Ruling Alliance Wins Sri Lankan Parliamentary Elections

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) on 9 April swept to a 'resounding victory' in the parliamentary election falling just short of a two-thirds majority. According to the final elections results, the UPFA, whose leader is President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had polled 47,97,272 votes winning 117 seats out of 196 in the fray in 20 districts gaining 60.43 percent of the votes polled.

Rajapaksa's Proper Strategy
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) led by opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe lagging far behind had been able to garner only 2,336,691 votes which is 29.43 percent and secured 46 seats.

The DNA (Democratic National Alliance) led by detained General Sarath Fonseka and mainly consisting of the JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) had polled 439,601 votes winning 5 seats with a percentage of 5.54 percent. The TNA (Tamil National Alliance) that dominates politics in the North which contested under the Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchch (ITAK) banner had polled 212,590 votes which is 2.68 percent and received 12 seats.

The Unicameral Sri Lankan Parliament has 225 seats out of which 196 are contested directly and the rest 29 are nominated based on the percentage of votes polled by various national political parties and groups.

Opposition UNP Concedes Election Results 'Setback'
Main opposition UNP conceded it had suffered a setback at the general elections and said that it would have to introduce a number of changes. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said that the party's strategy and the organizational structure needed to be changed once the election results were fully reviewed. He said the party leaders would discuss these matters in detail after the final results of the April 8 general elections were announced.

The UNP that secured 82 seats at the 2004 election was nowhere near that mark this time but in stark contrast, the UPFA that won the 2004 general elections with 105 seats in an alliance with the JVP won many more seats at this election without the support of the JVP.

JVP which was once described as the third force in Sri Lanka's politics had secured 39 slots in the previous parliament contesting under the UPFA but suffered a major setback at 8 April elections.

LTTE’s Rejection of Oslo Pact Cause for Present Plight of Tamils

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has pointed out a matter that should be noted by the Tamils, particularly by the Tamils in the North and the East. When Ranil had been the prime minister the government led by him held several rounds of talks to find a solution to the Tamil issue with Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Ealam (LTTE) who had been the representative of the Tamil groups at that time.

Impotance of Oslo Accord
The Oslo Declaration is deemed as a very important one through which a consensus was reached during that time. The much talked over pact was agreed upon after a four-day-long discussion held in the SAS Plaza Hotel in Oslo from 2 to 5 December 2002.
The well-known pact stated that according to a suggestion put forward by the LTTE leadership, both groups conceptually agreed to pursue a solution based on a federal administrative model within a united Sri Lanka, in the historical motherland of the Tamil speaking people, based on the concept of self-rule.

The United National Party (UNP) led by Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived at the above consensus with the Tamil groups. However, Ranil has now announced that the Oslo Declaration is no longer valid and he has thrown it into the dustbin. This is another instance of constancy with the traditional attitude of the Southern Lankan rulers which arrive at pacts with Tamil community, only to shred them into pieces as and when it suits them.

Ranil has stated: In fact, our UNP government established the Oslo pact with the LTTE. But it was the LTTE that threw away that pact in the first place. Then we proceeded to obtain the approval of the Tamil people for the pact during the 2005 presidential election and this is a widely known matter.

Obstructing People's Right
Once again it was the LTTE that made our attempt to honor the Oslo Declaration impossible by obstructing the people's right to express their approval for the contents of the pact through the presidential election at that time. Therefore, it is now pointless expecting that we should honor it when the LTTE, the party that was directly involved in it, chose to disregard it.

In addition to this, there is another matter which Ranil points out. When the LTTE organization acceded with our government on the Oslo Agreement, the world communities hailed us that we have achieved a great feat. Especially the western world was so glad about this pact. But when ultimately the LTTE refused to abide by the pact and started to act unilaterally, the international community and the West to be precise were upset and started imposing stern measures against the movement.

Effect of Global Wrath
This statement of Ranil that the world turned against the LTTE, when the movement decided to disdain the Oslo Pact, is not something that should be taken lightly. Not only the LTTE organization but every single Tamil in the North and the East presently experience the intense effect of that global wrath.

The present pitiful situation of the Tamils is the consequence of LTTE's rejection of a very favorable resolve won by the brilliant LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham with his great prudence and correct foresight. If a powerful and formidable organization such as the LTTE could not last much longer consequent to its unwise rejection of Oslo Agreement, it is pointless the groups that call itself leaders of the Tamil community making further verbal threats and empty challenges against the well-established foes, so to speak.

