Task of real Tamil political leadership: Sivaram in 2003

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2015, 18:39 GMT]
Sivaram Dharmeratnam alias Taraki, the late senior editor of TamilNet, wrote an article in January 2003, explaining the deadlock of the Sri Lankan unitary constitution which cannot provide for a solution within its framework. The international backers were also aware that a federal solution to the ethnic conflict was practically, legally and politically impossible with the Sri Lankan Constitution, he wrote. “Demystifying the realm of Tamil politics and ridding it of the host of canards, half-truths and obfuscations that have plagued for long the national will to struggle for our inalienable rights,” was the key task of the real Tamil political leadership, he wrote in the article.
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Nationhood, Self-Determination non-negotiable: V.T. Thamilmaran in 2003

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2015, 21:01 GMT]
“The nationhood of Tamils and their right to self-determination are non-negotiable. Any political solution that might emerge out of the on-going peace process can't go below these,” opined V.T. Thamilmaran, 12 years ago in January 2003, just a few days after the so-called Oslo Declaration (Dec 2002). The international community, by volunteering to back the Internal Right to Self-Determination based solution, is duty-bound to extend its support for future Tamil struggle, he said in 2003: “It would impose on them a moral duty to extend their support for any further struggle by the Tamils.” Five years after 2009, the IC needs to be reminded again of this moral duty as it failed to protect the nation of Eelam Tamils from a brutal genocide, comment youth activists of the Tamil National Alliance in the North. The IC should now respect Tamils Right to External Self-Determination, they said.
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Learning lessons from political discourses of past

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2015, 23:36 GMT]
The last advice of the late Professor A.J. Wilson, a highly respected academic who had the closest connections with the hierarchy of the government echelons from time to time, and who was an optimist genuinely believing the possibility of Tamils and Sinhalese co-existing, was that the Tamil academics and professionals should not let themselves to be lured by promises, sweet talk, and false vanity liberally dispensed by their Sinhala counterparts and Sinhala leaders. According to him this is what that had spoiled Sir P. Ramanathan, G. G. Ponnambalam, M. Thiruchelvam and to a certain extent Thanthai Selva (SJV Chelvanayagam) and A. Amirthalingam. Writing in 2003 on the positions and policies in Tamil politics in the past, Mr. V.T. Thamilmaran was comparing the discourses of two political intellectuals, A.J. Wilson and the other being the doyen of ITAK, V. Navaratnam.
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Leaders should enlighten gullible masses, not hide behind them: Thiyagu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 January 2015, 11:42 GMT]
Those among the Tamils of Tamil Eelam, who expect change in their favour from a future Maithiripala regime are going to be deceived as the sections of Tamils in Tamil Nadu, who were gullible enough to expect change from Modi and got deceived, said veteran activist Thoazhar Thiyagu from Tamil Nadu, responding to the write-ups that originated from disillusioned sections among the Tamil-speaking writers, who have been posting their views to blog sites and email discussion groups defending the position of TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, TNA's National List parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran and ITAK Leader Mavai Senathiraja. Mr Thiyagu questioned why Mr Sampanthan, who was talking about the 17th Amendment and the18th Amendment, was not able to demand the withdrawal of the detrimental 6th Amendment to the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka.
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Shivajilingam urges TNA to avoid backing any particular presidential candidate

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2014, 23:00 GMT]
If the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) asks the Tamil people to back a presidential candidate, who is not committed to federalism and international investigations, it would only backfire on Tamils as the global powers representing the international community could cite our own stand against ourselves in the future, said former parliamentarian and TNA councillor at the Northern Provincial Council M.K. Shivajilingam, who addressed the press in Jaffna on Friday. The TNA should avoid backing a candidate, Mr Shivajilingam said. “The Tamil people are intelligent. Let them decide on their own without giving them any hint,” he said.
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Sumanthiran makes challenges to shield political bankruptcy

