Vaddukkoaddai and Thimphu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 13:04 GMT]
Calling for the creation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, based on Vaddukkoadai Resolution (VR) was the last spontaneous and definite mandate by Eezham Tamils in a totally free and democratic atmosphere. As the need for democratic political organisation unfolds afresh, Tamils have to take up the thread directly from the VR. The Thimphu principles and all the other formulas put forward subsequently under the duress of powers, and failed as negotiation models, do not get precedence over the VR as bases for political organization. Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not the real defeat. The defeat comes only when Tamils are made to politically denounce their heart-felt aspirations. The diaspora needs to peruse and correct course of any proposal that stops just at self-determination. In UN charter and in international law it is just an empty phrase that doesn’t protect nations or ethnicities.

The Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, calling for independent, sovereign, Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka was a proclamation of all democratic Tamil political parties, including Ceylon Workers Congress, the then united political party of the Upcountry Tamils. The Eezham Tamil voters of the North and East overwhelmingly endorsed it in the 1977 elections. Thus it was a definite democratic mandate of Tamils and so far they didn’t get another chance to democratically tell what is in their heart.

The Thimphu principles of 1985 were a diluted version of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, after truncating independence and sovereignty and stopping just at Tamil nation, homeland and self-determination.

The Thimphu principles, diluted to facilitate negotiation with Colombo, were jointly put forward by all the Tamil militant organizations of that time and the TULF. There was no mandate of the people. The most important fact to be noted is that the Indian Establishment that was always keen in nullifying Tamil independence in the island was behind making Tamil militancy then under its influence agreeable to the principles as a minimum platform for negotiation.

The Indo-Sri Lanka agreement of 1987 imposed on Tamils touched only the point of homeland, that too temporarily, and it was recently breached by Colombo. There was no credible mandate as the LTTE boycotted and the elections took place under the coercing presence of the Indian military. However, the provincial government elected under it finally felt it necessary to declare independent and sovereign Eelam, before winding up and while the Indian military was present.

The Oslo communiqué of 2002 was a further dilution of Vaddukkoaddai in another way, by its adoption of an invented phrase ‘internal self-determination’. Norway and some other powers that later became the Co-Chairs were behind making the LTTE agreeable to experiment negotiation with this dilution. Again there was no mandate of people. LTTE's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham, writing in 2004, questioned the concept of Oslo Declaration and implied the expiry of LTTE's concession on internal self-determination.

The ISGA of 2003, which has reference to Vaddukkoaddai but not to Thimphu, was only an interim proposal during the Co-Chair sponsored peace. It was apparently a move of the LTTE to supersede Oslo Communiqué. The mandate it received from Tamils has to be considered limited as the elections took place with the 6th Amendment to the constitution in effect. Its only electoral validity today is that it binds the TNA.

Even after considerably diluting the freely mandated aspirations of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution to suit their geopolitical agenda, India and the Co-Chairs miserably failed in making the Sri Lankan state agreeable for experimenting political solutions.

Had they succeeded, there would have been a different course of events and they would have had a standing in telling the Tamil mind to consider experimenting within a united Sri Lanka. But they chose the path of brutally abetting or allowing a crushing military defeat and open as well as barbed-wire incarceration of the whole nation of Tamils in the island.

Eezham Tamils are now left with the option of politically organising themselves afresh.

In the emerging scenario of democratic organisation of Eezham Tamil politics there need to be no place for Thimphu, Oslo or any other – non mandated, experimental, and failed negotiation formulas extended by militancy under duress of powers.

If there is democracy then nothing should prevent the democratic stream to get back to what was last mandated by people and what has become the heart-felt need of Eezham Tamils more than ever now, and to begin the political process and negotiation from that point.

However, the very forces that have inflicted military defeat on Tamils are now all out to defeat them politically by capturing, hijacking or deviating the democratic politics of Tamils.

