TNA MP R.Sampanthan’s Speech During Budget Debate
January 12, 2009 at 11:03 am · Posted Public Articles
Speech delivered by Mr.R.Sampanthan, Member of Parliament, Trincomalee District, and Parliamentary Group Leader, Illankai Tamil Arsau Kadchi (TNA), on the December 2008 in the Sri Lanka Parliament during the Committee stage of the Budget Debate on the Defence vote.
Mr. Chairman, I hope I will be able to, at least to some extent, change the environment that has prevailed in this House during about the past half an hour and I also do hope that we can have a more sensible debate in regard to the important questions that are before this House at the present moment.
When one looks at the situation of a nation, Sir, it may not be quite correct to look at it from only the present time, what is happening in the country during the current period. It may be necessary, Sir, to also look at the past to be in a position to ascertain what happened in the past and what effect, in fact, those events that happened in the past have had on the events that take place at present. Otherwise, you would not be taking, in my view, a full view, a sensible view of the events that happened in the course of a nation’s history.
Most Hon. Members in this House talk on the basis that the only problem this country has is the LTTE and the violence that it unleashes. I do not dispute the fact that the LTTE unleashes violence. I do not dispute the fact that the LTTE does many things which are unacceptable. I do not dispute the fact that the LTTE is sometimes guilty of brinkmanship, but I do not think you can claim that all that is happening in this country or that the present position in this country is attributable only to the LTTE or to the violence that the LTTE unleashes.
We need to look at the past, Sir. When did violence start in this country? Violence in this country started in 1956, long before the LTTE came into being. When my leaders, my much respected leader Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and the other leaders, performed a “Sathyagraha” on the Galle Face Green in front of the old Parliament House, they were attacked. Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan, a much respected Member of Parliament and a citizen of this country, had to run into the Galle Face Hotel in his underwear. Mr. Amirthalingam entered the Chambers that evening after the “Sathyagraha” with a bandage around his head. We had violence in 1956; we had violence in 1958; we had violence in 1961, when we performed a “sathyagraha” in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and when we were arrested and locked up in the Panagoda army camp. We were, in fact, the first occupants of the Panagoda army camp. I happened to be there myself as a young lawyer. We had violence in the mid-1970s, when there was a Tamil Research Conference in Jaffna. We had violence in 1977; we had violence in 1981. We had enormous violence which shook the conscience of the world in 1983, and in all of these bouts of violence – they were all anti- Tamil pogroms against the Tamil people living in this country – the only victims were the Tamil people.
The only victims of these several bouts of violence were the Tamil people. No other community in this country was ever the victims of violence that happened on all these several occasions that I have referred to. That is something, Sir, which must be remembered. Why was this violence being committed against the Tamil people? They were merely wanting a change in the structure of the Constitution. They wanted the unitary character of the Constitution to be changed into a federal arrangement in keeping with patterns that prevail the world over where society is multilingual, multicultural, plural in character to be in a position to cater to the aspirations of the distinct peoples who inhabit this country. They never carried arms. There was no violence from the Tamil side. Our campaign was non-violent, on the Ghandian model of Ahimsa . We performed “Sathyagraha” in front of the Kachcheri and recited religious hymns. We prayed to the God that there be peace in this country. We fasted and we were thrashed for doing that. That is what happened in this country for a long period of time and this is something, Sir, which cannot be denied by anybody.
