Politics and Rathika - Editorial

Few Sri Lankans would know of a lady called Helen Halyard.  Helen was a third-party candidate for the US Presidency in 1992, representing the Socialist Equality Party (SEP).  The SEP was the political successor to the Revolutionary Communist League; both entities had counterparts in Sri Lanka, the Samajawadi Samanatha Pakshaya and the Viplavavadi Komiyunist Sangamaya respectively.   What was interesting about Helen was that she campaigned in Sri Lanka (!), probably following the global vision embedded in party ideology, never mind the fact that Sri Lankans couldn’t vote for her.

Helen knew she had an ice cube’s chance in hell to become US President.  The election and candidacy provided a platform to communicate party ideology; nothing wrong in that.  So what’s Helen Halyard got in common with Rathika Sitsabaiesan?  

Rathika is also a politician. Rathika is also contesting an election.  Rathika, like Helen, is not a Sri Lankan citizen and will not get any votes here.  That’s where the similarities end.

Rathika is already an elected MP in Canada.  She has Sri Lankan Tamil roots.  There are Sri Lankan Tamils now domiciled in her electorate who have the right to vote.  Rathika is not touting ideology as Helen did. Rathika is a run-of-the-mill politician doing what she believes would get her re-elected; nothing wrong in that.  

Helen, like all self-proclaimed Trotskyites, was focused on global revolution and would not compromise on ideology.  Rathika has no such compulsions.  For her, clearly, it is all about what-it-takes.  Long before she entered formal politics in Canada, she was not just a ‘Canadian Eezham Tamil’ as described by the pro-LTTE website ‘Tamilnet’; she was a Pro-LTTE Canadian Eezham Tamil’.  She was an admirer and a supporter.  

At one time her Facebook profile picture had an LTTE emblem in the background.  The moment she realised that the LTTE tag would be a liability when soliciting votes from Canadians who identify the LTTE with criminal activity, she dropped that image.  She can do with Canadian Tamil votes though.  

Check out the news stories about Rathika’s visit and you won’t find anything that identifies her even remotely with the LTTE.  She knows that Tamils in Canada won’t be swayed by ‘Tigerist’ rhetoric. They, however, are not impervious to ‘Tigerist’ propaganda. Indeed, all ‘Tamil stories’ pertaining to Sri Lanka are filtered through ‘Tigerist’ media or outfits that have for decades whitewashed the LTTE.  Having been fed ‘horror stories’ (key word ‘stories’, meaning ‘fiction’) for years, it will take some time for the truth to filter through the grey layers of disbelief.  Rathika knows this.

This is why Rathika Sitsabaiesan in his short visit to Sri Lanka is hobnobbing with politicians who for decades were servile to the LTTE.  They can be counted on to repeat the carefully manufactured horror stories because that’s their bread and butter: sections of the expatriate community will still fund poor Tamil politicians who they believe speak for their ‘subjugated’ relatives.   Rathika has not bothered to venture into the other side of the story.  That’s just not ‘useful’ considering her purposes.  
So we see stories about harassment, about Rathika being put under house arrest, having her movements restricted and fears that she would be deported.  Nothing of the sort has happened.  Indeed she would be thrilled if she were frisked and hoofed out of Sri Lanka.  

All things considered, she’s just a slightly more pragmatic Helen who is in fact closer in this business of canvassing support outside the electorate is more like David Cameron than Helen.  She’s just another simple politician going about doing what-it-takes.  Quite innocent.