India and the West compete in subtle ways in this exercise, adopting crude as well as highly sophisticated methods. Preparations, institutional arrangements and recruitments have been done long back by them to face a 'post-defeat' scenario as it was their foregone conclusion to inflict military defeat on Tamil nationalism.

The powers have carefully studied the non nation-centred ‘virtue’ of sections of Tamil elite or rather weakness of the Eezham Tamil nationalism, cultivated since colonial times to always orientate their politics in terms of the interests of others - British colonial interests, Colombo-centric interests, Indian interests, Western interests and there was a time when some were orientating it to the interests of Russia and China.

The elite politics of Eezham Tamils - except for the rare occasion of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, and that too is said to be a result of youth pressure - was always hiding its mind fearing for others and was thinking in terms of others.

Influenced and discouraged by calculated power machinations, campaigns and Karunanidhis, the murmur heard in some elite circles now is that if a powerful armed struggle has failed, what could be achieved through democratic politics and claiming for what the heart aspires is only bravado.

They fail to see that it is more legitimate and more workable in democratic organisation to come out boldly with what you feel righteously deserving, register the claim and then to fight for it or negotiate until acceptable results are achieved.

This is possible only when we have the guts to independently evolve our politics firmly by ourselves first and then only to relate it to others. Of course this is not possible when we start looking at ourselves through the eyes of others. This mindset is the biggest impediment to our political organisation.

Mu’l’livaaykkaal was not the real defeat. Colombo and the powers know it. Their victory comes only when Tamils are made to politically denounce their heart-felt aspirations. It is in order to achieve this victory much easier, they advice or find agents to advise Tamils to drop their national aspiration, even though democratically registering a national aspiration could in no way be considered an obstacle for negotiation.

Powers have created a desperate situation for Eezham Tamils hoping their will power would wither even politically. But one should not fail to see that if not for Tamils, for the sake of their own interests, the powers have to find out solutions very soon in the island. Tamils have to be ready with their own politics to face the situation.

In the past, the failure of democratic Tamil politicians in adhering to people’s emotional needs with firmness and their inability to resist undue power interests, paved way for the rise and acceptance of militancy.

Tamils should take care that their political organisation now needs to be truly representative of their aspirations and needs to be firm in negotiation if they want to uphold democracy and avoid another rise of militancy. No need to say the powers should respect this reality, as they too share the fear.

It is now an acid test for the emerging democratic politics of Eezham Tamil nationalism.

The move in the diaspora for transnational government of Tamil Eelam is not only for negotiating the liberation and emancipation of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka but it is also an alternative government of the diaspora, standing for the global unity, cultural identity, development and global status of the diaspora. The move for this government needs not to bother about anyone in proclaiming the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the island and requesting a mandate from the people in the diaspora.

Self-determination, as it is understood in contemporary times is a vague term when applied to people or ethnicities. According to UN charter 1(2), self-determination is interpreted as existing only in state-to-state relationship. Legally, it protects only states.

“Self-determination does not entail the right to be independent, or even to vote for independence” (Geoffrey Robertson, Penguin 2008, p165).

“International law provides no right of secession in the name of self-determination” (Rosalyn Higgins, Peoples and Minorities in International Law, 1995, p33).

“At best, the people’s right to self-determination connotes the right of all citizens to participate in the political process, but this gives power to majorities and not to minorities (Robertson, ibid).

The diaspora needs to seriously peruse and correct the course of any proposal that stops just at self-determination.

The Tamil National Alliance in the island, operating under constraints of Colombo and India, should not on its own, denounce the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils and should not agree for experimenting anything other than a confederation with the right to secede, is an opinion strongly felt in the diaspora.

Emerging Tamil politics needs to act with far sight. The present scenario of geopolitics is not going to remain the same. The national aspiration for independence and sovereignty, which is a hard reality for Eezham Tamils today, may also get re-defined. In any future possibility of shared sovereignty, either regionally or globally, the Eezham Tamils should be able to find their niche smoothly without again facing the tragedy they have undergone for ages.

