past few weeks, while marking a dark phase of Tamil history and indelible shame on contemporary world leadership, have imperceptibly brought in new equations in global power politics.

The onslaught on Eelam Tamil liberation, wrongly chosen by a brutal alliance of the world to test the effectiveness of 'War on Terror' and the diplomatic con of 'Human Rights', aiming at world domination, not only backfired at the perpetrators, but has also paved way for the emergence of a counter alliance, worst in its outlook. The world will be witnessing the results very soon.

But, the unfortunate irony is that the Eelam Tamil question is always kept at the receiving end, as a 'punishment' for upholding the independence of the struggle.

The bias of the Indian Establishment towards the independence of Eelam Tamils and their liberation movement played a crucial role in keeping the genocidal Sri Lanka at the crest of the waves and the Tamils at the receiving end.

But this treacherous foreign policy of India is heading for the same disaster Krishna Menon led India into in the 50s and 60s on the question of Tibet and China.

The stubbornness of the Indian Establishment in refusing to recognise the need for the liberation of Eelam Tamils is what that paved way for the Co-Chairs meddling cum failure and the prolonged agony in the island. The 'punishment' meted out by India for Tamils accepting Co-Chairs mediation is massacre and incarceration.

Now, all those who were a party to the war crimes, especially the new Strategic Partners, India and China using UN, are busy in masking the war criminals and in abetting Colombo in treating all Tamils as Prisoners of War.

The camps and the 'rehabilitation' model adopted by Colombo and endorsed by the UN is explicit about it. The West backing a similar move in Pakistan's Swat Valley can afford to make only a verbal fuss of what is happening in the island, in making a whole nation as prisoners of war.

The trauma faced by Eelam Tamils everywhere, including in the diaspora, is immense. They have demonstrated a hitherto unseen solidarity with their cause. Now, their trauma has come to a stage of not merely denouncing all leaders of the world, but even cursing their own deities.

The world leadership, which didn't care for the will of the people didn't demonstrate its own will to bring in a solution either, other than confirming genocide. Therefore, the struggle is only further imposed on Eelam Tamils.

The sentiments expressed by the Eelam Tamils in the last few days show that they have not conceded 'victory' to Colombo.

The general thinking among them, is that the agenda for the catastrophe was set by the Indian Establishment with the connivance of M. Karunanidhi, and the coup de grace was served by the White House administration by its failure to act at the right time in doing what it was telling.

Tamils have still not seriously started thinking about the gravity of the treacherous roles played by China, Japan, Pakistan and some others.

The sentiments of the Eelam Tamils also show that Pirapaharan is not a mortal or physical entity, but a symbol for them. The symbol will be there and the 'file' cannot be closed as long as the issues are alive.

Colombo and the Indian Establishment, harping on the scenario created by them, are in a hurry to close the file and turn the hands of the clock backwards by talking about the implementation of the 13th Amendment as solution.

The Congress President Sonia Gandhi, even at the height of the election campaign, didn't move an inch from the 13th Amendment.

Tamils find it a mockery that it took decades of their struggle for India to come out with this half-baked solution and it took another two decades of bloodbath of Tamils just for India to talk about implementing it.

Adding insult to injury is Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram's statement of sending the Eelam Tamil refugees in India back to join the already incarcerated people in the camps and the open prisons in the island.

Meanwhile, Eelam Tamils closely watch the various circles that come out with different shades of political formulas as solution, with an excuse that independence and sovereignty to Eelam Tamils is impossible in this generation, as the present world doesn't have 'appetite' for new nation states.

India's Home Minister Chidambaram himself, slightly differing from his party chief, has called for a federal solution during his election campaign.

Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim advocates federal with 'some autonomy'.

The main political parties of Tamil Nadu have said Tamil Eelam is the solution. But, one has to wait and see whether they would be sticking to that agenda in practice.

Now it seems that some well-wishers in India are embarked upon promoting a confederation model.

While thanking good intention, what the Tamil circles wonder is that who is going to deliver these verbal proposals, when all leverages of Colombo are forfeited.

The reality faced by Tamils today is multifaceted genocide by Colombo.

Political circles in Colombo tell that no solution will be forthcoming until the demographic and structural genocide of Tamils are completed. When something in the name of a solution is finally delivered to hoodwink, it will be only symbolic.

The Eelam Tamils and their political representatives have no obligation to anyone now, to engage in the deliberations of fruitless alternatives.

But the world has an obligation now to tell the Tamils whether its opposition is to what it has perceived as 'terrorism' or to Tamil nationalism.

Whether the need for another armed struggle, more effective than ever, is going to be imposed upon the Tamils or not, lies very much on the responses of the International Community to the precarious situation created by it.

It is also the responsibility of the International Community now to demonstrate in deeds, and not in words, the viability of political alternatives in the context of Sri Lanka that has beyond any doubt proved its genocidal capabilities during the current war.

Everybody knows that without the de-construction of the Sri Lankan state and its concept of 'Sinhala Only' sovereignty, no viable alternative can emerge.

Therefore, the Tamils are not at all impressed by any of the empty statements and diplomatic deliberations of the IC pleading Sri Lanka drunk with 'victory' to come out with 'political solutions', unless the IC directly takes over the Tamil provinces without caring for Sri Lanka's sovereignty, in order to bring in a political solution satisfying the national aspirations of Tamils.

Leaving such matters to the conmen and the gullible, the Eelam Tamil mainstream has a historic responsibility on its shoulders to be performed right now, without wasting any time.

The foremost is the task of re-structuring the political struggle. All the anger, frustration and unfulfilled aspirations have to be now translated into positive energy of formulating a political idiom suitable enough for a global discourse to achieve liberation.

Among the very few classical as well as living cultures of humanity, such as the Chinese, Hebrews and Arabs, the Tamils, especially the Eelam Tamils, have become an endangered identity. The world neither protected them nor allowed them to protect themselves.

The response of Eelam Tamils to such a situation should suit their great cultural heritage.

If the present world system is working against them in toto and if the world doesn't have enough appetite to look into their righteous aspirations, then the Tamils matching to their civilisation should come out with introducing something innovative and creative to the world system itself.

If the oppression to their nationalism is trans-national, the Eelam Tamils have to respond by forming a trans-national government fully responsible to them based on democracy, to negotiate with the world and to look after their own affairs.

Needless to say, the appropriate beginning is re-mandating the fundamentals of Vaddukkoddai Resolution, and based on that democratically endorsed commitment, electing representatives for a trans-national assembly and government.

The Eelam Tamils democratically denouncing the shackles of Sri Lankan identity imposed on them is an important step.

Equally important is that the innovative models should originate from within the Eelam Tamil nation.

It may not be immediately possible to involve people who have no political freedom in the camps and in the open prisons in the island of Sri Lanka and people in the camps for over quarter a century in India.

But, the global Eelam Tamil diaspora is free to demonstrate this noble venture.

Eelam Tamils in Norway have already set a model for conducting democratic elections in diaspora context. A publication on the procedures experimented in Norway are awaited soon.

The Tamil request to the civilised world at this juncture is to support their democratic experiment and to listen to their democratic voices.