What’s in a Name? - II

By N. Sathiya Moorthy

(August 18, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The argument is not without reason. Despite the facts and circumstances of the elections, the TNA has neither swept the polls in Vavuniya, nor has it been able to win in Jaffna, the ‘cultural capital’ of the Sri Lankan Tamils – and the tentative capital of the LTTE until ousted by the armed forces in the mid-Nineties. This, despite the IDPs remaining as much an election issue in the North as it was a political issue elsewhere.

The TNA’s poll performance came after it had marshaled a long list of party MPs, to argue the combine’s case for the Tamils’ right to ‘self-determination’, power-devolution and human rights. The decision of the Alliance to divide the four-year mayoralty in Vavuniya between two elected councillors should also speak for the internal dynamics.

The message is clear. The North continues to remain a citadel of the Tamil polity, however fractured it be. The SLFP and the UNP have no role or relevance, at least at the moment. The TNA, despite not making the mark as its supporters nearer home and sympathizers elsewhere may have hoped for, is not the king of all that it surveys.
By extension, the LTTE was, and is, not the exclusive favourite of the Tamils back home, as the Diaspora believes – and wants others too to believe. Maybe, a better handling of the IDPs and a tactical UPFA approach may have made a greater difference, still. The writing, as they say, is on the wall – for all concerned.

It is for ’em all to befool themselves and the rest by pointing to the official polling figure of a low 20 per cent in Jaffna, to allege irregularities and intimidation. They know however that the actual figure may be a relatively higher 50 per cent if one conceded that most registered voters are now more residents of Jaffna – and may not return from their western abodes in the foreseeable future.

The SLFP leader of the UPFA seems to have become wiser after the event. UPFA General Secretary and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha is on record that the ruling combine would have done better in Jaffna if only the EPDP had contested alone. Which is what Devananda had wanted, to begin with but was denied the opportunity.

Had the SLFP worked from behind the scenes to bring Devananda and Sidharthan, for instance, to work together, maybe, the UPFA would have swept the polls, both in Jaffna and even in Vavuniya – as the current polling figures would show. That would have also cleared the decks for greater acceptance of the SLFP-UPFA as a unit in the presidential polls and parliamentary elections, whenever held.

It’s a big ‘may’, but today the UPFA as an election unit has to start from scratch in the North and the East – where the IDPs will remain the issue, whenever elections are due next. The alternative is to adopt models such as would flow of Minister’s Premajayantha’s admission – of recasting the UPFA to give adequate role to regional parties forming part of the national coalition.

It is in this background, the Government and the President have to look at the proposed law to ban ethnic and religious name-tags being added to the titles of political parties in the country. They need to accept that names do not matter other than in showing up the hurt sentiments of the minority communities and their respective polities – whether representing Tamil ethnic or Muslim religious groups.

Reversing the argument, none, including the parties concerned, would want themselves to be accepted as anything but ‘Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist’. The reference of course is to the JHU and the JVP – in that order. If anything, post-poll in Uva Province, the JVP has said that it is the voter who has to change, not the party.

As the Mahajana SLFP leader Mangala Samaraweera claims, there is the possibility of the SLFP too being barred from contesting the elections, under other clauses of the proposed legislation. He points out that no party that has not contested two elections in a row would be allowed to contest a third one.

The SLFP, he points out, has been contesting under the common UPFA symbol, and not under its current symbol of ‘Hand’. Against this, even in the Eastern Province elections last year, the rival UNP got the SLMC ally to contest on its ‘Elephant’ symbol. Ask Samaraweera, and he may tell you how the SLMC had committed a mistake then.
The Government may have other reasons too, to reconsider the draft Bill. The Lanka Sama Samaj Party (LSSP), a partner in the ruling coalition, has been among the political parties that have questioned the legality of the Bill in the Supreme Court. The TNA and the SLMC are the other parties, as at present.

There may be some relief, at least for now. The Government seems to be tracing the criticism of the Bill to a misunderstanding attributed to President Rajapaksa’s recent reference to ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ communities. The reference appeared in his famous parliamentary speech, announcing the conclusion of the war.

The Government may have a point. The Sinhala terms, ‘maha’ and ‘sulu’ employed by President Rajapaksa in his speech have been wrongly translated, according to some. The word ‘maha’ in most South Asian languages mean ‘big’ or ‘majority’. The Sinhala word, ‘sulu’ is not necessarily ‘minority’ by extension or comparison.

Instead, the word should have translated as ‘petty’ or ‘insignificant’. Obviously, the Government side argues that President Rajapaksa had wanted terms like ‘maha’ and ‘sulu’ erased from the socio-political history of the country. Be it as it may, the subsequent initiative of the Government is at the centre of the current controversy. The relevance of the current reference is to the post-war expectations of the minority communities and their respective polity. Independent of this, they have had enough grouse of the kind, against the Government of the day, the Sri Lankan State – and the political parties representing the majority Sinhala interests – as they saw it.

What’s there in a name? A rose is a rose is a rose, by whatever name called. Neither does a withered rose fail to spread the fragrance attaching to the flower, nor can a rotten stem support a flagrant flower. In such a case, the flower would stink to the skies, despite it being a rose – and being called a rose.

The Government needs to acknowledge this fact before it revived controversies that are all but dead – and have been buried with the war. Give it the time, and we would find out if it is a withered flower that is spreading fragrance – or, it is a rotten stem that is holding an even more rotten flower.

Minister Allahapperuma has said that President Rajapaksa wants the Government to extend full cooperation to the Vavuniya Urban Council – implying that despite winning only five of the 11 seats, the TNA should be allowed to run the show. It is a good beginning, but still only a very, very small beginning, for the Government and the President to reach out to the Tamil community, politically!

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(Concluded)

-Sri Lanka Guardian