It is with sadness most of the Eezham Tamils look at a few Marxists among them, especially of the former ‘Peking Wing’, who denounce separate nationalism for Eezham Tamils. The Marxist Communist Party of India also has adopted a similar line.

It is hard to understand that if national liberation of Eezham Tamils oppressed on ethnic grounds and ‘Eezham’ as a political unit is not acceptable to them, in what way the united Sri Lankan nationalism and Sri Lanka as a political unit upheld by them is ideologically justifiable. While viewing Tamil national struggle as one such serving imperialism, they practically serve the very imperialism by weakening the struggle.

Ironically, many Sinhala Marxists see justice and recognise the Tamil national struggle in the island.

The Marxists contributed immensely to the social progress of Eezham Tamils in the past. They have a duty in structuring and strengthening the Tamil nation further, through achieving social equality. The democratisation of politics is an atmosphere conducive for them, but they should not deprive Tamils getting their contribution by keeping Tamil national liberation as an untouchable topic, by not participating in it and by not recognising that their goals can be better achieved by accepting Tamil nationalism as a unit to apply their progressive ideas and shaping it at home and in transnational governance.

Chronology:
 

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Breaking the deadlock through transnational governance

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 June 2009, 09:52 GMT]
The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally. Many of our readers confuse between the concepts of transnational government and government in exile. While the government in exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence.
 

A government in exile functions outside of its territory with an aim of taking control of that territory. Such a government may have already existed in an independent and sovereign country and have lost its power or may have been formed anew to claim an independent and sovereign country. Whatever the case may be, a government in exile needs a host country.

But the transnational government we speak of is a novel experiment that has no precedence.

Whatever excuses there may be, the contemporary world system including its apex body the United Nations, have shown least regards for the life, safety, dignity and human rights of Eezham Tamils and even now continue to abet structural genocide in the island of Sri Lanka.

There is no second word that all Eezham Tamils are traumatised and grieved by the grave injustice committed on them by the entire world system. Unless the world system recognizes the self-determination of Eezham Tamils and directly intervenes in the island, no justice is going to be seen.

With the kind of blunders made by the powers involved in forfeiting leverages and with the development of new axes in the region, it is doubtful whether the world system will have any pressure to act on its own to justify the cause of Eezham Tamils other than oppressing them further to accept subjugation within the rot of the united Sri Lanka.

It is the ways of the contemporary world system that impels Eezham Tamils to respond with the unique experiment of a transnational government to safe guard their unity, identity, dignity, aspirations and well-being.

A contemporary reality that is going to be faced by Eezham Tamils in the home country is compulsion in brutal ways by Colombo, the Indian Establishment and by certain other powers to drop Tamil national aspirations and to accept an imposed Sri Lankan identity.

Colombo is already intimidating with success the subservient Tamil political entities to drop the ethnic identity. What is proposed is a ‘home grown solution’ that is none other than structural genocide.

The Indian Establishment and its agents are said to be busy in forging a ‘coalition’ of political parties, not to go beyond the 'Rajiv’s dream' of 13th Amendment. It is also said that certain sections in the West are also behind it.

A situation is going to emerge in which no Tamil in the home country could open mouth to ask for justice and to express their heart-felt aspirations.

Only the diaspora and the transnational government could uphold the freedom of aspiration and freedom of expression of Eezham Tamils.

Those who have to face the reality from the ‘conquerors’ in Colombo and New Delhi may do so for survival but the transnational government should emerge in parallel in the diaspora to uphold the unconquered spirit of Eezham Tamils, to support the political course in the homeland and to see the Eezham Tamil politics are not hijacked by others. The transnational government need not openly include the home politicians even though both should collaborate with each other.

The disastrous geopolitics played by the Beijing-New Delhi-Islamabad axis and the West at the cost of Eezham Tamils, undeservingly favouring genocidal Colombo and the continued injustice they are committing, are not ephemeral episodes to subside with patchwork solutions envisaged by the conquerors and geopolitical players.

