Postage stamps and political settlement

Rajavarothiam Sampanthan MP, leader of the Tamil National Alliance has said that his party will take part in discussions commencing January 17 in connection with finding a solution to the issues of the Tamil community. The importance of this statement cannot be gainsaid.

The TNA is the party which has obtained the greatest number of votes in the North and East in elections held since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka. It represents the ethnically Tamil majority in these areas. By its willingness to enter talks, the TNA weakens elements within that population who wish to create a separate, state of Tamil Eelam.

Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, at a public lecture at the Foundation Institute on ‘Future Challenges to National Security in Sri Lanka’, has warned that elements of the rump of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – safely ensconced abroad – is attempting to regroup and re-start the conflict which ended nearly three years ago.

Foreign governments

He points out that this group, led by Visvanathan Rudrakumaran established a provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (Nadu Kadantha Thamileela Arasu). The New York-based TGTE even has its own Cabinet of ministers, with Rudrakumaran as Prime Minister. The group has declared this year that it will intensify its lobbying of foreign governments and also that it hopes to fan the flames of separatist insurrection once again.

Secretary Rajapaksa also pointed out that there are also other Tamil ultra-nationalist groups attempting to promote an armed separatist agenda. These include the London-based Global Tamils Forum (Ulagath Thamilar Forum) and the Norway-based Tamil Eelam People's Assembly (Thamileela Makkal Peravai). These organizations put ultra-nationalist pressure on the TGTE, forcing it to even more extreme positions. The GTF is led by Prof. Dr. S. J. Emmanuel, who was hailed by LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran as ‘a freedom fighter who has given leadership to a movement committed to setting up the homeland to Tamil Eelam'. It is a very successful organization, lobbying in the Eelamist cause.

Perinpanayagam Sivaparan, alias Nediyawan, alias ‘Norway Thalaivar’, is the shadowy figure leading the TEPA, the most dangerous of Tamil ultra-nationalist organizations. An acolyte of former LTTE overseas administration Czar Veerakathy Manivannan, alias Castro, he took over as global Eelam Mogul after the death of Prabhakaran.

Black market businesses

Nediwayan has power over most of the Diasporic Tamil media and controls most of the funds collected from Diaspora Tamils, as well as monies procured from both legitimate and black market businesses. He used his clout to try and muscle in on the TGTE, but failed. So, while he has inherited the economic and thug-related might of the LTTE, he has failed to become heir to its political legacy within the Diaspora.

The latest propaganda exercise by these ultra-nationalist separatists was to use the postal services of host countries. The Posts in many Western countries, in order to boost their sales, have been allowing the on-line personalisation of stamps by customers. La Poste, the French postal service, was targeted early, stamps being issued bearing the visage of the slain LTTE leader or ‘maps’ of ‘Tamil Eelam’. La Poste subsequently apologised to the Sri Lanka government over the lapses of its employees – who were apparently on the lookout for nude photographs rather than terrorist-related material; although one wonders whether the features of the late Al-qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (whom France, as a member of NATO, has officially been fighting for several years) would have passed scrutiny so easily.

A similar attempt on Britain’s Royal Mail was foiled. However, in Canada, stamps bearing a ‘Eelam Map’ and featuring ‘Tamil Genocide’ did see the light of day, although Canada Post President Deepak Chopra denied they had been printed by his organization. What these philatelic episodes do illustrate are the lengths to which the ultra-nationalist organizations will go to promote their cause and to perpetuate the fading pull of the ever more distant objective of Tamil Eelam.

The death-knell of the separatist cause will be of course be rung when there is a settlement to the outstanding grievances of the multiple ethnic groups which make up the population of this small island. The discussions between the TNA and the government are an essential part of the settlement process, the start of national reconciliation.

National reconciliation

Ultimately, it is through national reconciliation that plots and conspiracies against Sri Lanka can be defeated. The publication of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report, which laid to rest the canard that the government was trying to sweep unpalatable stuff under the carpet, has played a vital part in normalising our international image.

Now it is up to Parliament to implement the practical recommendations embodied in the report of the LLRC; to rebuild the areas virtually destroyed in the fighting, to rebuild the lives of the people caught up in the three-decade-long conflict and to destroy the fences that separate Sri Lankans from one another.

The TNA has come to the table because it understands the ground realities. The difficulty will be keeping it there – there will be pressure on it from the ultra-nationalists of the Tamil Diaspora which it can only withstand if it is seen to be gaining something from the talks. On the other hand, the government side must be wary of ceding too much of the sovereignty of the people.

There needs to be give and take on both sides if the talks are to succeeding in hammering out a political settlement. However, it seems that the biggest obstacle, acknowledgement on both sides of the need to have these talks at all, has been hurdled. This bodes well for the future.