ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் சிவராம் நினைவஞ்சலி

வியாழக்கிழமை, 7 யூன் 2007, புதினம் நிருபர்

கனடா ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் மாமனிதர் சிவராம் இரண்டாம் ஆண்டு நினைவஞ்சலி நிகழ்வு கடந்த 3ஆம் நாள் நடைபெற்றது.

இந்நினைவஞ்சலியை கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவை ஏற்பாடு செய்திருந்தது.

நிகழ்வில் னடிய தமிழர் பேரவையின் தலைவர் பேராசிரியர் யோசெப் சந்திரகாந்தன் பேசியதாவது:

என்றென்றும் மிளிரும் எழுத்து வன்மை படைத்தவர் சிவராம்;. அதனை ஒடுக்கப்பட்ட மக்களுக்கு ஆதரவாகவும் அடக்கியாளும் அதிகார வர்க்கத்துக்கு எதிராகவும் பயன்படுத்தி நீதியை நிலைநிறுத்தப் புறப்பட்டவர் அவர்;. தாம் ஈந்த கொடையினால் தமது மக்களின் வீரனாக மட்டுமன்றிஇ உலக மக்கள் அனைவரதும் வீரனாக உயர்ந்தவர் அவர். தனது சொந்தப் பாதுகாப்பையும் பொருட்படுத்தாது மானுடத்தின் உச்ச விழுமியங்களுக்காகப் பாடுபட்டவர் அவர். அத்தகைய ஒருவரைப் பிறப்பித்த பேறு படைத்தவர்கள் தமிழ் மக்கள்.

ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழக தமிழ் மாணவர் அவையைச் சேர்ந்த துளசி திருச்செல்வம்:

இரண்டு ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னர் நடந்த தர்மரத்தினம் தராக்கி சிவராம் அவர்களின் படுகொலைக்குப் பொறுப்பானவர்கள்இ எமது காலத்தில் ஓயாது ஓங்கி ஒலித்த குரல்களுள் ஒன்றை ஒடுக்கத் தலைப்பட்டவர்கள் என்பதில் ஐயமில்லை. அவருடைய குரலை அவர்கள் தற்காலிகமாக ஒடுக்கியிருக்கலாம். எனினும் அவர் குரல் என்றென்றும் எதிரொலிக்கும். பல வகைகளில் தராக்கி ஒரு முன்னோடி. அவர் உலகளாவிய விழுமியங்களுக்காகப் பாடுபட்ட ஒரு புவியரசியல் ஆய்வாளர் எழுத்தாளர் மாத்திரமல்ல ஒரு மக்கள் குழுமம் படும் அல்லல்களை முழு உலகத்துக்கும் எடுத்தியம்புவதற்காகப் புதிதாய் எழுந்த ஊடக ஊழியை நாடிய செம்மல் என்றார் அவர்.

கனடா நாட்டில் ஒன்ராறியோ மாகாணத்தில்- ரொறன்ரோ மாநகரத்தில் றயெசன் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் தர்மரத்தினம் தராக்கி சிவராம் நினைவாகப் புலமைப்பரிசில் வழங்கும் திட்டம் உருவாக்கப்பட்டுள்ள செய்தியை கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவை இந்நினைவஞ்சலியில் அறிவித்தது.

புலமைப்பரிசிலை அறிவித்து கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவையைச் சேர்ந்த முரளி சிறி நாராயணதாஸ் பேசியதாவது:

ஊடகவியலில் இளமானிப் பட்டம் நாடிப் பயிலும் மாணவர் ஒருவர் மனித உரிமைகளையும் குடிசார் உரிமைகளையும் பேணிக்காத்து மேம்படுத்தும் துறையில் சிறந்தோங்குவதற்கு இந்த அறக்கொடை துணைநிற்கும். வழமையாக ஊடகங்களில் பேசப்படாதவர்களின் குரலை ஓங்கி ஒலிக்கச் செய்யும் பணிக்கு அதிமுதன்மை அளிக்கப்படும்.

“இப்புலமைப்பரிசிலை முன்வைக்கும் தறுவாயில் எமது எதிர்பார்ப்பை இத்தால் நாம் வெளிப்படுத்துகிறோம்: ஊடகத் துறையில் ஆர்வம்கொண்ட மாணவர்கள் சிவராம் என்பவர் யார்? என்னும் வினாவுக்கு விடை காண்பர் என்றே நாம் எதிர்பார்க்கிறோம். விடை காண்பதன் தொடக்கம் அவர் ஒரு தமிழர் என்பதை அறிவதாகலாம். அவர் ஓர்; ஊடகத் துறைஞர். உள்ளதை உள்ளபடி உரைத்த ஒரு தமிழ் ஊடகத் துறைஞர் என்பதற்காகவே அவர் கொல்லப்பட்டார். ஊடகத் துறையுள் புகுவோரின் உள்ளத்துள் இது ஓயாது அலைமோதும் வலுவாய்ந்த கதை ஆகும்.

உங்கள் உதவுதொகை முழுவதும் தர்மரத்தினம் தராக்கி சிவராம் நினைவாக வழங்கப்படும் புலமைப்பரிசிலுக்கே பயன்படுத்தப்படும் என்பதைச் சுட்டிக்காட்டும் வாக்குறுதிப் படிவங்களை றயெசன் பல்கலைக்கழகத்திடமிருந்து நாம் பெற்றுக் கொண்டுள்ளோம். எமது மக்கள் 2007 திசம்பர் 31ம் திகதிக்குள்; கூ 25-000 தொகையை வழங்கியவுடன் இப்பணியை நிறைவேற்றுவதே எமது நோக்கம். அதற்கு இன்றே வாக்குறுதி அளியுங்கள். வரையாது வழங்க வாக்குறுதி அளியுங்கள்

என்று நாம் உங்களை வேண்டிக்கொள்கிறோம். நீங்கள் வழங்கும் தொகைக்கு முற்றிலும் வரிக் கழிவுண்டு. உங்களுடன் நட்புறவு கொண்டவர்களிடம் இதற்கு உதவுதொகை செலுத்துமாறும் சிவராம் ஈந்த கொடையைக் கட்டிக்காக்குமாறும் கேட்டுக்கொள்ளவும் என்றார் அவர்.

தென் கறொலைனா பல்கலைக்கழகப் பேராசிரியர் மார்க் வைதேகர் ஆற்றிய சிறப்புரையில்இ தாம் மானுடவியல் துறையில் கள ஆராய்ச்சிப் பணி புரிந்த காலத்தில் மட்டுநகர் பொது நூலகத்தில் வைத்து சிவராம் அவர்களை முதன்முதல் சந்தித்தது தொட்டு இறுதிவரை அவருடன் பூண்ட உறவை விளக்கியுரைத்தார். தமது நட்புறவை அவர் உணர்ச்சிபொங்க விரித்துரைத்தார்.

சிவராம் கற்பித்த அரசியல் என்று பெயரிட்டு தாம் அண்மையில் வெளியிட்ட புத்திமான்மிய சரிதையிலிருந்து சில கூறுகளை அவர் அவையோர்க்கு வாசித்துக் காட்டினார்.

மட்டக்களப்பு வாவியின் முன்றலில் ஒரு வீட்டைக் கட்டி குளிர்காற்று அதனைச் சூழுந்தோறும் கடலின் அலைகள் காதில் சீறுந்தோறும் தன்னுடன் நட்புக் கொண்டவர்களையும் தன்னை வந்து சந்திப்பவர்களையும் சரிநிகராய் ஈர்த்து அவர்களை அரசியல் முதல் தத்துவம் வரையான துறைகளில் தோய்த்து மகிழ்விப்பதற்கு அவர் என்றென்றும் ஆவல் கொண்டிருந்தார்.

அவருடைய வாழ்நாளில் அது கைகூடவில்லை. எனினும் இப்புலமைப்பரிசில் வாயிலாக ரொறன்ரோ மாநகரத்தில் அது இன்று கைகூடியுள்ளது என்றும் அவர் தெரிவித்தார்.

அமரர் சிவராமுடன் நெடுங்காலமாய் உறவாடியஇ வின்சர் பல்கலைக்கழகப் பேராசிரியர் உருத்திரமூர்த்தி சேரன்இ தமிழ்ப் படைப்பாளிகள் கழகத் தலைவர் வே. தங்கவேலு (நக்கீரன்) உரையாற்றினார்கள்.

ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழக தமிழ் மாணவர் அவையத் தலைவர் செல்வி சுஜனி கிருஸ்ணலிங்கம் நன்றியுரை நல்கினார்.

மாமனிதர் சிவராம் அவர்களின் தாயகக் கனவை நினைவாக்க சூளுரைப்போம்!

(கடந்த யூன் 3 ஆம் நாள் ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக் கழக மருத்துவ அறிவியல் கட்டிட மக்லொயிட் அரங்கில் நடந்த மாமனிதர் தருமரத்தினம் சிவராம் அவர்களது இரண்டாவது ஆண்டு நினைவு வணக்க நிகழ்வு இடம்பெற்றது. அதனைத் தொடர்ந்து நடந்த நினைவு உரையின் போதும் நக்கீரன் தமிழிலும் ஆங்கிலத்திலும் உரையாற்றினார். இது அவரது தமிழ் உரை)

கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவையின் தலைவர் அவர்களே, திருமதி சிவராம் அவர்களே, பெரியோர்களே. தாய்மார்களே, நண்பர்களே உங்கள் எல்லோருக்கும் எனது வணக்கம்.

மறைந்த மாமனிதர் தருமரத்தினம் சிவராம் அவர்களது இரண்டாண்டு நினைவு உரை ஆற்ற உங்கள் முன் கனத்த இதயத்துடன் நிற்கிறேன். இப்படியான நிகழ்வில் உரையாற்றுவது கடினமானது. அவரைப்பற்றிய பழைய நினைவலைகளை மீட்டெடுக்கும் போது கவலை அதிகரிக்கிறது. ஆறிய புண்ணை மீண்டும் தோண்டிப் பார்ப்பது போன்றது.