When the volcano erupts, a genuine support the Eezham Tamils at home could fall back on is going to be nothing but a transnational government of the diaspora.

Therefore, all Tamil political players, irrespective of differences and shades of opinion, should extend support to forge such an outfit, at least symbolic in the beginning.

One of the positive achievements of the LTTE is the international infrastructure uniting and motivating the diaspora. Otherwise the diaspora would have gone astray like the 19th century migrants.

The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eezham Tamils to strengthen the diaspora socially, economically and culturally; to achieve the goal of independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the home country and to meet the international challenges internationally.

It is not a must that the transnational government needs a host country to operate. What is actually needed is the will power of more than a million Eezham Tamils living across the world.

Despite a global ban, if the LTTE had successfully demonstrated a global infrastructure in raising revenue, in mobilising the masses and in running economic and cultural institutions, why a democratised and inclusive transnational government not feasible?

If multinational corporations can operate as successful power centres why can’t transnational governments?

Some of our readers have mailed meaningful feedback how such a government can viably operate for the well-being of the diaspora as well as for the liberation of the people in the home country.

If the traumatised Eezham Tamils at home are going to be kept voiceless by the conquerors and the international community, at least the traumatised diaspora should be immediately engaged with a positive and noble venture of resurrection. Otherwise the diaspora will be disillusioned.

However, the process of this noble venture is not a hasty affair. For a smooth beginning, primarily it needs consensus of the existing infrastructure, and to become inclusive it needs the consensus of the circles outside of it also. It needs a strong foundation, careful planning and step-by-step implementation. The existing infrastructure has a greater responsibility in the metamorphosis from command structure to representative structure.

Possible steps are re-affirming the political fundamentals of the Vaddukkoaddai resolution through mandate, electing representatives at national as well as at global level for an Assembly, which will also initially be a constitutional assembly, and then electing an executive.

It is also advisable to create as many as possible grass-root democratic organizations among Eezham Tamils, vested with specific tasks to face the different facets of the current misery. Such grass-root institutions are helpful in sustaining and safe guarding the democratic nature of the superstructure of transnational governance.

If successful, and if the time demands, the transnational government can also become the government in exile.

An important prerequisite with the Eezham Tamil people, who for ages have seen nothing but deception, is that those who take the proposals for implementation with people need to be above all suspicion. Sectarian initiatives will only bungle the move at the outset itself.

Obviously the move for a transnational government based on democratic mandate is going to raise eyebrows in the Establishments that have a strong reservation against Eezham Tamil nationalism and want to erase it by coercion, deception, seemingly sympathetic talk and the hoodwink of devolution and development. Any genuinely mass-oriented structure will only be viewed more dangerous than armed groups that could readily be lured to play stooges to them. But the Eezham Tamils pushed to frustration’s end can’t help looking after their own affairs at their own will power. They need not any more care for other’s national or imperial interests unless there are returns.

It is not out of context to bring in here two examples from the South Asian scenario:

Those who have travelled in the northeastern frontier states of India might have noticed that people from these states whenever travel to Kolkata (Culcutta) and beyond, use to say that they go to ‘India’. In their heart, India is a foreign country, different from theirs and perhaps a coloniser. The Indian Establishment, which attempts to impose Sri Lankan identity on Eezham Tamils, after all what had happened and while the threat of genocide persists, should realise the futility of it at least through its own experience.

Anyone who compares the Tibetan refugees and the Eezham Tamil refugees in India can see a big difference in the treatment. The Tibetans are allowed a government in exile. They are allowed to manage themselves through their own co-operative systems. They are also helped and allowed to develop into an affluent identity on par with Anglo Indians. From the status of refugees in India they now operate all over the world with dignity and self-assurance. Their nationhood is now respected and recognised everywhere in the world, even though their independence and sovereignty are not conceded by China.

