Sri Lanka - Eelam 2.0 the transnational government

With the fall of the final pocket of land under LTTE control and the death of the organisation’s founder and leader, the LTTE’s visions of a separate state seem to have been consigned firmly to history.

Sri Lanka’s separatists have proved themselves time and time again to be eternal optimists predicting a sudden resurgence of the LTTE just days before Pirapaharan’s body was pulled out from the Nandikadal Lagoon. Now the remnants of the LTTE — its head of international affairs Selvarasa Pathmanathan, and intelligence head Arivazakal appear to have taken their dreams for an independent Tamil homeland to a different plane altogether and have declared that the LTTE will establish a transnational government in exile for Sri Lanka’s Tamil people, as the next stage of their struggle.

In a statement Pathmanathan claimed that "Only the diaspora and the transnational government (can) uphold the freedom of aspiration and freedom of expression of (Sri Lankan) Tamils."

But what does this mean in practice — what is a transnational government and how will it benefit the lives of the island’s Tamil community?

Statements from the LTTEs main propaganda outlet — Tamilnet have recently identified the Tamil community as a transnational population no longer confined to a single nation — a community that as such needs a transnational government to meet its needs.

The logic there seems sound enough like the Kurds, Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils in particular are without a nation of their own and are now dispersed across several nations.

However the practicalities of a transnational government in exile remain unclear. Who will constitute this government and who or what will this government govern?

As yet the transnational government possesses no office, no address and no contact details but perhaps such conventional requirements as an office or a telephone are outdated?

Certainly the transitional government’s backers don’t seem to see the lack of such conventional facets of a state as territory, or a population as an impediment.

But for the conventionally minded it is hard to see how a government without a country — will benefit the Tamil people thousands of whom remain confined in IDP camps.

It remains unclear how the representatives of this government will be chosen — the LTTE hasn’t previously demonstrated any great fondness for democracy. So its likely that the members of a proposed government in exile will be appointed; but that begs the question by whom? And on what authority.