{"id":117564,"date":"2013-12-29T00:46:30","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T19:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=117564"},"modified":"2014-01-05T00:02:57","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T18:32:57","slug":"the-tna-and-the-trust-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA<\/span><\/a>) does not trust the Government.\u00a0 Nothing wrong in that.\u00a0 If all political entities trusted and agreed with one another there wouldn\u2019t be separate political parties for too long, never mind the fact that politics would be quite boring.\u00a0 Mistrust, however, is not a one way street.\u00a0 Those who do not trust and harp on the fact all the time in order to play \u2018No Show\u2019 can but expect their political \u2018others\u2019 to distrust in return.\u00a0 If \u2018trust\u2019 is an issue to say \u2018no\u2019 to all exercises initiated by the Government, it amounts to a \u2018no\u2019 to all discussion on all issues.<\/p>\n

The TNA has every right to say \u2018We don\u2019t trust you\u2019, after all no entity, least of all political ones, can be trusted totally.\u00a0\u00a0 The TNA has on this basis repeatedly refused to submit names to the Parliamentary Select Committee set up to deliberate on grievances and formulate solutions to alleviate the same.\u00a0 Now the TNA has said that it will reject the findings of the census on missing persons. One of the reasons cited for this rejection is \u2018circumstances of disappearances and deaths not accommodated\u2019.\u00a0 This is a barefaced lie and has been roundly refuted by the Department of Census and Statistics.<\/p>\n

Director General of the Department D.C.A. Gunawardena, while pointing out that the exercise was modeled on international standards and practices of data gathering, responded to the TNA\u2019s concerns thus:\u00a0 \u201cIf it\u2019s a loss of life we even inquired into who the people they thought were responsible and whether it was people in civilian clothing or in uniform. We also checked the documents or any other material evidence of the relatives or family possessed in order to ascertain the authenticity of their claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TNA could of course charge that numbers and information can be fiddled around with.\u00a0 That\u2019s always a possibility.\u00a0 However, if all relevant information was made public there would be ample opportunity for any interested party, the TNA included, to point out any error.\u00a0 As things stand, the Director\u2019s assertion that the TNA was merely \u2018playing politics\u2019 seems to be an accurate sum-up.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s flip the story.\u00a0 Is the TNA scared of the truth?\u00a0 Is the TNA scared that the numbers won\u2019t support party rhetoric?\u00a0 Is the TNA scared that it would be revealed that many of the allegedly \u2018disappeared\u2019 are alive and kicking outside Sri Lanka?\u00a0 Are interested sections of the expatriate Sri Lankan community scared that the world would have to acknowledge that their perennial whines are based on falsehoods?<\/p>\n

Some in the TNA have said the party will carry its own census.\u00a0 Even if we assumed that a political party has the money, personnel and expertise to conduct such an exercise, why on earth should anyone trust the outcome, considering the TNA has its own \u2018trust issues\u2019?<\/p>\n

The TNA, after all, was the mouthpiece of the LTTE. The LTTE not only held Tamil civilians hostage but fired on those who tried to flee.\u00a0 The TNA remained silent through it all.\u00a0 The TNA claims it speaks for the Tamil community and voices their grievances, but remains silent about the greatest threat to the livelihoods of Tamil fisherman \u2013 Indian poachers. The TNA does not acknowledge that such an issue exists in the first place only because Sri Lankan Tamil fisherman can take to the sea, a privilege that accrued to them thanks to one fact alone: the military defeat of the LTTE by the Sri Lankan security forces.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of half-talk from the TNA.\u00a0 Those silences do not help build trust.\u00a0 If it\u2019s all about \u2018independent inquiry because of trust-lack\u2019 then the TNA can move to reject all state programs in the Northern Province.\u00a0 Roads, after all, may be mined. Vaccinations maybe doctored.\u00a0 Curricula could be full of \u2018distortion\u2019.\u00a0 There is a Government minister at one end of each one of these programs.<\/p>\n

The absence of wholesale rejection can be defended on the case-by-case principle, but then again the TNA has appeared to follow a principle of \u2018outright distrust\u2019 and given its long history of servility to gun-rule by a thug and a manifest tongue-twist when it comes to censuring even a single act of Thug-Thambi, the charge of \u2018Political Fraud\u2019 will be made.\u00a0 It will stick too.<\/p>\n

Brinkmanship is allowed of course, but this is not a matter of trying to get the other to blink first.\u00a0 The TNA seems to be scared out of its wits to confront issues head on.\u00a0 Instead it draws from myths and legends, tendentious claims and outright lies.\u00a0 Rhetoric is good for elections but can be disastrous when it is pushed beyond the point of sobriety.<\/p>\n

As of now the TNA is on the verge of falling from the edge of reason.\u00a0 That is not astute representation of constituency.\u00a0 That\u2019s the art of political survival.\u00a0 That has been the bread and butter of the likes of R. Sampanthan<\/span><\/a> and S. Premachandran.\u00a0 The tragedy is that people like C.V. Wigneswaran<\/span><\/a> and M. Sumanthiran can do no better than tagging along behind these two-bit politicians.\u00a0 Perhaps they like the \u2018Spoiler\u2019 label.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-28T19:16:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-04T18:32:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/\",\"name\":\"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-28T19:16:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-04T18:32:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\",\"width\":\"130\",\"height\":\"135\",\"caption\":\"Malinda Seneviratne\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-12-28T19:16:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-04T18:32:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":130,"height":135,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/","name":"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2013-12-28T19:16:30+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-04T18:32:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg","width":"130","height":"135","caption":"Malinda Seneviratne"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-tna-and-the-trust-issue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The TNA And The \u2018Trust Issue\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117952,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117564\/revisions\/117952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}