In contrast, the Eezham Tamil refugees in India disintegrated in the camps. For over quarter a century they are living under suspicious eyes. Only one organization trusted by the Indian Establishment is allowed to work in these camps. And, now, there are proposals to send them back to end up in the internment camps run by Colombo.

The difference is not merely because of the bias of the Indian Establishment in treating Eezham Tamils. It is also because of deficiencies in the social and political organisation of Eezham Tamils.

That is yet another reason why we need a transnational government for the diaspora.

Chronology:
 

Vaddukoddai Resolution

The Resolution was adopted at the first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) on 14 May 1976. TULF’s participation in the 1977 general elections was anchored in this Resolution. In this Resolution, the TULF declared its intent of forming a sovereign State of Tamil Eelam. S. J. V. Chelavanayakam presided over the Convention. The following is a translation of the Resolution, which was originally adopted in Tamil.

Whereas, throughout the centuries from the dawn of history, the Sinhalese and Tamil nations have divided between themselves the possession of Ceylon, the Sinhalese inhabiting the interior of the country in its Southern and Western parts from the river Walawe to that of Chilaw and the Tamils possessing the Northern and Eastern districts; And,

Whereas, the Tamil kingdom was overthrown in war and conquered by the Portuguese in 1619, and from them by the Dutch and the British in turn, independent of the Sinhalese Kingdoms; And,

Whereas, the British colonists, who ruled the territories of the Sinhalese and Tamil kingdoms separately, joined under compulsion the territories of the Sinhalese and the Tamil Kingdoms for purposes of administrative convenience on the recommendation of the Colebrooke Commission in 1833; And,

Whereas, the Tamil leaders were in the forefront of the freedom movement to rid Ceylon of colonial bondage which ultimately led to the grant of independence to Ceylon in 1948; And,

Whereas, the foregoing facts of history were completely overlooked, and power over the entire country was transferred to the Sinhalese nation on the basis of a numerical majority, thereby reducing the Tamil nation to the position of subject people; And,

Whereas, successive Sinhalese governments since independence have always encouraged and fostered the aggressive nationalism of the Sinhalese people and have used their political power to the detriment of the Tamils by:

(a) Depriving one half of the Tamil people of their citizenship and franchise rights thereby reducing Tamil representation in Parliament,

(b) Making serious inroads into the territories of the former Tamil Kingdom by a system of planned and state-aided Sinhalese colonization and large scale regularization of recently encouraged Sinhalese encroachments, calculated to make the Tamils a minority in their own homeland,

(c) Making Sinhala the only official language throughout Ceylon thereby placing the stamp of inferiority on the Tamils and the Tamil language,

(d) Giving the foremost place to Buddhism under the Republican Constitution thereby reducing the Hindus, Christians, and Muslims to second class status in this country,

(e) Denying to the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of employment, education, land alienation and economic life in general and starving Tamil areas of large scale industries and development schemes thereby seriously endangering their very existence in Ceylon,

(f) Systematically cutting them off from the main-stream of Tamil cultures in South India while denying them opportunities of developing their language and culture in Ceylon, thereby working inexorably towards the cultural genocide of the Tamils,

(g) Permitting and unleashing communal violence and intimidation against the Tamil speaking people as happened in Amparai and Colombo in 1956; all over the country in 1958; army reign of terror in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in 1961; police violence at the International Tamil Research Conference in 1974 resulting in the death of nine persons in Jaffna; police and communal violence against Tamil speaking Muslims at Puttalam and various other parts of Ceylon in 1976 ––all these calculated to instill terror in the minds of the Tamil speaking people, thereby breaking their spirit and the will to resist injustices heaped on them,

(h) By terrorizing, torturing, and imprisoning Tamil youths without trial for long periods on the flimsiest grounds,

                                i.            Capping it all by imposing on the Tamil nation a Constitution drafted, under conditions of emergency without opportunities for free discussion, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of the Soulbury Constitution distorted by the citizenship laws resulting in weightage in representation to the Sinhalese majority, thereby depriving the Tamils of even the remnants of safeguards they had under the earlier constitution; And,

