Elections in the North – Myths and Realities

"Tamil people realize that TNA and TULF are also responsible for their sufferings. They missed several opportunities that came their way especially after 1987 to appease the tigers. What can they tell new to the people?
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By Sumathy Selvakumar

(July 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Scribes have come out with volumes about the local government elections in the North scheduled for August. As usual, they have been writing lies with an agenda in their mind or have been misled by interested parties. Any intelligent person can find how untrue these stories are.

The other day, BBC Tamil service has quoted TNA candidate in Jaffna to say that the government forces have visited houses and collected polling cards of the people living abroad. The simple truth is that polling cards have not yet been delivered. In another news story, Swaminathan Natarajan of BBC Tamil Service quotes Professor Sarveshwaran , “the TNA won the confidence of majority of Tamils in the last elections. It can spearhead the Tamil demand to achieve an honourable settlement”. Who is this Sarveshwaran? He is none other than the brother of TNA Member of Parliament, Suresh Premachandran.

Feizal Samath quotes TNA, Anandasangaree of TULF and UNP in the National and accuses EPDP of intimidation but he has not bothered to contact the EPDP or put their viewpoints. Feizal says that TNA swept the polls in 2004. The whole world knows how they won the elections. Opposition party polling agents were attacked and intimidated. Ladies cast gentlemen’s votes and gentlemen cast ladies’ votes .Tigers rigged votes as they wished. This was what really happened. These scribes do not even read the reports of the European Union and other monitors. The monitors called for the annulment of their elections.

Interestingly, the same thing is recycled in an article in the Daily Mirror by M.S.M Ayub. Ayub recalls , “ Sirimavo Bandaranaike bagged the highest number of votes from the Jaffna district at the first Presidential election in the country in October, 1982 defeating the then All Ceylon Tamil Congress leader late Kumar Ponnambalam”. First of all, it was Hector Kobbekaduwe and not Sirimavo who contested the election in 1982. The fact is that Kumar came first and Hector came second in Jaffna.

The reality is that the bankrupt politics of the TNA and TULF has now been exposed beyond any doubt. People know that these people laid the groundwork for the destructive politics of the past 60years. By vowing on their election platforms that the so-called traitors would not die natural death (Ivarhalukku iyatkai maranam illai), the TULF leaders introduced violent culture into Tamil politics. The first casualty was the popular Mayor of Jaffna Alfred Duraiyappa. In the end, they themselves were killed violently. The sad thing is that even after that, they made pilgrimage to Wanni and kissed the hands that killed their leaders.

Tamil people realize that TNA and TULF are also responsible for their sufferings. They missed several opportunities that came their way especially after 1987 to appease the tigers. What can they tell new to the people? They would tell the same thing that they have been telling for the last 60years. In the meantime, they would go to the government through the backdoor for their personal things. Tamils expect that these leaders come out with explanations for what they did and said.

Before writing about Tamil politics, one has to keep in mind the mind-sets of the Jaffna people. When they have a dispute, they attack the opponent and right away go to the police station and make the first entry. They lose nothing by such an act. There is a saying in Tamil to the effect that a dancer who does not know how to dance blames the stage (Aada theriyathval ampalam sariyillai enralaam).

-Sri Lanka Guardian