Careful Consideration Required
It is pointless especially, when the Tamil race has been pushed back as far as to the 'Vaddukkoddai Declaration' where all this began and particularly when the Tamil community is stripped of its fighting capacity and is dithering and wavering. This is one of the crucial matters that the Tamil community should take into careful consideration before making a decision during this election period.

It is time to stop blabbering and jettison impractical ideals and notions and instead seek viable and sustainable practices in this pragmatic world while slowly but steadily advancing a step at a time toward our desired goals to realize our ultimate political aspirations.

Sri Lankan Government To Halt Corruption for Country’s Economy To Prosper

A few days ago we carried an analysis by Prof Harsha de Silva, one of the much acclaimed financial analysts in Sri Lanka, on how the imprudent economic proposals enunciated in the Mahinda Chintanaya had dragged this country into an irreversible economic collapse. He pointed out that the country had lost a gigantic 460 billion rupees (SIRe) because of the mismanagement, waste, corruption, and fraud which have infested the current administration.

Prof Silva stressed that 'fraud' had been a major elections platform issue that reverberated throughout the country during the recent presidential election. The charges of fraud and corruption raised mainly on opposition party platforms have begun to rumble on the southern region as well which is believed to be a stronghold of the ruling alliance.

The responses of the government to these criticisms have funnily enough been tantamount to an admission rather than a rejection of those charges. Why? Because, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government in its first term in office claimed that its prime objective was that of eradicating terrorism is now pledging to fight corruption, waste and fraud, in its second term.

Corruptions and Frauds
Mahinda Rajapaksa rode into power on the back of promises given in the first election campaign. It however does not look like he is going to do anything about these serious allegations. Instead, it appears as though his objective is to project himself as a man who will vengefully hunt down anyone who dares to reveal anomalies, corruptions and frauds and use his position to oppress them. This is the gut feeling one gets when one assimilates the news pouring out in relation to these issues.

Transparency International in Sri Lanka is an organization committed to revealing corruption, fraud, waste, tyrannies, transgressions and anomalies in state administration. It also monitors incidents of the ruling alliance abusing state resources and assets to promote its election campaign.

The Asian Human Rights Commission has said it has reliable information that indicates a government plan to place impediments in the way of its investigations in Sri Lanka and to render it impotent by putting its Chief Executive Attorney J.C Weliamuna behind bars by framing false charges against him. The commission expressed deep concern over recent obstructions against it by the government similar to those unleashed on a wider scale against various other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating in the country by making false allegations against them as well.

People's Responsibility
In the meantime, M. J. M. Muzammil, a Muslim candidate contesting in the Colombo district from the United National Party has made some observations in this regard. He has drawn our attention to a remark made by Wimal Weerawansa, one of the prominent governing alliance candidates in the forthcoming election, at an election campaign meeting, while President Mahinda Rajapaksa was present also on the same stage.

Various constraints exist which make it almost impossible for political parties to totally weed out corrupt members from their ranks and they are compelled to coexist with these bad eggs. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the people to identify those corrupt politicians and remove them from the political realm by not voting for them. Muzammil, while quoting this remark by Weerawansa, has said that Weerawansa should then help identify those bad guys since Weerawansa appears to know who these bad eggs are!

Wishful Thinking
It is mere wishful thinking to hope that anything of this nature would ever happen here in Sri Lanka. The reality is that people are arrested on trumped up charges and committed social activists in the NGOs are arrested when they reveal the wrongdoings of the government and this will continue.

In the context of these realities in the political realm it would then seem logical to contend that an economic revival in Sri Lanka is light years away.

Would Presidential Election Result in Significant Changes?

The largest ever number of presidential candidates in the history of this country is contesting the coming presidential election to be held on 26 January. Nominations for the election were accepted on 17 December. The Election Commission announced nominations had been registered from 22 contenders with one being rejected.

