Giving oxygen to Prabhakaran and fixing wings to Mahinda!
The Rajapaksa brothers firmly believed that there would be an election boycott in the North spearheaded by the Tamil Tiger Diaspora, which would lead to Mahinda’s victory. Therefore, they did not want to disturb that atmosphere. However, the Tamil Tiger Diaspora could not effect such a boycott in the North. It is not clear whether the Tamil Tiger Diaspora really planned such a boycott and ended in a failure or misled Mahinda by sending wrong signals through certain channels. In the end Maithri won the election.
by Upul Joseph Fernando
( March 18, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Northern Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, is reported to have come in for severe criticism by the Indian High Commission in Colombo, over the resolution passed in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) calling international assistance to probe genocide of Tamils. In addition to this critical stand taken by the Indian High Commission here, America and the West too have taken a similar stance over the NPC resolution with the view that the NPC was trying to stifle the understanding and cordial relations between the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Maithri Government.
The suspension of the UNHRC war crimes report against Sri Lanka by six months, and the international understanding to provide space for Colombo to put in place its own domestic mechanism with regard to alleged war crimes and human rights violations during the final phase of the war, which is being opposed by certain sections in the North and Tamil organizations in London, is reported to be backed by the Tamil Diaspora as an attempt to give oxygen and life to Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Similar aims
The aims of the Tamil Tiger Diaspora to give life to Prabhakaran and the extremist parties in the South, which are trying to bring back Mahinda Rajapaksa into politics, look the same. It is aimed at spreading racism in the North and the South. Following the result of the recent presidential election, both these segments are unconsciously confused about their future. The election result proved that the people in the North and South shunned racism.
The Tamil Tiger Diaspora carried out a campaign during that election calling upon the Northern voters to repeat the election boycott of 2005 presidential election, through which they helped Mahinda Rajapaksa to defeat Ranil Wickremesinghe. The LTTE was active during that period in the North. The Tamil Tiger Diaspora vehemently campaign in the run up to the presidential election this year, but the Tamil people ignored the call to boycott voting. This attempt to urge voters to boycott the poll was clear and visible if one perused the contents in the Tamilnet website.
The Tamil Tiger Diaspora wanted Mahinda to win, in a bid to strengthen the war crimes charges and get international assistance. Mahinda’s government did not attempt to halt or obstruct voting in the North at the presidential election because it thought that the Tamil Tiger Diaspora would repeat its act performed in 2005.
The Rajapaksa brothers firmly believed that there would be an election boycott in the North spearheaded by the Tamil Tiger Diaspora, which would lead to Mahinda’s victory. Therefore, they did not want to disturb that atmosphere. However, the Tamil Tiger Diaspora could not effect such a boycott in the North. It is not clear whether the Tamil Tiger Diaspora really planned such a boycott and ended in a failure or misled Mahinda by sending wrong signals through certain channels. In the end Maithri won the election.
Domestic inquiry
If the incumbent government implements a domestic inquiry into war crimes allegations and punishes those who are guilty, the target of the Tamil Tiger Diaspora is lost. Hence, the Tamil Tiger Diaspora is trying to cause dissension between the TNA and the Maithri Government to incite racism to bring Maithri’s government into disrepute. If that happens, Maithri’s government will have to clash with the TNA to gain popularity and confidence in the South.
Then there would be no space for the government to implement a process to investigate war crimes at domestic level. While the Tamil Tiger Diaspora is trying to give life to Prabhakaran, the extremist parties in the South are trying to bring back Mahinda with the fear that they would be lost in politics if Mahinda is not promoted. These extremist parties are aware that there is no room for racism under Maithri’s leadership in the SLFP. It is too early and difficult to predict how the TNA and Maithri’s government would defeat the attempts by the Tamil Tiger Diaspora to give life to Prabhakaran and the extremist Southern parties, who are trying to fix wings to Mahinda.
( Upul Joseph Fernando is a senior journalist and editor works for Ceylon Today, daily newspaper based in Colombo, where this piece was originally appeared.)
