Significant socio-economic changes evident, says son of slain MP

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Twenty two years ago in December, few days before Christmas, LTTE abducts a mother and her teenage son in Batticaloa to threaten their father who was then a Member of Parliament representing the people of the East. It was during this time peace negotiations were going on between the then Ranasinghe Premadasa regime and the LTTE.

An abduction of family members of a representative of the Tamil people indeed raised eye brows of the authorities. There was no doubt about the abductors as this leading politician was facing numerous threats from the LTTE continuously. Since April 1989 the government engaged in direct communications with the LTTE leadership in seeking a peaceful settlement for the conflict.

LTTE committed serious human rights violations, including abduction of children for recruitment.

The mother, Kala Manikam Thambimuttu and the son Arun Thambimuttu (13) were abducted as the father, Member of Parliament Sam Thambimuttu raised is voice against LTTE.

The LTTE shot the two of the three body guards and one died, assaulted Arun who was also injured in the cross fire. LTTE hit his grandmother and abducted Arun and his mother Kala. They were taken to a LTTE camp in Kiran. With out delay pressure came from the diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka especially from the British High Commission and the Sri Lankan Government.

After much negotiation they were released on the third day and were air lifted to Colombo by Sri Lanka Air Force and that was the last glimpse on Arun of his home town. Mid 1990 Sam Thambimuttu and wife were shot by the LTTE infront of the Canadian High Commission in Colombo where the MP was killed on the spot and wife died nine days later. Arun the only child left Sri Lanka and went to England to get on with his life.

I was the only child and soon after my parents died anger was the first feeling, said Arun Thambimuttu who is now settled back in Sri Lanka working actively in the investments field. "I was angry towards the LTTE.

It was very clear killers were LTTE. Considering the number of attempts they made earlier to kill my father it was evident.

When I left the country I really stayed away from the Diaspora affairs. I wasn't involved in the activities of the Tamil community immediately, he said.

After I graduated I took in to investment and fund management then I moved into China for three years. And after that I came back to Sri Lanka but I never had any intentions to settle down here. The only hope I have was that I never gave up my Sri Lankan passport. I don't hold any other citizenship, I didn't believe in that. I clearly felt that this is my country.

And today I know many people, whom I have come across, who are ex-LTTE cadres, says Arun and adds that he no longer harbour any ill feelings towards them because it is a bad memory for all concerned.

I have one such boy working in one of my projects lost his limbs fighting for the LTTE.

Many young boys and girls joined the LTTE in a mis- conceived notion.

Arun may be just one person, one story but his views depicts what the future Sri Lanka aspires. The voice of such youth, who still strongly believe this is a country where all should live with equal opportunities, will be the solid base for the bright future of the country.

One can visibly see the all infrastructure developments in taken place in the North and the East but the true benefits haven't reached the individuals yet.

Yes I agree peoples expectations are also very high.

In the peace time people want things fast and now. And we are living in that kind of generation where the young people don't want to wait another twenty - thirty years to achieve their dreams. They want tomorrow's dreams today.

They would like to have buses on their roads every five minutes if possible. Such high expectations of the young generation will be the challenge.

I think the youth are optimistic but we need to work very hard to keep this optimism up and alive, especially in the North and the East.

Because, the youth feeling neglected and ignored and pessimism to over rule their thinking would be the last thing to expect.

This will counter productive in future development.

A Sinhala youth willing to live in Batticaloa should feel equal and a Tamil youth willing to live in Matara should feel equal too. These are implementation issues. This issue has been corrected somewhat constitutionally.

My father was a Member of Parliament. He contested under the TULF banner.

My maternal grandfather was a senator Manikam who was one of the founding members of the Federal Party along with Chelvannayagam.

My mother, Manikam Kala Thambimuttu, was an active member of the 'Sooriyamal' (sunflower) Movement and an active speaker those days. My father's idol who was my great grand uncle was one E.R. Thambimuttu who was one of the State counsellors a legislative Council member before independence. Unlike my grand father, father or mother, he was Ceylonese nationalist at that time.

So he actually is the only Tamil politician at that time voted against of creating separate ethnic basis all his voting has been to create equal society based on a Sri Lankan identity. So he was very different in that regard.

Unfortunately the politics that came after independence have somewhat made my father and certain faction of his generation to Tamil nationalists that opposed to a true Sri Lankan nationalism.

My father believed that the Indo-Lanka Accord and the 13 Amendment would be the best way to bring a solution to the ethnic question.

In my young days I and a friend of mine cheered the Sri Lankan team when all the other friends cheered India or the Pakistan team. But now it has changed and cheer for a Sri Lankan team. This shows the positive change of ideologies of that community.

