‘We want an internationally backed Transitional Administration’
By Paul Newman
15 Jul 2013
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is a third generation Tamil politician from Sri Lanka. He hails from a family of well known lawyers. His father Kumar Ponnambalam, who championed the cause of Tamils in a racist milieu, was gunned down in Colombo in 2000 by unidentified assailants.
A former Member of Sri Lankan Parliament (2001- 2010) and leader of a political party, the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF), Gajen as he is fondly called, is an articulate, out spoken young politician. He is a qualified lawyer, educated in England.
Gajen is a marked man now. His call for an internationally backed Transitional Administration in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, and his fearless crusade for Tamil rights, often taking contrarian positions to that of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has earned him many enemies.
In May 2013, four unidentified masked men surveyed his house. The obvious message to him is, “back off, or else…”
But the 39-year-old Gajen, is not the one to heed to such threats. In an exclusive interview to The Weekend Leader, he told Paul Newman, “I work on the basis that I rather be killed than accept the genocide that is being committed on my people.”
Excerpts from the interview:
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By Paul Newman
15 Jul 2013
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is a third generation Tamil politician from Sri Lanka. He hails from a family of well known lawyers. His father Kumar Ponnambalam, who championed the cause of Tamils in a racist milieu, was gunned down in Colombo in 2000 by unidentified assailants.A former Member of Sri Lankan Parliament (2001- 2010) and leader of a political party, the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF), Gajen as he is fondly called, is an articulate, out spoken young politician. He is a qualified lawyer, educated in England.
Gajen's demand for an internationally backed Transitional Administration in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka has earned him many enemies
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Gajen is a marked man now. His call for an internationally backed Transitional Administration in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, and his fearless crusade for Tamil rights, often taking contrarian positions to that of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has earned him many enemies.In May 2013, four unidentified masked men surveyed his house. The obvious message to him is, “back off, or else…”
But the 39-year-old Gajen, is not the one to heed to such threats. In an exclusive interview to The Weekend Leader, he told Paul Newman, “I work on the basis that I rather be killed than accept the genocide that is being committed on my people.”
Excerpts from the interview:
How do you respond to accusations that you are continuing with dynastic politics without a real grasp of ground level Tamil politics?
I don’t see coming from a “dynasty” of Tamil politicians as an issue, as long as I have the capacity to serve my people in my own right. One’s own personal achievements and failures are what I believe one must be judged by, and not by the family one belongs to.
But quite honestly, I find the suggestion that I have not grasped ground level Tamil politics a little surprising. I say this because I happen to be the only Tamil politician who was born and bred in an elite Colombo background, but who chose to eschew that same Colombo elite thinking and move to Jaffna and settle down there.
In fact, most Tamil elites accuse my politics of compromising their interests and only addressing the interests of the ground level Tamil society.
Do you believe what happened during Eelam War IV was genocide? Is there any hope of international investigations?
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