Tuesday 9th February, 2010 11

Incredible, yes. Comic, decid-edly so. The Tamil referen-dum among its overseas

western diaspora goes on like anunending comic opera.

Having held referenda isHolland, Germany, France andSwitzerland to ascertain howmany of the Tamils support the1975 Vaddukodai resolution urg-ing the setting up of an inde-pendent Tamil state in Sri

Lanka, the decapitated LTTE’sfront organization the BritishTamils Forum (BTF) held onelast week in the UK.

What do you think was theresult? No need to tax your greycells over such an obvious one.The result, my friends, was thesame as elsewhere, or morespecifically, the European conti-nent. In each case over 99% ofthe votes cast was in support ofthe resolution and for setting upa Tamil state.

Actually there was no realneed to have held a referendumat all the in the UK. After all, theBTF or whoever organized thischarade of a poll was placing alot of their brethren in the UKin serious jeopardy.

There are so many stayingillegally in the UK, those whocame to the UK on false pass-ports, were illicitly brought toOld Blighty by human smugglersfrom the Tamil community whodid not mind taking the last dol-lar off their own people bycharging huge amounts to smug-gle them in, overstays and illicitworkers, all of whom are hidingfrom Britain’s Border Agencyand similar agencies.

So to ask these chaps to comeout and vote at a referendum forsome distant and unattainableEelam is to expose the poor fel-lows who are trying to make abuck or two by working in con-struction sites, picking fruit orsimply robbing both Peter andPaul, is to put them at the graverisk of being thrown in one of

the cans the Brits operate forthis type of chap.

So the poor chaps would havebeen dragged off their beds orwherever some of them sleep atnight, to satisfy the ego of thoselike Suren Surendiran of theBTF. By the way surendiran’sventures into the field of jour-nalism thanks to the ever-accommodating Guardian news-paper that is fast becoming athird-rate rag even in the worldof Britain’s sloppy journalism,reminds one of a raging bull inthe china shop.

Now anybody who couldexpose his own kind to therigours of the law and theprospect of deportation cannothave much consideration for hisown people.

All this rigmarole and votefixing is merely to try and hood-wink the world that all (oh sorry,just 99 point something percent)of the Tamils lend uneqivocalsupport to the Vadukkodai reso-lution which the VelvettithuraiSun God tried to impose with thebarrel of the gun and suicidejackets tied to innocent persons.

So what the Velvettithuraigenius did to his people bykilling all the Tamil leaders andleaving the community bereft ofan intelligent and intellectualleadership, the present inheri-tors of the Prabhakaran legacy

are trying to do the Tamil com-munity abroad.

The likes of SurenSurendiran are exposing thepoorer and legally vulnerablesections of the Tamil communi-ty by organizing this kind ofcharade and probably coercingthem to come and vote for someillusory dream.

Let me ask a straightforwardquestion from this Surendiranfellow who has appeared as thepliant voice in Britain of hisdeparted leader. If this greatEelam is established followingthe overwhelming vote of theTamil diaspora in the West, willhe and his family uproot them-selves from the UK and comeand settle down in the Vanni orKilinochchi or wherever hethinks best?

I will bet you all you all thetea in Talawakelle to all theulundu vadai in Wembley thathe will promptly give an under-taking that he will indeed do so.

His enthusiasm is very easyto explain. He knows only toowell that he will never have tofulfill that undertaking becausethere will never be an Eelam orwhat some Eazham whateverthat means- certainly not in hislife time.

Will the thousands of Tamilswho are supposedly hankeringafter this Eelam leave their thot-tams in Europe, bundle theirbelongings including the warmcoats that protected them fromthe severe winter recently, andcome to Mullaitivu where theywill continue to live on dhal,sambal and brinjal?

I rather think not. While thisSurendiran and his misleadingcohorts are at it, why don’t theytake a vote on how many ofthem will settle in Eelam if bysome unforeseen catastropheTamil Eelam is born.

They dare not do that for avery good reason. Nobody willput their names and signatureson a paper that will in effectmean they are renouncing theirstatus in the UK or elsewhere inthe EU thus placing their cur-rent presence in serious jeop-ardy.

