Tamils won’t support any southern leader: Sivajilingam

Former Northern Provincial Council Member M.K. Sivajilingam said that Tamils would not support any Sinhalese or Southern-based candidate at the forthcoming presidential election.

When asked about the stand taken by the main Tamil coalition, the Tamil National Alliance, he said that Tamil people were disgusted by the actions taken by the TNA so far. He said that the government that came to power in 2015 had already hoodwinked the Tamil people and the TNA had also done the same to the Tamil people.

Speaking on the forthcoming presidential election, Sivajilingam stated that Tamils were not in a position to trust any of the Sinhalese leaders. The Maithri - Ranil Government that came to power with the help of the Tamil people did the same thing to the Tamils as the previous governments had done. Despite the TNA having supported this government unconditionally, Tamil prisoners are still languishing in prisons, lands grabbed by the armed forces are still under occupation, the accountability process is in limbo and the process to bring about a new Constitution has been stalled, the vociferous Tamil nationalist politician said.

The former PC member said that the TNA has been saying for the past four years that a solution to the ethnic problem would be found within that year, but nothing happened. "This and their unconditional support to the government has incensed the Tamil people," he said.

He said since no government was prepared to resolve the issues pertaining to the Tamil prisoners, lands occupied by the armed forces, people disappeared during the war and to mete out justice to the people killed during the last phase of the war, international pressure on the government was inevitable. (S. Aslam)