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| Sunday, 31 August 2003 |
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Remembering Thondaman Snr. August 30 recorded the 91st birth anniversary of the late CWC supremo S. Thondaman - publicly acknowledged by leaders of major political parties as one of the most influential parliamentarians and national leaders of the post-independence era. Today it could well be reflection time to the large number of estate workers whom he represented then through the CWC - inherited now by the present leadership under young Minister Arumugam Thondaman. Tens of thousands of plantation workers continue to place their faith and allegiance on the new leadership and to the powerful trade union the late leader built. From this flowed the influential political party - CWC. Perhaps today is the appropriate moment - To reflect on what he stood for - Assess the gains secured through his trade union and political movements to the people of recent Indian origin (P.O.R.I.O) inhabiting, in the main, the plantation areas ("Malaynadu", if you like) - Apply its relevance to the future course of the porio by his successors. Detractors would doubtless question CWC membership figures - which stood high during the late leader's days and seek to prove they are substantially lower today. The reality is though the figures of party membership marginally dropped due to fragmentation caused by break-aways, it is suggested this is a temporary phenomena, even per today's membership. Minister Arumugam Thondaman asserts, CWC continues to remain the single largest plantation trade union - claiming the highest membership among the porio. Though his political activity that began in the 1930's gained ascendancy in the 70's and 80's - periods dominated by racial-based and politics of extremism. Thondaman, shrewdly anticipating events to come, steadfastly refused to be a fellow-traveller with ultra-nationalism and radicalism of the day. Although this would have brought him more followers and votes. His breaking away from the T.U.F. leadership triumvirate with the announcement of the controversial Vaddukottai resolution. As political history was to show subsequently, served his people and his party well in later years and endeared him to the leaders in the major political parties in southern Sri Lanka as one who unwaveringly stood and waged his struggles within an undivided Sri Lanka. Has the porio gained from the faith they consistently placed on the CWC over the years? The answer must unequivocally be in the affirmative. After nearly 50 years of "statelessness" brought about, arguably, by political vandetta by the D. S. Senanayake regime in 1948. This contentious move was calculated to prevent the plantation leadership from supporting the then emerging anti-UNP new left Leaders of the likes of NM, Colvin, Philip - from being a threat to the continued parliamentary supremacy of the then UNP government. More significantly, this sudden mass de-franchisement was to sour relationship between Sri Lanka and our giant neighbour. In spite of this grave provocation that de-nationalised almost all of his people and all his MP's - who until then enjoyed these privileges - Thondaman counselled his people to scrupulously conduct their struggle by peaceful means. Eventually this move paid off and he secured for them their lost rights - albeit over a number of years. That he did not resort to the gun and the grenade in his long march to seek justice for his people turned his political adversaries in the South to soften their attitudes towards him and what he stood for. Restoring the lost rights of his people was Thondaman's finest moment by which he assured himself a place not only in the history of his people but carved a niche for himself in the history of modern Sri Lanka. In the 80's when shrinking employment opportunities in the estates and widespread unemployment among the educated there were drawing many to militancy. He reined in the more younger and restless of his men to his way of "peaceful politics" thereby avoiding the plantation areas being turned into another theatre of bloody conflict with all its destructive consequences. As the years advanced and through his position as a senior cabinet minister in the UNP govt of 1978-1994 and then as a Minister under the PA govt - he gradually secured for the porio rapid improvements in the fields of education, health, better wages and many other aspects progressively earning for them a higher quality of life. He successfully convinced political leaders of the major parties in the South a people who toiled hard from dawn to dusk to produce the wealth of the land for so long deserve a better deal than a demeaning separate register. To a large measure, due to Thondaman's patient political campaign a community known only to produce brawny workers in the punishing plantation plains now boast of doctors, lawyers, judges, writers, university vice-chancellors, teachers, engineers, trade union leaders, parliamentarians, plantation magnates, leaders of trade and industry: and to boot, international cricketers - just to name a few. Says President Chandrika "One of the prime reasons for Sri Lanka being a multi-religious, multi-cultural society today is the Indian community. The Indians who chose to settle in our island and those who were settled by our colonizers have contributed in abundance to the development of our little nation, our citizens of Indian origin have helped in blending the unique cultural traditions of our two nations. This has made a deep impact on the Sri Lankan social fabric, its literature, art and religious practises, I consider the Indian community as our legacy." On the basis of signals received from break-away forces, sufficient space can be built for them once again to present to the Sri Lankan political leadership a strong and united plantation community as a single political entity. This will be the finest tribute the new leaders in the plantation areas - some now scattered in different directions and under different lables - can pay to the memory of their undisputed leader - the late Saumyamurthy Thondaman. - A. Kandappah |
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