Significant Election
The coming presidential election in considered to be significant in several aspects. The United National Party [UNP], which has contested all elections since independence has for the first time in its own history not fielded a party candidate to contest the election, but is instead supporting a common candidate of an opposition alliance led by the party.
The contest at the election is set to be a close tussle between two main candidates who have emerged as the most powerful contenders. This has turned out to be another crucial aspect of the election. It will be no surprise if this election runs into the second count of preferential votes to come up with the winner.
As far as the election law of Sri Lanka is concerned, if a candidate fails in the first count to secure 50 percent of the votes polled, the second count of preferential votes has to be done to decide on the winner. This would be a new factor in the election history of Sri Lanka because there has been no precedent for a need of a second count. The previous highest number of presidential candidates at one election has been 13.
Thirteen candidates contested presidential elections in 1999 as well as in 2005. Only three candidates contested the 1988 presidential election. This is the lowest number of candidates at a presidential election. Twenty-two candidates contesting the presidential election to be held next year is a new record. Of the two main presidential candidates Mahinda Rajapaksa or Sarath Fonseka will win the election and the other 20 candidates are well-aware of this fact.
Then, why are they contesting? There are several reasons that can be attributed for this, the most important one being that of splitting votes to deprive both leading candidates of a majority in the first count.
Their next objective is that no other candidate or party should get votes from their electorate. Their thinking is that the votes, which could be potentially polled against Mahinda Rajapaksa should not be secured by Sarath Fonseka and those votes of supporters of the UNP and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP] who do not want to cast their votes to Fonseka should not vote for Rajapaksa. It is on the basis of this train of thought that a large number of candidates is contesting the coming presidential election.
Although a large number of candidates is contesting this election it is very doubtful as to whether they will be able to even save their deposits or at best draw 100,000 votes each.

Tamil Vote Bank
The Tamil vote bank has become indispensably valuable to two main candidates. There is a reasonably conducive atmosphere, in which Tamils can go to the polls as compared with the atmosphere that existed back in 1988.
While the chief presidential candidates are in the field exploiting the military victory, the main question that begs and answer is : For which candidate will the Tamil people, who are subjected to the miseries and sufferings of war, vote this time.
The number of registered voters in the north is 1 million. Similarly, as per the census conducted in the year 2007 the number of registered Tamil voters in the east is 400,000. Therefore, approximately 1,300,000 voters are eligible to cast their votes in the North and East. Leaving them aside there is also a considerable number of Tamil voters living in Colombo and its outskirts.
In these circumstances, election analysts say, the candidate who secures the Tamil vote will win the election. But Tamil voters have no particular desire to have any truck with either of the two main candidates. Both of them have earned a good measure of animosity and hatred from the Tamil community. It is against this backdrop that every one awaits anxiously the decision that the Tamil voter will finally take.
Sivajilingam, Tamil National Alliance [TNA] MP, is also contesting the election as an independent candidate and his objective might be that of securing the votes of Tamils who are in the bitter grip of hatred toward the two main contenders. Similarly there are also three Muslim candidates in the presidential election to further divide the votes of the Muslim voters who do not favor the candidacy of both Fonseka and Rajapaksa.
Former MP Illiyas is contesting as an independent candidate. Myown Mustapha, who was holding the portfolio of deputy higher education minister, is also contesting as an independent candidate. He crossed over from the UNP to the ruling party. As such he might divide the Muslim votes of the UNP.
In addition to these two candidates another Muslim candidate called Ismail is also contesting the election on the Democratic United National Front [DUNF] ticket.
Since three Muslim candidates are contesting there is a possibility of the Muslim votes being split. Another fact with regard to the main Muslim parties is that they are either with the ruling alliance or with the UNP. Meanwhile, Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the New Left Front, will also divide the votes of Tamils.
In sum, there are Sinhala candidates to divide the votes of the Sinhala people and Tamil candidates to divide Tamil votes. As such, the possibilities of all votes being divided are many. The minor candidates can only hope for creating a negative impact only at the point of the first count. It is at this point that the second count becomes significant.
In the face of the claim made by the main political parties that they will abolish the presidential system of government this could well turn out to be the last presidential election we will see. A total of 14,088,500 persons are eligible to cast their votes at the election this time.
Of these voters 1,955,312 voters do not have identity cards. The relevant statistics are for districts other than Jaffna.

Election Law Specification
The election law specifies that those who do not possess identity cards cannot cast their votes and should this be rigidly applied a large number of Sri Lankans would be deprived of their right to vote. Similarly, 190,000 easterners also do not have national identity cards. Meanwhile, 42 percent of the voters in Vavuniya District is said not to have identity cards.
However, the election secretariat states that action is being taken to issue special identity cards to those who do not have national identity cards. We, however, do not know how far this would be fruitful. Tamil voters might especially be deprived of voting or they would deliberately give the election a miss.
Although there are more than 20,000 displaced civilians in Jaffna, less than 1,000 voters have applied to cast their votes. This is a clear example to show Tamil voters are not keen on the election. The international community is as keenly interested as we all are to know, which way the Tamil vote will go. This election will help all concerned to arrive at conclusions about certain long outstanding doubts and questions.

