Today's news bring the somewhat surprising revelation of the end of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Long a militant movement dedicated to the establishment of a homeland for Tamil people in their majority Sinhalese country, they have been decisively defeated after a thirty year struggle. Today's news also brings the story that nonviolent pro-democracy activist Daw Aun Sang Suu Kyi is being tried for a crime in connection with the invasion of her home by a supporter who swam across the lake to the place where she was being held under house arrest. The Sinhalese have won against the Tamils: it remains to be seen whether the result will be repression or coexistence with mutual respect. The pro-democracy activists continue to struggle in Myanmar with no visible results.
Violence has ultimately failed in Sri Lanka. Nonviolence has not yet overcome the institutional repression in Myanmar. The caring observer is perplexed. I want to believe that nonviolence holds the key. But the balance of violence-based power in both countries is in the hands of their governments.
If nonviolence is the answer, then shouldn't the state-sponsored violence be curtailed? In Myanmar, the government doesn't believe in democracy, so of course they don't believe in the peace in which democracy can flourish. In Sri Lanka, there is a democracy of sorts, dominated by the Sinhalese majority. Do they want to sponsor the peace in which democracy can flourish for the Tamils as well as for them?
I don't know what I am learning from the news today. I believe in peace, and I believe in nonviolence, and I wonder if justice can be achieved at all.
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