Why expats support Tamil Tigers

Before this posting gets bombarded with hate mails, let me say that, yes, most expats in Sri Lanka may not unequivocally support the Tamil Tigers but are - for practical reasons - neutral. And another few – like those who volunteered to join charities like TRO in the height of the Tsunami saga and with the bestest of intentions – were ignorant victims of the indirect LTTE propaganda and came to Sri Lanka only to realize that they are now affiliated to a terror organization. And a few from that group defend the LTTE in defiance understandably not wanting to accept that they have made a potentially fatal career mistake.

But in general a lot of expats tend to come off as being sympathetic to Tamil Tigers. Considering those who would venture out into a country with political instability are most often left leaning liberals, it is not surprising they would support a group that is anti organized government and are effectively underdogs fighting with their lives to make a political statement; similar to why some of us support the Palestinians against the mighty power of the Israel. While it is a sometimes appropriate to give moral support to ‘revolutionists’ who challenge the system, one must remain within a reasonable range of objectivity. Anyone familiar with the history of Tamil Tigers will recall how they deliberately attacked civilian institutions killing scores of innocent men, women and children; and how everyone in villagers were hacked to death including the priests and how places of warships along with the entire villages were razed to the ground. To be fair, the successive Sri Lankan governments are also guilty of not doing enough to curb violence against minority Tamils, but none of the worst crimes against Tamils ever came as orders from the government. Any incident that causes disruption to ‘government’ is by definition, a set back for the elected officials. But on the other hand, violence is what funds and help sustain the Tamil Tigers. If the CFA violations count put out by the SLMM is anything to go by, consider them before you exercise your rebellious, liberal clout and support those who you think are merely a trendy group od revolutionists who are fighting off some kind of an evil aggression, think about all the civilians who have been murdered by them for merely having a different point of view and think of the generation of children who have been denied the basic rights and a chance to be liberal minds like yourselves. So take liberty to question the system; but for goodness sake don’t lose sight of reality and pick the wrong fight.