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2014, 23:35 GMT]
Colombo-based parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M.A. Sumanthiran, who visited Batticaloa on Thursday challenged the SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa to release the purported ‘secret agreement’, signed between the common opposition candidate Maithiripala Srisena and the TNA. Responding, the grassroots activists from Aalaiyadi-vempu who met Mr Sumanthiran told TamilNet Friday that the TNA had failed to come out with a people-centric political move challenging the real perpetrators of the plight faced by Tamils and instead comes out with empty challenges to shield its political-agenda bankruptcy. The TNA should have made use of the opportunity to mobilise the Tamil masses to send message to the forces that stage the deceptive game of presidential election for the perpetuation of the genocidal State, the activists in the East further said.
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Tamil people should reject both Mahinda and Maithiripala: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2014, 18:55 GMT]
The global and regional powers locked in a geopolitical gambling have brought a contest between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithiripala Sirisena. Rajapaksa is backed by China while the West and possibly India back Rajapaksa's former associate Sirisena, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) on Thursday. Declared that there is no use for Tamil people by going behind any of the two mainstream candidates of the South in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election, the former Tamil parliamentarian, who addressed the press on behalf of the TNPF and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, urged the Tamil people to refrain from backing any of the two candidates. The TNPF leader blamed the TNA for betraying the Tamil people for the second time as it did by backing Sarath Fonseka in 2010.
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TNPF to reveal position on SL presidential election on Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2014, 23:47 GMT]
Tamil National People Front (TNPF) led by former parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is to announce its position on the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election at a media briefing scheduled to be held on December 17 in Colombo, Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnamblam said in response to journalists in Jaffna on Monday.
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1,500 acres of lands seized for Sinhalicisation in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2014, 20:50 GMT]
In a closed-door meeting held at Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat on Friday, the divisional secretaries of Mullaiththeevu district were informed that 1,500 acres of lands belonging to Eezham Tamils had been transferred to Sinhala settlers in Kokkuththoduvaay of Karai-thu'raip-pattu division of Mullaiththeevu district. While the Tamil landowners, chased away from their villages in 1980, are in possession of documents of ownership and have been demanding resettlement in their villages, the Land Commissioner of Northern Province, Ponnambalam Dayanandan, has transferred the lands to 600 Sinhala families, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.
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Citing systematic SL intimidation, Ananthy urges more time from OISL

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 October 2014, 06:53 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) councillor and a direct eyewitness to the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in Vanni in 2009, Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, on Thursday urged the OHRC Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to give more time for the people on the ground to send their submissions to the OISL. Ms Ananthy has requested to extend the time for submissions by one month or at least to the extent possible, citing the intense atmosphere of intimidation, threats and attacks against potential witnesses in the North and East. There is also a serious lack of communication on the process of submitting evidences, the councillor further said. Meanwhile, a planted section in the TNA that argues against Tamils demanding genocide investigation came out with a last minute statement this week, as eyewash, asking people to give evidence to the OISL.
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Tamil teachers protest against SL military interference in schools

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2014, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lankan military, which usually threatens people against taking part in civil protests in advance, has now went a step further with staging ‘counter protests’ to disturb the democratic mobilisation of the people, trade unions and activists. On Monday, the occupying Sri Lanka Army deployed its operatives to stage a ‘counter protest’ in front of the Jaffna Central Bus stand where Tamil teachers in Jaffna, organized under the Ceylon Teachers Union were protesting with 15 demands against appointments with low-wage, discrimination in promotions, SL military interference in the administration of the schools in North and East, circulars in Sinhala, continued occupation of Palaali Teachers training college, discrimination in transfer policy and continued ignorance of complaints filed against corruption.
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OHCHR fails to recognise de-Tamilisation in ‘Sri Lanka’: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2014, 06:25 GMT]
“Most of the incidents referred to by the oral update are part of a larger pattern aimed at creating the conditions of permanent subjugation of the Tamil people as a whole - a process of de-Tamilisation which we interpret as the structural genocide of the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka,” said Gajendrakumar addressing the 27th Session of the UNHRC on Thursday in Geneva. “An honest and forthright appreciation of the problems that face the Tamil people is fundamental and we call upon the OHCHR to conduct the inquiry in this spirit,” he told the UNHRC. “We note with concern the oral update’s failure to acknowledge that the Tamil people are being targeted because of their national identity. The fact that religious minorities such as the Muslims and Christians can be mentioned by name for being targets, makes the refusal to mention the Tamils by name all the more disappointing,” he said.
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TNPF leader speaks on independent, concerted, Tamil foreign policy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 August 2014, 02:32 GMT]
Realising that our struggle has long been used by powers in their engagements with the island, we as a nation must work towards a concerted foreign policy, although we don’t have State, said Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday. In meeting the challenge of achieving this, we should incorporate Tamil Nadu in creating a power centre in a geopolitical sense and the dynamics will change very quickly. Compared to the Congress, the BJP is little bit more blunt and more strident in containing the nationalist nature of the struggle. This is the carrot to the Sri Lankan State and the TNA is a co-partner. The TNPF leader argued for a breakthrough by addressing the situation in three ways.
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Varatharajan’s funeral sends messages on Eezham Tamil political bearings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 August 2014, 09:14 GMT]
Hundreds of Eezham Tamil students, academics, journalists, civil activists and political personalities from different districts on Wednesday came to the residence of popular educationalist and Tamil activist Sinathurai Varatharajan to attend his funeral on Wednesday. He passed away on Monday at the age of 63. The sum message of the entire funeral was that there was no one to replace the educationalist, who has been a mentor to the student community with his society-centred insight and grassroots-oriented commitment towards the advancement of Eezham Tamil nation facing structural genocide.
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Educationalist, veteran civil activist Varatharajan passes away