Whereas, all attempts by the various Tamil political parties to win their rights, by co-operating with the governments, by parliamentary and extra-parliamentary agitations, by entering into pacts and understandings with successive Prime Ministers, in order to achieve the bare minimum of political rights consistent with the self-respect of the Tamil people have proved to be futile; And,

Whereas, the efforts of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress to ensure non-domination of the minorities by the majority by the adoption of a scheme of balanced representation in a Unitary Constitution have failed and even the meager safeguards provided in article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution against discriminatory legislation have been removed by the Republican Constitution; And,

Whereas, the proposals submitted to the Constituent Assembly by the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi for maintaining the unity of the country while preserving the integrity of the Tamil people by the establishment of an autonomous Tamil State within the framework of a Federal Republic of Ceylon were summarily and totally rejected without even the courtesy of a consideration of its merits; And,

Whereas, the amendments to the basic resolutions, intended to ensure the minimum of safeguards to the Tamil people moved on the basis of the nine point demands formulated at the conference of all Tamil Political parties at Valvettithurai on 7th February 1971 and by individual parties and Tamil members of Parliament including those now in the government party, were rejected in toto by the government and Constituent Assembly; And,

Whereas, even amendments to the draft proposals relating to language, religion, and fundamental-rights including one calculated to ensure that at least the provisions of the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Regulations of 1956 be included in the Constitution, were defeated, resulting in the boycott of the Constituent Assembly by a large majority of the Tamil members of Parliament; And,

Whereas, the Tamil United Liberation Front, after rejecting the Republican Constitution adopted on the 22nd of May, 1972, presented a six point demand to the Prime Minister and the Government on 25th June, 1972, and gave three months time within which the Government was called upon to take meaningful steps to amend the Constitution so as to meet the aspirations of the Tamil Nation on the basis of the six points, and informed the Government that if it failed to do so the Tamil United Liberation Front would launch a non-violent direct action against the Government in order to win the freedom and the rights of the Tamil Nation on the basis of the right of self-determination; And,

Whereas, this last attempt by the Tamil United Liberation Front to win Constitutional recognition of the rights of the Tamil Nation without jeopardizing the unity of the country was callously ignored by the Prime Minister and the Government; And,

Whereas, the opportunity provided by the Tamil United Liberation Front leader to vindicate the Government’s contention that their constitution had the backing of the Tamil people, by resigning from his membership of the National State Assembly and creating a by-election was deliberately put off for over two years in utter disregard of the democratic right of the Tamil voters of Kankesanthurai, And,

Whereas, in the by-election held on the 6^th February 1975, the voters of Kankesanthurai by a preponderant majority not only rejected the Republican Constitution imposed on them by the Sinhalese Government, but also gave a mandate to Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, Q.C. and through him to the Tamil United Liberation Front for the restoration and reconstitution of the Free Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of Tamil Eelam.

The first National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam (Vaddukoddai Constituency) on the 14th day of May, 1976, hereby declares that the Tamils of Ceylon by virtue of their great language, their religions, their separate culture and heritage, their history of independent existence as a separate state over a distinct territory for several centuries till they were conquered by the armed might of the European invaders and above all by their will to exist as a separate entity ruling themselves in their own territory, are a nation distinct and apart from Sinhalese and this Convention announces to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the Sinhalese ,who are using the power they have wrongly usurped to deprive the Tamil Nation of its territory, language citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education, thereby destroying all the attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people.

And, while taking note of the reservations in relation to its commitment to the setting up of a separated state of Tamil Eelam expressed by the Ceylon Workers Congress as a Trade Union of the Plantation Workers, the majority of whom live and work outside the Northern and Eastern areas,

This convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of Tamil Eelam, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.

