ARULAR INTERVIEW IN COLOMBO WITH DM !!!

Arular Arudpragasam (Pic by Dinuka Liyanawatte) M.I.A with dad Arular




Arular wants to be an independent mediator in Lanka


By Jennifer A. Rodrigo

Hip hop sensation and British songster M.I.A’s father, Arular Arudpragasam, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror expressed his interest to offer his services as an independent mediator of the ethnic conflict to the government. Speaking, while in Sri Lanka on a visit, Arudpragasam, said that his 30 years’ experience in Sri Lanka’s conflict, would be the primary reason for his inclination. “Even though, right now, the government through its military strength, is thinking we are going to finish this war and attain peace, I feel that peace may be even further away with the current approach,” said the one-time military mentor of the LTTE, referring to the present arena in the North-East.

‘This is all her talent’ - Dad

Commenting quite early during the discourse, about his Oscar and Grammy-nominated artist daughter, Maya Arudpragasam (M.I.A), he said that she was born in London and brought to Sri Lanka as a seven month old baby when he came to launch EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation) in Sri Lanka. She spent most of her budding years in Jaffna, where she schooled at the Jaffna Convent and left Sri Lanka in the year 1985. “She has single-handedly achieved all of this. I was away from home for many years and I could live with my family only from time to time. This is why she came up with her stage name M.I.A – to mean Missing In Action.” He moreover described his daughter as having little music training as a child even though she had talent towards music and dance. “What we,” he began referring to his wife and himself, “gave her were the confidence, self esteem and the courage.” Completing her education in the UK, M.I.A graduated from the Fine Arts School taking to Film and Media. She eventually joined the group Elastica as their PR person. M.I.A is one of three children in the family; she has one younger brother who works with her and an elder sister who is a jewellery designer working from London.

Mentoring Prabha

Arular Arudpragasam brought together six militant groups in the Eelam struggle in the early eighties which was called the Community for Eelam Liberation (CEL) and has been a pioneer of the militant groups. He was also the first to launch EROS in the year 1976 and V. Prabhakaran was under Arudpragasam’s watch in his early years as a militant. From the year 1980, Arudpragasam was “more or less a common person to all the militant groups.” He was in the North-East Provincial Council as Head of the Research Division of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in the years 1988, 89 and 90. Simultaneously, according to him, he became the first mediator between the government and LTTE during President Premadasa’s regime. “This was the time, when the LTTE told me that they’d consider the alternative of a separate state if that is acceptable to the Tamil people, but unfortunately, for the last 18 years, such a solution has not emerged.”

The solution, a problem?

Arudpragasam noted that Sri Lanka is not living in an era where a solution can be imposed against the will of a people. He observed that the present solution attempted in the island, which is via military combat, is about imposing a unitary state and for the Tamil people, this means the Sinhalese rule over them, which is what brought them to the current state in the first place. “It is necessary that we work out a solution that is going to be acceptable to the Tamil people.” With the question of acceptability arising, it was queried as to what exactly he proposes as acceptable to the Tamil people, to which he responded that although there are many other communities as well, the conflict is between the Tamil people in the North-East and the Sinhalese of the South - “The solution lies in bringing a new Sri Lanka into existence where people will feel their rights have been met and they don’t feel threatened.”

“This is a problem of re-articulating Sri Lanka on a different platform. Only if such a process is taken forward, can a constitutional restructuring take place,” he said. According to this former EROS Leader and one time Coordinator for CEL, trying to deal with the existing problem in Sri Lanka at party/political level, where parties are more interested in the vote patterns than in bringing about a cardinal constitutional change, will not bring peace. “A platform of dialogue and understanding has to be established accompanied by some form of affirmative action directed at re-orienting our minds.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with the Tamil people or the Sinhalese, fundamentally,” he said, “They are all quite amicable and reasonable people. So it is necessary that we help people to come to terms with a solution that will meet the expectations of everybody.”
Referring to the approach taken by the government, Arudpragasam said that the ruling party is not aiming at bringing the mainstream Tamils into the political process. Instead, he sees, the government trying to solve the problem depending on the peripherals that are in goodwill with them. “This can only produce a temporary solution. Only a solution based on the principle, ‘Tamil Eelam belongs to Tamil people, Sinhala Rata belongs to Sinhala people and Sri Lanka belongs to all Sri Lankans’ will hold.”
“The current thinking is the LTTE is going to be wiped out and a solution can be brought for the Tamil people, even with the help of India. Of course, I’m extremely sceptical about that,” he expressed. According to Arudpragasam, even if the government occupies the entire Wanni area, with the LTTE disappearing, this in no way, will diminish their ability to wage a guerrilla war against the government for many years to come.”

