sri lanka freedom party unveiled its proposals to aprc yesterday(30th). no doubt in the coming days various people will assess them (and other proposals from others) in detail. some will say they do not go far, others that they go too far, in offering a solution to political aspirations of tamils in north and east.
however one has to ask a fundamental question; what qualifies anyone to judge this or that proposal on behalf of north and east tamils in general? one can make all sorts of statements and judgments as individuals or as representatives of other groups and parties, but is anyone qualified to legitimately represent ne tamils?
ltte terrorists claiming to be their sole representative are certainly not qualified. their claim is based on terror, oppression, and physical elimination, of tamil leaders. peaceniks who will undoubtedly jump to asses and pass judgment, do not represent anyone at all, though given their regular parroting of ltte terrorists, they can be taken as representatives (or more correctly tools) of murderous pussies.
mps from tamil national alliance or itak are puppets of ltte and were elected by ltte, nobody else. as long as they are happy with such an election and consider ltte to be tamil's sole representative their legitimacy in a democratic state like sri lanka is equivalent to zero.
few remaining survivors of tiger terrorist purges of democratic tamil leaders may have some claim. but given that their political freedom is curtailed by terrorists, one can question the extent of their representation now.
former militant groups and karuna faction do not have legitimate democratic credentials to represent ne tamils or any subsection of them at present.
political freedom of non ethnic sri lankan parties like unp, slfp, and various leftist outfits are also curtailed by the terrorists in north east, so they too cannot claim to represent tamils there
in other words at present there isn't anyone who can legitimately claim to represent tamils of north and east democratically. reason why there aren't any such representatives is the terrorism of ltte.
one of its main goals of sri lankan state should be to ensure that all its citizens have political freedom and are represented democratically in its polity. only then can any legitimate and sustainable proposals of devolution be debated and implemented.
only democratically elected representatives of north and east tamils will have the right to demand from, discuss, and compromise with, representatives of other participants of sri lankan democracy, in order to arrive at a political solution acceptable to all.
that is why sri lanka should try to defeat ltte. anyone who wants justice to be done to tamil aspirations should support that effort. not to do so and to claim one stands for the rights of tamils is to be hypocritical.
until ltte is defeated or at least contained so that it cannot seriously affect the political freedom of tamils or their new democratic representatives, all the words poured out in assessing various proposals of devolution will be so much hot air and propaganda from various sides. (i am not saying they are not useful. hot air and propaganda can be useful, but they won't make much difference)
however one has to ask a fundamental question; what qualifies anyone to judge this or that proposal on behalf of north and east tamils in general? one can make all sorts of statements and judgments as individuals or as representatives of other groups and parties, but is anyone qualified to legitimately represent ne tamils?
ltte terrorists claiming to be their sole representative are certainly not qualified. their claim is based on terror, oppression, and physical elimination, of tamil leaders. peaceniks who will undoubtedly jump to asses and pass judgment, do not represent anyone at all, though given their regular parroting of ltte terrorists, they can be taken as representatives (or more correctly tools) of murderous pussies.
mps from tamil national alliance or itak are puppets of ltte and were elected by ltte, nobody else. as long as they are happy with such an election and consider ltte to be tamil's sole representative their legitimacy in a democratic state like sri lanka is equivalent to zero.
few remaining survivors of tiger terrorist purges of democratic tamil leaders may have some claim. but given that their political freedom is curtailed by terrorists, one can question the extent of their representation now.
former militant groups and karuna faction do not have legitimate democratic credentials to represent ne tamils or any subsection of them at present.
political freedom of non ethnic sri lankan parties like unp, slfp, and various leftist outfits are also curtailed by the terrorists in north east, so they too cannot claim to represent tamils there
in other words at present there isn't anyone who can legitimately claim to represent tamils of north and east democratically. reason why there aren't any such representatives is the terrorism of ltte.
one of its main goals of sri lankan state should be to ensure that all its citizens have political freedom and are represented democratically in its polity. only then can any legitimate and sustainable proposals of devolution be debated and implemented.
only democratically elected representatives of north and east tamils will have the right to demand from, discuss, and compromise with, representatives of other participants of sri lankan democracy, in order to arrive at a political solution acceptable to all.