This Convention further declares:

·         That the State of Tamil Eelam shall consist of the people of the Northern and Eastern provinces and shall also ensure full and equal rights of citizenship of the State of Tamil Eelam to all Tamil speaking people living in any part of Ceylon and to Tamils of Eelam origin living in any part of the world who may opt for citizenship of Tamil Eelam.

·         That the constitution of Tamil Eelam shall be based on the principle of democratic decentralization so as to ensure the non-domination of any religious or territorial community of Tamil Eelam by any other section.

·         That in the state of Tamil Eelam caste shall be abolished and the observance of the pernicious practice of untouchability or inequality of any type based on birth shall be totally eradicated and its observance in any form punished by law.

·         That Tamil Eelam shall be a secular state giving equal protection and assistance to all religions to which the people of the state may belong.

·         That Tamil shall be the language of the State, but the rights of Sinhalese speaking minorities in Tamil Eelam to education and transaction of business in their language shall be protected on a reciprocal basis with the Tamil speaking minorities in the Sinhala State.

·         That Tamil Eelam shall be a Socialist State wherein the exploitation of man by man shall be forbidden, the dignity of labor shall be recognized, the means of production and distribution shall be subject to public ownership and control while permitting private enterprise in these branches within limit prescribed by law, economic development shall be on the basis of socialist planning and there shall be a ceiling on the total wealth that any individual of family may acquire.

This Convention directs the Action Committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front to formulate a plan of action and launch without undue delay the struggle for winning the sovereignty and freedom of the Tamil Nation;

And this Convention calls upon the Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam is reached.

Tamil national aspirations, TNA and transnational governance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 23:36 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) or any other political party claiming that they represent Tamils have no right to proclaim that they have moved away from the 1977 mandate for independence and sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation, to satisfy India, Mahinda Rajapaksa or any other power. They may negotiate but without dropping the fundamentals, until any acceptable formula is freshly mandated by all Tamils including those who are now in the diaspora. Meanwhile, the emerging novel concept of transnational governance will be misled if it is orientated merely with an idea of negotiation. It is not just a negotiation platform. There is no need to show Tamils have ‘democratically’ dropped their aspiration just because some powers want it as a pre-requisite for negotiation.

TamilNet Editorial Board

Brutal military victory and inhuman incarceration will make Eezham Tamils to forget their national aspiration is the belief of Colombo and the powers that abetted it in the course of war.

Not that they don’t know that the war and the attitude behind the war have made Eezham Tamils to feel the necessity of their national liberation more than ever now.

But arrogance and greed never see reason.

Some of the powers are very honest in the show. They openly sit on all international intervention. Never hide their greed in grabbing land or resources of Tamils while they are incarcerated and one of them is said to be overtly intimidating Tamil political leaders not to voice political aspirations of their people but to accept formulas dictated by it as solutions.

Then there is another set of powers, which now shed tears for the incarcerated, advice reconciliation for the sake of the unity of the island, urge the diaspora to engage with Colombo government and show semblances of diplomatic and economic pressure just for getting official entry into the scenario.

While the former are not at all recognising their responsibility to the current plight of Tamils, the latter are at least indirectly recognising it, and are demanding for certain immediate humanitarian measures.

However, none of them were so far able to make even little impact in altering the genocidal attitude of Colombo. On the contrary, Colombo is fast institutionalising ethnic totalitarianism in all its forms in the island.

Sense and sensibility would tell anyone that realities in the island demand partition for lasting peace, democratisation, eventual reconciliation and for regional /global cooperation.

But Tamils have to carefully note that none of the powers want to recognise the inevitability and righteousness in the development and demands of Tamil nationalism in the island. Rather they want us to believe that national liberation was only a demand of ‘terrorism’, what exists is only an ordinary ‘minority issue’ and this could be sorted out by reconciliation, development and little international pressure on Colombo to observe human rights.

Everyone knows what is behind this attitude is no sane political ideology but sheer power opportunism.