Vice-versa

Arudpragasam is of the view that the government has completely rejected the approach where it comes up with a solution together with the Tamil people and then tried to marginalize the LTTE with the help of the Tamil people. “This is mainly because, the government does not have a solution which is acceptable to the Tamil community,” he said adding, “so we are only heading towards a scenario where there is extensive military occupation and rule over the North-East and a prolonged guerrilla war by the LTTE. Even if the government succeeds in defeating and eliminating the Tigers completely, without a settlement, the opportunity of withdrawing armed forces from the North-East will never come.” This, he feels, will be a setting, totally unacceptable to the Tamil people. “What I’m trying to say is that, we will see a Tamil national liberation struggle without the LTTE, while the government will continue to struggle and come to depend on greater foreign involvement to sustain its opposition of the liberation struggle.
Citing the example of Yasser Arafat, whom he described as a “moderate and secular leader”, he spoke of how the West undermined him labeling him a terrorist. “An amicable Abbas was a brought to be leader and Hamas was the answer of the Palestine people. The conflict never ended.” Urging to look at the similarities between what happened in Palestine and what is happening here, Arudpragasam said that without a settlement, only forms will change. This is the lesson we learn from the Palestine problem. If a solution is not going to be brought forth in earnestness, we are only heading towards more trouble.”

Prabha misled

When asked about the countless number of lives which have been lost due to the atrocities of war waged by the LTTE, he said that, his own vision for the LTTE when it was originated was not in harmony with such catastrophe. “Although Prabhakaran was under my spell earlier on, subsequently, he came under so many other forces, inclusive of Anton Balasingham, which took him in the wrong direction; however I always believed, if an appealing solution was brought forth by the government, I could convince Prabha and make him accept the solution and end the war but unfortunately, such a solution never came.”



From the very inception, Arudpragasam stated that he could differentiate between terrorism and liberation warfare. He expressed that Prabhakaran believed in individual killing when he came into the liberation struggle. “We thought we could suppress his terrorist killer inclination. I even wrote a Tamil Novel called Lanka Rani to force him out of this culture. I think we failed,” he articulated.
Arudpragasam left Sri Lanka after his tenure as mediator in the island and entered Cambridge University to pursue Sustainability Development. He now lives in London and is the Director General and Convener of the NGO called Global Sustainability Initiative. His childhood years were spent in Jaffna predominantly but he also schooled at St. Joseph’s Bandarawela. His father was a head teacher and was also a political activist and Arudpragasam recalls growing up in an active political environment as a child. He attended University in Moscow where he read for his Masters degree in Engineering.

Disband LTTE

The Hindu on December 4, 2008 quoted Arudpragasam as having stated that the LTTE should disband itself and transform itself into a democratic force. Daily Mirror asked him if he still held such a view. “Yes,” he responded, “I have repeated this in my latest article ‘Political Realities and Political Solution to the Ethnic Problem in Sri Lanka’.” Arudpragasam had mentioned in his article that the LTTE should either join EROS or the TNA. He had further mentioned that if ever a situation arises when Prabhakaran cannot fight any further, he should inform the same to the Tamil people and disband the Tigers and allow them to join other groups. “But if he feels he can continue, then it is his duty to find the answer to the problem of overwhelming force he is facing.”
While he asserted that he has always been for meaningful devolution in the country, he sketched that transforming the LTTE into a democratic force is a difficult proposition. He believes that as long as Sonia and Congress are there, there will be problem with his leadership. “Tamil people need a leadership that will make India feel comfortable. I think Prabha should disband and retire.”
‘Is the LTTE the sole representative of the Tamil speaking populace?’ – a question, contemplated by many, to which he answered negatively. “In my view, the LTTE has about 20% support among the Tamil people but this can only be tested if LTTE contests the election. The LTTE has unnecessarily gone about imposing this position that it is the sole representative of the Tamil people and in the process of establishing this hegemony it has engaged in all sorts of artificial and fascist exercises and imposed itself to show that the Tamil people are overwhelmingly behind it.”
“It was my decision in the CEL to promote all groups equally. In the original CEL, there were six groups - EROS, EPRLF (Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front), TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization), PLOTE (People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam), LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and NLFTE (National Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam). It was in the CEL in 1982, that a decision was taken to seek India’s support to the militant movement but one of the groups, NLFTE, dropped out. It was a Maoist group which did not want to work with India. Then came India’s support and the 83 riots when Tamil people threw their entire lot with the militants. I made sure all five groups grew equally and that all them got India’s support, though individually, all of them sought factional supremacy.”
The result was, according to Arudpragasam, that by 1986 each group managed to consolidate a 20% support, the situation becoming saturated. No one could grow any further and LTTE turned the gun against fellow militant groups and since then, the LTTE wasn’t fighting a war of liberation but a war for factional supremacy and sole representative status. “Its lack of proper orientation is demonstrated in its current debacle. Tamil people are hard nuts. Even today the loyalty of people to various groups at that time has not changed in spite of all the efforts and games of the LTTE.” So, today’s government military victories, according to Arudpragasam, are not the end of the LTTE. “That 20% base support can never be erased.”

M.I.A wishes to tour Sri Lanka

Stating that he hopes to visit his daughter, M.I.A, now that she has delivered her baby, he went on to say that he doesn’t need to encourage her to travel to Sri Lanka. “She is quite interested in coming to Sri Lanka and India but her programmes are bound by long term contracts with record companies.” However, the father is sure she will work out some thing although he also feels that the return of peace may be a condition for her. “If on the other hand, I am going to mediate the conflict and her coming can contribute to peace, then I will make a request.”
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