You can remove a statue, you can’t arrest a people’s memory — Abbi Kanthasamy

SEPTEMBER 29 — In 1989, Sri Lanka's government secretly armed the LTTE, an action that later caused them to view the government as their enemy. The former president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, made such a decision, and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies documents this move. The government justified its actions based on the need for law and public order.

However, the removal of Thileepan's statue, the Tamil hunger striker, went beyond these justifications. The government's true motive appeared to be silencing the people's grievances and suppressing their memory. Thileepan, a political leader in the LTTE, had died after a 12-day fast, demanding that India release Tamil political prisoners and stop other measures.

The Tamil hunger strike was a symbolic act of protest against the government's actions. However, the government's removal of Thileepan's statue aimed to erase the Tamil people's memory and emotions. The removal of the statue had an impact on the people in Jaffna, who felt that their grief was treated as a threat. In May 2024, Tamil and Muslim lawyers challenged the arrest of four Tamils for preparing and distributing Mullivaikkal kanji, a rice porridge that had been a source of sustenance during the war.

The arrest came under a court order banning the distribution, but the court later rescinded the ban. The state's fear of a grieving people is even more formidable than its fear of its own past.