Arun on LTTE Terrorist Theleepan
We have lodged a complaint requesting that action be taken under the anti-terrorism laws currently in force in this country against all those who built a statue of the terrorist named Thileepan, who intend to glorify and praise that terrorist, who maintain museums for that purpose and who promote terrorism. As well as all those who involved school children in such activities.
On behalf of the Association of Sri Lankan People Affected by LTTE Terrorism, as its coordinator, I hereby inform the people of this country that I have submitted written complaints in all three languages to the Jaffna Police Station and to the authorities of the relevant Terrorism Investigation Division.
Commemorating Rasaiya Parthipan alias the dead terrorist known as Thileepan, who was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist organization banned in Sri Lanka, building a statue in his honor and maintaining a museum with the aim of praising and glorifying him, are serious offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for the Protection of the State (PSTA) currently in force in this country.
According to the Extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 1721/2 dated 29 August 2011, publicly commemorating and glorifying a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization is defined as an offence to be investigated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Therefore, we, the indigenous people of this country who are concerned about the future of the country, hereby note that we will strongly exercise our democratic rights against anyone who tries to push this country back into the grip of terrorism for their own purposes.
Whoever the terrorist is, whether that terrorist named ‘Kittu’, the terrorist named ‘Malathi’, or ‘Thileepan’, we will not allow these terrorists to be publicly commemorated.
Those who say that commemorating the dead is their right can commemorate them in their homes. We have no objection regarding that.
However, we will not allow dead terrorists to be brought to public places and glorified before us.
We further note that in the future we will use every legal avenue available under the law of this country to take action against those who attempt to celebrate Prabhakaran’s birthday or to publicly commemorate those who died as LTTE members under the name “Maaveerar”.
The LTTE has killed our loved ones in our own homes.
Members of our families have been permanently disabled due to the brutal, inhuman and insensitive bomb attacks of the LTTE.
Therefore, we believe that taking action against the LTTE and its terrorist members is our moral duty.
We also believe that it is the way to get justice for those killed by the LTTE in our families.
Most importantly, under Section 8 of the Thesawalamai law, the caste-dominated social system dominated by the Vellalars who today praise and glorify the LTTE has subjected us for centuries to legally sanctioned caste-based slavery.
We are the present generation of Sri Lankan Tamil Dalit people who were legally considered slaves under Vellala domination.
We firmly note this position that we cannot in any way unite with the Vellala Tamil people on the basis of ethnicity until the Vellala-dominated Tamil society which refused to consider us as fellow Tamil people and denied us our fundamental rights even refusing us drinking water, publicly takes responsibility for their wrongs, apologizes, provides compensation for the injustices done to our ancestors, introduces affirmative action and reservation policies similar to those in India, and ensures a power-sharing with us.
We believe that the Vellala Tamil people who legislated to deprive our ancestors of fundamental human rights including the right to education, the right to buy and enjoy land with their own hard work, the freedom to worship the gods they choose, the right to engage in the occupation of their choice, the right to move freely in public places, the right to give our children the names we choose, the freedom to wear the clothes we choose, and the right to bury or cremate our dead, have no moral right to claim that the Sinhalese have deprived Tamil people of equal rights.
We also note that even the right to “water”, a basic necessity for living which is even given to animals, was denied to our ancestors by this Vellala Tamil society.
Therefore, we state with certainty that our enemies are not the Sinhalese or Muslims. Our real opponent is the Vellala Tamil social system that has unjustly treated us for generations.
Together with the Sinhalese, Muslim, Burgher and Malay communities, we declare that we will defeat all forms of terrorism and oppressive practices associated with Vellala domination.
At the same time, we would like to make it clear that just as progressive Vellala Tamil people are already working with us, there is no obstacle for progressive Vellala Tamil people to continue to work with us in the future.
A message to the oppressed Sri Lankan Tamil Dalit community.
We would like to deliver the following message to our Sri Lankan Tamil Dalit people:
In the past, the Vellala elites together with the Dutch, Portuguese and British colonial powers legislated to keep us as slaves and oppressed.
After that, at various times they also continued to cooperate with the political rulers in southern Sri Lanka.
Later, they used the LTTE as a subtle means of preventing our rise and advancement as a community.
Members of our community were sacrificed as ordinary armed members within the LTTE. However, we were never given our due place within the authority centers established by the LTTE.
Although the LTTE sent 22 representatives to Parliament under the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), not a single representative from our Dalit community was selected.
When this issue is raised, people continue to mention only the name of Sivanesan who stood for Vellala interests. We do not consider Sivanesan or Udupiddy Rasalingam as representatives of our community.
Therefore, oppressed Sri Lankan Tamil Dalit people, there is no benefit in continuing to support the LTTE without understanding the history of how the Vellala domination used the LTTE to use us for its own purposes.
Supporting the LTTE means supporting Vellala domination, and it does not advance the interests of Dalits like us.
Therefore, if you want to be with us, you must withdraw from your pro-LTTE stance.
Otherwise, you must decide for yourself whether you intend to continue your politics as modern slaves of Vellala domination, just as our grandfathers and ancestors were subjected to it.
Our organization and movement is being built by a group of young people with intellectual capabilities. The day we regain the political power snatched from us by Vellala domination is not far away.
Let us unite as an organization. Let us seize political power.
Arun Siddharth
Jaffna
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