-Saarankan, Tamil Solidarity
The arrest and detention of Tamil artist Sangeethsan Ganeskumar under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act has once again exposed what Tamils have known for decades, the Sinhala chauvinist character of the Sri Lankan State remains intact. The NPP, a self-proclaimed Marxist government that presented itself as a break from the old corrupt political order, has chosen to preserve the same structures of repression under a different banner.
In October 2025, when Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara met members of the diaspora in London. We challenged him on three fundamental questions, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the implementation of the 13th Amendment, and the continued impunity enjoyed by Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The response was that this was an Anura Dissanayake government and therefore different from what came before. Today, the answer lies not in speeches but in the prison cell of a 24-year-old Tamil artist.
While draft legislation is reviewed, amended and debated, Tamils continue to be arrested under a law the Government itself accepts requires replacement. A state genuinely committed to democratic reform would have suspended the use of the PTA pending its repeal. Instead, it continues to wield it against Tamil political and cultural expression until the very last moment.
If the Prevention of Terrorism Act is so fundamentally flawed that it requires repeal, why does this Government continue to imprison people under it?
Every arrest carried out under a law the Government itself admits has no place in a democratic society is a conscious political choice. It is a choice to preserve repression while speaking the language of reform. The true measure of reform is not the law a government promises to repeal tomorrow. It is the law it chooses to enforce today.
The proposed Protection of the State from Terrorism Act (PSTA) does not represent a break from the past. Changing the name of repression does not change its character. Rebranding repression is not reform. A new Act that preserves vague definitions of terrorism, expansive executive powers and the ability to criminalise peaceful expression, dissent and political organisation merely reproduces the architecture of the Prevention of Terrorism Act under another name. International human rights organisations have already warned against this danger.
The same pattern extends beyond counter-terrorism legislation. The continued defence of the Online Safety Act reveals the same political instinct, to silence dissent, regulate expression and criminalise those who challenge the Sinhala chauvinist state.
Whether through the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the proposed Protection of the State from Terrorism Act or the Online Safety Act, the message remains the same. Tamil political expression is still viewed through the prism of extremism rather than democracy.
Governments before you defended these laws because they created them. Your Government defends them despite admitting they should not exist. That is an even greater indictment. This contradiction was laid bare when the Health and Mass Media Minister Nalinda Jayatissa declared at the NPP’s May Day rally that the PTA would continue to be used “if necessary” to eliminate “extremism”
The arrest of Sangeethsan Ganeskumar is not about a song, an artist or a social media post. It is about a state that continues to interpret Tamil memory as extremism, Tamil identity as suspicion and Tamil political expression as terrorism.
Tomorrow it will be another student, another journalist, another activist, another mother searching for the disappeared.
A Government cannot claim the mantle of democratic reform while continuing to govern Tamils through exceptional laws and exceptional suspicion. It cannot invoke the spirit of Aragalaya while preserving the logic of Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism that has defined successive administrations.
Do not mistake Tamil patience for Tamil acceptance. The generation that survived Mullivaikkal is raising a generation that will organise, educate and resist. Every arrest under the PTA, every detention, every broken promise and every attempt to criminalise Tamil political expression will strengthen the struggle against the Sinhala chauvinist state and those who continue to preserve it.
Every act of repression will deepen solidarity between Tamil youth, workers, students, trade unionists and oppressed communities across the island and internationally. Every attempt to silence Tamil voices will produce a louder movement demanding justice, democratic rights and genuine political freedom.
This Government should understand that every artist it imprisons, every student it intimidates and every activist it silences creates another generation determined to expose and challenge the structures of Sinhala chauvinism. Every foreign visit, every international forum, every university platform and every attempt to present itself as a democratic alternative will be confronted by a movement that refuses to allow repression to be rebranded as reform.
The NPP sought legitimacy by claiming to be different. If it chooses to preserve the structures of Sinhala chauvinism, then it will inherit the political consequences that follow.
We demand:
- The immediate release of Sangeethsan Ganeskumar and all those detained solely for peaceful political or artistic expression
- Repeal PTA immediately
- The withdrawal of any replacement legislation that preserves the repressive powers of the PTA under another name
- The repeal of the Online Safety Act and all legislation used to criminalise dissent
- The right to freedom of speech, the right to assembly
- National rights of the Tamils should be allowed