Tamil diaspora started to crack up after the LTTE defeat

(by Namini Wijedasa)

The government often invokes the ‘Tamil diaspora bogey’, saying these Tamil groups are either lobbying Western governments to intervene in Sri Lanka or that they could end up reviving the LTTE. Do you think that’s possible?

I think the LTTE’s defeat was definite and conclusive. We knew this is how the LTTE was going to be decimated because it was very much militarised and centralised around Prabhakaran. With the decimation of its entire leadership, there is no chance of it being revived.

Is the diaspora not powerful?

The diaspora was very much controlled by the LTTE. With the defeat of the LTTE, there are also many changes in the diaspora. It started to crack up. In the next two or three years, there will be even greater changes. Already critical voices are emerging. There were critical voices in the past as well as dissent was never completely crushed but now there are more and more. In that context, we are not going to see one cohesive, homogenous diaspora. Of course, there are people who were formerly LTTE propagandists that continue to hold the Tigers’ banner abroad because they think it’s how they can keep their own positions. But even among these people in the diaspora questions will increasingly be asked and there will be a shift.

Why has there been no flow of Tamil diaspora into the country after the war?

I think the main reason is that the message coming from the Sri Lankan government hasn’t been one that the war is over and that they are ready for a process of reconciliation. Keeping Sri Lanka militarised, emphasising security and the continued repression doesn’t bode well.

You say some factions of the diaspora are flying the LTTE banner to protect their own positions. Could it be they are worried that if they don’t, it would seem like an endorsement of the government’s actions?

No. There have been various actors, including the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) to which I belong, that have been consistently critical of all actors. I think it’s possible to be critical but these LTTE propagandists are purposely holding onto slogans that are very counterproductive because they continue to polarise the communities here. They make it a problem between the Sinhala people and the Tamil people, which it isn’t. Many of us see it as a problem between a majoritarian Sri Lankan state and the minorities that can be resolved politically. Their kind of rhetoric is very polarising. And this is not only the Tamil disapora. Even the Sinhala diaspora are taking forward this polarising campaign. Neither of those diasporas have to face the consequences, face the future inside the country.

But where are the moderates?

Many of them also haven’t gotten the assurance that Sri Lanka is moving forward after the war. Sri Lanka needs to move forward because if we are serious about peace, we also have to take up issues such as demilitarisation seriously.

Who are the mobilised sections of the Tamil diaspora?

Two large forums have become prominent — the Global Tamil Forum and the Transnational Govt for Tamil Eelam. Those are reflections of former LTTE propagandists and activists trying to mobilise large campaigns to keep their positions.

Weren’t the recent transnational government elections hugely successful, with thousands of Tamils voting?

They were able to mobilise so many people because of the hangover of LTTE’politics in the diaspora. The LTTE for decades controlled all social forums of the Tamil schools in the disapora. But I expect the cohesiveness to crack up in two, three years because people are trying to move on. The LTTE used both exiled nationalism and coercion to keep its foothold. I think people are going to find out quickly that these campaigns don’t go anywhere. Also, large sections of the diaspora historically supported actors who were active inside the country. In the early 1980s, PLOTE was more popular than the LTTE in many European countries. After the LTTE decimated all the other militant groups, they started supporting the LTTE. In the absence now of that kind of actor, and particularly in the context of even the TNA taking a different direction from its past to LTTE politics, I think there would be a change in that diaspora.

So you’re saying the transnational government is not something we need to worry about?

Yes, I think in the next couple of years, it will die a slow death and I think there’s also too much made up by analysts and others in Colombo that the transnational govt will be able to lobby international actors. I think the international actors are well aware of the limitations of Tamil diaspora mobilisation. In fact, rather than saying that the Tamil diaspora or sections of it were able to lobby the international actors, I would say that the causality worked in the opposite direction. When such opportunistic politicians or governments in the West wanted to use the Tamil diaspora, they used them to send a message but that was also very counterproductive. The Tamil diaspora when compared to the Indian diaspora, and Jewish diaspora, they are much weaker economically and politically. We Sri Lankans like to think we are very important, whether we are inside the country or outside. But in the global context, the diaspora, and I think even Sri Lanka in terms of global politics, is not very important.

How best could the Tamil diaspora change?

In the current moment or even in the near term, I don’t see the Tamil diaspora playing a constructive role in terms of the political process. This is partly because of the reality that they were never engaged in the political process inside the country. The mobilised section gave unconditional support to the LTTE but they never really engaged with the political process in terms of constitutional change. Very few of them have even a solid analysis of the 13th amendment, understand the draft constitution of 2000 or the APRC process. But I think what they can do is help rebuild the North and East but even for that there needs to be a shift in attitude. Many of us are encouraged by even small, development-oriented initiatives by the diaspora inside Sri Lanka. If they come, if they visit, if they participate, they can learn a lot more about the country and they will be able to productively engage.

Diverse opinions have been expressed about Kumaran Pathmanathan’s close relationship with the government. How would you analyse this alliance?

If they (government) are serious about a post-war era of a new, democratic politics, trying to use people like KP sends a bad message because then the government is not serious about democratisation. These are the people who promoted so much destruction of the country, but essentially of the Tamil people, the thousands of youth, civilians, who were pushed into the war. There needs to be a complete break in terms of politics.

What then do you do with people like KP?

They have to go through the legal process in terms of addressing crimes or abuses. That is what we would expect of anybody involved in the war on either side of the divide. But there needs to be a shift in the country away from this kind of politics, of using one or another actor for short term gains. I see this mainly as an attempt by the government to use any actor in their own interest of consolidating power. But this is not in the interest of the people of this country and certainly not the Tamil community.
There will be a big greater change in the diaspora only if there’s a change in Tamil politics inside the country. Now Tamil politics inside the country has been decimated and much of it thanks to the LTTE. Only if a strong, democratic Tamil politics emerges inside the country the diaspora be challenged to change direction and to work much more constructively in terms of a plural society. People like KP won’t be able to do that. They will undermine the emergence of a Tamil democratic politics.

Who will take leadership in the Tamil community?

I think a new generation has to emerge. I don’t think even the TNA can do that. They also have too much baggage but this emergence of a new generation Tamil democratic politics is undermined by the shenanigans of the government in trying to use KP or former LTTE cadres and to use this kind of strong-arm politics on the ground.