Lankaweb Weekly Editorial
September 12th 2015

The dust has hardly settled but the The Tamil National Alliance (TNA)  once an open arm of the LTTE says” they will be sending a lawyers’ team to the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva” at which the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s report on war crimes allegedly committed in Sri Lanka is to be presented and acted upon.

Given the fact that the TNA now heads the official opposition in Parliament ( something of an irony as well as controversial at best from a Sinhala perspective) to resort to such actions comprising of opposition to Sri Lankan Government policy is not a part of their mandate and neither is it in keeping with the allegiance they took making hollow sounds to the effect that they will make every endeavour to support the policies of the present government, yet at the first available opportunity are preparing to oppose the Government at the forthcomimg UNHRC summit in Geneva.
So what does this indicate beyond being a bunch of hypocrites who have always been panderers to their secessionist policies and its supportives where their main objective if one reads between the lines seems to point to that repulsive subject of Eelam and as long as they are around are bound to persist in attempting to acheive it which the present Government needs to be wary of.

These are times when both the UN as well as the USA amongst others appear to be leaning in favour of the issue of alleged war crimes being an internal domestic matter requiring an internal investigation and no more and the TNA in choosing to meddle in related matters has indicated their objectives of contributing in a very negative manner towards related proceedings which is a blatant attempt to contradict Government policy whilst pretending to want to co-operate with the present Government.

Here it needs to be said  somewhat whistfully and with gratitude that the previous Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa neither tolerated nor gave any leeway to TNA demands based on the cognizance of their collusion with the LTTE and now that scenario seems to have changed with the new government showing  tolerance of the TNA which could prove disastrous and have dire ramifications for the majority Sinhala Nation in the long term as the TNA could easily misuse this to their advantage in their inimitable style of attempting at every given opportunity to throw a spanner in the works of a smooth functioning Government having gained access to the opposition core of Parliament whether deservedly or not.

It seems high handed on the part of the TNA  to contemplate sending a  team headed by Supreme Court Senior Counsel, M.A.Sumanthiran, who is also a fellow MP from Jaffna, to the UNHCR proceeding which does not augur well for the Government  of Sri Lanka and as a matter of fact could hamper proceedings in disfavour of Sri Lanka as old skeletons from old closets will once again undoubtedly surface unnecxessarily and where the onus of the issue of war crimes rests heavily on the LTTE rather than the GOSL and the armed forces who realistically protected civilians during the LTTE onslaught.

Thus in essence the hogwash  proclaimed by the TNA in this respect that.

A TNA delegation, as such, might be sent after reading the High Commissioner’s report and the Sri Lankan government’s response to it. The task of Sumanthiran and his team of lawyers will be to examine the High Commissioner’s report and the Lankan government’s reply, and chalk out a line on which the TNA leadership will base its final decision,”  is neither in keeping with the porotocols of the UNHCR nor is it acceptable as the TNA have too many conflicts of interest as well as their blatant bias which shows against a Government which could easily have denied them the status of the leading opposition party as there are indications that proper procedure may not have been followed and may have been a mere conciliatory gesture to appease sources that may have demanded such a concession which is now turning out to be a Governmental faux pas.

It also seems an obstreperous statement  that TNA’ chief, R.Sampanthan,has said that his party’s stand on the UNHRC’s proceedings on Lanka will be based on the Tamils’ sentiments as well as the views of the International Community. with no consideration for Sinhala sentiment or the mood of the country while ramblng on that

While we have to go by the peoples’ sentiments, we cannot alienate the international community,” he said. and to use the international community towards the objectives of the TNA being somewhat of a joke.where he may have been better served had he cited the Tamil diaspora instead!

While he says that “there is an overwhelming demand from the Tamils that the TNA should reject the US-Lankan agreement to substitute the international investigation with a domestic probe” there is an equally intense or greater demand from the majority Sinhalese both locally and globally and their support from other minorities that an internal investigation not involving foreign adjudicators is sufficient and endorsed by sources that really matter beyond the TNA voices in the wilderness!

The Tamil sensationalism as usual continues where a certain. M.K.Shivajilingam, a TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council is currently leading a march from Kilinochchi to Jaffna seeking an international probe and an international judicial mechanism for the trial of the accused.

But the TNA’s leadership feels diffident about alienating the US and the Western world which also dominate the UNHRC which is what will surely be the only outcome of all the turbulence  the TNA are attempting to create and perhaps will be their undoing.They need to proceed with extreme caution in their best interests as well as that of Sri Lanka.