the tna in search of a ‘GRIEVANCE’

24 December 2013 05:29 am

Clearly, the so-called Tamil National Alliance loses no opportunity to make a fuss whether it is about something substantial or about nothing.  First, they made and continue to make a fuss about the presence of troops in the North and about the Governor being a retired military man. Now they make a song and dance about the conduct of the Government in preventing the People from commemorating dead terrorists/criminals on the so called Maha Veera Day.

Let us begin with the demand of the TNA for the removal of troops from the Northern Province. If the TNA is intent on serving the Tamil People, what basis have they to demand a troop withdrawal??? The Tamil  People, like their counterparts among the Sinhalese are, and have traditionally been, imbued with the virtue of gratitude – yet, the TNA is totally unlike both the Tamil  and the Sinhalese People in that regard. The history of the TNA and its degenerate political ancestors, the TULF, the FP and the TC shows that they are adept at asking and/or demanding, complaining and grumbling. However, was there ever an occasion when they displayed any gratitude for any service rendered by the Government of any political hue to the Tamil People???

Even the TNA cannot forget or be heard to contend that they had forgotten the darkest hour of the Tamil People. That was indisputably the time at which the thugs and murderers of the LTTE were the de facto rulers of most of the North and many parts of the East. That was a time when those thugs and murderers, among other atrocities, murdered whom they wanted, when and where they wanted, kidnapped little Tamil children for slave-labour in their terrorist cadres and extorted the hard-earned money of indigent Tamil s in the guise of collecting `taxes’ and finally `herded’  about 300,000 Tamil civilians of all ages and both genders into a narrow sliver of land at Mullaitivu where they kept them in forcible captivity as `human shields’.

The members of the TNA who always had the `courage’ to criticise or attack the Government of Sri Lanka, safe in the knowledge that they could do so in perfect safety, uttered not one word against those thugs and murderers – no, not even when they kidnapped little Tamil  children and murdered their leaders such as  Amirthalingam, Mr. and Mrs. Yogeswaran, Thangadurai [a former MP for Trincomalee whose murder by the LTTE paved the way for Sampanthan to re-enter Parliament] or Tiruchelvam, but sought to curry favour with the LTTE in every conceivable manner, sinking so low as to seek to deprive the Tamil  People of their inalienable right to self determination by declaring their tormentors, the LTTE to be the “Sole Representatives Of The Tamil  People”.

None of the manifold sufferings heaped on the Tamil People by these thugs and murderers affected the TNA in the least. The TNA did not even raise an audible whimper of protest against this outrageous conduct of the LTTE.

Had our Armed Forces not defeated the LTTE comprehensively on the battlefield, the plight of the Tamil People would have remained the same: so also would the abject sycophancy of the TNA. Thus, but for the monumental services rendered by our Armed Forces to liberate our Country and People of all races, ethnic groups and creeds, from the thugs and murderers of the LTTE, all would still be suffering untold agonies at their hands - `all’ that is, except for the TNA which would be `enjoying’ the `benefits’ of the `favours’ of the LTTE in the cesspit of their own sycophancy.

Today, however, these elements [of the TNA] who, while purporting to represent the Tamil  People; did nothing for them in their darkest hour, and represented NOT the Tamil  People but their oppressors, the LTTE, demand that the members of the Armed Forces who were only persons who came to the aid of the Tamil  People during that dark period and liberated them from bondage under the TNA’s Lords and Masters – the LTTE, at the sacrifice of life and limb, should vacate the Northern Province while the TNA  who then worshipped the LTTE remains there. As was to be expected, there was not even a whisper of gratitude from the TNA to our Armed Forces for crushing the LTTE militarily and serving the Tamil People as their purported representatives in the TNA never did.

As has been observed repeatedly by many political commentators, the objections of the TNA to Major General (Retired) Chandrasiri on the ground of his having been a `Military Man’ is wholly contradictory of and irreconcilable with their support for General (Retired) Sarath Fonseka at the Presidential Election of 2010. The stance of the TNA on this matter appears to be that while a retired `Military Man’ is most suitable to be the Executive President of the entire Country including the Northern Province, a retired `Military Man’ is unsuitable to be one of 9 Governors of the Country’s 9 Provinces, exercising jurisdiction over the Northern Province only by reason of his past as a `Military Man’!!! According to the TNA the Governor of the North must be one who is and was at all times a civilian i.e even `Dr’ Mervin Silva – the competence or suitability of the person concerned appears to be a matter of supreme indifference to them.

What is most amazing about this outpouring of protests about a very normal and natural decree by the Government prohibiting all persons whomsoever from commemorating the death of traitors and criminals is that this fuss is being made by a bunch of people who do not even commemorate the lives and/or deaths of their own erstwhile leaders and those murdered by the LTTE.  Thus, one does not find them commemorating the life and/or death of A Amirthalingam, the former leader of the TULF, Sarojini Yogeswaran, the one heroine of the TULF who emerged from this conflict, Mr. and Mrs Sam Thambimuththu, Mr. A Thangadurai, Mr. V Yogeswaran etc etc.  The one common factor that runs through the deaths of these persons is that every one of them was caused by the LTTE.  Today the TNA seeks to distance itself from the LTTE – something they did not dare to do while the LTTE was still extant as a terrorist force and committing murders all over the Country.  How is it then they who do not even commemorate the deaths of their former leaders and even the death of the greatest member of the TULF Sarojini Yogeswaran who, unlike most members of the TNA had a genuine concern for, and a genuine desire to serve the Tamil People, are now shedding crocodile tears over the decree of the Government forbidding the conduct of Maha Veera Day celebrations.  

In a fashion which is typical of them the Tamil National Alliance has wholly dishonestly, characterised this decree of the Government as being a decree that prevents the Tamil people from commemorating their dead.  

The Government has not forbidden any person whomsoever to commemorate the death of a deceased ancestor or kinsman however evil such deceased ancestor or kinsman may have been. The decree simply forbade any person of any race, creed or ethnic group whatsoever to hold celebrations on the so-called Maha Veera Day – which has traditionally been a day when the surviving thugs and murderers of the LTTE paid public tribute and glorified the villainy of their deceased comrades and propagated the treasonous call for partitioning the Country. That decree certainly does not prevent a descendant of a dead terrorist from commemorating his death if he wishes to do so.  

What the Government forbids is the holding of public ceremonies to commemorate the deaths of thugs, murderers and other criminals.  Thugs, murderers and other criminals are obviously not persons whose memories should be kept alive - the sooner they are forgotten the better. If they are remembered they must be remembered only so that no others will emulate them.  However such is not the case with the Maha Veera Day celebrations.  The commemoration is designed to venerate these gutless thugs who murdered innocent people as being such great heroes as the name Maha Veera suggests and build a cult around them.
The only thing that one finds objectionable about the government’s decree is that they do not, in like fashion ban the celebrations of the JVP in respect of the so called Il Maha Viruvo at which they purportedly commemorate the deaths of Wijeweera and his band of thugs and murderers who, like Prabakaran and his thugs, murdered Sinhalese civilians by the score.  

It is time the Government took stock of the situation and took corrective action  because what is sauce for the Sinhalese is sauce for the Tamils and  it is wholly and equally objectionable to commemorate and make heroes out of dead terrorists be they Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors or of any other race.