Presidential change alone will not solve the problems facing the Tamil people warned the Tamil National Political Front (TNPF) leader in an interview with the Sunday Leader.
Responding to a question on the proposal of a common candidate to challenge the current president, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, said,
Ponnambalam further highlighted that even a Tamil common candidate would not change anything, without concrete solutions proposed for the Tamil national question.
“Merely having a Tamil as President will also not solve anything either. I mean a Douglas is surely not going to do anything for Tamils is he?” he said.
When asked about whether Tamils need to let the wounds of war heal, Ponnambalam stressed that "full accountability is fundamental to healing".
“The fact is that the Tamils are very clear that what happened to them in the name of fighting the LTTE, was a Genocide and that that process is ongoing in the structural sense today. If there is to be true reconciliation, we need to know that the Sinhalese people are prepared to bring to justice all those who are responsible for these crimes against Tamils,” he added.
When asked on his thoughts of the Sri Lankan government commission into war crimes, Ponnambalam labelled a domestic mechanism as a "mockery of justice" as the "regime itself was accused of the most heinous crimes".
“Our party goes further and says that even if a regime change takes place, there cannot be a domestic investigation that’s credible. This is because all the parties in the south except for a few left parties, supported the Military and have come on record saying that they must be protected,” he added.
Commenting on the United Nations investigation into Sri Lankan atrocities, Ponnambalam warned that the UN probe wouldn’t offer guaranteed justice as work would need to be done to influence powers within the UN system for action.
*The above quotes are taken from the email interview of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam by the Sunday Leader paper. The newspaper's final edited and published version can be found here.
Responding to a question on the proposal of a common candidate to challenge the current president, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, said,
“I don’t believe merely having the President changed at the top is going to solve anything. But merely removing the individual at the top, without the prospective new President having concrete proposals to solve the Tamil national question, is not going to be a ‘Regime Change’ but merely a ‘Personality Change.’ Such an exercise is going to be irrelevant to the Tamils.”
“So far we are yet to see all the prospective common opposition candidates saying anything on the ethnic question and what they see as a solution,”
Ponnambalam further highlighted that even a Tamil common candidate would not change anything, without concrete solutions proposed for the Tamil national question.
“Merely having a Tamil as President will also not solve anything either. I mean a Douglas is surely not going to do anything for Tamils is he?” he said.
When asked about whether Tamils need to let the wounds of war heal, Ponnambalam stressed that "full accountability is fundamental to healing".
“The fact is that the Tamils are very clear that what happened to them in the name of fighting the LTTE, was a Genocide and that that process is ongoing in the structural sense today. If there is to be true reconciliation, we need to know that the Sinhalese people are prepared to bring to justice all those who are responsible for these crimes against Tamils,” he added.
When asked on his thoughts of the Sri Lankan government commission into war crimes, Ponnambalam labelled a domestic mechanism as a "mockery of justice" as the "regime itself was accused of the most heinous crimes".
“Our party goes further and says that even if a regime change takes place, there cannot be a domestic investigation that’s credible. This is because all the parties in the south except for a few left parties, supported the Military and have come on record saying that they must be protected,” he added.
Commenting on the United Nations investigation into Sri Lankan atrocities, Ponnambalam warned that the UN probe wouldn’t offer guaranteed justice as work would need to be done to influence powers within the UN system for action.
*The above quotes are taken from the email interview of Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam by the Sunday Leader paper. The newspaper's final edited and published version can be found here.