TNA sounds grim warning

SC ruling on de-merger of N-E

By Chandani Kirinde

The Supreme Court decision last Monday to de-merge the temporarily amalgamated Northern and Eastern Provinces set off an angry reaction from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislators last week.

Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

The party announced on Friday it had called a ‘hartal’ in the north and east for Wednesday to protest against this ruling. The Party’s Jaffna district MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview with The Sunday Times said the consequences of the ruling on the peace process were very serious. Here are excerpts from the interview:

What are the consequences of the ruling on the peace process?

The very fact that a decision taken 18 years ago followed by four consecutive Presidents has been reversed on technical grounds itself has very serious implications. That means any agreement that is reached with a Sri Lankan state can be called into question and reversed on technical grounds. That is the sort of precedent that is set. If you have the Government now not taking immediate steps to merge, any agreement reached with this Government can be reversed by any future government on matter of policy. If the Government fails to take corrective measures then our view is that the very foundations on which the peace process can be moved forward has been nullified and thereby even if the LTTE does negotiate, we don’t believe these negotiations can succeed.

What about the sentiments of the Muslins and Sinhalese in the Eastern Province. There are Muslims politicians who have spoken in support of the court decision?

The Muslim leaders have stated that when the merger that took place 18 years ago, the leverage they might have had in a separate Eastern Province might be affected in a negative sense. Those are issues that can he discussed and finalised. None of the Muslims parties except one man (Minister Athaullah) are against the merger providing that within a merged north-east region their concerns are addressed and our view is that must happen.

Do all Tamil political parties agree that the two provinces should be merged?

That is one issue that has the unanimous support among all Tamil actors. I recently saw, the ENDLF, one group that was with Karuna, has issued a statement condemning the judgement and in fact calling for all Tamil political parties to come together and struggle for external self determination. The ENDLF is by no means a party supportive of the LTTE. But this is the reaction you can possibly expect if you think in terms of de-merging the north and east.

The areas were merged only after the Indo-Lanka accord? What prompted such a demand?

The main call for a Tamil linguistic region was prompted because of the steps taken by the Sri Lanka state particularly in the east to change its demography and make the Tamil majority region to lose the outright majority they had due to the colonisation programmes. It is for this reason that the Tamils insisted that any accommodation with the Sri Lankan state has to be based on a unified Tamil linguistic region.

What if you don’t get the desired response from the President/ Government?

We are considering our options but if the Government does not respond favourably the consequences will be fairly serious where prospects for the peace process are concerned.