By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

There were reports that the joint opposition was now contemplating to bring a No Confidence Motion against the official (illegal) opposition leader Sambandan, which is a welcome move that should be undertaken without any further delay.  What the country expect from the joint opposition now is to carry forward unceasingly the successes it achieved through the No Confidence Motion against Ranil Wickremasinghe which split Sirisena’s SLFP, exposed Sirisena’s double games and treachery, identified the blokes who would without any self respect and moral principles stoop to any bottom level to protect their perks, privileges, and and undue benefits, and Ranl Wickremasinghe’s sell out of the country to the Tamil racists under a 10 point secret agreement without approval or even without the knowledge of the UNP parliamentarians.  It was reported that this agreement had been signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe placing his signature along with few lines indicating that he had taken due note of the points mentioned and that he would guarantee speedy implementation of those proposals.

The proposed No Confidence Motion should be well crafted indicating that ‘it is against Sambandan illegally holding the post of Opposition Leader with minority representation in the Parliament  and misusing this position to enter into a clandestime 10 point agreement with the Prime Minister without approval from the Prime Minister’s political grouping’ and it should be submitted immediately after the New Year and each and every member in the joint opposition should make every effort to give maximum publicity to the vicious 10 point agreement with dedicated participation of the members of the Maha Sangha and Prelates of other religions of the respective areas and personally apprise all non-TNA members of Parliament on the dangers hidden in the agreement and seek their cooperation to get this NCM passed, particularly to get the agreement abrogated..  The 220 odd Municipal and Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Saha Institutions under the control of the SLPP should also carry out an islandwide agitation demanding Ranil Wickremasinghe to abrogate the Ranil-Sambamdan Pact publicly similar to the abrogation of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact and Dudley-Chelvanayagam Pact in the past.  .

Political analysts point out that this sell-out agreement is worse than the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) signed by Ranil with the megalomaniac Prabhakaran in  2001.  They say that even implementing a few points of the vicious agreement would be utterly detrimental to the country and would violate the sovereignty, the terriroriaal integrity and fundamental rights of non-Tamils.

The Tamil biased writer D.B.S.Jeyaraj in a lenghthy article to Daily Mirror on 10^th  April has strongly justified and commended Sambandan and the TNA for what he says rightly deciding to defeat the No Confidence Motion and entering into the10 point agreement

Let us critically view the justifications and the appreciations being made by Jeyaraj in this article.  :

• the leader of the opposition Sampanthan departed from tradition by criticising the NCM and supporting the Prime Minister. All 16 MPs of the TNA voted against the NCM.They played a crucial role in ensuring defeat of the attempt to topple the Prime Minister.

• the weight of TNA support helped tilt the scales in favour of Wickremesinghe. That is why the ire and wrath of the NCM proponents have turned against the TNA in the aftermath of the vote.
• Crude attempts are being made to communalise the issue by racist elements supportive of a Rajapaksa return to power. Some hawkish elements are trying to spread a canard that the LTTE and pro-LTTE elements in the Diaspora got the TNA to support Ranil because he was going to give the tigers a separate state through a federal constitution.

• If saner counsel does not prevail and the NCM against Sampanthan is put to the vote we may very well witness another political absurd drama where the Prime Minister and bulk of the Govt are likely to repay Sampanthan by voting against the joint opposition motion. If these events do take place then Sampanthan and Ranil Wickremesinghe would go down in Parliamentary history as the leader of the opposition who safeguarded the Prime Minister of the Ruling Govt and the Prime Minister who protected his leader of the opposition.
• Once it became apparent that the proposed NCM against the Prime Minister was a tripartite plot hatched by anti-UNP elements, sections of the SLFP led by Sirisena and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) of which Mahinda Rajapaksa was the unofficial” leader, the TNA hierarchy began to get perturbed. These sentiments got further exacerbated when percolating media reports speculated that Sirisena was having plans of replacing Ranil with Karu Jayasuriya as a stop gap measure.

• This then made Ranil Wickremesinghe indispensable to Sampanthan’s vision and political goals. The TNA leader has been somewhat miffed with Ranil for the tardy progress on the Constitutional front ever since the interim report of the steering committee was released.

• Wickremesinghe remains the best choice of what is available for the minority communities in general and Sri Lankan Tamils in particular. There was no alternative to Ranil whose unseating was certain to paralyse the political quest of a new power-sharing Constitution.
• There was another reason also for the TNA to support Ranil. The TNA has been closely associating with India and other influential western nations like the USA, Britain,Canada and Norway to help bring about a political settlement and ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Most of these nations were also of the view that it was politically important and imperative to ensure the continuation of Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, who now regards Ranil as the sheet anchor of the present Govt. Replacing Ranil with another was not to be countenanced. The TNA being on the same political wavelength concurred with this perspective.