legitimate representatives of other minority groups (like upcountry tamils or muslims), unhindered by terrorism, were (and are) able to successful engage with sri lankan democracy in order fulfill their aspirations. grappling with democracy through non violent methods is not an easy task, nor should it be if it is a real democracy. it is hard, messy, and sometimes corrupt, but that is how it is in every democracy and it is certainly worth it when compared to other alternatives. ne tamils are prevented from engaging and participating in democracy by tiger terrorists.
that is why sri lanka should try to defeat ltte. anyone who wants justice to be done to tamil aspirations should support that effort. not to do so and to claim one stands for the rights of tamils is to be hypocritical.
until ltte is defeated or at least contained so that it cannot seriously affect the political freedom of tamils or their new democratic representatives, all the words poured out in assessing various proposals of devolution will be so much hot air and propaganda from various sides. (i am not saying they are not useful. hot air and propaganda can be useful, but they won't make much difference)
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7 comments:
What devolution?
District councils, the Chief Minister of which is to be appointed by the President of SL.
More a means to consolidate MR's base than anything else I think.
don't you think presenting a set of proposals that remotely even meets the aspirations of the Tamil people is an important part of defeating the LTTE?
This joke of a proposal shows that the govt itself is not really interested in providing a solution OR destroying the LTTE.
jack point:
thanks for the comment
question is whether we or anyone else is able to judge this in relation ne tamils aspirations ( thus whether they devolve enough power or not)in the absence of legitimate tamil representatives.
we of course free to judge this on other criteria.
nasi:
don't you think presenting a set of proposals that remotely even meets the aspirations of the Tamil people is an important part of defeating the LTTE?
who are you to judge what the aspirations of tamils are? may i know? who appointed you their spokesman?
without such knowledge which will only be available when we have democratic tamil representative you as well as everyone else is not qualified judge on their behalf.
of course you are free to state what you personally think of these proposals. however if so, you probably should explain your reasons better.
Tamils have made it clear over the years that anything less than federal is not worth discussing. This goes from all the democratic leaders of north east Tamils from Chelvanayagam to Amirthalingam. That is the same with TULF and even
the paramilitaries like EPDP whom are with the govt. today. The only alternative to a sepearate state for LTTE is some form of federalism. The govt has once again shown that it is more interested in keeping its hard line electorate happy and not really interested in sharing power with Tamils. This can only help LTTE and no one else. If this govt had some sort of vision and understanding of the Tamil issue they would have done better by offering a federal solution that is worth discussing and make LTTE redundant. But they just added to the age old claim that all Sinhalese govts are not interested in sharing power and resolving the ethnic problem.
Despite what some may think, Sri Lanka is still very much a democracy. This government doesn't have a mandate for devolution or federalism. It's unreasonable to expect them to ignore the aspirations of their voters to appease selfish, racist, undemocratic, inequitable demands of an insatiable minority group. No country in the world will devolve power along racial lines to strengthen an alien ethnic group that has nothing but hostility and disloyalty to this country, at the expense of the indigenous majority.
If you don't like it, try and vote someone else in. That's how democracy works. Most Sri Lankans are opposed to devolution and they support war against the LTTE.
I'm a fan of your blog.
I saw this and thought you might want to comment? She's talking BS.
anon at 5/07/2007 12:21 am
you seem not to have an idea about how democracy work. in a democracy representatives of various interest groups discuss and compromise with each other to arrive at a solution.
slfp proposals should represent slfp vote base. final solution should be a compromise between all democratic representatives. as i said in the post, main problem is the non existence of legitimate democratic tamil representatives at present. they will only come into existence only when ltte is deprived of its ability to affect elections through terror.
meanwhile what makes you think you are ne tamil's representative ? .
justmal
sl is a democracy and as such should only deal with democratic representatives when coming to a political solution.
in a democracy words like 'alien' or 'indigenous' do not mean anything. if compromises with democratically made demands of ethnic minorities have to be made for political reasons they will be made. this was after all the case with non ne tamil minorities. it has worked .
anon at 5/08/2007 6:50 am
yes she is talking bs. imo so much bs in fact that nobody who know anything about ltte will take it seriously. will reply if needed in the future
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