TNA and EPDP : Formerly At loggerheads Now allies

By Manekshaw-02:00 AM MAR 31 2018

A new trend in the Northern political scene has emerged with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) joining hands in forming the Local Government bodies in the Province.
Not only in the North and even in the Eastern Province the EPDP has extended its support to the TNA.

The TNA was in its early stages known as even the political arm of the LTTE. The TNA and the EPDP remained at loggerheads until both sides joined hands in forming the Local Government bodies in the North and the East in recent days.
Not only the EPDP, even the members elected to the Local Government bodies from the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party have extended their support to the TNA in Karainagar, Point Pedro and in Velvettiturai.

The TNA remained shaky last year with the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) which is one of the constituent parties walking out of the Alliance.
Formation of the Tamil People’s Council (TPC) with the blessings of Northern Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran in the North was also considered to create a setback in the popularity of the TNA.

However, despite facing the challenges, the TNA’s performance at the LG polls in North is significant and being a premier party, TNA with an accommodative outlook sought even the support of not only the EPDP but even the support of the UNP and the SLFP towards taking control of several LG bodies including in Velvettiturai, Point Pedro and Karainagar.

The TNA’s approach towards seeking the support of the EPDP, UNP and the SLFP to take control of the LG bodies in the North has highlighted its flexibility in accommodating the political parties opposed to it, in the best interest of strengthening Local Governance.

EPDP Leader and Jaffna District Parliamentarian Douglas Devananda welcoming the new approach of the TNA said that the LG bodies should be development oriented and, therefore, to expedite the post-war development activities and to strengthen democracy in the North the EPDP decided to support the TNA.

Douglas Devananda who underwent guerilla warfare training in Lebanon and led the military wing of the EPRLF in the seventies and eighties said that extremism would be destructive and hanging on to extremist ideologies in a post-war period could be meaningless as far as rebuilding a war-torn region is concerned.

Douglas Devananda

Devananda also lambasted the Tamil National People’s Front of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam for misleading the people in the North and the East with extremist views.
The EPDP leader also regretted Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran being critical of TNA hierarchy seeking his support in LG bodies.

According to Devananda the EPDP extended its support where the TNA needed it take control of the LG bodies in the North following the request made to his Party by TNA Parliamentarians Mavai S. Senathiraja and M.A. Sumanthiran.

Apart from the EPDP taking control of Velanai and Delft, TNA has taken control of most of the LG bodies in the Peninsula with the support of not only the EPDP but even the national parties, the UNP and the SLFP.

As Tamil extremism was taking shape in the early seventies with the assassination of SLFP Mayor of Jaffna Alfred Duraiyappa in 1975, several members of the LG bodies representing national parties were gunned down by the LTTE.

So the Local Governance was the first to be destabilized with the assassinations of chairpersons and the members of the LG bodies in the North and the East.
Even first woman Mayor of Jaffna Sarojini Yogeswaran from the TULF and Pon Sivapalan who succeeded her were brutally assassinated by the LTTE in the nineties.

However, the EPDP led by Douglas Devananda was instrumental in reviving Local Governance in the North with the Party’s Yogeswari Patkunaraja becoming the second woman Mayor of Jaffna in 2009.

The EPDP stepping into Jaffna at a time when the North and the East were in the grip of the LTTE, the Party had focused on improving the humanitarian activities as well as establishing a civil administration in the North.

The EPDP had to pay a heavy price with several of its cadres being targeted by the LTTE. Douglas Devananda even escaped nearly fifteen attempts on his life when the LTTE targeted him.

So, now in the new political trend TNA’s approach of accommodating the EPDP, UNP and the SLFP has indicated the premier Tamil Party’s deviation from its previous defiant political stance which had kept away the national parties as well as all other parties in the North and the East.

Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) being the flagship of the TNA accommodating four other constituent parties in the Alliance was all out to attack the EPDP in the past.
However, the new coalition emerging between the TNA and the EPDP with the formation of the new Local Government bodies in the North and the East outlines the political maturity of both sides as well as their intention of giving food for thought for reconciliation from grassroots level.