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General Election 2004 - TNA Manifesto and the Tamil mandate

Discriminatory legislations, state aided colonization changing Tamil demography and subtly converting Tamils as minorities in their own habitat the Tamil homeland, state organized communal pogroms which forced the Tamils to think seriously of a safe homeland and military suppression of non violent protests against these may be considered as a few of the many reasons that compelled the Tamil people to mandate their then legislators to go ahead and work for separation rather than cohabiting as second class citizens under a so-called 'unitary' governance. The Tamil people, when they mandated for separation in 1977, had with them only the manifestations of disappointments, deceit and frustration consequent to many an agreements and pacts entered into solemnly and sincerely with the Colombo regimes having been thrown out of the window just for the fancy of a few Sinhala hardliners. This, no doubt was the catalyst at that time when there wasn't a semblance of self rule or a territory with built -in administrative mechanisms as one can see in the Tamil homeland today with a designation as "LTTE controlled areas" . If even in the absence of such structures and a dedicated fighting force to defend themselves against military oppression, the Tamil people ventured into the unchartered political landscape of 'separation', it was only because the indignity was so unbearable.

The years that followed saw the Colombo regime responding to the Tamil mandate with a vengeance. Two decades of war ensued and the Tamils surprisingly built within themselves a capacity not only to withstand the oppression but also to hit back. This capacity is the difference between the collective Tamil psyche that mandated separation in 1977 and self-determination today in 2004 elections. Today the Tamils have a fighting force, a territory that they officially call their homeland administered by their own children who spearheaded the freedom struggle. The Tamil mandate of 1977 only had the TULF legislatures to take forward the cause, functioning only as a numerical minority in the Colombo parliament, which had a majoritarian supremacist outlook. The TULF then did not have the strength to fight in the real sense of the world. Conversely, the TNA has a public mandate, an overwhelming one at that and the strong backing of the Liberation Tigers of TamilEelam. This, no doubt, makes a big difference.

Two decades of war and the destruction of lives and property has not made the Tamils fall prey to the machinations of the "selfish opportunistic packs and gangs that operate in our midst as the enemies and as the tools of the majoritarian chauvinist sinhala forces", as aptly defined by the TNA in its manifesto. The overwhelming mandate given by the Tamil people in response to the TNA manifesto, which unequivocally declares the LTTE as the National Leadership and the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people, is a clear indicator of the collective Tamil thinking.

A committed peace process, a tangible set of proposals for Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) and unbending leadership form the plank on which the Tamil people have banked their hopes and aspirations. If the Tamil mandate of 1977 to the TULF was decisive, 2004 mandate to the TNA can be called still more decisive and concrete sense it is being vouchsafed by a committed Liberation Force the LTTE and its efficient and formidable Leadership.

05 April 2004

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