War Theatre in Sri Lanka.
War is nothing new to Sri Lanka. If you enjoying reading those useless history books that we never learn anything from, you may have an idea us Sri Lankan has to face some sort of invasion from Indian subcontinent, every couple of hundred years. Just like Colman McCarthy once said about Pacific, we live in peace between wars, like being vegetarians between meals. I think it is the correct for any country you find on the world map or any other map not from this world, such as one from the Lord of the Rings.
War is an armed conflict that decide not who is right, but who is left at the end. It is more or less like a surgery. Bloody, painful and must not let come to it. But if you are unfortunate enough to engage in one, keep it short. If the current war in Sri Lanka is like any other war in human civilization, such as Peloponnesian War or Second World War, we should have seen an end to it long time back or at least last week when LTTE practically lost their military capabilities.
LTTE never had capacity to win a war with Sri Lankan army or any other actual army in that manner. Not back then, defiantly not now. This war started 25 years ago, when Michael Jackson used be black and top of the charts and even before Amy Winehouse was born. This dragged for so long because of two reasons. The first one been past Sri Lankan governments really didn’t want to end it. The second and most impotent one, defiantly the reason why the war did not end last week, because this is War Theatre, conducted front of live audience.
Audience of our War Theatre is western institutes such as Amnesty international or any western government that you may heard demanding human rights, ceasefire, media freedom and things in that nature, we all would like to have by the way. We do not hold parliamentary debits about Afghanistan or Iraq and demand ceasefire from British government like how British care to stop their daily activities early this month and debit about Sri Lanka and demanded a ceasefire.
"Why?", one of my friends asked me. Majority say it is the influence of Tamil Diaspora drive west to behave like that. Some say it is great conspiracy against Buddhism. But I think it none of above. I believe, It is the same reason that drives Nalin De Silva to criticize west even when he write about weather and it is the exact same reason some of our nationalistic bloggers find tremendous joy in economic misery in west. Buddha explained this behavior as “Maana” (මහා මානය, හීන මානය සහ සම මානය) in personal level and advice to be free from it. G.W.F. Hegel put it in broader social level, “We claim who we are by differentiating ourselves from others”. An obvious example, we may look at a bird and see, we don’t have feathers or wings and we don’t eat worms, so we are not birds and we are better. So does the west look at beyond the line they draw as west, define themselves from comparing to others, not in physical appearance but in their way of life and values. They believe they fought and won human rights, freedom of speech and such social values and therefore it is their organic values and others such as American Indians, Orients or Chinese or even Sri Lankans are inferior in such values, therefor they are the Westerners and Westerners are better. Just like our president have to say a Buddhist saying in UN meetings, British parliament have to debit about Sri Lanka, and about other countries, to remind their own selves, who they are.
The war didn’t ended as it naturally suppose to be, when LTTE lost their military capabilities, because LTTE find a way to manipulate this cultural sense of the west.
I don’t blame LTTE for that, because it is human nature to manipulate the environment for our benefit. For an example, if you are Tamil and poor, you cannot go to British high commission and apply for economic asylum and there is no such a thing call economic asylum, even when hunger more painful than lost of political freedom. But like someone commented in a previous post, you can burn your own hand and apply for political asylum and there you will get it. If you are a journalist, most probably they will not issue you visa to report British parliament debits, but they may grant you political asylum. This visa principle alone become a major reason for Sri Lankan war to continue, killing more than 70,000 humans, because it gave an opportunity for people to manipulate it and also west an opportunity to feel superior in the list of value that they use to claim who they are.
If it is not for west obsession of human rights, LTTE would not keep a human shield right now. The only reason LTTE do such a thing is not because they want protection, because they want to see civilians been harmed, so they can stimulate institutes such as Amnesty international. I don’t know who attacked the hospital last week, but LTTE stopped people from leaving the hospital because they wanted to show something dramatic to their audience. It is not only LTTE, reporters say how Harms leaders literally hide behind their own children and attract enemy fire in to dramatic locations like schools or hospitals. This is not war. This is War Theatre played for an audience. People like M.I.A goes around talking about genocide, not because we Sri Lankans stop our daily activity and go around killing Tamil people, because it is part of War Theatre. LTTE did not let civilians go, because it is part of War Theatre. Red Cross places an order of staggering amount of body bags not because they had to use it, because it is War Theatre.
LTTE will keep on manipulating their own people as long as they can, just to keep up their audience.
War is an armed conflict that decide not who is right, but who is left at the end. It is more or less like a surgery. Bloody, painful and must not let come to it. But if you are unfortunate enough to engage in one, keep it short. If the current war in Sri Lanka is like any other war in human civilization, such as Peloponnesian War or Second World War, we should have seen an end to it long time back or at least last week when LTTE practically lost their military capabilities.
LTTE never had capacity to win a war with Sri Lankan army or any other actual army in that manner. Not back then, defiantly not now. This war started 25 years ago, when Michael Jackson used be black and top of the charts and even before Amy Winehouse was born. This dragged for so long because of two reasons. The first one been past Sri Lankan governments really didn’t want to end it. The second and most impotent one, defiantly the reason why the war did not end last week, because this is War Theatre, conducted front of live audience.
Audience of our War Theatre is western institutes such as Amnesty international or any western government that you may heard demanding human rights, ceasefire, media freedom and things in that nature, we all would like to have by the way. We do not hold parliamentary debits about Afghanistan or Iraq and demand ceasefire from British government like how British care to stop their daily activities early this month and debit about Sri Lanka and demanded a ceasefire.
