{"id":94094,"date":"2019-10-20T01:20:34","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T08:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94094"},"modified":"2019-10-20T01:20:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T08:20:34","slug":"big-gap-in-tamils-peoples-demands-and-tamil-politicians-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/20\/big-gap-in-tamils-peoples-demands-and-tamil-politicians-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Big gap in Tamils People\u2019s Demands and Tamil Politicians demands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who\nare the people tasked to listen to grievances? A government &amp; its\napparatus, society groups, the courts at local level and then at international\nlevels \u2013 the UN, international organizations etc. These entities have been\naround for quite a while now but whose problems have they listened to and whose\nproblems have they solved? &nbsp;What are the\npeople\u2019s problems they have identified &amp; solved? More importantly are those\nvoted in as people\u2019s representatives actually voicing the people\u2019s problem\nproperly or have they been articulating something else? This is what the public\nmust now determine. There is little point voting for people if they are not\nvoicing what the people want and instead using the people\u2019s vote to carry out a\nseparate agenda. With this understanding let us proceed to determine what are\nTamil people\u2019s problems and how exclusive they are and what Tamil politician\u2019s\nproblems are and to whose problems governments and the world have been\nlistening to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\nare Tamil people\u2019s problems and are they exclusive to Tamils or common problems\nfaced by Sinhalese &amp; Muslims to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\nare these common problems faced by all citizens? A good school for their\nchildren, access to clean drinking water, basic toilet, a place called home\nwith a roof, paved road, health facilities, means of transport to go to school\n&amp; work, ability to find a job or livelihood are just a handful of very\nbasic needs that immediately come to mind. All communities in Sri Lanka have\nsome issue or the other related to one of these very basic requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"We want homes, not merging of North-East: Tamil group slams TNA\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KwzRTTVWQEs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(What Tamils really want is obviously\nNOT want TNA wants) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nTamil leaders demanded devolution and that was given in 1987 via 13<sup>th<\/sup>\namendment. Its been 32 years now and what is the benefit that the ordinary\nTamil people have got from devolution of powers (36 of the 37 subjects have\nbeen devolved) via 13a and PC system? TNA took over the province in 2013 proof\nthat TNA has failed to deliver is depicted in the funds TNA requested not being\nutilized and returning to the Treasury! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To\nrealize what Tamil people want the voice of Wijayaratnam Surendram needs to be\nheard. What does he say? He says only the TNA wants to divide the country,\nmerge the North &amp; East but the Tamils don\u2019t want this. He goes on to say\nthat the Tamil people only want houses to live in not merging provinces. He\nsays that Tamils must go to the South and the Southern people must come to the\nNorth and that all people must eat, drink, live happily together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\nsays many a Tamil child was sacrificed throughout the past conflict and the\nsame fate should not happen to another generation. If you look at all the Tamil\npoliticians making these demands \u2013 they are all a bunch of old men who\nobviously do not care about a future generation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\nS J S Jayasri says that TNA has fooled the people and won elections \u2013 he\nhighlights how much Jaffna has deteriorated since TNA took over the province \u2013\nganja, drugs, murder rape and all types of violations have increased and TNA\nare not bothered to solve any of them because TNA are linked to the culprits\nand doing business deals with them.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nvideo also highlights that Wigneswaran\u2019s daughter was married to a Sinhalese\nbut he is prohibiting Tamils from marrying Sinhalese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So\nhave you heard TNA articulating these sentiments of Tamil people or spending\nthe funds for their comforts? Shouldn\u2019t TNA be questioned as to why they are\nnot giving Tamils what they want instead of telling Tamils to demand what Tamil\nleaders want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s\njust jerk our memories a bit about what Tamil leaders have been demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A plan behind Tamil leadership &amp;\ntheir ideology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ITAK\nis the main constituent party of the TNA \u2013 it spends most of its time asking\nfor a new constitution and to abolish the executive presidency nothing that\nTamils have demanded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ITAK\nwas formed in 1949 a year after independence \u2013 its real name means Tamil State\nParty which implies its quest is to create a Tamil state. Its camouflage is to\ncall its English translation as Federal Party. ITAK claims it was formed\nbecause of Sinhala discrimination \u2013 how can that be when from 1505 the island\nwas under foreign dominance &amp; rule (443 years) and Sri Lanka became a\nRepublic only in 1972. Prior to that even with independence the Head of the\nState from 1948 to 1972 was the Queen and final judicial verdicts were by UK\nprivy council. