Wigneswaran on the Rajapaksas’ return, Tamil rights and more

C.V. Wigneswaran, a former Supreme Court Justice in Sri Lanka, is Secretary General of the new Tamil political party Thamizh Makkal Kootani. In this interview he speaks about the Rajapaksas’ return, Tamil rights and more.

By Taylor Dibbert

Q: What does Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency mean for Tamils?

A: Maybe hard times ahead. But his verve to establish a Sinhala-Buddhist republic might be blunted by international norms and expectations. I have a feeling he is continuing with his anti-Tamil stance at the moment to capture the votes of the Sinhalese at the next Parliamentary Election for his party.

I find certain positives in him. He is not after pomp and pageantry like most politicians including his Prime Minister brother. He is vegetarian I hear. I attach much significance to what one eats. It does not mean all vegetarians are saints. The chances of such vegetarians becoming mellowed by experience and knowledge are greater. It is easy to reduce one’s hatred, prejudices and vindictiveness if one is vegetarian. It is easy to meditate if one is vegetarian. Maybe I am controversial in this regard. But, all in all, I expect Gotabaya to be different from what he has portrayed himself so far. He means business. Thereby we Tamils may have to suffer initially due to his political exigencies.

But Tamils will have to await the results of the next Parliamentary Election to correctly assess him. It is too soon to be negative in our assessments basing them on his performance as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence earlier.

Q: How might daily life in the Northern Province change during his tenure?

A: It has already changed. Jaffna Prison got its Buddhist place of worship at the dead of night. A statue was installed outside the prison. That would mean permission needs to be given by the Municipal Council. I do not think such permission has been obtained. Maybe because of that, the statue has been later withdrawn. But such provocations might continue. When anyone demonstrates against such activities, maybe the earlier cycle of arrests, torture and terrorizing might start again. We must not forget that provocation originally has always been by the governmental forces, military or otherwise. They provoke, we retaliate and the game starts!

Yet giving the benefit of the doubt to His Excellency, I like to think these are gimmicks to collect votes at the next election. He probably is seriously of the view that this country belongs to the Sinhala-Buddhists even though the majority of the people in the north and east are non-Sinhala and non-Buddhists, and despite cogent evidence that it was the Tamils who became Buddhists initially when Buddhism was introduced to the island and the Sinhala language came into being only around the 6th or 7th century A.D.

He has an unfortunate idea that the majority of Tamils in the Northern and Eastern Provinces are after economic benefits. Majority of them if they wanted economic benefits they would have joined the major parties long ago, and made great strides economically like the Muslims and the Up-country Tamils so far. The Tamils in the north and east are after self-dignity and self-preservation. They want self-government. They want to be self-dependent and would like to make themselves self-sufficient. Hope His Excellency would realise these matters as time goes.

Economic regeneration is a must for an area devastated by a war. But none should make such economic benefits an alternative to our receiving our reasonable political dues legally. If we fail in our attempt to get back our lost rights what happened to the Burghers after 1956 will happen to us too.

Q: Sajith Premadasa received significant support in the Northern Province. Did that surprise you? How do you interpret voting in the north?

A: That Sajith would receive considerable support in the north and east was foreseen since the Northern and Eastern Tamils were the recipients of Gotabaya’s ‘compliments’ during and after the war. But our party tested Sajith and Gotabaya by sending our thirteen-point political and social requests to them. Both did not want to touch them knowing the Sinhalese voters would desert them if they had anything to do with us. So, our party decided to give a free vote to our people to vote for whomsoever they desired. We did not point our finger towards anyone.

But the TNA (Tamil National Alliance) leadership, in their anxiety to show themselves as kingmakers and hoping to get benefits from Sajith like they did from Ranil, shouted out loud and clearly to vote for Sajith. By doing so many a sure Sajith vote from the south was lost by Sajith to Gotabaya. There is a very strong rumour that Ranil wanted the TNA to openly support Sajith knowing it will have a negative impact on the south. Ranil has his trusted lieutenants in the TNA to do his bidding.

Q: How will your party approach the forthcoming Parliamentary Election?

A: We are discussing the setting up of an alternative force to TNA based on sound principles. We need to have discipline and humane qualities if we are to avoid the pitfalls the TNA so far faced under the present leadership. For a party one year old we have done well. We hope to do well in the future too.

Q: Is Sri Lanka an ethnocracy?

A: The Sinhalese politicians want to make Sri Lanka a government of the Sinhala-Buddhists, by the Sinhala-Buddhists and for the Sinhala-Buddhists, forgetting the north and east are majority not Sinhala nor Buddhist. They have never been Sinhala, but they have been Tamil-Buddhist initially until the majority community of Tamils returned to their old religion Saivaism a few centuries later.

Giving the foremost place to one religion in the constitution as opposed to other religions certainly could qualify Sri Lanka to be called by what you refer to. 

(Source: https://medium.com/@taylordibbert/c-v-wigneswaran-on-the-rajapaksas-return-tamil-rights-and-more-d708d1d503c3)

(Taylor Dibbert is a freelance writer and human rights consultant based in the Washington, D.C. area. Follow him on Twitter @taylordibbert. [email protected].)