{"id":109334,"date":"2013-10-09T03:21:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T21:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=109334"},"modified":"2013-10-13T17:49:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T12:19:01","slug":"npc-election-on-guilty-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npc-election-on-guilty-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"NPC Election: On Guilty Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Goshan Che<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Response To – Psephology Of NPC Election And Deconstructing The \u00a0Politics Of The Social Architects<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is my response to some of the points raised in the article,\u00a0Psephology Of NPC Election And Deconstructing The Politics Of The\u00a0Social Architects<\/a><\/span> by Dr Kalaichelvan. Please do not take this as an\u00a0attempt to offer cover for the TSA\u2019s interpretation<\/a><\/span> of the election\u00a0results, which came under heavy criticism, in the aforesaid article.\u00a0This is simply an effort to offer a counter point, to some of the\u00a0issues raised in Dr Kalichelvan\u2019s article.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Though the analysis is sound for the most part and is right to\u00a0criticise the way in which the TSA has interpreted the NPC vote, the\u00a0author is also guilty of ignoring certain variables in Sri Lankan\u00a0elections. The effect of violence or the threat of violence in Sri\u00a0Lankan elections is one such variable. In a addition, there is also\u00a0the phenomenon of \u201cBoru Chanda \/ Kalla Vote\u201d, in palin english vote\u00a0rigging.<\/p>\n

For any electoral result to correctly reflect the will(s) of the\u00a0people, the environment in which the elections took place must be\u00a0such, that the people were able to express their will, freely. For\u00a0example, when the LTTE were in power, most elections in the north and\u00a0east were, a one horse race. The candidates who stood on anti TNA\u00a0platforms were not even allowed to campaign. One can only imagine\u00a0what message that would have sent to anyone who was even contemplating\u00a0voting for any party other than the TNA.<\/p>\n

The same is also true of the EPDP and the iron grip it had over the\u00a0Jaffna islands, until this recently concluded election.\u00a0Put against this line of tainted elections, stretching back to the\u00a0early 80s, I am sure many would agree that the recently concluded\u00a0elections in the north was, by far, the fairest. So to treat all Sri\u00a0Lankan elections since the 50s as similar creatures and to compare\u00a0their voting patterns and to arrive at conclusions, ignoring the\u00a0effect of actual\/perceived political violence and vote rigging, is a\u00a0major flaw in TSA\u2019s as well as Kalaichelvan\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, though it is not correct to say that the electorate has\u00a0shown \u201cdefiance\u201d in the way TSA has interpreted the results, it is\u00a0however correct to say that the voter has in fact shown defiance.\u00a0The choice in front of the voter was quite clear cut. Vote for the\u00a0UPFA and endorse the status quo (that is economic development instead\u00a0of political rights) or vote for the TNA and usher in a local body,\u00a0that will fight for your political rights as well as striving for\u00a0economic betterment.<\/p>\n

This choice has to be put in the context, that the voters in all other\u00a0provinces have opted for the UPFA\u2019s status quo model, although the\u00a0Tamil dominated electorates did show a muted defiance to this model,\u00a0in the last eastern provincial elections. So the first defiance is to\u00a0the all powerful UPFA, to say to ruling coalition \u201cwe will not accept\u00a0economic incentives as an alternative for political rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second instance of showing defiance comes at a deeper level and is\u00a0related to the war victory of the UPFA government. It is no secret\u00a0that the popularity of this government in the rest of the country is\u00a0largely due to its war victory over the Tigers. It is also correct\u00a0that at the street level, many Sri Lankans – Tamil and Sinhala, see\u00a0this victory as a victory of the Sinhala people over the Tamil people.<\/p>\n

Many in the south, especially the racist elements, believe that the\u00a0war victory has ended the ethnic conflict in the country and the\u00a0struggle by the Tamils for political rights has died alongside the\u00a0Tigers. So, here again, the voter is showing defiance. The defiance\u00a0here, to the rest of Sri Lanka and to the wider world is, you may have\u00a0won militarily but our struggle for political rights and regional\u00a0autonomy within a united Sri Lanka is alive and kicking.<\/p>\n

The third and perhaps the most important instance of defiance is\u00a0against the separatist elements both inside and outside of Sri Lanka.\u00a0For the first time since the late 70s, a major Tamil political\u00a0formation has rejected (implicitly) the idea of a separate state and\u00a0positively endorsed the idea of finding a solution, within a united\u00a0Sri Lanka, with the country\u2019s territorial integrity preserved.\u00a0Though this went largely unreported in the Sinhala\/English media,\u00a0there was a great upheaval amongst the Tamil diaspora and the\u00a0nationalistic Tamil politicians of Tamil Nadu, on account of this\u00a0apparent climb-down by the TNA. In his interview tothe BBC, Seeman,\u00a0the leader of the Naam Thamilar outfit, compared TNA to cats and said\u00a0they have no rights to give up the separate state demand of the\u00a0Tigers. A similar and more despicable personal attack was directed at\u00a0CV Wigneswaran by Kasi Ananthan, a firebrand poet in self imposed\u00a0exile, in Tamil Nadu. Kasi Ananthan described Wigneswaran\u2019s attempts\u00a0to give up the demand for a separate state as treacherous and termed\u00a0the man a scoundrel. The web space was awash with similar sentiments\u00a0from extremist Tamils, living abroad. It is also reported that certain\u00a0sections of the diaspora worked their phones and encouraged voters in\u00a0the north to vote TNA but to cast their preferencial votes to anyone\u00a0other than CV Wigneswaran.\u00a0Against this backdrop, the northern voter has shown defiance to the\u00a0secessionists abroad, by voting in the TNA with a 5\/6 landslide and\u00a0Wingeswaran- with unprecedented number of preferential votes, for a\u00a0Tamil, ever in Sri Lankan elections.<\/p>\n

Dr Kalaichelvan also criticises TSA for describing as \u201csome\u201d the\u00a080,000 or so extra votes for TNA in Jaffna whilst giving undue weight\u00a0to the fact that 10,000 UPFA voters showed apathy. What both TSA and\u00a0Dr Kalaichelvan fail to factor in, is that this election was by far\u00a0the most fair election of the three elections compared in this\u00a0example, and perhaps the minimal influence of vote rigging could be\u00a0the most credible explanation for the drop in the UPFA support base.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, though Dr Kalaichelvan is correct to argue the TSA\u2019s\u00a0analysis is flawed and even laughable at times, his own analysis is\u00a0not entirely free from flaws or at the very least, is guilty of\u00a0omitting from consideration pertinent factors.<\/p>\n

*Goshan Che is a political observer who prefers to remain anonymous<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":97133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nNPC Election: On Guilty Analysis - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npc-election-on-guilty-analysis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NPC Election: On Guilty Analysis - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npc-election-on-guilty-analysis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-08T21:51:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-13T12:19:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Wigneswaran-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"147\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npc-election-on-guilty-analysis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npc-election-on-guilty-analysis\/\",\"name\":\"NPC Election: On Guilty Analysis - 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