In fact, I must say the first act of political assassination in this country was when Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959. He paid obeisance to a Buddhist monk. He greeted the Buddhist monk by bowing before him and worshipping him when the monk shot him. That was the first act of political assassination in this country, the assassination of Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in 1959. If Mr. Bandaranaike had not been assassinated, on the contrary, if Mr. Bandaranaike had been allowed to implement the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact, a pact which had far reaching implications, this country would not be in the position in which it is today. So, Prabhakaran was not the man who commenced violence in this country. Violence was started in this country by the majority community and the first act of political assassination of this country was committed – I do not take any pleasure in saying this, I have much respect for the Buddhist clergy. I have in fact offered them dana on a number of occasions when I was a little child, but it was committed by a Buddhist monk and what is more is that the high priest-Thank you Rev. Sir, and what is more important is that not merely that monk, the Rev. Somarama Thero was convicted of murder, the assassination of the Prime Minister, but even the high priest of a Raja Maha Vihara in this country Rev. Bhudda Rakkitha Thero was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. That is the history of this country. That does not mean, Sir, that I say that all acts of violence by the LTTE must be condoned. I very clearly stated that at the commencement of my speech. Sometimes the acts of violence by the LTTE are totally unacceptable. I must say at the same time, quite frankly, that it was the Sri Lankan State which pushed the LTTE into an armed struggle. It was the failure to accommodate legitimate Tamil political aspirations put forward by the moderate Tamil leadership and the successive racial pogroms against the Tamil people without the State giving the Tamil people adequate protection that led to the emergence of the LTTE and the commencement of the armed struggle.
This is not something, Sir, which anybody can dispute. In fact, I remember, Sir, the speech made by the late President J.R. Jayewardene on the Vote of Condolence on Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam’s demise in the old Parliament. Mr. Jayewardene said that one did not have to obtain anything from Mr. Chelvanayakam in writing – that is, if Mr. Chelvanayakam gave his word, one could depend entirely on his word and there was no need for anything in writing – that he was such as honourable person. You had every opportunity of resolving the Tamil question with leadership of that calibre, but, you did not do so.
Therefore, Sir, it would be my submission that the phenomenon of the LTTE cannot be dismissed as a purely terrorist phenomenon, certainly not, or as a phenomenon which emerged for no valid reason. That would be unacceptable. There have been aberrations; there have been distortions – acts which are totally unacceptable and cannot be justified. But, these cannot completely undo the context in which the LTTE was born. It was the intransigence of the Sri Lankan State in regard to political accommodation of legitimate Tamil political aspirations and the successive racial pogroms against the Tamil people which were either condoned by the Sri Lankan State, or in which the Sri Lankan State latterly connived, and even more latterly, sponsored by the Sri Lankan State that constituted the foundation for the emergence of the LTTE and its armed struggle. This must be very clearly understood, Sir. This is not to say that one stands up in this House and defends the LTTE in respect of all its acts. I am certainly not in that position. I am certainly not engaged in any such thing. But, it must be clearly understood that the LTTE and the armed struggle it has carried out in this country emerged in the context of a certain situation that developed in this country consequent to the dismal failure of the Sri Lankan State to meet the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people over a long period of time, when moderate political leadership was prepared to be sober and compromise on a reasonable basis and when there were successive racial pogroms against the Tamil people, it was in that context that the LTTE and its armed struggle emerged.
Various countries the world over, Sir, may have had different reasons for banning the LTTE under their respective laws relating to terrorism in their own countries. But, these facts do not and cannot exculpate the Sri Lankan State for its acts of omission and commission which were responsible for the emergence of the LTTE and its armed struggle and the Sri Lankan State, I respectfully submit, Sir, must accept responsibility for the emergence of the LTTE and its armed struggle.
I want to state, Sir, very clearly on the Floor of this House, that there is a justifiable political dimension to the emergence of the LTTE- however unacceptable some of its latter actions may have been- I do not think, Sir, that there is any guerilla or insurgent movement the world over which can be said to be wholly free from all such blame. I think, Sir, I need to say this, to put on record the correct position as I see it.
It must also be remembered, Sir, that following the incidents of 09/11 in the United States of America, the attack on the Twin Towers there, the international community took a rather simplistic definition of terrorism and it was following the attacks of 09/11 and in the context of the international community having taken this rather simplistic definition of terrorism, the LTTE came to be banned in several countries the world over. But this cannot, Sir, as I said before, free the Sri Lankan State from its own culpability for creating the justification, for creating the situation in which it was inevitable that an organization like the LTTE would have to emerge and commence an armed struggle against the State in view of the failure of the State to both deliver politically and not protect from violence a distinct segment of this country’s population with a distinct identity.
