Decoding TamilNet: Illiberal democracy?

TamilNet’s headline article talks about the ills of democracy in Sri Lanka. It complains about the successive leaders and their policies. What it fails to discuss is that for a country with a significant religious and racial majority Sri Lanka has been - despite occasional setback - exemplary in dealing with the question of democracy in a diverse society. Representation of minorities has always been a challenge within a democratic framework. But not many countries can boast what Sri Lanka has managed to address regarding the rights of minorities. The right to vote, for instance, was universal in Sri Lanka regardless of race or religion. Religious freedom, right of movement, property ownership, employment and education are some of the freedoms enjoyed by any Sri Lankan during the post-independence times that even minorities in U.S didn't have. Even before that, minorities in Sri Lanka took part in multi-party elections in the 30s - the first country to do so in the non-western world. Historically, Sri Lankans have always been a tolerant and just society which provided guarantees to minorities. This resulted in the immigration of people from all over the world that makes the tapestry of the diverse country Sri Lanka is. That is, until a group of violent rebels with a selfish agenda with absolutely no knowledge of democracy and politics - in fact not even a high-school diploma - decided they could do better.

So what is TamilNet’s article advocating? Could it be the TamilNet article is proposing that instead of the difficult and challenging path to a good democracy, Tamil’s should give into the dictatorial rule of the high-school drop out and his henchmen for a better life than what can be achieved by fine tuning the existing democracy? Let the tyrannical rule of the LTTE, who openly advocates a Tamil only nation by ethnically cleansing the North and the East, be the future for the Tamils? Allow the violent and destructive group who chopped a man’s hand for casting a vote and who frequently eliminate opposing view of fellow Tamils by violent means to exercise authority over all the peace loving Tamils?

It seems like TamilNet reports nothing constructive and supports the notion that LTTE can only survive if there is misery and discontent in the Tamil community and as the mouthpiece of the LTTE, it carries out the orders of the dictator in order to instigate violence and destruction.