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Presidential Election - What is the collective Tamil thinking?

It is not our intention and purpose here to advise the Sinhala people on the pros and cons of the election or how they should make decisions about the election. But we do intend to provide to the Sinhala brethren some clarification on what the Tamil people think about the impending election and what impact, if any, will this election have on their collective social and political destiny. Why is this clarification so important now? Let us explain it.

No doubt, the election theme revolves round the question of the Tamil peoples’ democratic rights. This is being demonstrated by the extra-ordinary attention paid by both main aspirants for presidency in their campaign. But the Tamil people do not realistically believe that the outcome of this election is in any way going to change their life of deprivation. The Tamil people are indeed bewildered at the irony of an election that seemingly has all the undertones of resolving the Tamil national problem but in actuality the outcome going to be totally irrelevant to them. How does one go to amplify the irrelevancy?

Election can be rightly considered as a popular exercise, the outcome being the indicator of the strength of democracy in a given society. It is this exercise that demonstrates the well- being of democracy; so to say that democracy is not ridden with ills and can be expanded further for the good of the people. But, what is the experience of the Tamil people in this context? Can you think of any democratic gains the Tamil people had in any of the elections since independence rather than the gradual ‘hacking’ of their rights one after the other?

Did not the results of the first election since independence provide to the Sinhala polity the space to disenfanchise the hill country plantation Tamils? Did not the results of the ill-conceived 1956 election pave the way to trample and send under graves the Tamil language rights, suppress democratic protests with resort to military power and hooliganism, tear and throw to winds solemn agreements and pacts with the Tamil leaders, deprive the Tamil people of their right to employment and subject them to the first communal violence orchestrated by the rulers? Was not the 1960 elections provide to the rulers space necessary to establish military camps in the Tamil Homeland solely to suppress democratic protests against undemocratic election practices? Was it not a kick on the face of the Tamil people when the pact entered into after the 1965 elections, was unilaterally abrogated by the government? Was it not a blatant denial of the democratic rights of the Tamil speaking people when the rights for higher education and cultural freedom were violated against the protection clause in the Soulbury constitution and the enactment of a new constitution not taking on board the concerns of the Tamil people as an aftermath of the 1970 elecions?

Pause for a moment to think about the ‘victory’ in the 1977 election. Can anybody erase from their memory the ugly pattern of events that paraded the streets just after the election results were announced when Tamil beating and plundering was let loose, the beginning of an era of Tamil youth killing, hijacking of a democratic election process in the Tamil Homeland leading to the heinous crime of setting fire to the Jaffna Library, the Tamil peoples’ treasure house of knowledge? Did not the coup d’etat behind the 1982 elections close the door to Tamil parliamentary representation and throw open the doors for a twenty-year war let loose on the Tamil people? If one calls it a historic victory, the 1994 elections did bring forth a historic misery to the Tamil people in a totally unprecedented war of gigantic proportions killing and displacing hundreds of thousands and devastating property and infrastructure.

This is just a sample of what elections mean to the Tamil people in this country. One can go on enumerating many more graphic details of injustices and denial of democratic rights to the Tamil people after every election. It is in this background of bloodletting and violence that the Tamil people look at the impending election.

Though it is generally believed and accepted that every election in a democratic country provide to its people guarantees for the protection of democracy, the Tamil peoples’ experience is the reverse, in that every election ends up in chopping off whatever remains as their democratic rights. ‘Protection of the Unitary state’ and ‘Defeating Separatism’ being the key slogans in this election, the Tamil people don’t see anything different than what they experienced over the past five decades.

Why has it become impossible for any of the leading contestants to openly say in their manifesto that “we will commit ourselves for the protection of the democratic rights of the Tamil people” or “we will provide a political resolution that would guarantee equality and dignity to the Tamil people”? Well, the Tamil people are fully aware of the reasons that prevent the Sinhala polity to do that. The Tamil people are conscious enough to comprehend the paradigm that dictates to them that they should not sit and watch till their democratic rights basket falls from the hands of the Sinhala ruling elite on their lap. They also know that they have to, of their own, construct the political structure that would provide them with the social fabric interwoven with freedom and dignity.

The Tamil people make this fervent appeal in earnest to their Sinhala brethren to conscientiously support and extend their noble contribution to their effort. Instead of falling into the abyss election after election, the Tamil people feel that their Sinhala brethren, while supporting the Tamil freedom struggle, can also make it complementary to their own struggle against injustice. The path to real freedom and brotherhood can be found only through such an understanding.

LTTE’s Sinhala Monthly “Dedunna” Oct 2005 Editorial comment

10 November 2005

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