Opinion: Why North and East have their own Presidential candidate?

The Tamil Common Candidate P. Ariyanenthiran at the Pandarawanniyan statue in Mallavi on August 30, 2024, ahead of addressing an election rally. Pix: special arrangement

By S.V. Kirupaharan

Holding an election does not mean that a country is democratic. Countries with monarchies, autocrats, and dictators also hold elections. There are good examples in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The Presidential Election in Sri Lanka will be held on 21 September of this year (2024). 

I recall what I wrote about the 2010 Presidential Election in Sri Lanka. In brief: “Many sources still maintain that incumbent Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Opposition Parliamentarian and independent Presidential candidate, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka won the Election. But, as usual, members of the Rajapaksa (a reference to then President Mahinda Rajapaksa) family manipulated the Election results. Many ask the question, what happened to the then Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake on the day of the Presidential Election in 2010? It was believed that Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Founder Basil Rajapaksa was managing the task of the Elections Commissioner.”

On 3 February 2010, Charles Haviland of the British Broadcasting Corporation News in Colombo, said, “Wednesday's demonstration was much bigger than rallies usually seen in the Capital. Holding banners in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, opposition supporters thronged a network of streets in the City centre. They shouted that the Election was "unclean" and would have been won by General Fonseka, but for what they allege was computer rigging.” 

I wrote in another article, on 25 July, 2019, titled, “Fonseka would be the right match for Gotabaya (a reference to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa)”: “However, in the next Presidential Election, there is only one man from the United National Party (UNP) who can match or defeat Gotabaya Rajapaksa. There are many reasons! All other candidates including UNP Leader and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe would be a walk-over for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Military leader, now politician, Fonseka will be the right candidate from the UNP and he could easily win the forthcoming Presidential Election. Once again, I repeat that he is not my favourite”. 

The media says the following 25 candidates are putting themselves forward to contest in the Presidential Election: independent Wickremesinghe, the Tamil common candidate P. Ariyanethiran, United Socialist Siritunga Jayasuriya, Fonseka, SJB and Opposition Leader and SJB candidate Sajith Premadasa, National People’s Power Leader and Opposition Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake, President’s Counsel, Government MP and the National Democratic Front’s Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, independent Muhammad Ilyas, Government MP and the SLPP’s Namal Rajapaksa, and a few others.

Under the Presidential candidature system in France, it is not possible for many to contest in a Presidential Election. In France, there are 35,083 City Councils (Communes/Mairies) each with its own Mayor. Those who would like to contest the Presidential Election, should have the endorsement and signature of a minimum of 500 Mayors or MPs.

The candidature of Ariyanethiran is similar to Fonseka. Not to win, but in the Tamils’ case, to show their grievances to the world which have been in practice in Sri Lanka for more than seven decades. Time has proved that ethnic issues cannot be resolved either in the Sri Lankan Parliament or by politicians in the South.

In any Presidential Election, only one person can win. The others lose. 

Since the Executive Presidency came into effect in 1978, the people of the North and the East have voted for one of the leading candidates from the South, except in one Election which they boycotted.

Here, the unanswerable question is what the people of the North and East have gained so far, by voting for a Presidential candidate from the South. 

Since or even before Independence from the British in 1948, the Tamils from the North and the East have always lived in fear as second-class citizens without any fundamental political rights. I do not think that cannot be denied by anyone in the South.

Nothing in writing

Not only in this Presidential Election but also many times in the past, the leading Presidential candidates talked in the ear of so-called Tamil political leaders about a political solution to the North and the East. But, they are reluctant to give anything in writing. Why?

Some Presidential candidates are murmuring something about a solution to the North and the East that no one can understand. They are scared that if they say anything positive on this matter, they will lose their votes in the South. This is a typical example proving as to why this issue has been dragging on for decades.

In this context, I would like to recollect what was said by former President J.R. Jayewardene, during the worst riots against the Tamils in July, 1983. He told The Daily Telegraph, "The more you put pressure in the North, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. If I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.”

All these facts and the island's history have accumulated and made civil society groups in the North and East and others put forward their Tamil candidate in the Presidential Election.

After the Presidential Election, this person will carry the Election result to the international community, especially to our former colonial countries Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (UK). Here, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is not applicable.

Colonial masters should tell the truth

If these three countries tell the facts in the international arena, the world will understand and help the people of the North and the East. Portugal and the Netherlands should tell the world that there was a Tamil Kingdom in the North and the East during their colonial periods. The UK should tell the world that a separate Tamil Kingdom existed during their period, and that they amalgamated that Kingdom with other Kingdoms in 1833 under the pretext of administrative convenience. This evidence is more than enough to open the eyes of the world concerning the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

What is happening now in the South creates doubts for the future. Political parties and leaders have no say in the South: I think that organised criminal groups will replace them. I believe that it is the politicians in the South who indirectly encouraged these gangs for their political gains. Political leaders used them to assassinate some of their enemies.  What happened to Richard de Zoyza, Kumar Ponnambalam, Lasantha Wickrematunge, and many others is evidence of this.

(The writer is the General Secretary of the France-based Tamil Centre for Human Rights)