By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

I had taken the view that both the Federal Party and the NPP were the only two real options deserving of our support because I saw them as the only two clean options. Parties are putting up notices on our fences and gates which police only remove, but not so effectively. Today I heard of these dirty parties distributing gifts in exchange of the vote. This afternoon my wife spent her valuable time scrubbing of an election notice on our gate by Angajan Ramanathan or his goons – the paste they use is so thick it is yet to come off fully. All these other parties are dirty or have very bloody hands.

Even the Federal Party, despite its Christian founders SJV Chelvanyakam and his deputy Hensman NMV Naganathan, has (after the demise of the founders) a strong Anti-Christian streak in CVK Sivagnanam and C. Yogeswaran working against MA Sumanthiran. The party has been silent to speak up against this anti-Christian communlism. That silence is the Federl Party’s bigger fault.

Like in many parties one can identify communalists. But the NPP is unique in standing up against communalism of any kind. The NPP is very open in condemning communalism. As far as I know. it is the only party to do so. That makes it very special.

The Meeting on 10.11.2024

Today my confidence in the Federal Party received a jolt. After today’s 6 O’Clock mass my priest was very plaintive about the Federal Party’s stalwarts. He said at a recent meeting that he saw in the company of many FP leaders several women who were all of bad character. He was also critical that a famous leader’s son is misbehaving. I heard s bishop using the phrase “his keep.” Like with Donald Trump, there is no shame in Jaffna any more to keep us on the narrow road. The way fear keeps us away from risky behaviour, the loss of shame has destroyed Sri Lanka as we foray freely into a world of sex and money.

I recognized that I had not been as critical as I should have been in evaluating the Federal Party.

Today, 10 November 2024, was the day for Anur Kumara Dissanayake’s first election rally in Jaffna. Given the need to reevaluate my assessment of him, I decided  to go. It was at St. Anthony’s Playground in Pasaiyoor, a coastal area within the Jaffna Municipality. Some years ago I had been to AKD’s meeting at Gnanam’s Hotel, but it was a smaller affair before he had built up his party. I felt the need to hear him now.

A friend whom I invited to join us, declined saying Pasaiyoor is a bad “low-caste” area with rowdies. Despite my friend’s trepidation, the meeting was filled to capacity with decent-looking folk. While all meetings get male religious leaders to attend, such leaders are usually of little social recognition and standing. Today, however, I saw Catholic priests from the higher echelons of the church and many nuns of whom one even held AKD’s face between her two hands in unpretended affection. Some Tamil women being socially correct gave AKD a vanakkam but he unabashedly patted some on the shoulders. That appeared to have been taken well by the concerned women.

All that ails our society was elaborated on in the speeches – drugs, outward migration for lack of jobs which AKD promised to stop. He promised factories and new jobs for the North – fertilizer manufacturing from local minerals, production of salt etc. He seemed scientifically well-informed with good advisors. He promised the release of lands taken over by the state and to release prisoners in jail. He wants a decent life for every human being within his or her life span and spoke touchingly about village poverty. He mentioned hospitals having no ambulances while a President had one for himself.

I could see the palpable excitement of some visibly poor old ladies close by, one next to me in a house-coat (dressing gown) and no footwear. Another old lady who had come from Norway was asking the security guards to be taken to AKD because someone had taken over her land. The point is that AKD has raised expectations of justice to new heights never seen before, so much so that the country is inexorably being transformed for the better.

A Section of the Crowd on 10.11.2024 at Pasaiyoor to Hear AKD estimated to be 10,000

In what was music to my ears AKD promised a society without discrimination where all are equal – he named Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Malays, and  also Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims. It is good that he did not simplify the ethnic problem as only between Tamils and Sinhalese. Being rid of that inveterate problem needs a lot of work in the South and well as the North. If he can solve it, I would be the happiest man.

He correctly identified Tamils fleeing abroad as a serious problem and promised a solution. My humble view however is that those who have gone abroad are lost to us and will not come back. What AKD has to do is take away the incentive of those who are still here to run away like the others.

AKD is a polished speaker. He was enhanced by his translator who went one better. There were terrific hacks on “a President’s Counsel” who it was said was vying to be foreign minister and on a former minister (clearly Douglas Devananda) who had gone along with Indian fishermen destroying our fish. His promise to stop Indian encroachment went well in the fisherman’s town of Pasaiyoor, especially bottom sea trawling which depletes the fishing stocks and destroys the reef and with it the environment.

AKD knew to play the crowd. Do you want to be rid of this bad thing? “No! went the shouts. Do you want this bad system? No! went up the chorus. Do you want politicians who come for out votes and then live in mansions in Colombo? No! Do you want politicians who truly care for us? Yes! I have never seen in staid Jaffna a political rally where the excitement was so electric.

Some senior university folk were present. Quite unusual that was. These are now quite open about their support for the NPP. That is new. A reporter who saw these yays and nays was very upset with the crowd for their yays and nays: “Idiots! With that cheering, he is sure to get one seat when people vote for him believing that these shouts prove he is good and has real support,” he said. A more observant statistician felt that the NPP, going by the crowds it is pulling, would nab at least two seats out of the 6 available for the District. Perhaps more I feel given AKD’s idealism and vision for our future, and the parlous state of Tamil politics.