How the TNA & the LTTE shamelessly render their "piraattanai" to Indian Politicians!

"Ponnambalam, Chelvanayagam, Amirthalingam, Sampanthan, and Praphakaran,polarized Sri Lankan society and ushered in a racist-separatist political program where the end justified the means to attain the end. These "means" have been extremely violent and barbaric."

by Sebastian Rasalingam writes from Toronto

(December 26, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mr. Thondaman Sr. was the leader of the Indian Tamils who were brought here virtually as slaves of the British. Their job was to work in the hill-country lands expropriated from the Kandyan peasants who were driven out into the forests of the Uva to slowly perish. Mr. Thondaman agitated tirelessly and relentlessly for the rights of his people. However, when ever he was in India he spoke as a Ceylonese (i.e., as a Sri Lankan). Thondaman knew that the lot of the estate worker in Ceylon was far better than the lot of an Indian returnee back home at all times, then or now. Mr. Thondaman's allegiance was to Sri Lanka. This great Patriot and leader of the Tamils successfully guided his community away from the violent Pol-Potist politics planned by the Marxists who were the first purveyors of violence. The second purveyors of violence were the racist Tamils led by Chelvanayagam and others. Thondaman refused to support the Vaddukkodei resolution of 1976 which called upon the formation of a separate Eelam land for the Tamils, in their so-called "Traditional Homelands" which pointedly excluded the "low-caste" workers toiling in the hills.

Thondaman Sr., the leader of the Indian Tamils, never supplicate himself in front of the Indian leaders, or the leaders of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu kadchchi (ITAK). There were two reasons for this. Thondaman Sr. always insisted that the future of his Tamils is firmly grounded in his country - Ceylon. He also knew that the Indian leaders as well as the ITAK leaders expected him to supplicate before them - after all, in their eyes, he was a lower caste individual whose place was to obey and follow. Thus Thondaman Sr. was making a dual statement of pride and defiance in his politics. Having lived in Hatton, and having an intimate knowledge of the estate Tamils, I can say very clearly that Thondaman Sr. was the greatest leader of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

Ponnambalam, Chelvanayagam, Amirthalingam, Sampanthan, and Praphakaran,
polarized Sri Lankan society and ushered in a racist-separatist political program where
the end justified the means to attain the end. These "means" have been extremely violent and barbaric. Thondaman, and many other Tamil leaders (who had to face the LTTE bullet) accepted multi-ethnic co-existence and rejected the model of a racist-separatist ideology spear-headed by the upper-class Tamils who thirsted for state power (Arasu). Today, more and more Tamils have rejected the LTTE, "race-based self-determination", "Tamil-Nation", and all the associated separatist jingoism. Tamils, like every one else, wants prosperity, safety and peace, and NOT race.

Ruling-Class Tamils and Servant-class Tamils

The TNA represent the Thimpu Tamils. They are Tamils who have the capacity and the means to live anywhere in the world. They have no strong attachment to Sri Lanka. The Gajendra Ponnambalam, Wakeley Pauls, Sri Skandha-Rajas, the Markham millioners
- they and their forefathers lived all over the world, even in the early days of British rule in Sri Lanka. They worked in the Colonial civil service, and maintained palatial homes in Manipay and other "first-class" high-caste villages. The depression of the 1930s forced them to come back to Ceylon and demand jobs from the British government. They argued that they were "more qualified" than some of the local recruits. The first cry of "discrimination" was hurled at the British government when they did not get the preferential treatment they expected because they were "high=born" and with "foreign-experience". It should be remembered that this was still a time when the lower-caste Tamils could not even enter a school, ride a bus, or would get killed simply for wearing shoes to a church ceremony (see Morning Star, May 26th 1933). This was still that age when Ramanathan and others were trying to get the caste system included as law of the land. At that time there were two groups of Tamils - the ruler-Tamils and the servant-Tamils.