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From\nsetting up a party to create a Tamil State in 1949, the ITAK went on to hold\nits 1<sup>st<\/sup> convention in 1951 declaring what constituted a Tamil Nation\n<em>\u2018nation distinct from that of the Sinhalese by\nevery fundamental test of nationhood\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/tnapolitics.org\/?page_id=80\">http:\/\/tnapolitics.org\/?page_id=80<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then in 1956 ITAK convention in Trincomalee passed a resolution <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>the&nbsp;replacement of the present\npernicious constitution by a&nbsp;rational and democratic&nbsp;constitution\nbased on the federal principle and the establishment of one or more Tamil\nlinguistic state or states incorporating all geographically contiguous areas in\nwhich the Tamil speaking people are numerically in a majority&nbsp;as federating\nunit or units enjoying the widest autonomous and residuary powers consistent\nwith the unity and external security of Ceylon\u201d<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The&nbsp;restoration of the Tamil\nlanguage to its rightful place&nbsp;enjoying the absolute&nbsp;parity of status\nwith Sinhalese as an official language&nbsp;of the country\u201d<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The repeal of the present citizenship\nlaws and the enactment in their place of laws recognizing the right to full\ncitizenship on the basis of a simple test of residence for all persons who have\nmade this country their home\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The immediate&nbsp;cessation of\ncolonization of the traditional Tamil speaking areas with Sinhalese people\u201d<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n1957 ITAK started an anti-Sri campaign tarring cars that bore vehicle number\nplate \u2018SRI\u2019 \u2013 counter campaigns started only afterwards. The same year ITAK\nobjected to Ministers from South visiting North &amp; East \u2013 Ministers Dahanayake\n&amp; Marikkar were attacked in Batticoloa &amp; MP Siriwardena on a mail train\nto Jaffna was blocked. So these chants to prevent Sinhalese coming to North did\nnot start with LTTE but with Tamil leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n1972 All Ceylon Tamil Congress &amp; ITAK combined to create Tamil United Front\nwhich became Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ITAK\nleader Chelvanayagam winning the by-election in 1975 declared <em>I will to\nannounce to my people and to the country that I consider the verdict at this\nelection as a mandate that the Tamil Eelam Nation should exercise the\nsovereignty already vested in the Tamil people and become free\u201d.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that was not what the people asked or wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"265\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/LTTE-TNA-prabasambanthan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-94095\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/LTTE-TNA-prabasambanthan.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/LTTE-TNA-prabasambanthan-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we come to May 1976 the infamous Vaddukoddai\nResolution with 5 objectives. Notice the similarities of what the Tamil leaders\ndemand &amp; what LTTE demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>State\nof Tamil Eelam to consist of North &amp; Eastern provinces<\/strong>&nbsp;to all Tamil speaking people<\/li><li><strong>Constitution\nof Tamil Eelam based on principles of decentralization<\/strong>. No foremost place to any religion or\nterritorial community.<\/li><li><strong>Tamil\nEelam<\/strong>&nbsp;will&nbsp;<strong>assure\nequal status to all<\/strong><\/li><li>Tamil\nEelam will be a&nbsp;<strong>secular state&nbsp;<\/strong>with equal protection to all\nreligions<\/li><li><strong>Tamil\nwill be language of the State<\/strong>&nbsp;but Sinhala speaking minority can educate and transact in\nSinhala subject to reciprocity of Tamil speaking minority in Sinhala state.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If\ndemand was for equal language rights \u2013why make Tamil the official language of\nthe State of Tamil Eelam?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s\nsee how similar the Vaddukoddai Resolution demands are with LTTE demands made\nin 1985 during the Thimpu Talks. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&nbsp; recognition of the Tamils of Ceylon as\na nation<\/li><li>&nbsp; recognition of the existence of an\nidentified homeland for the Tamils of Ceylon<\/li><li>&nbsp; recognition of the right of\nself-determination of the Tamil nation<\/li><li>&nbsp; recognition of the right to\ncitizenship and the fundamental rights of all Tamils of Ceylon<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Note:\nTerm Ceylon Tamils came to be used only after 1911 prior Tamils were known and\nreferred to as Malabars by Portuguese, Dutch and British. Malabars are from\nIndia and have no right to seek self-determination in Sri Lanka while Ceylon\nTamils earlier known as Malabars cannot seek self-determination either!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nthink that ITAK &amp; TNA are speaking on behalf of Tamil people but are they\nreally? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n2012 Sambanthan referred to \u2018Tamil youth who sacrificed their lives in armed\nstruggle\u2019 the only Tamil youth who sacrificed their lives in an armed struggle were\nthe LTTE. So Sambanthan was remembering LTTE! At the same Convention Sambanthan\nsays ITAK is the <strong>\u2018political symbol of\nthe Tamil Nation\u2019<\/strong>.and then at the 2014 ITAK convention Sambanthan goes on\nto say <strong>TULF of which our party was a\nmember took the historical decision to establish the separate government of\nTamil Eelam in 1976\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we\nknow the stand of TNA vis a vis Tamil Nation and Tamil Eelam but how many have\nlooked at TNA and LTTE links?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TNA 2001 manifesto demanded<\/strong> recognition of <strong>inalienable right\nof self-determination of the Tamil nation.\u201d\u2026 commencement of<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>negotiations\nwith the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with international third party\ninvolvement.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TNA\n2004 manifesto claimed an <\/strong><strong>Independent Tamil Eelam<\/strong>&nbsp;received its mandate as a\nresult of the overwhelming support given to the TULF by the Tamil speaking\npeople of North East in the general elections of July 1977\u201d and that the \u2018Sinhala\nNation\u2019 should accept the ISGA document proposed by LTTE. TNA even demanded\nthat the restrictions placed on LTTE should be removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TNA\nwent on to claim LTTE as the authentic sole representative of the Tamil people\u201d.