Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran said that Tamils in the North-East may not be coming out in massive numbers to support the current anti-government protests as they “can’t forget the fact” that when the Sri Lankan military was killing “scores” of Tamils, “the rest of the country didn’t care”.
In an interview with The Morning, the TNA responded to a question on the current situation in the North. His full response is reproduced below.
“The north is a little amused that people are unable to cope without electricity for a week or two, when they have done that for a decade or two, without any electricity at all. They are rather amused that their brethren in the south don’t have any resilience to face this kind of hardship. They didn’t have fuel for 10 or 20 years. No diesel and no petrol at all, no batteries, power was totally out, but they managed. They grew their own food and they had alternatives that they worked out.”
“These are recent memories so they all remember those things and they don’t look at it as a major hardship. That’s one. They also produce; although the production yield has been affected by this chemical fertiliser policy, they do grow a lot of food. They are able to cope to some extent. As things get worse, I think they will also want to come out and protest. Right now they are not doing that for two reasons. One is this, the other is that when calls come from the south for the north to join, etc., they have a justifiable question – that this did not happen from the south when the north bore a lot of attacks.”
“One or two people being killed on the streets is a huge issue here, but scores were bombed and destroyed not just during the final phase of the war but right through that period. Aerial attacks and carpet bombing were commonplace, but the rest of the country didn’t care. That is no reason to withhold support now. They may want to support the current protests; they think they are legitimate and particularly the youth are coming forward to do that, but they can’t forget the fact that when this was 100 times worse, these people did not open their mouths.”
Read his full interview here.
Sumanthiran’s remarks echoed that of fellow TNA MP S Sritharan earlier this month, who 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.”
