Sumanthiran clarifies Anura’s controversial remarks on Tamil people

NPP Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Pix: NPP

ITAK Jaffna District Parliamentarian clarified on recent controversial remark made by Presidential candidate of National Peoples' Power Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Jaffna yesterday where he stressed that people in North also should take part in the 'change' suggesting Southern people have already indicated for a change at the upcoming polls. 

Mr Sumanthiran said that he believes the NPP leader would not have made that statement with any racist feelings.

Speaking to the press in Jaffna yesterday, MP Sumanthiran also recalled a similar instance in the past when former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa noted in his inauguration ceremony in Anuradhapura in 2020. 

"The people in the North had a sense which was proven right because people who elected him chased him away. We are for change- change in the governance structure in this county well over 70 years- not the change people have been asking for the last two years. So, we are asking for that change also. We want a corruption-free government.. in that enterprise, we are fully with Comrade Anura Kumara. We will be part of eradicating corruption," the MP said.

MP Sumanthiran also indicated that Tamil people also want him and others as participants in a change where people in different areas, people who speak different languages and are inferior in numbers, also have equal access to power. "That is the change that is real and sustained in the country,"

"I don't think Comrade Anura Kumara said these words with the view of expressing any racist feelings. I know him too well. He is not one such person. He has taken great care to eradicate racism. We may have decided to support another candidate but on this matter, we are with him" MP Sumanthiran said. 

Meanwhile, NPP Presidential candidate Dissanayake said today he does not have to respond to the criticism by President Ranil Wickremesinghe over his remark made on people in the North. "Mr Wickremesinghe himself should apologise for stirring racism,"

President Wickremesinghe condemned Dissanayake's threat to the Northern people, warning them against opposing the changes supported by the South, implying potential consequences at an election rally in Jaffna yesterday. He called on Dissanayake to apologize not only to the people of the North for the threat but also to the people of the South for misrepresenting them. (Northeastern Monitor/ September 8/2024)