By the way-all these thingsby the way- what about thatother fellow called Raj some-thing or other Jayadevan whotries to write English and failsmiserably and that EROSspokesman and those chaps whorun the Tamil BroadcastingCorporation (TBC) that onehears of now then- did they toovote from Project Impossible?

Or were they and their owngroups of other voices left out ofthe counting and accounting?

There is another seriousaspect to this hoax. According towhat Surendiran has circulatedas the UK result of the referen-dum, 64,256 (or 99.33%) voted yeswhile 185 (0.29%) traitors voted

against and 251 votes wererejected as spoilt.

What worries me is whathappened to the rest of theTamil population in the UK.After two days of voting, only64,000-odd cast their ballots. Butthe Tamil population in the UKis far bigger than that. There arebetween 135,000 and 150,000Tamils of Sri Lankan Tamils liv-ing in the UK out of a total popu-lation of around 250,000 personsof Sri Lankan origin.

So less than 50% or moreTamils in the UK had not partic-ipated in the poll. This leads oneto the suspicion that not allTamils were invited to vote, onlythose who could be trusted tovote “yes” in order to keep thepercentage as close to a perfect100% as possible in their per-spective.

It would be interesting tohear Surendiran’s explanation

as to how more than half theTamil population was disenfran-chised. Or is it that by not both-ering to vote they expressedtheir utter contempt for thisbrazenly fraudulent exercise.

Maybe as has been said onlyTamil Britons over the age of 18were eligible to vote. Could itthen be that most of theseTamils then are not Britons. Sowhat is their secret?

One more matter. If these fel-lows and fellies all want Eelamand do not wish to have any-thing to do with Sri Lanka, willthey kindly return the SriLanka passport that some ofthem hold, to the Sri LankaHigh Commission in London,please.

That LTTE mouthpieceTamilNet carried pictures of theBritish politicians who werepresent during this two-dayexercise. Those like Robert

Evans are political has beensand are clinging on to such lostcauses for the little publicitythey can eke out of this.

Others-mainly from theLabour Party and one Torywith an unpronounceablename- are there for the fewvotes they can collect from theTamil community by seen to besupporting the Tamil cause.

Where oh where are thelikes of Keith Vaz (also knownto some as Sleaze Vaz aftersome dubious deals) of EastLeicester who was alwaysupfront at LTTE fronted eventsand spoke so vociferously aschairman of the UK parlia-ment’s All Party Group forTamils? Gone into hiding orwhat?

Anyway these politiciansare not heavyweights and theyare just hoping that the Tamilvote might delay their journeyfrom political obscurity to polit-ical oblivion.

Surendiran has said thatthis overwhelming participa-tion in the referendum showedthat they wanted to “partake”of democracy. While more thanhalf the Tamil people stayed athome to partake of idly andthosai, Surendiran and hismates were partaking of afraudulent democracy. I hopethey had a bellyful.

Lies, damned liesand Diaspora polls

Off my chest by Andare

A longevity gene has been identi-fied for the first time in a break-through that could eventuallyhelp people live longer, a newstudy suggests. By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

The researchers have locateda gene which determineswhether or not a person will

biologically age quickly or slowly. They think that by testing for the

gene when some one is youngcould identify whether they have toalter their lifestyle accordingly.

In the longer term it may be pos-sible to manipulate the gene sothat life spans can be extended.

“This gives us for the first time abetter understanding of biologicalageing, “ said Professor NileshSamani at the University ofLeicester.

“It is the first step to under-standing why people age. Once we

have a full understanding weshould be able to manipulate it in amanner to influence how someoneages.”

Cells in the body are constantlyreplacing themselves before theydie. But each replication is not per-fect and the faults that are passeddown cause the body to age.

One form of damage is causedto the telomeres – the end parts ofchromosomes which act like theplastic tips of shoelaces and stopthem from fraying.

(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010

A march by British Tamil Forum in London

Ageing gene found by scientists couldbe key to longer lifespans

Scientists say that by testing for the gene when some one is young couldidentify whether they have to alter their lifestyle accordingly.