Media Release from Election Commission

Media Release from Election Commission

We are delighted to announce the outcome of the Election process to democratically elect two representatives from the Tamil community in New Zealand to the Constituent Assembly of the Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.

The two unanimously elected representatives to the Constituent Assembly are :

§ Mr Theva Rajan Arumugam – from the Northern Electorate (Taupo and north)

§ Dr Sivapatham Naguleswaran – from the Southern Electorate (rest of New Zealand)

It has been our pleasure and privilege to be part of this important and novel step to provide a directly elected democratic voice for the Tamil community living across the world.

We were requested to provide an independent Election Commission, and in that role, we have overseen all aspects of the election process in New Zealand including:

§ Wide advertisement of the process to all groups, sections and individuals in the New Zealand Tamil community.

§ Detailed arrangements for the preparation of nomination papers with appropriate safeguards included to ensure high standards required by the international advisory group of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam have been followed.

§ Receiving and checking the nomination papers for compliance with the process requirements.

§ Facilitating a community celebration of the election of the New Zealand representatives

The commission members have been deeply impressed with the dedicated care with which the Tamil community in New Zealand has approached this election to ensure it was democratic and unquestionably fair.

We wish the two New Zealand representatives all the best for the challenging process ahead.

Mr John Minto (Election Commissioner)
Dr Daya Thevi
Fr Gerard Burns
Mr Rama Ramanathan
Dr Siva Vasanthan
Vijaya Kumar
Dr Ram Sri Ramaratanam
Mr Brabhaharan

Theva Rajan, Arumugam

Theva Rajan is a retired public servant who migrated from Sri Lanka. He has been a freelance journalist, researcher, trade union activist and Tamil-rights advocate.

In New Zealand, Theva Rajan has authored regular newsletters highlighting the human rights violations committed by the Sri Lankan State against Tamils. He has encouraged Tamil youth to be self reliant and to know their roots and heritage, and organized the first cultural festival of Tamil tertiary students in New Zealand.

He is well versed in the history of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the marginalisation of their rights under Sinhala rule, and their independence struggle since in 1918. Researchers acknowledge his book on Tamil language rights as a useful reference. As human rights activist, he has published articles drawing attention to the tragedy wrought by Sri Lankan military operations against Tamil resistance.

He has written much in Tamil and English on many subjects. His article “Public Servants and Legal Remedies” in the Daily Mirror in1969 is hailed as an important document in legal circles. Other articles have appeared in newspapers in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and Singapore.

Theva Rajan has researched in the fields of Tamil language and literature, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics and toponymy, and presented papers at international conferences.

Dr S Naguleswaran

Dr Naguleswaran retired as an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering from University of Canterbury (1972-2008). Born in Kantharmadam, Jaffna in Eelam, he studied at Jaffna Hindu College and graduated from University of Ceylon, followed by doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham (UK).

Nagul’s early experience of the 1957 pogrom in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) against the Tamils led him to realise the importance of all aspects of human rights, proper governance and democracy. He has observed how the supression of the minorities was used as the main parliamentary election issue since independence in 1948.

Since the voice of Tamils in Sri Lanka is presently brutally suppressed, he believes that the Eelam Tamil diaspora should continue the campaign to gain political rights - in particular the right to self-determination.

Dr Naguleswaran believes that the Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam will be a workable forum acceptable to the liberal democracies in which the Eelam diaspora live. Though there are many unknowns as to how it will ultimately operate, he will try his best to make it a success.

He will make it his first priority to take the concerns of Kiwi Tamils to the Provisional Transnational Government of Thamil Eelam’s Constituent Assembly, and communicate the decisions of the Assembly back to Kiwi Tamils.

ENDS

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