Shritharan Sivagnanam, an MP from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), appealed to the Sinhala youth in the island to make an effort towards understanding the Tamil situation and protest for it along with the ongoing demonstrations against the dire economic crisis.
Speaking in the parliament, Sivagnanam said that Tamils have deep sympathy for the cause of the widespread protests in the southern part of the country, but there was no support among the Sinhalese community for the Tamils when they were massacred by the Sri Lankan army. “Not a single Sinhala person protested when Tamils were slain,” he said.
“Many Tamil youth who fought for their homeland have been tortured and imprisoned. Many are political prisoners in prison without charge. Think about them and fight for it,” Sivagnanam added, addressing the Sinhala youth.
The parliamentarian also raised issues of appropriation of Tamil land by the military in the North even as popular agitation continues in the Sinhalese parts of the country. He said that the army has been carrying out land surveys in Eluvaitivu, an island off the coast of Jaffna, and in Kilinochchi to confiscate lands belonging to Tamils.
Sivagnanam then talked about the privations suffered by the Tamil homeland during the armed conflict as a result of the blockade imposed by the Sri Lankan state and said the economic crisis is a new experience only to the Sinhalese, but the Tamils are inured to it. “We suffered the blockade for over twenty years,” he said.
“Sinhala leaders and Sinhala youth should think in moral terms,” he continued. “Sinhala youth join the protests today with lion flags. Times have changed to the extent that today the Sinhalese people are chasing away the Sinhala leaders with the same lion flag they carried when the Tamils were killed,” he added.
The ongoing economic crisis has raised hopes among Tamil leaders regarding a political solution to the Tamil question in the island. “Your plan to run the country without delivering justice to the Tamils in a unitary structure that has no accountability has backfired,” Sivagnanam said in regards to the Sinhala polity.