Prabha and Mahinda… thick as thieves

Isn’t it strange how even the greatest of enemies will at times scratch each others backs in order to get scratched back? A perfect example of this would be Mr.Eelam and Mr.Chinthanaya. Even though they claim to be at war, what they really are doing is making each others dreams come true.

If you look back a couple of years to when the ceasefire was in place, it was very obvious the LTTE was suffering from an extreme lack of publicity. Since there was no ongoing war, Mr. Eelam had nothing to shout about to the world. In effect, he was losing the much needed publicity that generates support from the international community.

Enter Mr.Chinthanaya from stage right, desperate to get his hands on the ultimate power seat. With absolutely nothing to offer the people of this country, he jumped on the war bandwagon that was being pulled along by the JVP and the JHU. But as the presidential campaign got up steam, it seemed even this ‘patriotic’ drivel wasn’t going to be enough.

In the meantime, Mr. Eelam, who was wracking his brains to think of a new way of provoking our forces into breaking the ceasefire, was hit with a brainwave. Mr. Chinthanaya was starting to sound like his saviour. The more he screamed and wept on the southern stages, the more Mr.Eelam rubbed his hands in glee and anticipation of the coming war, and heaps of international sympathy.

Of course, the gullible voting public of this country, had absolutely no idea of what was in store for them, come election day. The masses flocked to the polling booths and then stayed up the night in true Sri Lankan fashion, listening to the updates of the counting. It soon became obvious that the runaway victory predicted by the Chinthanaya camp was running away from them, and Mr. Ceasefire was putting up a very unexpected fight.

This was the moment when Mr. Eelam proved himself to be Mr. Chinthanaya’s biggest ally. By terrorizing the voters of the North and East and preventing them from casting their ballots, he very neatly handed the Presidency over to Mr. Chinthanaya. Knowing full well the general public of the North East didn’t want a resumption of the war, he blocked them from voting for Mr. Ceasefire. This resulted in Mr. Chinthanaya winning by a tiny fraction of a majority.

Having had his back well and truly scratched by Mr. Eelam, Mr. Chinthanaya decided to return the favour in full, the moment he ascended to the all powerful seat. The war was resumed and Mr. Eelam was once again in a position of being able to howl and cry to the international community and the Tamil diaspora about the ‘terrible atrocities’ being committed by a ‘fascist’ government.

So, while the cost of living keeps shooting skywards and many more people continue to die, Mr.Chinthanaya and Mr. Eelam are busy scratching each others backs for all their worth. What remains to be seen is for how long these two will continue to carry on this farce of a war.

My guess is they’ll be thick as thieves till Mr. Chinthanaya is no longer eligible for the presidency or Mr.Eelam finds a better ally…