The Tamil National Alliance was launched by the terrorist Prabhakaran to have a group of Parliamentarians to be his spokesmen in the Parliament. While Prabhakaran continued his terrorism to set up his dream- Tamil Homeland in a merged North and East , he wanted his TNA Parliamentarians to be his complementary “companions in arms” to defend his activities in the Parliament, and to mislead the International Community by propagating that terrorism is only a fight for freedom and for a territorial separation of Sri Lanka to set up a separate Eelam State.
With the elimination of terrorism, the TNA is apparently on their own or still under contract to the pro - terrorist Tamil expatriate community to be their voice in the Parliament in Sri Lanka and outside. However the TNA still remains the voice of “ Prabhakran” the Thalaivar. Now without calling for a separate Eelam State, TNA MPs are nevertheless pushing the same idea interposing a demand for a “ meaningful devolution of power” not forgetting the merger of the North and East by implementing the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution.
M.A.Sumanthiran of the TNA has expressed the willingness of the TNA to work with the government to solve key issues affecting the Tamils in a long interview with the The Nation, adding that the TNA stands for “ meaningful devolution of power “, and constitutional reforms within a united country under a federal structure.
If M.A.Sumanthiran is still a part of Parbhakaran’s dream of the Tamil Homeland, it is best he wakes up now to the reality of the present situation and think of more constructive ways of using his political wisdom, if he has any.
Firstly, M.A.Sumanthiran the TNA Parliamentarian has to be reminded that he is now not in a position to dictate terms to the government as to what it should do. Terrorism is over and the post terrorist Sri Lanka has to rethink how to integrate the different Communities in to a Sri Lankan Nationhood.
That cannot be done the way Sumanthiran proposes it. His way of thinking is still coloured by his allegiance to the memory of the terrorists, the creators of the TNA his sun God the Thalaivar of yester year -Prabhakaran. Sumanthiran with his “meaningful devolution of political power theory” pointing to the merger of the
North and East as required under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, and the proposal of a Federal Constitution all hark back to Prabhakaran’s Homeland dream. The TNA is now in the process of trying to dupe the Sinhala “modayas” to accept politically, which Prabhakaran failed to achieve through terror.
Sumanthiran cannot get any where with his lopsided political theories as neither the President of Sri Lanka nor the Sinhala people have fallen from the last rain, as a well known saying goes. Sumanthiran speaks of the APRC and the decision taken by the Commission and adds that merger of North and the East was part of the 13th amendment stressing that the merger should remain in an improved version of the 13th amendment, or if the current format of the 13th Amendment is implemented in full.
Today it is most advisable that the APRC and what ever decisions taken there should be shelved along with the 13th Amendment, and whatever communiqué Sumanthiran says the President issued after his visit to India. Sumanthiran should put into his little head that it is not the merger of the North and East that will solve the problems of the Tamil people, but it is the willingness of the Tamils to merge their narrow Tamil nationalism into the larger mainstream Sri Lankan political system along with the Sinhala , Muslim, and the other communities to be absorbed into a larger Sri Lankan nationhood, that will solve their problems. Otherwise the Tamils will always stand apart and will continue to nurture the Sinhala Tamil conflict.
Sumanthiran in his interview speaks of the visit of a delegation of TNA MPs to meet the Indian political leaders consulted by the President of Sri Lank, and requested that India who started the 13th Amendment to the Constitution should intervene to see the successful implementation of it. But Sumanthiran does not seem to know that, India has no right to intervene in the implementation or not of the 13th Amendment. The government with its two third majority has no problem in withdrawing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which remains as an eye sore to every patriotic Sri Lankan.
India’s interest in the Amendment is solely to the extent how much it would help to win the confidence of the Tamilnadu Tamils to sustain the Indian Unity, and has no interest beyond that whether it is to assist Sri Lanka, or for the wellbeing of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. That interest of India to do any thing to assure the support of Tamilnadu, becomes more evident with Karunanidhi building “strong bridges” with Kerala State. Would it end up as a merger of the two States ?
