Is this what the Sirisena wave voted for?
Open your eyes! Vote sensibly at the next election. Don’t vote for Two Nations!
This is the “change” Ranil promised to TNA – to get Tamil votes! He is short changing the sinhalese and all those Sinhala Tamil Muslim Burgher people that desire Two Nations!
Ranil and CBK determined to “prove” their theory of One country Two nations!
What did our soldiers die for? For what did the civilians suffer for 30years?
Ranil’s Two Nation Concept?
Sri Lanka new regime focuses on Tamil Homeland – Two Nation Concept
By Daya Gamage – Asian Tribune Political Analysis
Officially when the Government of Sri Lanka declares, to facilitate ethnic reconciliation, it will, among other proposals, give thought to the 1985 Thimpu Formula, what it declares is that it will take note of the Tamil Homeland and One Country Two Nation Concepts that formed the foundation of the Tamil militancy and extremism.
Minister Mangala Samaraweera with PM Ranil Wickremasinghe
To achieve national reconciliation among ethnic communities, Sri Lanka’s just installed Sirisena-Wickremasinghe administration has declared its intent to consider the ‘Thimpu Formula which was once rejected by the then Jayawardene regime but continued to form the corner stone of LTTE and other militant agitations.
This policy position was declared by Sri Lanka’s new external affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera following his talks with top Indian officials last week when he was interviewed by Indian journalist S. Venkat Narayan.
Mr. Samaraweera – we presume, would have made this statement with the concurrence of the leadership of his government.
Samaraweera said the government has been talking to the TNA. “We have invited them to join the government. We are looking forward to having them in the government, and to their active help and participation in achieving genuine national reconciliation.”
He said “there are already lots of proposals made to achieve national reconciliation, such as the Thimpu Proposals, the Mangala Moonesinghe Proposals, the CBK (Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga) Proposals, to name but a few. Why go for a new Parliament Select Committee? There’s no need to reinvent the wheel”.
“All these years we failed to achieve national reconciliation because there was no political will. Now there is a political will. We are optimistic about pulling it off this time,” the minister asserted.
The representatives of many Tamil militant groups, the LTTE and the TULF met the Sri Lanka delegation in Thimpu in the Kingdom of Bhutan in July 1985 led by President J.R. Jayawardene’s brother H.W. Jayawardene to arrive at some consensus for a settlement of Tamil issues in Sri Lanka.
The Tamil groups unanimously presented a set of basic principles on 12 July 1985 they said should form the basis of the discussions.
Later known as ‘Thimpu Principles’ or ‘Thimpu Formula’, they were:
(a)recognition of the Tamils of Ceylon as a nation
(b) recognition of the existence of an identified homeland for the Tamils in Ceylon
(c) recognition of the right of self determination of the Tamil nation
The TamilNet, the mouth piece of the LTTE in a subsequent 08 June 1997 write-up had this to say about the Thimpu Formula presented by the Tamil representatives:
(Quote)Different countries have fashioned different systems of governments to ensure these principles. We have demanded and struggled for an independent Tamil state as the answer to this problem arising out of the denial of these basic rights of our people. The proposals put forward by the Sri Lankan government delegation as their solution to this problem is totally unacceptable. Therefore we have rejected them as stated by us in our statement of the 12th of July 1985. However, in view of our earnest desire for peace, we are prepared to give consideration to any set of proposals, in keeping with the above mentioned principles, that the Sri Lankan Government may place before us. (End Quote)
The Sri Lanka delegation led by H.W. Jayawardene, Q.C., totally rejected the ‘basic formula’ of the Tamil militant groups. The current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was a cabinet minister in that government of J.R. Jayawardene.
It is a strange coincident when the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe admnistration declared its intention to focus, among other proposals, on the ‘Thimpu Deliberations’ as an initial move toward reconciliation at a time the professional activists within the Tamil Diaspora in Western nations have continually emphasized on the Thimpu Formula.
Before, and since the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, professional activists within the Tamil Diaspora who were once counseling Velupillai Prabhakaran and his Tiger outfit have been advocating a solution to Sri Lanka’s Tamil issues on the basis of the Thimpu Formula.
