Ponnambalam was very critical of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and tried unsuccessfully to field a Tamil candidate against Kumaratunga at the 1999 presidential election. The day after the presidential election Kumaratunga gave a victory speech in which she warned LTTE supporters living in the south (the Sinhalese areas) to be aware. A few days later Ponnambalam wrote an open letter to Kumaratunga saying that he was "an unalloyed, unrepentant supporter of the political philosophy of the LTTE", condemning "the naked threats that dot[Kumaratunga's victory speech" and concluding that "a political solution to the Tamil Problem is in the hands of the Tamils themselves and only in their hands and that the Sinhalese and Tamils can continue to live in this island and in peace only if they live in two definite and distinct compartments each minding their own business unfettered by the other". The letter is regarded as an epitaph to Ponnambalam's commitment to the struggle achieve equality and freedom for Sri Lanka's Tamils.