Transformation has taken place, he says highlighting that it is time for all quarters of the community to give prominence to reconciliation. Reconciliation is where people with different views would hold on to them knowing that it should not infringe on another persons right to be free and living in their own and achieving their full potential.

Why we need reconciliation in this country is that even individuals here hold extreme views. 'Yes I agree my ethnicity is Tamil but I'm a human being and a Sri Lankan and have the same aspirations as a Sinhala, Muslim or a Burgher. What we need to say as a society is that no matter what, being a man or a woman, your ethnicity, religion or cast should not stop you from achieving your full potential. Every child of Sri Lanka should be able to achieve this.

That aspiration has to come in to our society and that is reconciliation,'

In reconciliation it means people accepting the mistakes of the past.

Unless you accept certain incidents of the history as mistakes we can not stop them happening in the future, Arun said giving the view that in the future no one should be hurt and no child should loose his or her parents. When questions whether we need a political reconciliation to Arun it is an on going process. In bringing a political solution there are several facts discussed like the provincial councils and the 13th amendment.

Tamil community started feeling the value of the Tamil language after the 'English' they were using was taken away. It is a fact that Tamil language is in a better position in Sri Lanka than in any other country. In which other country can you find other than in Sri Lanka where the Government machinery is trying to implement the usage of all three languages. That is blatantly evident.

Enhancing natural resources The last two years I have noticed that the infrastructure development in Sri Lanka has been enormous where roads are improving and many more.

If I speak with my own experience past governments have been neglecting the East. I'm not talking about the past ten or twenty years. This is how the people of the East feel especially economically. I think that trend has changed in the past two and half years. Like the road structure is pretty much par with the rest of the country. Electricity has reached areas once it wasn't even though possible.

Bridges are being built at the moment. That is the positive aspect of it. Still there are problems. Unemployment is still high.

Industries are yet to reach the areas. Yes definitely there we see proper improvements in tourism as an industry. Challenges are there in that field too. We need to get hotel schools in to that area so that we can train the local people. And agricultural sector has found natural improvements.

But the thing is the East as well as the North has lot of natural resources that need to be enhanced. And to enhance those natural resources we are still away from achieving that because we need to bring a lot of investments.

I think more investment can come from private sector, international investments, Foreign Direct Investments, and also the Sri Lankan diaspora and I don't refer to a particular community. The Sri Lankan diaspora have the kind of capitol that could have a very positive outcome in the North and the East specifically and rest of the country as well. So I think they can play a positive role and certain industries are growing and doing exceptionally well.

For example in the East, where all ethnicities live, people vote purely based on the ethnicity or religion. That has to change for us to go forward. It is a real blatant reality that some parties do use ethnicity to gain political mileage. For example a person close to my family contacted me recently, very early in the morning, and said in a particular village that we know, 100 Sinhala and Muslim farmers are settled and given land for cultivation.

Then I said may be they are re-settled in their native land. He said no it is not so and we have to stop it. Then I asked now what do you suggest to do and argument continued. Then I said alright would you be able to bring me 100 Tamil farmers willing to cultivate in that area if so I will somehow convince the Authorities and get landless people to cultivate. Now 7-8 months have passed and to this date he hasn't brought a single farmer to me. This is politics. People have all the right to be proud of their culture but it should not define your future. Though politicians take the pulse of the people I do see a change in the trend of the young people. Most of the Tamil youth under the age of 35 have less considerations compared to their parents.

People should not define their future by ethnicity. I joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party because I didn't join the Tamil National Alliance because I felt that I need to make a historic change from my own family history and my own back ground.

I felt that the future is about national politics of all communities where the political parties are not based on a particular ethnic or a regional identity. I felt that the SLFP today is very different from the party I have seen in the history. It has some founding principles which I agree with. I am a caring capitalist.

If our earlier political leaders did very well Sri Lanka with its enormous amount of natural resources would have turned in to a country that gives its people their best potential. Yet if you consider the current President Mahinda Rajapaksa, make me very proud, is that he is a person trying to speak in Tamil language is one example. For me it is an attempt has been made to try and show the value of learning Tamil.I certainly hope so that the future of the country would be favourable for the next generation to live. I'm a natural optimist.

In Batticaloa I see the community is starting to live like in the past where best of my memories of childhood are deep rooted. If you take the Northern Provincial Council elections, the TNA won that was visible. Yet 25% of the voters who voted with the Government were women, youth and down trodden poor people. The reason is that the verbal garbage put out by Tamil Ethnic national leaders have taken them on a path of disarray.