{"id":26016,"date":"2013-09-22T04:01:27","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T08:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26016"},"modified":"2013-09-22T08:38:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-22T12:38:50","slug":"is-the-ilangai-tamil-arasu-katchi-going-to-use-and-discard-cv-wigneswaran-now-as-it-did-with-m-tiruchelvam-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26016","title":{"rendered":"Is the Ilangai Tamil Arasu Katchi Going to Use and Discard CV Wigneswaran now as it did with M.Tiruchelvam then?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

C.A.Chandraprema
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Justice<\/a>

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran<\/p><\/div>\n

The nomination of C.V. Wigneswaran to the position of TNA chief ministerial candidate, is in many ways reminiscent of the appointment of M.Tiruchelvam to be the minister of the Ilangei Tamil Arasu Kachchi in the Dudley Senanayake led government of 1965. At that time Tiruchelvam, a retired Solicitor General, was appointed to the Senate and made the representative of the ITAK on the cabinet because the ITAK leaders at that time feared the Tamil public opinion they themselves had created \u2013 with anybody seen to be cooperating with the Colombo government being considered a traitor. <\/p>\n

In 1965, G.G.Ponnambalam who had been a victim of such propaganda because he was close to the Sennayakes, also declined to become a cabinet minister for fear of being labeled a traitor again. So finally it was a non- politician M.Tiruchelvam who was appointed to the Senate and then to the cabinet to represent the ITAK.<\/p>\n

As a cabinet minister it would be Tiruchelvam who was seen at state functions and behaving like a member of the establishment. The politicians of the ITAK were able to remain aloof from all that. One sees a similar reluctance to be seen participating in the governance of the country in this instance as well. As chief minister, Wigneswaran will have to participate at state functions, raise the national flag, sing the national anthem or at least stand to attention while it is being sung and he will have attend meetings of the Chief Minister\u2019s Conference and make decisions with the other chief ministers of the country, and he will have stand behind the president at state functions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Besides, he will have certain powers over the appointment, and transfer of teachers and the operation of the regional hospitals etc all of which requires behaving like the governing party and involving some conflict with the local people as well. As chief minister all the local government institutions will also come under him and he will thus be responsible for whatever the local government institutions do or do not do.<\/p>\n

Over a period of time, being involved in such activities will create differences and splits, and the TNA perhaps wants their politicians to remain aloof from such things. This is partly the reason for the disintegration of the JVP. The ordinary rank and file members of the party saw a few fortunate members of the party going around in chauffer driven vehicles and having a role in society, attending parties and receptions as MPs while the others continued to languish in the same state for years. The same is inevitable in the north as well with the elected representatives of the people from the Pradeshiya Sabha level upwards, going around in cars and making money on the side while their nationalist brethren languish without anything. Even if the Northern chief minister and the local government heads adopt the strategy of telling the people that they are unable to do anything for the people because the Colombo government does not release the funds, that will not necessarily get them off the hook. If the Colombo government is not seen to be providing the funds to do anything for the ordinary people, but providing luxury vehicles and enough funds to maintain the elected Tamil representatives and their families in style, then it will be only a matter of time until the TNA representatives are seen as traitors who have sold their souls for a mess of pottage.<\/p>\n

Being a people\u2019s representative can be a death trap in a way. In the early 1970s, Tamil youth had invaded a meeting of the newly formed Tamil United Liberation Front in Jaffna in the office of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and demanded that all Tamil parliamentarians should resign forthwith. Varatharajah Perumal told the present writer that Tamil youths at that time (of whom he himself was one) thought the Tamil politicians were not interested in anything but their parliamentary salaries. And that was at a time when MPs traveled by train and did not have official vehicles. Today however even an opposition MP gets duty free vehicles once every five years and large amounts of money from the decentralized budget which he can spend as he wishes. Seeing some people living it up and their children being driven to school in luxury vehicles while the ordinary people go about on foot will have its natural impact on northern politics over a period of time.<\/p>\n

It should be remembered that while politicians are seen to live the good life in the south as well, the difference is that in the south politicians do a lot of work for their constituents. If they had been going around in luxury vehicles doing nothing, many wouldn\u2019t be able to go back to their villages. But in the North, politicians do not talk of the day to day issues of the people. They discuss a separate state. If they are to continue talking about a separate state even after they win the Northern PC and do nothing for the people, they will have to disdain all the perks that elected office brings and continue to go on foot with the ordinary people until the goal of self determination is achieved. However, this writer has not heard of a single instance where a Tamil parliamentarian has turned down duty free vehicles or other perks like the salaries of his staff. During the time that has lapsed since the war ended and now, TNA politicians have been going towards self determination in SUVs while the ordinary Tamils have been trudging along on foot!<\/p>\n

The phenomenon of TNA heads of local government institutions is also very new. Most of the northern local government bodies were instituted only 2011. The people have to see this elitist class of \u2018self-determination\u2019 politicians living the good life over a number of years for them to get disillusioned. Until recently, there were only a few TNA parliamentarians and the privileges they enjoyed were largely invisible to the Tamil public as the northern MPs lived mostly in Colombo. And the people may have compared whatever privileges these MPs had with the privileges available to LTTE high rankers. <\/p>\n

