His Path is a way for Peace in Sri Lanka
Professor Peter Schalk
Uppsala University, Sweden
The Tamil liberation struggle is like so many other liberation struggles of suppressed people in history and all over the world seemingly deemed to pass through a period of moral corruption brutalisation and perfidy. During such a period it is very difficult to reinforce the ideals of humanity and of the original political ideas. Comrade Pathmanabha was a revolutionary who had learned the techniques and tactics of the armed liberation struggle in the Middle East and who also applied them without hesitation in Lanka. But comrade Pathmanabha always subordinated the execution of armed struggle to his original political ideas and humanitarian ideals. Armed struggle never became an end in itself for him.
Three things I shall always connect with comrade Pathmanabha, his humanism which brought him close to the people and prevented him from participating in the killing of Sinhala civilians, of his own comrades and drug trafficking, and his political internationalism which resulted in a practical co operation with progressive Sinhala forces on a socialist basis. He had found a key, as to how to avoid the trap of falling into Tamil chauvinism and into diluted and rootless internationalism. This makes him a rare and exemplary Tamil revolutionary. We are deeply indebted to him to cultivate his heritage and to teach it to a younger generation involved in the Tamil liberation struggle and to the Sinhalese. It is also necessary that his heritage shall be known to the Western world. I am deeply greatful to have met comrade Pathmanaba , a great human being whose path should be trod by those who want peace in Lanka.
