Separatist TULF sweeps Jaffna district development council polls, UNF fails miserably

The Separatist Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) swept the board at the Jaffna district development council polls held last month. Collecting a pitiful 23,000 votes as against the TULF's 2,633,000, the ruling United National Party (UNP) failed to win a single seat. The Jaffna result was published on June 17, almost two weeks after the election results in other districts throughout the island had been announced.The contest for Jaffna, the capital of the overwhelmingly Tamil northern province, came at the end of 10 days of high tension and violence which was sparked off by the assassination of the UNP's campaign leader, A. Thiagarajah, a Tamil, and ended with what the Jaffna MP, M.R. Yogeswaran (TULF) called "a reign of terror". Yogeswaran who described in parliament his own "miraculous escape from certain death" had his home reduced to ashes.In such chaotic conditions the returning officer did not think that the proper procedures had been followed and the count "was in order". It was only after the election commissioner had consulted the president and the TULF that the votes were counted. But already A. Amrithalingam, the Opposition and TULF leader had bluntly accused the Government of attempting to "rig" the election. The Opposition has now tabled a no-confidence motion on this matter and named two senior ministers who were in Jaffna at the time. Since the charge of rigging or attempted rigging is unprecedented in a country now celebrating 50 years of universal franchise, the Opposition move earned this acid comment from a Colombo columnist: "Sri Lanka is improving its qualifications for ASEAN membership."Poor Turnout: Though the eventual turnout of voters, 70 per cent, was comparatively low for an island where the national average at elections is over 80 per cent, it was nonetheless high enough to demonstrate the TULF's continued dominance over this most important Tamil constituency and the failure of the Government's recent efforts to win over a sizeable segment of the minority Tamils. In February Prime Minister R. Premadasa, accompanied by an impressive contingent of nine Cabinet ministers, had toured the North, opening housing schemes, laying foundation stones, and generally promising the Tamils a fair share of development projects.Jayawardene: Trying to appease the TamilsAny beneficial effect of this bridge-building exercise has now been completely wiped out by the 10 days of terror that gripped Jaffna and held its people petrified hostages. With the withdrawal of the Emergency and the nation-wide censorship, fuller accounts are now available of what happened. From his room at St Patricks College, Jaffna, Reverend David, a 70-year-old Tamil scholar watched in helpless horror as the ghastly raiders set on fire the public library and its priceless collection of books and Tamil manuscripts. He collapsed that night and died. Scores of other buildings, shops, newspaper offices, private homes, book stores, the TULF headquarters, were also set ablaze on May 31 and many others, young and old, were to die far more brutal and senseless deaths. It is now established that the marauding mob was none other than a large group of policemen supposedly on election duty. Lands Minister Gamini Dissanayake chose to call it a "near mutiny" of the police.The TULF, the biggest opposition group in Parliament, has demanded an independent inquiry by some international body such as Amnesty or the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has decided to boycott Parliament until the demands, concerning the police and army in the North, are granted. The TULF will attend Parliament only to debate the no-confidence motion. President Jayawardene has promised a three-member commission, consisting of a Sinhalese, a Tamil and a Muslim.Racial Prejudice: While mutinous policemen on the rampage may have been a new element, the incendiary bombs which burst over this usually quiet town were decidedly home-made. The main ingredient was the traditionally explosive racial prejudice and enmity, compounded by the increasingly intense hostility between the Tamil people of the North and the Government, and party rivalries. A week after Thiagarajah's assassination, three policemen were shot at a TULF election rally. A Sinhalese sergeant died on the spot, while a Tamil policeman succumbed to his injuries some days later. These deaths brought police casualties in recent years to 19 - all yet unsolved crimes. Thiagarajah himself was shot dead as he drove off from a meeting. The killer was a lone gunman on a bicycle - now a familiar modus operandi of what the police call "Tamil terrorists". One such clandestine group "the Tamil Liberation Tigers" has been proscribed under a new anti-terrorist law.A part of Jaffna Bazaar reduced to rubble by rioters: A reign of terrorFrom a position of comparative privilege the Tamils, particularly the middle class, see themselves in steady retreat before the discriminatory policies of successive regimes. Language, education, employment and the disbursement of government funds for development are the main areas of grievance.For the new generation, university admission and state jobs have been the more abrasive issues. In a steadily worsening economic situation (unemployment in the past decade has been