TamilWeek   4 June 2012

Murugesu Sivasithamparam the ‘Lion of Udupiddy’: Tenth Death Anniversary Tribute

M. Sivasithamparam (July 20, 1923 - June 5, 2002)

by D.B.S.Jeyaraj

“Panchamum Noiyum Nin Meiyadiaarkko, Paarinil Menmaigal Verini Yaarkko” (If famine and disease are for your true followers for who else then are glories in this world) - Subramania Bharatiyaar in his Ode to the Motherland’s (India) freedom.

Veteran Sri Lankan Tamil political moderate leader, Murugesu Sivasithamparam, passed away peacefully after a brief illness in the Colombo National Hospital at 1:50 a.m. on June 5 2002.

The ailing president of Sri Lanka’s largest democratic Tamil party at that time, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), was admitted to hospital on June 1st and was pronounced out of danger two days later. Fate however decreed otherwise.

The departure of Murugesu Sivasithamparam evoked nostalgic memories of a mercurial personality that strode like a colossus across the Tamil political horizon. When news of Siva’s death emerged, a sadness enveloped most people who knew of him. In contrast, the younger generation of Tamils who know very little about the pre-militancy period of the Tamil non-violent struggle for restoration of lost rights seemed the least concerned.

It is relevant therefore to dwell briefly into Sivasithamparam’s past to know more about a man who devoted his life to the Tamil cause and made great personal sacrifices for it.

Sivasithamparam was literally a towering personality in the political landscape of the island. A well built six footer with a stentorian voice, the mercurial Sivasithamparam was for more than four decades an accredited leader of his people. The brilliant lawyer was a powerful orator and ebullient debater who cut a flamboyant figure at the height of his career.

He was at the time of his death the senior-most Tamil MP in parliament, having been nominated in 2001 on the national list by the newly formed Tamil National Alliance.

Hereditary chieftan         Full Story>>>