A reputation, discipline and character that even the armies of the ‘most free’ nations were and are still unable to match. No drinking, no smoking, no premarital sex as a member was compulsory. No sexual offences, righteous treatment of prisoners of war were some of the military achievements they were under no edict to follow as armed oppressed people.
They forced the renaissance of ancient Tamil progressiveness regaining our ability to think without external influences of religion and other nonsensical dividing lines that held our society back, affirmative action programmes for the destruction of the caste system, the elevation of women to actual equal status through ‘real working class feminism’ are some of the incredible achievements that even some of its older members of diaspora cannot come to terms with to this very day.
What frightened the ‘international’ axis that interchange the term freedom fighter and terrorist freely to suit their economic needs at that time, is not their early methodologies as they will have you believe! Any person not living in a bubble can see their bias when they voluntarily aid the likes of Israel and Saudi Arabia but chastise Iran and Cuba without any proportion, destroying leaderships of nations that are against their agenda like Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi when they supply arms to any bidder as long as it does not affect certain imperialist power’s economic stranglehold, the inability to aid the pure freedom movement of the Kurds whilst generously aiding offshoots of Al-qaeda in Syria and the list will never run dry.
No, why they were scared of our military revolution was their innate ability to organize national structures for such a, in their mind, distant small ‘third world’ community. The LTTE established an efficient civil administration, including a police force, judicial system, transport, tax, economic planning and development, environmental action, rehabilitation of internally displaced people, health and welfare. The ability to have a distinct detailed geopolitical foresight for their people is what terrified them! How dare this poor community be an adversary to the advanced imperialist structures? What made them aid the chauvinistic state to militarily defeat our secular struggle in a brutal indiscriminate genocide was more over the inspiration in ideology it lent to oppressed people the world over. Its ability to let a young Tamil child ask intellectual questions such as why the political division was wiped out first, who only carried a pen that never carried a gun but militants that were trained only in warfare were released after torture and a subservient traitor who was a general is now part of the parliament? These questions our youth, even those living in a distant materialistic society, are able to raise panics them.
We are proud to be the children of the LTTE, we are proud of our vast impressive history, we are proud to be Tamil, we are attached to our inalienable right to self-determination. We will continue to perfect our struggle just as the LTTE were transforming into government that cared from their humble beginnings of mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts and siblings that dared to fight back.
This passion born of conscience and extended foresight is what scares the establishment the world over. LTTE’s ability to reach Tamils disconnected by distance and time. The embers they created for our rights are visibly catching fire in righteous Tamil youth the world over. We are witnessing the flames back home; we even see the impassioned work rate of millions of our young cousins in Tamil Nadu understanding their precarious future now. The ideological wildfire the LTTE started cannot be extinguished. They have connected us the world over. They have allowed us to be in a position to fight democratically globally in every corner. The armed battle may have ended, but fortunately guns are not our only option anymore, the war of intellect is gathering storm. LTTE lives on in our veins as long as our uncompromising pursuit of justice is answered and we are able to carve our own national future as peers on the table of the ‘free’ world. We will not be a statistic, we will not be a page in history, we are restless, we are bright, we will always be the flame for the oppressed the world over.
We do not say our national government was perfect but it was always at full speed very close to it and the train will continue its journey towards perfection.
