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வெள்ளி, 25 மே, 2012

Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: Sivajilingam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2012, 00:43 GMT]
Eezham Tamils were not a party and will never accept the one-sided constitutions Sri Lanka enacted either in 1972 or in 1978, said former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam speaking in Jaffna on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The 1978 constitution not only continued the unitary concept but also made it more autocratic under executive presidency. The Amendments, including the 13 Amendment only strengthened the unitary character. Therefore, Tamils will not accept solutions bound by these constitutions. Based on the right to self-determination we demand the right to rule ourselves in our land, Sivajilingam said.

The former TNA parliamentarian in his address brought out the long history of deception, beginning from the unitary constitution of the times of the British.

He made a particular reference to Colvin R de Silva, who when in opposition verbally stood for Tamil rights, but when in power and when in-charge of drafting the 1972 constitution, conceived a unitary Sinhala-Buddhist state.

Sivajilingam also recollected SJV Chelvanayakam burning the draft constitution in May 1972 at the Navalar Hall of Saiva Paripaalana Sapai in Neeraaviyadi, Jaffna.

Independent political observers commenting on constitutional explorations in the island commented that repealing the 6th Amendment that prohibits talking secession is more important to democracy in the island than the powers pestering Tamils on the13th Amendment.

Chronology:

24.05.12 Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: S..

23.05.12 1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack ..

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23.05.12 40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground..

1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack idea of nationhood

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 18:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised a unitary Sinhala-Buddhist state, was enacted without the participation or mandate of Eezham Tamils. Not only their political opposition was brushed aside but even the judiciary also played a game against legal challenges. The constitution forced the shift in Tamil polity from federal to the idea of right to self-determination of the nation for independence, pointed out Jaffna University Law Lecturer, Guruparan Kumaravadivel on Tuesday, citing legal cases involving the republic. “You don't have to go further and look for anyone else than Murugesu Thiruchelvam's argument in the Amirthalingam trial-at-bar as to why our politics should be done on the idea of Tamil nationhood and self-determination,” Guruparan said addressing especially to the people in the TNA.

Citing the Amirthalingam trial-at-bar, involving the 1972 constitution, in which 64 lawyers argued for Mr. A. Amirthalingam who was tried under Emergency Regulations by the Sri Lankan state, Guruparan said that it was none other than Murugesu Thiruchelvam, Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam's father, who actually took up the argument that the 1972 constitution was invalid or could not be applied to Tamils.

Thiruchelvam “very convincingly argued before the trial-at-bar that Tamils constitute a separate nation and their mandate at 1970 elections was different and that the 1972 constitution does not bear the stamp of legitimacy from the Tamil people.” Guruparan said.

Guruparan’s citation of M. Thiruchelvam to alert the TNA was of much significance, political observers commented to TamilNet.

While the main current of democratically mandated Tamil polity compelled by realities in the island was taking a righteous course, the USA and the West obsessed with saving the Colombo-centric state were always bringing in a line of proxies not elected by Tamils to deviate the course, political observers cited the example of the line of AJ Wilson, Neelan Thiruchelvam, Lakshman Kadirgamar and now MA Sumanthiran.

By deliberately ignoring democratic and righteous voices of Tamils and by always highlighting the deliberations of the proxies as the ‘moderate’ course acceptable to the international community, the USA and the West have contributed largely to the frustration in democracy and the rise of militancy among Tamils in the past. They should not continue with the mistake, Tamil political observers said.

A section of the political observers didn’t fail to point out how a proxy line working even within the LTTE deviated the liberation struggle from the basics of the right to self-determination at Oslo.

Guruparan in his address was also citing the legal battles waged by C. Suntharalingam in the courts in the island against the 1972 constitution and pointed out how the courts played a game by first telling that they could not take up the case until the constitution is declared and thereafter telling that they could not act as they were bound by the constitution.

Suntharalingam’s argument was that the 1972 Constitutional Assembly was an illegal body and that they could not enact a constitution, as they had not followed the procedure in the 1947 constitution in terms of enacting a new constitution.

There was yet another side of the legal battles in which the Privy Council that had some responsibility and Britain that was the root cause for the evil of the unitary state in the island, also have failed the Eezham Tamils, political observers in the island commented.

Chronology:

24.05.12 Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: S..

23.05.12 1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack ..

40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground of Parvathi Amma

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 02:05 GMT]
The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised the unitary Sinhala-Buddhist State and brought in the name ‘Sri Lanka’, against the wishes of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, has been burnt on its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, 22 May 2012, at the spot where the LTTE leader Pirapharan's mother was cremated but desecrated by the occupying Sinhala forces last year.

A group of more than 40 young Tamil activists, braving the hounding eyes of the occupying Sinhala military, burnt the SL Constitution at the Oo'ra'ni crematorium in Valveddiththu'rai in Jaffna on Tuesday afternoon.

The group, after raising slogans and distributing printed leaflets to the public, left the scene immediately, according to news sources in Valveddith-thu'rai.

A couple of days before its proclamation in Colombo, the draft of the 1972 Constitution was burnt by the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) leader SJV Chelvanayakam and others, including Mr. Amirthalingam, at the Arumuga Navalar Ashramam Hall at Neeraaviyadi in Jaffna in May 1972.

The 1972 constitution was the progenitor for the rise of all shades of armed Tamil militancy.

The 1972 constitution made even the moderate Tamil political leaders to abandon the demand for federalism and to go for a separate state solution.

The call of the Tamil political leaders polarising into the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 was endorsed by the Eezham Tamils of the North and East in the general elections of 1977, which was the last ever free elections for the Tamils of the island to speak on that point.

Last year, when the LTTE leader Pirapaharan's octogenarian mother, who survived the barbed-wire camp and military detention was cremated at the Oo'ra'ni crematorium in Valveddith-thu'rai, before the ritual collection of her ashes, the occupying Sinhala Army desecrated the spot by throwing three slain dogs and running over the ground by military vehicles.

Meanwhile, former TNA parliamentarian Mr M K Sivajilingam, denied any involvement of him in the action as brought out by some media reporters. Earlier, there were reports that the group of Tamil activists were led by Mr Sivajilingam.

However, Mr Sivajilingam pointed out the plight of Tamils in the last 40 years under the republican constitution introduced in 1972. He also recollected SJV Chelvanayakam burning the constitution in 1972.

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