Tamil parties in the North and the East debat how to respond to the presidential elections

• The TNA under Sampanthan has had the good sense to advise our saying no to the idea of a common candidate
• Sampanthan’s is the Thamil Thesiya Kootamaippu. Wigneswaran’s is the Tamil Thesiya Kootani. Kootani and Kootamaippu mean the same thing, alliance

Word is out that a “party”, The Thamil Thesiya Kootani, has been formed to put forward a common Tamil candidate as President. It is an unmitigated disaster, a plague on the Tamil people. The Federal Party has wisely dissociated itself from the move. I say this because we Tamils have been reduced to nobodies in Sri Lanka through persistent discrimination and state violence amounting to genocide. But now suddenly the conversation is different as all three likely Presidential Candidates –  Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa – are bidding for our Tamil votes, even promising the 13th Amendment and more. 

It is however, a time for great caution as the 13th Amendment is already the law. When we are offered what is already ours, it exposes the lawless milieu in which our politics operates. Nonetheless it is an opportunity not to be frittered away. The prospect of a common Tamil candidate does exactly that, take away from us an opportunity to have a greater say in our affairs as Sinhalese candidates offer us freedoms that they refused earlier. They may promise us things and after getting elected President with our vote, they may change their minds as has happened many times. But that is a chance we need to take. If we do not grab the opportunity, we get nothing. If we do, with Sri Lanka under greater international scrutiny than ever before, maybe we will get some freedom. Between nothing and a maybe something, the choice should be clear. 

Be that as it may, to put forward in these circumstances a Tamil candidate, who anyway has no chance of being elected president, shows how stupid Tamil politics has become. 

The TNA under Sampanthan has had the good sense to advise our saying no to the idea of a common candidate. But why do the others lack this good sense? I suggest that it is because the ‘nobodies’ in Tamil politics see this as an opportunity to become ‘somebodies’ as Kumari Jayawardena put it in another context of social ‘nobodies’ becoming ‘somebodies’. 

As reported on Sunday (30.06.2024) in the Virakesari, the alliance consists of 1) the Tamil Makkal Kootani under C.V. Wigneswaran, 2) the TELO under Selvam Adaikalanathan, 3) the PLOTE under my relative Tharmalingam Siththarthan, 4) the EPRLF under Suresh Premachandran, 5)  Jananayaka Poraalikal (Crusaders for Democracy) under Sivanthan Navidra, aka Venthan,   6) the Thamil Thesiya Katchi under N. Srikantha, and 7) the Tamil Thesiya Pasumai Iyakam under Ponnudurai Ayngaranesan. 

It was decided by this grouping to include Prof. K.T. Ganeshalingam as Civil Society Representative; and to include  Yothilingam (who was associated with Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam), Nilaanthan a video reporter from Jaffna, Yatheenthira a reporter from Trinco, Vasantharasa, Dr. K. Vigneswaran from Trinco and former administrator Selvin from Valvettithurai.   

Fringe parties 

The move lacked transparency. For example, which civil society put forward Ganeshalingam? All this may be a precursor to forming a Party as the TNA had refused to register itself saying TNA candidates may contest under the Federal Party. The real objection by the FP was that these fringe parties had no standing among the Tamil people and wanted the TNA registered so that they who had no chance of being elected  if they contested independently could claim nomination as part of a registered TNA. These fringe parties include many murderers and the people are reluctant to vote for them if they stand without the TNA. 

Whether this reluctance is still true remains to be seen as Mr. R. Sampanthan and Mr. Mavai Senathirajah are physically down due to age, and the Federal Party is in disarray on account of the ongoing and bitter leadership dispute between M.A. Sumanthiran and S. Shritharan.

Poster Boy

One such ‘nobody’ in the new party worked closely with the LTTE and organised their large gatherings called Pongu Thamil (Rise-up, Tamils) and became a somebody, an LTTE Poster Boy. When a Poster Boy fails and your organisation has made much propaganda using him, then you cannot abandon him. You have to defend him or lose the value of all the propaganda you made using him. There are many such cases in the church when a Poster Boy evangelist is caught exploiting women or children. They are allowed to continue and be predators to save name of the church, especially the free churches. This nobody had his wife going on pilgrimage to India leaving a child servant with him “to tend to his needs.” Women’s groups, says Saroja Sivachandran of the Centre for Women and Development, pressed hard for the child-abuser’s punishment and he was temporarily jailed. The LTTE could not afford it. The had too much to lose if he was exposed. They used their influence and got him released. Many years since then, few know his past. He is so rehabilitated that he has even given a lecture at St. James’ Church Nallur inside the main worship area which is prohibited for non-worship activities including church meetings. So complete is his rehabilitation that he is a key member of the Thamil Thesiya Kootani. 

Sampanthan’s is the Thamil Thesiya Kootamaippu. Wigneswaran’s is the Tamil Thesiya Kootani. Kootani and Kootamaippu mean the same thing, alliance. In English both would be Tamil National Alliance, the TNA. Coincidence? 

I am not being paranoid or promoting a conspiracy theory. I know Wigneswaran and know that trying to take over the TNA name is not beyond him. 

The law requires that a party name to be eligible for registration must not even resemble the name of another party. The real TNA’s weakness is that it is not a registered party. 

I will stop with an explanation of what I saw at the Election Commission. Wigneswaran was trying to register his own party. But there are limits to how many times he could apply  without a break. That was his last attempt after which a break was required. When it became clear he did not meet requirements he tried to withdraw on  Mahinda Deshapiriya’s advice that  he had been elected MP and would be eligible the next time he applied. However, the compulsory break was a problem. I argued at the Commission and the Commission accepted that when there are only 3 shies at the GCE A.Level to be eligible for university admission and on your third shy you go for the exam, find that the exam paper was too tough for you and you will not pass, you cannot withdraw without that sitting being counted. That was Wigneswaran’s situation. He had exhausted his permitted number of applications and would need a break. 

I had left the Commission the next year. Wigneswaran applied and got his party (Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani) registered. Everything is possible with our Election Commission. Somebody fixed the minutes of the Committee in charge of party registration applications.  

As elections approach with a possibly registered TNA tricking people into thinking it is Mr. Sampanthan’s TNA, will the Election Commission uphold the reasons for which it exists? I doubt it after seeing so many serious election travesties I pointed out at Commission meetings being disappeared without record. In Sri Lanka, there is impunity for every bad thing you do.