Sri Lanka
Presidential Elections:
Back to Square One
International Federation of Tamils [also
in PDF]
18 Rue des Paquis,1201 Geneva, Switzerland
tel/Fax 00 41 22 7320 831
[email protected]
25 November 2005
"..The results of the recent
Presidential election in Sri Lanka should serve as an
eyeopener to the International Community (IC) to see for
itself, the actual conditions prevailing in the island and
formulate a suitable and pragmatic policy re-structure, in
order to install permanent peace and promote development in
the turbulent island and the South Asia region... The
Sinhala nation has expressed its resolve by its vote in the
Presidential election to - uphold Sinhala Language only and
Unitary State only in Sri Lanka. The Tamil nation has
expressed its resolve with its decision by abstaining from
voting in the Presidential election to - respect the
decision of the Sinhala people to have their will in the
Sinhala nation; and to uphold Tamil people's decision
to demand for recognition of their right to
self-determination; nationhood and their traditional
homeland..."
The results of the recent Presidential election in Sri Lanka
should serve as an eyeopener to the International Community (IC) to
see for itself, the actual conditions prevailing in the island and
formulate a suitable and pragmatic policy re-structure, in order to
install permanent peace and promote development in the turbulent
island and the South Asia region.
The new President, Mahinda Rajapakse, has vouched to resuscitate
the SWRD Bandaranayake era in which the fangs of nationalist
extremism took its roots. In his inaugural address, he has rejected
the Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) signed between the earlier government
and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and rejected the
P-TOMS and the Federal set-up, all forged under the sponsorship of
the IC. Even during his election campaign days, Rajapakse, urged by
nationalist extremists and religious chauvinists who had signed
pacts with him, had been upholding these in his manifesto.
On the other hand, from the platform of the main opposition
candidate, Ranil Wickremasinghe, his stalwarts took pride in his
cunning to set up paramilitary groups to go on vindictive rampage
during his term in office, creating commotion in the North-East,
much against the spirit and stipulations of the CFA and exposing the
duplicity of the candidate.
All in all, this was a revelation of a situation in which the
main candidates in the Presidential race revealed their anti-Tamil
sentiments and untrustworthiness to resolve the national crisis.
The International Community, the sponsor to the ceasefire and the
ensuing peace talks remained a silent accomplice to the proposal
from the election platforms to undo all that was built-up after the
ceasefire. No attempt was made by the IC to warn the government and
the Sinhala polity against fostering extreme nationalistic
tendencies or to educate the Sinhala nation in pluralism, democracy
and peaceful coexistence.
On the contrary, the IC remained inactive during the three and a
half years following CFA and dormant during the election campaigning
period. Much to the delight of the Sinhala chauvinists, the IC
provided them with a vicarious encouragement by EU's introduction of
travel strictures on LTTE travel to European Community countries.
The resolve of the Tamils in every previous Presidential or
Parliamentary election in the island since independence had been to
defeat the worst nationalist extremist in the race. But, in the last
Presidential election, the resolve was to expose one. By its
peaceful demonstration of abstinence from voting, the Tamil nation
removed its buffer against the rushing on-flow of extremist
nationalism of the Sinhalese, thus exposing to the world the
futility of a unitary state and co-existence existence in an
environment of inherent hate. The Tamil nation's resolve to refrain
from voting sprang from:
*The International Community's refusal to take into
consideration the duplicity of the Sri Lankan polity in
implementing the ceasefire agreement at the end of the three
decades of armed conflict;
* The denial by the occupying Sri Lankan armed forces to
return to the displaced Tamils their ancestral homes and farming
fields and traditional fishing territorial waters;
* The refusal to implement the P-TOMS proposal suggested by
the International Community to ameliorate the exasperated
condition of the Tsunami victims; and
* Maintaining heavy military presence in the traditional
Tamil homeland. For example, 40,000 state troops are stationed
in Jaffna peninsula alone, approximately apportioning an armed
soldier to monitor ten unarmed civilian Tamils.
In order to alert the International Community to their resolve,
the Tamil civilian society held
Tamil Resurgence Conventions in all major towns of the
North-East, with over 90% of the Tamils attending to reiterate their
demand for the recognition of their traditional homeland, their
right to self-determination and their nationhood. From every
platform they pleaded with the LTTE to take up their cause and lead
them to attain their aspiration. The Tamil Student Movement,
provoked by the complete disregard from the International Community
and the international media to the plea from the Tamil civil society
called out for an expression of peaceful protest by not exercising
their right to vote.
The report of the European Election Monitoring Commission is a
revelation of the IC's failure to make a proper assessment of the
ground-reality. The IC failed to take the
Tamil Resurgence Conventions and the rallying call of the Tamil
Students seriously. This is a stand forced on the Tamil nation after
more than fifty years of peaceful democratic bargaining, thirty
years of armed conflict, three and a half years of CFA and a
betrayal of trust they had in the IC.
At the end of heavy loss of lives, pogroms, internal
displacement, enforced exodus to the Vanni, disintegration of
families and flight to foreign lands, the Tamils at home as well as
abroad have prevailed on the LTTE to take up their cause to attain
recognition of their selfdetermination, nationhood and traditional
homeland. The Commission's puerile attempt to blame the LTTE for the
absence of Tamil vote, is indeed a failure to read the will of a
resolute nation, by the Commission.
The Sinhala nation has expressed its resolve by its vote in the
Presidential election to - uphold Sinhala Language only and Unitary
State only in Sri Lanka. The Tamil nation has expressed its resolve
with its decision by abstaining from voting in the Presidential
election to - respect the decision of the Sinhala people to have
their will in the Sinhala nation;
and to uphold Tamil people's decision to demand for recognition of
their right to self-determination; nationhood and their traditional
homeland.
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