From day one the two factions in the TNA
have been competing with each other to win the support of the dispersed Tamils
in the western countries. It is true that the dispersed Tamils who were
educated largely at the expense of the Sinhala tax payers have an economic
clout with respect to the voters in the Northern Province. The dispersed Tamils
help their relatives in the Northern Province economically, and the former have
been able to dictate their views to the latter using this economic power.
However, it is not a phenomenon that is going to last for long and if the two
factions of the TNA think of competing for the sympathy of the dispersed Tamils
then they are mistaken. The government should take steps to break the nexus
between the dispersed Tamils and their relatives in the Northern Province by
improving the economic conditions of the latter.
The dispersed Tamils in turn are being
used by the western powers led by England but their days are numbered. The
western powers are powerless when the majority of people support an elected
government, and Ven. Sobhitha Thero, Ranil, Chandrika, Sarath Fonseka or Anura
Kumara or even a popular cricketer are weak candidates to challenge President
Mahinda Rajapakse. Ven. Sobhitha Thero would end up as an also ran and Anura
Kumara knows that he is not capable of giving a fight to the President. The JVP
has already said that it is willing to support any candidate to defeat the
President. Sarath Fonseka has said recently that he will get the support of the
UN to topple this government. However, it is only rhetoric by a person who does
not understand politics. Such statements work against him, and only those
“nationalistic” political parties without a vision but with equal rhetoric
would be excited by such statements. Both Ranil and Chandrika would be losing
candidates at the presidential elections, and the only common candidate we have
at present is Mahinda Rajapakse.
The dispersed Tamils in general are not
from affluent families unlike the Vellalas who were the darlings of the English
in the past, and the affluent have been able to send the former to “war”
against the Sinhalas, with the support of the western powers. However, in the
meantime the affluent Vellalas are gradually withdrawing from active politics
confining themselves to indirect politics through NGOs and religious groups. It
is ironical that a problem of the affluent Vellalas has been passed on to not
so affluent, and the latter are fighting against the Sinhala on behalf of the
former. In this regard there are a few Sinhala NGO and religious group
activists who are mainly either non Buddhist or various types of Marxists who
are with the Tamil racists against the Sinhala people. These people are given
publicity by media though they do not have any base among the people. If not
for the media nobody other than those who finance them would have herd of them,
and would have died a natural death.
The media do not reflect the ground
situation and the western powers make use of media reports for their propaganda
against the government. However media politics through so called press
statements and press interviews do not carry weight during elections as has
been shown over and over again in the past decades, and the western powers will
not be able to find a candidate to defeat the President. Under such conditions
their dreams of various springs following the Arab Spring would not materialize,
and the TNA could go on passing resolutions at the Northern Province Provincial
Council meetings without affecting the government.
It is clear from the Gopi Appan Theiveegan
incident that the dispersed Tamils with the backing of the western countries
are trying to resurrect the LTTE if possible. The fact that the NGOs and other
religious activists were not able to deny such resurrection and claim that
Gopi, Appan and Theiveegan were only creations of the government gives ample testimony
to the government statement. If there was even the slightest possibility of
denying the incident the NGOs and the religious activists would have gone to
town with cooked up evidence claiming that Gopi and others were innocent people.
The western governments attempted to question the Gopi, Appan and Theiveegan
incident but had to give up as it was proved beyond any doubt that Theiveegan
had been one of the leaders of the resurrection of the LTTE movement.
Theiveegan after fleeing Vavunia, Sri Lanka had been living in the west and
some Asian countries and the million dollar question is as to who the
financiers of the resurrection movement.
It is in this context that the decision
by the government to ban sixteen organisations operating abroad becomes
important. Together with the ban hundreds of “wanted people” have been named by
the government. These “wanted people” have had connections with the LTTE or
involved in resurrecting terrorist activities and if the western countries are genuinely
against terrorism they should help the Sri Lankan government and extradite the
relevant personnel without allowing the terrorists to use their soil to
organise terrorist activities against the Sinhala people in Sri Lanka.
The Provincial Council of the Northern
Province has adopted a resolution to the effect that the ban of the sixteen
organisations should be lifted. This is under the influence of the dispersed
Tamils who act on instructions by the western countries and. It is clear that
in the final analysis it could be said that the NPC is acting in the interests
of the western countries and not in the interests of the Tamils in the Northern
Province. The Tamils in the Northern Province who celebrated the T-20 world cup
victory by the Sri Lankan cricket team would soon realise that the NPC is
representing the western countries and not them.
There are some people who talk of a
“kumanthranaya” (coup) by the western countries when they mention the so called
ethnic problem. It is not a “kumanthranaya” as such and coming out with
“kumanthrana” stories would not help us to understand political phenomena.
There is no “kumanthranaya” as such but it is a policy the west, especially
England, has been following from the very beginning to weaken, if not destroy
the Sinhala Buddhist culture or Sinhala Buddhism. This has been done through
education and also by preparing an elite Tamil group to be the leaders of the
country.
The Tamil leaders
kept away the Tamils from the independence struggle and it was left only to the
common Sinhala people, especially the Sinhala Buddhists to fight for
independence from the very beginning. The irony is that the Tamil Vellala
leaders consider the Sinhalas to be colonial powers much worse than the English
(The English were not considered to be colonials by the elite Sinhalas and the
elite Tamils who had the ‘best’ of the colonial education) and have driven the
common Tamils to fight against the Sinhala people. It was not for nothing that
the LTTE was involved in killing Bhikkus in Arantalawa and innocent people in
many other areas and also for the attacks on Dalada Maligawa and Sri Maha
Bodhi. The TNA leaders to date have not condemned these attacks and they could
make a start by denouncing vehemently the attacks, instead of asking the
government of Sri Lanka to lift the ban of the sixteen organisations. If the
TNA continues to adopt an anti Sinhala pro western policy and lead the
Provincial Council of the Northern Province along a path dictated by the
dispersed Tamils who are guided by the western countries then the writing is on
the wall for both factions of the TNA.
Nalin De Silva
02-05-2014