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Comrade
Perumal Chandrakumar (11.11.1969 – 18. 2. 2005),
joined the Sri Lanka Democratic Youth Movement in 1992
and the NDP in 1995. He was a member of the Hill
Country Regional Committee of the Party. Until his
death of sudden illness, he played an active and
inspiring role in the struggle of the hill country
people against oppression. A teacher by profession, he
taught with dedication, honesty and sincerity. He was
also an effective political activist and a brilliant
orator.
We
give below the tribute by the NDP Central Committee
Revolutionary
tribute to the late Comrade Chandrakumar
The
departure of Comrade Perumal Chandrakumar, who for the
past thirteen years carried out ceaseless struggle for
the liberation of the suppressed people, is a great
loss to the Party, the people of the Hill Country and
communist fighters throughout the world. On becoming a
member of the Party within three years of joining the
Sri Lanka Democratic Youth Movement, he carried
forward intense struggles, and developed his
personality as a communist to become a member of the
Hill Country Regional Committee. He participated in
the national congresses of the Party and made a solid
contribution to the development of theoretical and
practical work programmes for the liberation of the
oppressed people of the whole country.
Comrade
Chandrakumar contested the Provincial Council
elections according to Party decision. He was
confronted with various challenges which he
courageously overcame. He severely oppose every action
that was hostile to the working people and acted
firmly to defeat it. He proved his mettle in the
demonstration in Talawakelle town against the
Bindunuweva massacre. He acted skilfully when the
police sought to suppress it and was at the fore to
protect the people and party leaders.
He
was well aware of the negative aspects of the Upper
Kotmale Project and worked in collaboration with the
people’s movement against the Upper Kotmale Project.
He participated keenly in the signature campaign and
protest demonstrations against the scheme.
He
worked with dedication to set up a broad-based
teachers’ organisation under the leadership of the
NDP and worked enthusiastically to build the New
Democratic Teachers Union. He was also keen to impress
upon the teachers the position of the NDP that the
problems of the teachers should be approached from a
social scientific point of view, and to develop that
approach. He proposed programmes to achieve that
purpose at meetings in Vavunia, Jaffna, Ragala and
Hatton. He critically ridiculed organisations
functioning under the patronage of reactionary trade
unions in the hill country.
Comrade
Chandrakumar understood the negative tendencies of the
life of isolation under conditions of globalisation
and privatisation, in which trash from India was
making people mentally ill, and he developed a
character that befitted a great communist and
succeeded in putting it into practice. He achieved
within his life of 35 years what would have taken a
long life. As he integrated himself with the lives of
the oppressed people, he was also subject to the
perils of poor hygiene faced by the hill country
plantation workers.
Comrade
Chandrakumar, who had the wide range of great
qualities of a communist, only days before he fell
ill, proposed a scheme for carrying forward
organisational work in the Hatton-Talawakelle region
and addressed a meeting, introducing the comrades that
he had cultivated.
Comrade
Chandrakumar whose memory is deeply etched in the
hearts of Party comrades, has, through binding himself
closely with the life of struggle of the people of the
hill country, has won a place in the hearts of all.
revolutionary tribute to him will be to continue in
the journey towards the goals for which he dedicated
his life by transforming our sorrow into strength.
Central
Committee of the New Democratic Party
18.
02. 2005 |
