Dear friends!

As a devotee of Shiva, I continue to write on the ‘Eelam Mannin Suvadugal’ website to document the true history of the Eelam struggle. Looking at some of the comments made on social media against those posts, I am led to wonder whether some people are more interested in removing the very aspiration for Eelam liberation from the minds of Tamil people than in discussing history with evidence.

Criticism is a democratic right. It is not my position that no one should criticise the Liberation Tigers. The actions of any movement can be criticised with evidence. Equally, it is my right to refute allegations made without evidence against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle. As a Tamil nationalist, I also consider it my duty to respond to them with documentary evidence.

Friends!

Why do these people not speak about what the Tamil people fought for? Why do they not explain the reasons why a peaceful struggle became an armed struggle? Why do they not question the responsibility of the Sinhala Buddhist chauvinist governments that created that situation?

How can it be honest history to set aside this background and write that the Tigers were responsible for everything?

We must also speak about the denial of language rights, violence and displacement that Tamil people have faced since 1956. We must point out the responsibility of the state and its armed forces in these matters and insist that justice be provided to those affected. We must also criticise the actions of politicians, organisations and certain Buddhist monks who promote Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism.

Leaving all this aside, what will Tamil people gain from continuing to attack only the Liberation Tigers and their leadership, which is no longer on the scene, even after the armed struggle ended in 2009?

Friends!

You may perhaps think that the present Anura government does not speak openly in racist terms as previous governments did. Does that mean we can accept that there is no continuation of chauvinism in its approach?

What we must examine is whether the rights of Tamil people are being guaranteed in practice. What is the use of merely talking about equality without resolving the problems concerning their land, livelihoods and political power?

Take the Mayilathamadu–Madhavanai grazing land issue. The government has said that it will take steps to designate those lands as grazing lands through a gazette notification. That announcement must become a practical solution, and the livelihoods of livestock farmers must be protected. An announcement alone cannot be accepted as a solution. How long must people continue to struggle to protect their livelihoods?

We must also speak about the military presence in the North–East. Troop deployments must be reviewed on the basis of legitimate security needs. The continuing tendency to view areas where Tamil people live with suspicion must end.

Civilian lands held by the military must be released. People must be allowed to live and work on their own land. Civil administration must be conducted independently by civilian officials. How much longer must Tamil people wait to live normally on their own soil?

The Constitution says that everyone is equal before the law. The same Constitution also gives Buddhism the foremost place. A government that says all people are equal must have the courage to make the constitutional and legal changes necessary to make that equality complete. At the very least, it must firmly implement the protections for rights that already exist. The equality spoken of on platforms must also exist in people's lives.

Why demand accountability only from the Tigers, who are no longer there, instead of putting these demands to the government that holds power today? Whom does it serve to show concern only for denigrating the history of the Tamil people's struggle, without raising a voice for their rights today?

My criticism is that such an approach only supports Sinhala chauvinist politics.

Recording history on the ‘Eelam Mannin Suvadugal’ website is not intended to place anyone beyond criticism. It is so that the next generation can understand the injustices our people faced, the reasons they fought and the sacrifices they made.

We can discuss criticisms supported by evidence. But we cannot allow our history to be rewritten through fabrications. That is why I continue to write the true history of the Eelam struggle.

Swami Shankarananthaa🙏