It was these ruling-caste Tamils who realized that the logic of Universal Suffrage would mean that their ruling position would not remain an inherent right. All kinds of political tricks, including Ponnambalam's 50-50 proposal for the race-based division of the legislature were brought forward. This was evidently an effort to "stand democracy on its head", and rejected by the British. Then came the idea of outright creation of a separate state, "Eelam", in the "Traditional Homelands of the Tamils". This was really a formula for keeping the servant-class of Tamils firmly locked up in the North and the East, while the rulers could live anywhere in Sri Lanka or even in Malaya or South India, and yet continue to run the show. The only way to wrest power from a majority is to fight for it. The ruling castes decided that the servant Tamils will be their pawns in the battle.

How Prabhakaran used India to shake of the ruling-class Tamils?

One of the pawns, Prabhakaran, realized that he could shake off the Colombo controls and become crowned. He had no need for the Colombo leaders as he could get his funding from India. The Amirthalingams and other friends of Chelva-Ponna were assassinated like dogs, and the sons and grandsons of the Ponnambalams were made to eat humble pie, by having to accept the dicta of Prabhakaran and becoming his mouth-pieces. The dragons teeth planted by Chelva had begun to grow. For over thirty long years, the children of the poor Tamils have been cast into the battle front, armed with weapons bought from the funds provided by these foreign-based Thimpu Tamils, Indian interests, and possibly other extra-national interests. While the ordinary Tamil dreams of an honest job, security and dignity in life. Education for his children, the Thimpu Tamil dreams of state power, as he has everything else.

Prabhakaran, the renegade pawn of the Thimpu Tamils used India to hijack the separatist program and crown himself king. He has mesmerized the racist fringe of the expatriate Tamils by his military campaigns against a hesitant Sri Lankan government which has changed leaders every five years. Meanwhile Prabhakaran carries on with no leadership change, like Joseph Stalin or Kim Il Sung.

Unfortunately, the twilight of the Tigers has come. If the Sri Lankans have the freedom to change their leader, it is inevitable that one day a leader who would decide to take a firm hand would arise. So it is that the Eastern province with a majority of Muslims and Sinhalese, and a minority of Tamils, was the first to fall. Then the regions west of the A9 road, and now the heartlands of the Vanni itself are threatened. ironically, the people of the Vanni are the tamilzed descendents of the Sinhalese who were ejected from Chandrabhanu's Java-pattinam by Sangkili. They became "depressed-class" Tamils. It is their children who are being used as cannon fodder by Parabakaran and his expatriate backers. Ironically, Sri Lankan state terror is killing ancient Sinhalese!

The "Piraattanai" of the LTTE on its knees in front of Indian Over-Lords.

Now that the battle has turned sour, Sampanthan, Shivalingam, and Nadesan the new Ilya Perumal have all presented their "piraattanai" to the Indian leaders. These are the men who want to create a sovereign state - Eelam. And even before they begin, they have become subservient to India. Let us look at the litany of "issues" that Mr. Shivalingam has taken before Mr. Advani (see http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2008/12/on-tragic-situation-of-tamils-in-sri.html ).

1. Obviously, Mr. Shivalingam cannot think except in terms of racial divisions. He fails to note that the 1948 government had more Tamil representation than needed by demographic percentages. But there were ALL Vellalar Tamils.

2. The Senanayake government proposed that any Indian Tamil who had seven years residence in the country would be entitled to citizenship. This was far in advance of similar legislation in other parts of the world, in regard to immigrant workers. Even today the harsh situation in Switzerland or in the USA should be considered for comparison. It was India which refused to take back the Indians who were left high and dry by the British. It was the high caste Tamil leaders who opposed the enfranchisement of the Indian Tamils as required by the Donoughmore commission. They, in collusion with the high-caste Sinhalese got the Governor to issue an Order-in-Council suspending the suffrage of the hill-country Tamils. The trade union activities of the Marxists frightened the Sinhala and Tamil leaders to introduce the citizenship act and regulate the franchise. D. S. Senanayake would surely have been advised by Jennings on the matter, and the British also were frightened by the specter of Marxism.

