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| Sunday, 1 September 2002 |
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Amir - Victim of paradoxical politics Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake The tragic paradox of Appapillai Amirthalingam's life was that he was a
politician in the old pacifist mould of Tamil politics who had to It was after that the average man began taking notice of Amirthalingam particularly in the wake of his becoming the Leader of the Opposition as the head of a minority party deriving its support exclusively from the northern and eastern provinces but Amirthalingam had been one of the leading figures of the Tamil movement long before that. Being Opposition Leader was the apogee of a career which began long years ago at the University College when as he himself has recalled several times in parliamentary asides he and Sivasithamparam imbibed the fundamentals of Marxism at the feet of gurus like Dr. N. M. Perera, strictly, of course out of school. Amirthalingam belonged to the first generation of native sons to come out of Jaffna and explore the intellectual and political life of Colombo, the great metropolis. In Parliament he has recalled being boarded at the home of former Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel as a university student. Amirthalingam therefore was different to the first generation of Tamil politicians represented by Chelvanayakam and Ponnambalam who belonged to a westernised elite living in Colombo for professional reasons and having an ambivalent relationship with Jaffna. They were those who wore immaculate western attire in Colombo and verti in Jaffna. Amirthalingam and Sivasithamparam were different. They were more rooted in the soil of Jaffna and although like both Chelvanayakam and Ponnambalam, both of them too became lawyers, they were closer to the heartbeats of their people. Amirthalingam particularly practised exclusively in the northern courts so that his relationship wont deeper. It was in the fateful and decisive year 1956 that Amirthalingam appeared on the national political landscape. He immediately made a mark as one of the most radical of the younger Federal Party politicians. He used to recall how he was stoned during the satyagraha against the Sinhala Only Bill and had to come to Parliament with a bloody bandage round his head to be greeted by Prime Minister Bandaranaike with the remark 'Honourable wounds of war.' After that baptism Amirthalingam never looked back. Gifted with a knack for oratory in both Tamil and English he was always in the vanguard of all struggles. Both in 1958 and 1961 when the Tamil struggle reached a crescendo he was placed under detention. In his partner in life too, Mr. Amirthalingam was singularly blessed. His wife was also politically active and used to sing patriotic, nationalist songs composed by the poet Kasi Anandan at Federal Party and TULF political meetings. Amirthalingam's popularity can be gauged by the fact that since 1956 he has not been defeated at a single election upto 1970. Defeated in 1970 he returned in 1977 as leader of the TULF, the MP for Kankesanturai (the seat held by Chelvanayakam) and in a mind-boggling exercise Leader of the Opposition. Though naturally preoccupied with the problems of the Tamil people he conducted himself with great dignity in that office and although he could not transcend the limits imposed by his nature and position he strove to the best of his ability to be a true leader of the national opposition. This was also the most decisive period of his political career. By this time he was the undisputed leader of the TULF and the Tamil people but behind his back was a youth movement increasingly becoming impatient with the parliamentary posturings of its leaders. Amirthalingam has been accused of encouraging separatist tendencies among this section but at the same time it is easy to see him as the tragic prisoner of circumstances as well. By temperament and nature he belonged to the Chelvanayakam school of Gandhian pacifism but he assumed leadership of the Tamil movement at a time when the Gandhian credo no longer held. Certainly as a rousing speaker on Tamil platforms Amirthalingam kindled the dream of a Tamil Eelam but as a practical politician it is doubtful whether he would have advanced that slogan to the last. But very soon after 1977 he was overwhelmed and swamped by the rising tide of Tamil militancy culminating in anarchist action. This was the true measure of Amirthalingam's isolation. After July 1983 he placed himself in self-exile in Madras and cut away from his soil and his people became increasingly close to India and the Indian Government. This perhaps was the final tragic flaw in his make-up. Identifying himself during the last phase of his politics with the New Delhi administration and the EPRLF administration which New Delhi installed in the North-East Amirthalingam was blind to the excesses of the IPKF and the natural antipathy of the Tamil people to Indian interference. Having come to look at India as liberator he could not be guilty of self-betrayal by recognising the cruel truth. sometimes one does not like to lose one's fondest illusions. The last six months in retrospect were an elegiac time for him. Returning to Parliament as the sole National List MP of the TULF he was treated with great respect by both sides of Parliament. Moderate to a fault and reasonable he sought to establish himself as a statesman above the turmoil of the present national condition. A recent glimpse of him was symbolic. At the British High Commissioner's reception on the occasion of the Queen's official birthday last month two former Emperors held court. One was ex-President J. R. Jayawardene. The other ex-Opposition Leader Appapillai Amirthalingam. Most people went and talked to both. But finally Amirthalingam's tragic paradox was that he inherited the mantle of Chelvanayakam at a time when Mahatma Gandhi's ideology was no longer relevant to a new generation. He was a committed socialist at a time when socialism was being superseded by nationalism within the Tamil movement. He emerged as the stormy petrel of Tamil politics during the era of Chelvanayakam, Ponnambalam and Naganathan only to be overtaken by more violent radicals even as he emerged as the leader of the TULF and the successor to those legendary heroes of the Tamil movement. Finally Amirthalingam was overtaken by history but to his credit he grappled to the last with the alien forces which had been suddenly unleashed within his universe. To the last. This week's Sunday Essay is a reproduction from the 'Sunday Island' of 16 July 1989 on the killing of the late TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam whose 75th birth anniversary fell last Monday |
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assume
leadership of the Tamil movement at a time of intense radicalisation and a
lurch towards violence. The volatile nation of his temperament was also
partly traceable to this development. Nobody perhaps has adequately
assessed or understood the magnitude of the responsibility which devolved
on him after the death of S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the undisputed father
figure and saint of the Tamil political pantheon. In two fell strokes
successively both Chelvanayakam and G. G. Ponnambalam who had dominated
post-independence Tamil politics in Sri Lanka were removed just before the
1977 General Election and it fell to the lot of Amirthalingam and Murugesu
Sivasithamparam, who too was seriously injured in last Thursday's attack
to lead the Tamil people.
