TNA, JVP, please pay heed

A principal thrust in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Independence Day address on Sunday was his request to the TNA to support the Government's efforts to protect the ordinary Tamil people from the terrible scourge of LTTE terrorism. Considering that the advancement of the legitimate needs of the Tamil people is a declared aim of the TNA, we hope this request by the President would not go unheeded.

One of the gravest tragedies of North-East politics is the relentless victimization of the people by the LTTE. The best proof we have that the people of the North-East and their interests mean nothing to the LTTE, is their continued suffering and torment.

The fact is, the people are used as pawns by the LTTE in their cruel power games. In the East, for instance, the people were converted into human shields by the retreating LTTE.

In the course of the conflict they have been displaced, moved around and relocated in accordance with the political and military aims of the Tigers. So much for the rhetoric of national liberation spouted by the LTTE.

Even leading political figures in the Tamil community, such as V. Anandasangaree and Douglas Devananda, have perceptively established the revoltingly self-serving nature of the LTTE for which only power matters.

This being the case, why is the TNA slavishly toeing the Tiger line? If the TNA is truly intent on serving the Tamil people it would serve the cause of the common people of the North-East in a spirit of selflessness.

Instead the TNA prefers to cringe in abject servitude before the LTTE. What prize liberators, one is tempted to ask.

The bottom line is that the lives of the TNA members would be at stake if they go against the dictates of the LTTE. We would be labouring the obvious by pointing to the tragic fate which was visited on some leading political lights of the Tamil community who had the courage of their convictions to stand-up to LTTE tyranny.

That, however, is a sad but past episode in Tamil politics. Today, President Rajapaksa is earnestly in search of a consensual political formula to end the conflict.

The APC is proof of this and so is the All Party Representatives Committee which is charged with working out a political solution. If the TNA is serious when it says that it intends serving the Tamil people, it would join the APC process and turn its back on the Tigers and their evil ways.

Likewise, the JVP. If it is in earnest when it says that it would support a broad consensus on ending the conflict, it would join the President's initiative to end the conflict.

The point of commonality of all democratic political forces is that they intend to work towards the common good and preserve the undivided nature of the Lankan State. If so, they need to work unitedly towards evolving a political solution.

This applies in particular to the TNA and the JVP. The only way in which they could advance the collective good of the country is by earnestly joining the search for a political solution.

The JVP needs to remember that it would be only playing into the paws of the Tigers by adopting a confrontational approach to the State. For, the Tigers are eagerly waiting for divisions in the South.

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