மாமனிதர் சிவராமின் இழப்பு ஈடுசெய்ய முடியாத இழப்பு. இது ஒப்புக்குச் சொல்லும் வார்த்தைகள் அல்ல. ஒரு அறிவாளியை நாம் இழந்துவிட்டோம். சிறந்த சிந்தனையாளனை இழந்து விட்டோம். எமது மண்ணையும் மக்களையும் காதலித்த ஒரு தமிழ்த் தேசியவாதியை இழந்துவிட்டோம். எல்லாவற்றிற்கும் மேலாக ஒரு நல்ல துணைவனை திருமதி சிவராம் இழந்து விட்டார். அவரது பிள்ளைகள் அன்புத் தந்தையை இழந்து விட்டார்கள

சிவராம் ஒரு சிறந்த எழுத்தாளன். படைத்துறை பற்றிய ஆய்வுக் கட்டுரைகளை நூற்றுக் கணக்கில் எழுதிக் குவித்தவர். தமிழ், ஆங்கிலம் என இரண்டு மொழிகளிலும் புலமை பெற்றவர். ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் மத்தியில் ஒரு இமயம் போல் வலம் வந்தவர்.

இங்கே பேசியவர்கள் மாமனிதர் சிவராமை தேவன் தன்னோடு வைத்துக் கொண்டிருப்பதற்காக இளமையிலேயே அவரை அழைத்துக் கொண்டார் என்றார்கள். சாவிற்குப் பின்னும் ஒரு வாழ்வு இருப்பதாகச் சொன்னார்கள். கிறித்தவ மதம் மட்டுமல்ல இந்து மதமும் மனிதன் இறக்கும் போது உடல்தான் அழிகிறது. உயிர் அழிவதில்லை எனச் சொல்கிறது. எங்களது அன்புக்குப் பாத்திரமானவர்கள் இறக்கும் போது அதனை மனம் ஒப்புக்கொள்ள மறுக்கிறது. அதனால் அவர்களது பூதவுடல் மறைந்தாலும் அவர்கள் தொடர்ந்து வாழ்கிறார்கள் என்ற நம்பிக்கை மனதுக்கு ஆறுதல் அளிக்கிறது என்பது உண்மையே.

சாவு நிச்சயமானது. அதில் இருந்து யாரும் தப்ப முடியாது. ஆனால் அந்தச் சாவு இயற்கையாக இருக்க வேண்டும். மாமனிதர் சிவராம் இயற்கைச் சாவு எய்தவில்லை. இடையில் அவரது உயிரைக் காதகர்கள் பறித்து விட்டார்கள்.

மாமனிதர் சிவராம் கொலை செய்யப்பட்ட போது அவருக்கு அகவை 46. என்னுடைய அகவையோடு ஒப்பிட்டுப் பார்க்கும் போது பாதிக்குச் சற்று அதிகம். அவர் இன்னும் பல்லாண்டு இந்த உலகில் வாழ்ந்திருக்க வேண்டும். ஆனால் அவரை அவரது எதிரிகள் படுகொலை செய்து விட்டார்கள். இதில் உள்ள சோகம் என்னவென்றால் அவரது முன்னாள் தோழர்கள்தான் அவரைக் கோழைத்தனமான முறையில் கொலை செய்தார்கள்.

நான் சிவராம் அய்லன்ட் (The Island) நாளேட்டில் எழுதத் தொடங்கின காலம்தொட்டு அவரது ஆக்கங்களைப் படித்து வருகிறேன். தொடக்க காலத்தில் அவரது எழுத்துக்கள் பெரும்பாலும் வி.புலிகளைக் கண்டித்தே எழுதப்பட்டன.

சிவராம் துப்பாக்கியைக் கீழே வைத்துவிட்டுப் பேனாவைக் கையில் எடுத்துக் கொண்டாலும் சமவுடமை (சோசலீச) அரசியல் கோள்பாட்டில் இருந்த நம்பிக்கையை அவர் இழக்கவில்லை. ஆனால் தமிழினத்துக்கு எதிரான தென்னிலங்கை சிங்கள அரசியல்வாதிகள் கக்கிய பச்சை இனவாதம் அவரை மெல்ல மெல்ல ஒரு தமிழ்த் தேசியவாதியாக உருமாற்றியது. பிற்காலத்தில் தன் மண்ணின் விடுதலைக்கும் மக்களின் விடுதலைக்கும் தனது பேனாவை ஓயாது பயன்படுத்தினார்.

அவரது ஆங்கிலக் கட்டுரைகள் கடுமையான நடையில் எழுதப்பட்டிருக்கும். ஒரு முன்னாள் போராளி எப்படி ஆங்கிலத்தில் இவ்வளவு சரளமாக எழுதுகிறார் என்ற கேள்வி எனக்குள் பல ஆண்டுகள் நீடித்தது. பொதுவாக தங்கள் பள்ளிப்படிப்பை இடையில் நிறுத்திவிட்டு இயக்கங்களில் தங்களை இணைத்துக் கொண்டவர்கள் பொது சாதாரண தேர்வுக்குப் படித்தவர்கள். கூடியது உயர்தர வகுப்பு வரை படித்தவர்கள். ஒரு சிலரே பல்கலைக் கழகப் படிப்பை இடையி;ல் கைவிட்டு போராட்டத்தில் குதித்தவர்கள். அவர்களில் மாமனிதர் சிவராம் ஒருவர். அவர் பேரதெனியா பல்கலைக் கழகத்தில் முதலாண்டு படித்துக் கொண்டிருந்த பொழுதே படிப்புக்கு முழுக்குப் போட்டுவிட்டு போராட்டத்தில் குதித்துவிட்டார்.

சிவராமின் ஆங்கிலப் புலமைக்கான காரணத்தைப் பின்னர்தான் தெரிந்து கொண்டேன். சிவவராம் ஒரு படித்த குடும்பத்தில் பிறந்து வளர்ந்தவர். அவரது பாட்டனார் மட்டக்களப்பு தெற்குத் தொகுதியில் (இன்றைய அம்பாரை மற்றும் மட்டக்களப்பு தெற்கு நிலப்பரப்பு) போட்டியிட்டு வென்று சட்டசபையில் 1938 தொடங்கி 1943 வரை உறுப்பினராக இருந்தவர். அவர் தருமரத்தினம் வன்னியார் என மக்களால் அழைக்கப்பட்டார். அவரது தந்தையார் புவிராஜகீர்த்தி கேம்பிரிஜ் பல்கலைக் கழகம் பற்றிப் பலர் கேள்விப்படாத நாள்களில் அதில் படித்தவர்.

சிறு வயது முதலே சிவராம் அவர்களுக்குப் புத்தகங்கள் படிக்கும் பழக்கம் இருந்தது. அவரது தாயார் அவர் என்ன புத்தகம் வேண்டும் என்று ஆசைப்பட்;டாரோ உடனே அதை வாங்கப் பணம் கொடுத்துவிடுவார். மட்டக்களப்பு நூல் நிலையத்தில் உள்ள நூல்கள் அத்தனையையும் சிவராம் படித்து முடித்து விட்டதாகச் சொல்கிறார்கள்.

காரல் மார்க்ஸ், லெனின், சேக்ஸ்பியர், பேனார்ட் ஷோ, மாக்கியவல்லி, கவுடில்யன், சன் சூ, உமார் கயாம், திருமூலர், திருவள்ளுவர், அவ்வையார் போன்றோர் எழுதிய நூல்களை பள்ளியில் படிக்கும்போதே சிவராம் வாசித்து முடித்துவிட்டார். பதிணெண் சித்தர்களையும் அவர் விட்டு வைக்கவில்லை. இந்த நூல்களைப் படித்ததினால் கிடைத்த அறிவே அவர் எழுதிய கட்டுரைகளில் காணப்பட்ட கனதிக்கும் புலமைக்கும் காரணமாக இருந்தது.

நான் சிவராம் அவர்களை 1999 ஆம் ஆண்டுதான் முதன் முதலில் நேரில் சந்தித்தேன். கால்டன் பல்கலைக் கழக மாணவர்களது அமைப்பான Academic Society of Tamil Students ஒரு அனைத்துலக மாநாட்டை ஒட்டாவாவில் கூட்டியிருந்தது. தமிழ்த் தேசியமும் அமைதிக்கான தேடலும் (TamiL Nationhood and World Peace) என்பதே மாநாட்டின் தொனிப் பொருளாகும். அந்த மாநாட்டில் பல அறிஞர்கள் கலந்து கொண்டார்கள். மட்டக்களப்பு நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் யோசேப் பரராசசிங்கம், மருத்துவர் ஜெயலத் ஜெயவர்த்தனா, எம். வசந்தராசா, வி.புலிகளின் சட்ட ஆலோசகர் உருத்திரகுமாரன், வழக்கறிஞர் கரன் பார்க்கர், வழக்கறிஞர் குமார் பொன்னப்பலம், கலாநிதி விக்கிரமபாகு கருணரத்தின, பேராசிரியர் சி. மனோகரன், மார்க்கரட் வுசயறiஉம, தருமரத்தினம் சிவராம் உட்பட மேலும் பலர் கலந்து கொண்டார்கள். கலாநிதி வே. இலகுப்பிள்ளை மாநாட்டின் இணைப்பாளராகப் பணியாற்றினார்.

சிவராம் “ஸ்ரீலங்காவில் ஊடக ஓரபட்சமும் மோதல்பற்றிய செய்திகளின் தணிக்கையும்”(Media Bias and Censorship in Conflict Reporting in Sri Lanka)என்ற தலைப்பில் கட்டுரை வாசித்தார். .

மாநாட்டு அரங்குக்கு வெளியே சிவராம் நன்றாக உடுத்தி கம்பீரமாக நின்று கொண்டிருந்தார். என்னைக் கண்டவுடன் இங்குள்ள ஒரு எழுத்தாளரின் பெயரைச் சொல்லி “அவன் அள்ளி வைச்சிடுவான். கவனம்” என்றார். அவர் பேசும்போது பேச்சுத்தமிழிலேயே பேசுவார். அவர் ஏன் அப்படிச் சொன்னார் என்பது தெரியவில்லை. நான் கேட்கவும் இல்லை. “என்னைப்பற்றிக் கவலைப் படாதீர்கள். கொழும்பில் இருக்கும் நீங்கள்தான் கவனமாக இருக்க வேண்டும்” என்று சொல்லிவிட்டு நகர்ந்தேன்.

