"..By boycotting the presidential election
which pitted the openly chauvinistic Mahinda Rajapakse
against the equally anti-Tamil, Ranil Wickramasinghe,
the Tamil people have allowed the
Sinhala South to have its say... The overwhelming
majority of the Sinhalese have thus voted for the man who
denies .. the Tamil people's right to self determination.."
By boycotting the presidential election which pitted the
openly chauvinistic Mahinda Rajapakse against the equally
anti-Tamil, Ranil Wickramasinghe, the Tamil people have allowed
the Sinhala South to have its say. The result speaks for itself.
Sans the votes of the southern minority groups - 'Upcountry
Tamils' and the Muslims, who voted enmasse for Wickramasinghe,
the vote for Rajapakse by the Sinhalese was indeed a decisive
one.
The overwhelming majority of the Sinhalese have thus
voted for the man who denies the existence of a distinct Tamil
nation, a Tamil Homeland and the Tamil people's right to self
determination. Instead, he believes in the inherent right of the
Sinhala Buddhists to dominate and rule. His election promises
include the redefining of the Cease-Fire Agreement and an
emphatic denial of any political power sharing with the Tamil
people.
Why then did the Tamil leadership and the elected
Tamil representatives call for a boycott of the elections? And
why did the Tamil people heed this call?
The answers lie
in the duplicity of the Sinhala political establishment
throughout the last five decades including the last three and a
half years. On every occasion that required the support of the
Tamils, the dominant Sinhala parties have courted and wooed the
Tamils only to turn their backs and return to their chauvinistic
agenda - an agenda which underpins Sinhala political philosophy
and one to which all Sinhala parties have been faithful, without
exception!
Wooing the Tamils to win Government and
reverting to type on wining has been the Island's true but sad
history. The war made little difference to the Sinhala political
parties.. Kumaratunge who received overwhelming Tamil support in
1994 conducted the grotesque strategy of 'peace through war' - a
strategy which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Tamil
civilians, hundreds of 'disappearances', and the exodus of half
a million Tamils from the Jaffna peninsula.
Then there
was Wickramasinghe. Having been elected Prime Minister on the
promise of peace he agreed to a cease-fire in the face of
imminent defeat. Wickramasinghe soon reverted to type through
delaying tactics. There was this loud proclamation by him about
power sharing with the Tamil people, but it was directed
primarily at the international community. More significantly
little was done to explain this concept to the Sinhala
electorate. Instead, Wickramasinghe's 'achievements' include:
the abysmal failure of SIHRN specifically formed to restore
normalcy, the crafty attempt to construct an international
safety net and most tellingly the cultivation of the renegade
Karuna .
The Tamil people realised that while Rajapakse
was engaged in the time tested Bandaranaike mode of openly
racist campaigning, Wickramasinghe was pursuing the 'all things
to all men' campaign. The Tamils were not prepared to be fooled
by the man and exercised their democratic right to abstain.
AFTA supports the decision of their brethren and looks forward
to a political arrangement where the Tamil people of the
Northeast of the Island can exercise their democratic right to
self determination.
Ana Pararajasingham
Chairman
Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations
