The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally. Many of our readers confuse between the concepts of transnational government and government in exile. While the government in exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence.
TamilNet Editorial Board
A government in exile functions outside of its territory with an aim of taking control of that territory. Such a government may have already existed in an independent and sovereign country and have lost its power or may have been formed anew to claim an independent and sovereign country. Whatever the case may be, a government in exile needs a host country.
But the transnational government we speak of is a novel experiment that has no precedence.
Whatever excuses there may be, the contemporary world system including its apex body the United Nations, have shown least regards for the life, safety, dignity and human rights of Eezham Tamils and even now continue to abet structural genocide in the island of Sri Lanka.
There is no second word that all Eezham Tamils are traumatised and grieved by the grave injustice committed on them by the entire world system. Unless the world system recognizes the self-determination of Eezham Tamils and directly intervenes in the island, no justice is going to be seen.
With the kind of blunders made by the powers involved in forfeiting leverages and with the development of new axes in the region, it is doubtful whether the world system will have any pressure to act on its own to justify the cause of Eezham Tamils other than oppressing them further to accept subjugation within the rot of the united Sri Lanka.
It is the ways of the contemporary world system that impels Eezham Tamils to respond with the unique experiment of a transnational government to safe guard their unity, identity, dignity, aspirations and well-being.
A contemporary reality that is going to be faced by Eezham Tamils in the home country is compulsion in brutal ways by Colombo, the Indian Establishment and by certain other powers to drop Tamil national aspirations and to accept an imposed Sri Lankan identity.
Colombo is already intimidating with success the subservient Tamil political entities to drop the ethnic identity. What is proposed is a ‘home grown solution’ that is none other than structural genocide.
The Indian Establishment and its agents are said to be busy in forging a ‘coalition’ of political parties, not to go beyond the ‘Rajiv’s dream’ of 13th Amendment. It is also said that certain sections in the West are also behind it.
A situation is going to emerge in which no Tamil in the home country could open mouth to ask for justice and to express their heart-felt aspirations.
Only the diaspora and the transnational government could uphold the freedom of aspiration and freedom of expression of Eezham Tamils.
Those who have to face the reality from the ‘conquerors’ in Colombo and New Delhi may do so for survival but the transnational government should emerge in parallel in the diaspora to uphold the unconquered spirit of Eezham Tamils, to support the political course in the homeland and to see the Eezham Tamil politics are not hijacked by others. The transnational government need not openly include the home politicians even though both should collaborate with each other.
The disastrous geopolitics played by the Beijing-New Delhi-Islamabad axis and the West at the cost of Eezham Tamils, undeservingly favouring genocidal Colombo and the continued injustice they are committing, are not ephemeral episodes to subside with patchwork solutions envisaged by the conquerors and geopolitical players.
When the volcano erupts, a genuine support the Eezham Tamils at home could fall back on is going to be nothing but a transnational government of the diaspora.
Therefore, all Tamil political players, irrespective of differences and shades of opinion, should extend support to forge such an outfit, at least symbolic in the beginning.
One of the positive achievements of the LTTE is the international infrastructure uniting and motivating the diaspora. Otherwise the diaspora would have gone astray like the 19th century migrants.
The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally.
It is not a must that the transnational government needs a host country to operate. What is actually needed is the will power of more than a million Eezham Tamils living across the world.
Despite a global ban, if the LTTE had successfully demonstrated a global infrastructure in raising revenue, in mobilising the masses and in running economic and cultural institutions, why a democratised and inclusive transnational government not feasible?
If multinational corporations can operate as successful power centres why can’t transnational governments?
Some of our readers have mailed meaningful feedback how such a government can viably operate for the well-being of the diaspora as well as for the liberation of the people in the home country.
If the traumatised Eezham Tamils at home are going to be kept voiceless by the conquerors and the international community, at least the traumatised diaspora should be immediately engaged with a positive and noble venture of resurrection. Otherwise the diaspora will be disillusioned.
However, the process of this noble venture is not a hasty affair. For a smooth beginning, primarily it needs consensus of the existing infrastructure, and to become inclusive it needs the consensus of the circles outside of it also. It needs a strong foundation, careful planning and step-by-step implementation. The existing infrastructure has a greater responsibility in the metamorphosis from command structure to representative structure.
Possible steps are re-affirming the political fundamentals of the Vaddukkoaddai resolution through mandate, electing representatives globally for an Assembly, which will also initially be a constitutional assembly, and then electing an executive.
It is also advisable to create as many as possible grass-root democratic organizations among Eezham Tamils, vested with specific tasks to face the different facets of the current misery. Such grass-root institutions are helpful in sustaining and safe guarding the democratic nature of the superstructure of transnational governance.
If successful, and if the time demands, the transnational government can also become the government in exile.
An important prerequisite with the Eezham Tamil people, who for ages have seen nothing but deception, is that those who take the proposals for implementation with people need to be above all suspicion. Sectarian initiatives will only bungle the move at the outset itself.
Obviously the move for a transnational government based on democratic mandate is going to raise eyebrows in the Establishments that have a strong reservation against Eezham Tamil nationalism and want to erase it by coercion, deception, seemingly sympathetic talk and the hoodwink of devolution and development. Any genuinely mass-oriented structure will only be viewed more dangerous than armed groups that could readily be lured to play stooges to them. But the Eezham Tamils pushed to frustration’s end can’t help looking after their own affairs at their own will power. They need not any more care for other’s national or imperial interests unless there are returns.
It is not out of context to bring in here two examples from the South Asian scenario:
Those who have travelled in the northeastern frontier states of India might have noticed that people from these states whenever travel to Kolkata (Culcutta) and beyond, use to say that they go to ‘India’. In their heart, India is a foreign country, different from theirs and perhaps a coloniser. The Indian Establishment, which attempts to impose Sri Lankan identity on Eezham Tamils, after all what had happened and while the threat of genocide persists, should realise the futility of it at least through its own experience.
Anyone who compares the Tibetan refugees and the Eezham Tamil refugees in India can see a big difference in the treatment. The Tibetans are allowed a government in exile. They are allowed to manage themselves through their own co-operative systems. They are also helped and allowed to develop into an affluent identity on par with Anglo Indians. From the status of refugees in India they now operate all over the world with dignity and self-assurance. Their nationhood is now respected and recognised everywhere in the world, even though their independence and sovereignty are not conceded by China.
In contrast, the Eezham Tamil refugees in India disintegrated in the camps. For over quarter a century they are living under suspicious eyes. Only one organization trusted by the Indian Establishment is allowed to work in these camps. And, now, there are proposals to send them back to end up in the internment camps run by Colombo.
The difference is not merely because of the bias of the Indian Establishment in treating Eezham Tamils. It is also because of deficiencies in the social and political organisation of Eezham Tamils.
That is yet another reason why we need a transnational government for the diaspora.
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