US link to ‘Tamil Homeland’
Never before any foreign government, that had stakes in Sri Lanka’s national issues, ever touched the sensitive issue of ‘Tamil Homeland’ and ‘traditionally inhabited land of the Tamils’ until a representative of the Government of the United States raised and gave some legitimacy to it in Colombo on 1 June 2006.
Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, gave recognition to an illegitimate issue that caused the LTTE to take up arms against the Sri Lankan state.
This is what Mr. Boucher said at a press conference in Colombo on 1 June 2006 after having talks with the Sri Lankan leaders:
(Quote) “I think we all understand that the Tamil community in Sri Lanka has certain rights and certain needs and certain grievances that need to be addressed. I met this morning with a number of representatives of the Tamil community and just talked to them about how things are here and what they felt and what they faced. Although we reject the methods that the Tamil Tigers have used, there are legitimate issues that are raised by the Tamil community and they have a very legitimate desire, as anybody would, to be able to control their own lives, to rule their own destinies and govern themselves in their homeland; in the areas they’ve traditionally inhabited so I don’t want to confuse the issue of talking to Tamils and understanding legitimate grievances and legitimate aspirations of the Tamil community with not talking to the LTTE. Whether to talk to the Tigers or not is based upon their behavior and if they continue terrorism we won’t. If they abandon terrorism and one’s able to say they are no longer a terrorist organization, then we would find opportunities to consider dealing with them.” (State Department release)
Endorsement of “Homeland Concept’
In February 2012 at the “Eelam Tamil Youth Conference – Canada 2012” organized by the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) endorsed the ‘Thimpu Formula’.
Representatives from 14 Tamil Students Associations from high schools, colleges and universities in Canada participated in the conference.
Student activists reaffirmed the principles enshrined in the Vaddukkodai Declaration of 1978, the Thimpu Declaration of 1985 and upheld the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition declaration released on Heroes Day in 2011 as a conceptual reference point. The conference consisted of three presentations followed by in-depth discussion with the participants.
Nine resolutions were adopted, and one of them read: (Quote)We welcome the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition as a principled approach to resolving the national question of Eelam Tamils in the island of Ceylon and recognize the declaration as a milestone following the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, the Thimpu principles of 1985 and the reaffirmation of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution amongst the Tamil Diaspora in 2009 (End Quote)
On 21 November 2014 The Tamil Civil Society Forum from North-East of Sri Lanka which functioned earlier as the Tamil Civil Society Activists under the leadership of Bishop of Mannar Dr. Rayappu Joseph declared its CORE BELIEFS as:
(Quote) TCSF endorses the Thimphu principles of 1985. The following two are core principles in this regard: a) The right to self determination of the Tamil people based on a collective self-conscious on the part of the Tamil people as them being a Nation. Owing to their right to self-determination, the Tamil people are a sovereign nation and vice versa. b) The North and East parts of the island of Sri Lanka is the traditional homeland of the Tamil people and thus constitutes the self determining unit of the Tamil Nation. (End Quote)
The TCSF declared: “TCSF believes that any solution within a unitary state would not be acceptable. Any existing structures within the unitary state (the provincial council system) would not even be a starting point to a political solution”.
The 2014-held Tamil Sovereignty Conference in the United Kingdom declared on principle that “We welcome the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition as a principled approach in resolving the national question of Eelam Tamils in the island of Ilangkai and recognize the declaration as a milestone following the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976 and the Thimpu principles of 1985”.
Conclusion
The state department’s Richard Boucher’s expression of the ‘Tamil Homeland’ and ‘Traditional Habitation of the Tamil People’ in 2006 were not accidental statements. Those formed the core mindset of the American foreign service officers (FSOs) since their diplomatic mission in Colombo in collaboration with Washington from early 1980s through mid 1990s developed the American perspective on ‘Sri Lankan National Issues’. That mindset was brought forward since the ‘domestic’ defeat of the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.
The new administration in Sri Lanka seems to have been influenced by these external factors, both from the professional activists working within the Tamil Diaspora and the American diplomats, a thinking that external affairs minister Samaraweera expressed going against the sentiments of the majority of Sri Lankans of all ethnic communities.
What Prabhakaran’s LTTE could not achieve militarily its acolytes who were once counselors to the lethal movement since the domestic defeat outlined a global plan to achieve strategically and using global diplomacy. The Thimpu Formula is one of their agendum.
– Asian Tribune –
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