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| President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met with TNA leaders at their party office in Jaffna during the Presidential campaigns in September. Pix: Northeastern Monitor |
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
What is the future of Tamil nationalist politics in Sri Lanka? This question, which has arisen in the aftermath of the recent Parliamentary Elections, should not be viewed simply in terms of the future electoral prospects of Tamil parties. It is a question related to the anxiety regarding the prospects for the fulfillment of the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people.
The Tamil nationalist political parties that have represented the Tamil people of the north and east in Parliament for more than 15 years since the end of the civil war have suffered a major setback in this Parliamentary Election.
It seems difficult to expect that these parties, which have never shown any moral interest in introspecting on the reasons why the past struggles for the political rights of the Tamil people have not been fruitful, will look back and correct their political path after this defeat.
As a result of the Tamil nationalist parties splitting and contesting elections as different factions, the parliamentary representation of Tamils from the north and east has been weakened even more than before. Tamil politicians had ignored the warnings given in advance in this regard.
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), which had six seats in the last Parliament, cannot be complacent with winning eight seats this time as an increase in its popular support. The ITAK should view its electoral performance against the backdrop of the fact that a Sinhala-dominated national party has won more seats in all five electoral districts in the Northern and Eastern Provinces for the first time in Sri Lanka’s electoral history.
The National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has won a resounding victory in the Tamil areas without making any promises about a substantive solution to the important issues pressing the Tamil people, including the national ethnic issue.
Doubtful interpretations
Politicians and observers, like blind men feeling an elephant, are making various comments about this victory. The leaders of the NPP interpret the support given to them by the Tamil people as a rejection of Tamil communal politics, i.e. Tamil nationalism and they are trying to draw a parallel to the defeat suffered by some Sinhalese Buddhist hardline politicians at the elections, which is being portrayed as a defeat of Sinhalese communalism.
At the same time, some Tamil politicians are comparing the votes received by all Tamil parties in the north and east with votes received by the NPP and are making an argument that the Tamil people have not rejected Tamil nationalism.
When it comes to elections, the seats they win are what matter. There is no point in trying to establish that Tamil nationalist sentiment is alive among the people by adding up the total number of votes of the parties that lost the elections.
Just as the electoral defeat of certain politicians in the south cannot be said to be a defeat of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, the defeat of Tamil nationalist parties in the north and east also cannot be described as a defeat of Tamil nationalism.
President Dissanayake, who has vowed in his policy statement to the new Parliament that he will never allow politics of racism and religious extremism to reappear in Sri Lanka, will never be able to achieve that goal without finding solutions to the long-standing problems that have been created by the same racism.
It can never be said that the Tamil people voted for the NPP accepting its positions on the national ethnic issue. Likewise, the failure of the Tamil parties cannot be interpreted as a sign that the Tamil people are ready to join the national political stream, abandoning their long-standing key demands regarding their legitimate political aspirations.
Failure of Tamil politicians
Looking at the pattern of people voting for the NPP from Point Pedro in the north to Dondra in the south, it is understandable that the Tamils, like the Sinhalese, were waiting for an opportunity to reject the traditional political parties.
The Tamil people had no choice but to turn to the NPP because there was no proper political force among them that could lead them on a pragmatic and prudent political path suitable to the present domestic and global political climate.
At the same time, another reason for the hatred towards Tamil politicians is that they do not think and act in a manner that is in line with the demands of the situation and simply chant emotional Tamil nationalist slogans instead of paying attention to the various livelihood problems faced by the war-affected Tamil people.
There are Tamil politicians who said that when the people’s uprising broke out in south Sri Lanka two-and-a-half years ago amidst an unprecedented economic downturn, it was not a problem for the Tamil people. It was also seen that certain Tamil politicians spoke in Parliament that if the wealthy among the Tamil diaspora were allowed to invest freely in Sri Lanka, there would be no room for economic problems.
Tamil politicians could not understand the recent change in thinking among their people. People directly told Tamil politicians in many places in the north that they would vote for the President’s party at the Parliamentary Elections. But, as usual, these politicians had remained lukewarm, hoping that the Tamils would vote for Tamil parties.