over a million or about 20 per cent of the workforce) the capacity of each government to satisfy the expectations of a more awakened and demanding youth has greatly diminished. The desperate young Tamils, hostile towards the Government and critical of their own leaders' preoccupation with Parliament, have taken to the gun.Foreign Training: The police claim that these "terrorists" receive training from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), from Palestinian groups and the Naxalites in India. In Parliament, Dissanayake said that he would not blame the TULF for "the dastardly deeds of the young tigers", but he warned the TULF not to "ride the tiger". His colleague, Industry Minister Cyril Mathew had no such qualms. Bluntly accusing the TULF of "direct links" with the "Tamil Liberation Tigers" he said that this terrorist group was trained in the Middle East and had "operational bases" in India and enjoyed sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.President Jayawardene recently gave the army a Churchillian order to "wipe out terrorism in all its forms by December 31". But on March 25 this year, a convoy transporting the cash collected from the branches of the state-owned peoples bank was ambushed in what the police called a "textbook operation". Two policemen were killed with a sub-machine gun, seized from the police in the previous encounter. The armed robbers got away with Rs 42.5 lakh, the biggest robbery in Sri Lankan history.The customary police crackdown followed. TULF MPs kept protesting in Parliament against "indiscriminate arrests, detention incommunicado, and mysterious disappearances" of several dozen Tamilians. Parents of some of these men have filed habeas corpus applications in the Supreme Court and summoned high police officials.It is in this atmosphere that the election campaign began. "There was fear, anxiety and insecurity in the minds and hearts of the people of Jaffna," says a report published by the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE). A 10-member delegation of the organisation, led by its President, Reverend Paul Caspersz visited Jaffna in mid-May and just after the recent events.Sudden Slump: The events in Jaffna and the polls results have seen a sudden slump in the fortunes and morale of the UNP Government. The elections for 24 district development councils - an experiment in decentralisation - was in reality a "test run" by the Government well ahead of the 1983 general elections. Since every MP is an ex-officio member of these councils, the councils have an in-built UNP majority. Thus, the main opposition parties, including Mrs Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and its left-wing allies denounced the elections and called for a boycott.Although the TULF belongs to a loose five-party bloc led by the SLFP, it decided to contest the polls in six Tamil districts. This suited the UNP's plans. At the general elections in 1977 the TULF had swept the northern province to become the biggest opposition group in the house. This ethnic dividing line in Parliament, an electoral quirk, and the north-south division dramatised, visibly and dangerously, the island's racial conflict. The UNP was determined to use the polls to demonstrate that the Government enjoyed Tamil support in the north.The Government also saw the development council idea as a means of appeasing Tamil sentiment. The offer of Central Government funds for projects planned and administered in district councils under TULF control was the "carrot" which went with the army's big stick. Contemptuous of such sops, the young Tamil militants would hardly have welcomed the TULF's engagement in this "participatory exercise".In Sinhalese areas, the boycott worked. On nomination day the UNP was returned unopposed to seven councils. In the remaining Sinhalese districts, only the Janata Vimukta Perumana (JVP) the new left party which launched the 1971 youth insurrection chose to enter the field. The JVP proscribed by Mrs Bandaranaike, is keen on entering mainstream politics and contested eight districts. But the salient fact is that in the Sinhalese areas the percentage poll was an unprecedented 50 per cent, the lowest in 30 years. What is more the UNP's percentage of the registered vote dropped from 48 per cent in 1977 to 33 per cent in Sinhala south. The UNP could reach only 30 per cent in thickly populated urban areas which will send many MPs to Parliament in 1983. The results reflect the general impact, most of all, inflation which has now passed the 40 per cent mark, the highest in Asia. The International Monetary Fund which suspended assistance last July has resumed payments support but after drastic cuts in public spending. Sri Lanka faces a massive trade deficit this year and will not easily be able to work its way out of its present troubles.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 18, 2013 08:48 IST--- ENDS ---

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Separatist TULF sweeps Jaffna district development council polls, UNF fails miserably

The Separatist Tamil United Liberation Front swept the board at the Jaffna district development council polls held last month. Collecting a pitiful 23,000 votes as against the TULF's 2,633,000, the ruling United National Party failed to win a single seat.

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