TNA - Split Inevitable

The meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) fixed for today at the Parliamentary complex located at Jayewardenepura seems to be crucial due to number of reasons.

The main reason is that there is likely to be a show of strength in the part of the TNA rebels amongst whom are now included most of the independents not aligned to any of the constituent parties of the TNA.

The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) commands four seats, seeming to close its rank and inclined to endorse the candidature of M.K.Sivajilingham, who is one of its MP, who has entered the presidential electoral field as an independent.

On the other hand, the ACTC (All Ceylon Tamil Congress) with one MP seat has gained enormous strength with not less than four independents throwing their weight with it, in its decision to call upon the Tamil people to boycott the poll.

The independent MPs who have rallied round Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, the solitary member of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress are three independents from Jaffna namely – Selvarajah Gajendran, Solomon Cyril, and Pathmini Sithamparanathan.

Another independent from Batticaloa who still remains in London, being unable to return to Sri Lanka for fear of persecution for his alleged close links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activities, Senathirajah Jeyanamdamoorthy has also subscribed to the boycott call.

And also one of the two national list MPs of the TNA who is the son of late Chndra Nehru who represented the Digamadulla in 2001 to 2004 , Chandrakanthan Chandr Nehru has joined the TELO + ACTC + Independents, to raise its number to 10 MPs.

It is also rumoured that Thangeswary Kathiraman from Batticaloa district and Sathasivam Kanagaratnam from the Vanni district, who is now on detention , it is said that they too will not support either of the two major presidential candidates - either President Mahinda Rajapaksa or Sarath Fonseka.

At the same time, it is a well known fact that Sivananthan Kisshor of the Vanni electorate who has never been reluctant to air his views openly, has also opposed most of the TNA leadership to extend support to the retired General Sarath Fonseka .

Given the above equation, it is now clear that 13 of the total of the 22 TNA MPs are now in a rebellious mood to fight any subtle attempt on the part of the SMS leadership to hand over the support of the TNA in a platter to the retired General Sarath Fonseka, who is accused of war crimes by the Tamil diaspora.

Interestingly, it is also now reported that the other national list MP of the TNA Raseen Mohammed Imam, besides Chandrakanthan Chandra Nehru has now being persuaded to reconsider his noncommittal position by a couple of members from the 10-member rebel block.

With SMS leadership comprises of R.Sampanthan, Mavai Senthirajah and Suresh Premachandran being ensured of the support of two MPs – one from the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) Kathirgamathamby Thurairetnasingham from Trincomalee and the sole lieutenant of Suresh Premachandran Sivasakthi Ananthan from Vanni.

The total number of MPs the SMS leadership can command continues to be stagnantly static with the total continuously remaining only at five.

In this scenario, the stance of the elderly MP from Batticaloa, who is now in India and the newcomer to parliament Dr. Thomas Thangathurai William from Digamadulla are being continuously tackled by the two opposing groups of the TNA.

Some MPs feel, according to reliable sources that Batticaloa MP Kanagasabai would demonstrate his loyalty to his “Boss”, but according to one MP from the rebel group, it is more than likely that Kanagasabai would assert himself this time in consequence of his hitherto concealed disappointments with the manipulators of the SMS leadership, more particularly the youngest of the trio.

Given this backdrop, today’s meeting would be an unusual one in more than one respect.
According to some Colombo Tamil circle the SMS leadership sensing that they are far inferior in number and therefore they would resort to the postponement tactics to buy time and bolster its strength in the due course.

An indication to this has already been given by Mavai Senathirajah, who has been quoted in the Sunday Virakesari that a decision taking will be postponed to another meeting and ultimately to be carried at the party leaders’ meeting.

This announcement has already infuriarated the rebel block that is now determined to fight every tactics of the SMS leadership at today’s meeting.

Clearly it is now more than evident that if the SMS leadership continues to be adamant in supporting retired General Sarath Fonseka, and TNA would be in for more than a vertical split of 50 – 50, but the split might be in the region of 70 – 30 in the favor of the rebels.

- Asian Tribune -