{"id":148123,"date":"2015-07-30T02:49:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T21:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=148123"},"modified":"2015-08-06T00:04:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T18:34:37","slug":"we-must-not-allow-the-january-8th-democratic-gains-to-be-rolled-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/we-must-not-allow-the-january-8th-democratic-gains-to-be-rolled-back\/","title":{"rendered":"We Must\u00a0Not\u00a0Allow The January 8th Democratic Gains To Be Rolled Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Veluppillai Thangavelu<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Veluppillai<\/a>

Veluppillai Thangavelu<\/p><\/div>\n

General election to Sri Lanka’s\u00a015th parliament\u00a0is less than 3 weeks away. It will\u00a0be\u00a0held on 17 August 2015, ten months ahead of schedule to elect 225 members. There is hectic campaign by the two main contenders namely the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG<\/span><\/a>) and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA<\/span><\/a>) too entice the voters. Each alliance is claiming victory at the polls, but we will\u00a0know how the voters will cast their vote. Surprisingly the voters have an uncanny knack and sophistication in picking the winning party.<\/p>\n

Both the UNFGG and UPFA are facing the electorate as a divided house. UNFGG is facing the poll minus its allies the JVP<\/span><\/a>, TNA<\/span><\/a> and the Democratic Party (DP) led by Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka<\/span><\/a>. It is not clear why the DP is contesting separately when its leader owes the national government led by the UNP<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for quashing\u00a0his previous convictions and rehabilitating him militarily as well as politically. If not for President Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a>‘s magnanimity in reinstating his voting right and right to stand for elections Sarath Fonseka would have remained in\u00a0political doldrums\u00a0for many years.<\/p>\n

By a twist of fate the UPFA election campaign is led by the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> to the discomfort of\u00a0president Sirisena. Though president Sirisena was forced to give\u00a0nomination to Rajapaksa against his wish, he has called up on the people to defeat him at the forthcoming polls. He went further to claim he want appoint him as prime minister even if the UPFA wins the elections.<\/p>\n

\"Mahinda<\/a>At the presidential elections Mahinda Rajapaksa lost by a margin of only 449,072 votes. And Rajapaksa\u00a0still feels bitter that his defeat was caused by the vote bank of Thamils in the North, East provinces\u00a0and in Tamil dominated Nuwara Eliya electoral district.\u00a0 He has been harping on his defeat since 9th January, the day after the elections. Rajapaksa has reason to feel bitter since he won majority of the votes in the remaining 16 districts in the south.\u00a0 He polled 5,299,151\u00a0(5,299,151 (50.64%) as against 4.996,446 (48.38%) for president Sirisena.<\/p>\n

The forthcoming election\u00a0offers\u00a0a chance to\u00a0bring back Mahinda Rajapaksa together with his cronies who voted for the 18th Amendment<\/span><\/a> which made him a virtual dictator. Despite wide spread corruption, nepotism, fraud\u00a0and waste he seems to enjoy popular support in the south. This is really baffling to the voters of North and East.<\/p>\n

However, Mahinda Rajapaksa and his\u00a0UPFA are facing\u00a0an uphill task in their campaign\u00a0in the absence of state resources\u00a0which were used by him to the maximum in every election held since 2005.\u00a0 A state controlled and docile state media\u00a0not only carried out propaganda in his favour, but also it denigrated his opponents in derogatory terms.<\/p>\n

In using the communal card this time around, Rajapaksa has completely alienated Thamil voters as never before. At the last presidential elections Rajapaksa polled a respectable number of votes in the North and East though he lost overall in all\u00a0the 5 districts. The following is the detail outcome of the vote:<\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>In this\u00a0election the\u00a0EPDP<\/span><\/a> is contesting separately which means the UPFA votes will be split between the two. In the parliamentary elections held in 2010 the EPDP won 3 seats polling 47,622 (32.07%) votes. But, that election was held less than a year after the end of the war in May 18, 2009. Today, the political landscape has changed completely since the presidential elections held on January 8, 2015. Unlike in the past both the EPDP and UPFA\u00a0have lost their influence after January 8th. While the UPFA\u00a0faces certain defeat, the EPDP has to struggle hard to\u00a0retain even one seat. Traditionally, the\u00a0bulk of the votes came from the islands which were\u00a0under the control of EPDP since 1990. So for the first time EPDP is facing the election as an opposition party.<\/p>\n

