Features

Solving Tamil problem is the way out of economic crisis: Rasamanickam

Published

4 years ago

2021/12/5

Sahan Weerasooriya

TNA MPs meeting Tamil diaspora in London

by Sujeeva Nivunhella

reporting from London

TNA Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran and Trincomalee District MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam were in London last week on their way back home from New York and met with British Government officials and members of Tamil and Muslim diaspora communities living in London.

Talking exclusively to the Sunday Island, Rasamanickam said that they had fruitful talks with British government officials and diaspora communities. Tamils in Sri Lanka have been aspiring for self-determination since independence and they are still where they were.

They are not looking for a separate state but a Quebec/Tamil Nadu style of administration within one country. If the government is willing to fulfill Tamil aspirations, they can easily bring foreign currency needed to escape the present debt trap.

Some excerpts of the interview:

Q: What is the purpose of your visit to London?

A: MP Sumanthiran and I had a four-day visit to the UK, when we met various groups including Lord Tariq Ahmad, Minister of State for South Asia in the Foreign and Commonwealth office and the Tamil and Muslim diaspora. We reiterated the need for a political solution in Sri Lanka because that is what is needed to uplift the country’s economy.

Representing my generation, I have a responsibility to ensure that Lankan youth remain in the country. There is a trend of people trying to move out with long lines outside passport offices. They want to leave in the context of the terrible shape of the country’s economy and this must be addressed. For that, we need a political solution to communal differences within the country.

This is something that has been unresolved for 73 years since 1948; and our party has been working on it for many years. We met the Muslim community because in the North and the East more than 90% of the population are Tamil speaking people and Muslims are a part of that group. This is not a separatist agenda.

If you take Canada as an example, despite special arrangements Quebec remains a part of Canada. In India, there is Tamil Nadu includes Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh where the people speak Tamil. They have the right to exercise their franchise and retain their identity. We want to live as Sri Lankans but we don’t want to give up our identity.

During our visit, we talked about this at different levels, with three or four meetings with British Government officials and 10-15 with diaspora groups.

Q: What kind of a political solution are you searching for?

A: A political solution that could be acceptable for all Lankans – Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. A solution where Tamil people’s genuine interests are accepted. We don’t want to go into details but what we want is something acceptable to all communities. We are never going to do anything not acceptable to the Sinhala people. We are not seeking a separate state. We want to work with the Sinhalese. We want to work with the government and come to an amicable solution.

Q: Have you put forward your proposal to the government?

A: Well, the government of Sri Lanka denied us a meeting for almost a year and a half, since the present parliament convened. We are yet to meet the President. Hopefully, he will give us an opportunity to meet him now. British ministers want to meet us. US delegates want to meet us. Canadian delegates want to meet us but our own President doesn’t want to meet us. That’s the irony.

Q: You mentioned Quebec and Tami Nadu. Do you want a separate state?

A: No. We want a solution where our rights are respected. We want to be able to govern our people. We want to be able to have our own administration. That is within Sri Lanka as one country. No separatist agenda here. But we don’t want to lose our identity. Tamils are not refugees in Sri Lanka. The reason why I mentioned Quebec and Tamil Nadu is because a structure that has worked and proven exists there. We want to be in one united country but we want our political rights.

From 1948 since we gained independence from the British till 1978 there was no violence. For 30 years, our leaders and our community struggled for a political solution through dialogue. It was when that was rejected that the war started. When legitimate concerns are not addressed, people tend to resort to violence. We are against violence. But how long can we keep it that way? It’s already 13 years since the war ended. When we cannot offer a solution to the people, then they resort to other measures.

Q: You and MP Sumanthiran went to the USA and Canada and met some government officials and then came to England and met British officials too. Are you asking these countries to push the SL government to find a solution for you?

A: Everyone is fully aware of what the Sri Lankan government did. At the height of the war in 2009, all these countries helped Sri Lanka to end the war and restore peace in the country on the basis that all Lankans will be treated equally. But the SL government has failed to do that and those western countries now have a responsibility to ensure that the Tamil speaking people are not marginalized. Mahinda Rajapaksa promised devolution beyond 13A, now they are trying to get rid of 13A. Therefore countries like Britain, USA and Canada have a responsibility to ensure that Tamils in Sri Lanka have equal rights.

