Wignes: Star of northern hopes

Heavens be praised! At long last the whole pantheon of Hindu gods have showered their manifold blessings on Lanka's Tamils by manifesting in the form of former Supreme Court Judge Vishwalingam Wigneswaran a messiah to lead them to the promised land.

What a contrast from the bloodthirsty demon who usurped the mantle of Tamil leadership by exterminating all who stood in his way, at whose bloody satanic altar thousands were slaughtered in a elusive quest to establish an utopian Eelam on Lankan soil.

For thirty devastating years legitimate Tamil aspirations were perforce to find voice only through the megalomaniac uttering of this terrorist psychopath, the echo heard only through the blasts of his suicide squads. It was an era of darkness, an epoch of a nation's despair, an age where reason was incinerated in the furnace of racial perversity.

Now with the destruction of the forces of evil, comes the apostle of peace, of reason, of sanity, of hope. The long night has ended and Lanka wait dawn to break, for a new sun to rise, for sanity to return not only to the northern peninsula but to the rest of the land as well.

Wigneswaran has all the credentials. Credit must go to the TNA leader R. Sampanthan for his astuteness in nominating him as the chief minister. He has chosen well and wisely. Anyone else with even a hint of being an LTTE sympathiser would not have commanded the trust and confidence of the Sinhala people. Wigneswaran's reputation, his integrity precedes his entrance.

He comes without a blemish on his character, without a spot on his dhoti, without an indelible stain of any association with Tiger terrorism. While thousands of his brethren actively embraced terror as a justifiable way of remedying their grievances, Wigneswaran was scrupulously dispensing justice from his sagacious seat at the apex court in accordance with the laws of the land. Furthermore, on a personal note, his sons, by marrying Sinhala girls, have shown that the fate of the two races is inextricably interwoven with the common thread of creed and culture that is the warp and woof of the rich tapestry of this multi-racial society. Wigneswaran is, without doubt, the ideal man to build bridges after both races had burnt their boats.

But being ideal may simply not suffice. That's only for starters. For in the quagmire of internecine warfare and international intrigue he might find his mission to bring a lasting settlement a lost cause before he has even begun. The challenges he faces are daunting. The road he must traverse is long and hard, even treacherous. Already the knives are unsheathed and his kith are setting the stage for his ouster perhaps out of fear that he might actually achieve peaceably what Tamil radicals have long been demanding through the barrel of a terrorist gun.

Already his party, the TNA, is showing signs of divisions over his appointment and the drums of bigotry have already begun to beat the signature tune of the die-hards. Last Saturday the Tamil Lawyers Association condemned Wigneswaran's decision to take his oaths before the President as an act 'detrimental to the cause of the Tamils." Is it detrimental to any cause the Tamils might have, short of Eelam, to extend the hand of friendship to the central government by exercising an option granted by the constitution which provides the legal basis for the provincial council itself ? What better way to advance the legitimate aspirations of the Tamils by burying the hatchet and beginning anew on a note of goodwill, dialogue with the central government which holds suzerainty over the provincial council?

Furthermore the statement added that the TNA demands for a federal solution on the one hand and on the other, plays ball with the President. Why ever not? Are the two mutually exclusive? Doesn't this association of Tamil lawyers realise that the provincial councils are compo- nents of the same political system and are not and cannot be islands unto themselves? That even fully fledged federal states, let alone administrative provinces, must in the end pay obeisance to the centre?

It is this warped thinking by a small section of the minority community still bent on carrying with them the Eelam hangover, still clinging onto some supposed claim of a Tamil homeland, still failing to realize the horrors of terrorism, still manifestly blind to the wretched misery and untold suffering of the thousands of grassroots Tamils, that will dog and may, in the end, flay Wigneswaran's genuine attempts to foster a new meaningful understanding between the two communities.

Then there is the voice of the Tamil Diaspora beamed from the world's capitals mawkishly depicting the Tamils as the victims of genocide. Their aim is to tarnish Lanka's image and thereby persuade the international community to intervene and internationalise the issue. Now, having not the hawk they wished but a determined peace dove at the helm of their so called northern 'homeland' must go against the very grain of their depraved thinking and the manipulations to dislodge the spoiler would soon commence.

The third prong of attack to foil northern hopes comes from the siren across the Palk Strait. There the former starlet now the prima donna of Tamil Nad, Jayalalithaa exploits the exaggerated plight of Lanka's Tamils to cover up her own dismal record. Rather than have the spotlight focused on the deplorable state of the Tamils in her own pranth struggling in the sewers of poverty, she draws on all the ostentatious histrionics of her theatrical past to paint a tear jerking forlorn picture of a forsaken Tamil tribe degraded beyond imagination, condemned beyond hope by the perversion ridden, racism driven inhuman Sinhalese.

Now this vile troika is discovering to their alarm that Wigneswaran may not be the docile deer they thought could be manipulated to carry out their perfidious aims but instead is a man with a manifesto of his own who cannot be bought or swayed.

Upon taking the oath of office Wigneswaran declared: "We believe our decision would convey to our brethren, our desire to settle our differences within a united Sri Lanka. I expect my Sinhalese brothers and sisters to impress upon their political representatives that internal self-determination does not divide the country but would facilitate a journey on the path of unity."

By this one statement he conveyed in no uncertain terms the Tamil dove was bringing the olive branch to signify that the flood of animosities and mistrust was receding and that differences could be settled within a framework of a united Lanka. This is a branch the Sinhalese people must grasp with both hands and reciprocate in kind. It behoves us all to accept it in the spirit in which it is so gallantly offered. To do otherwise would be the height of folly and would not only see the disappearance of Wigneswaran from the scene but also the decimation of lasting peace hopes from our sight.

The Sinhalese must learn from the mistakes made and must pledge themselves never to suffer the arrogance that the majority's will must always prevail no matter the injustice it would cause the minorities. Strength in numbers is no substitute for what is right and for what is just. No room must be allowed ever again for fanatical groups to ride roughshod over others' legitimate rights with impunity using religion or race as their immunity invested scepter.

Step forward, Mr. Vishwalingam Wigneswaran. Heaven has wrought the miracle of your advent and the hopes, the aspirations, the fate of Lanka's Tamils rest upon your judicial shoulders. How you bear its burden, how you dance upon the razor blade of ingrained prejudices and distilled hates, and transcend the stubborn obstacles to peace will determine the destiny of Lanka's Tamils, nay, all of Lanka's citizens.

In this twilight hour when the nation's collective hopes hang breathless at the momentous outcome of this historic new beginning, all Lanka implore you and the government to give the art of compromise a chance; and say in one voice:" Come Break the Dawn for a Better Lanka for All."