-By A Special Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -31.Jan.2025, 11.10 PM) Maavai Senathirajah has passed away. He joined the youth wing of the Tamil Arasu Kachchi party and served as the secretary of the Tamil Eelam Youth Organization from 1966 to 1969. Those who knew him closely and were familiar with his political journey state that he was also part of the internal leadership of the Tamil National Tigers organization at the time.
The founder of the Federal Party, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, was regarded as the liberator of the Tamil people, with the belief that he was divinely appointed to lead them toward their promised land. His objective was to secure Tamil rights democratically and constitutionally by gaining the support of the Sinhala majority. His strategy was to obtain minor concessions initially and gradually achieve greater autonomy. This approach involved political activism such as satyagraha (peaceful protests), hartals (strikes), civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent resistance to separate the Tamil people from the Sri Lankan state politically.
Maavai, who aligned himself with Chelvanayagam’s militant political approach, became an active leader in the youth wing, playing a frontline role in the movement. However, when Tamil separatism took a militant turn under Velupillai Prabhakaran in the 1970s, Maavai did not join the armed struggle. Instead, he remained committed to a more militant yet nonviolent, democratic, and peaceful Tamil liberation movement.
As he transitioned from youth to middle age, Maavai contested the parliamentary elections for the first time in 1989 but was defeated. However, following the assassination of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, he was appointed to the vacant national list MP seat.
At the time, Anandasangaree was the senior-most leader in the party. After Amirthalingam’s assassination, Anandasangaree strongly opposed the LTTE’s violent activities and denounced the killings of Tamil leaders. As the TULF leader, he collaborated with the Sri Lankan government and security forces.
Although Maavai did not support the LTTE’s actions, he adopted a more lenient stance towards the organization. Following R. Sampanthan, he was the most senior leader in the party but was never officially granted that position.
In the 2000 general elections, Maavai contested and won a seat in Jaffna under the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) banner, returning to Parliament. He was re-elected in the 2001 elections from Jaffna as a TNA candidate. He continued to win in the 2004, 2010, and 2015 elections, representing the Tamil people in Parliament. In September 2017, Maavai was elected as the leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), also known as the Federal Party. However, by the 2024 elections, he had stepped away from the party he had represented for so long.
Maavai Senathirajah believed in Tamil self-determination, the rights granted by the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and the provincial council system. He advocated for power-sharing within a united Sri Lanka. He upheld democratic principles, parliamentary traditions, and constitutional governance while rejecting armed violence. However, he emphasized mass struggles for the freedom of the Tamil people.
After Sampanthan’s passing, Maavai was expected to take over the leadership. However, with the emergence of leaders such as M.A. Sumanthiran and S. Sritharan, he retreated from the forefront, and his past political stature was not fully recognized.
In recent critical presidential and general elections, Tamil nationalist politics became directionless and fragmented, leading to significant setbacks. The political landscape in the North was ultimately swept away by the rising tide of the National People’s Power (NPP) movement from the South, which overshadowed Tamil nationalist aspirations.
Maavai Senathirajah’s death marks the end of a chapter in Tamil nationalist politics. Among the key figures of that era, only Anandasangaree remains.
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by (2025-01-31 19:53:04)
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