Having said that, Sir, I want to speak a few words on the war that is presently going on in this country. The war is being fought against the LTTE as if you are fighting an alien enemy. The LTTE is also a part and parcel of this country. Please do not forget that. If you say that they are not a part and parcel of this country, they would like to say, “good bye” to you and you might have to leave them alone. In this war that is being fought as if you are fighting against an alien enemy, Tamil non-combatant civilians in the main continue to be the victims of the war - be it aerial bombardment, be it multi-barrel rocket launcher fire or be it attacks by deep penetration units. Only a few days ago in this House, I referred to media reports that a refugee camp had been bombed in the Vanni at 1.30 in the morning and a number of persons killed and a number of persons injured including women and children, and it is indisputable, Reverent Presiding Member, that people are being killed or injured in very substantial numbers. Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians; men, women and children are being displaced. Their plantations have been destroyed; their movable and immovable assets are being destroyed; their animal husbandry is being destroyed; their livelihood opportunities are being destroyed and what is happening is that a process of genocide of the Tamil people is occurring at present in the Vanni.
I have with me, Sir, a media report that appeared in “ The Sudar Oli” newspaper of 3rd December 2008 where they say - I will not read the Tamil version – that 56,552 houses in the Kilinochchi District have been destroyed as a result of the war as per statistics collected by the Kilinochchi official authorities. It is not a small number. The report goes on to say that these were all houses built by the Tamil people in the Kilinochchi District during the several years when there was no war with their savings and at much cost. This happened all over the Eastern Province . In some parts of the Eastern Province , places like Sampur, Koonithivu and Chudakkuda which have now been declared a High Security Zone - not merely were the houses destroyed in the course of the war, after the LTTE had been evicted, houses were deliberately destroyed and there is, in those areas, today, not a single house.
Sir, this is not humanitarian action on behalf of the Tamil people. This is not the liberation of the Tamil people as is sometimes cynically claimed by sections of the Government. This is clearly genocide of the Tamil people and I consider it my duty, on behalf of the Tamil people, to state that very clearly on the Floor of this House. This situation, Sir, is clearly unacceptable. This situation demands that the war must be brought to an end. The only way in which the genocide of the Tamil people can be stopped is by stopping the war. There is no other way. If the war continues the Tamil people will be destroyed. The only other way for the Tamil people to avoid destruction is to flee the country which is happening, with large numbers of Tamil people fleeing the country in several ways. It is my submission, Sir, that the Government’s thinking that the war can be fought to a finish expeditiously is a serious mistake. The war will be prolonged, its duration would be indefinite. If the war continues the Tamil non-combatant civilian population would continue to be the main victims and the process of genocide of the Tamil people would be a continuing process. It is my duty to appeal to the Government and to the world at large that this should not happen. It must not be forgotten also most tragically that many young people on both sides, on the Sinhala side the army personnel and of the Tamil side, LTTE cadres are being killed in combat. I do not think, Sir, this can be a continuing process. It is something which is causing immense harm to this country as a whole.
Sir, I do not agree with the contention that is sometimes made on behalf of the Government that the Government is only fighting against the LTTE. Statements made by important personalities, political personalities, and also military personalities within the Government, clearly suggest that this Government takes the view that all minorities who live in this country, in particular, the Tamil people are second class people, are inferior people who have to be kept in their place, that they must not talk too much, they must not ask for too much, there is a place meant for them in this country and that they must confine themselves to that place which has been earmarked for them. I do not wish to quote those statements. That is very clear from the statements that these personalities have made.
