Following letter sent by the writer to Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance
by V. Anandasangaree
I had been patiently waiting without making any comments on a number of matters relating to you and to our people. I hasten to write this letter to you to advise you to save your prestige which directly affect our people also. I hope you will agree with me that we have many things in common. We belong to the same ethnic group, speak the same language, profess the Hindu religion and had been in the same political party. I was a founder member of the TULF but you joined in 1977. This is my 49th year in the TULF. But you deserted the TULF at the most crucial time in 2004 and contested the 2004 General Election on the symbol of the Federal party “The House”.
As far as I am aware the Federal party was virtually defunct after it merged with the All Ceylon Tamil Congress to form the TULF. But according to Mrs. Amirthalingham, the secretary general of the TULF Mr. Amirthalingham had the registration of the Federal Party in force, to prevent anyone misusing the name and symbol of the party, which was fully committed to Non-Violence. The renowned pro LTTE Journalist Mr. Dharmaratnam Sivaram, popularly known as Taraki had very clearly said, revival of the Federal Party was only on paper. You were trying your best to take the TULF as the political wing of the LTTE to which I disagreed and offered to nominate all our candidates from the LTTE with the view to bring them to the Democratic fold. Being dissatisfied with my suggestion, you quit the TULF without informing anyone and contested on the symbol “The House” of the Federal Party, registration of which was maneuvered by Mavai Senathirajah. Due to your desertion, we had no option other than to contest as independent candidates.
After handing over your nomination to the Returning Officer you made a public announcement to say that you have handed over the nomination on behalf of the LTTE. Subsequently your team visited Vanni and with the full participation of S.P. Thamizhchelvan, the head of LTTEs political section, you drafted the election manifesto acknowledging LTTE as the National Leaders and also Sole Representatives of the Tamil people. Those who were accusing me from various countries that I ran away with the symbol “Rising Sun” should note that it was not I but it was Sampanthan who buried the “Rising Sun” symbol.
You know very well as to how you won the 22 seats in 2004. Is it not true that Mr. Mavai Senathirajah lost his seat in the morning and got declared elected in the evening? One candidate polled more than 115,000 votes unheard of in the history of Sri Lankan elections. Candidates from rival political parties were not allowed to get involved in any kind of canvassing including paid advertisements. With all these weak points all the 22 of you comfortably sat and voted during the full term of six years. I need to tell you that your election was a fraudulent one, so with many others also. You have no moral right even to step into Parliament. You have already declared that you were contesting on behalf of the LTTE. As such all those elected from your list at that election are candidates from the LTTE. I like to point out that you have deliberately deprived the LTTE of returning to the democratic fold when all of them were ready to contest under one banner and one symbol “Rising Sun”. It was a herculean task for those members of various organizations who toiled hard and brought all parties under one banner. Your foolish decision not allowing the team to go ahead with their program, resulted in the war extending for a period of 5 years from 2004 to 2009. The total result is several thousands of valuable lives lost and several thousand disabled for which you are answerable.
Please tell me whether you have any moral right to be in Parliament today. In my opinion whatever assistance Financial or otherwise you get as reward, will one day be surcharged on the Ministers if a radical group comes to power. If you have any prestige to save, please don’t accept any gift from the cabinet which in the opinion of the public is unjustifiable, unwanted and foolish.
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