Former State Minister of Child Affairs’ Vijeyakala Maheshwaran’s statement calling for the revival of the LTTE movement is seen gaining traction into the second week since the controversial statement was made.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer, prominent Tamil political and social leaders explain their stance some arguing that it was an emotional response to the decaying of an already terrible situation for women in the Northern Peninsula.
Others say that the speech was made with deliberate intentions in mind. Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran, renowned feminist, Tamil leader, member of the Right to Information Commission and the former Executive Director of Women’s Education and Research Center is of the view that Vijayakala’s speech was an emotional response to the absence of law and order in the Northern Province, particularly the rape and murder of a child in Jaffna.
Dr. Thiruchandran explained that there is a perception that the LTTE governed well with regards to women’s issues even if they may have been brutal in other senses.
“This combined with the loss of her husband to ‘terrorism’ likely prompted response,” said Dr. Thiruchandran.
However Dr. Thiruchandran also believes that being a state minister and an elected member of parliament Mrs. Vijayakala should have known that “in politics there is no room for emotions and that politics is governed by rationality.”
According to the EPDP Leader and Jaffna parliamentarian, Douglas Devananda “the Tamils detest the speech as much as the Sinhalese.” He pointed to the death and destruction caused by the LTTE as an explanation.
He believes that her involvement in helping the main accused in the gang rape and murder of SivaloganathanVindhya would have made Minister Vijayakala a prime target. MP Devananda is of the opinion that Vijayakala is attempting to disrupt the reconciliation process and create disharmony among the communities.
The Chief Minister of the now defunct and short-lived North-East Provincial Council from November 1988 to March 1990 A.Varadaraja Perumal siad the LTTE era “was a time when the father was scared to talk to the son, a teacher was afraid to punish a student for any minor offences in school and people were afraid to talk to each other.”