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[February 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian] Although the outcome of the provincial elections was a foregone conclusion with President Mahinda Rajapakse riding the crest of potential end to Tiger terror, it was also evident, as never ever before to such an extent, that the grass root population has come really aware, alive and active. After all, unlike the previous heads of state with the exception of W Dahanayake of Galle, President Rajapakse is truly a man of the grass roots.Except for Mrs Srimavo Bandaranaike to some extent, the Waluwwa class leaders hardly felt or realized the rhythm of the grass roots. It also goes to the credit of Mrs Bandaranaike that she made the Jaffna University a reality when G G Ponnambalam was advocating a Hindu University and Mr Chelvanayagam a Tamil University and both hardly did anything about it. And both were strangers and indifferent to the rich culture of the Tamils.
They would have been happy to have had the British back in Sri Lanka.
When one tries to understand the racial extremity that has affected Sri Lanka, it would be seen the problem was Sinhala national feeling of the utmost was not equally matched by the Tamils taking pride in their own language and culture. Tamil leaders were not united and at times with cabinet posts they betrayed their own people time and again.
Tamils also rejected the grass roots type political activism of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party. They saw a friend as an enemy and in the UNP, an enemy as a friend
When Prabhakaran came on the scene, he evidently had another dream far, far stretched out from the politics of the country to the dream of a mafia state Sicily-type, in the South Asian waters. He saw the possibility of this dream materializing if he could ensure a UPFA government.
Significantly therefore for this reason, it is the LTTE that has contributed largely to the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) winning a massive mandate in the provincial poll. Prabhakaran misjudged the grass root power of President Mahinda Rajapakse. If he had enabled a UNP win at the last presidential elections, he may have already achieved at least a Wanni state with some kind of power-sharing recognition at the most. The Ceasefire Agreement, a conspiracy of the Norwegians exploiting a weak Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was in that direction.
On a previous occasion the UPFA win came about because the LTTE dictated the timidity of the Tamil community. Eventually, as an outcome of it, the Tamils of the North and East were forced to accept the Tamil National Alliance Members of Parliament who were lock, stock and barrel at the beck and call of the LTTE terror supremo Prabhakaran.
The sweeping wins of the UPFA in such districts as Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Kotmale, Hamguranketa, Walapane, Hewaheta, Senkadagala, Udunuwara, Kundasale and Gamppola evocates eloquently that the people in the plantation districts where the Tamil-speaking population is considerable have expressed where they stand in the current circumstances.
An evil that hit Sri Lanka hard for half a century in respect of a minority community and how it was exploited on the communal issue and the discrimination it suffered, by a force that demanded to be its sole voice with guns and grenades could soon be a thing of the past. The hill country Tamils have indicated to their fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka their trust in President Rajapakse. This leadership consciousness of the plantation worker families has to be merited.
President Rajapakse has a major challenge ahead. He has to do a lot of house-keeping and reject from his cabinet, coalition colleagues and his own party all those who advocate sectarian politics and also those whose integrity has suffered or even challenged. He can surely go to the country for a mandate to bring sense and sanity back to the country especially in the echelons of power and decision-making.
The country will surely give him a solid base to govern with the determination to strengthen a united Sri Lankan nation of Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers with none suffering any discrimination whatsoever and their rights, fundamental to any civilized nation, enshrined.
President Rajapakse must in particular ensure that terrorism in any form or type is rooted out which may even demand him cleaning up his own cabinet too. If it has to be done, it has to be done now because Sri Lanka has waited too long for good government and a citizenry that will be proud to call itself truly Sri Lankan. So it has to be all change time in Sri Lanka now; out go the corrupt and the terrorists, in come the pacifists and the ones dedicated to a Sri Lanka that will truly become the land of peace and harmony.
-Sri Lanka Guardian
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