Chelevanaygam merely attempted to use the citizenship issue for his own political gains. He took up the citizenship issue before the courts, and the Privy council. Both sets of judges unanimously held that no injustice had been done to the estate Tamils by this legislation. The Privy council went ahead to even commend the legislation (drawn up by Vyithyialingam). This was an issue before the voters in the 1952 elections in Jaffna, and the electorate rejected this claim that Shivalingam is bringing forward (for more details, see http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items08/280208-3.html). In any case, citizenship is a fully resolved issue since the late 1970s.

3. It is claimed that one reason for forming the ITAK was "against this cruel move by the UNP, targeting the Tamil plantation workers and also to express our affinity and empathy ...". Surely, how can the idea of "Traditional Tamil Homelands in the North and East" do anything except EXCLUDE the Indian Tamils? The ITAK members held the estate Tamils in disdain as low-caste Tamils and never cared to integrate with them. Political lies are nothing but political lies. In fact, of the 24 points brought up in the memorandum submitted by Shivalingam to Mr. Advani, the Indian Tamils are mentioned only in regard to the 1948 citizenship events which have been ably dealt with by Mr. Thondaman, with NO HELP from the ITAK Tamils, and negative contirbutions by the Marxists.

4. Bandaranaike may have enacted the Sinhala only act, but clever lawyers like Chelvanayagam knew very well that this was only an election ploy. They knew that once the political situation cooled down, Bandaranaike would make the necessary concessions. If you read the Hansard reports for the 1950s years, it is easy to see that Bandaranaike was NOT a racist, but Chelva was a right regal racist. Chelva and others did not really want any accommodation for Tamil. From the early 1940s they have kindled the fire of separatism. The "Sinhala Only" bill was a God-sent for them and they used it to destroy all the bridges of understanding that existed between the two communities. Even little things like the "SRI" number plate for cars, initiated by the minster Marikkar, was enough to launch a tar-brush campaign. The Singhalese knew that while the ITAK talked of federalism in English, the Tamil discourse was for regaining the "Arasu" of the old Jaffna kingdom. While nothing is known of who lived in Sri Lanka prior to, say, the Asokan Empire in India, the Thimpu historians have claimed that Tamils were the "aboriginal people" of Sri Lanka. If such claims create ethnic tensions, then they become dangerous claims, on par with Ponnambalam's 1939 attack on the Mahavamsa (see Hindu Organ, July 1 report) which initiated the first racial riot.

5-6 Mr. Shivalingam claims that "successive governments have systematically planted - and continue to plant - Sinhala colonies in Tamil areas. These state-sponsored colonization schemes have altered the demographic structure of the North-East, to the detriment of the Tamils". Mr. Shivalingam should appreciate that the biggest demographic shift began in 1905, when the Jaffna-Colombo railway was opened. Every Tamil who made it good came south and established themselves in Colombo and its suburbs, and then along the railway to the southern cities. The population in the North and East at that time was miniscule compared to the south. It was largely the taxes of the south which paid for the colonization schemes. Just as the largely Hispanic western USA (California etc.) was colonized by people migrating from the East, it was natural that, just as rich Tamils migrated to the south, poor southerners migrated to the new development schemes. D. S. Senanayake, and his son Dudley Senanayake recognized the possibility of this type of false accusation by Tamil racists, and they appointed colonization boards which had strong Tamil representation. Thus the Galoya board was headed by Mr. Kanagasundaram, together with a large number of other Tamil officers. Those men had larger ideals and objectives than the narrow, mean mentality of the racist Thimpu Tamils of the ITAK.

7. Mr. Shivalingam claims that most of the Hindu temples in the affected areas have been neglected. No such neglect exists in the Indian-Tamil estate sector. Having forced a war situation, the TULF, the LTTE and the TNA must take full blame for this. The TNA members can easily go to the flourishing Hindu temples in the "Sinhala" areas. But the Tamils held hostage by the LTTE cannot do so.

