Last week, while Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the Maldives to help that country’s ruling and opposition parties settle their political disputes, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met six members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in New Delhi and advised them to engage constructively with the Rajapaksa government so that long-standing political and ethnic issues could be sorted out.
Fourteen months after the end of civil war in Sri Lanka, resettling and rehabilitating around 300,000 war-displaced Tamils remain the TNA’s main concern, the members are said to have told the Indian Prime Minister during their meeting with him on Thursday last. The TNA delegation comprising R Sampanthan, S Premachandran, M Senathiraja, M A Sumandhiran, S Adaikalanathan and A Vinayagomoorthy is also understood to have communicated to the Indian leadership its concerns about the presence of large number of armed forces among the civilian population of the north, despite the end of war more than a year ago. Prior to their meeting with Dr Singh, the TNA members had met India’s Foreign Minister S M Krishnan and Home Minister P Chidambaram.
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| EPDP leader Douglas Devananda |
The Government of India which is keen on seeing a political solution emerge for Sri Lankan Tamils is also keen that the TNA and other political parties representing minorities here built a dialogue with President Rajapaksa so that the process of finding such a solution is expedited. Since the military defeat of the LTTE by the Sri Lankan armed forces last year, TNA leaders themselves have been hinting at the need for change. Apart from nudging the TNA to stay engaged with President Rajapaksa, New Delhi still remains concerned about this country’s deeply fragmented Tamil polity.
It is not difficult to understand that Tamil parties would enhance their bargaining power vis-à-vis a political solution if they got their act together.
During the last 30 years politics in the north and east were dominated by the LTTE that virtually barred all other Tamil parties from operating in the two provinces. Now, it seems the time is ripe for such political parties to work towards a comprehensive understanding. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) which until the assassination of leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, was active in mainstream politics had to confine itself to the fringes with the rise of the LTTE.
Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda who was a hate figure for the LTTE and continues to stay a figure of suspicion for the TNA due to his closeness to President Rajapaksa, is seemingly making his own attempt to “unite” Tamil parties. “There is an urgency to bring the Tamil political parties under one alliance to address the grievances of the Tamils and also to identify the day to day problems to find an immediate solution,” Mr Devananda told the Sunday Times. The Minister of Traditional Industries added, “We cannot put the total blame on Velupillai Prabhakaran and get away from the problem.” Mr Devananda hosted a meeting of a few Tamil parties under the banner of the Tamil Party Forum (TPF) on Wednesday last.
“The meeting was held with a view to discuss the present political situation of the Tamil people and the future initiatives that need to be taken,” a statement from the TPF said. Apart from Tamil politicians, civil society groups too are included in this forum, the TPF said, adding that discussions would be held on also bringing Muslim parties and up-country Tamil parties into the TPF fold. “It was also decided to obtain the contribution of Tamil people within Sri Lanka and abroad and the interactive organizations among them. Similarly, it was decided to seek assistance from the progressive forces in the South,” the statement added. “There is a basic need for Tamil unity and we should not make the same mistakes we made in the past. Because we were not united, the Tamils were displaced, some fled the country while over 100,000 live as refugees in India,” Mr. Devananda said.
The formation of the alliance is seen as another move to build up for the provincial elections with Mr. Devananda himself expecting to run as the Chief Ministerial candidate, but the EPDP leader denies that he is preparing to contest the PC elections. An invitation had been extended to the TNA to join the TPF but according to sources, the TNA has decided to keep out of the forum, for the moment at least, due to its own preparations for the provincial elections. The move to float the forum comes at the time when the Sri Lankan government is trying to attract the Tamil Diaspora to return and invest in this country. As an initial step at least 12 members of the Tamil Diaspora were invited and taken to the north along with former LTTE’s arms procurer, Kumaran Pathmanadan.
Former Chief Minister of the North-Eastern Province, Varatharaja Perumal who had fled to India after making a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1990 is now back in this country and has joined the TPF. The leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (Pathmanabha Wing) told the Sunday Times, “There are only two options as a solution to the ethnic problem. One of them is the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the other is to implement a federal set-up.” “We should talk to the Government to amend the Constitution to give the rights to the minorities based on the ethnic ratio. Particularly, recruitments to the public service and the armed forces and the police on this basis could help improve goodwill,” he added.
“Today we find that there is a shortage of Tamil speaking officers. Even in the Tamil populated areas you do not find sufficient staff speaking in Tamil to carry out duties,” Mr Perumal said. “From 1958 State sponsored colonization has been taking place. The Government should also look into this issue. We can use the Forum to present the case,” he added. According to him, the task of bringing all Tamil parties together was difficult because each party was trying to protect its own sense of identity. “Some parties fear they will lose their identity as usually these types of alliances end with elections,” Mr Perumal said.
Dharmalingam Siddarthan, leader of the Democratic People’s Liberation Front (DPLF) told the Sunday Times, “We have seen alliances coming up and fading away. But this is a good initiative and is a timely move.” According to him, the idea of the forum was to arrive at a collective understanding on issues of concern to Sri Lanka’s Tamils. “We can correct the mistakes of the past if we stand united. If we try to go on individually we will not be able to achieve anything as seen in the past,” he explained. N K Sivajilingam, a Presidential candidate in last January’s elections also joined the new forum. “We will be able to find a respectable solution to the ethnic conflict through this path. If we fail in this attempt we will never be able to find a solution to the Tamil problems,” he told the Sunday Times adding that he was “trying to bring the TNA also into the process.”
With the TNA maintaining its direct links with New Delhi, the Rajapaksa Government probably thinks it will be wise to have a parallel forum of Tamil parties. That the TPF may have been formed at the behest of the Sri Lankan Government appears obvious as at least three of its members have already been provided Government houses although they are not Parliamentarians or any other public office-bearers. |
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