TNA: Whom do they represent?

By V. Anandasangaree

(February 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I humbly appeal to the TNA Members of Parliament in general and to M/s. S.Senathirajah, R.M.Imam, Selvam Adaikalanathan, Vinotharalingam and Suresh Premachandran of the Federal Party, TELO and the EPRLF of the alliance, not to mislead the innocent Tamil speaking people who easily get swayed by sentiments. Their statements appearing in the media, thanking the Tamil and Muslim voters for taking a common stand at the Presidential Poll held on the 26th of January are unwarranted and will make things worse. The TNA had taken our innocent people for rides more than once. What they have now achieved is, driving the Sinhala Masses to one-side, as a result of the fear they created in the minds of the Sinhala People.

The fear is as I see is that the boastings of the TNA had created a certain amount of suspicion in the minds of the ordinary Sinhalese that Tamil Ellam will be created. They should have taken a decision and just left it at that for the people to decide, without crowing about their decision and alerting the Sinhala People.

Furthermore there was absolutely no need for the TNA team to visit Delhi, after taking a decision as to whom to give support. The worst and the most silly act on their part was to make a foolish statement on their return, without realizing the amount of embarrassment that statement would have caused to both the Indian and the Sri Lankan Governments. The truth seems to be, as claimed by Mr. Anbarasu Ex-Congress MP of India, that the team went to India on their own and had met only the Indian Foreign Secretary and no-body else.

They have very quickly and conveniently forgotten the recent history of their parties in the Tamil National Alliance and claim the credit for the unity shown by the Muslims and the Tamils at the Presidential Poll, when infact the credit should go to the people for the courage they had, to show their resentment to the Government for allowing the armed groups to operate in their areas. The people in these two provinces, the North and the East are so angry that their repeated protests against the atrocities of the armed groups were not responded to, by the Government. The people had no freedom to think or act on their own, which the Government is well aware. The promise of another candidate to disarm the armed groups, if elected to the office of President, came as an incentive for them to vote for that candidate and not due to the call of the TNA which has broken into several factions. This is the truth.

The TNA claimed only the LTTE as the sole representatives of the Tamil people and they represented the LTTE in Parliament. Now the LTTE is no more. Then whom do they all now represent? Will any one of them deny that some of them act as agents of the LTTE Leaders now trying to form a Government in Exile. Our people had lost many of their kith and kin and all their properties. Even when the war was on and the LTTE was losing the battle, some of the TNA Members said that the Tamils will continue to fight to the last man. The people want to know whether they have any moral right to represent the people of the North and the East.

How can they claim ownership of the TNA with one TELO M.P contesting the Presidency supported by two others from his party, and some others openly supporting the candidate, not of the choice of the TNA. Have not Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan issued a statement to Thinakural of 23rd January, 2010 denying that there was no truth in he or his secretary Prasanna Indirakumar signing the Notice expelling the two TELO Members M/S Sivagilingam and Sri kantha. If this is true are these two still in the TELO and the TELO has ignored the serious conduct of two of their members. What is the position of the only Tamil Congress MP who called for a boycott of the elections. Of course he is in the Tamil Congress but people want to know whether he is still in the TNA which had taken a side at the Presidential poll. This conduct of some of the TNA Members of Parliament amounts to gross betrayal of their court.

I humbly plead with the TNA to quit Parliament without fooling the Tamils and Muslims of the North and the East. As representatives of the LTTE they could have persuaded the LTTE to allow re-settlement of Muslims in the North and allowed the Muslims in the East to cultivate their lands. They did not. It is surprising as to how the SLMC tolerated this and came to an understanding with the TNA, which claimed the LTTE as the sole representatives of the Tamil people.

How will the IDPs trust the TNA which remained silent without raising a finger against all the atrocious activities of the LTTE such as abduction, torture and killings and tolerate a team of MPs who remained silent when the IDPs were compelled to leave behind all their belongings and moved from place to place and ultimately left with a few clothing or with only the clothes they were wearing.

How will they trust the TNA which continued to encourage the LTTE to fight the war knowing fully well that their defeat was imminent and trust these gentlemen who having sent abroad all their people and allowed the IDPs to suffer untold hardships including shooting down of the IDPs, who in desperation tried to escape from their grip.

Worst of all was that the TNA Members kept silent when almost the entire International Community and various Organization, spread all over the world, demanded that the LTTE should release all the innocent civilians kept by them as human shield. I even demanded publicly that they should quit their seats in Parliament if they can’t persuade the LTTE to release the people which they could have done with the threat of vacating their seats. The TNA has now found a new garb to cover all their sins and have a clean sailing to Parliament. They should take the responsibility for the innumerable deaths caused to the innocent people during the last lap of the war.

Many more things could be said about these leaders one of which is that they have no moral right to represent us in Parliament. All these 22 MPs were elected to Parliament fraudulently and have no right to talk about free and fair elections. The LTTE under threat and intimidation helped the TNA to win the 22 seats at the 2004 General Election and some of them so elected were from the LTTE cadre. Rival candidates were not allowed to do any election work. All four election monitoring teams condemned the behavior of the LTTE at that election. Two local teams the PAFFREL and CMEV demanded the election of the North and East annulled and a fresh poll held.

I do realize that there is an urgent need for the minorities to get unified under one banner, not to confront the Government but to elect some honest and devoted people who have the capacity to convince the Sinhalese Masses and to negotiate a settlement with the Government to win all the reasonable demands by adopting a give and take policy. Those who had been surviving up-to-date as Member of Parliament which offices they won by false promises and fraudulently to honourably quit politics and give way for a team that will work for a solution with devotion and care for all communities to live as equals, enjoying all rights and privileges.