Colombo, June 17 (newsin.asia): Given the failure of current efforts to bring about a compromise between the feuding leaders of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province, the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) is believed to be mulling the prospect of putting forward a new proposal.
According to sources in PLOTE, an attempt will be made to persuade the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders to request Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran to appoint a Board of Ministers entirely of his choice. The TNA itself will abandon its plan to move a motion of no confidence against the Chief Minister.
The basic idea is to save the existing Northern Provincial Council (NPC), the current provincial administration, and the TNA, all in the larger interest of the Tamil people.
PLOTE believes that unity is the need of the hour and not competition and confrontation. It fees that both Wigneswaran and Sampanthan are needed to fulfill the Tamils’ political aspirations in a way that will be forceful, democratic and internationally acceptable.
Political sources said that PLOTE’s new formula, if accepted, will boost the ego of Chief Minister Wigneswaran and make him amenable to accommodation with the TNA leadership.
However, given the adulation that Wigneswaran currently enjoys in the Tamil media, and the public demonstrations in his support in the last few days, it is unlikely that he would make up with the TNA.
The adulation has led him to feel that the Tamils have placed their destiny in his hands. Buttressing this, the head of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Suresh Premachandran has declared that Wigneswaran is LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s worthy successor.
It was due to the manifest backing he has that Wigneswaran rejected PLOTE’s earlier proposal for accommodation.
He told TNA Supremo R.Sampanthan in no uncertain terms that he will not revise his earlier stand on Ministers P.Sathiyalingam and T.Kurkularaja. In fact he had gone one step further from his initial stand, and said that if the two were to rejoin the Board of Ministers, they would have to give “in writing” that they would not interfere in the inquiry that he plans to conduct against them.
He took no notice when it was pointed out that asking the ministers to go “on leave” during the pendency of the inquiry against them was unconstitutional.
(The featured picture above shows Jaffna residents marching in support of Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran)
