The Power of Myth in
Fascism: The transformation of a section of ordinary peaceful Sri Lankan Tamils, particularly those with a Hindu background, into a violent and blood-thirsty terrorist organization, has defied rational explanation in normal terms. The Tamil population, except for the traditional smuggling community, from which the LTTE leader Piribakharan emerged, was a very law-abiding and peace-loving one. Jaffna, the center of traditional Sri Lankan Tamil society, was the most conservative society in Sri Lanka, with a rigid hierarchical social structure (albeit with some obnoxious features like the caste system) and a veneration for learning and authority. How could such people produce mass murderers who specialize in attacking innocent populations in villages, temples or trains, suicide bombers who assassinate politicians, and children and young girls who sacrifice themselves as cannon fodder for their attacking soldiers? Any suffering by Tamil civilians cannot explain this barbarous behavior. Tamils and Sinhalese have both suffered in these turbulent times. During the JVP insurrections in Sri Lanka, large numbers of Sinhalese civilians were killed. It is in the nature of modern war that civilians should be the greatest casualty. Tamil civilians have undeniably faced reprisals from the security forces at times during war, especially when the LTTE used the civilian population to carry out secret attacks on service personnel.. Government leaders cannot always control soldiers in times of extreme stress. The British Army in Northern Ireland and the US forces in Vietnam illustrated how this can happen with any army, even though governments do not condone such behavior. The Sri Lanka Government likewise does not condone acts of violence against civilians, even though stressed out soldiers or excited mobs have attacked civilians under grave provocation. But the LTTE has institutionalized barbarism. The only other examples of such totally uncivilized behavior seen in modern times were in Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Yugoslavia. Continuing attacks on civilian populations with the idea of killing the maximum number of Sri Lankans of non-Tamil origin is at the core of the LTTE policy. The IRA gives warning of bombs before setting them off, to give time for civilians to move out. The LTTE uses surprise to kill the maximum number, such as the Anuradhapura massacre where 150 pilgrims were slaughtered as they prayed, or when entire villages are wiped out in night attacks with knives and axes. As such, this is a special organization without any moral standards which has elevated bestiality into a form of religion. It needs to be seen how human beings can be reduced to this level of moral degradation. Equally bizarre is the spectacle of expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil professionals, who received their free education in Sri Lanka and held high positions in the government or professions and acquired large properties in Sri Lanka, who in fact owe all they have to what Sri Lanka provided, becoming dedicated disciples of an unlettered anti-Sri Lankan terrorist leader who arrived on the stage from an obscure past. The claims of the LTTE are so fantastic that few sane people would give them credence. The Northern and Eastern Tamils of Sri Lanka, less than 9% of the Sri Lankan population (other Tamils live in predominantly Sinhala regions), lay claim to 30% of the land area and 60% of the coastline. That is for a start. But why should Tamils, who are the privileged minority in a democratic country, which allows them full freedom for their culture and economic pursuits, risk all by waging war against the state and following a ruthless dictator? The Tamils are not like minorities in other countries, where they need to become absorbed into the majority culture to succeed. They practice their own culture and still hold the highest positions in business and in government. As a minority, they hold a uniquely privileged position among minorities throughout the world. The answers become intelligible only when we look at the demented dictators of this century, rising from obscurity and mesmerizing their people, leading them on through immense bloodshed and hardship, and ultimately destroying themselves and their societies. Certain common threads will illuminate the reasons for their almost supernatural power over sections of their people through an ideology that must appear as nonsense to other people. The most powerful weapon, in fact the basis of this ideology, is the creation of a powerful mythological background which elevates the people and gives them a destiny above that of other people. Hitler developed the Aryan myth, having no idea of the Aryans or where they originated, which was very far from Germany. The Tamil ideologues developed an equally fantastic theory which holds that Sri Lanka is the country of Ravana, that Ravana and his people were Dravidians who owned the country of Lanka and that the Dravidians were robbed through history by Aryan invaders: first by the Aryan invasion of Rama and Lakshmana as described in Valmiki’s Ramayana (which every South Asian is familiar with), then by Vijaya and his followers as described in the Mahavamsa of Mahanama. Ravana and his followers, referred to as Rakshas in the Ramayana, were people who possessed super-natural powers. By wresting back Lanka, this would again become a Dravidian state of exceptional power and prosperity. Hence the ultimate goal is an Eelam that would cover the whole island of Lanka. A corollary to this myth is the super-hero, the man of destiny, a demi-god who appears from nowhere (Hitler was a corporal in the German Army who was venerated by the aristocracy and the military leadership) to lead the chosen people. Being super-human, he is not obliged to be guided by the norms of civilized society. He has to work out the mission, which will require deceit, tyranny and great sacrifices. Hitler burned the Reichstag and blamed the communists. He systematically exterminated the Jews using the cruelest means while denying all this to the external world. He ruthlessly killed his opponents using falsehood, deceit and cunning. He talked peace and entered into treaties only to prepare for war and unleash surprise attacks to conquer and destroy neighbors. All this is the stock in trade of the LTTE. An integral feature of the living myth is the creation of symbols and rituals which will have an over-powering effect on the people. Participation in the rituals removes the people from the world of reality to the mystical world of the super-natural. The Nazis took the swastika, totally ignorant of its basis in Buddhist symbolism. The LTTE venerates the tiger, in its flags, its name, and its association with the leader: Piribhakaran is shown in propaganda pictures playing with leopards (the Lankan version of the tiger). The tiger is the symbol of blood-thirsty power. He is always seen in his military uniform and he is never smiling in public. Public demonstrations where the secretive leader appears without notice is a regular ritual. So is the idolization of fallen soldiers, whose giant pictures dominated the Jaffna streets when the LTTE ran the peninsula, and who were ritually venerated as martyrs in public ceremonies. The building of the single leader as the man of destiny is very important. He is remote and unchallenged. His every wish is law. It is right to kill any person who questions his opinions, because he is the deliverer and he is godly. Blood sacrifices must be made by his followers to achieve their destiny. So suicide squads are privileged to visit his private quarters and have the last supper with him before they sacrifice themselves. The spell of the leader and the greatness of the mission makes followers lose sight of reason. They take on innumerable odds and perform super-human deeds. They are totally uncompromising. Appeasement never works with them. It is important to recognize that the LTTE, which poses in its international propaganda as a "liberation movement", has never presented a proposal for the constitution and government of the Tamil Eelam state it claims to be fighting for. It merely wants state power for the LTTE leader. On the basis of all available evidence, such a state would be a tyrannical dictatorship which would terrorize its own people and its neighbors. While the initial prize in the Eelam movement is the conquest of Sri Lanka, the next goal has been declared quite openly in the past to be the incorporation of Tamil Nadu into this state. The governments of both India and Sri Lanka would do well to recognize this and base their policy towards Tamil Eelam accordingly. But the verdict of history is sobering: all such dictatorships have achieved spectacular successes at the start but eventually destroyed their people and the leader, after causing immense bloodshed and destruction to all around them. In this sad episode in Sri Lankan history, it will the Tamils who will suffer most. Abhaya. |
||