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| Late TNA leader R. Sampanthan |
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
Exactly one year has passed since the demise of veteran Tamil political leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan, whose death anniversary fell last Monday (30 June).
The Sri Lankan Tamil community failed to remember him on his first death anniversary. We are not aware of any commemorative event being organised anywhere in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, or of a notation of tribute being published in the press. Even the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) which Sampanthan led for many years, did not think of remembering him on his first death anniversary.
Despite all criticism of Sampanthan, he was respected by Sinhalese leaders and the international community. Even those who do not accept his politics will not deny that his demise left an irreplaceable void in the Sri Lankan Tamil polity. The failure of the Tamils to remember a leader who had a political career of more than six decades has to be seen as a manifestation of a malaise plaguing the Tamil polity.
Sampanthan’s political legacy
Although Sampanthan had a political career spanning decades, his political legacy will no doubt be remembered in history in relation to how he led at the forefront of Tamil politics in the period after the end of the civil war. Can his legacy be set aside so that no one needs to worry about being remembered even on the first anniversary of their death?
The responsibility for the policies and approach adopted by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in general and the ITAK in particular under Sampanthan’s leadership in guiding Tamil politics in the period after the end of the war cannot be placed entirely on Sampanthan.
He had to take over the reins of Tamil politics in a situation where the Tamil polity had been badly weakened after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in the war and the Sinhalese political community was not interested in finding a political solution to the national question after the war victory.
Uniting Tamil parties
The main allegation against Sampanthan is that he failed to keep the Tamil political parties united and build the TNA as a powerful democratic political movement of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The TNA, which had the historic responsibility of taking the struggle for the political rights of the Tamils to the next level in accordance with the post-war domestic and international political situation, collapsed in front of him. He had not been able to keep at least his ITAK intact as a united political party.
There was widespread opinion that Sampanthan could have used his political experience and seniority to keep the Tamil parties together. Unfortunately, however, Sampanthan had to assume the leadership role at a time when, unlike in the past, a pernicious tendency had begun to develop of party leaders not being able to exercise complete control over party members and structures.
Today, no party leader in Sri Lanka can claim to be in complete control of his party. The crisis faced by parties in the formation of local authorities after the recent elections is a clear example of this. Against the backdrop of the people’s loss of faith in traditional political parties after the popular uprisings three years ago, loyalty to a particular party among them has been greatly eroded. Politics has become so fickle that it is no longer possible for a party to have a stable vote bank.
Sampanthan was finally in such a position that he could not persuade even the senior members of his party to maintain the traditional practice of electing the leader unanimously. The disgusting infighting within the ITAK since the leadership election early last year has been a major impediment to attempts at forging unity among Tamil parties in order to take a unified stand on the national question.
A political solution to the national question
However, as a realist in relation to the situation of the Tamil people after the end of the war, Sampanthan never tried to show an impractical political path again by merely raising emotional slogans. In view of the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamils, he was firmly of the view that a permanent political solution to the national question could only be a federal system of government without compromising on the basic demands.
While Sampanthan stood firmly on the stand that a permanent political solution to the national question was a government based on a federal system, he consistently urged the governments to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution as an interim measure in the journey towards a permanent solution. He never failed to make this position clear during meetings with representatives of the international community.
His ultimate position was that if the Tamil people were not given a political solution based on the right to internal self-determination, they had the right to demand a solution based on the right to external self-determination.
Sampanthan had immense faith in the international community, including India, to find a solution to the ethnic problem. He also urged the international community to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan government. It was Sampanthan’s firm belief that a political solution was not possible without the support of the Sinhalese people and that the political aspirations of the Muslim people should be given their due place.
A moderate Tamil leader
A ’unique’ aspect of Sampanthan’s political career was that he was a moderate Tamil leader who was not subject to the Sinhalese community’s intense hatred compared to leaders such as A. Amirthalingam and M. Sivasithamparam. But like Tamil leaders of his generation, Sampanthan also left this world unable to find a political solution that would ensure a peaceful and dignified life for the Tamil people.
It was Sampanthan’s custom to explain in a series of speeches in Parliament and in talks with government leaders and foreign diplomats the efforts made by governments to find a political solution after the 1987 July Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, as no other Tamil politician had done.
These include the Parliamentary Select Committee headed by Mangala Moonesinghe appointed in 1991 during the tenure of President Ranasinghe Premadasa, the new constitutional proposals submitted in 2000 when Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was in office, the proposals of the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) headed by Professor Tissa Vitarana appointed during the tenure of Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the new constitutional drafting process undertaken during the tenure of the Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe Government.
Sampanthan’s aim was to demonstrate that even after the establishment of the provincial councils following the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, the governments themselves were accepting that the 13th Amendment could not be a solution to the ethnic problem by advancing those processes towards a political solution.
Radical Tamil nationalist forces strongly criticised Sampanthan’s cordial relations with presidents and Sinhalese politicians. But, even though he had such a relationship, he had the audacity to directly point out the mistakes of the Sinhalese leaders on the Tamil issue.
Leader of the Opposition
Sampanthan is the second Tamil politician to serve as the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Amirthalingam held the post from 1977 to 1983 and Sampanthan from 2015 to 2018. While the civil war broke out after Amirthalingam’s tenure as Leader of the Opposition, Sampanthan rose to the position after the war ended.
There were criticisms that Sampanthan acted as someone who supported the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government rather than as an opposition leader. Since that Government had set in motion the process of drafting a new constitution, he may have been doing so in the hope of cooperating with it and finding a political solution to the ethnic problem through a meaningful devolution of power.
But in the end, he was disappointed. Many believed that his leadership provided the best opportunity for Sinhalese leaders to find a viable political solution. But Sampanthan had the same disgusting experience as other Tamil leaders of the past.
In any case, there is no political climate among the Tamils today to believe that the void created in Tamil politics by the demise of Sampanthan can be filled in the near future. Today’s Tamil politicians do not have enough time to focus on the interests of the Tamil people; instead, they focus on their own party political interests and egocentric personality rivalries.
Sri Lanka’s Tamil community, which once had many internationally respected leaders, is today struggling without a political leader who can be regarded as an icon at home. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Colombo)- Courtesy- The Sunday Morning
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