In the early stages of the campaign, the Tamil parties did not understand the danger they were in. It was only in the final stages that they realised the depth of the situation and launched fierce attacks on the NPP. Before that, not only other Tamil parties but also those within the ITAK were in an overdrive in campaigning to defeat former Member of Parliament (MP) M.A. Sumanthiran in order to “save Tamil nationalism” from “danger”.
Despite Tamil politicians repeatedly pointing out during the campaign that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the flagship party of the NPP, had adopted policies and carried out actions that were against the political aspirations of the Tamil people in the past, they were unable to win the people over to their side considerably.
Futile efforts at unity
It seems that the Tamil politicians think that the Tamil people were angry with them and supported the NPP only because they had contested the elections in different factions. Judging by the comments they have been making over the past few days, it seems they believe that if they come forward to unite again, the people will give them overwhelming support like before.
A few days ago, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam announced that he was ready to work with other Tamil parties based on the political settlement proposals put forward by the now defunct Tamil People’s Council (Tamil Makkal Peravai), a formation of Tamil civil society organisations and political parties formed 10 years ago. However, other Tamil parties have not yet responded to his overture.
Similarly, ITAK Parliamentary Group Leader Sivagnanam Shritharan also announced that he was ready to reunite and work with other parties as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). That too has not been answered. A few other politicians have also spoken about the need for reunification.
Even if the same leaders who were responsible for the current deterioration of the Tamil polity by deliberately missing the opportunity to build the TNA, which had been in existence for more than two decades and served as a powerful political movement that united the Tamil people of the north and east in the period following the end of the civil war, were to come forward to unite again, it is doubtful whether they will be able to rebuild trust among the Tamil people.
The Tamil people will certainly view any attempt to unite the parties after the election defeat with suspicion. What explanation will the Tamil politicians present to the people for showing a renewed interest in unity? The main reason for the divisions that occurred among the Tamil parties lay in the strategies of contesting elections rather than differences in policy.
Based on experiences so far, there will be nothing more futile than expecting unity or a unified approach among the Tamil political parties. Beyond differences in policy, egoism and personality rivalries between the leaders have been the main factors in the decline of Tamil politics for a long time.
The leaders of armed Tamil extremist movements, who were several steps ahead of moderate political leaders in this regard, committed fratricide on a large scale. Such a perverse trend continues even now in different forms.
A time to reflect
Above all, today’s Tamil politicians should reflect on whether the policies and approaches they have adopted over the past 15 years have helped move even an inch forward in the direction of finding a political solution to the ethnic problem.
Although it is the Government’s responsibility to provide a political solution, Tamil politicians should think deeply about whether their actions so far have given the Tamil people a little hope that they will have a future if they continue to live in their land.
If Tamil nationalism is to be preserved, the territory must be preserved. For that, people must live in that territory. No nationalism can be preserved without people and land.
A significant section of the Tamil population will not want to continue living there if they do not believe that they and their future generations will have a better future if they continue to live in the north and east. A door-to-door survey by politicians would help them know how many Tamils are willing to migrate to North America or Western Europe. What is there to save nationalism in a land without people?
An important question is whether the Tamil politicians currently elected to Parliament will change their previous tendencies and act together after the lesson taught by the people at the elections.
It is learnt that TNPF Leader Ponnambalam and the ITAK parliamentary group, who met Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha separately after the elections, emphasised the need for India to apply pressure on the new Government in Sri Lanka on the ethnic issue. They must realise that without a strong political movement among the Tamils, their demands will not be heeded and the international community will not be likely to care.
The Tamil parties should also consider how effective the approaches they have adopted so far, based on the hope that international powers, including India, will put pressure on Sri Lanka, have been. They should also explore the possibilities of dealing with the new Government differently, instead of the same approaches they adopted with previous governments.
With the NPP Government announcing that it will bring in a new constitution, a great responsibility awaits Tamil parliamentarians. If they fail to act with foresight and political wisdom to meet the demands of the situation, Tamils will ultimately be left as a mass of people who will not have gained anything even after unimaginable sacrifices in their decades-long struggle.
Finally, Tamil people have also taught a lesson to certain forces within the Tamil diaspora who have thrown money to many parties and groups with the aim of controlling Tamil politics here in a manner to their liking. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo) Courtesy- The Sunday Morning
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