The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) has decided not to attend the All Party Conference (APC) convened by the Presidential Secretariat today, Colombo district Parliamentarian Mano Ganesan said.
The TPA Leader said that this was due to the President failing to convene a discussion with the TPA and the hill country Tamil political parties on the political aspirations of the hill country Tamil community.
“We have been repeatedly demanding President Ranil Wickremasinghe to conduct talks with us and all the hill country Tamil political parties on the political aspirations of the hill country Tamil community in his stated attempt to find solutions to the national question. We have specifically told him to nominate high powered committee chaired by him to this subject,” he revealed.
MP Mano Ganesan said, however, apart from certain remarks made on public stages, President Wickremasinghe has not done anything officially in this regard.
“While welcoming his talks with the Tamil parties of the north and east to find solutions to the political and accountability issues faced in the north-eastern Tamil brethren, we want all stakeholders to understand the political aspirations of the hill country Tamil community beyond “Plantation” radius. The national question of Sri Lanka is not Northeast-centric, but national,” he pointed out.
The MP stated that his party considers the national question as the most important subject on the tray and no head of state needs any mandate to address this particular subject, hence it had not raised an objection while in the opposition.
“We have even exchanged such positive views with north-east Tamil parties. Hence, the attitude of President Wickremasinghe towards us has disappointed us,” he added, issuing a statement. (NewsWire)