Q: Does the Tamil community in Sri Lanka believe they still do not fit in with society?

A: Absolutely. Tamils in Sri Lanka are given second-hand treatment. We are treated like second-class citizens. Look at the President’s most recent address on the One Country, One Law concept. There’s no Tamil on the committee. Even if there was one, it doesn’t mean much. They are not even worried about the optics. At least they should have thought, we have to make sure there is a Tamil in the committee even as a namesake. The President did not bother. That is the best example of our being second class citizens in the country.

Q: You first contested through United People’s Freedom Alliance in 2015 and in 2020 you contested through Tamil National Alliance. What was the reason for this switch?

A: I was the SLFP organizer in 2013. I joined Mahinda Rajapaksa. At the time I was only 22-years old. I joined on the promise that Tamil people will be given an equal place in the country. But he failed to do that. He promised to go beyond 13A. I even worked with President Maithripala Sirisena. TNA backed Sirisena at that election. But both these politicians fooled the Tamil people. I was driven to the TNA three years after I joined politics.

Q: Can you see any future Sinhala leader who may listen to the Tamil community?

A: I don’t want to mention names. But if there is no Sinhala leader who listens to the Tamil people, then there is no Sinhala leader who can bring Sri Lanka out of the debt trap. There is no way Sri Lanka has a future if there is no one willing to do that. If you leave Tamil and Muslim people out, there is no future for Sri Lanka.

Q: What do you think about the current economic situation in Sri Lanka?

A: We are facing a major economic crisis. We have got debt payments of USD 5 billion a year for the next five years. We have large budget deficit and no plans to fix it. The only alternative is to go to the IMF. But if you go there, they will impose very strict conditions on economic spending in SL making the government more unpopular – not that it is popular now.

The only option is to solve the national Tamil question and we can bring in money. It’s only USD 35 billion. If the Tamil people’s quest for their rights is resolved, we can bring 35 billion in five years. That is not a problem. We have so many friends and nations who are friends with Tamils who will help on the promise that Sri Lanka will be a human rights-respecting country. If they fail to do that there’s no future for this country. With the economic crisis so bad, the only way forward is this.

Q: My understanding is that the government wants the Tamil community to come and help them out.A: We will be happy to help them and have said so openly. We will support any government that can solve this problem.Q: Dr. Harsha de Silva recently said that good people from all political parties including the JVP and TNA should join together to form a future government. What do you think about that?

A: Dr Harsha or whoever else wants to do that need to articulate their position on the Tamil national question first. We don’t want to be always be in the opposition opposing everything.

Campaigning in Batticaloa I never promised to build roads or houses. I told the people that I will try to the best of my ability to create an environment where Tamils can live in peace in this country. That is why they voted for me. If someone thinks that there is a way to form a government including all of us, they first need to articulate their position on our issue. We are not going to support any government unless they are happy to solve our problems. Q: You keep talking of the Tamil National problem. What is your main problem?A: That there is no devolution of power. Our people are unable to exercise their franchise the way they want. In Sri Lanka, we are a minority but we must have all the rights everybody in the world should have.Q: If all the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people can live together in one country, why do you want to have a separate administration?A: Sinhala people are most welcome in the North and East. We love the Sinhala people. In fact, my mother is Sinhala. We are only opposed to the idea of trying to artificially de-legitimize our identity. District of Ampara was only created in 1960. Landless people from Matara and Galle were brought into Ampara and settled there whilst Tamil people in those areas were landless.

I heard that the government is planning to create a project of 500 houses a district, based on the national ethnic ratio. In Batticaloa out of 500 houses, 350 houses will be given to the Sinhala people when there are over 300,000 Tamil people in Batticaloa with no houses, how can they give houses to the people who came from outside? Up to now, the Mahaweli Authority has given 95% of the land to the Sinhala people, 1.9% to Tamil, 1.7% to Muslim and 1.5% to Indian Tamils. We are not against the Sinhala people. We are against the government that is trying to divide us.

Q: How do you see the future of Sri Lanka?

A: The future is going to be very bleak unless they resolve this issue. We already see hundreds of people outside passport offices seeking to migrate to other countries. That is not because they don’t want to live in Sri Lanka. They can’t live in Sri Lanka because the economy is so bad.Q: Do you think Tamil people might take up arms again in the future?A: Well the world has moved from armed rebellion. Violence is not something that we believe in. I don’t know about others, but as for me I’ll never encourage taking arms again.

