By Vijitha Yapa

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist movement, waged war against the Sri Lankan government for nearly 30 years and even claimed he defeated India.

In the conflict’s final stages when the LTTE was cornered in Nandikadal in 2009, some Western governments vied to save Prabhakaran, and proposed deploying a ship to evacuate him and the remains of his battered army.

The power of Tamil vote banks was evident in those countries, as pressure mounted in their attempts to save a terrorist who killed thousands and displaced millions. But the government stood firm while Prabhakaran, defiant till the end, threatened to sink the ship.

In his latest publication The Rout of Prabhakaran, journalist M. R. Narayan Swamy describes him as a novice in political understanding who dug his own grave with his arrogance and beliefs.

No one dared to oppose him nor was he willing to accept criticism. The ‘Sun God’ believed in his own infallibility and in the end, proved to be a self-made man who worshipped his creator.

The only man who once expressed a contradictory view was LTTE theoretician Dr. Anton Balasingham. In the presence of Prabhakaran at a press conference, he admitted that the LTTE killing former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi was a mistake. Prabhakaran’s facial expressions betrayed his feelings – he was stunned but took no action.

However, his wrath exploded when he believed that LTTE deputy leader Gopalaswamy Mahendraraja alias Mahattaya, his trusted friend, was passing on information to Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing and promptly had him executed.

In Prabhakaran’s postmortem, Narayan Swamy says the LTTE leader graduated from the ’university of violence’ with an admirable scorecard.

Prabhakaran was an unknown figure until the July 1983 killing of 13 soldiers and subsequent anti-Tamil riots. Within four years, Prabhakaran had the confidence to take on the military might of India when he confronted the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) deployed under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

Fortune was on his side when the Indians were withdrawn under pressure from then president Ranasinghe Premadasa.

“It was a remarkable and jaw-dropping feat, one that ignited jealousy and hatred based disbelief, as well as applause and admiration in perhaps equal measure,” says Narayan Swamy.

Prabhakaran was not truly a student of politics – for him, it was the gun that mattered. In a new Tamil galaxy, he was portrayed as the ever illuminating and life-giving Sun God. He alone mattered, was always right, couldn’t be challenged and any Tamil who disputed this was eliminated.

Even friends began to worry about his dictatorial behaviour. By 1990, British political philosopher David Selbourne, once sympathetic to the Tamil cause, accused Prabhakaran of being a ‘tinpot dictator.’

The killing of Gandhi was the turning point in India’s troubled relationship with Prabhakaran. He also had Premadasa assassinated, despite the latter providing weapons to fight against the Indian army and extending a hand to negotiate with the LTTE.

And the author says that Prabhakaran’s LTTE perfected killing into a fine art that numbed everyone. He mentions the Black Tigers, members of the suicide squad who were “thoroughly brainwashed into becoming mobile detonators.”

“The man proved to be a political and diplomatic illiterate,” says Narayan Swamy, noting that claims of him being a ‘military genius’ must be subjected to intense scrutiny given how he led his outfit and the community to unimaginable annihilation.

For someone who had at one point virtually lorded over a third of Sri Lanka’s land and two-thirds of its winding coast, Prabhakaran’s downfall occurred in an area the size of a football field.

When his body was found, General Sarath Fonseka wanted Prabhakaran’s green uniform removed, as only Sri Lanka Army personnel had the right to wear such garb. The pathetic picture of the supreme LTTE leader in his underpants is reproduced in this book.

In the long run, those who supported him suffered the most. Speaking to former LTTE cadres and Tamils, the author was surprised by the anger against the group and concludes that it never represented the will of the ordinary people.

There are voices that must be heard. The Tamil diaspora wants the struggle reignited, said a Tamil professor, yet they’re living in comfort in foreign countries while we’re worse off than before 1983.

This is a fascinating book to understand the rise and fall of Prabhakaran, whom many thought could never be defeated in battle.