\nNot stopping there TNA went on to say LTTE\u2019s leadership was the national\nleadership of Tamil Eelam Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TNA 2004\nmanifesto declared that <strong>under the leadership of the LTTE for a life of\nliberty, honor and justice for the Tamil people. Let us work side by side with\nthe LTTE, who are fighting for the protection and autonomous life of the Tamil\nspeaking people, for the political initiatives under their leadership.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us assume that these demands were made during\nheyday of LTTE rule now let us look at TNA manifestos after the defeat of the\nLTTE in May 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TNA\n2010 Manifesto<\/strong> did not change its earlier stand \u2013 ITAK remembered\nwhy TULF passed the Vaddukoddai Resolution in 1976 for the <strong>right of the\nTamil People to self -determination\u201d&nbsp;<\/strong>but not ITAK began chanting \u2018devolution\nof powers over land, law &amp; order, socio-economic development &amp; fiscal\npowers\u2019. ITAK wanted \u2018direct foreign investment in the North &amp; East\u2019. ITAK\nbegan bringing a new word into public domain \u2018united country\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TNA\u2019s\n2013 manifesto<\/strong> for the Northern Provincial Council elections also\ndeclared <strong>right to\nself-determination<\/strong>\u201d and demanded \u2018power-sharing\u2019 in a \u2018merged North &amp;\nEastern Provinces based on a Federal structure, in a manner acceptable to the\nTamil speaking Muslim people\u2019. TNA began referring to \u2018shared sovereignty\u2019 over\nland, law &amp; order, socio-economic development including health &amp;\neducation, resources &amp; fiscal powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We all\nknow the key role TNA played to influence Tamils to vote regime change in January\n2015 Presidential Elections so TNA manifesto of August 2015 is important. TNA\ncontinued call this time referring it as <strong>our right to determine our destiny\nto ensure self-government in the Tamil Speaking North-East of the country<\/strong>&nbsp;within\na united and undivided Sri Lanka.\u201d TNA made reference to <strong>Tamil Speaking\nNorthern and Eastern provinces<\/strong>&nbsp;is the historical habitation of the\nTamil People and the Tamil Speaking Peoples\u201d and add that Tamils were entitled\nto self-determination in keeping with United Nations International Covenants on\nCivil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of\nwhich Sri Lanka has accepted and acceded to\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TNA\nalso demanded devolution of power based on shared sovereignty\u2019 in all areas\nthat virtually mean running a separate state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then\ncame a list of new demands \u2013 de-militarization \/ removal of armed forces \/ high\nsecurity zones from North &amp; East when Tamil people were openly saying that\nthey wanted the Army to stay on. This Tamil-people &amp; Army pow-pow was not\ngoing to fair well with the TNA who realized that too much friendship would\nautomatically remove them from playing role of go-between and so pocket protests\nwere staged and their friends in the international\/local media circles made a\ncircus out of a handful protesting to project that ALL TAMILS were against the\nArmed Forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\npsyche of the Tamil politicians claiming to represent Tamils is best understood\nin <strong>Sambanthan\u2019s 2012 speech<\/strong> in Batticoloa\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><\/strong><em>Although the issue at hand is the\nsame, the prevailing conditions are different. The struggle is the same, but\nthe approaches we employ are different. Our aim is the same, but our strategies\nare different. The players are the same, but the alliances are different. That\nis the nature of the Tamil people. Although we still have the same aim, the\nmethods we use are now different.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sambanthan\nsays the issue (self-determination for Tamils) is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sambanthan\nsays the struggle (self-determination for Tamils) is the same<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sambanthan\nsays their aims are the same (but strategies are different)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sambanthan\nsays the players are the same (but alliances are different<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sambanthan\nends by saying<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>That\nis the nature of the Tamil people. Although we still have the same aim, the methods\nwe use are now different\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you see TNA or ITAK demanding anything that is\nrelevant to the needs of the 95% Tamils who simply want education, a home, a\njob etc. What TNA and ITAK has been demanding throughout is nothing short of\nwhat LTTE hijacked to justify its existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What Tamils really want is obviously NOT want TNA wants to give them. Many a Tamil is now realizing this and TNA\/ITAK popularity is dwindling. Soon Tamils will stop voting TNA\/ITAK simply because they are Tamil and it is timely that Tamils find national thinking Tamil leaders and politically reject TNA &amp; ITAK and all similar thinking politicians.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Shenali\nD Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who are the people tasked to listen to grievances? A government &amp; its apparatus, society groups, the courts at local level and then at international levels \u2013 the UN, international organizations etc. These entities have been around for quite a while now but whose problems have they listened to and whose problems have they solved? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94094","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\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}