The TGTE should be true to the transnational spirit and need. It has to function independently and transnationally. Parallel secretariats in federal spirit, in feasible locations across the world, and members meeting in those different locations are important to its image and spirit. Another major issue the members of the TGTE may have to consider is guarding TGTE against one-person leadership or one-time democracy. The apex leadership being collective has some advantages in formative or transition situations. Contrary to the propaganda of oppressors and defeatism of pessimists, spirited people among ordinary folk and serious elite expect a lot from TGTE. But polity and leadership don’t come from the blues. They manifest only from the realities of the structure and capacity of a society.
TamilNet Editorial Board
Members of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam are meeting in New York this week to discuss ratifying a draft constitution and to discuss structuring a transnational government. Around 50 of the proposed 135-member-house are expected to personally attend and such a meeting is taking place in the USA for the second time within months.
Decades of war and continued genocide in the island have created a transnational situation for Eezham Tamils. The war against them in recent years was actively abetted by different powers.
A round-table conference recently convened in Switzerland by the Centre for Peacebuilding summarised the diplomatic scenario in the following words: "The SL government is masterful in its diplomacy and deals with a variety of governments, which are sometimes at odds e.g.: Iran & Israel, India & Pakistan, USA & China. This puts SL in a unique geopolitical position."
Besides, a covert competition between India and the USA ever since the independence of the island from British colonialism was always working behind the scene in influencing events in the island. Active entry of a third force, China, in recent years has aggravated the conditions.
Colombo government circles have openly admitted in recent times that they were successful in thwarting a last minute Western attempt to stop the war ending in decimation of the Tamil side. If that is true, Tamils have reason to believe that the West handled them either with calculated ‘betrayal’ or with carelessness.
Yet, what exact roles were played by each of the power, in the way the war was conducted, ended and post-war subjugation of Eezham Tamils was allowed, is still nebulous.
It was under such circumstances the diaspora of the internationally orphaned Eezham Tamils conceived the novel idea of transnational governance through democratically elected institutions.
The TGTE should be true to the transnational spirit and need. It has to function independently and transnationally. Parallel secretariats in federal spirit, in feasible locations across the world, and members meeting in those different locations are important to its image and spirit.
In the unfolding global scenario, confining TGTE to the backyard of any particular power or even allowing room for such an image, should not lead Eezham Tamils to political Mu’l’livaaykkaal or should not lead TGTE to the fate of the Polish Government in Exile which Churchill could not save even after winning World War II.
Another major issue the members of the TGTE may have to consider is guarding TGTE against one-person leadership or one-time democracy. The apex leadership being collective has some advantages in formative or transition situations such as that of the triumvirate of post-Stalin USSR. This also would make TGTE not an easy target for any hijack by the opponents of the national cause of Eezham Tamils.
There is a situation that politics of Eezham Tamils has to course through total oppression in the island. Rather than being blackmailed by this situation, the TGTE operating from a free atmosphere should be in a position to provide inspiration for regeneration of Eezham Tamils in the island.
Oppressors on one hand and defeatists and pessimists on the other hand abuse the gap in the freedom of political expression between the diaspora and the people in the island to discredit the spirit of liberation.
An immediate need of the TGTE is to think of infrastructure and functional arrangement for a politics of understanding with right shades of possible politics in the island. Such an arrangement clearly defined in outlook is also needed in dealing with development that has become the main vehicle of international polity today. TGTE need not compromise any of its ideals for them.
In putting the ideals and aspirations in unambiguous terms the constitution needs professional fine-tuning, especially in definitions and nuances related to technical terms of nationalism. The challenge and response the question of Eezham Tamils poses to contemporary polity of humanity should also reflect in the constitution.
Contrary to the propaganda of oppressors and defeatism of pessimists, spirited people among ordinary folk and serious elite expect a lot from the TGTE.
But polity and leadership don’t come from the blues. They manifest only from the realities of the structure and capacity of a society.
Detractors of Eezham Tamil liberation always make it a point to say that Eezham Tamils were never anti-imperialists, they were always collaborators to powers and they don’t deserve nationalism or liberation.
Diaspora can’t afford to sit quietly after handing over polity to the TGTE. Within such a short span of time the TGTE has many skeletons in its cupboard, related to way the elections were conducted, the way businesses were convened, and related to its continued inability in democratically sorting out electoral disputes in certain constituencies.
Many more political, social and cultural bodies may have to come up and work at the grassroot and among the youth, if capacity of a society is what that brings in right polity and deserving solutions.
TGTE Constitutional Committee’s draft constitution presented for discussion in New York (English)
TGTE Constitutional Committee’s draft constitution presented for discussion in New York (Tamil)
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