அதன் பின் அவ்வப்போது மின்னஞ்சல் மூலம் தொடர்பு வைத்துக் கொண்டேன். 2004 ஆம் ஆண்டு சிகாகோவில் இயங்கும் உலகத்தமிழ் குழுமம் ஒரு கருத்தரங்குக்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்திருந்தது. அதற்கு சிவராம் அவாகளை அழைத்திருந்தார்கள். டிசெம்பர் 11 ஆம் நாள் கருத்தரங்கு நடைபெற இருந்தது. எனவே அதற்கு முன்னரே புறப்பட்டு வந்து கனடாவில் 2 கிழமை தங்கி நின்றுவிட்டு நியூ யேர்சிக்குப் போங்கள் என்று அவரிடம் கேட்டேன். அவரது எண்ணமும் அதுவாகவே இருந்தது. முன்னரும் கனடாவில் உள்ள அவரது நெருங்கிய உறவினர்களைப் பார்க்கப் பலமுறை இங்கு வந்து சென்றிருக்கிறார். எனவே நம்பிக்கையோடு கனடிய தூதுவராலயத்துக்கு -விசாவுக்கு – விண்ணப்பித்தார். அவரது நம்பிக்கைக்குக் காரணம் அதற்கு முன்னர் கனடா வந்து போவதற்கு விசா கொடுத்திருந்தார்கள். ஆனால் இம்முறை அவரை நேரில் கூப்பிட்டு விசாரிக்காமலே “ஏளைய சநகரளநன ” என்று முத்திரை குத்தி அனுப்பி விட்டார்கள்.

நியூ யேர்சியில் நடந்த கருத்தரங்கில் “தென்கிழக்கு ஆசியாவின் கடல்வழிப் பாதைகளும் அவற்றின் கேந்திர முக்கியத்துவம்” என்ற தலைப்பில் பேசினார்.

அன்றைய கருத்தரங்கில் சிவராமை விட இன்னும் இரண்டு அறிஞர்கள் கலந்து கொண்டு பேசினார்கள். ஒருவர் சென்னைப் பல்கலைக் கழகப் பொருளியல் பேராசிரியனர் எம். நாகநாதன். இவர் இப்போது தமிழ்நாடு திட்டமிடல் ஆணையத்தில் துணை ஆணையாளராகப் பணி புரிகிறார். மற்றவர் இந்திய கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சியின் தேசிய செயலாளர் டி. இராசா. இவர் இந்தக் கிழமை மாநிலங்கள் அவைக்கு தமிழ்நாடு சட்டமன்றத்தால் போட்டியின்றித் தெரிவு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளார்.

சிpவராம் எந்த குறிப்பும் கையில் இல்லாது ஒரு மணி நேரம் பேசினார். ஒரு பேராசிரியர் வகுப்பு எடுப்பது போன்று அவரது பேச்சு இருந்தது. மிக ஆறுதலாகவே குரலை உயர்த்தி – தாழ்த்தாது பேசினார்.

தெற்காசியா கடல்ப் பரப்பை தனது கட்டுப்பாட்டுக்குள் வைக்க விரும்பும் அமெரிக்கா இந்து சமுத்திரத்தின் நடுவில் உள்ள டிகோ கார்சிய தீவில் கேந்திர முக்கியம் வாய்ந்த படைத் தளத்தை அமைத்துள்ளது.

1991 மற்றும் 2003 இல் இராக்குக்கு எதிரான போரில் டிகோ கார்சியா தளம் முக்கிய பங்கு வகித்தது. அங்கு நிறுத்தி வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த பி-2, பி-52 குண்டு வீச்சு விமானங்களே 100 க்கும் மேலான நீண்ட தூர ஏவுகளைகளை இராக் மீது வீசின. 2001 ஆம் ஆண்டு ஒக்தோபர் மாதத்தில் அதே டிகோ கார்சிய தளத்தில் நிறுத்தி வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த பி-2, பி-52 விமானங்களைப் பயன்படுத்தி ஆப்கனிஸ்தான் மீது அமெரிக்கா ஏவுகணைத் தாக்குதலையும் நடத்தியது. பி-52 ரக விமானங்கள் 10,000 கல் தூரம் எண்ணெய் மீள் நிரப்பாது பறக்கக் கூடியன.

டிகோ கார்சியா இந்தோனிசியா – பிலிப்பைன்ஸ் இரண்டுக்கும் சமதூரத்தில் இருக்கிறது. ஆப்கானிஸ்தானில் இருந்து சற்றுக் குறைந்த தொலைவில் உள்ளது. டிகோ கார்சியா தென்னிந்தியாவில் இருந்து தெற்கே 1,000 கல் தொலைவில் இருக்கிறது. இவை காரணமாக அமெரிக்கா திருகோணமலைத் துறைமுகத்தில் கண் வைத்திருப்பதாக சிவராம் விளக்கினார்.

கருத்தரங்கு முடிந்த பின்னர் அவரோடு நின்று படம் எடுக்க அங்கு வந்த எல்லோரும் முண்டியடித்தார்கள். உடனே சிவராம் “நான் செத்தபின் எனது படத்தைப் போடவா படம் எடுக்கிறீர்களா?” என்று பச்சையாகக் கேட்டார். பின்னர் புளரிடா தமிழ்ச் சங்கத்தில் பேசும் போதும் “உங்கள் மத்தியில் பேசுவது இதுவே கடைசித் தடவையாக இருக்கக் கூடும்” எனப் பேசியதாக எனது நண்பர் ஒருவர் சொன்னார்.

சிவராமின் உயிருக்கு நாலா பக்கத்தில் இருந்தும் அச்சுறுத்தல் இருந்தது. சிங்கள இனவாதக் கட்சியான ஜாதிக்க விமுக்தி பெரமுன சிவராம் ஒரு பயங்கரவாதி என்றும் அவர் வி.புலிகளின் ஒற்றன் என்றும் தூற்றித் தமக்குச் சொந்தமான ஏடுகளில் சிவராமின் படத்தைப் போட்டு செய்திகள் வெளியிட்டன.

கனடாவிற்குத் திரும்பியதும் சிவராமைச் சந்தித்த செய்தியை வீட்டில் உள்ளவர்களுக்குச் சொன்னேன். எனது மகன் கேட்டார் “அப்பா சிவராம் அண்ணனின் கைச்செலவுக்கு ஏதாவது கொடுத்தீர்களா?” என்று கேட்டான். “இல்லை” என்றேன். அடுத்த நாள் எனது நண்பர் ஒருவர் மூலம் அவருக்குப் பணம் கொடுக்க ஏற்பாடு செய்தேன்.

பணம் கிடைத்ததும் சிவராம் தொலைபேசியில் என்னைத் தொடர்பு கொண்டார். “எனக்குப் பணம் தேவையில்லை. நான் மண்டையைப் போட்டால் எனது மனைவி பிள்ளைக்குக் கொடுங்கள். அது போதும்” என்றார்.

நாடு திரும்பிய பின்னர் வன்னியில் இருந்து என்னோடு தொலைபேசியில் தொடர்பு கொண்டு “வன்னித் தலைமை பகுத்தறிவைப் பரப்ப தனித் துறையை அமைக்க ஒப்புக் கொண்டிருப்பதாகவும். தனது கட்டுரைகளை நூலாக வெளியிட ஏற்பாடு செய்கிறார்கள்” என்றும் மகிழ்ச்சியோடு சொன்னார். மிகவும் உற்சாகமாகக் காணப்பட்டார்.

கனடாவில் ஒலிபரப்பாகும் தமிழ்ச்சோலை வானொலியில் கிழமைக்கு ஒருதரம் சமகால அரசியல் பற்றி பேசுமாறு கேட்ட போது. முதல் ஆய்வுரை ஏப்ரில் 17 இல் ஒலிபரப்பானது. இரண்டாவது ஆய்வுரை ஏப்ரில் 24 இல் ஒலிபரப்பானது. இதுவே அவரது இறுதி வானொலிப் பேச்சாக இருந்தது. அவர் ஏப்ரில் 28 ஆம் நாள் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்டார்.

மாமனிதர் சிவராம் உயிரோடு இருந்த போது ஒரு கனவு கண்டார். தமிழ்மக்கள் மானத்தோடும் சமத்துவத்தோடும் பாதுகாப்போடும் நிம்மதியோடும் வாழக்கூடிய ஒரு சுதந்திர, சமத்துவ தமிழீழ நாடு உருவாக வேண்டும் என்பதே அந்தக் கனவாகும். அந்தக் கனவை நனவாக்க தனது பேனாவைப் பயன்படுத்தினார்.

பேச்சு வார்த்தை மேசையில் தமிழ்மக்கள் தங்களது அடிப்படை உரிமைகளை சிஙகள-பவுத்த இனவாதிகளிடம் இருந்து பெறமுடியாது என்பது அவரது நிலைப்பாடாக இருந்தது. “பொதுக்கட்டமைப்பாவது மண்ணாங்கட்டியாவது சிங்களவர்கள் ஒன்றுமே தமிழர்களுக்குத் தரமாட்டார்கள்” என்று முன்கூட்டியே எழுதினார்.

மாமனிதர் சிவராம் அவர்களது நினைவுக்கு நாம் நிரந்தரமாகச் செய்யக் கூடிய பணி ஒன்று இருக்கிறது. நாம் அவரது தாயக் கனவினை நனவாக்க வேண்டும். அவர் விட்டுப்போன பணியினை நாம் தொடர்ந்து செய்ய வேண்டும். அதற்கான சூளுரையை அவரது நினைவுநாளான இன்று எடுக்க வேண்டும் எனக் கேட்டுக் கொண்டு விடைபெறுகிறேன். நன்றி. வணக்கம்.

Let Us Resolve To Carry On Sivaram’s Unfinished Task!

V.Thangavelu, President TCWA

On the day my friend and colleague Dharmaratnam Sivaram (Taraki) was murdered I was blissfully ignorant of the tragedy unfolding in Colombo city till very late in the evening. On that fateful day, I was attending the International Conference hosted by Caldwell Educational Conference Organizers Inc, Toronto, Vasantham and Carleton Thamil Graduates Union, Ottawa and held at Grand Hotel, Toronto. Tsunami Disaster in Sri Lanka: Opportunities and Obstacles for Rehabilitation and Resettlement was the theme of the conference. There were panel discussions in which prominent scholars and experts spoke on a diverse subjects related to tsunami. The morning session was chaired by Prof. Joseph Chandrakanthan of the UoT.

