“No pact under a unitary structure,” TNPF to Sajith’s appeal for backing

Siva Parameswaran

With less than a month to go for the Presidential election in Sri Lanka, a leading Tamil National Party has made a conditional offer to a top contender in the September 21st election.

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) with two MP’s in the parliament represented by its leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and General Secretary Selvarasa Kajendran, both from Jaffna, has called upon the Tamil people to boycott the upcoming Presidential election and is actively campaigning among the Tamils in the North and East of the country.

The current President Ranil Wickremesinghe is facing a tough battle with his former deputy in the United National Party, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the National People’s Power and the heir apparent to the Rajapaksa clan Namal Rajapaksa as his foremost competitors.

Replying to Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa seeking support of the TNPF in the presidential poll, Selvarasa Kajendran the General Secretary of the Tamil Party has replied back it could reconsider its stand provided the Colombo district MP and the leader of the opposition (LO) makes a written commitment in his election manifesto.

“We can reconsider our decision to boycott if you publish in your manifesto that this country can be united only by abolishing the unitary state structure and introducing a federal constitution”.

MP Kajendran recalled the meeting the party representatives had with the LO in 2022, when the president post fell vacant following the mass people uprising ‘Aragalaya’ which resulted in ousting the war-crimes accused Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office. During the said meeting TNPF claims the LO sought their support in his bid to lead the country.

In the ensuing constitutional crisis after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned, the Parliament was to elect a president among the members in a rare move.

“In that meeting, our leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam made it very clear if the economy of Sri Lanka has to be rebuilt, the unitary state structure has to be disbanded and a new constitution with a federal system has to be written. Only such a move will lead to a bringing a solution to the long-lasting ethnic issue. However, since no such guarantee was offered, we refrained from voting to elect a new president in the Parliament,” the TNPF General Secretary reminded the LO in his letter.

His detailed letter also restated their party’s political stand making it clear again that “no solution in whatsoever manner is possible under the unitary setup and the 13th amendment is neither a solution nor a starting point to the solution”.

“We have also rejected outright the new constitution draft during the Maitripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government (2016-2019) under the unitary structure” his letter to the LOP adds further.

Detailing further their reason for asking the Tamils to boycott the Presidential election next month, Selvarasa Kajendran in his letter says the primary reason for all the issues in the unitary setup in the country.

The boycott

“The constitution based on the unitary structure that exists now for over 76 years has refused to treat all the religions and ethnicities equally, fanned racial hatred among all the national ethnicities, and paved the way for the genocidal war against the Tamils. The same unitary structure was the reason for the country going towards bankruptcy (in 2022) even after the war ended 13 years ago. Hence, under the failed unitary state structure, we have taken a policy stand not to vote for any candidate contesting the Presidential election in Sri Lanka and calling upon the Tamil people in the traditional homeland of north and east to boycott the poll”.

Reiterating a federal structure alone will pave the way for the deep-rooted ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka, taking forward the country as well as for the citizens of all religions and races to live in harmony without fear, Selavarasa Kajendran’s letter adds that would be the only way to attract much needed foreign exchange.

“The only solution to attract investment from the diaspora without any fear and for all the ethnicities to coexist peacefully without racial hatred would be the solution of- two nations in a country under a federal structure and that is our stand”.

In his detailed letter to Sajith Premadasa who has sought the support of TNPF, its General Secretary has also demanded the recognizing of the merged North and East as the traditional Tamil homeland and the country to be a secular one.

Apart from this, the party has also sought the recognition of the Tamil state and its sovereignty and their right to self-determination and a federal structure be enacted on these principles.

Commenting further his letter says, that the Tamils who have immensely suffered for more than the last 70 years and, demanding an international inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity now strongly feel only a strong guaranteed federal structure would avoid further structural genocide.

Even after the brutal war came to a bloody end in 2009 no accountability has been rendered and the Tamils continue to face intimidation and systematic discrimination in their traditional homeland.

“As a candidate who has sought our support in the Sri Lankan Presidential election to be held on September 21st, we expect you to come forward and acknowledge it was the unitary structure, that failed the country over the last 76 years and the only way forward is to abolish the constitution under the unitary structure and promise to bring in a new one guaranteeing a federal structure, by publishing it in your election manifesto, thereby sending a strong message to the Sinhala people that you are ready to find a solution which will pave the way for all the ethnicities to live in communal harmony”.

The TNPF, in its letter says that if Sajith Premadasa comes forward openly in his election manifesto to abolish the unitary structure in favour of a strong federal structure, the party is prepared to reconsider its stand on boycotting the Presidential election.

Selvarasa Kajendran’s reply to Sajith Premadasa has come after the Presidential contender wrote to Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam the leader of the TNPF seeking the party’s support.

While the TNPF has openly called for the boycott of the polls, few Tamil Nationalist parties have jointly put forward Packkiyaselvam Ariyanethran former MP from Batticaloa as their common Tamil candidate, who started his campaign after paying tributes to the war dead at Mullivaikkal.

However, Ilangai Tamil Arasu Katchi the predominant Tamil party in the North and East has yet to officially spell out its stand. While its leader elect and Jaffna district MP Sivagnanam Shritharan is in favour of supporting the common Tamil candidate, the party’s other MP and senior attorney MA Sumanthiran has made it clear he doesn’t support such an idea. Yet another senior leader of the party CVK Sivagnanam has also opposed the concept of a common Tamil candidate.

The common Tamil candidate was mooted by the parties comprising the Democratic Tamil National Alliance and certain Tamil civil society organizations based in the North and East.