Provincial Win In The East A Stepping Stone Towards the Future.

May 12th 2008

The recently concluded Provincial elections in the East has resulted in a clear mandate for Sri Lanka's Government towards asserting its direction for the future.It is also a debilitating loss for the UNP as well as all the LTTE terrorist supportive elements who misguidedly believed it would swing in their favour as they react bitterly and reprehensibly probably fully aware that their aspirations towards scuttling President Mahinda Rajapaksha's policies are all but over and hardly worth persisting in if the latest rumblings from the opposition camps are to be believed!

What is remarkable about the result is the manner in which the terrorists and their supportives have been swept away as worthless entities towards any realistic peace within Sri Lanka and is also a mandate for the Government to defeat the terrorists from every conceivable aspect, militarily it is thought predominantly before launching on the transition towards the lasting peace all Sri Lankan's have waited for over decades, particularly in the East. It is grim irony that LTTE hopes have been dashed by former LTTE cadre who broke away from LTTE terror activities have been the contributing factor which has secured the Government victory and now probably have a right to recognition and has contributed to the victory in the first Provincial elections to be held in the East of the Island in two decades which will go down as one with resounding intonations of a crushing defeat for the LTTE.

This is also a moral victory for the Rajapaksha Administration as Saturday's elections were held in a region that until last year was partly controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before being driven out by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and its indomitable leadership whose commander in chief is the President of Sri Lanka and cause for great celebration.

In the aftermath of this morale boosting win the Government's campaign against the rebels towards crushing them with military force should be a tour de force culminating with the introduction of limited devolution of power to the island where the administrators will be nation friendly, minority friendly as well as most importantly Tamil friendly with no concessions nor affiliations to the murderous and Nation destructive Tamil Tigers of no known direction nor future beyond total annihilation and the obvious choice for this administrative privilege most likely to be a coalition involving the TMVP whose leadership has shown great loyalty to the present Administration in addition to being very resourcesful towards supporting the Rajapaksha Administration.

As always is the case in such situations where there are many factions of rivalry for the spoils of victory there are many accusations by the disgruntled losers of election malpractises particularly by the dejected UNP, the SLMC - Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and not surprisingly all of the pro LTTE brigade including their fronts in parliament, of "an unfairly conducted election involving vote rigging, thuggery and intimidation" and if there are to be any credibilities attributed towards these accusations beyond exaggeratiion they undoubtedly need to point towards the UNP and the pro LTTE factions themselves with a reputation for such tactics in the past.

Conclusively and on the basis that the Commissioner of Elections and very credible sources such as the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) releasing their observation report on the polls yesterday has said that the elections were totally free and fair and that they had not encountered a single untoward incident during their monitoring process. The AAEA comprised 17 members from 10 Asian countries, with the team including eminent personalities in their respective countries including several elections commissioners in their ranks and other very reliable election monitors who have gone against the grain of the UNP and LTTE accusations combined with the negative input of the 'hearsay brigades' of the Reuters, The Associated Press and the Hindu... to name some and have contrarily declared the Elections acceptable and legitimate towards the expected closure which has undeniably asserted the authority of the Administration.

It has also suggested a new optimism for Sri Lanka which a prominent local newspaper described with a degree anticipation and sombre sentiment which goes beyond the metaphor "that despite reports of rigging, intimidation, and violence, a devolved, democratic East – which has a broadly equal mix of Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims – could still offer a model of how a peaceful Sri Lanka might one day look. The Eastern Province with its rare, if not, unique blend of communities, cultures and languages had the potential to be the very heart - not just the showpiece but the centrepiece – of all the beauty of unity in diversity. In the east, there are Tamil villages where the people speak Sinhala fluently and Sinhala villages where the people speak Tamil fluently. …Whatever the results our plea – and in voicing it we know we are voicing the will of millions of Sri Lankans – is that the promises of developing the east and providing better living facilities to the people would be kept and it would really be a new dawn for them. If power is really devolved to the east and development takes place there at a rapid pace, it would be a major step in defeating separatism and bringing about the unity in diversity that we all dream of. "

Perhaps the victory in the East is a stepping stone towards that resplendency which Sri Lankans one knew and lost in the mire of terrorism and needs to be reclaimed!