One step forward, two steps back

The things that worry me about the war, and the eventual end, started back in New Year's day (April 14th in Sri Lanka).

That was the day they showed the celebrations in Kilinochchi. The leader of the forces there was symbolically invited into the city by an Arachchi wearing what seemed to be an extremely Sinhalese costume, talking classically "old village" Sinhala.

Now, it's not the action or the symbolic welcome that I am against. It was the implementation of it. If they had done it with a Tamil-looking arachchi, wearing a verti instead of a sarong, if they had made some concession to the fact that Kilinochchi was a historically Tamil area, then I would not have minded it so much. The event was a symbol. A symbol that the area of Kilinochchi was under LKGOV control. But even symbols must be handled with care.

And then there was the speech by The Beast.

Giving a speech that says we have won is acceptable, but using heavily popularised icons of polarization is just stupid. If you read the victory speeches of the greats like Lincoln and Churchill, you will see that all they have said was something like it's over. we won. I thank the troops and God.

Whatever they may have felt in private, they refrained from attacking the country in their speech.

In his victory speech to Parliament The Beast mentioned Dutugemunu as a great hero, and, almost in the same breath, Elara as a usurper and conqueror.

The problem here is not that Elara was a usurper/conqueror who came down from India and took over. He was, but even the Mahavamsa calls Elara a wise and just king. It wasn't that Dutugemunu was doing the same thing that Elara did - namely, attacking a land that was not his so that he could get more power. The problem is that we are taught that the Elara-Dutugemunu fight was one between the Sinhalese and Tamils that the Sinhalese won.

This could not be further from the truth. It is the nature of birds to fly, of fish to swim, and of kings to conquer. That was all that it was. But the problem is what we are taught. In school I was taught many stories of Dutugemunu as part of history. One of the stories involved how Dutugemunu's mother came to find him asleep in a big bed all curled up. Why are you sleeping all curled up? she asked.

he answered , How can I stretch my arms and legs? In the North is the evil Tamil, to the South is the deep blue sea (හැඩි දෙමළු).

A historical story. A children's fairy tale. A vehicle for racial hatred. I was lucky my parents never taught me that. But I heard it in school. How many Tamil people heard the same story with a different twist for their race? It was much, much later that we heard about Dutugemunu considering Elara a honoured enemy and building a monument to him. In fact I don't think I learned that at school.

This is why referencing the Elara-Dutugemunu war was a mistake.

I would like to think that both of what happened was an honest mistake. A simple error in judgment from a speechwriter who didn't understand the connotations of what he said. But the problem is that he did say it. A golden opportunity to help the situation was squandered in words that created more harm. Now the LKGOV has to go further, and faster to regain trust.

So it's one step forward and two steps back.