Secondly, by quite blatantly discriminating against the so-called 'Higher Castes' of old, the LTTE has alienated many Tamils with considerable talent and abilities. At the helm of the new social order being engineered by the LTTE are their cadres and their families. This is a matter of serious concern and has to be challenged by the Tamil people. An old evil cannot be permitted to be replaced by a new one.

The LTTE, although primarily a military organization, is desirous of playing a dominant and exclusive political role in the affairs of the Tamil people.

Unlike in most struggles of a similar nature, where the military wing is subordinate to the political leadership, the Tamil militant outfits in Sri Lanka, the LTTE included, arose primarily as military movements that were inspired by political grievances.

There was no mature, experienced, statesman-like political leadership to provide an overarching guiding philosophy. The LTTE, with its primary focus on military confrontation and primacy of military leadership, had to evolve a political component from within its own cadres.

This apparently is its Achilles heel. The teenage Tamil boys who resorted to arms to resist the aggression of the Sri Lankan governments, have grown into mature men, who are now desirous of becoming the political masters of the Tamils. Unfortunately, the circumstances that led them to join battle, precluded these men, some undoubtedly highly intelligent, from acquiring the knowledge, experience and wisdom that are necessary for leaders who want to lead a people to their destiny.

The brain washing, blind obedience, hero worshipping, rebellion against established social norms and brutality that are drilled in to cadres of guerilla outfits, which are absolutely essential for their survival and success, become liabilities in the political life of a nation in times of peace.

This is the dilemma of the LTTE and the Tamil people. Intelligence in the absence of education becomes cunning. Political power exercised with the gun in one hand becomes a dictatorship. Battlefield tactics translated in to civilian life lead to fascism. The desire for financial gain and personal comfort, when combined with the above failings, will lead to mafia-like tendencies. The LTTE at present is displaying all these symptoms to the discomfiture and disgust of the Tamils.

The LTTE at the present juncture is an organization trying to find its feet in very unfamiliar terrain. It is trying to be both fish and fowl at the same time! Interactions with some of their senior cadre have shown them to be highly intelligent and motivated individuals. However, their limitation is their arrogance and belief that they are all knowing and omnipotent. Whereas, in fact, they turned out to be half baked, ignorant, cunning, parochial and extremely dangerous individuals. The fact that every single LTTE cadre that the public has to deal with operates only under a nom de plume further makes them immune to public opinion and is quite menacing. They are very suspicious of any one outside their circle in the organization. All Tamils outside the LTTE circle, have a standing only as contributors to their coffers and are cynically manipulated to achieve that end.

When manipulations fail, strong arm tactics are resorted both within and outside Sri Lanka, to achieve compliance. Traditional values that governed the life of the Tamils are scorned and as in the case of temples, cynically manipulated to obtain funds and establish control over independent individuals and groups. The LTTE would rather bungle through state craft, and learn from this experience, than learn from experienced individuals from outside their circle. This is the tragedy of the Tamil people at present.

Experience from the battle field, the power of the gun, the methods of the fascists and the mafia, virulent Tamil nationalism and scraps of communism are being combined into a very dangerous concoction by the LTTE to establish a Tamil state that would become in reality LTTE and Company (Ltd.). The only share holders in this entity would be the LTTE cadres, with the Tamil public being treated as voiceless, non-voting contributors.

The LTTE has already embarked on establishing control over several successful Tamil-owned business enterprises in the island and the world over, and in its own right has established several successful enterprises under the cover of pliant nominees. These trends have to be immediately challenged by the Tamils and reversed, if a decent peace is to descend on our embattled land and responsive governance established.

The LTTE has to be forced by the Tamil people, to separate its political and public affairs wings from its military formations and open the former to participation by non-cadre Tamils.

The present democratic charade being orchestrated by the LTTE in the Sri Lankan parliament through pliant Tamil members of parliament should be exposed for the farce it really is.

Prabhaharan, whom I yet consider a rare individual born to accomplish a historic mission, should immediately set about revamping the political and public affairs divisions in his organization and make them more responsive to the real needs and desires of the Tamil people. Every individual manning these positions should be screened for probity, as there is no legal framework to govern their conduct at present.

The Tamil people should assert themselves and vociferously demand these changes. The LTTE must become what the Tamil people want them to be and not try to be an organization that wants to mould the Tamils to meet their designs and plans. This would add a Nazi dimension to the current cocktail. If not, the Tamil people are in serious danger of losing the gains that have been made in the past decade and be embroiled in fresh blood letting from an intra-Tamil conflict that is imminent.

The Sinhala polity should, for its part immediately come out with the outlines and details of a constitutional and institutional reform package designed to settle the Sinhala- Tamil and Majority-Minority conflicts for ever and set the country on the path of development and progress. Everyone knows what needs to be done and there is no need for prolonged negotiations and cynical international representation, authorized by a majority in parliament, to propose the necessary constitutional and structural changes, which would be binding on all parties.

This would overcome the problem of the intrusion of partisan politics even in matters of acute national importance - the curse of Sri Lanka. Consensus can be arrived at to create a non-partisan commission with national and be found. The international community on its part should unhesitatingly use its muscle to force the parties to the current conflict to settle their problems promptly.

The LTTE for its part should change its spots to suit the times and immediately set in motion the process to democratize its interactions with the long suffering Tamil people.

For a start the LTTE should launch a high level inquiry, with independent professional participation, into my brother Jayadevan's recent kidnapping and incarceration by high ranking cadres and bring to book all the miscreants who engaged in this criminal activity, including those who sponsored it from London.

This incident is reverberating around the world and the international public- certainly the Tamil Diaspora, non-governmental organizations and governments, particularly in the west, are looking forward to this self-critical examination by the LTTE before they will accept its bona fides as a civilized and mature organization that truly represents the interests of the Tamil people both in times of war and peace.