By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
Colombo, January 14: As political parties in South Sri Lanka gear up for the Presidential election expected in September, the election of a leader of the Ilankai Thamizh Arasu Katchi (AITAK) has assumed great importance in Tamil politics.
The ITAK is to hold the election in on January 21 in Trincomalee, ahead of the long-delayed convention of the party later this month.
In its almost 75-year history, the election of the ITAK leader has always been unanimous. If its founding father the illusrious S.J.V.Chelvanayakam, had wanted to, he could have held the post of party leader for the rest of his life. But, after having served only once as President, he worked out an arrangement whereby party seniors from the Northern Province and the Eastern Province would alternate as President and General Secretary.
However, in 1973, when a former Member of Parliament for Vaddukkoddai in the North, Appapillai Amirthalingam, and the then Batticaloa first MP Chelliah Rasadurai from the East, were vying with each other for the leadership, “Chelva” persuaded Rasadurai to withdraw. It is doubtful if Chelva would have been able to convince Amrithalingam to give up even if he had wanted to give Rasadurai a chance.
In the 1970s after the Tamil United Liberation (TULF ) was formed by uniting various Tamil political parties, no one talked about the ITAK in the long turbulent period that followed the 1976 Vaddukkoddai Resolution. Even with diminished influence, the TULF continued to be the moderate political face of the Tamils during the civil war.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) formed in 2001 by reunifying Tamil parties, first contested the December 2001 general elections under the TULF’s Rising Sun symbol. Later, due to differences with the leader of the TULF, former MP Veerasingham Anandasangari over the Rising Sun symbol, the TNA contested the April 2004 general elections with the House symbol – the symbol of the AITAK. The TNA faced all subsequent general elections with the House symbol.
As the ITAK was the oldest of the constituent parties of the TNA and was the largest Tamil party with considerable support in the North and East and due to the fact that the alliance had been contesting consecutive elections under the House symbol, the AITAK aspired to have a bigger say in Tamil politics.
The other member parties in the TNA, especially leaders of ex-militant movements, began to express displeasure over AITAK’s continued bid for dominance. Their constant request to the ITAK to register the TNA with the Election Commission under a separate symbol was ignored by ITAK leader R.Sampanthan even though he was the leader of the TNA.
Such contradictions eventually caused a rift in the TNA. The leaders of AITAK have an impression that other parties will not be able to win seats if they did not contest elections in alliance with the ITAK. Some AITAK stalwarts also proposed that the TNA member parties could compete separately in the local government elections scheduled to be held early last year and join forces to form local government councils in the North and East based on the number of seats available after the results were announced. Unable to accept this, the other parties withdrew from the alliance and filed nominations as a separate front.
The Tamil parties saw the local government elections as an opportunity to gauge their influence among the Tamil people. But the elections were postponed indefinitely.
As on date, the Tamil polity is in disarray with many parties and many leaders. They do not know how many members are behind them. There is no such thing as unity or understanding even among the leaders of AITAK. The party looks like a camp with different tents its leaders have built for themselves with different agendas.
It is in such a background that the excitement about the election for the new leader of AITAK has to be viewed.
After Sampanthan, veteran politician Mavai Senathiraja, who was unanimously elected as the leader of the AITAK in 2014, has been holding the position for almost a decade. The party convention had not been convened for a long time. The election for the leader is going to be held next week before the convention because it was not possible to choose someone in his place on the basis of consensus as per the tradition.
This is the first-ever election for the leadership in the history of the AITAK. Members of the General Council and Central Working Committee ( altogether numbering 325 ) are the eligible voters.
MPs of Jaffna district Mathiaparanam Abraham Sumanthiran, Shivagnanam Sritharan and former Batticaloa district MP Srinithambi Yogeswaran are contesting. Among them, Sumanthiran and Sritharan had entered Parliament at the same time.
Sumanthiran, a President’s Counsel, entered parliament through the National List of the TNA after the April 2010 General Election and then successfully contested Jaffna district as the candidate of the TNA in the August 2015 and August 2020 General Elections. He has been a Member of Parliament for the past 14 years.
