Student leaders fail to pinpoint ITAK, blame all five Tamil parties for ‘approach failure’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2019, 22:39 GMT]
The leaders of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) have passed the blame of the failure to stipulate the choices to be made if and when the actors in the South fail to meet the thirteen-point terms in the document articulated by the mainstream Tamil political parties last month. The document articulated by six parties and agreed in full by five of them in the signature was about vetting the mainstream candidates in the forthcoming SL presidential elections. The SLPP candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has stated unitary state as the solution and wants to consolidate it further. The NDF candidate Sajith Premadasa has rejected Tamils Right of Self-Determination and their distinct sovereignty in principle through stating ‘undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka’ in his manifesto.

The JUSU leaders staged a press conference on behalf of the university student community of Eezham Tamils in the North and East on Thursday.

All the five Tamil parties have failed to unitedly articulate what the approach should be if and when the mainstream candidates fail to meet the demands, said V. Krishanth, the president of the Art Faculty Students Union.

The student leaders were behaving as third-party ‘facilitators’ without an opinion of their own.

While admitting the fact that all the mainstream candidates in the presidential elections had failed to meet the Tamil demands, the student leaders were unable to articulate their views, especially as a student community of Eezham Tamils, on the choices ahead for Eezham Tamils in the forthcoming presidential elections.

In the meantime, the parties constituting the TNA, went on record stating that there were “positive features deserving of favourable consideration,” in Sajith Premadasa’s election manifesto.

TNA was also denouncing Tamils Right of Self-Determination by calling for “an acceptable political solution to the national question within a united, undivided, indivisible country.”

The term “indivisible” coming from the TNA is self-denouncement of Tamils Right of Self-Determination.

The ITAK, PLOTE and TELO are now backing Sajith Premadasa while the TMK and EPRLF have stated they were rejecting both the candidates.

The TELO is in fact divided of opinion, but its hierarchy clings to the ITAK as it wants to secure parliamentary seats in the House symbol of the TNA.

The Tamil candidate, M.K. Shivajilingam, is also a senior leader of the TELO.

The TNPF (All Ceylon Tamil Congress) has called for boycott of the presidential elections.

None of the parties have the backbone to openly back the Tamil candidate M.K. Shivajilingam.

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