Tamils fight over two Sinhala war heroes

The main political formation of Tamil political parties, the Tamil National Alliance, would announce its stance on the presidential election tomorrow, but, if current developments are any indicator, the decision would hardly be a consensus. Cracks are wide open in the once cohesive TNA: one constituent party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) has broken ranks with the rest to announce a unilateral boycott of the election. An earlier proposition by the TNA’s influential troika, party leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, Mavai Senathiraja and Suresh Premachandran to support the common opposition candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka was shot down at a party’s parliamentry group meeting. New Delhi, which had been brokering a grand bargain of a political solution in exchange of TNA support to either of the main candidates has been displeased with TNA loner, Sivajilingam’s candidature, and denied him entry into India.
Meanwhile, the TNA leadership continues with horse-trading with the two main contenders to the presidency - incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa and common opposition candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

Delayed meeting

The TNA troika met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday. Ministers Maithripala Sirisena and Nimal Siripala de Silva and Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa were also present with the President to coax the TNA to support the president.
In fact, the much delayed meeting was an afterthought. It came only after a failed attempt by Messrs Sambanthan, Senathiraja and Premachandran to cajole the party support to Gen Fonseka in a previous meeting of the party’s parliamentary group.
At the meeting with the President, the TNA delegation put forward eight conditions to the government in exchange of support to President Rajapaksa
The following were the TNA conditions.
1. The government should outline a political solution to address political aspirations of Tamil speaking people.
2. Twelve thousand suspected Tiger cadres held in detention should be released under a general amnesty.
3. High security zones in the Jaffna peninsula should be dismantled.
4. Cut down the military presence in the North East and reduce the number of military camps in the North - East.
5. Speedy resettlement of the Internally Displaced Persons.
6. Providing basic facilities and humanitarian assistance to the released IDPs to restart their livelihood
7. Rebuilding the North Eastern region and the destroyed houses,
8. Ending all planned “colonization” that is allegedly being carried out in the North-East.
Mr. Sambanthan told the Lakbimanews that the same conditions had been put forwarded to the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who was canvassing TNA’s support for the opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka.
He said that the party would review the responses from both parties and announce its position “shortly.”
Sivanathan Kishor, the Vavuniya MP told the Lakbimanews that the TNA would announce its stance on January 4.
Inside sources of the Fonseka camp confide that the General had in principle agreed with the TNA’s eight point agenda, which they say contains legitimate concerns in the post conflict transformation in the North East. In the post-LTTE context, the threat level has declined and reviving civil rule, necessitates a gradual demilitarization in the region.
It was with this understanding with Gen Fonseka that the TNA party seniors campaigned to secure the approval of the party’s parliamentary group. However, TNA troika found themselves isolated as eight MPs opposed the move and some others declined to support either of the main candidates. Other than Sambanthan, Senathiraja and Premachandran, only Vanni Sivasakthi Anananthan supported the proposition to extend the party’s support to Gen Fonseka.
TNA parliamentarians Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, Solomon Cyril, Vino Noharathalingham, Packiyaselvam Ariyanethiran, Selvarajah Kajendran, Raseen Mohammed Imam, Pathmini Sithamparanathan and Kathirgamathamby Thurairetnasingham opposed any TNA support to the former army chief.
TELO leader Selvam Adaikalanathan, National List MPs Dr. Thomas Thangathurai William and Chandra Nehru Chandrakanthan opposed the TNA supporting either of the main candidates.
N. Sri Kantha argued that the TNA should put its weight behind presidential candidate Sivajilingam. There was hardly any support for the motion, which was turned down without much discussion. Mr Sivajilingam’s own political party, TELO itself has disowned his candidature.
India’s refusal to allow Sivajilingham to enter the country is another sign of New Delhi’s foreign policy czars’ displeasure at Sivajilingam’s candidature, which could upset the “grand bargain” orchestrated by India. As we reported earlier in these pages, India has been negotiating behind the curtain with the TNA leaders, Rajapaksa and Fonseka camps to work out a deal, under which Tamils could secure a political package which would address political aspirations as well as immediate humanitarian concerns.
However, Sivajilingam’s manouevre could dissipate the bargaining power of the Tamil vote.
Nothing could provide a convincing explanation on the denial of entry to Sivajilingam, who was based in Chennai throughout the military operations against LTTE, other than his decision to run for presidency against the wishes of his Indian mentors.

TNA BARGAINING POWER

Fissures within the TNA would cost the bargaining power of the Tamil electorate. Some influential sections within Tamil society have taken note of it. Last week, the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) issuing a media communique, cautioned that the “decisions spurred by emotions in the past and their consequences should be remembered.” Though it did not name the decisions “spurred by emotions,” it is an apt reference to much of the conduct of the Tamil politics throughout the independence which culminated in the Vadukkodai resolution in 1976. JUSU urged the Tamil political parties to reach common ground on their position on the Presidential election.
Excerpts from the media communique:
“We should use the available opportunities and continue to fight for our rights.”
“Tamil political parties should not allow Southern political parties to use our people to come to power.’’
“A prosperous future for the Tamils should be the aim in arriving at a united decision on the issue of facing the presidential election.”
“It is not wise for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to contest in the next general election, paving way for the Tamils to loose their bargaining power.
“Our union pledges to carry out any decision arrived at by the Tamil political parties unitedly.” However such calls for caution and pragmatism would not go down well with some others.
The All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), a constituent party of the Tamil national Alliance (TNA) last week announced that it was boycotting the presidential elections. The General Secretary of ACTC, TNA MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam moved a motion to boycott the elections at a meeting of the party’s general council held last week in Jaffna. The resolution urged the Tamils in the North and East to join the ACTC in its stance on presidential elections and called upon the TNA to follow suit.
(TNA is an umbrella group of four main constituent parties: TULF, TELO, EPRLF and ACTC)
The Fonseka camp aims to win a huge portion of the minority vote; however, endorsements from Tamil political parties are hard to come by for the obvious fact that many of them such as TMVP and CWC had already aligned with the Rajapaksa regime. Yesterday, Fonseka took his campaign to Jaffna where he visited the Nallur temple and also met Jaffna Bishop Thomas Savundranayagam. He was accompanied by opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, JVP leader Somawansha Amarasinghe, Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem and Western peoples Front leader Mano Ganeshan. They visited the Jaffna University where they met the Vice-chancellor, Deans of Faculties, lecturers and Jaffna University Student Union members. Later they met the members of Jaffna Tarders’ Union in Jaffna town. A campaign office was also opened in Jaffna. Last week, two defectors from Ceylon Workers Congress- R. Yogarajan and M. Sachiththanandan joined the Fonseka camp.
The TNA, which won 633,654 popular votes from North-East provinces during the 2004 parliamentary polls is still the jewel in the crown. If the election turns to be a close fought battle in the south, those votes in the north could swing the election either way.