CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Since Anandasangaree Cannot Shed Separatism and Racism, the President Must Shed Him

Dilrook Kannangara

The Tamil United Liberation Front leader has again whispered into the President’s ear. LTTE separatists have found an easy way into the ear of the President through V Anandasangaree who is such a despicable hypocrite skillfully maneuvering his way. He is very good at condemning LTTE terror attacks which anybody can do, especially a rejected Tamil politician who can only boast about the past as he doesn’t have a present or a future. Just like Dr Mervyn Silva, he has become a confidante of the President who has horded traitors, murderers and corrupt individuals around him. The weight of the crown has drowned Mahinda Rajapakse to such an extent that he accepts anything from anyone who praises him, the same illness that affected President Premadasa. Knowing this very well, a Minister in Premadasa’s Cabinet prepared to lick his slippers in a disgusting attempt to please him! Unfortunately the incumbent President has not shown much difference in spite of his higher social standing, better upbringing and better parental guidance and higher education.

I have nothing personally against V Anandasangaree who is nothing but a racist politician. He continues to lead the TAMIL United Liberation Front which is only concerned about the TAMIL people unlike political parties like the United National Party or the Ceylon Workers Congress. Besides, TULF is one of the fathers of the LTTE which the whole nation knows. The TULF came to prominence in 1977 promising a separate Tamil state in the island of Sri Lanka. Not only it’s leaders, even their spouses threatened bloodbath against the peaceful nation of Sri Lanka and its people. TULF was directly and indirectly responsible for the violence that engulfed this country in 1983. Anandasangaree was also instrumental in the untimely dissolution of the government that was elected into office in 2000. However, he dug his own grave in teaming up with the terrorists. LTTE rejected his leadership and appointed a more appropriate leader to the causes of the TULF and the TNA which are identical. Had the EPDP contested the 1977 election in the same manner it contested the 1994 election, this nation would have been better off. Anadasangaree has no right whatsoever to criticize the EPDP (Elam Peoples’ Democratic Party, Elam being the Tamil term for Sri Lanka) leader who is doing a yeoman service to the Northerners. The enormous success of the recently concluded Jaffna Reawakening Carnival speaks volumes of the capabilities of the EPDP leader and his team. Continuing to hold the Jaffna populace to ransom and imposing the sadistic views of LTTE and TULF separatists is not the way to go. What the north need is not a federal structure but development and there has been no political party capable in carrying out development work amidst severe hardships, threats, vandalism, sadism and terrorism than the EPDP.

Areas liberated from the LTTE cannot be put on a utopian democratic footing immediately. These areas must be managed by politico-military groups that have the grit, the willpower and the force to spearhead development. It must be remembered that none of the Tamil racist political parties that were elected from the North-East were interested in development until the EPDP came into active politics. Even after liberating Jaffna in 1995, the government was crippled as the LTTE carried out a series of assassinations of Jaffna mayors. Only the EPDP had the resources, the manpower and the courage to stand up to the LTTE. It is true that EPDP is not a model democratic party. But there are no model democratic parties in Sri Lanka. The 2001 general election resulted in the deaths of 81 persons committed mainly by the UNP (63) and the SLFP (18). Comparatively the EPDP has been a thousand times better. Appointing Hon. Douglas Devananda to the Special Task Force that would oversee Northern development is a very good practical decision taken by the President and this should not change at the request of the leader of a race-based political party who was rejected by his voters.

The UNESCO Peace Prize doesn’t qualify Anandasangaree to override sanity as even Nobel Peace Prize winners have favoured the LTTE by campaigning against Sri Lanka in the wake of the UNHRC election. This racist politician has a record of looking through spectacles of Tamil racism. It is a well known fact that due to vast demographic changes the university admission quotas that are based on 1971 population statistics severely disfavour students from provinces other than the North-East. Knowing this too well this racist politician blocked an attempt to restore equity a few years ago. Then he was also instrumental in allowing the LTTE bring truckloads of bombs to Colombo in early 2008 when he used his close relationship with the President to dismantle security measures introduced after much consideration by security experts. The writer has praised the effectiveness of these security measures. These include changing ambulances when patients are transported across the boarder in Omathai, not allowing trucks and lorries to enter government controlled areas from LTTE controlled areas (and instead use two separate set of trucks on each side) and the stoppage of the Vavuniya-Colombo train in Medawachchiya instead of letting it run to Vavuniya which would provide LTTE cadres unhindered passage to Colombo fort from Vavuniya instead of going through a series of additional checkpoints to Medawachchiya. In 2008 more than 150 civilians have been killed in the ‘south’ by the LTTE and Anandasangaree used these opportunities to score big by verbally condemning these attacks. Some of these measures have since been reintroduced. Again on the 17th of April 2008 he asked the President to stop night-time air attacks on the LTTE citing civilian inconveniences. How this has benefited the LTTE is obvious. Since then the LTTE has carried out a large number of attacks on security forces happily utilizing the window of opportunity the TULF leader has opened up for them! In return the LTTE has not carried out a single attempt on his life whereas it has tried more than seven (7) times to kill Hon Douglas Devananda.

