LTTE is not just a guerilla group. It has become the administrator of a state, albeit a failing illegitimate one. The war is essentially between two states, and both are using similar tactics in the battlefield. One just happens to be bigger, stronger and better armed.

I support JHU as a Sinhalese, but I wouldn’t want to live under JHU. Tamils are the same. As individuals, they care more about themselves and their immediate family rather than the collective communal aspirations. They want security, safety, food, comfort and other basic human privileges, and the Sri Lankan government is better equipped to provide these things than the LTTE would ever be. Denying these to both civilians and combatants in LTTE held areas without discrimination is one of the major strategies of the government’s war effort.

This is why thousands of civilians fled LTTE held Vaharai to secured areas during the war. When the government forces finally managed to banish the LTTE from Vaharai, the rest of the Tamil civilians chose to welcome the government forces with white flags. This doesn’t mean they’ve given up Tamil nationalist demands. Rather, personal concerns have triumphed over the collective ones.

It would be naive to believe that communalism is driven by groups like LTTE or JHU. They simply give a voice and a face to something that exists in both groups. The difference is that, without the LTTE, Tamil nationalism will fall and eventually succumb to Sinhalese expansionism and hegemonism. Tigers are the only group that has the means to withhold the Sinhalese. Sinhalese nationalism is not dependent on one single party or group and Sinhalese don’t need armed militant groups to realise their aspirations. It has the parliament and the state security forces at its disposal. Tamils cannot have power over these things owing to the majoritarian nature of the structure of the Sri Lankan government.

Groundviews runs on WordPress, which logs IPs of those who contribute and comment. The positive side of this is that I am able to weed out spam, hate speech and anything not in accordance with submission guidelines to this website as noted here – http://www.groundviews.org/submission-guidelines

As you note, the flip side is that for the extra-cautious, there may be concern that the IP logging gives away their location and / or identity. To those who wish to blog securely, please read the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s guide which I have found very useful – http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php. It has pointers to websites that can help protect anonymity on the web, and not just on Groundviews.

Best regards,

Sanjana Hattotuwa

Tamil, really appreciated your honest opinion. I wish I had access to read more discussion and blogs or websites carrying your point of view in English. If you know of any such sites, can you point me to them.

Or maybe I am just impressed with the clarity in which your point of view was expressed, as opposed to vituperative and accusation that is common for blog comments.

I wonder if there is a lot of reluctance to express support for the LTTE openly in general, and if so maybe people will feel more comfortable posting on a website like Tamilnet, which should start a public discussion forum.

Separately, are IP addresses recorded on this website? can web admin give any assurances for those who are extra cautious about expressing their honest opinion.

Tamil, I’d like your individual opinion on what your stand is, and which category (or categories) you best fit into. You may continue to make blanket statements with phrases like “all Tamils…” etc, but since you don’t speak for all Tamils, I’d like to hear what you honestly think. The rest of ALL the Tamils caan come speak for themselves, no?

who trust a traitor?
who trust someone who turns against their own?
whatever the reasoning they are the most despicable…

the tamils do not support or view the collaborators as their representative…

the LTTE are the only ones who have never “sold out”… since before independance the tamil leaders from ponambalam to self proclaimed “leader” douglas have “sold out” for positions in the sinhala govt.

not the LTTE.
and this is what frustrates you and the international community…

the tamils support the LTTE and silly blogs like this one which attempt to moe the tamils away from the LTTE will not work…

if not for the LTTE the NorthEast would have been FULLY colonized by now by the sinahals and the tamils would be minorities in all areas and not have the power to elect ANY reps to parliament…

we would be forced to learn sinahala and the tamil language and culture would dissappear from the island…

the tamils in colombo don’t have it as easy as you impliy…

For those unfamiliar with the thread (David’s already one of those who has commented) check out http://www.indi.ca/2007/01/the-wrong-path/. Some of the comments contain ideas connected to this post as well.