7:28 AM

Pillaiyan thanks Tamils for helping him to defeat for the first time Vanni Tigers democratically

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan popularly known as Pillaiyan told Asian Tribune that he wanted to convey his thanks to the Tamils who are in fact 48 percent of the total population in the East, for helping him and his party to defeat the Vanni Tigers for the first time democratically. He added, I bow my head to the people in the East for helping us to grow democratically to this height. Pillaiyan said that by taking over the Provincial Council, we will be able to fulfill the political aspirations of the people of the East.

When News-Lanka asked about his chances of becoming the Chief Minister, he said that the majority of the people in this province are Tamils and everybody knows that a Tamil has to be the Chief Minister of this Province. There are no two words about this.

Secondly in this election UPFA polled 308, 886 votes which includes the votes of Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese other communities in the Province. Out of this total votes, TMVP candidates received more than 160,000 votes. Therefore, the UPFA has to consider a TMVP candidate for the position as the Chief Minister.

He added that he is personally not demanding that the Chief Ministership should be given to him as the leader of the TMVP. He said in case I fail to obtain the Chief Ministership that is due to a Tamil from the Tamil community and then it would be considered a historical blunder and would be recorded in the history of this province.

Pillaiyan said that we the TMVP came forward to join the Government to bring about sense of togetherness in the country. We joined the UPFA to show the world that we are with the Sri Lanka Government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa and wanted to defeat terrorism and bring about a national unity in this country.

“In this noble effort of ours, more than 300 of our cadres martyred. We joined hands with President to show to the international community that Tamils oppose Prabakaran and the Vanni Tigers and the terrorism unleashed by them. We have now shown that Prabakaran and Vanni Tigers are not the sole representatives of the Tamils. We shattered this myth of Prabakaran and his so called Tamil nationalism,” TMVP Leader said.

TMVP Leader further said-

“We led our Tamil community in the East and became equal partners of the Government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa.
‘We could have easily contested the East Provincial Council election under our own party banner, but for the sake of the unity of Sri Lanka we decided to coalesce with the UPFA and contested the election.
“Furthermore, as far as the Muslims in the East are concerned they are my brothers and we wanted to embrace them and wishes to live with peace and harmony with them. We wanted to solve their problems, mainly their land issue.
“When you look at the Muslims, one can notice that almost all the Muslim parliamentarian from this region is holding ministerial positions. That alone is enough for the Muslims in this province to get the maximum support and help.
“But look at the plight of the Tamils in this region. There is not a single Tamil minister to look after the affairs of the people in the region.
“In the earlier days we have to take to arms to force the successive governments to yield to the aspirations of the Tamils. Later by 2004, we thought that separation and arms struggle are not the right choices to meet the political aspirations of our people and we decided to join the mainstream politics of the country and joined democratic mainstream.
“We contested to serve our people by democratic means. Rest is history and the country knows it well.”
Pillaiyan added, “Chief Ministership is something that belongs to us. There are no two words about it. “
He said in case if our rights are not meted out, then we may have to resort to democratic action which might have severe repercussions.

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