"Why?", one of my friends asked me. Majority say it is the influence of Tamil Diaspora drive west to behave like that. Some say it is great conspiracy against Buddhism. But I think it none of above. I believe, It is the same reason that drives Nalin De Silva to criticize west even when he write about weather and it is the exact same reason some of our nationalistic bloggers find tremendous joy in economic misery in west. Buddha explained this behavior as “Maana” (මහා මානය, හීන මානය සහ සම මානය) in personal level and advice to be free from it. G.W.F. Hegel put it in broader social level, “We claim who we are by differentiating ourselves from others”. An obvious example, we may look at a bird and see, we don’t have feathers or wings and we don’t eat worms, so we are not birds and we are better. So does the west look at beyond the line they draw as west, define themselves from comparing to others, not in physical appearance but in their way of life and values. They believe they fought and won human rights, freedom of speech and such social values and therefore it is their organic values and others such as American Indians, Orients or Chinese or even Sri Lankans are inferior in such values, therefor they are the Westerners and Westerners are better. Just like our president have to say a Buddhist saying in UN meetings, British parliament have to debit about Sri Lanka, and about other countries, to remind their own selves, who they are.
The war didn’t ended as it naturally suppose to be, when LTTE lost their military capabilities, because LTTE find a way to manipulate this cultural sense of the west.
I don’t blame LTTE for that, because it is human nature to manipulate the environment for our benefit. For an example, if you are Tamil and poor, you cannot go to British high commission and apply for economic asylum and there is no such a thing call economic asylum, even when hunger more painful than lost of political freedom. But like someone commented in a previous post, you can burn your own hand and apply for political asylum and there you will get it. If you are a journalist, most probably they will not issue you visa to report British parliament debits, but they may grant you political asylum. This visa principle alone become a major reason for Sri Lankan war to continue, killing more than 70,000 humans, because it gave an opportunity for people to manipulate it and also west an opportunity to feel superior in the list of value that they use to claim who they are.
If it is not for west obsession of human rights, LTTE would not keep a human shield right now. The only reason LTTE do such a thing is not because they want protection, because they want to see civilians been harmed, so they can stimulate institutes such as Amnesty international. I don’t know who attacked the hospital last week, but LTTE stopped people from leaving the hospital because they wanted to show something dramatic to their audience. It is not only LTTE, reporters say how Harms leaders literally hide behind their own children and attract enemy fire in to dramatic locations like schools or hospitals. This is not war. This is War Theatre played for an audience. People like M.I.A goes around talking about genocide, not because we Sri Lankans stop our daily activity and go around killing Tamil people, because it is part of War Theatre. LTTE did not let civilians go, because it is part of War Theatre. Red Cross places an order of staggering amount of body bags not because they had to use it, because it is War Theatre.
LTTE will keep on manipulating their own people as long as they can, just to keep up their audience.
posted by Sam at
11:12 AM
7 Comments:
Human rights are not something just the West cares about. It's in our constitution, so it is law in Sri Lanka. If Sri Lankans don't want to respect HR then we should repeal those passages in the constitution. A government must keep to it's own laws.
As far as the civilians trapped in the Wanni are concerned, are you suggesting the government has the right to bomb them just because the LTTE is hiding among them? I cannot agree with this. Those people are Sri Lankan civilians who have the right to protection under this government. The same right that gives our government the authority to go into those lands means that the government has a responsibility to protect those people, despite what the LTTE does. The LTTE, as the government says, is a terrorist organisation and the government is trying to liberate the civilians. Therefore, they have to stick to a much higher code of conduct than the LTTE.
perfect sam. The west want to see us as helpless so they can sympathize us and feel some self respect. You are right, that is why they discuss about us so much.
When Mumbai and New York got attacked we felt some joy. Not by the killings of the innocent, but because a powerful nation also got attacked by the terrorists, deep within us we felt that we are not so bad after all.
I just want to thank you for that intelligent comment you left on chitrangi. The 3 million dollar thing.
well...you may be quite rite, but then again we cant deny the fact that a lot of tamils in the north support LTTE, may be its because they dont have a choice but u cant always say that the people are being held hostage...
They may want to be with the LTTE who knows....
realskullzero.. Actually I like to think it is true. Tamil in north like to stay with LTTE. But it is not the truth. Today LTTE punished those Tamils who left LTTE’s control. Those people have no choice. This sucks.
@Liberal Lanka Stop for a moment and ask yourself how LTTE was formed at first place.
Reading through Srilankan history post 1940, it is quite apparent that LTTE was not a unilateral device of terror in Srilanka. Also wasnt its formation inevitable when after British left your country , you denied legitimate rights to Tamils there? All these historical facts are there in history. Stop blaming west for what is essentially your own creation.
LTTE will lose now because it has become evil, because it long back lost all support of others. Because it became more terror than so called independence it was fighting for.
undercover Indian,
Put this in perspective, while blacks were struggling for voting rights, be served in restaurants or sit front of the bus, Tamils were comfortably demanding 50% voting rights in the parliament. Isn’t that how all this started?
I don’t deny the fact we ill-treat Tamils time and time again, it is a fact, every minority in everywhere in the world, blacks in US, Muslims in Gujarath or Tamils in SL get their ass-kicked and they have to fight to win rights, right that eventually become rights of everyone.
Now, can you say why “America” didn’t created black LTTE even when Americans back then treating blacks more harshly and brutally than Tamils or why Gujarath didn’t create Muslim LTTE? I have my own thoughts about that, but I rather like to see outside perspective.
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