“TNA has no secret pact with Fonseka’’

By Thava Sajitharan

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian K. Thurairetnasingam yesterday refuted the allegation that his party had entered into a “secret pact” with opposition’s common presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka.
The TNA last week extended its support to Gen. Fonseka. Nevertheless, the alliance’s silence over what the retired army chief has offered them as a political solution to the ethnic problem has prompted the government to allege that there is a secret deal. National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa MP who backs incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in the upcoming presidential poll was quoted in a newspaper report yesterday, as saying that Fonseka had agreed to re-merge the north and east and establish autonomy in the region.
In the said news report, Mr. Weerawansa had cited a TV interview in which Mr. Thurairetnasingam had allegedly disclosed that ‘the opposition has agreed to re-merge the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, dismantle the High Security Zone, release the LTTE suspects in detention and grant an autonomous region for the Tamils’. Asked for a response, Mr. Thurairetnasingam said “some of the politicians in the government are attempting to mislead people and stir up communal hatred in the south” to achieve what he called “petty electoral gains”.
“We have not signed any agreement. We have come to an agreement” he said, referring to their talks with Fonseka.
However, he did not specify whether Gen. Fonseka had proposed anything to solve the Tamil problem politically if and when he is elected president. Observers have noted that Fonseka’s manifesto which was released last week did not mention any political solution to the Tamil problem either.
“The TNA had several rounds of talks with the president and his associates before taking a decision. Under the rule of the present government in the last four years, people have undergone immense hardship and I think there is a need for change”.
Asked if the TNA MPs would actively campaign for Fonseka by taking part in election meetings, Thureiratnasingam said they had not taken a decision in this regard.
We also contacted R. Sambanthan and Mavai Senathiraja - two senior leaders in the TNA - earlier this week to ask about the conditions on which their support to Gen Fonseka was pledged.
Both of them, while remarking that Fonseka’s response was “satisfactory”, declined to comment further.
JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, when contacted, said Wimal Weerawansa’s remarks were “irrelevant”. He was not willing to elaborate either.