“Whilst the government as legal body have the major responsibility to uphold good governance, democracy and respect human rights to the utmost. It is imprudent for persons like Mano Ganeshan to maintain silence over the whole scale human rights violations committed by the LTTE. It is not the intention to go into minute details of human rights violations by the LTTE here.”________________________
by R Jayadevan
(April 23, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the climate of fear and threats facing Tamil politicians, Western Province People's Front (WPPF) leader, Mano Ganeshan, plays a difficult role to expose the human rights violations by the government and its agents. His critical comments have been widely published and he has been found to be one of the rare outspoken politicians to stand up and raise issues (though limited) in a public way.
As Tamil, Mano Ganeshan is playing a very difficult role compared to other politicians. His loud cry is widely spoken about in the Tamil community. By expressing his views and knowledge openly, he has put himself in a life threatening situation and there are concerns for the safety of his life due to his stand.
In the polarised politics in Sri Lanka, there is no one who could stand up and be counted for taking a middle ground to criticise all types of violence involving all the involved parties. In this regard, Mano Ganeshan too had positioned himself of being one sided and critical of the government for its fall backs on human rights. The voice that loudly and vociferously criticise the government fails to see the other side of the coin involving the other main antagonist-the LTTE.
Whilst the government as legal body have the major responsibility to uphold good governance, democracy and respect human rights to the utmost. It is imprudent for persons like Mano Ganeshan to maintain silence over the whole scale human rights violations committed by the LTTE. It is not the intention to go into minute details of human rights violations by the LTTE here. These have been widely reported and documented elsewhere.
Every Tamils belonging to the North and East of Sri Lanka (wherever they live) have chapters and verses of their experience of violence for being born as Tamils in Sri Lanka. Their experiences are millions of untold and unpublished stories. The violent conflict that has inflicted the country on a continuous basis since 1983 has produced volumes of pathetic and painful stories. The successive governments since independence must take the responsibility for the causes of the present predicament facing the country and we will be failing if we fail to ignore other contributory factors other than the government for causing the progressive decay.
As far as Tamils are concerned, the LTTE must be made accountable for its conduct towards its own people. The cry from the Tamil leadership about the conduct of the LTTE is not equal and proportionate compared to the outcry against the government. The Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians are very outright when they criticise the government. But they maintain pin drop silence when the very same people are abused by the LTTE. The very same parliamentarians whom call themselves the representatives of the Tamils in the Sri Lankan parliament maintain dumbfounded silence on issues relating to the LTTE. This is the same predicament facing Mano Ganeshan.
Their working routines are limited to criticising the government. They remain determinedly tight lipped to express the facts and views against the LTTE in public. Even when they visit the expatriate Tamils, they will play hide and seek games by avoiding the questioning and concerned Tamils to duck any questions being asked about their compromising and selfish stand.
Mano Ganeshan has rare quality of vociferously and powerfully raising the issues affecting the Tamils with the government unlike the TNA parliamentarians. It is necessary and of utmost importance that Mano Ganeshan takes a middle ground and deal with issues affecting the Tamils in an equal footing.
The stories that we hear about the situation for the people in Vanni and Jaffna are very serious and cannot be soft peddled. These are termed as sacrifices needed for the liberation of our land by some selfish vested interests. Mano Ganeshan must come out of his one sided approach and play the laudatory role as an outspoken critic of the LTTE violation too and pressurise the LTTE to end its gross human rights violations.
Twenty five years of suffering of our people on the visionless separate state agenda has created a monster (LTTE) that needs to be dealt with urgently by the Tamil people. One sided approach of only criticising the government is unhelpful to our people, who are sandwiched between the government forces and the LTTE terror.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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