For several decades you have been carrying on racial pogroms against the Tamil people in order to demonstrate to them that there was a place that was defined for them, that was demarcated for them, a place where they were second class citizens. You tried to suppress them through racial pogroms and today, through the instrumentality of the armed forces, the present Government, in my submission, is engaged in a war which wants to clearly demonstrate to the Tamil people that they must confine themselves to that second class position which had been demarcated for them as spoken about by various spokesmen on behalf of the Government, both within the political and the military arms of Government, and it is not merely a war against the LTTE, it is primarily a war against the Tamil people. It is our submission that when we are killed by aerial bombardment, when we are killed by multibarrel rocket launcher fire, when we are killed by the deep penetration units attacks, and when statements are made by Government personalities trying to confine us to a certain position in this country, this Government can no longer with any sense of honesty claim that this is not a war against the Tamil people. It is a war primarily meant to demonstrate to the Tamil people the place meant for them in this country. This is why we say that this cannot continue. And as the war continues, it is inevitable that there can be only one conclusion and that conclusion is that the Government is committed to a process of genocide against the Tamil people. It cannot be disputed by anyone with any regard for truth, that it is in the main the Tamil people who are the victims of this war and not anybody else.
Venerable Sir, before I conclude, I must refer to just one or two other matters. I think the Government is engaged in this war primarily because it is unable to come up with an acceptable political solution to the Tamil question. And, in the context of the Government’s inability to come up with an acceptable political solution to the Tamil question, the Government thinks that it must prosecute the war against the LTTE and totally marginalize the LTTE, if they can, and thereafter when they can claim a military victory, thrust a solution upon the Tamil people. That is not ever going to happen.
That cannot happen. I say Sir that, that is also a clear indication that the objective of the war is not merely the marginalization of the LTTE but also to ensure that the Tamil people are clearly made to understand what their political status in this country is. We also have the fear that whatever the Government may say, that this war that is being prosecuted is also alienating the Tamil people in such a way that they probably will never be redeemed. Therefore Sir, when people are rendered destitute in this way, when people are reduced to a state of penury, when people are impoverished, when people who have led reasonably respectable lives generating their own incomes are compelled to live like beggars, live under trees, live under a piece of sack tied to branches of trees, when they are killed, when they are maimed, when they are injured, everything they owned in this world is destroyed, Government may think that they are liberating people but the people are being alienated and in that sense by the alienation of the Tamil people, I think, much damage is being caused to this country.
I was reading recently an article in the “Time” magazine and would like to just mention what was stated there. Mr. Barack Obama, when he was yet the Democratic candidate happened to meet the Military Commander of the US who was in charge of the war in Iraq . The Military Commander gave him a very detailed explanation, a vast explanation in regard to how the war was being fought, so on and so forth, and in regard to why the war should continue to be fought. Mr. Barack Obama listened to him and told him, “Commander, if I was in your position, I would probably take the same line. But I do not want to look at this question through the prism of a military victory. I want to look at this question through the prism of what would be best in the national interest and I do not think that this war should continue. If I become your Commander in Chief, maybe we will have to meet again and discuss how this war can be defused and how we can take back our soldiers home.” That was Mr. Barack Obama’s position.
You know Venerable Sir, there must be a moral justification for the prosecution of a war of this magnitude, and in the absence of the Sri Lankan Government putting on the table an acceptable political solution to the Tamil question, it is my submission that that moral justification is totally lacking, it is not there. The United States went into Iraq on the basis that there were weapons of mass destruction there. Mr. Tony Blair, one of the most popular Prime Ministers in the UK , supported that position. In fact, he stated that he was in agreement with the US that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the war was justified. Eventually, when no evidence could be produced that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and when Mr. Tony Blair, one of UK’s popular Prime Ministers, returned thrice over successively, had to admit that, he had to bow out of office and withdraw from his position because he could no longer justify his earlier position that his joining the war with the US against Iraq was on the ground that there were weapons of mass destruction. If that is the position in which the Government is – the Government today prosecutes the war, in my submission, primarily because it is unable to come up with an acceptable political solution to the Tamil question and I do not think you will ever do that. I saw some questions being raised in the morning by the JVP Parliamentary Group Leader, the Hon. Anura Dissanayake in regard to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Hon.Prime Minister responded to that. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution had been rejected by the major political party of the Tamil people, the TULF, in 1987 – 1988 no sooner it was enacted.
