The government completely ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) as requested by the Party, regardless of the recent change in leadership of its main constituent party, the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK).
Five years have passed and the President Mahinda a man known for NOT keeping his promises is now refusing to even implement the 13th amendment of the current constitution of the country as promised by him in May 2009. As usual he is buying time to fool the Tamils and the world saying he has appointed a ‘Parliamentary Select Committee’ to solve the problem. This is NOT his first committee and he has never implemented the recommendations of these committees in the past. The NEW ‘Parliamentary Select Committee’ has more members who are openly opposing the 13th amendment, hence TNA accuses Government of deliberately appointing racist Members to this committee and wants to continue to discriminate the Tamils.
The ITAK, the main constituent Party of the TNA recently changed its leadership; Parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah taking over the reins from R. Sampanthan. Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development, Dulles Alahapperuma said that the government hoped that Senathirajah would be able to defeat the separatist ideology, and pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathies within the TNA. The TNA was not attending the Parliamentary Select Committee to discuss their grievances because they wanted to show the residents in the North that they were taking a tough stand against the government, Senior Vice President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva said.
“Instead of coming to the established forum in Parliament where all other parties are present, and a quick resolution can be reached, they are suggesting unnecessarily long-drawn out methods to start talks with the SLFP — and later, possibly with other parties of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA,) because they want to prolong the process,” he said.
But the Sri Lankan government and its President promised to implement the 13th amendment of the constitution in full give more rights to the minority who have been discriminated by the successive Sinhala governments since its independence 14th February 1948. After the Tamil leaders failed through democratic methods the LTTE was formed to fight for the rights of the Tamil community.