Sumanthiran and his TNA colleagues should put that pseudo interest of India in Sri Lanka Tamils into its correct perspective , and understand that it is futile to bring India to intervene in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. They should instead find a workable solution for the Tamil problem- if there is one, in consultation with the President of Sri Lanka and the Sinhala and Muslim communities.
India’s intervention inside the air space of Sri Lanka in 1987 was in contravention of the International Law and India has no right to continue with the Amendment to the Constitution it forced on Sri Lanka following their illegal intervention to help the terrorists under siege by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.
Sumanthiran speaks of immediate “concern of our people.” –obviously referring to the people in the North and East who had voted for them. Nevertheless, Sumanthiran should not forget that the people of North and East are “our people as well “, even if they did not vote to the political parties representing the President.
The Sinhala people sacrificed many of their children for the sake of these people in the North and East, who were under the iron boots of terrorism for a considerable period of time. And those people had a strange way of showing their gratitude for that great deliverance. Despite that the Sinhala and other communities also have an interest, as communities sharing mother Lanka in the welfare of “our people” in the North and East.
Speaking on the demerger of the North and East Sumanthiran argues that the ruling of the Supreme Court was, that the modality of the merger of the two provinces was flawed , therefore the Supreme Court was not against the merger itself. Here Sumathiran’s argument is in itself flawed.
The merger was brought about to facilitate the Indian Peace Keeping Force to keep the two provinces as one to enable it to control the two provinces, keeping in check the terrorists from attacking the IPKF and go into hiding in another province.
The two provinces should have been automatically demerged immediately after the Indian Peace Keeping Force left . There is no reason what- so- ever to merge the two provinces now just to please the TNA which is only promoting the “ terrorist dream”.
Sumanthiran says that the President Mahinda Rajapake had said that he would go beyond the 13th Amendment in implementing it. If it is to go beyond the 13th Amendment it should be to eliminate the advancement of communal disunity by stopping the Tamil politicians dividing the country having political parties with communal identity.
If there are no political parties separately for the Tamils and Muslims there want be any ethnic problem. The question of ethnic problem arises from the fact that there are separate Political parties for Tamils and Muslims. If the Tamils and the Muslims would fall inline with the mainstream political system, most of the problems the Tamils highlighted now by the TNA and other Tamil political parties will dissolve.
For 19 years the North and East remained merged because of the terrorism. Sumanthiran has forgotten that the election of the TNA MPs was questioned . The ballot boxes were stuffed with false ballot papers by terrorist goons. The Election Commissioner had considered declaring it null and void but allowed it as the conditions were uncertain because of terrorism for a second election.
On the 9 February 2009 in an article in Asia Tribune, entitled Ban the TNA, it was stated , “Anandasangaree urges Sri Lanka Government to ban the Tamil National Alliance for being a proxy party of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and advocating on behalf of the terrorist organization, even after it has been banned in Sri Lanka. ‘’
There you are M.A Sumanthiran your boast about representing the Tamils in North and East is contested by none other than a veteran Tamil Politician Anandasangaree. So how can you impose your will on the government with regard to merging of the North and East again to please the TNA which is in actual fact the old terrorist LTTE under a new label.
The Tamil politicians have no monopoly to decide on what form the political map of Sri Lanka should take. The Sinhala people have every right to take a decision whether the Tamils like it or not as they are the ones who have made the greatest sacrifice to defend the North and East and make it a safe place for every one to live. It is also the Sinhala people who had maintained the unitary state of Sri Lank from the beginning of historical times.
The Tamils cannot be like the vulture who come to take over the carcass after the big cats have captured their prey. Of course the North and East is no body’s prey. TNA now says that all Tamil Parties and Muslim Parties want the merger of the North and East. The TNA dictating terms now were with the terrorists trying to divide the country and they never asked the Tamil people in the North and the East then as to what they wanted.