On reaching home, I noticed my answering machine blinking. So even before changing cloths I started retrieving the messages. Among several messages, there was a short message left by the editor of Muzhakkam weekly newspaper. It said that there are unconfirmed reports that Sivaram (Taraki) has been abducted by unidentified gunmen at Bambalapitiya at around 10.45 p.m. the same day.

Thereafter, I received several calls and then went and checked the TamilNet. It carried a brief news item that confirmed the abduction story.

A little later other wire-news started carrying the bad news. Many bizarre scenes raced through my mind. I was trying to figure out the consequences. I resigned myself to the inevitable bad news sooner or later. It is a well known fact that abductors normally don’t release their victims for fear of betraying their identities. Past midnight news agencies reported the founding of Sivaram’s body with gun shot injuries behind the Sri Lankan parliamentary complex.

The loss of Sivaram (Taraki) is irreparable. He wielded his mighty pen to seek justice for his people. He was not a mercenary writer like some others. There is no one to replace him or take his place. He was the only Thamil journalist who wrote regularly both in English and Thamil for a very wide international audience. His articles and interviews were published and re-published in several newspapers and web-sites abroad. His superb in-depth analysis on defence and politics earned him respect not only locally but also from foreign diplomats, bureaucrats, journalists and educationists. He was invited by the US State Department for briefings. He was also invited by the Indian Foreign Ministry for similar briefings.

Sivaram took to journalism after falling out with PLOTE chief Uma Maheswaran. He was then the General Secretary of Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (DPLF), the political wing of PLOTE. In the early days he was critical of LTTE’s policies and tactics.

When in 1991, LTTE mounted a frontal attack and laid siege to Elephant Pass military base, the then National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali and army top brasses were at wits end not knowing how to rescue the forces entrapped inside. The army broke the siege finally by landing its forces at Vettilaikerni and marching towards Elephant Pass. It took a whole month to do so and the army suffering heavy casualties. It was claimed that the idea for the naval landing at Vettilaikerni came from reading Taraki’s articles.

Over time Taraki dropped his anti-LTTE stance when he realized that Sri Lankan governments of whatever hues are incapable of offering any reasonable solution to end the festering ethnic conflict. His reading of the socio-political history of Ceylon taught him a few lessons. He concluded that Sinhala polity will never agree to share political power with the Thamil people.

Sivaram figured out two important historical factors. Firstly, he found the Sinhalese ethnic identity is all –inclusive ethno-religious identity, that is Sinhalese Buddhists. It is impossible to think of Sinhalese ethnic identity sans Buddhism. Secondly the myth, artificial but deliberate, linking Vijaya’s landing with the passing of Buddha into Nibbana (death and enlightenment). Buddha just before his death was supposed to have summoned Sakka (Indra) and instructed him “Vijaya, son of Sinhabahu, is coming to Lanka ……. together with 700 followers. In Lanka, O Lord of Gods, will my religion be established, therefore, carefully protect him with his followers and Lanka.” This myth has been systematically and continuously exploited by Sinhalese politicians and Buddhist monks to promote the chauvinistic theory that Sinhalese Buddhists are a chosen people entrusted with the task of safeguarding Buddhism in the whole island. In essence it meant the island belonged to Sinhalese Buddhists only.

Secondly the interpretation of war between Elara and Duttugemunu as one between Thamils and Sinhalese Buddhists. As an extension the victorious Duttgemunu a great Sinhalese Buddhist national hero. This fiction is portrayed to paint the Thamils as historical enemies, non-believers, aliens and usurpers by the Sinhalese. Sivaram called this the Mahavamsa mind-set! Sivaram in his writings used to quote passages from such well known Buddhist chronicles like the Deepavamsa, Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa and Rajawalia, in that order, to reinforce his argument. He even quoted the Kandyan Convention to prove Sinhalese historical animosity towards Thamils. The Kandyan Convention signed between the British and the Kandyan chiefs consisted of 12 clauses of which the following four are significant and give an insight in to the Sinhala psyche.

Sri Wickreme Rajasinha, the Malabari king to forfeit all claims to the throne of Kandy.
The king is declared fallen and deposed and the hereditary claim of his dynasty abolished and extinguished.
All his male relatives are banished from the island.
The religion of the Buddha is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected.

Sivaram gradually came to admire the superior fighting’s skills, military strategy and tactics of the LTTE in fighting the Sinhalese armed forces. Especially LTTE leader’s far-sighted leadership by example. Sivaram, once an armed militant himself, was convinced that LTTE possessed the necessary military prowess to fight the occupying Sinhalese army and finally expelling it from Thamil homeland.

I met Sivaram for the first time in 1999 in Ottawa. He was one of many prominent scholars who spoke at the International Conference On Tamil Nationhood & Search for Peace in Sri Lanka. The Conference was hosted by the Academic Society of Tamil Students, Carleton University, Canada from 21-22 May, 1999. Sivaram presented a paper titled Media Bias and Censorship in Conflict Reporting in Sri Lanka. Among others who spoke at the conference were Ms Karen Parker, V. Rudra Kumaran, Dr.wickramabahu Karunaratne, Prof. C. Manogaran, Margaret Trawick just to name a few.

Incidentally, I have both the English and the Thamil versions of the paper he presented.

After 1999, Sivaram visited Canada a few times. His close relatives from his wife’s side live in Canada. Whenever he came he made it a point to see me, but scrupulously avoided public appearances.

Sivaram was planning to spend at least 2 weeks in Canada last December, 2004. He was invited as a guest speaker for a seminar in New Jersey organized by the World Thamil Organization Inc. So he planned to come to Canada before going to US. However, his plan came to naught when the Canadian High Commission in Colombo refused him a visa without even the courtesy of an interview. He was very disappointed since he had no difficulty visiting Canada before. As for US he already had multiple entry visas.

I met him in New Jersey on December 11 and spoke to him before and after the seminar. When asked to pose for photographs, he remarked whether they are meant for use after his death! None of us took his remarks seriously and no one that day had any premonition that death was lurking in the dark. This despite the fact he remained a target of the Sri Lankan army intelligence and pro-government para-military groups. Extreme Sinhalese elements, notably the JVP and Hela Urumaya, published his photos and branded him as a LTTE ‘terrorist.’

In 2001 Sivaram had a close shave with death. He was brutally attacked by a group of persons armed with clubs and batons inside Thinakathir newspaper office in Batticaloa town. Apparently this group had close connections with the security forces. Sivaram suffered extensive head injuries and was hospitalized. He required 5 stitches.

Attack and intimidation of Thamil media persons by security forces have become a routine affair for a considerable period of time. Freedom of the press and the independence of journalists in Sri Lanka is a huge joke. More so for Thamil journalists.

When ever his personal safety was broached Sivaram brushed it aside saying if anyone is determined to kill him nothing could stop it. He also brushed aside the suggestion that he stays abroad for some time till the security situation in Sri Lanka improved.

While he was in US, some of Sivaram’s close friends thought he should be provided with some monetary help as a show of affection rather than to ease his stay. But he did not like the idea. Typical of the man he told me over the phone in colloquial Thamil “ Enakku kAsu thEvai Illai. Nan Mandayai POddAl enathu peNsathy pillaikku uthavi seyunKo!” (I don’t need money! If I die help my wife and children!)

After returning to Sri Lanka, Sivaram was in constant touch with me by phone and email. The last message he sent me was the tidings that Vanni has decided to create a separate department to promote rationalism and science on an institutional basis. Also publication of books on science and rationalism to educate the people. He told me he has read most of my articles I wrote in Muzhakkam and re-published in Thamil Natham web site. Especially the series that debunked belief in Astrology. He thought by writing on social and religious issues, I was doing a great service in weaning people from superstitious beliefs that have become the curse of the Thamil society.

I feel less sad and more angry that the killers stilled his voice so brazenly and in the most brutal fashion.

The question before us is how long we have to put up with the loss of such versatile journalists like Nimalarajan, Nadesan and now Sivaram? How many more lives have to be sacrificed so that the rest could live in peace and dignity?

Eleven days have gone since the gruesome murder of Sivaram, yet the Police say there has been no break-through in apprehending the murderers. Even the vehicle used by the assassins has not been traced. Is this because the GOSL has set those behind Sivaram’s killing to catch the killers?

Thamil people abhor the prospect of war resuming once again. They have suffered privation and deprivation well beyond human endurance for two decades. But then what is the alternative to war? Should we allow the destruction of a nation in installments by a shadow war waged by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her armed forces? It is time we re-think critically and act wisely.

Sivaram’s senseless murder has been condemned by prominent people around the world. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura condemned the murder describing it as a “shameful crime” and his death “a great loss for Sri Lankan journalism and for UNESCO.”

” Man who Knew Too Much Dead” wrote Prof. Prof. Tom Plate, Director of Asia Pacific Media Network, in an article published in Korean Times.

Director Ann Cooper of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the murder saying “This audacious and brutal crime is an attack on free speech in Sri Lanka.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka condemned the killing saying “To gun down an unarmed man is pure cowardice; to gun down a journalist is to attack freedom of speech.”

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) said “It was revolted at the brutal killing of well known journalist and the premeditated murder of one of the most renowned Tamil journalists is a huge loss for Sri Lanka’s press.”

Sivaram is not among the living any more. A powerful voice of an enslaved people has been silenced for ever. However, his ideas and ideals will survive his death and will live on. Let us then resolve to carry on his unfinished task as a lasting tribute to his loving memory.

Mourning Sivaram

April 28, 2006 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Commentary

by Qadri Ismail

I remember it well and I remember it poorly – the conversation at the Arts Centre Club. It was quite remarkable, actually, in that bar where more than half the regulars were my friends, in that bar where I am sure I had my first drink – either a rum and coke or a gin and lime, certainly, but again I don’t know for sure, although I swear I remember who paid for it – that we appear to have had an uninterrupted conversation. How do I know that? Because parts of it were published a few days (maybe weeks) later in the pages of The Sunday Times. (On the 27th of September, 1987, for those bibliographically inclined.)

