TNA trying to pull wool over whose eyes?

by Deepal Warnakulasuriya

Truth is always absolute and there are some truths forgotten by most, all the time. `Everything comes back home to roost sooner or later' is one from that category. This came to my mind after reading the reports on the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian S. Kajendran who dared to threaten the security of all Sri Lankans denigrating the respect of the legislature and Parliament.

The MP who represents the TNA in Parliament was elected by people who had suffered enough with this 23 years long burning problem. After securing a seat in the House, he has forgotten this fact and speaks on behalf of one of the world's ruthless terrorist organisations; LTTE.

The LTTE air raid on April 26, which expected a major breakdown in the country's economy to fail. Anyway, according to the last week's interview which MP Kajendran spoke to the Sunday Observer, he had introduced the guerilla air craft as 'our air force'.

Not only that he also said that it would attack only identified enemy targets in the country and it would never attack India. Then who is his enemy? Representing the country's legislature, he introduces a terrorist organisation which fights for separatism as his own organisation. This is not a mere joke to forget the next morning.

Fortunately both the ruling party and the opposition together had expressed their disagreements with the MP's statement. Kajendran who got a chance to represent the 13th Parliament was expelled from the Parliament sessions for a day when he kept silence on the Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara's advice to express his regret and withdraw the statement.

Is this behaviour and arrogance acceptable must be the question asked by the citizens of the country. The punishment which came on him was one day eviction from Parliament sessions. It is now over to the Court of Appeal to decide whether his statement amounts to a violation of the Constitution or not.

Just after the incident speaking to the `Tamil Net', he had said that he did not violate the Constitution. Therefore, we have to educate him that had violated the 6th amendment of the Constitution (Article 157 A (1) `No person shall, directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka'..) and at the same time the oath taken by Parliament members against the division of the country.

In his Sunday Observer interview, with our colleague Shanika Sriyananda, he reiterated that Tamils had accepted the LTTE as their sole representative and also believed in the LTTE's struggle for the Tamils. He had also tried to justify the departure of Tamils from those areas and seeking refugee where Sri Lankan forces function as economic embargoes and lack of medical facilities.

But his reasoning will not be accepted by most as the GOSL had made every possible effort to normalise civil life there sending necessary items to those areas. At the same time, it was the LTTE which got the Omanthei entrance closed attacking a civilians' vehicle last week.

If they are the `sole representative' how can they recruit children as soldiers unheard of Tamil parents' grievances? According to him, all under-aged in the LTTE had given false birthdays to the LTTE, because they wanted to join the organisation. Is the LTTE so easily cheatable even by the under- aged?

Is this the loopholes of the prevailing vote system in the country? The inadequacies of the electoral process in which TNA members were elected have to be rectified soon. It is a matter the Parliamentary Electoral Reforms Committee (PERC) should deal.

After all, what is his commitment towards the democracy if he more or less is satisfied to approve the violent and destructive acts of a terrorist group. TNA Group Leader R. Sampanthan or any other so far had not spoken about the incident. According to the MP, "aspirations of the Tamil people are not included in the proposals which had already been forwarded to the All-Party Representatives Committee (APRC).

If the TNA can cooperate with the APRC which had been entrusted with the task of finalizing a formula for resolving the national issue, instead of just rejecting the proposals, the results may be satisfactory.

The most agreeable for the time being is forwarding TNA proposals to the APRC, instead of justifying the criminal and terrorist activities of the LTTE.

He had also mentioned in the above interview that he spoke only about two LTTE attacks at the Palali Army Base and not about any other attacks. It is something beyond our knowledge and definitely he will have to answer to his own conscious one day.

He had clearly revealed his stance when he said "when you propose solutions you have to consider "our" armed, air and naval forces". Furthermore, country's road map hung on his official residence in Madiwela, Kotte has highlighted the area which the LTTE seeks through a separate regime.

In another interview which he spoke to a daily english newspaper, he had mentioned that his statement at the Parliament on May 9 at the Emergency debate should not be excusable as the Government has not banned the LTTE as a terrorist group. Then this is the right time to rectify a mistake we had done. If it was so, no danger will comeback on us to roost sooner or later.

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