NPC Elections: What Is To Be Done

By Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran -September 17, 2013

PM - TGTE - Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran

There were many different views, for and against, in terms of the NPC elections and whether Tamils should participate in it or not. We have passed that stage, and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) entered the fray having transcended all the debates about how the Tamil nation should handle the Northern Provincial elections in the event of these being held. As a political formation elected through due democratic processes to represent thediaspora Tamils, and as body committed to struggle for the creation of a free and sovereign State of Tamil Eelam through political and diplomatic means, we feel it is the responsibility of the TGTE to clarify its own position with regards to the Northern Provincial Council elections.

The TGTE is of the firm conviction that the 13th Amendment as well as the idea of Provincial Councils have expired long ago. The TNA leader, Mr R Sambanthan himself, once said in a BBC interview after May 2009 that the 13th Amendment was a “dead corpse for many years now”. Rather than recognize this fact and offer a decent burial or cremation to this corpse, some international actors with their vested interests have embarked on resurrecting the 13th Amendment. Meanwhile, the Sinhala regime, well aware that such resurrection efforts have no meaning whatsoever, is still going through the motions of pretending that it is threatened by the 13th Amendment, just in order to destabilize the freedom struggle of the Tamil people.

We believe that the TNA has launched into the NPC elections with the clear knowledge that the Provincial Councils are a meaningless void, yet they are in it only to win over the support of the International Community. It is only appropriate at this juncture that we place on record our own position with regard to engaging the international community. The term International Community invariably refers to governments in power. It is often said that States do not wear clothes and as such they are never embarrassed to behave in any manner they want in order to ensure their own interests are served. Therefore, it is our comradely appeal to the TNA that they should always work in order to align our political interests with that of the international players, rather than compromise our interests just for the sake of winning their support.    Read More