I called him Naresh, then, to preserve his anonymity.

He was a member of one of the Tamil militant organizations, of that fine generation of Tamil youth that refused to shirk its responsibilities. And more. He was by any standards brilliant.

He was that rare undergraduate who, when he dropped names, could back it up with a relevant quotation and an intelligently coherent argument. A first class was his for the taking. But he wasn’t a nerd. Sivaram was up to painting the town red. Then, in the second term of his first year, he dropped out.

This might have been 1982. Though 1983 is more likely. I could check. But who cares! History is for those without imagination. (I got that line from a fortune cookie.)

I next met him three years, a race riot and many deaths later. He turned up at my doorstep one evening and asked me if I remembered him. Vain question; he wasn’t easy to forget. He looked very different: shaggy hair, scraggy beard, spectacles tied together with wire, torn track-shoes. We proceeded to talk – or, rather, he did – till the early hours of the morning.

Most of the talking, no doubt, must have happened in a bar somewhere. But, surely, we’d have eaten at home first. Indeed, to this day my mother doesn’t know how many Tamil militants she fed over those years. And I’m not about to tell her.

I asked why he joined up. He replied as if he was saying something self-evident. “What else is there to do?” Then proceeded to relate story after story that gave life to the facts and statistics of Tamil grievances…The idealism came out clearly, as did the commitment, the purpose, the dedication.

That last statement reads embarrassingly now. Idealism is not something I have associated with Sivaram for a long time.

Today he looks like anybody’s favourite son. The beard was trimmed neatly enough to make a naval officer jealous; the jeans were Jordache; the t-shirt, Lacoste; the run down spectacles had given way to Daniel Ortega-style tinted glasses; he had even polished his shoes. After three weeks of the good life in Colombo, one saw the beginnings of a pot.

Maybe that’s when he changed, after the Indo-Lanka Accord. But then, again, who knows?

The conversation turned to the PLOT critique of Tamil separatism and its argument for co-operation with the radical southern left.

He had been drinking arrack all evening. Then he lit a Bristol and said: “The whole enterprise was doomed to failure from the very start.

“Our first mistake was theoretical. We called it a national liberation struggle and compared ourselves to Cuba and Vietnam and Nicaragua. We should have thought of Biafra, of Basque Spain, of Eritrea. They have been fighting for years in Eritrea against Ethiopian repression and nobody cared. You know what Harold Wilson said about Biafra? He said he didn’t care whether a million Ibos had to die, that Nigeria had to remain unified.”

Wilson, we might remind ourselves here, was supposedly a leftist.

“The postwar international system does not permit the creation of new states.”

How about Cyprus, Bangladesh?

He smiled, lit another cigarette. “Turkish Cyprus has not been recognized by any other country apart from Turkey. Bangladesh is a special case. Pakistan was the artificial creation of the British. From the start, the Bengalis had problems with the west Pakis. And it suited India’s geostrategic interests to bifurcate Pakistan.”

What would Sivaram have said today about the many recently-established states, especially Eritrea? I don’t know. I stopped reading his stuff when he became an unapologetic Tamil nationalist. The 1987 Sivaram’s explanation would have gone something like this: The new states emerging from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, like Bangladesh from Pakistan, could be explained by the artificiality of the old states argument. Eritrea, in contrast, would be the perfect example of the PLOT thesis: they got nowhere for years until they made an alliance with anti-Mengistu Ethiopian forces.

But, for our purposes, what is relevant today, what might be useful to think about, is the PLOT assessment of the specificity (or, for the more theoretically minded, singularity) of the Sri Lankan situation. For I would hold now, as a card-carrying literary critic, that analogy – making comparisons or, in this instance, arguing that merely because something happened or did not in one place, it can happen or not in another – is just a plain and simple literary device; not the truth. Those who say we can learn from history forget that history is, to use a term from Aristotle, emplotted: it is something that is made, written. Events do not narrate themselves; they are narrated, ordered, structured – indeed, made into objects we recognize as events – by the discipline and discourse of history.

As for analogy, a clever enough person can compare anything to anything else. Or not, as the case might require. Example: pineapples and oranges are both fruit. They are both sweet, and soury; therein lying their appeal. They are both juicy and are guaranteed to wet the fingers while being eaten. Their color is usually similar. On the other hand, one grows on trees, the other from the ground. One has a smooth skin, the other a prickly one. One has a navel, the other a crown. You get the point…

At a certain stage of the evening, Sivaram got really angry. “What the bloody hell, I say! All those statements against Thamileelam made by India. Couldn’t they realize? India had nothing to gain from creating a separate state here…We had no mountains, no jungles to retreat to and attack from. The Sri Lankan state was so developed that there was a police station within fifteen miles of any place in the country. We had to use India as a rear base. From that point on, we were pawns in a larger chess game, a tool that was going to be used by India to achieve its ends.”

Some of those police stations, of course, have been destroyed by the LTTE; not to mention many army camps. And the Wanni jungles have turned out to be surprisingly attack proof. But the gist of the argument is still persuasive.

“Take the border. It is more than three hundred miles long – and there are Sinhalese at every end of it. Nobody ever thought of this. Nobody in any group came up with an intelligent idea of how it could be secured and then maintained.”

The LTTE had an idea, of course: exterminate all the Sinhalese on the border. But not even an intelligent feline could call it a smart one.

He went on to examine the Tamil economy and ecological environment, as he put it. The Tamils did not have a separate economy. They were dependent on the south for a market. Separation would have caused havoc here. Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy. The two eco-systems were inextricably linked. The east got its water from rivers that began in the Sinhala areas. What if something was done to the rivers?

This sounded persuasive to me then. It still does.

Electricity schemes were in the south and supply could be knocked off. And then, he said, take the nature of the state. It was all-pervading and centralized. There was no local capital that could be captured, leading automatically to separation.

Yes, the LTTE has won some remarkable military victories. But they have been unable to refute this thesis.

“And what about the Muslims. We had in our midst a large minority. We artificially tried to make them a part of us by inventing this nonsense of a Tamil-speaking people. They never wanted Thamileelam and we didn’t know what to do about them.”

As with the Sinhalese on the border, the LTTE had a plan for the Muslims: it tried what, in some parts of the world, is called ethnic cleansing.

But the more important, more general point is that, for all these reasons, PLOT rejected separatism in favor of the emancipation, or liberation, of all the people of Sri Lanka by the people of Sri Lanka.

He then defended the Accord. “We fought for our rights. We have not got everything, but all fights must end some day.” The conversation ended on this mournful note: ” As guerillas fighting for Tamil rights, our historical role is over.”

What changed? What transformed Sivaram from a socialist into an unalloyed nationalist – and, even worse, eventually an LTTE lobbyist? Again, we’ll never know.

Some have said it was the continued racism of the Sinhala state. That argument has some merit. But, then, not all of us opposed to the racist Sinhala state – now looking amazingly like it did then, during its Jayawardene/Premadasa incarnation, with the ultra-racist JVP in government (and I am making an analogy here, not a truth-claim) – chose the LTTE as the mode to resist it. Not all of us believe the stupid political science cliché that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend. (I mean, look what that logic has done to U.S. imperialism: the enemy – the Taliban – of its one-time enemy – the Soviet Union – is now its nemesis.)

Some will say, given D.B.S. Jeyaraj’s reporting that Sivaram was first rejected by the LTTE, by no less than Mahattaya himself, before he joined PLOT, that his political instincts were always pro-LTTE. That argument also has some merit. But it does not explain his advocacy of the PLOT position that night at the Arts Centre Club.

Others will say that he was simply an opportunist. That is, that he never really changed. Sometimes, I think so too. (After all, he wooed Vijaya Kumaratunga and his killers, the JVP; he hated India – and yet informed the High Commission about his comrades during the Maldives coup.) But it takes guts to promote the LTTE openly, in print, from the south. Opportunism cannot explain that. On the other hand, there are too many stories about Sivaram’s activities within PLOT, going back to the early 1980s, for anyone who knows them to accuse him of courage. The mystery, then, remains.

So what, you might ask, is this all about? Am I mourning, in some eccentric or even perverse fashion, the death – nay, the murder – of an old friend?

Yes, of course. But I’d rather, than dwell on death, take a lesson from his life. From the time we were friends. Good friends.

From the time parts of the Tamil resistance, the radical Tamil left – EPRLF and PLOT – was so incomparably superior, politically and ethically, to the genocidal brutality that was and might still be Sinhala nationalism. (After all, if the JVP controlled the government, we’d surely be at war again by now. Although the president – what on earth is she doing allied with the JVP? – could very well take us down that road, too.) Or, for that matter, the Tamil nationalism of the LTTE.

That ethical time, of the EPRLF and PLOT, need not be understood as past – because it was never really a historical time. Indeed, it is better understood as a moment of the imagination. A moment, unlike now perhaps, when anything seemed possible.

In his famous essay, Freud makes a distinction between mourning and melancholia: the mourner accepts the loss of the object; the melancholic desires its return.

Will we ever see a Tamil left quite like that again? EPRLF and PLOT at its best? (And, yes, I am familiar with PLOT’s atrocities.) Probably not. Though you never know. But we can fucking well insist that we must, and will, be inspired by that imagination.

Qadri Ismail was an attesting witness at the marriage of Sivaram and Yogaranjini. He remembers drinking and laughing a lot that night with some of his funnest buddies: Richard de Zoysa, Newton Gunasinghe, D.B.S. Jeyaraj.

[Qadri Ismail is Associate Professor Department of English University of Minnesota]

[This article appeared in the Lines Magazine in August 2005]

Let Us Resolve To Carry On Sivaram’s Unfinished Task!

V.Thangavelu, President TCWA

On the day my friend and colleague Dharmaratnam Sivaram (Taraki) was murdered I was blissfully ignorant of the tragedy unfolding in Colombo city till very late in the evening. On that fateful day, I was attending the International Conference hosted by Caldwell Educational Conference Organizers Inc, Toronto, Vasantham and Carleton Thamil Graduates Union, Ottawa and held at Grand Hotel, Toronto. Tsunami Disaster in Sri Lanka: Opportunities and Obstacles for Rehabilitation and Resettlement was the theme of the conference. There were panel discussions in which prominent scholars and experts spoke on a diverse subjects related to tsunami. The morning session was chaired by Prof. Joseph Chandrakanthan of the UoT.

