UPFA Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa has criticized Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan over the latter's reluctance in addressing socio-economic issues faced by the Tamil youth. 

"How many more generations of Tamil youth must waste their precious lives before Tamil nationalist politicians will place the future of youth ahead of their own personal political aspirations?," Rajapaksa asked, in a blog post. 

Following are excerpts form the Parliamentarian's post:

"I am astonished and disappointed that an experienced and respected politician of Mr Sampanthan’s caliber has resorted to explain away his inadequacy in addressing social and economic grievances of Tamil youth on a failure to find a permanent political settlement!

Mr.Sampanthan is being disingenuous in placing the sole blame on the majority community for not being able to find a lasting solution to the ethnic conflict. An articulate gentleman like Mr.Sampanthan should not attempt to lower the political discourse by inferring racism within the Sinhala community as the cause for decades long political impasse. Racism is not a domain of anyone community, and unfortunately every community has its share of racists and bigots.

Mr. Sampanthan’s selective amnesia fails to recognize instances like Mr. G.G. Ponnambalam’s undemocratic demand to reduce the franchise of Sinhala majority who constituted 70% of the population to mere 50% representation in Parliament, or consistent attempts by Tamil nationalists to create a divisive ethnic homeland in guise of countless political models have also been causes that prevented a lasting solution being found.

The government that I was a part of, not only brought the war to an end, thus halting forcible recruitment of Tamil children and youth by terrorists but also rehabilitated and released 12,000 LTTE cadres for them to be able to reintegrate into society and lead normal lives again. Billions were invested on infrastructure, healthcare, education, and creating employment in Northern and Eastern Provinces. Therefore I will reiterate my earlier point that livelihood of Tamil youth should not be sacrificed in the name of devolution of powers.

We may have our own respective political perspectives, but we should not let them have adverse impact on the welfare of young people of Sri Lanka."