Eezham Tamil activist elected to represent youth wing of German left party

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 May 2013, 23:56 GMT]
Balakrishnan Koculan, a 29 year old Eezham Tamil youth activist, was elected to represent the official youth wing of the German Die Linke party on Sunday. In the 6th Federal Congress of the Left Youth -Die Linksjugend [`solid] held at Magdeburg in Germany, Mr. Koculan along with seven other activists were elected by 200 delegates of the youth organization from across several states in Germany, with Koculan getting 52.63% of votes. Speaking to TamilNet, Mr. Koculan urged Tamil youth in the diaspora to challenge the unjust approach of the global establishments towards the Eezham Tamils’ struggle, stressing the necessity of building alliances with progressive forces.

“Our youth in the diaspora do not face the brutal repression that the Eezham Tamil youth in the homeland face and have greater space for freely expressing their opinions. They should keep in mind that the actors in the western establishments that contributed to Sri Lanka's genocidal war on our liberation struggle cannot be trusted,” Mr. Koculan said.

“The youth should identify those progressive forces that stand with our liberation struggle on principled grounds and build bridges with them,” he further added.

Mr. Koculan, currently a student at Heinrich-Hertz-Europakolleg, is an Eezham Tamil youth activist who is well known among grassroots community circles in Germany. He has also worked towards building solidarity with leftist groups and other oppressed nations.

The parent party of the Die Linksjugend [`solid], Die Linke, has 76 seats at the German federal parliament and eight members in the European Parliament. The Left is a member of the Party of the European Left and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left grouping in the European Parliament.

Tamil activist Neethan Shan elected to represent NDP at federal level

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2013, 00:58 GMT]
"As regards [Canada’s] foreign policy on Sri Lanka, I will continue to advocate for recognizing the political aspirations of the Eezham Tamils in the homeland and to push for justice for genocide and war crimes committed on the Tamil nation by the Sri Lankan state,” said 34-year-old Eezham Tamil activist Neethan Shan, who has been elected to represent Ontario at the federal level for the New Democratic Party (NDP) on Saturday.

Neethan Shan

Mr. Shan, who was working as the president of the NDP in Ontario, was unanimously elected in the course of the party’s biannual national convention that was held in Montreal from 12-14th April.

Speaking to TamilNet, Mr Shan said that he was looking forward to articulating the concerns of people from Ontario at the federal level, besides working towards an ethical policy towards the marginalized and the underprivileged.

"There are also concerns on immigration and creating favourable conditions for new migrants in Canada. Also, the struggles and demands of marginalized and racialized communities need to find a voice at a greater level," Mr Neethan Shan further said.

Chronology:

16.04.13  Tamil activist Neethan Shan elected to represent N..

26.11.12  Canada’s position on Sri Lanka significant, but no..

Related Articles:
06.02.13   Tamil Heritage Month Bill Proposed in Canadian Parliament
16.04.12   Eezham Tamil activist Neethan Shan elected President of NDP,..

Eezham Tamil elected to leading committee of SP party in Switzerland

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 September 2012, 14:22 GMT]
Lathan Suntharalingam, an Eezham Tamil and a legislative member of Lucerne canton in Switzerland, has been elected to the national level 9-member Leading Committee of the Social Democratic Party (SP) on Sunday. Dissler Sebastian, the general secretary of the SP party in the Canton of Lucerne, told TamilNet that the election of Lathan Suntharalingam to a crucial role in their party not only demonstrated the achievement of an active politician, but also how their party has recognized the role of the immigrant population.

[L-R] Lathan Suntharalingam, VeraZiswiler and Mario Carera are the three new members elected to the 9 member leading body of the SP party in Switzerland

Mr Lathan Suntharalingam, who has been in the mainstream politics in the canton for the past 8 years, was elected to the leading committee of the party with Mrs Vera Ziswiler and Mr Mario Carera.



The SP party is the second largest of the four leading coalition political parties and has won 19,5 % of the popular vote in the national legislature of the confederation in the last elections.

Switzerland is a confederation consisting of 20 cantons and 6 half cantons. All the 26 cantons in the Swiss Conferation remain sovereign with widely differing constitutions.

The bicameral legislature, or Federal Assembly, consists of the 46-seat Council of States, with two members from each canton and one from each half canton, and the 200-seat National Council, whose members are popularly elected.

The SP party is represented with 43 of the 200 seats in the national council.

Lathan Suntharalingam, studying international Law, has also been active in legal projects related to Eezham Tamils at European level.

He was one of the four initial signatories introducing the Tamil Sovereignty Cogntion declaration in November 2011.



Related Articles:
27.11.11   Tamil activists assert sovereignty, declare for plebiscite
22.02.11   Diaspora legal activists speak to Palaka'ni on ICC case


External Links:

Lathan.ch:

Lathan Suntharalingam