On reaching home, I noticed my answering machine blinking. So even before changing cloths I started retrieving the messages. Among several messages, there was a short message left by the editor of Muzhakkam weekly newspaper. It said that there are unconfirmed reports that Sivaram (Taraki) has been abducted by unidentified gunmen at Bambalapitiya at around 10.45 p.m. the same day.

Thereafter, I received several calls and then went and checked the TamilNet. It carried a brief news item that confirmed the abduction story.

A little later other wire-news started carrying the bad news. Many bizarre scenes raced through my mind. I was trying to figure out the consequences. I resigned myself to the inevitable bad news sooner or later. It is a well known fact that abductors normally don’t release their victims for fear of betraying their identities. Past midnight news agencies reported the founding of Sivaram’s body with gun shot injuries behind the Sri Lankan parliamentary complex.

The loss of Sivaram (Taraki) is irreparable. He wielded his mighty pen to seek justice for his people. He was not a mercenary writer like some others. There is no one to replace him or take his place. He was the only Thamil journalist who wrote regularly both in English and Thamil for a very wide international audience. His articles and interviews were published and re-published in several newspapers and web-sites abroad. His superb in-depth analysis on defence and politics earned him respect not only locally but also from foreign diplomats, bureaucrats, journalists and educationists. He was invited by the US State Department for briefings. He was also invited by the Indian Foreign Ministry for similar briefings.

Sivaram took to journalism after falling out with PLOTE chief Uma Maheswaran. He was then the General Secretary of Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (DPLF), the political wing of PLOTE. In the early days he was critical of LTTE’s policies and tactics.

When in 1991, LTTE mounted a frontal attack and laid siege to Elephant Pass military base, the then National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali and army top brasses were at wits end not knowing how to rescue the forces entrapped inside. The army broke the siege finally by landing its forces at Vettilaikerni and marching towards Elephant Pass. It took a whole month to do so and the army suffering heavy casualties. It was claimed that the idea for the naval landing at Vettilaikerni came from reading Taraki’s articles.

Over time Taraki dropped his anti-LTTE stance when he realized that Sri Lankan governments of whatever hues are incapable of offering any reasonable solution to end the festering ethnic conflict. His reading of the socio-political history of Ceylon taught him a few lessons. He concluded that Sinhala polity will never agree to share political power with the Thamil people.

Sivaram figured out two important historical factors. Firstly, he found the Sinhalese ethnic identity is all –inclusive ethno-religious identity, that is Sinhalese Buddhists. It is impossible to think of Sinhalese ethnic identity sans Buddhism. Secondly the myth, artificial but deliberate, linking Vijaya’s landing with the passing of Buddha into Nibbana (death and enlightment). Buddha just before his death was supposed to have summoned Sakka (Indra) and instructed him “Vijaya, son of Sinhabahu, is coming to Lanka ……. together with 700 followers. In Lanka, O Lord of Gods, will my religion be established, therefore, carefully protect him with his followers and Lanka.” This myth has been systematically and continuously exploited by Sinhalese politicians and Buddhist monks to promote the chauvinistic theory that Sinhalese Buddhists are a chosen people entrusted with the task of safeguarding Buddhism in the whole island. In essence it meant the island belonged to Sinhalese Buddhists only.

Secondly the interpretation of war between Elara and Duttugemunu as one between Thamils and Sinhalese Buddhists. As an extension the victorious Duttgemunu a great Sinhalese Buddhist national hero. This fiction is portrayed to paint the Thamils as historical enemies, non-believers, aliens and usurpers by the Sinhalese. Sivaram called this the Mahavamsa mind-set! Sivaram in his writings used to quote passages from such well known Buddhist chronicles like the Deepavamsa, Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa and Rajawalia, in that order, to reinforce his argument. He even quoted the Kandyan Convention to prove Sinhalese historical animosity towards Thamils. The Kandyan Convention signed between the British and the Kandyan chiefs consisted of 12 clauses of which the following four are significant and give an insight in to the Sinhala psyche.

Sri Wickreme Rajasinha, the Malabari king to forfeit all claims to the throne of Kandy.
The king is declared fallen and deposed and the hereditary claim of his dynasty abolished and extinguished.
All his male relatives are banished from the island.
The religion of the Buddha is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected.

Sivaram gradually came to admire the superior fighting’s skills, military strategy and tactics of the LTTE in fighting the Sinhalese armed forces. Especially LTTE leader’s far-sighted leadership by example. Sivaram, once an armed militant himself, was convinced that LTTE possessed the necessary military prowess to fight the occupying Sinhalese army and finally expelling it from Thamil homeland.

I met Sivaram for the first time in 1999 in Ottawa. He was one of many prominent scholars who spoke at the International Conference On Tamil Nationhood & Search for Peace in Sri Lanka. The Conference was hosted by the Academic Society of Tamil Students, Carleton University, Canada from 21-22 May, 1999. Sivaram presented a paper titled Media Bias and Censorship in Conflict Reporting in Sri Lanka. Among others who spoke at the conference were Ms Karen Parker, V. Rudra Kumaran, Dr.wickramabahu Karunaratne, Prof. C. Manogaran, Margaret Trawick just to name a few.

Incidentally, I have both the English and the Thamil versions of the paper he presented.

After 1999, Sivaram visited Canada a few times. His close relatives from his wife’s side live in Canada. Whenever he came he made it a point to see me, but scrupulously avoided public appearances.

Sivaram was planning to spend at least 2 weeks in Canada last December, 2004. He was invited as a guest speaker for a seminar in New Jersey organized by the World Thamil Organization Inc. So he planned to come to Canada before going to US. However, his plan came to naught when the Canadian High Commission in Colombo refused him a visa without even the courtesy of an interview. He was very disappointed since he had no difficulty visiting Canada before. As for US he already had multiple entry visas.

I met him in New Jersey on December 11 and spoke to him before and after the seminar. When asked to pose for photographs, he remarked whether they are meant for use after his death! None of us took his remarks seriously and no one that day had any premonition that death was lurking in the dark. This despite the fact he remained a target of the Sri Lankan army intelligence and pro-government para-military groups. Extreme Sinhalese elements, notably the JVP and Hela Urumaya, published his photos and branded him as a LTTE ‘terrorist.’

In 2001 Sivaram had a close shave with death. He was brutally attacked by a group of persons armed with clubs and batons inside Thinakathir newspaper office in Batticaloa town. Apparently this group had close connections with the security forces. Sivaram suffered extensive head injuries and was hospitalized. He required 5 stitches.

Attack and intimidation of Thamil media persons by security forces have become a routine affair for a considerable period of time. Freedom of the press and the independence of journalists in Sri Lanka is a huge joke. More so for Thamil journalists.

When ever his personal safety was broached Sivaram brushed it aside saying if anyone is determined to kill him nothing could stop it. He also brushed aside the suggestion that he stays abroad for some time till the security situation in Sri Lanka improved.

While he was in US, some of Sivaram’s close friends thought he should be provided with some monetary help as a show of affection rather than to ease his stay. But he did not like the idea. Typical of the man he told me over the phone in colloquial Thamil “ Enakku kAsu thEvai Illai. Nan Mandayai POddAl enathu peNsathy pillaikku uthavi seyunKo!” (I don’t need money! If I die help my wife and children!)

After returning to Sri Lanka, Sivaram was in constant touch with me by phone and email. The last message he sent me was the tidings that Vanni has decided to create a separate department to promote rationalism and science on an institutional basis. Also publication of books on science and rationalism to educate the people. He told me he has read most of my articles I wrote in Muzhakkam and re-published in Thamil Natham web site. Especially the series that debunked belief in Astrology. He thought by writing on social and religious issues, I was doing a great service in weaning people from superstitious beliefs that have become the curse of the Thamil society.

I feel less sad and more angry that the killers stilled his voice so brazenly and in the most brutal fashion.

The question before us is how long we have to put up with the loss of such versatile journalists like Nimalarajan, Nadesan and now Sivaram? How many more lives have to be sacrificed so that the rest could live in peace and dignity?

Eleven days have gone since the gruesome murder of Sivaram, yet the Police say there has been no break-through in apprehending the murderers. Even the vehicle used by the assassins has not been traced. Is this because the GOSL has set those behind Sivaram’s killing to catch the killers?

Thamil people abhor the prospect of war resuming once again. They have suffered privation and deprivation well beyond human endurance for two decades. But then what is the alternative to war? Should we allow the destruction of a nation in installments by a shadow war waged by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her armed forces? It is time we re-think critically and act wisely.

Sivaram’s senseless murder has been condemned by prominent people around the world. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura condemned the murder describing it as a “shameful crime” and his death “a great loss for Sri Lankan journalism and for UNESCO.”

” Man who Knew Too Much Dead” wrote Prof. Prof. Tom Plate, Director of Asia Pacific Media Network, in an article published in Korean Times.

Director Ann Cooper of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the murder saying “This audacious and brutal crime is an attack on free speech in Sri Lanka.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka condemned the killing saying “To gun down an unarmed man is pure cowardice; to gun down a journalist is to attack freedom of speech.”

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) said “It was revolted at the brutal killing of well known journalist and the premeditated murder of one of the most renowned Tamil journalists is a huge loss for Sri Lanka’s press.”

Sivaram is not among the living any more. A powerful voice of an enslaved people has been silenced for ever. However, his ideas and ideals will survive his death and will live on. Let us then resolve to carry on his unfinished task as a lasting tribute to his loving memory.

நீ விட்டுச் சென்ற பணி தொடரும்

திருமகள்

உன் சாவு மக்கள் ஆட்சிக்கு ஒரு சாவு மணி
உன் சாவு எழுத்துச் சுதந்திரத்துக்கு ஒரு மரண அடி
உன் சாவு எண்ணச் சுதந்திரத்துக்கு ஒரு அறை கூவல்
உன் சாவு மனித குலத்துக்குத் தீராத வடு
உன் சாவு மனித நேயத்துக்கு ஏற்பட்ட கறை!