8. The TNA mouthpiece claims that the Tamils had "launched non-violent Satyagraha struggles and civil disobedience campaigns under the sagely leadership of Chelvanayagam (Chelva)". What would happen in the USA if the Hispanics were to launch "non-violent" cmapaignes to wrest the "historic homelands of California, Texas etc" from the Anglos? The TNA should remember that wooden pistols were distributed at these "non-violent" struggles where the objective was to "drive the Sinhala invader from the Tamil homelands". Given such a battle cry, is it any wonder that our Tamil people were put into harm's way by the idiotic confrontational compaigns launched by "Chelva"? Why did this "sagely" Chelva encourage Sivakumaran the first suicide militant bank robber and others of his ilk? How could the Indian Tamil in the tea estates sympathize with this concept of "driving the Sinhala invader from the Homelands"?

9. Shivalingam says that the 1970 constitution conveniently got rid of two entrenched provisions of the Soulbury Constitution which had provided, though meekly, for protecting the rights of racial and religious minorities. The best protection for minorities is the good will between the communities. The ITAK and its off-springs took every step possible to sour the good relations that existed between the two communities. In the end, any Tamil who tried to build bridges between the two communities were assassinated by the LTTe. Even Tamils who play cricket with the Sinhalese are assailed by the LTTE goons.

10. Shivalingam says that "Tamils have been the victims of large-scale anti-Tamil violence and organized pogroms instigated and indulged in by Sinhala racists, thugs and hoodlums with the connivance of security forces". This is unfortunately the case, ushered in by the antics of the ITAK. The first racial riot occurred in 1939, and was instigated by G. G. Ponnambalam who racially attacked the Sinhalese, and their chronicle (Mahavamsa) at a meeting in Navalapitiya. The riots of the 1950s were related to the sathyagrahas of the ITAK. From then on, racism spread to the security forces, the general public and the politicians. Unfortunately, a foolish minority provoked a majority and even claimed in public meetings that "it was ready for state terror". The upper class Tamils always assumed that they would not get hit. But this happened in 1983. The upper class Tamils had to stay in refugee camps together with lower caste Tamils. They had never expected such indignities. So they simply moved to Canada, Australia and other congenial places that they are more at home in. The poor Tamils can continue to face the battle.

11. Here Shivalingam presents the usual distortion that the "standardization program" was racially directed to suppress the Tamils. There may well have been many chauvinist politicians who may have imagined that this would help the Singhalese preferentially. But Baduideen Mohammed got the idea from the "affirmative education for Blacks" concepts that were coming into being in the USA. The university entrance among the Tamils was mostly the portal of previlaged Vellalar children. Even here, the standardization actually helped the Tamils from Hill-country areas like Hatton and Nuwara-Eliya, or the Eastern areas like Ampare or Batticaloa. The recent article by Thomas JohnPulle (http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2008/12/tamil-people-have-rejected-tamil-self.html ) has done an excellent job of presenting the true facts of this case, which is the OPPOSITE of what is claimed by the ITAK, TULF and the TNA.

12. Shivalingam refers to the Vaddukoddai Resolution and fails to mention that the Hill-country Tamils led by Mr. Thondaman refused to join in the sessionist dream of Chelva. He fails to say that Chelva talked of federalism in English, but hawked the concept of Eelam in the Tamil-language publications. The Tamil speaking Muslims were also NOT party to this affirmation of Tamil racism. They conveniently neglected to tell us what would happen to the Tamils resident in the South, and in the Hills, if they were to achieve this separatist Eelam in the North and the East. Shivalingam does not mention that Chelva had already made contact with individuals like Chetti, Sivarajah, Ramesh, Inbam, Kannady, Saravanan (alias Patkunarajah), Kalapathy, Kirupaharan, and Pirapaharan who had led a bomb attack on 17 September 1972 at the carnival held at Duraiappah Stadium, Jaffna. The ITAK in January 1973, launched the Tamil Elaingyar Peravai. The democratic path was rejected and the Tamils were pushed into the path of violence by these myopic individuals led by Chelva the blind one. They did not listen to Thondaman or even their own Thiruchelvam.


