Sri Lanka: Return of the Evil Forces – The TNA

(By Lenin Benedict – Toronto)

After the defeat of the LTTE, an all powerful voice of the Government of Sri Lanka openly declared that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who took the oath in safeguarding the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka under the constitution is doing exactly the opposite - propagating the sentiments of separatism in and outside Sri Lanka.

Therefore, they must be made to face the music for contradicting themselves; their parliament seats should be made void and should not be allowed into the parliament until they show that they are capable of walking on a straight line.

Two months later, the same TNA parliamentarians, who were the proxies of the LTTE, met the President of Sri Lanka. Followed by the meeting, they were allowed to contest Jaffna and Vavuniya local elections, a feat by which Sri Lanka has proved itself once again as one of the pioneers of democracy. Even during the height of Separatist militancy, whichever government in power at that time, the country has always had parliament elections, even in LTTE controlled De Facto areas and proven it supports and respects the political right of the Tamils, irrespective of their support (by force) to the LTTE.

GOSL has always allowed and respected the right to vote of the Tamils, whereas the LTTE has never allowed any other political parties other than who supported them in the elections claiming themselves as sole representatives of the Tamils. By respecting the verdict of Tamil people whatever the outcome, Sri Lanka has established itself as one of the straight pillars of world democracy.

The so-called world democracies never even opened their mouth when the LTTE didn’t allow any other political parties to contest the elections. The European Union countries on its part went to the extent of pressurizing the GOSL, to enter into a peaceful solution with the LTTE and it never supported a multi-party democracy in Tamil areas. Their only aim was to baptize the outfit as the sole-ruler of the Tamils, which was supported by both Anglicans and the Catholics respectively. The only country that opposed the LTTE as sole representatives of Tamils was India and supported a multi-party democracy in the North and East.

It is very important to mention what happened during the last days and the peak of the war against the separatist Terrorist organization. The entire team of the TNA, the officially and democratically (undemocratically) elected LTTE members waged a war against the GOSL and its prominent members were flown through the world to set a stage for the uprising of the LTTE controlled Tamil Diaspora. It made use of the emotions of the community to the maximum and tried to garner support to stop the war to save the leadership of the LTTE.

TNA with all the backing of the LTTE funds and its powerful media in Europe and North America launched huge propaganda that the Tamil civilians were massacred, hiding the facts that the LTTE used the innocent civilians as human shields and firing at the fleeing civilians including children, women and older people. The only aim of the TNA was to go for a cease-fire with the LTTE or to stop the war for the very simple reason to safeguard the leadership of the LTTE - not to save the innocent civilians who voted for them.

Even after the war, TNA was behind every effort to bring the GOSL to war crime tribunal and made all efforts within the Tamil Diaspora to defame the people and the GOSL in every possible way. It mentioned the Sri Lankan armed forces, which liberated the country from Terrorism as a Sinhalese army, and Sinhala nation has waged a war against Tamil nation. It is no secret that the idea of Provisional Government of Tamil Eelam was originated from the LTTE proxies, the TNA, who are the authors of Vadukottai resolution for an independent Tamil homeland.
The TNA tried to the maximum to internationalize the war and tried to bring the UN and European Union as a last resort to save their one and only leader, but to no avail.

Even after the fatal defeat of the LTTE and the end of the war, the TNA used its entire means and its parliament representation to misguide the International community and propagate the fact that the Tamil refugees were tortured and killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces. The Tamil Diasporas under their directive carried false news saying Tamil women were raped by SLA and pregnant women were forced to do abortions to reduce the population of Tamils. The maximum coverage was given to refugee camps and it was mentioned, as interment camps and a place where Tamils were tortured and killed.

The international community was ill-informed by the TNA and Tamil Diaspora continued to be misguided by the LTTE proxies to the maximum. Even during the war and after the war, huge funds were collected from Tamil Diaspora, with no accounts or trace of origin or where it reaches to be kept. Not a penny was sent for the rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced people.

However, the IDP’s were taken care by the Sri Lankan government and the GOSL took all initiatives to help the fleeing civilians to the maximum within it means.

Although Sri Lanka was not an economic power and a country with best infrastructure, it gained experience in handling the Muslim refugees from the North and the IDP crisis in the East as well as the Tsunami crisis. The SLA has done a more wonderful job in extending humanitarian assistance than any other force in the world, which took over the handling of three hundred thousand civilians and overcame the difficulties in a short span of time. This is the best that any government in South Asia could do at this point of time and Sri Lanka has done the job very well than anyone else. It should be also noted here that every Sri Lankan household in the south, has contributed to the best of their ability to their brothers in the north at this time and proven that they care for their countrymen regardless of the race or religion.

The above-mentioned events and incidents have been very cleverly hidden from their Tamil brothers in the Tamil Diasporas in a well-planned manner, so that the friendship and harmony between the two communities should not grow or be strengthened. The reason behind this was to keep the division alive, so that these can be used as tools for petty vote earning and to keep the Tamil nationalism alive - for Tamil extremism in future.

The TNA which represented the Tamil community has never requested the LTTE leadership allow the civilians to go free from the LTTE controlled areas or from war zone. Instead, they pressurized the GOSL to go for a cease-fire with the LTTE. They travelled to the capitals of almost all European countries while begging to intervene to stop the war against Terrorism.

If the TNA take roots in the North and East, it will sow the seeds of separatism once again in the Sri Lankan soil. In this context, bringing back TNA is equal to bringing back Terrorism into Tamil politics. The people and the GOSL may not face an armed confrontation with the TNA, but it will no doubt make a strong separatist political foundation to confrontation us again in disguise. The worst that could happen is, it will send a strong signal to Tamil Diasporas controlled by the LTTE, that the GOSL is ready for negotiations with the Diaspora which are already strong and powerful in many countries. It will regain the strength that it has lost with the death of the LTTE leadership and the anger for atrocities committed against the Tamil civilians during the war.

The visible physical military power of the LTTE was destroyed by more powerful military power of the country. When it comes to separatist politics of TNA, disguised under democratic politics, it might be hard to defeat and destroy. Instead of strengthening the hands of moderate Tamil political parties and politicians, the government of Sri Lanka has taken a wrong decision of strengthening the evil separatist forces which always promoted a separate homeland for the Tamils, since Vadukottai Declaration.

If this evil forces take the centre stage in Tamil politics, the moderate political parties will be ultimately loose their ground and it will lead to separatist politics and Tamil extremism in the end. Therefore in the name of unity and peace, I call upon each and every patriotic Sri Lankan living in and out of Sri Lanka, to rise against the unholy friendship of the TNA and GOSL, which will bring only destruction to the country and our countrymen.

Awake O’ Sri Lanka!

Arise against separatist forces to gain control of our motherland!

- Asian Tribune