உன் நாட்டுப்பற்று கடலை விடப் பெரியது
உன் இனமானம் வானை விட உயர்ந்தது
உன் எழுதுக்கள் தமிழ்த் தேசியத்துக்கு நீருற்றியது
உன் கருத்துக்கள் தமிழீழ விடுதலைக்கு எருவானது!
உன் நுண்மாண் நுழைபுலம் போராட்டத்துக்கு அரணானது!

உன் எழுத்துக்கு மாற் றெழுத்து
உன் கருத்துக்கு எதிர்க் கருத்து
உன் வாதத்துக்கு எதிர் வாதம்
முன் வைக்க வக்கற்ற அறிவிலிகள்
உன்னைக் கோழைத்தனமாகக் கொன்று விட்டார்கள்!

ஊடகவுலகின் மன்னன் என உலா வந்தவனே
நடமாடும் பல்கலைக் கழகமென புகழப் பட்டவனே
உன் எழுத்துக்கள் சாகா வரம் பெற்றவை
உன் கருத்துக்கள் ஊழிக் காலத்தை வென்றவை
உன் சாதனை இமயத்தை விட உயர்ந்தவை!

தன் வீடு தன்குடும்பம் என வாழாது
என் மண் என்மக்கள் என் இனம்
என நாளும் பொழுதும் வாழ்ந்தவன் நீ!
உன்னைப் போல் இன்னொரு எழுத்து ழவனை
என்றுதான் காண்போம் என்ன நோன்பு நோற்போம்!

இன் முகம்! கள்ளமில்லா வெள்ளை மனம்!
அன்பான பேச்சு! கனிவான பார்வை! தோற்றத்தில்
எளிமை! நடத்தையில் நேர்மை அறிவில் கூர்மை
பெற்ற தாய்மீதும் பிறந்த மண்மீதும் காதல்!

கொண்ட கோட்பாட்டில் உறுதி! போகும்பாதையில் தெளிவு!
அண்டம் குலைந்தாலும் நிலைகுலையாத கொள்கைக் கோமான்!
உன்னைப் போல் ஒரு அறிவாளியை தமிழுலகில்
என்றுதான் காண்போம்? எத்தனை காலம் காத்திருப்போம்?

Let Us Resolve To Carry On Sivaram

Coercive Airpower in the Eelam Conflict- Taraki

[TamilNet, May 30, 2005 00:11 GMT]
The article on the use of airpower in Eelam conflict written by late Dharmeratnam Sivaram that appeared in the 19 May 1991 issue of the Island gains added significance in view of recent controversy over Liberation Tigers’ alleged possession of Czech made Zlin type Z-143 aircraft. Full text of the article is reproduced in this feature.

Tactical air power is used on the battle field. Strategic air power is used to attack targets behind the battle field- in the opponent’s territory. Tactical air power is part of ordinary military action which seeks to rout opposing forces on the battle field, whereas strategic air power is coercive, in that military coercion seeks to change the opponent’s behavior (agree for a ceasefire, give up conditions or territory, agree to hold talks on terms favorable to the assailant etc) and indirectly affect the opponent’s ability and will to sustain battlefield operations.The use of air power has been the most salient feature of the current conflict in the north and east. As a consequence of the fact that the LTTE controls a substantial portion of the north- the interior- there have been two types of air operations: tactical and strategic.

Right now in the context of the government’s stated and express desire to conclude, a temporary peace at least, the concept of coercion becomes crucial in examining the role of air power in the war against the Tiger. At the conventional level the military instruments traditionally used for coercion are strategic air and naval forces, while tactical air and ground forces are concerned with directly influencing events on the battle field. (Given the reduced vulnerability of modern states to naval blockades, air power has emerged as the main tool of conventional coercion.) Although technically this country cannot be said to possess a strategic airforce the need to affect the LTTE beyond the warfront in the territory it controls has given rise to strategic bombing.

The central question is, in the north, under what conditions is strategic bombing with conventional munitions likely to create the desired coercive leverage? Coercive air power can be directed at civilian and/or military targets. There are two models which exploit the vulnerability of the civilian population in the opponent’s territory. The first which seeks to gain the enemy’s compliance by slowly raising the risk of civilian damage is called the Schelling Model (the idea of manipulating the risk of civilian punishment for political purposes has largely come to be identified with the work of Thomas Schelling. Others also shared in the development of this idea chief among them Morton Kapalan in his Strategy of limited Retaliation).

Czech made 4-seater Zlin Z-143L aircraft

Key: Under this strategy bombing would gradually be escalated in intensity, geographical extent or both. “The key however is not to destroy the entire target set (population concentrations and the economic infrastructure that provides the population with essential goods and services) in one fell swoop.” This model’s premise is that coercive leverage comes from the opponent’s anticipation of future damage and hence spares a large part of the opponent’s civilian assets in order to preserve the threat of further destruction. In addition the assailant in this model gives a clear signal that the bombing is contingent on the opponent’s behavior and will be stopped if he complies with the assailant’s demands. (“To be coercive violence has to be anticipated…It is the expectation of more violence that gets the wanted behavior if the power to hurt can get it at all” – Thomas Schelling ‘Arms and Influence’)

The second counter civilian strategy is called the Douhet model- after its chief proponent Giulio Douhet. It rests in on the belief that infliction of high costs can shatter civilian morale “unraveling the social basis of resistance” and causing citizens to pressure the opponent to abandon his territorial and political ambitions. The Douhet model is simply what is known as terror bombing. However the military theoreticians and generals of the West have established the euphemistic concept instead. Under this strategy it is expected that civilian morale could be damaged by exposing large portions of the population to the terror of destruction by causing severe shortages of services and goods such as food water textiles and industrial goods.

Like the Schelling model the Douhet model focuses on population and economic targets. There is however a fundamental difference. The Schelling model holds ultimate ruin in abeyance. The Douhet model calls for immediate devastation.

The third and final strategy of coercive air power is the Interdiction model. Unlike the Douhet and Schelling models which aim at civilian vulnerability, the Interdiction model aims at the opponents military vulnerabilities. The fundamental premise of the model is that coercive leverage could be secured by attacking rear area military targets.

“The goal is to neutralize the enemy’s military potential before it can be brought to bear on the battle field.” Aerial interdiction sometimes includes economic targets to the extent that these are assumed to be part of the opponent’s ‘war machine.’ (The Industrial Web Theory put forward in the 1930s emphasized precision attacks against critical economic bottlenecks to cause an adversary’s war economy to crumble. During the bombing campaign against Germany, the eight air force targeted armament ball bearing and synthetic oil production as well as the German transportation network.)

The interdiction model assumes that in a conventional dispute or in a guerrilla war which is in the process of incorporating conventional methods, battlefield demands for resources are often inelastic especially in high input conflicts and therefore successful aerial interdiction of critical supplies can quickly lead to military disaster.

Air operations in LTTE controlled territory in the north con be tentatively classified into the Schelling and Interdiction models. How effective was the Schelling model in undermining the LTTE’s will to sustain the war?” (The Douhet model is not possible in Sri Lanka for two reasons. One it does not possess a modern strategic air force and the necessary conventional munitions. Two, the Tiger is not another government). The counter civilian strategy prescribed by the Schelling model is intended inter-alia to distance the people away from those prosecuting the war by posing the risk of destruction and hardship. It certainly led to an exodus to Colombo from the peninsula and presented the Tiger with a possible manpower crisis. But this strategy did not create the desired political crisis for the Tigers because civilian hardships were offset by supplies from Tamilnadu and the extraordinary volume of expatriate remittances.

Valvettithurai: The last occasion on which Valvettithurai was bombed thoroughly- only the Tiger base there was spared- it did not create the necessary volume of open civilian displeasure to coerce the Tiger leadership into considering methods other than war to mitigate the suffering of their kith and kin in their township. Coercive airpower in the form counter civilian Schelling model as used in the peninsula apparently failed to take note of an important fact: that from the late fifties one of the main tasks of Tamil politics has been to impress upon the Tamil population the need to countenance tremendous civilian punishment to achieve important political- and later- territorial aims.

The pogroms of 1958, 1977 and 1983 clearly strengthened the case. The net result is an almost indelible association among the ordinary Tamils between putting up with destruction of civilian assets and lives and the achievement of political objectives or the extraction of concessions from Colombo.

The counter-civilian models of coercive bombing presupposes that economic devastation will undermine civilian morale which in turn would divert the opponent’s attention away from the war front.

Major Muir Fairchild, Britain’s Director of Air Tactics and strategy in World War Two, referring to the counter-civilian coercive airpower had remarked, “ We obviously cannot and do not intend to kill or injure all the people. Therefore our intention in deciding upon this method of attack must be to so reduce the morale of the enemy civilian population through fear- fear of death or injury for themselves or their loved ones- that they would prefer our terms of peace to continuing the struggle and would force their governments to capitulate.” This approach is typical of the military leadership in societies where it is unequivocally under civilian authority dependent on the popular will for its survival.

Did the government gain any coercive leverage through the Schelling model of strategic bombing in the peninsula?

The Tiger’s unilateral ceasefire in January 1991 some may tend to argue was a consequence of it. This is incorrect because civilian vulnerabilities- the objective of the Schelling model- as it was quite evident as soon as the ceasefire was called off did not affect the political will of the LTTE to begin a rapid and intense escalation of its military operations. It is a fallacy amply exposed by many scholars on modern warfare that the punishment of civilian populations by strategic bombing with conventional munitions (unlike in the case of nuclear or biological munitions) can undermine or dislodge the real or assumed leadership of that population. But it continues to claim many adherents in modern military establishments mainly because the equation involved in the counter civilian model is simple.

The LTTE ran a war machine which is not an integral part of the northern economy. The war machine or in other words the infrastructure that is necessary to maintain its troops and battle field operation is located in the ‘interior’: the Tiger controlled portion of the north. Therefore the interdiction model is extremely crucial in determining the outcome of battles as well as in debilitating the LTTE’s ability to ‘oil’ its war apparatus.

Deep interdiction in the ‘interior’ theoretically has to be aimed at ammunition storage facilities food f fuel and explosive supply point communication bases camps and factories where mortars, shells and other war material are produced. Then it has to thwart the LTTE’s ground strategy by choking off the logistical flows on which the strategy is dependent: aerial interdiction of lines of communication between the battle front and bases or population centers.