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Features

Acid test emerges for US-EU ties

Published

5 hours ago

2026/01/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday put forward the EU’s viewpoint on current questions in international politics with a clarity, coherence and eloquence that was noteworthy. Essentially, she aimed to leave no one in doubt that a ‘new form of European independence’ had emerged and that European solidarity was at a peak.

These comments emerge against the backdrop of speculation in some international quarters that the Post-World War Two global political and economic order is unraveling. For example, if there was a general tacit presumption that US- Western European ties in particular were more or less rock-solid, that proposition apparently could no longer be taken for granted.

For instance, while US President Donald Trump is on record that he would bring Greenland under US administrative control even by using force against any opposition, if necessary, the EU Commission President was forthright that the EU stood for Greenland’s continued sovereignty and independence.

In fact at the time of writing, small military contingents from France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands are reportedly already in Greenland’s capital of Nook for what are described as limited reconnaissance operations. Such moves acquire added importance in view of a further comment by von der Leyen to the effect that the EU would be acting ‘in full solidarity with Greenland and Denmark’; the latter being the current governing entity of Greenland.

It is also of note that the EU Commission President went on to say that the ‘EU has an unwavering commitment to UK’s independence.’ The immediate backdrop to this observation was a UK decision to hand over administrative control over the strategically important Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to Mauritius in the face of opposition by the Trump administration. That is, European unity in the face of present controversial moves by the US with regard to Greenland and other matters of contention is an unshakable ‘given’.

It is probably the fact that some prominent EU members, who also hold membership of NATO, are firmly behind the EU in its current stand-offs with the US that is prompting the view that the Post-World War Two order is beginning to unravel. This is, however, a matter for the future. It will be in the interests of the contending quarters concerned and probably the world to ensure that the present tensions do not degenerate into an armed confrontation which would have implications for world peace.

However, it is quite some time since the Post-World War Two order began to face challenges. Observers need to take their minds back to the Balkan crisis and the subsequent US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the immediate Post-Cold War years, for example, to trace the basic historic contours of how the challenges emerged. In the above developments the seeds of global ‘disorder’ were sown.

Such ‘disorder’ was further aggravated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago. Now it may seem that the world is reaping the proverbial whirlwind. It is relevant to also note that the EU Commission President was on record as pledging to extend material and financial support to Ukraine in its travails.

Currently, the international law and order situation is such that sections of the world cannot be faulted for seeing the Post World War Two international order as relentlessly unraveling, as it were. It will be in the interests of all concerned for negotiated solutions to be found to these global tangles. In fact von der Leyen has committed the EU to finding diplomatic solutions to the issues at hand, including the US-inspired tariff-related squabbles.

Given the apparent helplessness of the UN system, a pre-World War Two situation seems to be unfolding, with those states wielding the most armed might trying to mould international power relations in their favour. In the lead-up to the Second World War, the Hitlerian regime in Germany invaded unopposed one Eastern European country after another as the League of Nations stood idly by. World War Two was the result of the Allied Powers finally jerking themselves out of their complacency and taking on Germany and its allies in a full-blown world war.

However, unlike in the late thirties of the last century, the seeming number one aggressor, which is the US this time around, is not going unchallenged. The EU which has within its fold the foremost of Western democracies has done well to indicate to the US that its power games in Europe are not going unmonitored and unchecked. If the US’ designs to take control of Greenland and Denmark, for instance, are not defeated the world could very well be having on its hands, sooner rather than later, a pre-World War Two type situation.

Ironically, it is the ‘World’s Mightiest Democracy’ which is today allowing itself to be seen as the prime aggressor in the present round of global tensions. In the current confrontations, democratic opinion the world over is obliged to back the EU, since it has emerged as the principal opponent of the US, which is allowing itself to be seen as a fascist power.

Hopefully sane counsel would prevail among the chief antagonists in the present standoff growing, once again, out of uncontainable territorial ambitions. The EU is obliged to lead from the front in resolving the current crisis by diplomatic means since a region-wide armed conflict, for instance, could lead to unbearable ill-consequences for the world.