Knowing very well that more than 58% Tamils are living outside the North-East, Anandasangaree demands a federal solution to address the aspirations and/or grievances of the Tamil people! How can division create unity? There are not many countries (not a single country as far as I know) that moved from a unitary state to a federal state. Worse still, Anandasangaree is suggesting racist-federalism where demarcations would be made along racist/racial lines! I wonder how he is going to demarcate these racist/racial federal boundaries in the Eastern Province! It was Rabindranath Tagore who wrote, “it is the wall of narrow-mindedness that divides this world”. How true? It is Anandasangaree’s United Front that is seeking Tamil-only liberation that is at the forefront of dividing a unitary country to create a race-based federal country. What this country needs is unity not further division and therefore only by strengthening its unitary status can it solve the problems it is facing today.

Unashamedly Anadasangaree asserts that Sri Lankans want federalism. Has he gone insane? Sri Lankans have always stood by the unitary status of this country and will never agree to racist/racial federalism where this small island would be demarcated racially. While he howls about democracy, he is dragging the wishes of the International Community over what is desired by the people of this country. The international community has no right whatsoever to impose their solutions on Sri Lanka which is a sovereign democratic country ruled by the whims and fancies of the political majority whether he likes it or not. Additionally there should not be any obstacles to reverse the Thirteenth Amendment and any other undesirable laws imposed on this country by marauding Indian expansionists. India has been dejected from all its neighboring countries and Sri Lanka should not be the exception. Only a reversal of the Thirteenth Amendment will convince India that forceful intervention cannot achieve anything in its favour. In another insane gesture, Anandasangaree praises the Indian model. India is faced with many more separatist movements than Sri Lanka and following India is the surest way to multiply the few problems we have.

He alleges that sixty years of unitary status has been unable to solve the problems therefore we should unreservedly jump into a federal trap. However, the truth is not so. For the past 21 years, Sri Lanka has not been a de facto unitary state owing to the presence of a foreign army and a terrorist group in part of its territory even managing a few administrative functions. In order to reinstate the unitary rule right across this country, barbaric LTTE terrorists must be annihilated and everything they have ‘won’ for the Tamil people must be effort fully reversed. Once all the terrorists are annihilated, there is no need whatsoever to give into extortion demands of separatists.

Anandasangaree must accept that there are no Tamil homelands in this island. By definition a race or a community can have only one homeland. For instance England is the homeland of the English, Russia for the Russians, Iran for the Iranians. While Tamil Nadu is the Tamil homeland, there is absolutely no possibility to have another Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. There is no reason whatsoever that Sri Lanka should address the grievances/aspirations of Tamils. If so what about the grievances/aspirations of the Sinhalese, the Muslims, upcountry Tamils, Malays, Veddhas, etc.? Should their grievances/aspirations be bulldozed because they are not backed by terrorist barbarians like the LTTE? Unfortunately Anandasangaree has been unable to shed his Tamil racial politics for 75 long years. It is still not too late to shed his Tamil liberation struggle and take up the national liberation struggle. Sri Lanka must be made the homeland of Sri Lankans.

I urge all Sri Lankans with the faculty to think to look into these undeniable facts and identify the separatist within V Anandasangaree. Don’t be fooled by his shallow words of condemnation and prizes he has won. The United Nations Peace Keeping Force has won many more Peace Prizes only to indulge in child prostitution, abuse of power, intimidation, etc. Division cannot bring unity; only unity can bring about further unity. Hon Douglas Devananda’s good work must be allowed to be carried out even if it involves rough-handedness which is essential in areas that have not seen development for over sixty years thanks to racist and sadistic politicians. This trend can be busted only by a politico-military force headed by regional politicians who are well-connected to the centre.

The sooner the President wakes up to the true characters of his associates, the better.

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