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| Independent candidate President Ranil Wickremesinghe was in Jaffna on Saturday (14) to address a political rally organized by Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP) led by Minister Douglas Devananda. Pix: Special arrangement |
By V.Thanabalasingham
An absence of communal propaganda in southern Sri Lanka is an important and healthier feature of the Presidential Election this time around.
The main reason for this is that all the main candidates are seeking the support of the minority communities. As it is widely believed that it will be impossible for any main candidate to secure 50% of the votes, the votes of the minority communities will be vital for any of them to win the election.
Unlike previous Presidential Elections, this time the main candidates have been going frequently to the Northern and Eastern Provinces for campaigns.
Whether the people of the minority communities believe in the promises made by these candidates in their election manifestos regarding the solution to the ethnic problem is another matter. But there is relative confluence in the promises made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, National People’s Power (NPP) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa regarding devolution of power, including the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
They make numerous promises about the future development of the north and east. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) candidate Namal Rajapaksa even says that he will turn Jaffna into Sri Lanka’s version of Silicon Valley.
Ranil’s enigmatic exhortation to the north
The fiery voices of some southern politicians who rely entirely on racism for their political survival are not heard much in the current campaigns. Meanwhile, in a strange twist, President Wickremesinghe was seen last week levelling an accusation that AKD was trying to incite racism.
Addressing an election rally in Jaffna, Wickremesinghe insisted that AKD should apologise not only to the people of the north but also to the Sinhalese people for bringing shame to them for terrorising and applying unnecessary pressure on the Tamil people.
This allegation from the President came after the NPP Leader said the following at an election meeting in the north: “When the people in the south are rallying for a change, if you oppose that change, imagine the mood of the people in the south. Do you want Jaffna to be seen as opponents of that change?”
It is clear that the President is trying to portray AKD as issuing a threat to the Tamils that the people of the north should not vote against the wishes of the people of the south in the election. The President also appealed to the people of the north not to change their voting pattern.
“When the people of the south voted for Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2010 Presidential Election, you voted for Sarath Fonseka. But nothing happened to you. In the 2015 election, you voted for Maithripala Sirisena, while the people of the south voted for Mahinda Rajapaksa. Nothing happened to you.
“In the 2019 election you voted for Sajith Premadasa. But people in the south voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Gotabaya did not harass you. Keep up this pattern and I will guarantee that nothing will happen to you. Don’t waste your right to vote by voting for Anura Kumara or Sajith,” Wickremesinghe told a public rally in Jaffna.
One is at a loss to comprehend these comments by the President. Is he asking the Tamil people to vote against him because the people of the south are going to support AKD or Premadasa? Why can’t the President say that since the people of the south will support him this time, the Tamil people should also follow them and support him?
As such, Wickremesinghe’s request to the people of the north not to change the voting pattern they have been following in Presidential Elections thus far seems to be an enigma.
AKD’s rebuttal
Responding to the President’s allegation, AKD said that instead of asking him to tender an apology to the people of the north, the President himself should apologise to them for inciting racism in Jaffna, adding that there was no need for him to respond to the President as Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran had already given a good reply.
“Ranil is attempting to incite racism in the country. I must be thankful to MP Sumanthiran. The politics of inciting racism in the country is now over. The politics of racism is no longer valid or successful,” the NPP Leader further stated.
It is also interpreted that AKD’s comment is in line with what Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in November 2019 after his victory that he had wanted the minority communities to be partners in his victory but that they had not joined him.
Meanwhile, even before AKD’s comrades in his party rushed to defend him, Sumanthiran immediately told journalists that the comments by AKD were not aimed at inciting racism.
“I don’t think comrade Anura Kumara made those comments in Jaffna with any kind of racist feeling. I know him well. He is not that kind of person. In fact, he has taken great care to eradicate racism in this country. So we have no different feelings on this matter,” the TNA MP observed.
Reaffirming his party’s support of Opposition Leader Premadasa in the upcoming election, Sumanthiran said that although they had decided to support Premadasa, they were ready to collaborate with AKD on shared goals and would join with him in eradicating misrule and corruption in the country.
The communal cocoon
However, President Wickremesinghe continued to declare during the campaign that the NPP Leader should apologise to the people of the north. A leader of a smaller party supporting the President also said last week that the hidden message of AKD’s speech was that if Tamils failed to vote for him, they would have to face communal clashes. He made a complaint at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) against AKD requesting the latter’s arrest.
Neither the people of the north and the Tamil political parties nor the Sinhalese people seem to care about the controversy stirred up by the President. It must be said that a seasoned political leader like Wickremesinghe, and one who does not propagate racism among the Sinhalese people, has made himself a kind of irrelevance by exaggerating an issue that is in no way relevant in today’s situation to be used against one of his rivals in the election.
Although the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – the flagship party of the NPP – has a history of fiercely opposing all attempts at resolving the national problem, it is not appropriate to continue to try to keep the party hostage to its past when it has grown into a powerful political force that may determine the future direction of Sri Lankan politics.
A healthy approach would be to encourage the relative changes visible in the JVP/NPP. But it is a bitter truth that the leaders of the party are not ready to commit themselves to allay the entrenched fears in the south against a political settlement and the devolution of power by explaining to the majority community the legitimate political aspirations and grievances of the minority communities. They cannot deny it.
President Wickremesinghe and Opposition Leader Premadasa promised to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in their election manifestos released two weeks ago, while AKD said nothing about it in his.
There are criticisms from the Tamil side that AKD has promised in his manifesto to speedily complete the constitutional drafting process carried out during the 2015-2019 period and grant political and administrative powers to the districts and provinces for the purpose of avoiding mentioning anything about the 13th Amendment.
Although the leaders of the NPP talk about giving equal opportunities to all communities during their future rule, they are very careful not to antagonise the southern nationalist forces who refuse to accept even the minimum legitimate political aspirations and grievances of minority communities, particularly the Tamils.
As such, rather than describing political leaders like AKD as racists, it is more appropriate to say that they are prisoners of racism. They are unable to come out of the communal cocoon.
History repeating?
Be that as it may, some observers compare the growing support for the NPP during the period after the ‘Aragalaya’ people’s uprising with the emergence of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, as a formidable political force in the aftermath of the 1953 Hartal. The historic struggle was organised by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the Communist Party (CP), and their trade unions with the widespread support of people across the country against the United National Party (UNP) Government which had drastically reduced rice subsidies.
The situation in the country was so turbulent that even the Cabinet meeting had to be held on a British ship docked at the Port of Colombo. The UNP was weakened following that protest movement. Although not immediately, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake stepped down two months later and temporarily withdrew from politics.
Rather than the Leftist parties that had given leadership to the Hartal, it was Bandaranaike, who did not support the struggle, who exploited the popular discontent to his advantage and defeated the ruling party, coming to power three years later at the 1956 General Elections.
Similarly, today the NPP, which has benefited from the change in Sri Lanka’s political landscape after the ‘Aragalaya’ revolt, has emerged as a threat to the existence of the traditional political ruling class. We have to wait only a week to know whether AKD will be able to pull a Bandaranaike. Courtsey- The Sunday Morning
(The writer is former Editor of the Tamil weekly Thinakural newspaper.)
(The writer is former Editor of the Tamil weekly Thinakural newspaper.)
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