The War is Over? (A Response to Indi)
I wrote this as a comment to Indi’s post, The War is Over, Tell Your Friends. Indi makes what seems to be a petty issue with Groundviews and with Sanjana Hattotuwa into a misinformed (or ignorant) post of a number of badly thought out, extreme statements strung together for what may be shock value (I can’t think of any other reason). Just wanted to post it here as I hadn’t posted in awhile and felt this captured the helplessness I had been feeling as of late.
I realise this may come off as slightly pessimistic and I in fact sympathise with Indi’s optimism, his eagerness to move on - but we can’t be optimistic at the risk of being blind.
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Indi – you know I respect your opinion and I more often than not, like what you write. However, I have often also argued with you as a result of the extreme nature of your statements sometimes. Especially now, I am shocked to read a post like this from you – it seems so naive, so ignorant, so determinedly blind, so sweeping? It has none of the nuance and thoughtfulness I know you possess as a human being. I’m challenging you Indi – forget the sound bites, write something for real. Do the research (that goes beyond a word cloud), do the homework, do the thinking.
Extreme statement number 1 – ‘They’re still all war all the time while the average Sri Lankan is like, ‘breakfast?’ ‘
Really Indi? Do you really believe this? Do you mean the Average Sri Lankan that you know and encounter? Average Sinhalese, maybe? Do you mean Average Sri Lankan in and around Colombo? I’m not sure what you mean – because for a LOT of people, life is not as simple as ‘breakfast’ right now. Even things seemingly un-related to war, like the cost of living and corruption are basically fucking up life for the average Sri Lankan, as far as I know. And that’s only things un-related to war. I’ll get on to those other things in a bit.
Extreme statement number 2 – not really a statement, but do you really think it’s a good idea to cite Daily Mirror and Sunday Leader as a good reference point as to what the Average Sri Lankan is thinking/feeling? Forgive me if I think this is preposterous. The Daily Mirror can’t string a sentence together and the Sunday Leader has its own agenda and only takes interest in character assassination a lot of the time.
Extreme statement number 3 – ‘The war is over and the only people that can’t really accept it are either abroad or facing abroad.’ Well even if this were true, why do you think this is Indi? Why do you think they’re all abroad or ‘facing abroad’ as you put it? The ‘war’ in the strictest terms, may be over, but there are hundreds of thousands of people still suffering its consequences, still suffering injustice – and they’re all in Sri Lanka.
Indi, yes, the war is over. We as a nation would like to move on, but we kind of can’t. You may not have noticed or may not have bothered to find out (which pisses me off in a country as small as ours) but we can’t move on because people are still suffering – every day. The Average Sri Lankan faces corruption and the rising cost of living at every level, nothing can be achieved without bribing someone or pulling some strings – you can’t send your kids to school, you can’t develop your business – you’re basically vulnerable all the time, for at any moment if someone feels like it, your life could go to shit. People face harassment, intimidation, abuse – just Average Sri Lankans. And I’m only now getting on to the people in the North – these families live in structures with half-walls, with no door sometimes, and no real roof (none of which was given to them by our government anyway). To date, there is no official compensation for them. To date, there is no list of detainees with the location of their detention to be accessed by these families, so people have no idea where some of their family members are. Many of these detainees are not even charged and cannot access a lawyer (a fundemantal right). Detainees are tortured, or treated inhumanely on a daily basis, at best. But our military and government seem to have a keen dislike of documentation and figures anyway, as to date we have no official figure of civilian deaths, civilian casualties etc. And don’t get me started on the disappearances – there are hundreds of cases of reported (by eye witnesses) disappearances for which there is no resolution, no answer. It is a problem that simply does not exist. So where are these people? Who is accountable for them? These families are not even allowed to commemorate the deaths of their own with any kind of rite or ritual – did you know that, Indi? They can’t lay flowers at a grave or perform any religious rites for their dead – it’s banned by the military. They face restrictions on gatherings, on movement – they live in a military state. Any kind of dissent faces intimidation and threat – and this is not just in the North but everywhere. So many people, some of them average Sri Lankans, not journalists or activists, are forced to go into hiding or to leave the country – for filing complaints that may pertain to our ministers, military or some authority figure, for noticing injustice and speaking up. And don’t tell me the media doesn’t face oppression – please don’t refer to the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Leader and tell me that journalists aren’t in trouble. Don’t go there.
We have no truth, we have no closure – there are no numbers, no figures, no statistics, no facts – and a lot of the battle still continues. It may not be on the front-lines, but people and human lives are being destroyed as a consequence of this war, every day. Yes, still. So the next time you want to say it’s over, really think about it. What part of it is over and what part of it still lives on? What part of it still remains unresolved?
Don’t perpetuate this culture of sweeping it under the rug, Indi. You’re better than that. You’re smarter than that. The state is expending all its energy pretending like nothing bad ever happened, or is happening – so please don’t make their job any easier. They don’t want to admit to any grief, they don’t want to admit to any trauma – they don’t want to acknowledge that this country paid a great price for their victory and continues to do so every day – so please don’t aid their argument. Don’t confuse whatever petty disagreement you may have with Sanjana or with Groundviews for what’s really going on. If you want to discredit Groundviews, you’re free to do so – but don’t make it about anything else. Don’t pull propaganda on your readers – don’t perpetuate the notion that everyone who has a problem is abroad. That’s bullshit and you know it.
If this counts – I’m Sri Lankan, I live in Sri Lanka and I don’t think the war is over.