Deep interdiction can be successful only if targets are correctly identified and if the industrial infrastructure necessary for the production of mortars and shells is part of the Jaffna economy. The problem, however, is that this industrial infrastructure that is necessary for metal casting, making of moulds, precision lathes etc is located in Tamilnadu.

Although camps had been on many occasions correctly identified they were more often than not bombed days after the Tigers vacated them. This rotation system of setting up camps in the peninsula has posed difficulties for aerial interdiction.

The often declared curfew in Kilinochchi is obviously for the possible aerial interdiction of LTTE’s lines of communication with the battlefront since Kilinochchi’s open spaces roads on irrigation bunds and channel banks can drastically expose and jeopardize Tiger supplies through t he district. But this tactical interdiction’s succss is possible only under the following conditions that Tiger supplies of men and material emanate from Jaffna; that the supplies are large; that they send convoys during the day when detection is possible as a result of the curfew which would preclude the possibility of civilian transport. Deep interdiction may seriously affect the LTTE when it launches a full fledged conventional ware dependent on an economic and industrial infrastructure located in the north. But that may never be because of the Tamilnadu factor. The LTTE rear base where its basic war material is secured is still Tamilnadu. Hence tactical interdiction may play a more crucial role in the future use of air power for coercive leverage.

Previous articles:
22.05.05 The Idea of Eelam- Taraki
20.05.05 Do Sri Lanka’s defense forces have conventional wa..
13.05.05 Sinhala Nation, refusing to share national wealth-..
02.05.05 Sivaram: ‘Don’t raise false hopes amongst our peop..

Follow-ups:
31.10.05 The LTTE’s New Concept- Confederation: Taraki
14.11.05 “SL Government’s speak soft, hit hard policy” – Ta..
25.11.05 Tigers two pronged strategy- Taraki, 1989
02.01.06 War and Peace- LTTE way: Taraki, 1991
17.02.06 The Importance of ‘Rearbase’: Taraki, 1989
05.03.06 Forward march, many more miles to go yet: Taraki, ..

வியாழக்கிழமை, 7 யூன் 2007, புதினம் நிருபர்

கனடா ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் மாமனிதர் சிவராம் இரண்டாம் ஆண்டு நினைவஞ்சலி நிகழ்வு கடந்த 3ஆம் நாள் நடைபெற்றது.

இந்நினைவஞ்சலியை கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவை ஏற்பாடு செய்திருந்தது.

நிகழ்வில் னடிய தமிழர் பேரவையின் தலைவர் பேராசிரியர் யோசெப் சந்திரகாந்தன் பேசியதாவது:

ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழக தமிழ் மாணவர் அவையைச் சேர்ந்த துளசி திருச்செல்வம்:

புலமைப்பரிசிலை அறிவித்து கனடிய தமிழர் பேரவையைச் சேர்ந்த முரளி சிறி நாராயணதாஸ் பேசியதாவது:

ரொறன்ரோ பல்கலைக்கழக தமிழ் மாணவர் அவையத் தலைவர் செல்வி சுஜனி கிருஸ்ணலிங்கம் நன்றியுரை நல்கினார்.

மாமனிதர் சிவராம் அவர்களின் தாயகக் கனவை நினைவாக்க சூளுரைப்போம்!

Let Us Resolve To Carry On Sivaram’s Unfinished Task!

V.Thangavelu, President TCWA

Thereafter, I received several calls and then went and checked the TamilNet. It carried a brief news item that confirmed the abduction story.

Sivaram took to journalism after falling out with PLOTE chief Uma Maheswaran. He was then the General Secretary of Democratic Peoples Liberation Front (DPLF), the political wing of PLOTE. In the early days he was critical of LTTE’s policies and tactics.

Sri Wickreme Rajasinha, the Malabari king to forfeit all claims to the throne of Kandy.

The king is declared fallen and deposed and the hereditary claim of his dynasty abolished and extinguished.

All his male relatives are banished from the island.

The religion of the Buddha is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected.

Incidentally, I have both the English and the Thamil versions of the paper he presented.

After 1999, Sivaram visited Canada a few times. His close relatives from his wife’s side live in Canada. Whenever he came he made it a point to see me, but scrupulously avoided public appearances.

Attack and intimidation of Thamil media persons by security forces have become a routine affair for a considerable period of time. Freedom of the press and the independence of journalists in Sri Lanka is a huge joke. More so for Thamil journalists.

When ever his personal safety was broached Sivaram brushed it aside saying if anyone is determined to kill him nothing could stop it. He also brushed aside the suggestion that he stays abroad for some time till the security situation in Sri Lanka improved.

I feel less sad and more angry that the killers stilled his voice so brazenly and in the most brutal fashion.

The question before us is how long we have to put up with the loss of such versatile journalists like Nimalarajan, Nadesan and now Sivaram? How many more lives have to be sacrificed so that the rest could live in peace and dignity?

Eleven days have gone since the gruesome murder of Sivaram, yet the Police say there has been no break-through in apprehending the murderers. Even the vehicle used by the assassins has not been traced. Is this because the GOSL has set those behind Sivaram’s killing to catch the killers?

Sivaram’s senseless murder has been condemned by prominent people around the world. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura condemned the murder describing it as a “shameful crime” and his death “a great loss for Sri Lankan journalism and for UNESCO.”

” Man who Knew Too Much Dead” wrote Prof. Prof. Tom Plate, Director of Asia Pacific Media Network, in an article published in Korean Times.

Director Ann Cooper of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the murder saying “This audacious and brutal crime is an attack on free speech in Sri Lanka.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka condemned the killing saying “To gun down an unarmed man is pure cowardice; to gun down a journalist is to attack freedom of speech.”

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) said “It was revolted at the brutal killing of well known journalist and the premeditated murder of one of the most renowned Tamil journalists is a huge loss for Sri Lanka’s press.”

Sivaram is not among the living any more. A powerful voice of an enslaved people has been silenced for ever. However, his ideas and ideals will survive his death and will live on. Let us then resolve to carry on his unfinished task as a lasting tribute to his loving memory.

Mourning Sivaram

April 28, 2006 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Commentary

by Qadri Ismail

I called him Naresh, then, to preserve his anonymity.

He was a member of one of the Tamil militant organizations, of that fine generation of Tamil youth that refused to shirk its responsibilities. And more. He was by any standards brilliant.

This might have been 1982. Though 1983 is more likely. I could check. But who cares! History is for those without imagination. (I got that line from a fortune cookie.)

Most of the talking, no doubt, must have happened in a bar somewhere. But, surely, we’d have eaten at home first. Indeed, to this day my mother doesn’t know how many Tamil militants she fed over those years. And I’m not about to tell her.

That last statement reads embarrassingly now. Idealism is not something I have associated with Sivaram for a long time.

Maybe that’s when he changed, after the Indo-Lanka Accord. But then, again, who knows?

The conversation turned to the PLOT critique of Tamil separatism and its argument for co-operation with the radical southern left.

He had been drinking arrack all evening. Then he lit a Bristol and said: “The whole enterprise was doomed to failure from the very start.

Wilson, we might remind ourselves here, was supposedly a leftist.

“The postwar international system does not permit the creation of new states.”

How about Cyprus, Bangladesh?

Some of those police stations, of course, have been destroyed by the LTTE; not to mention many army camps. And the Wanni jungles have turned out to be surprisingly attack proof. But the gist of the argument is still persuasive.

“Take the border. It is more than three hundred miles long – and there are Sinhalese at every end of it. Nobody ever thought of this. Nobody in any group came up with an intelligent idea of how it could be secured and then maintained.”

The LTTE had an idea, of course: exterminate all the Sinhalese on the border. But not even an intelligent feline could call it a smart one.

This sounded persuasive to me then. It still does.

Electricity schemes were in the south and supply could be knocked off. And then, he said, take the nature of the state. It was all-pervading and centralized. There was no local capital that could be captured, leading automatically to separation.

Yes, the LTTE has won some remarkable military victories. But they have been unable to refute this thesis.

“And what about the Muslims. We had in our midst a large minority. We artificially tried to make them a part of us by inventing this nonsense of a Tamil-speaking people. They never wanted Thamileelam and we didn’t know what to do about them.”

As with the Sinhalese on the border, the LTTE had a plan for the Muslims: it tried what, in some parts of the world, is called ethnic cleansing.

But the more important, more general point is that, for all these reasons, PLOT rejected separatism in favor of the emancipation, or liberation, of all the people of Sri Lanka by the people of Sri Lanka.

He then defended the Accord. “We fought for our rights. We have not got everything, but all fights must end some day.” The conversation ended on this mournful note: ” As guerillas fighting for Tamil rights, our historical role is over.”

What changed? What transformed Sivaram from a socialist into an unalloyed nationalist – and, even worse, eventually an LTTE lobbyist? Again, we’ll never know.

So what, you might ask, is this all about? Am I mourning, in some eccentric or even perverse fashion, the death – nay, the murder – of an old friend?

Yes, of course. But I’d rather, than dwell on death, take a lesson from his life. From the time we were friends. Good friends.

That ethical time, of the EPRLF and PLOT, need not be understood as past – because it was never really a historical time. Indeed, it is better understood as a moment of the imagination. A moment, unlike now perhaps, when anything seemed possible.

In his famous essay, Freud makes a distinction between mourning and melancholia: the mourner accepts the loss of the object; the melancholic desires its return.

Will we ever see a Tamil left quite like that again? EPRLF and PLOT at its best? (And, yes, I am familiar with PLOT’s atrocities.) Probably not. Though you never know. But we can fucking well insist that we must, and will, be inspired by that imagination.

Qadri Ismail was an attesting witness at the marriage of Sivaram and Yogaranjini. He remembers drinking and laughing a lot that night with some of his funnest buddies: Richard de Zoysa, Newton Gunasinghe, D.B.S. Jeyaraj.

[Qadri Ismail is Associate Professor Department of English University of Minnesota]

[This article appeared in the Lines Magazine in August 2005]

Let Us Resolve To Carry On Sivaram’s Unfinished Task!

V.Thangavelu, President TCWA

Thereafter, I received several calls and then went and checked the TamilNet. It carried a brief news item that confirmed the abduction story.