It does not follow that the UN has no role to play currently. Given the existing power realities within the UN Security Council, the UN cannot be faulted for coming to be seen as helpless in the face of the present tensions. However, it will need to continue with and build on its worldwide development activities since the global South in particular needs them very badly.

The UN needs to strive in the latter directions more than ever before since multi-billionaires are now in the seats of power in the principle state of the global North, the US. As the charity Oxfam has pointed out, such financially all-powerful persons and allied institutions are multiplying virtually incalculably. It follows from these realities that the poor of the world would suffer continuous neglect. The UN would need to redouble its efforts to help these needy sections before widespread poverty leads to hemispheric discontent.

Features

Brighten up your skin …

Published

5 hours ago

2026/01/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

Hi! This week I’ve come up with tips to brighten up your skin.

* Turmeric and Yoghurt Face Pack:

You will need 01 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 02 tablespoons of fresh yoghurt.

Mix the turmeric and yoghurt into a smooth paste and apply evenly on clean skin. Leave it for 15–20 minutes and then rinse with lukewarm water

Benefits:

Reduces pigmentation, brightens dull skin and fights acne-causing bacteria.

* Lemon and Honey Glow Pack:

Mix 01teaspoon lemon juice and 01 tablespoon honey and apply it gently to the face. Leave for 10–15 minutes and then wash off with cool water.

Benefits:

Lightens dark spots, improves skin tone and deeply moisturises. By the way, use only 01–02 times a week and avoid sun exposure after use.

* Aloe Vera Gel Treatment:

All you need is fresh aloe vera gel which you can extract from an aloe leaf. Apply a thin layer, before bedtime, leave it overnight, and then wash face in the morning.

Benefits:

Repairs damaged skin, lightens pigmentation and adds natural glow.

* Rice Flour and Milk Scrub:

You will need 01 tablespoon rice flour and 02 tablespoons fresh milk.

Mix the rice flour and milk into a thick paste and then massage gently in circular motions. Leave for 10 minutes and then rinse with water.

Benefits:

Removes dead skin cells, improves complexion, and smoothens skin.

* Tomato Pulp Mask:

Apply the tomato pulp directly, leave for 15 minutes, and then rinse with cool water

Benefits:

Controls excess oil, reduces tan, and brightens skin naturally.

Features

Shooting for the stars …

Published

5 hours ago

2026/01/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

That’s precisely what 25-year-old Hansana Balasuriya has in mind – shooting for the stars – when she was selected to represent Sri Lanka on the international stage at Miss Intercontinental 2025, in Sahl Hasheesh, Egypt.

The grand finale is next Thursday, 29th January, and Hansana is all geared up to make her presence felt in a big way.

Her journey is a testament to her fearless spirit and multifaceted talents … yes, her life is a whirlwind of passion, purpose, and pageantry.

Raised in a family of water babies (Director of The Deep End and Glory Swim Shop), Hansana’s love affair with swimming began in childhood and then she branched out to master the “art of 8 limbs” as a Muay Thai fighter, nailed Karate and Kickboxing (3-time black belt holder), and even threw herself into athletics (literally!), especially throwing events, and netball, as well.

A proud Bishop’s College alumna, Hansana’s leadership skills also shone bright as Senior Choir Leader.

She earned a BA (Hons) in Business Administration from Esoft Metropolitan University, and then the world became her playground.

Before long, modelling and pageantry also came into her scene.

She says she took to part-time modelling, as a hobby, and that led to pageants, grabbing 2nd Runner-up titles at Miss Nature Queen and Miss World Sri Lanka 2025.

When she’s not ruling the stage, or pool, Hansana’s belting tunes with Soul Sounds, Sri Lanka’s largest female ensemble.

What’s more, her artistry extends to drawing, and she loves hitting the open road for long drives, she says.

This water warrior is also on a mission – as Founder of Wave of Safety,

Hansana happens to be the youngest Executive Committee Member of the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU) and, as founder of Wave of Safety, she’s spreading water safety awareness and saving lives.

Today is Hansana’s ninth day in Egypt and the itinerary for today, says National Director for Sri Lanka, Brian Kerkoven, is ‘Jeep Safari and Sunset at the Desert.’

And … the all-important day at Miss Intercontinental 2025 is next Thursday, 29th January.

Well, good luck to Hansana.