Whereas the Tamils democratically gave the mandate for the independence of their own country Tamil Eelam by endorsing the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976, in the 1977 general elections, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) calls upon the international community, governments, leaders and the UN to conduct a UN monitored referendum in the North-East region of Sri Lanka and among the displaced Tamils living in other countries, to determine if they wish independence or to be part of a united Sri Lanka, says a crucial part of the GTF resolution passed unanimously in London last week. The GTF resolution, not voluntarily surrendering the cause of Eezham Tamils but leaving it to the democratic choice of the concerned people, should inspire polity in the name of Tamil nationalism in the island and in the diaspora, Tamil circles commented.
The basic premises of Eezham Tamil polity have to be entirely based on democratic wish of the people concerned and there is no justification for power-manoeuvred formulas that failed or tangential models engineered by esoteric elite being basics of Tamil polity, Tamil circles said. The so-called ‘internal self-determination’ that has no international legal standing is not a mandated wish to become the basis of any Eezham Tamil polity, they further said.
Meanwhile, briefing Tamil society representatives in Trincomalee Tuesday, Mr. R. Sampathan, leader of Ilankai Tamil Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) said that they had started working on a model of solution based on ‘internal self-determination,’ ever since some ‘foreign diplomats’ had expressed dissatisfaction on the LTTE leader Mr. V. Pirapaharan’s silence on pursuing solutions in that line, said headlines news in Thinakkural Thursday.
At the same time, Mr. Sampanthan was harping on the Oslo Communique to base his party’s expected manifesto, claiming that the failed communique was something that was agreed for the first time between the GOSL and the LTTE for ‘internal self-determination’ of Tamils and for a ‘federal solution.’ He also dismissed Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, Thimphu principles, Indo-Lanka agreement and other such initiatives before Oslo Communiqué as one-sided and not accepted by both the parties.
Speaking to Canadian Tamil Radio (CTR), Thursday, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the newly formed Tamil National Peoples Front, said that the TNA leaders were very well aware that Pirapaharan’s LTTE had no hopes on the Oslo Communique.
Gajendrakumar’s interview to Canadian Tamil Raido
Immediately after May last year, TNA leaders Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premachandran came out saying that they had been already working on a proposal to ‘discuss’ with India but they never revealed the contents of the proposal to the other members for a long time. Only much later the others came to know that basic Tamil interests had been compromised in the proposal, Mr. Ponnambalam said. Those TNA leaders were of the opinion that Eezham Tamil politics should not go beyond what India envisages, he further said.
Politicians say “Thaayakam, Theasiyam, Chuyanir’nayam” (nation, homeland and self-determination) as a superficial rhetoric, but the inside contents of their agenda go contrary to what they say. Tamils can negotiate anything with anybody, but how can they compromise fundamentals of their political organization, asked Mr. Ponnambalam.
Politicians are there only to spearhead the aspirations of the people they represent and to fight for the acceptance of those aspirations by others. If politicians are there only to carry out what is possible by others, then they are not politicians of their people but puppets of others, Mr. Ponnambalam further said.
The TNA proposal should set the platform for negotiations between the two nation states without forfeiting sovereignty, is the opinion of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.
Many Tamil circles are dismayed at the dissension in the TNA. They feel that the excuses of Sampanthan and followers citing current situation in the island for their dilution of political premises is not justifiable.
Tamil circles point to the diplomatic way and the democratic spirit with which the GTF has handled the issue, leaving the matter to the concerned people by citing an earlier democratic mandate and by urging the international community to conduct a fresh referendum.
Even now it is not too late for the TNA to uphold its historic responsibility and prove solidarity in the national question, youth circles in Eezham said.
Some serious Western diplomats of alternative thinking, who recently met some Tamil representatives, shared a thought that TNA’s political premises surrendering Tamil sovereignty will once and for all seal all possibilities of any future international intervention on behalf of Eezham Tamils.
The orchestrated efforts of Colombo, New Delhi and some others too are to achieve this neutralisation of the Tamil question. The three elections – presidential, parliamentary and the provincial are carefully planned to engineer political surrender of Tamils, said a Tamil political insider in the island.
The paramilitary chiefs collaborating with Rajapaksa have become a spent force with the presidential elections. The TNA will become a spent force with the parliamentary elections. Thereafter, the Colombo-New Delhi coterie plans to prop up ‘something else’ cooking now for the provincial elections, ultimately to silence Tamils of their national aspiration, the political insider further said.
The free diaspora of Eezham Tamils, despite all discouragement, performs a crucial role in checking the vicious experiment in the island either in the name of neo-liberal economy of the West or in the name of the New Order of Asian Giants, commented a left politician in Colombo.
Meanwhile, a revised version of the Advisory Committee Report on the principles behind the formation of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is awaited on Monday next week, according to TGTE website.
Concerted voice not compromising the fundamentals of the cause that Tamils think righteous, is the key to success, said a second-generation political activist in the diaspora.
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