The powers are fully aware that what they are doing is not going to resolve the conflict in the island. If they are confident in the righteousness of their outlook there is no need for them to worry about an armed struggle erupting in the island again. Their anxiety only reveals that they are wrong in their moves. India’s fear, stemming from its guilt, is very explicit as could be seen from the observations of M K Narayanan recently about the possibilities of Tamil diaspora supporting another armed struggle.

They all come out with a sane advise to Tamils to struggle politically. But what is unholy behind this advice is dictating and coercing Tamils to drop their liberation aspiration even in democratically organised political movements. In short, ‘defeated Tamils’ have no political rights either, even to democratically tell what they want.

This is where Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka and in the diaspora need to take a firm stand and voice it boldly.

When Tamils had the last chance of democratically voicing themselves in 1977, they have given a clear and overwhelming mandate, based on their self-determination, for the creation of an independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in their homeland, i.e., North and East of the island.

The Tamil National Alliance or any other political party claiming that they represent Tamils have no right to proclaim that they have moved away from this mandate to satisfy India, Mahinda Rajapaksa or any other power. They may negotiate but without dropping the fundamentals, until any acceptable formula is freshly mandated by all Tamils including those who are now in the diaspora. This is a new reality.

The Eezham Tamil diaspora living as free citizens in liberal democratic countries, outside of the dictates of Colombo and New Delhi, has a bigger responsibility in evolving a political formation to represent the hearts of Tamils.

TamilNet has long been writing on democratically formed transnational governance of Eezham Tamils and as prerequisites re-mandating the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution and forming grass root democratic bodies.

It is with sadness we note that according to BBC report Wednesday, the proposal to form a transnational government by V. Rudrakumaran talks only of homeland and self-determination – a truncation of the vital parts of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution.

Some supporting circles of this move said that the phrase ‘transnational government of Tamil Eelam’ covers the rest of Tamil aspirations. They should realise that the phrase ‘Tamil Nadu’ doesn’t mean anything in India.

Why the hesitation in telling what the Tamils have mandated democratically? Who is blocking?

Transnational government is primarily a symbolic as well as a functioning body that should be formed by the free will of the diaspora Tamils upholding the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils in the island. It is an alternative government to be formed democratically when all governments disregarded them.

The whole concept of transnational governance will be misled if it is orientated merely with an idea of negotiation. It is not just a negotiation platform. There is no need to show Tamils have ‘democratically’ dropped their aspiration just because some powers want it as a pre-requisite for negotiation.

Another unsafe move in the announcement for transnational government, in the given hostility of Colombo and some powers, is the call for voter register. All know how totalitarian powers in the past made use of voter register to hunt people. Voter register will make only a faction of core supporters to register and the transnational government will not be truly representative. Attention has to be drawn here how a successful poll was conducted in May this year, among the Tamil diaspora in Norway, without any voter register.

The BBC reporter Wednesday was unkind even to the ‘homeland’ of the proposed transnational government. “The group is clearly still wedded to the idea of a separate homeland, which many observers consider to be defunct after their military defeat,” he said.

This is not a conducive image for the effort when such a government has to be formed with a new and inclusive paradigm. The move for the transnational government has to go beyond the already created image that it is a LTTE project.

According to BBC, the Colombo government has made it clear that it is now hunting for Mr. Rudrakumaran, even though it has no business to interfere into the democratic activities of the free citizens in the diaspora in the liberal democracies.

The best option for a successful transnational government is not making it from the above but evolving it from the grass root. Such a government cannot be intimidated or hijacked by anyone, as it will be prevalent everywhere in the diaspora.

Eezham Tamils in Norway are already discussing the formation of a democratically elected country council, adopting the goal for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, which has been mandated by 99 percent of the Norwegian Tamil voters (the voter turn out was 80 percent). If such elected councils in every country could device ways of forming a transnational government, that will be more representative, democratic, secure and forceful.

Re-mandating the main principle of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, preceding the formation of the transnational government, is vital for setting the goals of the government democratically and in no uncertain terms, convincing everyone of their validity without doubt or refutation.