It does not matter if such a pride results in the death of
its owner if he happens to be an ordinary man. But when it comes
to a leader, that too, a leader of the kind of
Velupillai Prabhakaran, Chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE), who was espousing the cause of Sri Lankan Tamil
minorities for `political space' in Sri Lanka that has largely
been denied by the nation, its impact is felt more by the
followers than by the dead-owner of the pride. To gain what is
being fought for, even an insurgent leadership, as John F
Kennedy said, must work towards "gradually changing opinions,
slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." Pity, the stupid pride doesn't
allow this simple truth to prevail!
Nor did it allow Prabhakaran, the leader who transformed the LTTE into a
conventional army, see the ground realities in Sri
Lanka. Even the dramatically altered international perception about terrorism, as a
consequence of the 9/11, failed to catch his attention.
|
