Sunday Times 2
Still seeking ‘parity of status’ for the Tamils
View(s):Senior politician and Leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Veerasingham Anandasangaree speaks to Feizal Samath on the politics of the North of Sri Lanka, which led to a protracted separatist armed insurgency, which he opposed as a pacifist.
Mr. Anandasangaree advocates devolution of a Federal nature.
“Those were terrible times,” he said, adding that at that time he was attending Law College classes in the morning and worked as an English Teaching Assistant in the afternoon at a government school in Ratmalana managed by a Buddhist monk.
Veerasingham Anandasangaree
The often controversial 89-year-old politician, who fell foul of the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and faced multiple death threats from the terrorists, was speaking on the eve of the 75th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s Independence, from Jaffna where he resides nowadays. The one-time lawyer, who is also fluent in Sinhala, went down memory lane in recalling events ‘in my own words and recollections’ as to how Tamil parties were formed in the late 1940s, the cry for separation, his conflict with another veteran politician R. Sambanthan and his ‘frosty engagement’ with the LTTE, and how LTTE-backed nominees through its Tamil National Alliance (TNA) entered Parliament at the 2004 general election with 22 seats.
A year before Independence in 1948, father-of-the-nation and Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake wanted Tamil leaders to join hands and cooperate with his government. “I think he got our support.” At that time the Tamils didn’t have any major issues and were happy with the assurances by D.S. Senanayake that the Tamils would be treated equally.
During the pre-Independence period, there was the Jaffna Youth Congress. The membership was radical, but non-communal. The elections to the first State Council on May 4, 1931 under the Donoughmore Constitution saw a new breed of indigenous politicians coming forward to contest in the first all-island elections. It was largely based on caste, race, wealth, education, religion.
The Jaffna Youth Congress called for a boycott of these elections. The boycott failed, but some seats in the North went uncontested by June when the polling ended. A young Cambridge educated lawyer, Gnanapathipillai Gangaser Ponnambalam (G.G.Ponnambalam) refused to join the boycott. He was defeated but soon became a spokesman for the Tamils and in his mid-30s formed his own party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) as political parties started to be formed throughout the country.
Quite a few Tamil MPs were part of the left movement and members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party (CP) who had branches in Jaffna. “I also started my career as a member of the left movement (LSSP).”
At one point in late 1949, Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and a few others broke away from the ACTC (after the ACTC decided to join the ruling United National Party) and formed the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) which means “Tamil Rule Party”.
At that time, there were no major issues that the Tamil parties raised, but the ITAK was pushing for a federal solution in the north and the east while plantation leader Mr. S. Thondaman was fighting for the rights of the Indian Tamils on the plantations and pushing for their citizenship rights.
One of the problems at that time was the national flag issue. The lion in the flag represented only the Sinhalese. Mr. Chelvanayakam and others raised issue and D.S. Senanayake appointed a national flag committee including Tamil and Muslim members. Their recommendation was that the maroon portion should represent the Tamils and the green portion the Muslims.
“I was a keen political student while my father was principal and was with (former prime minister) W. Dahanayake at Teacher Training College. I recall during an election procession that I joined, the ACTC candidate collapsed and died.”
In 1956, Tamils wanted ‘parity of
status’ or equality during the tenure of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.
In 1959, Mr. Anandasangaree contested the Colombo Municipal Council against V.A. Sugathadasa and lost and when general elections were held in January 1960, he was nominated by Dr. N.M. Perera (LSSP) to contest a parliamentary seat from Kilinochchi. Since no proper government could be formed after that election, another election was held in March 1960.
In 1970, Mr. Anandasangaree entered Parliament as a member of the Tamil Congress also known as the ACTC. Then the trouble started when Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike brought in a Republican Constitution in 1972.
“We were opposed to the removal of Section 29 of the earlier (Soulbury) Constitution which was the only protection minorities had. This section ensured you cannot enact any law that would favour a section of the people or discriminate against anyone,” he recalled.
“There was a move for all Tamil parties to join together. I also joined this movement for a united Tamil front.”
Various groups of people met to create the TULF in 1972. At that time, the fear was that with Sri Lanka becoming a republic, there would be more restrictions on the Tamils. Mr. Chelvanayakam and Mr. Ponnambalam were political enemies and not talking to each other, but they too joined.
On 14th May 1972 the TULF (Tamil United Front – TUF at that time) was formed at the Trincomalee town hall. Mr. Chelvanayakam was the president and subsequently Mr. Ponnambalam and Mr. Thondaman (one of the founder members) were made joint presidents.
At the first convention, two years later (1976), a resolution (Vaddukottai Resolution) calling for separation was supported. However, it was stated that if the Tamil problem was successfully solved to the satisfaction of the Tamil people, they would not demand separation. “Our main demand was to introduce a federal system of government.”
After TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam was assassinated, there were hardly any meetings of the leaders of the TULF for four years. “I supported Mavai Senathirajah to take over Amirthalingam’s position but (Mr. R.) Sambanthan wanted that position. What I feared happened, as the TULF was destroyed after that,” he said on his disagreements with Mr. Sambanthan.
“My proposal, which I still believe is valid, was to follow the Indian model of governance of various states. At one time, I met a Buddhist monk and explained to him why I was proposing the Indian model. He agreed with me and offered his support. Several ministers offered their support and there were three newspaper editorials supporting my view.”
Mr. Anandasangaree, who is the leader of the currently lowly placed TULF, is bitter with the current Tamil leadership and their policies. “They are not fit to be in Parliament,” he said.
“It was the 60 million Tamils in South India who started the separation call for their state. Then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru convinced them to give up separation and provided enough autonomy to the states. Here too, we should have followed that example and I had the courage to promote this thinking,” he said, adding, “That was how I viewed the problem and felt my thinking was correct”.