The Sri lankan President is widely expected to win the snap polls he has called for in January 2015. He has a well established record of development and good governance, and his opponent is a political lightweight
The run-up to the presidential election in Sri lanka, scheduled for January 8, 2015, reminds one of the 2004 presidential election campaign in the United States between Mr George W Bush and his challenger John Kerry. The media and US observers in India went to town forecasting a cake-walk win for Mr Kerry.
They were of the view that US military interventions, in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003, had turned the people against the incumbent President and that this would be reflected in the election results. What they forgot was the fact that the US people, like its Government, had no permanent friends or enemies. They stand for permanent US interests, whether it be commercial or strategic. President Bush scraped through, in spite of the strong anti-incumbency factor.
The people of Sri lanka are no different from those of the United States. Incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa is being challenged by Mr Maithripala Sirisena, a junior Minister in his Cabinet who crossed over to the Opposition in early November. Mr Sirisena has the support of former Sri lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and former Prime Minister and United National Party chief Ranil Wickremesinghe.
When President Rajapaksa called for a snap poll in November, almost two years ahead of the scheduled election, the UNP, the main opposition party, was taken by surprise. Mr Wickremesinghe had indirectly conceded defeat by declining to contest against Mr Rajapaksa. A big search was on to find a candidate capable of taking on the flamboyant Mr Rajapaksa.
Sri lankan opposition parties are yet to come out with a clear answer to why a defector, and that too a political lightweight who until recently sang paeans to Mr Rajapaksa, was fielded as the presidential candidate instead of the leader of the Opposition, Mr WickremesingheIJ A Member of Parliament, from the UNP, told this writer that Mr Wickremesinghe is not sure of his victory and hence, there is a need to find a common Opposition candidate.
The main Opposition charges against Mr Rajapaksa are that he is autocratic, dictatorial and wields unlimited power. They also point out that, among themselves, the Rajapaksa brothers control all major portfolios in the Government. Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary, is the younger brother of President Rajapaksa and believed to be mastermind behind the destruction of the dreaded liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. Mr Basil Rajapaksa,
Minister for Economic Development, is the President’s second brother. Mr Chamal Rajapaksa, the eldest of the Rajapaksa siblings, is Speaker of Parliament. His son Shasheendra is the Chief Minister of Uva Province.
But the Opposition is silent about the power wielded by Ms Kumaratunga during her presidency. Who was the Prime Minister of Sri lanka, from 1994 to 2000, during the Kumaratunga presidencyIJ It was a lady by the name of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who happened to be the mother of Her Excellency, the President. Also, the President’s brother Anura was the Speaker of the House for one year.
The brief given to Mr Sirisena is that once he gets elected as President, he has to amend the Constitution and trash the sections which give unlimited power to the President. In short, Mr Sirisena will be expected to cut the branch of the tree upon which he himself is sitting. And he is also expected to appoint Mr Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, who in turn would be the executive head of the state. A Wickremesinghe who is afraid to face a Rajapaksa in a direct contest is getting ready to enter the Prime Minister’s Office through the back door.
What has not caught the attention of the media is that many UNP leaders have jumped fence and declared support for Mr Rajapaksa. Development is the main plank on which the incumbent President is seeking re-election. All over Sri lanka one can see massive infrastructure development projects. A highway of global standards, connecting Colombo with Jaffna, is being readied. Colombo Port City, a satellite city to the capital, is taking shape. The number of tourists making a beeline for Sri lanka has increased eight times in the last four years.
After three decades of civil war, which claimed nearly 1,00,000 civilians and lead to the assassination of almost the entire top political leadership of the island nation, Sri lanka is now on a path of development. The only jarring note in Sri lanka is the loud noise being made by the parochial and secessionist Tamil National Alliance, an umbrella organisation of former lTTE supporters who demand autonomy for the Tamil-dominated Northern Provincial Council.
The TNA wants devolution of police and revenue powers to the council so that it can repeat, what Mr Varadaraja Perumal, former Chief Minister of the North East Provincial Council, did in 1989.
Following the India-Sri lanka agreement of 1987, the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the island nation were merged. In the ensuing election, the Tamils got an absolute majority and formed the Government. Within months, then Chief Minister Perumal declared secession from Sri lanka and the formation of a separate eelam. The then President dismissed the Perumal Government and the Chief Minister took refuge in India.
Only a small section of people in the Northern Province want a separate eelam. This is because of their failure to integrate themselves with the Sri lankan society. They consider themselves Tamils first and Sri lankans second. The TNA and its acolytes want the Sri lankan Army units to be moved out of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
This is akin to Tamil Nadu politicians asking the Union Government to remove units of the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force from the State. The TNA and other human rights activists complain that they are under the surveillance of the the Sri lankan Government’s intelligence agencies. What else can they expect from the federal Government in Colombo, which bore the brunt of terrorism for three decadesIJ Even in India, intelligence agencies keep track of all political parties and events.
While the United Nations Human Rights Council accuses the Sri lankan Government of “excesses” for the 2009 Army action against the lTTE, it is silent on the massacres carried out by the terrorist organisation. The UNHRC has constituted a commission to probe the “excesses”. Neither the UNHRC nor the human rights activists has uttered anything till date about the former chief of the lTTE’s women’s wing, Ms Adele Balasingham.
She played a major role in kidnapping thousands of Tamil children from Jaffna and the Eastern Provinces, and dragged them into the lTTE. She also grabbed thousands of young girls and trained them to be suicide bombers for the lTTE. No need to explain that all of them lost their lives in suicide missions. Today, Ms Balasingham is living somewhere in Europe, brainwashing more Tamil children to take up arms against Sri lanka.
High Commissioner of the Office of the Human Rights Council Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, when asked about the discrimination of his office towards the Sri lankan Government, preferred to remain silent. If the Northern Province is granted autonomy, as promised by the Opposition, Sri lanka too will have a Kashmir in its territory.