{"id":47790,"date":"2015-09-12T12:33:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-12T19:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=47790"},"modified":"2015-09-12T12:33:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T19:33:52","slug":"the-tamil-national-alliance-tna-as-the-official-opposition-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/09\/12\/the-tamil-national-alliance-tna-as-the-official-opposition-in-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) as the official opposition in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lankaweb Weekly Editorial<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/u><\/strong>September 12th 2015<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The dust has hardly settled but the The Tamil National Alliance (TNA)\u00a0 once an open arm of the LTTE says” they will be sending a lawyers\u2019 team to the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva” at which the UN Human Rights High Commissioner\u2019s report on war crimes allegedly committed in Sri Lanka is to be presented and acted upon.<\/p>\n

Given the fact that the TNA now heads the official opposition in Parliament ( something of an irony as well as controversial at best from a Sinhala perspective) to resort to such actions comprising of opposition to Sri Lankan Government policy is not a part of their mandate and neither is it in keeping with the allegiance they took making hollow sounds to the effect that they will make every endeavour to support the policies of the present government, yet at the first available opportunity are preparing to oppose the Government at the forthcomimg UNHRC summit in Geneva.
\nSo what does this indicate beyond being a bunch of hypocrites who have always been panderers to their secessionist policies and its supportives where their main objective if one reads between the lines seems to point to that repulsive subject of Eelam and as long as they are around are bound to persist in attempting to acheive it which the present Government needs to be wary of.<\/p>\n

These are times when both the UN as well as the USA amongst others appear to be leaning in favour of the issue of alleged war crimes being an internal domestic matter requiring an internal investigation and no more and the TNA in choosing to meddle in related matters has indicated their objectives of contributing in a very negative manner towards related proceedings which is a blatant attempt to contradict Government policy whilst pretending to want to co-operate with the present Government.<\/p>\n

Here it needs to be said\u00a0 somewhat whistfully and with gratitude that the previous Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa neither tolerated nor gave any leeway to TNA demands based on the cognizance of their collusion with the LTTE and now that scenario seems to have changed with the new government showing\u00a0 tolerance of the TNA which could prove disastrous and have dire ramifications for the majority Sinhala Nation in the long term as the TNA could easily misuse this to their advantage in their inimitable style of attempting at every given opportunity to throw a spanner in the works of a smooth functioning Government having gained access to the opposition core of Parliament whether deservedly or not.<\/p>\n

It seems high handed on the part of the TNA\u00a0 to contemplate sending a\u00a0 team headed by Supreme Court Senior Counsel, M.A.Sumanthiran, who is also a fellow MP from Jaffna, to the UNHCR proceeding which does not augur well for the Government\u00a0 of Sri Lanka and as a matter of fact could hamper proceedings in disfavour of Sri Lanka as old skeletons from old closets will once again undoubtedly surface unnecxessarily and where the onus of the issue of war crimes rests heavily on the LTTE rather than the GOSL and the armed forces who realistically protected civilians during the LTTE onslaught.<\/p>\n

Thus in essence the hogwash\u00a0 proclaimed by the TNA in this respect that.<\/p>\n

A TNA delegation, as such, might be sent after reading the High Commissioner\u2019s report and the Sri Lankan government\u2019s response to it. The task of Sumanthiran and his team of lawyers will be to examine the High Commissioner\u2019s report and the Lankan government\u2019s reply, and chalk out a line on which the TNA leadership will base its final decision,\u201d\u00a0 is neither in keeping with the porotocols of the UNHCR nor is it acceptable as the TNA have too many conflicts of interest as well as their blatant bias which shows against a Government which could easily have denied them the status of the leading opposition party as there are indications that proper procedure may not have been followed and may have been a mere conciliatory gesture to appease sources that may have demanded such a concession which is now turning out to be a Governmental faux pas.<\/p>\n

It also seems an obstreperous statement\u00a0 that TNA\u2019 chief, R.Sampanthan,has said that his party\u2019s stand on the UNHRC\u2019s proceedings on Lanka will be based on the Tamils\u2019 sentiments as well as the views of the International Community. with no consideration for Sinhala sentiment or the mood of the country while ramblng on that<\/p>\n

While we have to go by the peoples\u2019 sentiments, we cannot alienate the international community,\u201d he said. and to use the international community towards the objectives of the TNA being somewhat of a joke.where he may have been better served had he cited the Tamil diaspora instead!<\/p>\n

While he says that “there is an overwhelming demand from the Tamils that the TNA should reject the US-Lankan agreement to substitute the international investigation with a domestic probe” there is an equally intense or greater demand from the majority Sinhalese both locally and globally and their support from other minorities that an internal investigation not involving foreign adjudicators is sufficient and endorsed by sources that really matter beyond the TNA voices in the wilderness!<\/p>\n

The Tamil sensationalism as usual continues where a certain. M.K.Shivajilingam, a TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council is currently leading a march from Kilinochchi to Jaffna seeking an international probe and an international judicial mechanism for the trial of the accused.<\/p>\n

But the TNA\u2019s leadership feels diffident about alienating the US and the Western world which also dominate the UNHRC which is what will surely be the only outcome of all the turbulence\u00a0 the TNA are attempting to create and perhaps will be their undoing.They need to proceed with extreme caution in their best interests as well as that of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lankaweb Weekly Editorial September 12th 2015 The dust has hardly settled but the The Tamil National Alliance (TNA)\u00a0 once an open arm of the LTTE says” they will be sending a lawyers\u2019 team to the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva” at which the UN Human Rights High Commissioner\u2019s report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}