If holding an election in an area still suffering samples of terror is a creditable achievement, then the Mahinda Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka must be complimented for the Saturday poll in the eastern region comprising the districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. The ruling UPFA won a majority and the government has welcomed the poll result as a blow to the Tamil demand for an independent state of Eelam.
The Opposition leaders and human rights groups have alleged that the outcome was due to fraud and voter intimidation. Significantly, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, which has as many as 22 seats in the 225-member national Parliament, boycotted the eastern region poll and that could well mean that a huge Tamil segment stayed out. The TNA boycott was based on two reasons. It would be an unequal task and terribly farcical to contest against candidates put up by the armed Pillaiyan group, which is a former Tiger outfit which revolted against LTTE chief Prabhakaran and is now prospering under government patronage.
Even more important, the election would amount to perpetuating the de-merger of the traditional Tamil homeland of the north-east, which was even acknowledged in the Indo-Lanka accord signed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Junius Jayawardene in 1987. The Pillaiyan group has rejected that homeland demand and so has militant-turned-minister Douglas Devananda, who is now crowned by the government as the chief of the “task force committee for northern development” — an agency formed to carry on administration in the “cleared” and also the Tiger-held north.
Even some Tamil parties in India, such as Thirumavalavan’s Viduthalai Chiruthaigal (Liberation Panthers), have opposed the poll in eastern Sri Lanka for this very reason and have demanded that New Delhi get the election stopped. Obviously, that is too much to expect, considering that India’s foreign policy appears to lean heavily on Colombo’s promise to deliver an “acceptable political package” for the Tamils once the Tiger resistance is broken.
Saturday’s election must be seen as an important component of that “magical formula” and a strategic follow-up to the troops clearing the east of the LTTE after several bloody battles last year; of course, helped by Pillaiyan’s boss “Colonel” Karuna, now in a London jail for landing in the UK on false travel documents allegedly provided by Colombo government.
With the eastern council in the bag and minister Devananda trying to reach relief and development right into Tiger territory in the north, Colombo must now pull its promised rabbit out of the devolution hat. But the recent bombing of the Ampara café and the sinking of the naval ship in Trincomalee harbour have yet again demonstrated that it is too soon to begin to dream.