The TNA continuing its present politics will only separate further the Tamil people from the Sinhala , the Tamil people in the North and the East who voted for the TNA had been mislead. There is only one decision that has to be taken by the Tamil people and that is to bury their old misgivings about the Sinhala people and join them to form a larger Sri Lankan Nation. If the Tamils were to stand out side the Sinhala and the main stream Sri Lankan politics they would have nothing but the wrath of the Sinhala people who had given so much to unite the communities and keep the country undivided and as a whole.
If M.A.Sumanthiran has an intelligent mind he will understand, that calling for the rights of the Tamil people, and demanding devolution of political power to the Tamil people, are nothing other than efforts to concentrate political power in the hands of the Tamil politicians. It is not for the welfare of the majority of the Tamils.
If Sumnthiran is really working for the welfare of the Tamils, he should demand the Tamil people to integrate with the Sinhala and other communities to build a greater nation of Sri Lankans.
Sumanthiram should also call upon the Tamils of the Diaspora to give up their divisive politics and integrate in to the mainstream politics without insisting on narrow communal rights.
TNA’s inability solve the problem of the Tamil people despite getting their votes is evident from their trying to be a part of Tamilnadu, which is also the result of the TNA’s “ up bringing ” in the cradle of terrorism. TNA MPs have to give that up if they have to have any political credence with the Government of Sri Lanka or the Sinhala people.
TNA Parliamentarian Mavi Senathi Raja had recently said that they are proposing to have talks with Rahul Gandhi with regard to his comments about the peril of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. And spoke of being happy with the statement of Rahul Gandhi, and wants to speak to the Central Government with regard to the Sri Lanka Tamils. This is going too far. TNA should know whether they are Si Lankans or Indians . TNA seems to be keeping one leg in India and the Other in Sri Lanka. It only shows TNA’s political immaturity.
This attitude of TNA is totally condemned by the Sinhala people. TNA should work with the Sri Lanka Government and the people of Sri Lanka . It is necessary for the Tamils of Sri Lanka to be Sri Lankans and not mere Tamils in Sri Lanka.
If TNA continues this sharing views with India and continually consult India about the affairs of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, they will never settle the problems of Tamils in Sri Lanka. It was this sort of double dealings that ended up in numerous riots in Sri Lanka, and resulted in many deaths in 1983 .
G.G.Ponnambalam calling for fifty fifty or equal rights with the Sinhala majority, and Chelvanayagam opposing the Sinhala only Bill and asking for autonomy for their region through a Federal system of Government, were divisive politics practiced by the Tamils despite their being just a 13 per cent of the population, which distanced the Tamils from the mainstream Sinhala people.
The Sinhala people were angered by these unreasonable demands of the Tamil political leaders. Anger is an emotion that blinds people. The harbored anger when it breaks out as vengeance sees no reason. These were the causes that lead to riots in which many were killed in 1983. The Tamils brought about these calamities on themselves.
If the Tamils of the TNA continue with their separatist politics, they will be responsible for any future “perils” and unfortunate repetition of what happened then to the Tamil people. Therefore the TNA should go about cautiously without making unrealistic demands , and change their political tactic to work together with the Sinhala people as Sri Lankans and not as Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Sinhala people are quite capable of looking after not only themselves, but also the Tamils , Muslims and all the rest even without the help of the rest of the communities. They are quite capable also of defending their country on their own, but it would be far better if the Tamils fall in line with the Sinhala to build Sri Lanka for every one of us whether we are Communally, Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim.
TNA should therefore disengage from any alliance with TamilNadu politicians and identify themselves as Sri Lankans. And change the political name of their party Tamil National Alliance to some thing like Sri Lankan Patriotic Alliance or join the SLFP or the UNP to show their complete acceptance of Sri Lankan Nationality with distinct patriotism to Sri Lanka as their one and only motherland.
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