"..By boycotting the presidential election
which pitted the openly chauvinistic Mahinda Rajapakse
against the equally anti-Tamil, Ranil Wickramasinghe,
the Tamil people
have allowed the Sinhala South to have its say...
The overwhelming majority of the Sinhalese have thus voted
for the man who denies .. the Tamil people's right to self
determination.."
By boycotting the presidential election which pitted the openly
chauvinistic Mahinda Rajapakse against the equally anti-Tamil,
Ranil Wickramasinghe, the Tamil people have allowed the Sinhala
South to have its say. The result speaks for itself. Sans the
votes of the southern minority groups - 'Upcountry Tamils' and
the Muslims, who voted enmasse for Wickramasinghe, the vote for
Rajapakse by the Sinhalese was indeed a decisive one.
The overwhelming majority of the Sinhalese have thus voted for
the man who denies the existence of a distinct Tamil nation, a
Tamil Homeland and the Tamil people's right to self
determination. Instead, he believes in the inherent right of the
Sinhala Buddhists to dominate and rule. His election promises
include the redefining of the Cease-Fire Agreement and an
emphatic denial of any political power sharing with the Tamil
people.
Why then did the Tamil leadership and the elected Tamil
representatives call for a boycott of the elections? And why did
the Tamil people heed this call?
The answers lie in the duplicity of the Sinhala political
establishment throughout the last five decades including the
last three and a half years. On every occasion that required the
support of the Tamils, the dominant Sinhala parties have courted
and wooed the Tamils only to turn their backs and return to
their chauvinistic agenda - an agenda which underpins Sinhala
political philosophy and one to which all Sinhala parties have
been faithful, without exception!
Wooing the Tamils to win Government and reverting to type on
wining has been the Island's true but sad history. The war made
little difference to the Sinhala political parties.. Kumaratunge
who received overwhelming Tamil support in 1994 conducted the
grotesque strategy of 'peace through war' - a strategy which
resulted in the deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians, hundreds
of 'disappearances', and the exodus of half a million Tamils
from the Jaffna peninsula.
Then there was Wickramasinghe. Having been elected Prime
Minister on the promise of peace he agreed to a cease-fire in
the face of imminent defeat. Wickramasinghe soon reverted to
type through delaying tactics. There was this loud proclamation
by him about power sharing with the Tamil people, but it was
directed primarily at the international community. More
significantly little was done to explain this concept to the
Sinhala electorate. Instead, Wickramasinghe's 'achievements'
include: the abysmal failure of SIHRN specifically formed to
restore normalcy, the crafty attempt to construct an
international safety net and most tellingly the cultivation of
the renegade Karuna .
The Tamil people realised that while Rajapakse was engaged in
the time tested Bandaranaike mode of openly racist campaigning,
Wickramasinghe was pursuing the 'all things to all men'
campaign. The Tamils were not prepared to be fooled by the man
and exercised their democratic right to abstain.
AFTA supports the decision of their brethren and looks forward
to a political arrangement where the Tamil people of the
Northeast of the Island can exercise their democratic right to
self determination.
Ana Pararajasingham
Chairman
Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations
