Anita Pratap’s Rant
I read Island of Blood many years ago, when I was a younger. At that age, I was moved to anger by the horrific accounts of racism and injustice. Anita Pratap gave an insightful look into Prabhakaran’s mind and the beginnings of the LTTE. She portrayed him as brave, heroic, the chosen leader of the Tamil struggle. It was a while before I saw that book for what it is: propaganda. She wrote an irresponsible, one-sided account, which, as a journalist, she should be ashamed of. She did a series of interviews with him in the ’80s, which have also proved to be both unique and insightful, but unfortunately, typical of her, blatantly biased. Despite the rare opportunities she had to get that close to one of the most elusive, determined master minds of modern terrorism, she didn’t use them as a real journalist would have. She used them to further her own agenda and her own opinions. Even in this interview, although it is extremely interesting, it’s clear that she is intending the questions in a very specific direction. More recently, she has written another article which is just as shallow, and places things in very unrealistic blacks and whites. You can see it here.
I left this comment on Chitrangi’s weblog, where the above article had been posted:
“Anita Pratap should just stop. Whatever positive attributes of her her book, Island of Blood, which gave an interesting and unique insight into the workings and beginnings of the LTTE, were overshadowed by her un-professional one-sided bigotry. She’s supposed to be a journalist. And this is what I hate: if you want to publish biased, uninformed opinions that you hold, then don’t do it under the pretense of journalism. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, we all have our one-sided opinions, but a journalist has a responsibility to tell both sides.
This article is just another example of her sweeping and ignorant ramblings, which I think are a pathetic excuse for journalism.
I have always attempted to inform myself of both sides of the conflict, and I have always condemned acts of violence committed both by the GoSL and the LTTE. I have always been very open about my distaste for the way that the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Government are handling the current situation. But even I know that the LTTE is a terrorist group. They cannot be called anything else. This fact is undeniable. They are terrorists.
By writing this kind of misleading garbage, when you have the power and the place to write, is just futile and meaningless. It’s offensive. One should be using the opportunity to tell the truth. Glorifying Prabhakaran to be some sort of heroic leader of the Tamil battle and glorifying his army and his cause is just silly and naive. It only serves to accelerate the growth of fanatic and misplaced Nationalism both amongst the Tamils and the Sinhalese. There is nothing honourable about what Prabhakaran has done, and there will be nothing honourable or dignified in his death or suicide, if that does ever happen. If he does get held up as a martyr by the many brainwashed and misguided masses, it will be because of agendas like Anita Pratap’s.
I admit, I have always struggled to see the LTTE’s side of things. But it is time they make a decision, that will for once, be about the people, and not themselves.”
The LTTE have never made and will never make a decision that’s good for the people versus one that’s good for VP. That’s the sad truth of the matter when it comes to the ’sole voice’ of the Tamil people.
Comment by thekillromeoproject — April 30, 2009 @ 6:56 am
Did Chitrangi run the comment? I’ve never had a comment of mine appear on that blog. Lol.
Comment by David Blacker — April 30, 2009 @ 7:44 am
David: Yes, Chitrangi did run my comment. I’ve never wandered onto this blog before. Give me the low down, as far as you’re concerned.
Comment by electra — April 30, 2009 @ 9:57 am
quite apart from propagandists, it is a pity that some ppl who see what ltte does and how it behaves, and even willing to judge and write about it ( at least now ), don’t take the next step.
bc ltte never decide for peace, will those ppl support defeat of ltte with violence if needs be ( and violence there will be ) ? instead they condemn such violence.
they judge, but then stop.
that is not honest .
it is as if a judge at court who pronounced a guilty sentence on a capital punishment case ( according to evidence and after correctly dismissing the absurd arguments of the propagandist defense of anita pratap and ilk ) then choose to judge the gov executioner who carried out the sentence, putting responsibility on executioner .
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imo that sort of cowardly running from reality and responsibility is as bad as what anita pratap and ilk does, and is at least worthy of a comment rant on my part, even if the boring rant pisses the judge/blog owner off .
Comment by sittingnut — April 30, 2009 @ 10:17 am
She’s just like MIA, looking for some cheap publicity masquerading as a journalist looking to use other people’s suffering for a quick buck.
Comment by N — April 30, 2009 @ 8:55 pm
Well I don’t think that blog is out to make any bucks, but it’s quite flexible with the truth and usually won’t run comments that give a credible counterpoint to the posts. For example, last year ther was a counter-accusation by the LTTE that the SL Army was also using child soldiers, and Tamilnet ran a bunch of pictures of Army dead, including a close-up (head & shoulders) pic of what looked like a child in Army uniform. Chitrangani ran the same story, and that single pic. Another blog ran the entire pic collection (including the pix on Tamilnet and Chitrangani, but also a few more of the same soldier). In these one could see that the supposed child soldier was in fact an adult (he was babyfaced, but in the other pix one could see that his body was at least as tall as the adult soldiers lying alongside him). I posted the linked to the latter pix on a comment on Chitrangani, and pointed out she was wrong. She didn’t run the comment, so I asked her if she didn’t want the truth coming out. She didn’t run that either.
Comment by David Blacker — May 2, 2009 @ 8:55 am