The TNA remains popular with the electorate all though they have not delivered on all their promises. Prominent among them is the release of\u00a0\u00a0 about 275 political prisoners languishing for up to 20 years\u00a0in prison without charges or trial.\u00a0 The Hundred Days programme by the National government\u00a0did not fully\u00a0address\u00a0some of the fundamental issues faced by the Thamil people like complete demilitarization and release of\u00a0thousands of acres of both residential and farmlands. Yet, the TNA managed to wrest some concessions from the government, especially the release of\u00a0some of the lands grabbed\u00a0by the army for\u00a0military as well as for\u00a0non-military purposes.<\/p>\n

Out of a\u00a0total of 6,382 acres of land grabbed by the army in Valikamam North, about 1,033 acres\u00a0has been released to the original owners.\u00a0 These lands were occupied by the army following military offensive launched in 1990. Yet the IDPs<\/span><\/a> face\u00a0the daunting task of\u00a0rebuilding\u00a0their shattered lives and destroyed homes without adequate financial help from the government.<\/p>\n

In 1983, Valikamam North Division had a population of 83,618 individuals, or 25,351 families, who were all Thamils. About 60% of the population were farmers, and another 30% were fishermen, while the remainder were employed in white-collar jobs, in industries etc.<\/p>\n

The eviction of these people was carried out in different phases. The forcible eviction started in 1990, following the withdrawal of the IPKF, and continued until 1993. During this period, the remainder of the population was forcibly evicted and by the end of 1993 the eviction was complete.<\/p>\n

In a similar fashion following an army offensive in Sampur in 2006\u00a0thousands of people fled\u00a0empty handed all the way to\u00a0Batticaloa.\u00a0 When the war came to an end,\u00a0the army took over thousands of acres of private land in and around Sampur. Expectation the army will allow the IDPs to go\u00a0back to their homes and farms did not materialise. Instead, a total of 816 acres of land was vested in the\u00a0Board of Investment (BOI) by a gazette notification issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The BOI in turn handed over the land to a company styled Sri Lanka Gateway Industries on a 99 year lease. A strategic development project to create a special zone for heavy industries at a cost of US$ 4 billion or more than Rs. 500 billion by Gateway Industries was\u00a0given the green light by the Government. A further 500 acres were earmarked to build a coal-fired Thermal Plant as a joint venture between\u00a0India\u2019s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Ceylon Electricity Board.<\/p>\n

Following the change of regime after January 8th, the 816 acres leased to Gateway Industries has been cancelled and IDPs numbering over 7,000 have been\u00a0allowed to return. The Sri Lanka navy has also agreed to relocate the camp covering\u00a0237 acres. This land belonged to about 600 families before\u00a0the out-break of hostilities.<\/p>\n

The confiscation of\u00a0 lands from poor peasant families in Sampur by the government and handing over 816 acres of land to a development company showed the utter disdain\u00a0 the Rajapaksa government had\u00a0 for the plight of\u00a0 poor ordinary citizens.\u00a0 It is the tears and curse of these poor people that finally ended Rajapaksa’s tyrannical rule spanning 9 years!<\/p>\n

President Maithripala Sirisena\u00a0defended his government\u2019s move to return private land acquired by the security forces during the civil war to its legitimate owners as part of reconciliation efforts with minority communities, including Tamils. He regretted the fact that some political opponents used\u00a0the internet and media to spread false information that the government is handing over the land to LTTE\u00a0supporters.<\/p>\n

The January 8th revolution has brought\u00a0fresh hope as opposed to despair to the Thamil people who were suffocating\u00a0under the dictatorial\u00a0rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime. His government treated the Thamil people shabbily and\u00a0subjected them to humiliation and shame.<\/p>\n

