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| Sunday, 15 June 2003 |
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Politics |  |
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Anandasangaree, a Trotskyite turned TULF leader, in trouble By T. Sabaratnam Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) President Veerasingham Anandasangaree, currently in the eye of a political storm, will be three score years and ten on tomorrow. He weathered many a turmoil in his 50 - year political life. The current turbulence concerns his leadership of his party. Five of his party's parliamentary colleagues told him recently to resign his post saying the LTTE wanted it. The Amiable and outspoken Anandasangaree refused. He told me in an exclusive interview: "I don't think Thamby Pirapaharan, who maintains strict discipline in his Organization, the LTTE would interfere in the internal affairs of another organization. I get the feeling this is the work of some over ambitions persons who wants to step into my shoes using Pirapaharan's name." Anandasangaree, Sangaree to his friends, entered politics as a Member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party Youth League. "My political guru and party leader Dr. N. M. Perera called me one day and asked me to contest the Colombo Municipal Election in 1959. He prophesied that I am destined to be a parliamentarian and wanted me, like him, to start with local politics. I obeyed, contested and lost", Anandasangaree said. Dr. N. M. Perera entered politics contesting the Colombo Municipal Council. The LSSP nominated him to contest the newly created Kilinochchi seat in March 1960 and again in the July 1960 parliamentary election - and he lost both. He contested again in the same party in 1965. Born into the large family of S. Veerasinghem, former Principal, Putur Sri Somaskanda College, he had seven brothers and two sisters, he naturally took to teaching. His supporters deserted him because the LSSP had dumped one Language Policy of parity of status to Sinhala and Tamil Languages in 1964 and had joined Sirimavo Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which vigorously implemented the Sinhala Only Policy. He joined the All Ceylon Tamil Congress in May 1966 and contested as its candidate in the 1970 General Election. He polled 9049 votes and defeated the Federal Party's powerful candidate M. Alalasuntharam who polled 8392. And in May, 1972 when the Tamil United Front was formed to unify Tamil resistance, Anandasangaree was one of the founder members. He was also instrumental in the adoption of the historic Vaddukoddai Resolution, which proclaimed the right of the Tamil Nation to establish the separate state of Tamil Eelam and the transformation of the Tamil United Front into a Liberation Organization, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). He won the July, 1977 Parliamentary Election and quit Parliament on 23rd October, 1983 in keeping with the decision of the TULF's Mannar Convention, just before the July riots, not to continue as Member of Parliament, term of which was extended by a referendum. He was TULF's Joint Propaganda Secretary since the formation of the Tamil United Front. He was elected to the TULF Politburo in June, 1983. He returned to Parliament in October, 2000 when he became the first Member of the Jaffna Electoral District and returned again with over 36,000 preference votes as the first Member of the Jaffna Electoral District at the December, 2001 General Election. At present he is in conflict with some members of the party over the basic question of the formation of the four-party Tamil National Alliance. He preferred the TULF to function in collaboration with the LTTE, as it was the genuine political liberation organization that enjoyed the support of the larger section of Tamil people. Two of the groups in the Tamil National Alliance had helped the Army to hunt down innocent Tamil youth as Members of the LTTE. Though involved in these intra-party rows Anandasangaree maintains the basic Tamil position: Tigers are the sole representatives in the peace process. "It's they who fought for the Tamils and it is with them a peaceful solution sould be worked out, but maintains that he has no mandate to call anybody the sole representatives of the Tamil people. There are in Parliament Tamil Members who belong to parties deadly opposed to the LTTE. |
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