13-14 The TULF pushed the Tamil people to an extreme level of rhetoric and insanity. The people failed to understand the meaning of their foolish vote of 1977. The Germans votes Hitler and Mussolini under similar circumstances. The 1977 vote was also the time when J. R. Jayawardena (JRJ), a man who respected no law except the might of the "robber barons", distorted the very working of Justice in the country. The Tamils and the Sinhalese, and all other groups who stood for social justice suffered under JRJ. But the iniquities and injustices committed by the Tamil leadership against the Tamils clearly come out in the Sansoni commission report.

15 Black July was a product created by the JRJ regime and the LTTE. The TULF had claimed that it was "ready for state terror". The LTTE did not care then, and do not care today, about the Tamils living in the south. It expected that some poor Tamils would be killed and manhandled. But the Cinnamon gardens Tamils did not expect that THEY would be hurt. The great revelation of 1983 was that violence, once unleashed, can consume even the architects of that violence.

16. Shivalingam now recounts the harvest of the violent path taken by the Tamil leadership, without asking who unleashed this tragedy. He does not look at India's role in arming and financing the terrorists and giving them an independence that went BEYOND the Lankan Tamils. Shivalingam does not discuss how Duraiappah, Amirthalingam, Cangaratnam and other Tamil leaders were gunned down. Shivalingam does not explain how every dissenting was was condemned as a traitor, following the example of Chelva in 1948 condemning Ponnambalam. But, unlike in 1948, now there were guns to execute the "traitors". If Ponna and Chelva had lived a few more years, they too would have been executed as traitors.

17-21. Mr. Shivalingam quotes the Human rights organizations against the SL government. It is very proper and important to bring the SL-government to book. But the TNA knows what the LTTE does, and how hard it tried to re-create 1983 by bombing the Temple of the Tooth etc.. The TNA should also ask India about the behavior of the Indian Peace Keeping force when it was in Sri Lanka. The TNA knows that the LTTE is an organization banned in some 30 countries, precisely because of its terrorist activities and human rights abuses. One of my own grandsons was captured and used by the LTTE as a child soldier and consumed as cannon fodder. Orphanages have been converted to hatcheries where black-suicide cadres are formed. The TNA and the LTTE leaders will have to answer for the lives of innocent young people that they have snuffed out. Why does India allow these TNA terrorists to come and go freely, instead of clapping them in jail?

22. Mr. Shivalingam finds it "intriguing" that Indian defense Advisors have visited Vanni ... along with the Sri Lankan Military leaders". Does the TNA not find it "intriguing" that India does not allow its politicians in Tamil Nadu to even talk of self determination? The whole "raison d'etre" of the TNA becomes a treacherous illegality in India.

23. Who gave the TNA the right to speak "on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils"? Does Shivalingam include the Hill-country Tamils, or the Tamils living in the south in his mandate? Did Mr. Shivalingam or Mr. Sampanthan win a democratically conducted election? The Indian government knows very well that Mr. Shivalingam and his friends represent a rapidly decreasing sector of Tamils in Sri Lanka itself. His support comes from rich racist Thimpu Tamils of the diaspora and a few "jokers" in Tamil Nadu.

24.In this paragraph Mr. Shivalingam "submits" to the Indian leader. The "piraattanai" is presented to the Indian Over-lord. In effect, the TNA kneels down and accepts the hegemony of India over Sri Lankan matters. It was India which helped Prabhakaran to hijack the Tamil Nationalist movement. India manipulated Sri Lanka's problems for its own short-term objectives. It was the Indian peace Keeping force which terrorized the poor Tamils of Sri Lanka, while the Colombo Tamils wined and dined with Dixit. In kneeling in front of India now, Shivalingam has shown himself to be a true traitor to the Sri Lankan Tamils.

My own Piraattanai to the Gods during this holy season.

May I wish you, Mr. Shivalingam and other TNA members, and leaders of the LTTE, a speedy confrontation in front of a judicial tribunal, where you would have the chance to establish your innocence or guilt in regard to the crimes against humanity, and against Tamils in particular, that I believe you are guilty of. May I also ask the Sri Lankan government to conduct its military efforts relentlessly, but STOP all air attacks as such attacks kill innocent civilains who are helpless vicitms of the LTTE.- Sri Lanka Guardian