Scrapping of Executive Presidential System in Sri Lanka

There is an imperialists' conspiracy by the US Government to get General Sarath Fonseka-now on a private visit to the United States-to give evidence against Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, to draft a charge sheet against him. Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has most courageously informed the United States that he was the commander-in-chief who gave orders to execute the war, so the United States should inquire from him, if they had any questions about the war matters in Sri Lanka.

Courageously speaking on behalf of the army commander, president has said that he would make himself accountable for the good as well as ill effects of the war. It is clear that the president is not prepared betray the valiant military officers. This is the first instance where a sacrifice of this nature has been made in the recent history of the country.

Support of International Community
Several Asian countries such as India and China and Russia along with a few European countries are pleased to see a united Sri Lanka. Imperialist countries and colonial, capitalist groups want to see Sri Lanka split into two regions or at least they want to see a divisive, federal state established in this country.

Let us start this comment reminding the fact that war victory was achieved with the aid of the Executive Presidential System. It is a duel knife that sharply cuts through on both sides, and if effectively maneuvered, it could cut through the most needed thing in the most desired way.

Lately, the most vociferous demand of the opposition has been about getting the Executive Presidential System abolished. There are many other problems that beset the country today. The first of those is the cost-of-living. Development of the country is the next. The main concern of post-war Sri Lanka is how to resurrect the country from its current plight.

However, in Sri Lanka politics has painfully become an abhorrent "belly-filling" concept. Therefore, resurrection of the country naturally gets undermined. Slogans are being voiced highly nowadays, that Executive Presidential system should be scrapped.

History of the Presidential System
Let us leave talking about those vociferous slogans aside, and analyze the history of the presidential system.

President J.R Jayewardene introduced the Executive Presidential System hoping to rule the country forever, under the United National Party (UNP). Jayewardene obtained undated resignation letters from his own MPs to "break their legs" in case they disobeyed him. He exercised his powers to get 'Gonawela Sunil' (an alleged criminal) released from jail and made him a justice-of-peace. Apart from that, we can't recall anything important Jayewardene did using his executive powers.

However, President Premadasa did not need executive presidential powers carryon to do what he wanted, but used other methods to get the work done. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) knows more about it than us.

Later, Chandrika Kumarathunga came to power saying that the presidential system would be abolished, but this slogan was swept under the carpet, when her government formed an alliance with the JVP. Amazingly, one morning, the JVP was rudely awoken to their old slogan of scrapping the Executive Presidency when they got up to find themselves chased from the United People Freedom Alliance government.

In fact, President Rajapakse is the only leader who prudently used his executive powers. Rajapakse used the executive powers even before the war, in a productive way. One example for this is, when he scrapped the cease-fire agreement which had been signed with a terrorist who had demarcated the boundaries of the country for a separate ethnic state.

The president as commander in chief used executive power to forge ahead in commanding the forces in the battlefield, in spite of strong objections from the UNP and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) against the war.

Some ask why executive powers are now necessary since the war is over. No sane men would go out, as soon as a spell of torrential rain has ceased. They will take an umbrella when they go out in readiness to protect themselves from another downpour.

End of LLTE
Although the power of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] in Sri Lanka has been crushed, operations of their international network have still not been controlled.

According to information confessed by the leader of the LTTE international network, Kumaran Pathmanathan, Prabhakaran has made enough cadres to last for seven more generations.

Because of this very reason, we would like to clearly and briefly state that Executive Presidential Powers should be in force for a considerable period of time in the future. There is an ancient Sinhalese adage that goes as "even if you betray the king, don't betray the country".

Repugnant Quagmire
Looking at the situation in all these aspects, trying to chase the commander-in-chief away and thereby isolate the defense secretary is an attempt to betray the country.

Politics in this country is in a muddy mess. Vengeances, greed for power, cruelty are part and parcel of this repugnant quagmire. We need to have a united and independent country to turn this muddy quagmire into a limpid lake, replacing it with fresh water, to have flowers bloom in it.