Jaffna and the East today: Harsh ground realities, opportunities and challenges after war
Repost This Article
Shanthi Sachithananthan, the Chairperson of Viluthu, has been featured several times on Groundviews in the past, including an interview two months ago looking at significant developments in Sri Lanka after the demise of the LTTE and her views on the July 1983 pogrom against Tamils.
In this recent interview, Shanthi, who recently campaigned for political office in the parliamentary elections in April 2010 after forming an independent political party, speaks about her experiences interacting with voters from the Batticaloa district – the issues they confront, their aspirations and the extremely poor awareness of governance, representative democracy and electoral processes. Shanthi’s approach to campaigning is also revealed by her as a vehicle to prise open vital debates and issues amongst voters mainstream political parties would rather not address, or seek to underplay.
I asked Shanthi whether Tamil representation in parliament now would engage in politics of antagonism or engagement with the Sinhala majority, and whether the overtures being made to the TNA by government were seen by her to be a positive development. After Shanthi offered her thoughts on the space for strategic engagement by the Tamil polity with government, I asked her what she felt would be the foundations for such engagement, if were to take place.
We talked about the Tamil diaspora, and the means through which they could engage with Tamil politics in the country, with the State and civil society if not government per se.
At the time of the interview, Shanthi had just returned from Jaffna. What she says about the situation on the ground, the breakdown of the rule of law and the fear psychosis is disturbing to hear. Although the allegations of the deterioration of law and order have been, unsurprisingly, strongly challenged by the government, Shanthi’s accounts of random abductions of children, violence and the ensuing anxiety amongst parents and other civilians is not an account dismissed easily.
I finally ask her what she wants to do with party politics in the future to strengthen citizen engagement with governance in the East and North in particular.
People are used to absolute power, regardless of ethnicity. Ms. Sachithananthan’s party could not bridge that gap. There needs to be more devolution, so that such thinking changes.
Ms Satchithananthan has spoken very sincerely and honestly and she appears to have grasped the pulse of the Tamils today.
She does have some novel concepts regarding protecting Tamil rights and it would not bode well with the TNA which is still entrenched in its stubborn stance of total soverignity for Tamils in a majority Sinhala hegemony.
But given time her liberal outlook is what we Tamils are hoping would rip through the caste-ridden backward -thinking Tamil psyche.
Whether we like it or not we need to engage with the South and shed our own prejudices.
Dear Heshan,
Ms. Sachithanandan did not mince her words; she clearly said that, at the parliament level there is not much to be expected; hence, devolution is out of the question for some time to come! Her target is based on a long term strategy possibly working with similar movements within the Sinhala Society. She came across as a dynamic lady with abundance of chrisms. She articulates very well her point in English; I am sure she is likewise in Tamil; if she also can do that in Sinhala, there will be no stopping; I wish her well.
Yes God be with you – and dont forget God is love – not these sun Gods and other pretenders ….