Photo: Mrs. Mangayatkarasi Amirthalingam wife of late Amirathalingam, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, Mr. V. Anandasangari, and Dr. Nicholas Pillai, President of the London TULF Branch president.A large gathering of 250 or so persons met at the Indian YMCA Building in Central London on 26 August, the eightieth birthday of the late Hon. A. Amirthalingam, the undisputed Tamil leader for well over a decade and former Leader of the Opposition , to celebrate his life and work. It was organized by the Amirthalingam Trust, with Dr. Baheerathan Amirthalingam, his younger son, doing much of the behind the scenes work. Sumptuous eats in neat boxes were served for the guests who had travelled great distances.
A major event that evening was the release of a book on Mr. Amirthalingam containing some of his important speeches of historic value.
Dr. Nicholas Pillai, President of the London TULF Branch presided. Mr. V. Anandasangari, and Mrs. Mangayatkarasi Amirthalingam spoke and Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, introduced by Dr. Neethirajah, delivered the Eightieth Birth-anniversary Memorial Lecture. Mr. R. Sampanthan and Mr. Ram of the Hindu were the speakers at the Seventy-fifth anniversary Lecture. The vote of thanks was delivered Mr. Kandeepan Amirthalingam, Mr. Amirthalingam's eldest son
Prof. Hoole's 90-minute talk, was titled "A Time for Tamil Introspection and Reassessment in the midst of Myth and Propaganda" and was also published as a booklet by the Amirthalingam Trust. His speech was richly accompanied by slides illustrating his points. The theme of his talk was that Tamils suffer from several myths. He specifically pointed to five myths: (1) Tamils b elieving their own propaganda without verification and acting on it; (2) Tamils declaring anyone who disagrees with them to be a traitor ; (3) Overseas Tamils presuming to be Tamil Representatives -- he had amusing examples of the antics of overseas Tamils, particularly from the Ilangaith Thamil Changam ; (4) Tamils believing Tamil histories to be right and Sinhalese histories to be propaganda; and (5) Tamils presuming Tamils to be a Monolithic Community.
He argued that as a result of playing cards they do not have, Tamils together as a people have slipped in numbers behind the Muslims to second minority and therefore there is a crisis upon the community calling for an urgent change of course. Stating that things would have been much better under the Indo-Lanka Accord or the constitutional proposals pushed by Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvan, he asserted that Mr. Amirthalingam was so right in going for the Accord and that Tamils as a people did not give space to their leaders to lead. If either the Accord or the Tiruchelvam proposals had been implemented, he asserted that with safety in the North-East, Tamils would have fared much better. "Is there anyone today who still does not accept this?", he poignantly asked.
Prof. Hoole adduced that the course of cooperation has been tried and failed in that those Tamils who deal with the state come back empty handed and as a result lose standing among the people. Muslims who tried it are now taken for granted as Sinhalese are settled in the Moothoor area and the Muslim leadership is too scared to protest. Mr. Arumugam Thondaman is sidelined into silence with caste insults, completely taken for granted.
Going on, Prof. Hoole stated that the course of war has failed as Tamils flee the war and the community is effectively facing extinction. The war, he said, has brought out the worst in Tamils making them turn their guns on themselves and the Muslims. In his view, if the government keeps up the war for another five years, there would be no Tamil community left to speak of.
He concluded that the only path to survival as a people is for Tamils to make a real commitment to human rights and speak of violations against the community by the government as well as internal violations. Unless Tamils did this, he said, no one would take them seriously as they complained to the International Community of only violations by the government. It was his thesis that only the International Community can force the Sri Lankan state to give Tamils their due and this requires Tamils putting their house in order and showing that they truly cared for Tamil rights. And for this, he said that Tamils must be seen as being serious about Tamil rights, wherever assaults come from.
Using examples from engineering, he put forward his thesis that the practicable second best is effectively better than the impossible best. That is, a second best federal state where Tamils can live in safety, practicing their culture, is always better than the impossible separate state.
Stating that he had no influence with the LTTE, he urged overseas Tamils who work with the LTTE to persuade them that it is in the Tamil self-interest to make this correction in course.
A major event that evening was the release of a book on Mr. Amirthalingam containing some of his important speeches of historic value.
Dr. Nicholas Pillai, President of the London TULF Branch presided. Mr. V. Anandasangari, and Mrs. Mangayatkarasi Amirthalingam spoke and Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, introduced by Dr. Neethirajah, delivered the Eightieth Birth-anniversary Memorial Lecture. Mr. R. Sampanthan and Mr. Ram of the Hindu were the speakers at the Seventy-fifth anniversary Lecture. The vote of thanks was delivered Mr. Kandeepan Amirthalingam, Mr. Amirthalingam's eldest son
Prof. Hoole's 90-minute talk, was titled "A Time for Tamil Introspection and Reassessment in the midst of Myth and Propaganda" and was also published as a booklet by the Amirthalingam Trust. His speech was richly accompanied by slides illustrating his points. The theme of his talk was that Tamils suffer from several myths. He specifically pointed to five myths: (1) Tamils b elieving their own propaganda without verification and acting on it; (2) Tamils declaring anyone who disagrees with them to be a traitor ; (3) Overseas Tamils presuming to be Tamil Representatives -- he had amusing examples of the antics of overseas Tamils, particularly from the Ilangaith Thamil Changam ; (4) Tamils believing Tamil histories to be right and Sinhalese histories to be propaganda; and (5) Tamils presuming Tamils to be a Monolithic Community.
He argued that as a result of playing cards they do not have, Tamils together as a people have slipped in numbers behind the Muslims to second minority and therefore there is a crisis upon the community calling for an urgent change of course. Stating that things would have been much better under the Indo-Lanka Accord or the constitutional proposals pushed by Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvan, he asserted that Mr. Amirthalingam was so right in going for the Accord and that Tamils as a people did not give space to their leaders to lead. If either the Accord or the Tiruchelvam proposals had been implemented, he asserted that with safety in the North-East, Tamils would have fared much better. "Is there anyone today who still does not accept this?", he poignantly asked.
Prof. Hoole adduced that the course of cooperation has been tried and failed in that those Tamils who deal with the state come back empty handed and as a result lose standing among the people. Muslims who tried it are now taken for granted as Sinhalese are settled in the Moothoor area and the Muslim leadership is too scared to protest. Mr. Arumugam Thondaman is sidelined into silence with caste insults, completely taken for granted.
Going on, Prof. Hoole stated that the course of war has failed as Tamils flee the war and the community is effectively facing extinction. The war, he said, has brought out the worst in Tamils making them turn their guns on themselves and the Muslims. In his view, if the government keeps up the war for another five years, there would be no Tamil community left to speak of.
He concluded that the only path to survival as a people is for Tamils to make a real commitment to human rights and speak of violations against the community by the government as well as internal violations. Unless Tamils did this, he said, no one would take them seriously as they complained to the International Community of only violations by the government. It was his thesis that only the International Community can force the Sri Lankan state to give Tamils their due and this requires Tamils putting their house in order and showing that they truly cared for Tamil rights. And for this, he said that Tamils must be seen as being serious about Tamil rights, wherever assaults come from.
Using examples from engineering, he put forward his thesis that the practicable second best is effectively better than the impossible best. That is, a second best federal state where Tamils can live in safety, practicing their culture, is always better than the impossible separate state.
Stating that he had no influence with the LTTE, he urged overseas Tamils who work with the LTTE to persuade them that it is in the Tamil self-interest to make this correction in course.
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