• Finally the inner -party discussions ended with all MPs agreeing that the TNA should support the PM by voting against the NCM and they felt that they should extract some concessions from the Prime Minister in return for supporting him.

• The issues raised were categorised into ten main points which became the crux of the 10 point agreement. .
• The Tamil National Alliance can take justifiable pride in voting against the no-confidence motion. It was the TNA decision that removed uncertainty and tilted the decision in the Premier’s favour.
• Once it became known that the TNA was firmly behind Wickremesinghe, it was obvious that the NCM would be defeated and this impacted on the voting stances of undecided parties and MPs. Also it was the TNA support which helped Ranil Wickremesinghe greatly to exceed the magic number of 113 by nine more votes.

This ten point agreement is a glaring example of the Tamil politicians attempting to subdue Sinhala leaders of Sri Lanka at times of difficulty without any concern for the peaceful co-existence of the country and only thinking about to get what they want by hook or crook and Sinhala leaders shamelessly genuflecting before them with total disregard for the welfare of the country and the people.

Contrary to the justifications presented by the Tamil bias writer Jeyaraj, the veteran journalist Sunday Island political columnist C.A.Chandraprema comments that (Sunday Island – 0804,2018)

Some of these points such as the formulation of a new constitution before the next election are obviously not practicable. The constitutional reform process grounded to a halt months ago due to the inability of the Muslims and the upcountry Tamils to agree to the devolution proposals put forward. It is very unlikely that this reform process can be resuscitated before the next presidential election is called in October next year. Even if it is, the possibility of getting a two thirds majority on parliament is now virtually non-existent.

The demand to release all ‘political prisoners’ however gives cause for serious concern. What the TNA means by the term political prisoners are the several dozen hardcore LTTE terrorists who are still in detention awaiting trial. Even though over 11,000 LTTE cadres were released, these several dozen hardcore terrorists who are considered beyond rehabilitation were kept in detention to be tried. It is these people the TNA wants released as ‘political prisoners’. The problem is that they were never political activists or dissidents but the most dangerous terrorists in what were once formally declared by the USA to be the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world.

Another extremely dangerous condition is the appointment of only Tamils as District Secretaries (Government Agents) in the north and east. This combined with the conditions that government jobs in the north and east should be given only to those who are resident in those two provinces, and that the views of the two provincial councils should be respected in matters relating to development work, would be an unprecedented move that will turn the north and east into a ‘liberated zone’ for the TNA.. These are conditions that the opposition should vigorously contest.”

Meawhile, Kanthar Balanathan, a patriotic Sri Lankan Tamil resident in Australia who is the retired Director and Specialist Power Systems Engineer. Australia in an article to Lannkaweb titled Sri Lankan Democracy in Peril” asks whether Sri Lanka is run by a democratically elected government or a dictatorial tyrant assisted with corrupted Politicians.  Mr. Balanathan, unlike the Tamil biased D.B.S. Jeyaraj strongly find faults with the appointment of the leader of a minority party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) as the Leader of Opposition (LOP) inducting the whole world to ridicule and laugh at GOSL. He says that the old Sambanthan’ s mind is clouded to perceive that he is the leader for the Tamils ONLY and he is not at all interested in initiating any development on the island to which he is the LOP. Mr. Balanathan emphasizes that The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government. The Opposition’s main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public. It is discernible in the political sphere that the Opposition represents an alternative government and is responsible for challenging the policies of the government and producing different policies where appropriate”  and asserts that the leader of the opposition and the TNA voting against the NCM are violating the fundamental principle of democratic norm creating a new form of democracy.. In conclusion of his article, he states that on the whole, the NCM was voted based on bribery, intimidation, conditional ethnic favors, retribution threats, violation of law & order, and support from the Tamil Diaspora and the West and it was not on democratic principles.

Under these circumstances the joint opposition and the SLPP LG institutions have a great responsibility to defeat Sambandan-Ranil manouvers and save this country from falling into this latest trap of subjugating this country to Tamil Diaspora, the Western powers an the hegemonic India.  The Joint Opposition should undertake this move immediately after the New Year Holidays on a full time basis. .

May the New Year be a prosperous and happy New Year that will free this country from all bondages and foreign servitude!