TNA and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan has repudiated Tamil Eelam. He told the Indian Media recently that his party, the TNA, had moved away from the Vaddukkodai Resolution, which stated that the only solution to the grievances of the Tamil people is a separate Tamil Eelam. He said all constituents of the TNA had come to a consensus that a solution should be found within an undivided Sri Lanka.
This departure by the country’s main Tamil political party from its entrenched position that the only solution to the Tamil question is a separate state no doubt is going take the wind off the sails of the rabid nationalists in the Joint Opposition. It has been the perennial litany of the likes of Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government was going to divide the country at the behest of those who helped them come to power (even the down scaling of the war victory celebrations have been attributed to the Western friends of the Yahapalanaya government).
No media conference of the JO is complete without mention of this dire threat to divide the country by the western powers and their lackeys in the Yahapalanaya government. Now that the TNA leader has cleared the air in this regard with an unequivocal statement, is the JO still going to persist with this claim There is good reason to believe that it will. It has this deliberate strategy of repeating what the government keeps continually denying. It still goes about accusing the government for incarcerating “war heroes” when it was clearly being shown that these elements were responsible for criminal acts. In any event the biggest war hero of them all was thrown behind bars by the accusers themselves. It continues to blame the government for releasing hardcore LTTEers when a Tiger mass murderer held ministerial office under Rajapaksa. The JO continues to tell the public about resolutions being passed in the Northern Provincial Council demanding federalism even while government ministers say that such resolutions are not binding on the central government.
Likewise Sampanthan’s avowal to drop the separatist demand too will not drive it home for the JO who only knows too well that this is the one issue with which they could inflame their nationalist constituency to mobilize against the government. It is noteworthy that when Sarath Fonseka won overwhelmingly in the North at the 2010 Presidential election the Rajapaksa minions kept on saying that the war winning army commander won the Tiger votes although he lost in the south. Hence the JO cannot afford any let up in keeping the separatist demand on the boil. The issue is a vote harvester. Nay, they are bound to come out with added vigour on Sampanthan’s LTTE links in the past, never mind the backing out from the Eelam demand by the octogenarian politician.
Be that as it may, there are valid reasons for Sampanthan to drop the separatist demand. For one thing with no LTTE to flex its muscles the TNA has no choice other than to compromise on its federal demand. In any event Tamil politicians could not have been serious with this separatist demand knowing how the Southern polity is going to react. It was a case of playing politics with the issue like their southern counterparts who whip up nationalist sentiments to harvest votes. A politician of the calibre of Sampanthan could not have attended the National Day celebrations seated alongside a staunchly Sinhala Budddhist President if indeed he was for a separate state for the north.
True, there are mavericks like Shivajilingam who persist in this demand. But such individuals are only of nuisance value. They create no impact except provide fodder to TV channels toeing the Sinahala nationalist line on behalf of their benefactor political masters. Now that the one time advocates of Tamil Eelam has dropped the demand in return for reasonable autonomy for the Tamil people it will be a good thing if politicians in the South stop harping on this issue and assist in the reconciliation effort. This was even the goal of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as enunciated after the war victory. To now queer the pitch by adopting a purely racists line will certainly not do his credibility any good.
To her credit, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga went out of her way towards bringing the estranged communities together. Her intentions were all the more credible in that it was her own father S.W.R.D. who was held to be the chief cause for the Sinhala Tamil division. Not only that, she was all set to introducing a federal constitution, in all but name, but was thwarted by the UNP Opposition.
The TNA’s latest stand, whatever misgivings one may have, should be appreciated. Sampanthan and the TNA should now act in a manner that would allay any suspicions harboured by the southern polity as to their bonafides. Instead of being a single issue party the TNA should act with a national perspective. Sampanthan as the Leader of the Opposition should take up national issues and project himself to the majority community as a national leader. This will be one huge step in the reconciliation process.
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