CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Disband LTTE Aligned Political Parties before Disarming the TMVP

Dilrook Kannangara

The power hungry are on a hunger strike! They demand disarming the TMVP in order to have a free and fair election. Ironically TMVP has already contested an election just a few weeks back peacefully! Therefore, is there any need for it to contest this election any way different? May be it is time the LTTE-UNP-SLMC racial alliance is reminded about their love of peace and democracy.

The 1982 Presidential Election is undoubtedly the most irregular election in world history. When Hector Kobbekaduwa who was the only challenger to the incumbent self-appointed president JR Jayawardena went to his polling station in the morning to cast his vote, he was told in no uncertain terms that his vote has already been cast! If this was the fate of the main contestant, there is absolutely no doubt on the fate of millions of other voters. Then there was the Minneriya election that was copied by Robert Mugabe recently. Fraud was obvious and apparent in the manner Vijaya Kumaratunga was defeated by the Department of Elections. The 1988 and 1989 elections were no better. Chaos was unleashed only in districts where the Opposition was strong. In districts where the then ruling party was strong, voters’ turnout was amazingly high; much higher than the national average of 55% (1988 presidential election). ‘What a coincident’, one might wonder. The 1991 local government election was so corrupt that it led to a diplomatic row with Britain when the British High Commissioner openly ridiculed the then government’s efforts in rigging the vote.

EPDP was an armed group that contested the 1994 general election with complete support from the then government. It received seven (7) votes out of a total of eight (8) votes cast from Jaffna District and secured a higher number of parliamentary seats than the number of votes received. At the 2004 general election the UNP-TNA-LTTE alliance managed to use violence and terror in securing almost all parliamentary seats from the North and parts of the East. They even managed to defeat the premier Tamil political party – the TULF. Eventually the LTTE went targeting anti-LTTE Tamil UNP candidates. They were contesting the Batticaloa district with the blessings of Colonal Karuna and a senior UNP MP who was harbouring the rebel leader.

The second important factor is the depth of violence UNP has used in pre, post and election-day events connected to elections. In 2001, 81 people died from election related violence. While 18 UNP activists were among them 63 PA and JVP activists were killed by the UNP mostly after the election. In wide contrast the 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005 elections had no post-election violence resulting in murders committed by the winner.

Thirdly, the UNP-LTTE unholy alliance has enjoyed complete safety when other candidates were killed by none other than this unholy alliance. At the 1993 Provincial Council election, the most senior politician contesting the election, Lalith Athulathmudali, was killed by the UNP-LTTE alliance just weeks before the election. In 1994 anti-LTTE UNP politicians were killed by the connivance of the pro-LTTE UNP elements. At the 1999 election the PA candidate was bombed by the LTTE in an assassination attempt while the UNP candidate was deliberately spared by another attack that killed a retired army general. Similarly at the 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005 elections, the UNP-LTTE-TNA trio had unparalleled safety to travel throughout the country campaigning while the others were restrained by terror threats.

LTTE’s open support for the present day UNP was displayed at the 1999 and 2005 presidential elections. In 1999 tractor loads of voters were transported from LTTE held areas to government controlled areas to vote for the UNP. The result was an outlandish UNP victory in areas adjoining LTTE controlled areas. LTTE’s pretended election boycott helped it avoid a 2001-style border-closure. After the LTTE rigged the 1999 election, the government ordered the closure of entry points to government controlled areas from LTTE areas at the eve of the 2001 general election. The message was clear. Either let voters vote in their hometowns in LTTE-held areas or forget about the election. As usual LTTE didn’t allow voting in its territory and this resulted in a loss to the UNP-TNA combine which resulted in a lawsuit. Things turned even nastier at the 2005 election. In Vanni, voters turnout increased by a staggering 56% over the last presidential election as once again LTTE was running shuttle services from its territory to government controlled parts of Vavuniya transporting voters to vote for the UNP candidate. Obviously the UNP’s vote percentage in Vanni increased astronomically. Had the government closed the entry points in 2005 as in 2001, this would not have happened and the UNP would not have had Vanni as the second highest victory margin among the 22 districts.

The next level of UNP-LTTE joint effort comes in the guise of ‘election monitoring’. There are two main ‘election monitors’ in Sri Lanka, namely, CMEV and PAFERAL both headed by pro-UNP-LTTE individuals. While the head of the latter was rewarded with a lucrative government job in 2002 when the UNP was in power, the former is a known LTTE activist. Fortunately, their lack of credibility is known to all by this day.

Certain provisions of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution have given unwarranted powers to election authorities. This was a grand attempt to rob peoples’ democratic rights through unelected supposedly ‘independent’ ‘legislators’ who also exercise judicial and executive powers. It doesn’t take much effort for corrupt political elements to make their project a sub-project of the LTTE which is now working overtime to scupper democracy with the help of purportedly ‘independent’ unelected legislators. Defence related decisions should never be allowed to be made by election authorities.

There is another aim of the UNP-LTTE-SLMC agitation to disarm the TMVP. That is to breach campaigning restrictions that come into effect few days before the election. While other parties will abide by the law and cease their campaigning activities as stipulated by the law, the UNP-LTTE-SLMC trio will continue campaigning under the guise of this agitation. This needs to be seriously looked at.

However, once the terror threat from the LTTE subsides, all illegitimate arms bearers must be disarmed. Pending that it is more beneficial to disband pro-LTTE political elements so that people can exercise their franchise meaningfully. Sri Lankan Constitution and the PTA specify a number of avenues to disband political groups that support separatist and terrorist causes. The government has become the laughing stock of the masses as it provides enough evidence of LTTE connections of certain political parties yet takes no decisive action against them. It is high time all political forces big and small that have linked-up with the LTTE are banned from contesting elections.

The May tenth election in the East need not be the freest and fairest of elections. It is suffice to be yet another Lankan-style election. As regards the UNP-LTTE-SLMC trio; two of them are going to lose whatever the outcome of the election may be. LTTE will never tolerate a permanent Muslim Chief Minister in the East which it claims to be part of the “Tamil homeland”. The trio will stand united until such time they will start to kill each other. They have grabbed the tiger’s tail again.

Disclaimer: The comments contained within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of LankaWeb.com. .

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

DISCLAIMER