Time for Tamils to Transcend and Transform

originally posted 25/05/09
edited 10/06/09....

by Arvalan

“Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.” - Napoleon Hill

The armed liberation struggled waged by the Tamils have come to a “bitter end”. The defeat at the hands of the Sinhalese regime has shaken the Tamil community all over the world. Tamils all over world, irrespective of their political affiliations, feel the pain of defeat and their pride has been hurt. However this is not the time to mourn the defeat and acknowledge “condolence messages” from the international community.

-It is time for the Tamils to reignite their struggle for freedom with more vigour and commitment.

-It is time for the Tamils to learn from the mistakes of the past and march forward towards their dream homeland.

-It is time for the Tamils to mobilise their global resources to launch a diplomatic & economic offensives against the Sri Lanka

-It is time for the Tamils to avenge Sinhala Buddhist regime which has humiliated us in defeat in the courts of justice

-It is time for the Tamils to act, act immediately and act wisely

The Tamil struggle was initiated and lead by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in the late seventies until the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) became the sole representatives in late Eighties. The LTTE negotiated with the Indian & Sri Lankan governments from the late eighties for the next 20 years. The 30-year-old struggle has resulted in Tamils losing many of their political leaders who are astute, articulate, committed, diplomatic, knowledgeable and visionary. Further during the Eelam War IV LTTE not only lost their military leaders but unfortunately and tragically lost many of their front line political wing leaders in, Balasingham, Tamilselvan, Nadesan and Pulidevan

It is time for a new band of leadership to take the struggle forward. I believe this new leadership should originate from the Diaspora, which has been blessed with individuals who are experts in politics, diplomacy and international relations. We need these media savvy and committed individuals to come forward to lead the struggle for liberation from a diplomatic and political front.

I believe the umbrella organisations in Canada (such as Canadian Tamil Congress), Europe (such as British Tamil Forum) , USA (such as PEARL), Australia (such as Australian Federation of Tamil Associations) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka need to come together to form a global body for the Tamils. This new global body for the Tamils could be called Tamil National Congress (TNC) and should be structured along the lines of a Tamil government in exile. TNC should be entrusted with the task of lobbying the international community and negotiating with the Sri Lankan government.

The guiding principles for the TNC will be the Thimpu principles, which are

· Recognition of the Tamils of Ceylon as a nation

· Recognition of the existence of an identified homeland for the Tamils of Ceylon

· Recognition of the right of self determination of the Tamil nation

The TNC should lobby the International community, particularly India, US & EU to endorse the Thimpu principles. The TNC need to embark on “classical lobbying” in their respective countries which is vastly different from the lobbying carried out in the past. I believe some of the lobbying techniques used in US by PEARL and Tamils for Obama will be good examples of effective lobbying methods.

It is also equally important the legal experts of the TNC should actively pursue the Sri Lankan leaders in war crime tribunals. TNC will need to bring the cream of the Tamil legal minds to prosecute the Sinhala leadership in the courts of international justice for crimes against humanity.

Whilst pursuing the diplomatic & legal offensives against the Sri Lankan government, TNC should also take the lead role in alleviating the sufferings of the Internally Displaced People (IDP’s). IC should be successfully persuaded by the TNC to allow it to run the rehabilitation and resettlement efforts in North and East of Sri Lanka. This will amount to a pseudo interim administration.

In the event of TNC not seeking a lead role the rehabilitation and resettlement efforts will be managed by Karuna and Douglas, catering for the interests of the Sri Lankan government. The danger in allowing Karuna and Douglas to manage the resettlement program is it will result in Sinhala colonisation of North and East and the aid fund being diverted to South (as evidenced with Tsunami reconstruction).

Therefore it is vital for the TNC to pursue a short-term strategy to address the immediate problems of our people whilst pursuing the long-term political solution to our conflict. TNC will be launching offensives in three major fronts, political, legal and economical, which are the hallmarks of a government in exile.

I believe there will be resistance from some quarters for any moves to form a new organisation. However the concept of TNC is not about compromising the LTTE. At this critical juncture in our history Tamils need global leadership, which LTTE is unable to provide at present (they have done so effectively in the past). TNC is all about proving that leadership and exploiting the support we have harvested in the international arena with our demonstrations, rallies and lobbying.

As symbolic step for the formation of the TNC, mass gatherings should be organised in Sydney, Chennai, Geneva, London and Toronto on the same day. Tamils should participate in these rallies in mass numbers wearing the traditional dress. Participants should avoid carrying Tiger flags (even though they call it Tamil national flags) as the international media will portray any rallies with the tiger flags as Pro LTTE rally and in that process we are losing the plot in getting the message across to the wider community. The purpose of these mass gatherings are to announce to the world that

-We are proud to be Tamils & We are united

-Tamil Eelam is our homeland and we want it to be liberated.

-Declare the President of Sri Lanka as a War Criminal

The end of the military phase of the Eelam war IV has opened many doors in the international community. It is critical we exploit these opportunities and contacts for our benefit to achieve a permanent solution for our legitimate grievances. If we miss this opportunity the future generations will continue to suffer in our homeland and overseas.

We are not done yet!