In fact, the TULF did not participate in the provincial council elections based on the Thirteenth Amendment because we had rejected the Thirteenth Amendment. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was a different document. The Thirteenth Amendment must not be confused with the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord achieved certain things for the minorities in this country, that there were distinct people who lived in this country, the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims, each one of whom had a distinct culture which have to be nurtured and preserved, quite contrary to the statements made by some of your Government spokesmen. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord acknowledged that the Northern and the Eastern Provinces were the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil-speaking people and those two provinces were merged on that basis. The Thirteenth Amendment was not in consonance with the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. There must be no assumption that the Thirteenth Amendment which was enacted by the Sri Lankan Parliament without Indian involvement, was in consonance with the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and that is why, Venerable Sir, we who realized that,- in fact-, we were responsible for the genesis of the Thirteenth Amendment -it was we of the TULF who had discussions with the then Government, the J. R. Jayewardene Government, in regard to the Thirteenth Amendment- that we rejected it. The major Tamil political party of the Tamil people, the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, which has in this Parliament 22 Tamil Members elected from the North-East, out of a total of 23 Tamil members unequivocally rejects the Thirteenth Amendment and states that the Thirteenth Amendment can never be a solution to the Tamil question. In fact Sir, this is something which had been accepted by successive governments, the Premadasa Government, the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Government, and even the present Government when it commenced the APRC, talked in terms of solutions that went far beyond the Thirteenth Amendment. The present Government appointed a Committee of Experts comprising of 16 people to come up with recommendations and 11 of them came up with a recommendation. Where is that? Why has that been thrown into the dustbin? Sir, even the Premadasa Government, the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Government and the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government, at the commencement of its term, accepted that the Thirteenth Amendment was inadequate and wanted the arrangements to resolve the Tamil question to go far beyond the Thirteenth Amendment.
The Hon. Prime Minister answering the question raised by the Hon. Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, “We will fight the war to a finish.” Probably another fifty years to end, I mean, there will be no Tamils left in this country at that point of time if you continue with the war and then you will think about the Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment has no land powers. That is my view. The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact clearly stipulated that the land powers in the North East be vested with the regional councils. The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact clearly stated that the alienation of State land in the North East will be under the control of the regions. Only the regions will be able to alienate State land; only the regions will be able to even decide who will work in the different land development schemes in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces . The Thirteenth Amendment does not come anywhere close to that. This is what the founder of the SLFP, Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, was prepared to concede way back in 1957, fifty one years ago, that the regional councils in the Northern and Eastern Province will be in control of State land and only they would decide on the alienation of State land.
Only they would decide who would work on land development schemes in the Northern and Eastern Provinces . No one is prepared to concede that today. The Prime Minister says that he will finish the war and think about it. Of course, I also heard the statement made by the Hon. John Amaratunga this morning that they will not vote against the defence vote. That is the prerogative of your party. I do not wish to get into that area. But I do think that in recent times, we have observed the UNP blowing hot and cold. I do not want to comment on that now. That again is a matter for you, but I do not think taking up positions purely for reasons of political expediency or with the elections in mind, can be a course of action, that would be for the ultimate good of this country. If you want this country to prosper, if you want this problem to be resolved in this country, I think it is necessary that political parties which are prepared to think and act soberly, must be prepared to come together and work together in a constructive way. Because if we cannot find a solution to this question in such an acceptable way, then you might have to face all types of other consequences.
The Prime Minister also talked about the ceasefire agreement. I do not have to say very much about it. I am not talking of the ceasefire agreement. I am only saying that if this war continues, the process of genocide against the Tamil people will be a continuing process. If genocide against the Tamil people is to come to an end, there is no alternative, but to stop this war.
Thank you