Sritharan, a former Principal of the Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam, contested from Jaffna District in 2010, 2015 and 2020 as a TNA candidate and was elected to Parliament. He also has 14 years of parliamentary experience.
Yogeswaran successfully contested as a candidate of the TNA for the Batticaloa district in the 2010 and 2015 elections. He was an MP for ten years. In the last general election he was defeated.
Sumanthiran returned to the country last week after a three-week foreign tour just a day before the emergency meeting of the AITAK’s Central Working Committee at Sampanthan’s Colombo residence.
Sumanthiran and Sritharan had announced in advance that the winner of the election is committed to working with the other in the interest of the party. They said they would not take any action that would split the party.
Sumanthiran, who has already addressed some meetings of party members, told a meeting in Karaithivu in the Eastern district of Amparai that he will turn 60 this year and will retire from politics when he reaches 65.
As this is the case, Sritharan met and talked to Sampanthan who came to Parliament last Tuesday after a long time. The veteran leader insisted that the party’s long-held tradition be preserved in selecting the new leader. But currently he does not have the political strength to create a situation where the leader of the party can be elected by consensus in the General Council. The party’s Central Working committee which met at his residence the following day failed to get the three candidates to agree to elect a President unanimously.
Eventually, the contestants were given a day’s time to meet and come to a conclusion as per Sumanthiran’s request. They met at Sritharan’s residence in Madiwela near the Parliament complex, the next day but could not come to an agreement. So the election is certain.
It was understood that Yogeswaran, who had already announced his support to Sritharan, said that he would ask his supporters to vote for latter in the General Council.
Irrespective of the candidature, the crucial question is how the winner will contribute to the collective responsibility of guiding Tamil politics in the current domestic and international political situation.
Although it cannot be said that the ITAK is in a position to determine the course of Tamil politics entirely, it has a greater role than other Tamil parties. It is therefore important to look back at how effectively the party has handled that role in the last 15 years since the end of the civil war.
Since there was no cohesive Tamil polity among the North and East Tamils, the role of leading them automatically came to the TNA. As the main member party of that alliance an additional responsibility rested on the ITAK and its then leader Sampanthan. It secured the historically important role of moving the decades-long struggle for political rights of the Tamil people to the next stage in the new situation that had emerged after the war.
But the ITAK leaders did not handle the role in a meaningful way. Sri Lankan Tamils are in a predicament like never before in their political history.
The pressure or good will of the international community including India could not sway Sri Lankan governments. Many Tamil politicians and observers were hopeful that the geopolitical situation would turn out to be an opportunity for the Tamils, but that was not to be. Even India, which facilitated the introduction of Provincial Councils through the July 1987 Peace Accord, has so far failed to ensure that Sri Lankan governments implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution passed 36 years ago.
It must be admitted that Tamil politicians and militants had also contributed greatly to that failure by their irresponsible actions.
Although many resolutions have been passed in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regarding the alleged rights violations that occurred at the end of the civil war, there is no possibility of getting justice for the Tamils in the foreseeable future. But Tamil politicians continue to rely on the international community.
For the Sri Lankan Sinhalese polity, the Tamil problem does not seem to require a political solution that fulfils even the minimal political aspirations of the Tamils .
Tamil political parties are not in a position to exert any pressure on the political forces in the Sinhalese South. The Tamil people are not ready to believe Tamil parties anymore and join in any protest organised by them.
Some Tamil politicians are keen on making the people live in the past. Although they are not going to take up arms, they keep talking about the past armed conflict and propagating extremist views without any idea about how to go forward.
Many a Tamil politician is under the influence of the agenda of groups with extremist views in the Tamil Diaspora. It is no secret that these can be manipulated by foreign governments.
Tamil politicians do not have the acumen to pave a viable path based on lessons that could be learned from past bitter experiences. They are spending their time in inter and intra party rivalries.
These are important issues that a new leader of the ITAK should think about. The politics of the old ITAK do not need a new leader. What the Tamil people urgently need today is a new vision for the future, not activities that keep them emotionally tied to the past.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the leaders of other Tamil parties are very concerned about who should not win the ITAK election for reasons that can be easily seen by any keen observer of Tamil politics.
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