Asia’s Master of Terror Velupillai Prabhakaran, reportedly celebrate his birthday on November 26th. He is 42 years old. Every year, astrologers, both Indian and Sri Lankan, continue to predict his death. This has become more common since he was 38. But, Prabhakaran lives on. Prabhakaran’s birthday coincides with the heroes’ week.
What is the secret of his success even against the Indian military, the fourth largest military in the world. Prabhakaran is a innovator and a creator. He does not believe in the rigid multi-layered bureaucracy that protects the inefficient and the corrupt. Prabhakaran’s innovation and creativity is seen by looking at his war machine.
He has developed the most feared improvised explosive device - the suicide body suit. Even the Hamas and the Hezbollah body suits are considered rudimentary compared to the sophisticated suit of the LTTE. The LTTE body suit has killed two heads of government - Rajiv Gandhi and R. Premadasa.
Today, the LTTE is developing the sky tigers with plane kits purchased from the West and pilots trained in the west. Prabhakaran’s international network is as vast as the Sri Lankan embassies and the high commissions.
But they are highly effective. Despite the assassination of two world leaders, the LTTE can demonstrate in front of the White House and the UN. This is the test of Prabhakaran’s efficiency and the inefficiency of the government. Despite warnings by intelligence agencies, the Sri Lankan airforce failed to fix infra red jammers to its fleet of aircraft.
Despite repeated warnings to destroy the growing LTTE Sea Tiger capability the Sri Lankan navy engaged in off shore patrolling and policing the waters instead of fighting and weakening the Sea Tiger strength.
These are the weaknesses of foreign military academy trained officers compared to a jungle trained boy. Prabhakaran has always been underestimated by the Sri Lankan military establishment. I recall that in the early 1980s when I asked a General about the insurgency in the making he said, Oh, these are kollas wearing amudes and carrying shot guns. We are Sandhurst and WestpÐoint trained generals. We will defeat them completely very soon.” Although J.R. Jayewardene regime has been blamed, terrorism emerged in Sri Lanka in the early 1970s and heightened after the riots of 1983.
Today, the Sri Lankan military machine is run not by the most efficient but by the most loyal. Until this equation changes, the LTTE-government equation will remain static. Prabhakaran has no match on the Sri Lanka side. Prabhakaran thinks and acts politically, economically, militarily and internationally. To meet Prabhakaran’s challenge, there must be an equal or a unified team thinking and working like Prabhakaran. Prabhakaran will be long remembered. He will be remembered as a man who unleashed waves and waves of terror in search of a costly dream. Although he is a hero to many Tamils, he is also a villan to many Tamils. He has destroyed their culture, marginalized them in the northeast and in Colombo and internationally made them suspicious like the Palestinians. Prabhakaran is viewed as a murderer by most non Tamils.
His Tamil nationalist ideology has proved destructive and self destructive. It has killed and counter killed thousands of men, women and children. Prabhakaran’s overwhelming military success - largely the making of successive governments - has made him not compromise his avowed goal of Tamil Eelam. Prabhakaran failed to grasp three opportunities the Sri Lankan government granted him to make peace. In the future, no government will negotiate with Prabhakaran unless there is an international initiative. Unitil then, Sri Lanka will bleed a slow death.
Return to the Editorial/Opinion contents page