Written by: Mathusan Mahalingam
April showers brings May flowers. May 2011 has arrived. This past week it rained a lot, yet today, the sky looked much clearer, and the likeliness of it raining today seemed to be slim. But, I could still feel the wetness on the ground, and could still smell the stale rainy air. No matter if it rained today or not, the unpleasant wetness of the rain would still be lingering in the air today. Things just do not completely disappear, what happened yesterday, affects today. Likewise, May 2009 may have happened two years ago, however, the pain and suffering of the people can still be felt today.
Yet, when I think of May, I no longer think of May flowers. In fact, the month of May only brings to my mind images of the suffering of our people. I think of the tens of thousands of innocent civilians bodies, I think of the tens of thousands of people who were displaced and forced into concentration-style camps, I think of the tens of thousands of children who were orphaned, and I think of the tens of thousands of people who were injured, and I think of the tens of thousands of girls who were raped. No, I no longer can think of flowers in May. I can only think of the suffering of my people.
Something like May Massacre could not have been operational without systematic planning, and the genocide of the Tamils that occurred in May 2009, was systematic, planned, and carried out with the intent of wiping out an ethnic group. I sometimes sit here and wonder how the rest of the world idly and passively watched as one government inflicted the worse imaginable conditions and sufferings on the Tamils in Sri-Lanka. How many human rights were violated, how many innocent lives were lost, how many families were shattered? How did the world just ignore the May Massacre and carry on as if it were a normal occurrence?
During this month, we all must not be guilty of forgetting our history. We must instead actively remember the sufferings of our people, and educate our peers about their plight. Educating others is important in raising awareness and visibility of the suffering of our people. We can all bear witness to the truth of what happened, and we must educate our friends, peers, coworkers, and neighbors.
The world may have ignored the sufferings of Tamils in May 2009, but we must not ignore it now.
Tags: Speak Out
