Govt. evading Tamils’ problems due to fear MR will return, claims Wigneswaran

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran says the good governance government will not really seek solutions to the problems of the Tamil people in the North due to the fear that Mahinda Rajapaksa will be able to return to power.

“The Government is still scared that Mahinda Rajapaksa will come back if something good is done for the Tamil people,” the Chief Minister told BBC Sandeshaya.

In doing so, the problems of the Tamil people can never be solved, he added.

“When they talk with us, they talk well, accept everything and say yes, yes. But when we ask later why they do not do anything they say we have to take measures slowly otherwise Mahinda Rajapaksa will come back to power,” Wigneswaran said.

The Chief Minister made this statement in a telephone conversation with the BBC Sinhala Service in London after he called on the Chief Prelate of Malwatte Chapter yesterday.

The Chief Minister said the Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter spoke about the issues of the people of the North without any political objective.

“He does not want to talk politics. Everything he spoke was about humanity. He talked with us very nicely and I think that all Buddhist monks should be like him,” Wigneswaran said.

The Chief Minister said the Chief Prelate, pointing out that there are 89,000 widows in the North, asked him to take measures to resolve their problems.

“I have told our people about that but they did not pay attention,” Wigneswaran quoted the Mahanayake Thera as saying.

When asked who were meant by “our people”, the Northern Province Chief Minister said he believed the Chief Prelate was referring to Southern politicians.

When the BBC questioned the Chief Minister about the allegation that he provoked communalism among people in the North to achieve political objectives, Wigneswaran said he did not incite communalism but tried to get the promises made to his people fulfilled.

“When the promises given to our people were not fulfilled, we tried to win them, we did not provoke communalism. Politicians in the South are arousing racism for their advantage. Once party screams when the other party tries to do something good. When Chandrika tried to do something good, Ranil burned documents inside Parliament. Today it’s the other way. We have problems in the North. People in the South raise communalism,” Wigneswaran said.

The Chief Minister, who is a former Supreme Court Judge, said a recent Supreme Court ruling has confirmed that the country’s unitary status will not be harmed if power is devolved through a federal system to resolve the national question.

Tamils seek federalism, not Sri Lanka’s division: Wigneswaran

PTI: Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has said the Tamil minority community’s demand for a federal solution to meet their political aspirations was not aimed at dividing the country.

“You [the South] think we [Tamils] are all terrorists. We do not want to divide this country. When we ask for federalism we are being accused of trying to divide the country,” Wigneswaran said.

He said the Tamils want their distinct identity recognised by the majority Sinhalese.

Wigneswaran made the remarks on 9 September in Kandy where he had gone to meet the Buddhist clergy to highlight the grievances faced by the Tamils. He met Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatta Chapter, the Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala.

He said the Malwatta sect chief, one of two leading Buddhist sects, acknowledged the issues faced by the Tamils.

Wigneswaran is being seen as towing the hardline Tamil nationalism in contrast to his party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA shows a conciliatory attitude towards the current Government.

Tamils favoured the incumbent Maithripala Sirisena in the presidential election held in 2015 against the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the favourite among the Sinhala Buddhists.

Despite supporting Sirisena in the election, the Tamils have begun to feel uncomfortable with the slowness in reconciliatory steps taken by him.

They claimed that only symbolic steps had been taken over the last two years to address Tamils’ grievances.