A TAMIL DOCTOR WRITES TO MR.LALITH WEERATUNGE :

13th Amendment is a white elephant, this is why

A physician of Tamil ethnicity Dr. P. Sivapalan wrote the following letter to the Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunge on the subject of the 13th Amendment.

The following is the full text of the letter:

"I'm sending this E'mail, after reading your twitter interview in the Daily News. I agree with you that 13th Amendment is a white elephant to the country but it is a rabid tiger to Tamils.

"If the 13th Amendment is adopted fully there won't be democracy for Tamils in the North.

You know when the Ilankai Thamilarasu Kadchi of the TNA had a few gun trotting boys under their wing their opponents were weeded out. Mayor Alfred Duraiappah, few SLFP organizers and fews leftists and Thiagarajah were the people who didn't tow the line of the ITAK became the victims of the weeding out culture.

"So we can't imagine what will happen when the police power is given constitutionally. When the TULF and other liberation organizations didn't have land power constitutionally, they colonized the Vanni region with Upcountry Tamils of Indian origin and sacrificed many children of those families in the Eelam war keeping their own children comfortably in foreign countries.

"The TNA has no conscience. Further more, they would block any move taken by the central government in the interest of the country if there is a clause that all the provincial governments has to give the consent.

"The 13th Amendment was considered in the Indo - SriLankan Accord nearly 26 years back because of the situation at that time and to pacify the LTTE. Now there is a vast change. There is peace and a lot of development taking place in rapid pace.

All the Ethnic and Religious groups are treated equally. People need a peaceful life they enjoy now and not power to rule over fellow Sri Lankans in an area. So the 13th Amendment is out dated.

I would like to recall a programme I had watched on an Indian TV channel when the IPKF was in SriLanka.

"When an Indian University student asked the late Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi why he was spending lot of Indian money in the interest of SriLankan Tamils, he replied that if he didn't do that then, he might have to spend more money to defend the Southern border of India later.

That speaks a lot to open the mind of those Sri Lankans who want to retain the 13th Amendment.

"TheTNA is working hard to impede reconciliation. I hope you have a big challenge to undo that."

- Dr.P.Sivapalan