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The Pirabhakaran Phenomenon
Part 20
Sachi Sri Kantha[27 October 2001]
Implications of Indo-LTTE War
Pirabhakaran’s ‘Judgement’
Leave it to Bertrand Russell for explaining in simple sentences, the distilledessence of principles in logic and life. Here is one of his gems about what weusually call as ‘judgement’ – a gift few leaders are blessed with.
“One of the most important parts of education, and one of the most neglected, is that which teaches how to reach true conclusions oninsufficient data. As a logician I am conscious of uttering what is,in strict logic, mere nonsense when I say this; nevertheless all success in practical life depends upon ability to perform thisapparently impossible feat. The successful general is the one who guesses correctly what his opponent will do; the successful organizer is the one who can choose good subordinates after brief interviews. Even the successful man of science makes a guess,which afterwards is verified. In politics, the data are hardly ever sufficient to enable a rational man to reach a reasoned conclusion,but they are often such as to enable a man who is both rational and shrewd to reach a sagacious conclusion. To do this, requires thescientific absence of bias and power of hypothetical thought, but it requires also something else – that quality which is vaguely called ‘judgement’.” 
[Russell, in
 Education and the Social Order 
, 1932, p.227]Every word of this short paragraph is pregnant with meaning. Russelldescribes the traits of a successful general, a successful organizer, asuccessful man of science and a successful politician. One can assess for himself, how Pirabhakaran levels up with Russell’s attributes on‘judgement’ a leader is worth possessing. Since his ascent, Pirabhakaran’s judgement has served him well in countering the (1) patricians’ guiles of J.R.Jayewardene and Indian power brokers, (2) street-smart toughness of Premadasa, and (3) pseudo-peacenik’s charm of Chandrika Kumaratunga.
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IMPLICATIONS OF INDO-LTTE WAR (1987-89)
I could trace three major outcomes of the Indo-LTTE War to Pirabhakaran.These are,(1) International Recognition to the LTTE(2) Expansion of the Sri Lankan Army(3) Harassment of Pirabhakaran by India’s Intelligence wallahsImplications-wise, among these three outcomes, the first one was positive;the second one was neutral; and the third one was negative. Two reasonsallow me to mark the second outcome (Expansion of the Sri Lankan Army)in the neutral column. First, LTTE also benefited to an extent from thecapture of arms stored in the military camps which fell to them, thussubsidizing their own armament purchase budget. Secondly, it acceleratesthe process of ‘breaking the will of the Sinhalese foot-soldiers’ to fight anunwanted war, despite the prodding by desk-top generals and the jingoistvultures of their society. Now, let me present my assessment on each of these outcomes.
(1) International Recognition to the LTTE
How does one assess international recognition? – Many scales exist. Someof the recognized ones include, a Nobel prize, an Olympic gold medal, acover story in an international magazine, and a photo-news feature in thefirst page of the
 New York Times
. Pirabhakaran has neither received a NobelPrize nor won an Olympic gold medal. But, he has been featured as cover stories in international magazines (
 Asiaweek 
,
 Far Eastern Economic Review
for example) more than once. Pirabhakaran’s photo also has appeared in thefirst page of 
 New York Times
once. That was on August 5, 1987accompanying a news feature of Seth Mydans from Jaffna, coveringPirabhakaran’s address to Eelam Tamils at the Suthumalai Temple.How many other Sri Lankan politicians (prime ministers and presidents, both past and present) had their faces presented in the first page of 
 NewYork Times
. Probably none. Or, Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike could be theonly one other than Pirabhakaran to receive such coverage in 1960. This ismy conjecture, and need to be verified in the Times archives.On August 5, 1987, the lead editorial of the
 New York Times
carried thecaption, ‘Going for Broke in Sri Lanka’. Commenting on the then recentlyannounced Rajiv Gandhi-Jayewardene Peace Accord of 1987, the
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editorialist mused,“… The first test is whether Tamil guerrillas holed up on the JaffnaPeninsula will honor their promises and yield up their guns to Indian peacekeepers. Then comes the second test: whether the Sinhalesemajority is reasonable enough to resist unreasoning attacks on the pactas a sellout. Manifestly, pitfalls abound, but at least they are visibleand, with a modicum of sanity, avoidable.”The
 New York Times
editorialist was naïve to expect such ‘a modicum of sanity’ among the politicians and the Intelligence agencies of India and SriLanka. Thus, both tests mentioned by him failed miserably, and the politicalgame of ‘Going for Broke in Sri Lanka’ is still being passionately played outin Colombo.The 54
th
edition of 
The International Who’s Who 1990-91
(EuropaPublications Ltd., London, 1990), for the first time carried a very brief entryon Pirabhakaran, as one of the 20,000 notable individuals. It stated,“Pirubhakarran, Vellupillai; Sri Lankan guerrilla leader; born 26 Nov.1954, Velvettithurai, Jaffna peninsula; married; one son, onedaughter; joined Tamil movement 1970; founded Tamil New Tigersguerrilla movement (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since 1976)1972.”Pirabhakaran was neither a Cabinet minister nor a titular head of Sri Lanka;he was neither an author nor a banker; he was neither an entertainer nor a Nobelist. Still, he made it to the
 International Who’s Who
on his ownmerits as a ‘guerrilla leader’.A more objective indicator on the success of any leader, any idea or anymovement comes from the recognition received, not in regular mass media, but in history books or other reliable reference sources such as dictionariesand encyclopedias. Hundreds of politicians capture attention of the media by devious means (Pirabhakaran’s critics such as Subramanian Swamy,Lakshman Kadirgamar are good examples in this game.) But what countsultimately is how their deeds are inscribed in the historical sources, for reflection, study and remembrance by the posterity.One of the earliest dictionaries to include a description on Pirabhakaran’smovement was
The Penguin Dictionary of Third World Terms
(1992),authored by Kofi Buenor Hadjor, a professor of African Studies at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara. This compact dictionary providesdescriptions on 251 eminent persons, institutions, organizations, ideas,movements and terms which became prominent in the Third World since1945. LTTE receives a liberal one and a half page recognition in this
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