1) Police powers vested in the armed forces under the Public Security Ordinance have been allowed to lapse. This has stopped\u00a0harassment of ordinary people by the army and police.<\/p>\n

2) The military governors in the North and Eastern provinces have been replaced with civilian administrators.<\/p>\n

3) The ill-advised\u00a0ban imposed on singing the\u00a0National Anthem\u00a0in Thamil has been removed.<\/p>\n

4) There are no more white vans, grease demons, throwing waste oil, stoning houses, attack on media personnel, fear of arbitrary arrest etc. in the North.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0 If the August 17 election ushers a national government, then more powers will be given to the provincial councils. If the national government has a 2\/3 majority then a new constitution will\u00a0be enacted\u00a0by establishing a Constituent Assembly.<\/p>\n

6) To the much exploited\u00a0Hill Country Thamils the government has launched\u00a0a scheme to build houses and schools.<\/p>\n

The above may\u00a0seem trivial for some, but\u00a0Thamils feel relieved\u00a0and\u00a0see a light\u00a0at the end of the tunnel for the first time since independence.<\/p>\n

The Thamil people\u00a0joined hands with the people of the south\u00a0in electing\u00a0Maithripala Sirisena as president. That was a historical turning point that changed the political culture of the country. Rajapaksa who deftly played the Sinhala – Buddhist card was defeated. As told by president Sirisena we should not allow Mahinda Rajapaksa and his UPFA to roll back the revolution to\u00a0pre January 8th\u00a0dark era.<\/p>\n

For the first time after independence, an ordinary, humble and unassuming person\u00a0has become the president. President Sirisena kept his promise to reduce the dictatorial powers of the president\u00a0by\u00a0the enactment of the 19th Amendment<\/span><\/a>. It was a magnanimous gesture on his part. Although his predecessors promised to abolish the office of president when elected they failed to keep their promises. Mahinda Rajapaksa\u00a0did the opposite by enacting the 18th Amendment. Unlike Rajapaksa who wanted to crown himself as a king,\u00a0the mild-mannered president Sirisena\u00a0is not overtly power hungry and has declared\u00a0he will not seek a second term.<\/p>\n

The 19th Amendment keeps the\u00a0executive presidency virtually intact with just a restoration of the independent commissions that functioned under the 17th amendment<\/span><\/a>. President Sirisena still enjoys executive power and\u00a0he is still the Head of Cabinet with power over all appointments, ministers as well as Secretaries of ministries.<\/p>\n

The Thamils were also beneficiaries of\u00a0a few achievements\u00a0of\u00a0the present government like the\u00a0restoration of judicial independence, the rule of law, media freedom,\u00a0battle against corruption, salary increases to government servants and pensioners, slashing of fuel prices and\u00a0enforcement of\u00a0human rights. Yet the fundamental problems, for which Thamils have fought long battles,\u00a0including a liberation war,\u00a0remain unresolved and unaddressed. The country needs ethnic peace to move forward.\u00a0 The hope is a national government will be formed after the elections to address the long festering ethnic issue.<\/p>\n

All right thinking people in the south should vote for UNFGG to help usher in a righteous government free of corruption, nepotism, waste, fraud, extortion, embezzlement and generally the inefficient use of state resources. The government must uphold the rule of law both in word and deed, equality, justice, self-respect and dignity of all citizens irrespective of their ethnicity or religion. As exhorted by President Maithripala Sirisena we must move forward\u00a0and not\u00a0allow the January 8th democratic gains\u00a0to be rolled back by any means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":127994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8,6980],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-sri-lanka-parliamentary-elections-2015"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Must\u00a0Not\u00a0Allow The January 8th Democratic Gains To Be Rolled Back - 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\/we-must-not-allow-the-january-8th-democratic-gains-to-be-rolled-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Must\u00a0Not\u00a0Allow The January 8th Democratic Gains To Be Rolled Back - 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