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 August 2014, 20:32 GMT]
Sinnathurai Varatharajan, a popular teacher of economics, who stood with his people throughout his life, has passed away in Jaffna on Monday due to cancer-related complications at the age of 63. With his extensive knowledge on the economic potentials in the Tamil homeland, both in the North and East, Mr Varatharajan paid a particular attention to the demographic genocide being committed against the Eezham Tamils in the North and East. Apart from serving his people as an educationalist, Mr Varatharajan stepped in as a grassroots civil activist whenever his people faced a challenging time under outside occupations. Eezham Tamils are a distinct nation with their own sovereignty in the unified North and East of the island was his political stand and he advocated a confederal model as the minimum acceptable solution.
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Protesting mother exposes occupying SL military’s false propaganda

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2014, 17:16 GMT]
“The SL military never bought my lands. They said I need to provide details to obtain land. Then I was forced to sign a paper in Sinhala at the police station. The SL military moved into my land and has now sent notice to seize the lands permanently from me,” said a Tamil mother who protested against the land surveyors who came to her land situated along the A9 Road, at Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchi of the Jaffna district. While the protest was going on a group of SL military intelligence operatives entered the house of a Tamil councillor, who was supporting the protesting family, threatened his wife at gunpoint and caused damage to his property. Rasiah Theivendrampillai, the councillor from the divisional council in the area, said military personnel who entered his house, while he was at the protest, burnt his bankbooks and land deeds and threatened his family.
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SL military blocks people from attending protest in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2014, 23:05 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) politicians joined a protest held in front of the Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat on Thursday demanding legal hearings into habeas corpus petitions from the families and relatives of persons, who are reported missing after the families had handed them over to the occupying Sri Lankan military during the final days of the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in May 2009. On Thursday, the Sri Lankan military in Mullaiththeevu was blocking the kith and kin of the missing persons from attending the protest, which was led by Ms Ananthy Sasitharan, an elected councillor of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) who represents the voice of the kith and kin of the missing persons.
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Gajendrakumar calls for foolproof position, closer ties with Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 17:17 GMT]
Tamils should make their position foolproof said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an exclusive interview to TamilNet on 17 May in London. The problem the Tamils face is two fold. The first is geopolitics and the International Community's reasons for not wanting to recognise Tamils nationhood and sovereignty. The second is our own problem, where we have a party that claims to be the democratic representatives of Tamils, but deliberately chooses not to put forward positions that make Tamil sovereignty the fundamental basis for any political discourse. Giving a brief account on continuing oppression and militarization of the Tamil homeland and talking about manipulation of Tamil political opinion by international powers both in the island and in the diaspora, Mr Gajendrakumar called for a stronger network between Tamil Nadu and the Eezham Tamils to prevent such deviations.
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Civic member Shageevan urges course-correction of TNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 May 2014, 23:51 GMT]
Eezham Tamils have also been consistent in denouncing a 13th Amendment-based discourse in the past. Also, when Oslo sought to push the Tamil question into an internal formula during the CFA times, the Tamil side confronted the move by producing a blueprint for Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA). Now, especially after facing the genocidal onslaught in 2009, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) should have articulated the position of Eezham Tamils by demanding an international investigation on crimes against humanity and genocide at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Why did the TNA parliamentarians fail articulating the Tamil position in an open and transparent manner at the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva all these years, asked S. Shageevan, the deputy chair of Valikaamam North civic council (Piratheasa Chapai) at a press conference held in Jaffna on Monday.
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Gajendrakumar challenges Sumanthiran on Geneva discourse

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 May 2014, 22:56 GMT]
The biggest betrayal is failing to do the needful at the right time to the Tamil people through demanding the international community to make the right decision. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and its nominated politician M.A. Sumanthiran have failed the Tamil people by reducing their scope of demands to fit the agenda of regime change and sabotaged every attempt by fellow Tamil representatives to advance the limitations, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the president of the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) at a press conference held in Jaffna on Sunday in response to the accusations levelled against the TNPF by Mr Sumanthiran at an earlier press conference in Jaffna on Friday.
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