Beyond Tigerism in Sri Lanka

HE Sri Lankan state must have had a laugh when a section of pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) Tamils finally accepted that their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, indeed perished in 2009.

- M R NARAYAN SWAMY

To Colombo, it would have been amusing that a section wedded to the Tigers' ideology was still refusing to accept the bitter truth: that the LTTE founder-leader was killed 15 years ago by the Sri Lankan military, debilitating the once-feared outfit and ending a long war that almost broke the island nation.

The choreographed event on August 2 at Basel in Switzerland, where hundreds gathered to commemorate Prabhakaran's death, was itself a reflection of the self-defeating politics LTTE pursued. Prabhakaran was an insurgent leader who was kept fictionally alive by followers for reasons that are often obfuscated.

So, why did Prabhakaran's fans behave thus? The main reason was perhaps a loss of face. The LTTE had portrayed Prabhakaran as a 'sun god' who would deliver a free Tamil Eelam and could not be vanquished. Thus, even when blames were being apportioned for the LTTE's rout, it was conjured up that he had escaped from Sri Lanka and would return to fight another day. A few politicians in Sri Lanka and India contributed to keep the fantasy alive.

Meanwhile, unscrupulous former LTTE elements living in the West enriched themselves by duping gullible Tamils that money was needed for the upkeep of Prabhakaran, his wife and their only daughter living incognito. If this was not enough, a young lady surfaced on social media claiming to be Prabhakaran's daughter.