‘Political formula needs to address Tamil nationalist fundamentals’

Roy_Gardiner_Wignarajah The powers of the international community, especially India, recognising the nation of Eezham Tamils, spelling out its right to self-determination and immediately stepping in guaranteeing its security and territorial integrity are more important for producing positive political results than mooting proxy draft solutions, says Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU). "Tamil groups should not engage in demoralising the future course of the liberation struggle by playing in the hands of those who are all out to erase the nationalism of Eezham Tamils. Instead, they should concentrate on ingenuously posing democratic challenges, locally and internationally, convincing the inevitability of conceding liberation to Tamils."

Full text of the observations by Mr. Roy Gardiner Wignarajah follows:

The conflict as it stands today and the way it is handled by the state of Sri Lanka, is a question of nations at war.

The national conflict in the island is historical and the militant phase is only a part of it. But certain irreversible realities have emerged through the historical process of the last few decades, underlining the need to recognize and accommodate the divide of nations in any future political processes of the island.

The validity of the national cause of Eezham Tamils doesn’t get nullified either by projecting it only as an agenda of militancy or by Sri Lankan state and the IC creating military situations of subjugation.

The Sri Lankan state for chauvinistic reasons, India and the other powers for geopolitical reasons and multinational corporations for economic reasons, have demonstrated in recent times militarily and diplomatically, their intention to keep the geographic entity of the island as a single political entity.

But chauvinism, geopolitics and outside economic interests cannot make the criteria for forging a common national identity to the island. This game on the island is continuing from colonial times and the world is yet to spell out solutions.

If common national identity has not evolved spontaneously in more than a century, the wise decision for the benefit of all concerned is to recognise the divide and to come out with appropriate alternative statecraft.

All the terms as well as concepts such as nation state, independence, sovereignty, right to self-determination etc., are said to be meaningless or are redefined in some parts of the contemporary world, but they have become more meaningful than ever to Eezham Tamils to rehabilitate themselves, to reconcile with the Sinhala nation and to fit themselves into the global process.

Any political formula that doesn’t address the fundamental aspirations of Eezham Tamil nation and is enforced after militarily weakening it, will not resolve the conflict. Any such formula of any powers, even when routed through Tamil proxies, will be seen only as a continuum of the proxy war waged by them.

Open recognition of the nation of Eezham Tamils, its territorial integrity, security, international interaction and its absolute right to self-determination, including the right to secession, can only be the basis at this juncture to consider agreeing upon the unity of the island, if that is what people want.

As world progresses and as regional or global entities take shape, even the Sri Lankan state may not exist tomorrow in the way it exists today. In any such future developments the Eezham Tamils must be able to fit in without losing their identity.

The powers of the international community, especially India, recognising the nation of Eezham Tamils, spelling out its right to self-determination and immediately stepping in guaranteeing its security and territorial integrity are more important for producing positive political results than mooting proxy draft solutions.

A neither secession nor unitary model will take a long time to evolve details and to put them into genuine practice. Some of them are going to be trial and error.

Considering the given attitude of the Sri Lankan state, the magnitude of its militarization and the internationally enacted military subjugation of Tamils, it is futile to expect smooth political experiments to take place in the island unless political fundamentals long aspired by Tamils are conceded in no uncertain terms and there is international presence and guarantee in implementation.

If the international community could forge a singular companionship in abetting Sri Lankan state against Tamils, it should also be able to conceive and implement a unique political solution to the conflict, if it is not expecting another war in the island.

As far as Tamil political groups are concerned there is no guarantee at all in the given set up that just by sacrificing righteous demands they would get anything. The ball is in the court of the aggressors and their abetters to take bold decisions in offering acceptable and long-lasting solutions if they want peace for ‘development’.

Tamil groups should not engage in demoralising the future course of the liberation struggle by playing in the hands of those who are all out to erase the nationalism of Eezham Tamils. Instead, they should concentrate on ingenuously posing democratic challenges, locally and internationally, convincing the inevitability of conceding liberation to Tamils.

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