Tamil people and the forthcoming elections

“Adopting a holistic approach for a new Sri Lanka especially by the Tamil leadership, will create the space for reconciliation and healing, opening up the opportunity for ending the culture of suspicion and distrust that now prevails throughout Sri Lanka, enabling the people to come together leading to the establishment of a harmonious life throughout Sri Lanka.”
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By Arular Arudpragasam

(October 30, Geneva, Sri Lanka Guardian) The forthcoming elections gives a golden opportunity for the Tamil people to reorient and re-engage with the Sinhala nation to resolve the ethnic problem in a way the past mistakes that brought so much suffering to the Tamil people can be put behind and solution can be arrived at through fresh negotiations.

The southern politicians continue to remain wedded to the chauvinist agenda and obsessed with the issue of how to turn the military victory over the LTTE into political capital to remain in power. The indications are that the elections will be exploited for the consolidation of the Sinhala chauvinist state further worsening the plight of the Tamil people by legitimising the current politico military strategy of subjugating the Tamil people and annexing their homeland.

Tamil leadership should take this opportunity to reformulate their position without ambiguities and ploys, so that the concrete position can be transformed into constitutional change that will end the conflict. Advancing the separate state demand as a ploy and seeking Indian intervention, has brought disaster to the Tamil people. The confrontational approach of the erstwhile Federal Party led the Tamil people into the current abyss and failed them eventually.

The new engagement

The elections provide a golden opportunity to end the confrontational, divisive and extremist political culture of Sri Lanka and pave the way for the ushering a new Sri Lanka based on sharing, mutual respect and equality. The parliamentary elections should not be used for seeking constitutional mandates, instead, it should be used for gaining a mandate for governing policies of the government especially the policies of central powers. What brought Sri Lanka where it is now is the abuse of parliamentary elections to seek unconstitutional mandates starting from the Sinhala Only act that divided the sovereignty.

The presidential elections provide a platform to seek constitutional mandates and mainly that which enable the resolution of the national question. The platform of presidential election provides an opportunity to articulate and lay the political foundation of a new constitution and a new Sri Lanka. There are still no candidates in sight from the South who would take the risk of abandoning the chauvinist platform that will enable the resolution of Sri Lanka as union of two equal statehoods which alone can end the ethnic conflict.

As the election laws of Sri Lanka stipulate that every elector has three preferential votes, which he will mark as 1,2and 3 ( Presidential elections Act No 15 of 1981, Schedule 3) in order pf preference, it gives a golden opportunity for the Tamil speaking people to get together and assert themselves in an unique way paving the way for the settlement of the conflict and end the sway of chauvinism in Sri Lankan politics. The first vote can be cast to the candidate of the Tamil speaking people and the second vote can be cast to a candidate who will agree to the terms of settlement of the ethnic conflict and assure the rights of Tamil people.

If the Tamil speaking people would give their first vote to a common Tamil candidate and refrain from giving their first vote to any major Sinhalese parties, the required 50 percent vote in the first count will be extremely difficult to get. This will make it necessary to carry out a second count. If any candidate has negotiated successfully for the second vote in return for solving the problem the second vote will decide the winner and his mandate will include the settlement of the conflict giving opportunity for resolving the ethnic conflict and ending the chauvinist politics in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Unity

The Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka consists of four major divisions, that of Tamil people from the North East who want statehood rights for their homeland, the Muslims who want equal rights within Sri Lanka, the plantation Tamils whose main demand has been equal citizenship and opportunities within the Sinhala Ratta in the south and the Colombo Tamils who want safety and security in Colombo. Though the rights demand has been different for the four communities they all have been equally affected by the Sinhala chauvinist onslaught and today feel equally vulnerable.

As it is good to have one candidate for the Tamil speaking people, by conducting necessary negotiations to arrive at an understanding as to how the rights of all Tamil speaking people can be assured within a united Sri Lanka as minorities in the south and with the Tamil North East, it gives an opportunity for the leaders of the four communities to come together and win the rights of Tamil people within a united Sri Lanka.

The current sense of insecurity and distrust that prevails mainly between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities can be greatly reduced if the due share of the Tamil people in the central government is assured. The leaders of the four communities should assure a one third share ( the percentage of Tamil speaking people at independence) in the central government be granted to the Tamil speaking people through affirmative action to fill their due share at all levels of central government where their share has been reduced to a few. The current Sinhala only structure can be retained for the Sinhala Ratta and a new Sri Lanka central organ can be established on a foundation of equality, merit and proportionality.

The Tamil position should include the modalities for ending the military occupation of Tamil homeland, interim arrangement for governance of North East and release for political prisoners. The elections should also be made use for future projection of the Tamileelam and Sinhala Ratta and the vision for the newly united Sri Lanka.

Adopting a holistic approach for a new Sri Lanka especially by the Tamil leadership, will create the space for reconciliation and healing, opening up the opportunity for ending the culture of suspicion and distrust that now prevails throughout Sri Lanka, enabling the people to come together leading to the establishment of a harmonious life throughout Sri Lanka.

Getting the support of progressive Sinhalese people.

Today there are many Sinhalese who support a speedier settlement of the conflict. For many years they had no option but to vote for any of the southern Sinhalese parties. By adopting a strategy of articulating a new Sri Lanka that will emerge as union of Sinhala Ratta and Tamileelam, many of the progressive Sinhalese people will come forward to support such an idea that will bring peace and help to banish the scourge of conformational and hate politics and chauvinist ideology from the shores of Sri Lanka.

The leaders of Tamil speaking people should take the opportunity to usher a new political culture and lay the foundation for a new constitution that will lead to the settlement of ethnic problem by approaching the current critical situation in a responsible manner and use the elections to end the suffering of their people resulting from their second class status .

-Sri Lanka Guardian