Now however, the north will be overrun by Tamil politicians advocating self determination and going around in SUVs – parliamentarians, provincial councilors and PS and UC chairmen and Vice Chairmen, all of them handling large amounts of money with the opportunity to pocket some of it as they go along. This could in five to six years have a very damaging effect on the TNA which is probably another reason why they have appointed an outsider \u2013 a non politician – to be the head of the provincial council, to keep the TNA parliamentary representatives away from the contagion of power and privilege.<\/p>\n


\nWill North become another Tamil Nadu?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the intention was to preserve the purity of the Tamil struggle, how does one explain the enthusiasm of Mavai Senathirajah to become the chief minister? Well, firstly, becoming the ruler of the \u2018Tamil homeland\u2019 has always been the dream of all Tamil politicians at least since the 1970s. Even Douglas Devananda would rather be the chief minister of the north than a cabinet minister. This is the mindset that became prevalent among Tamil politicians since the 1970s. So it\u2019s not surprising that Senathirajah wanted to be chief minister despite the dangers outlined above. The reason why the others kept him out was because the position of chief minister of the north confers a leadership position on its holder which for psychological reasons is much more potent than being the parliamentary leader of the TNA which Sampanthan is at present. If Senathirajah became the chief minister of the north he would become entrenched in that position and the leadership of the Tamil community would automatically pass to him because he has a political base in the North.<\/p>\n

However, Wigneswaran has no base in the north and he is here largely by sufferance and he can be removed at will by the TNA. He cannot become the leader of the Tamils contrary to the wishes of the TNA whereas Senathirajah holding the same position would have been able to become independent of the TNA. The leaders of the TNA would also have been worried that with a man like Senathirajah who can strike out on his own and come out of Sampanthan\u2019s shadow, he would become a political wheeler dealer like the Tamil Nadu politicians with the lapse of time. It was estimated at the height of the war that the LTTE could be collecting anything up to 200 million USD a year from the Tamil diaspora. Today, while there are organized rumps of the LTTE overseas their collection would be only a fraction of that with a good part being misappropriated by the collectors as has been well documented. Even if the diaspora is still able to pump in a few million USD into the north every year, this would pale into insignificance in comparison with what the government can pump into the north.<\/p>\n

There is the distinct danger of the chief minister of the north following the usual pattern and becoming like the other chief ministers in this country and across the Palk Straits. The holding of the NPC election is the UPFA\u2019s equivalent of the UNP strategy of giving Karuna Amman a taste for nightlife. There is the danger that a man like Senathirajah who is a veteran of the Tamil struggle following the example of the Tamil politicians across the Palk Straits. It can be seen that Sampanthan\u2019s chosen successor is M.A.Sumanthiran and not the northern Tamil \u2018sons of the soil\u2019 like Senathirajah or E.Saravanapavan as the sons of the soil may show a greater tendency become \u2018sons of the spoils\u2019. <\/p>\n

The TNA can prevent the Tamil struggle from dissolving into a venal pursuit for personal profit by keeping those who have access to state power and privileges on a tight leash. Senathirajah cannot be kept on such a leash but Wigneswaran can, and that is obviously why he was made the CM candidate. Besides, if he becomes tainted with power, he can be blamed and discarded, the same way M.Tiruchelvam was by the ITAK in the late 1960s. D.B.S.Jeyaraj had in an article about M.Tiruchelvam written some time ago, said that the ITAK palmed off the blame pertaining to them for participating in the Colombo government on the hapless Tiruchelvam and one Tamil dissident, V.Navaratnam, who broke away from the ITAK and formed the Tamil Self-Rule Party even blamed Tiruchelvam for having \u2018misled\u2019 Chelvanayagam himself. Thus Tiruchelvam became the scapegoat of the ITAK.<\/p>\n

Jeyaraj says that Neelan Tiruchelvam was well aware of the way his father had been used and discarded. The rise of Wigneswaran could be Tamil politics repeating itself. Wigneswaran himself would no doubt have read what Jeyaraj wrote about Tiruchelvam senior. It is yet to be seen who will finally use and discard whom. Sampanthan and Sumanthiran are obviously using Wigneswaran as a stop gap measure. But who knows whether Wigneswaran is using the ITAK to get where he wants? The advantage he has over the elder Tiruchelvam is that while M.Tiruchelvam was never elected to any post by the Tamil people, Wigneswaran will be coming in through the popular vote. Once established in office, if he plays his cards well, he may be able to retain his position as the leader of the Jaffna Tamils despite any other plans the TNA hierarchy may have for him. Sampanthan is from Trincomalee and Sumanthiran is a Colombo based national list MP. Jaffna really does not have a leader of stature \u2013 one who can replace Sampanthan. So this is Wigneswaran\u2019s call \u2013 is he going to be another M.Tiruchelvam or is he going to be different?<\/p>\n

COURTESY:Sunday Island<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By C.A.Chandraprema The nomination of C.V. Wigneswaran to the position of TNA chief ministerial candidate, is in many ways reminiscent of the appointment of M.Tiruchelvam to be the minister of the Ilangei Tamil Arasu Kachchi in the Dudley Senanayake led government of 1965. At that time Tiruchelvam, a retired Solicitor General, was appointed to the …<\/p>\n

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