Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, one of Sri Lanka’s prominent Tamil leaders and a veteran campaigner of Tamil minority rights passed away on June 30 in Colombo. Sampanthan was a strong voice of the Tamils within and outside the Sri Lankan Parliament for nearly half a century.
Born on February 5, 1933, R. Sampanthan was the sitting MP from the Eastern Trincomalee district. A lawyer by profession, Sampanthan was well-versed in handling the diverse political situation in Sri Lanka, in terms of arguing for the Tamil cause. He joined the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi in 1956. On May 14, 1972 the ITAK, the ACTC, the Ceylon Workers' Congress, the Eelath Thamilar Otrumai Munnani and the All Ceylon Tamil Conference formed the Tamil United Front (later renamed as Tamil United Liberation Front – TULF).
With a political career spanning over a period of over six decades, Sampanthan got into the parliament in 1977 and has served as an MP for five terms. He was appointed as the opposition leader in 2015. This was the first time, after 32 years, that a member of the Tamil minority group went on to hold the constitution post.
It was under his auspices, all Tamil political parties in the war-hit North and East of Sri Lanka came together to be called the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). TNA was a diverse coalition representing the Tamil cause. As a former leader of the TNA, he was a relentless voice for the Tamils in the floor of the Parliament and fought for the Tamil national cause. After the fall of the LTTE in 2009, Sampanthan was one of the strongest voices for the marginalised ethnic Tamil society in Sri Lanka.
