The Sri Lankan government has succeeded in defeating the LTTE, a conventional army like organization that fought for an independent Tamil nation, Tamil Eaazham, militarily. Several centuries ago, such a military victory over a rebellious chieftain would have sufficed to bring the subject population under the control of the victorious monarch for a certain period of time, beyond which, in the very nature of the dynamics of sovereignty of the non-modern world, different forms of autonomy would be gained by the regions conquered. Modern nation states, however, cannot have a subject population. Hence, President Rajapakse, even while blatantly priding himself for the conquest, has to assert simultaneously that there is a Tamil civilian population that his government would democratically represent. Any real victory would consist in showing that such a civilian Tamil population exists and that it is going to take part in the democratic governance of the country. This is where the huge internment camps, decoratively described as “welfare villages”, become politically significant. About three hundred thousand people, a sizable section of Tamil population still living in the island are interned in the camps whose elaborate construction belies the promise of their early dismantling.
One of the main reasons offered for setting up the internment camps points to the most poignant political problem of the present day world. The Sri Lankan government claims that it has to quarantine the people until the time the militants who could have infiltrated the civilian populace can be isolated. Ever since the infamous infinite war on terror was started by the US, most people outside the US have become potential terrorists from the point of view its national security. Some security personnel or perhaps even a gentle civilian should be dreaming of a biological order in which all those harboring militant or terrorist thoughts would instantly develop horns or fangs similar to the situation in the famous play Rhinoceros by Ionesco. Since there is no such help from biology, it is politically hard to distinguish a civilian from a militant. Being a civilian or a militant are not ontological conditions. They slide into each other given the developments of political situations. Whether in Swat, Pakistan or in Chhattisgarh, India politics runs out of its wits facing the need to segregate the militant from the civilian. Those who were involved in getting a bail granted to the renowned physician Dr.Binayk Sen, imprisoned in Chhattisgarh for his suspected ties with Maoist militants, know the scale of the absurd drama.
In the Sri Lankan case, the Sinhalese amnesia exhibited after the military victory is striking. The militarily defeated organization, LTTE, is not the cause of the civil war. It is Sinhala majoritarianism and the inhuman violence of the anti-Tamil pogroms that caused the LTTE and the war. The LTTE is only the symptom. The disease is the majoritarian Sinhala psyche nurtured by various corruptions of post-colonial modernity. The breath of scholarly literature on Sri Lanka’s descent into the abyss of violence is as remarkable as their lack of edifying impact on the sheer vulgarity and thoughtlessness of Sinhalese mainstream politics and the irony of Buddhist intolerance. Unable to produce a self-critical discourse and a leader who could genuinely understand the demands of the multi-ethnic polity the tiny island of less than twenty million people remains hopelessly mired in identitarion strife and a massive economic crisis. In fact, the Sinhala politicians should thank LTTE in its ruthless ways for becoming the scapegoat for the collective failure of the nation.
Given this history, the internment camps and its humiliations are only going to alienate the future generations of Tamils and sow the seeds of eternal discontent. It should be remembered that in the political calculus of disparity and inequality, civilians tend to become militants. If the purpose of Sri Lankan government is to frisk people for arms and identify important leaders of LTTE, the task could have been completed by now. There is no reason to keep three hundred thousand people in the camps. Further, the Sri Lankan government is making contradictory claims. On the one hand, the government alleges, not without sufficient corroboration from Tamils themselves, that the LTTE forcibly recruited people and such of those enrolled by force are now happy to be liberated from the clutches of the organization. On the other hand, they claim that they have to hold even old men and women in the camp as any one of them could have been an LTTE operative. It is hard to imagine how it is humanly possible to ascertain retroactively the willingness with which a person joined or associated with the LTTE, even if some external marks like injuries sustained in training or conflict would indicate their involvement. Beyond that, it is not clear what would be the benefit of segregation. If there is no amnesty offered to all those who willingly or unwillingly associated with the defeated organization, there is no way the country could return to normal civic life even after generations. Whatever might have caused the Tamil phobia and the evil genius behind the internment camps, the need of the hour is to assure Tamils that their dignity and distinction are of utmost concern to the Sinhalese. Herding people into camps is hardly the step towards reconciliation.
The Sri Lankan government needs to realize that convincing Indian journalists or visiting foreign dignitaries about the conditions in the camp is not going to help it in the end in restoring normalcy in the country. The task in front of the government is to convince its divided people about the possibility of living together. The sense of relief Tamils may feel about the cessation of hostilities may soon evaporate if Sinhalese amnesia allows for sustaining Sinhala chauvinism. The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, spread all over the world, which can become a great source for national rejuvenation may turn completely hostile. A dead Prabhakaran can become more formidable than the one who lived.
