Taking a swipe at the Tamil National Alliance, a former top LTTE commander charged that the biggest problem with the country’s Tamil leadership is that they have no vision, diplomacy, dignity or sincerity and that it is “the real cause” for the suffering of the Tamil people.
“They never work for the people, they work only for their own family. That is why our people our suffering,” Kumaran Pathmanathan, or ‘KP’ as he is widely known, said at a press conference in Kilinochchi on Wednesday (18)
He accused the current Tamil political leaders of “using their talent to cheat the Tamil people” and of using “emotional words” to achieve their own personal goals.
The former LTTE Chief Arms Procurer stated that the Tamil leaders never like to solve the problem faced by the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and that they always like to “keep this problem alive” to benefit from it.
Pathmanathan claimed that the TNA’s election manifesto for the Provincial Council elections is the same as the Vaddukoddai Resolution in 1976 and the Oslo Declaration of 2002, only with “code words to cheat the people.”
He stated that the Tamil National Alliance knows very well that they will not use the Northern Provincial Council to help the people in the war-torn province.
He stated that TNA parliamentarians are asking the youth to be ready to fight again while their own children are happily living abroad. “Who is suffering here?” he inquired.
He claimed that the TNA never visits the Northern parts of the country and that they are only staying in Colombo, India and abroad. They come to the North just for the election, he said, inquiring as to how they could know the Tamil people’s problems.
KP stressed that the Tamil people’s problems varies from region to regions and that what the Jaffna people require is different to what people in Mannar require. “You should study that or ask the people,” he said.
He also accused the TNA of never visiting the Tamil people in the North and not having a proper network with them. “So how can you speak on behalf of these people,” he asked.
Pathmanathan alleged that TNA leaders just stay in Colombo and say they are the leader of the Tamils and the representatives of the Tamils.
On calls by the TNA for international investigations into alleged human rights violations, he stated that they are working against the country. “So how can they expect the president to accept their demands?”
Terming the forthcoming polls in the North as a “golden opportunity” for the Tamil people, he urged them to not listen to “old TNA lies” and to support the President.
