Those who alone fought against injustices are very few. No one alone comes forward to fight as the solo heroes of great tales. Pon.Sivakumaran is one of the very few of those who alone fearlessly stood up against the injustices. He is the pioneer of the Eelam struggle. In a very crucial time, he took the struggle against inequality and injustices prevalent in the Sri Lankan politics.
Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran was born just after the two years of independence (on 26 August 1950). Ponnuthurai and Annaledchumi are his parents. He was educated as an advanced level student at Jaffna Hindu College. Standardization of education was brought at that time. This caused great damage in his heart. As a student, he dared to fight since the student community was oppressed by denying the rights pertaining to it. He himself joined the Student Council which began against the standardization of education.
The first attack in the Eelam liberation struggle was executed by Pon.Sivakumaran. With the intention of assassinating Alfred Durraiyappa, who was the minister during the regime of Srimavo who brought standardization, he placed a bomb in the vehicle of Alfred Durraiyappa. As the bomb exploded before the arrival of Alfred Durraiyappa, Alfred narrowly escaped from being assassinated. He was imprisoned for two years for the attempt made by him to assassinate Alfred Durraiyappa.
After being released, he participated in the hunger strikes while making attempts to attacks at his own efforts. He participated in the hunger strikes of the Youth Council. In 1970s, he was arrested on the charges of executing bomb attack on the vehicle of Somaweera Chandrasiri who was the then cabinet minister of the regime of Srimavo Bandaranayake.
He got intense anger following the Tamil Research Conference massacre held at Jaffna. He publicly stated that Chandrasiri who committed the Tamil Research Conference massacre should be killed. Sivakumaran thus became searchable. However on June 5, 1974, he was surrounded by the Sri Lankan Police when he was attempting for an attack at Kopai. Fearing torture he swallowed cyanide and killed himself. Today is the 42nd remembrance day of Pon.Sivakumaran who lost his life for us in his age of 23.
He is the first Tamil militant died by swallowing cyanide. He was the first martyr of the Eelam struggle. He established the power of fighting against the injustices committed against Tamils in the midst of youths. For the very first time, women went to cemetery for his funeral. Sivakumaran's death had a great impact among the youths and students.
Sivakumaran took up the struggle when Eelam Tamil people were being treated as second-class citizens and the students were being suppressed. When the moderate Tamil leadership was unable to do anything with regard to the ethnic conflict and the imposed standardization of education cause of it, Sivakumaran took up the armed struggle from the non-violent path. When the Sinhala leadership was juxtaposing oppressions against the Tamil people without considering the demands of the Tamil leadership, Sivakumaran took up the armed path.
It is necessary to understand the life and death of Sivakumaran and the path he took. He did not concentrate on his studies alone like all the ordinary students. He focused on the studies of all students. He focused on the wellbeing of all students. He focused on the wellbeing of Eelam people. He realized that such a path he took was necessary when the Eelam Tamils were being oppressed.
The struggle taken up by Sivakumaran being alone expanded as the Eelam freedom struggle. Today, it is very important to examine regarding why he took up the arms and in which situation he executed the attacks. The history of Sivakumaran should be learnt and remembered.
