Democracy Returns to Jaffna, Sri Lanka

By Abhaya

On January 29, 1998, the people of Jaffna and Killinochchi go to the polls to elect their local leaders after 16 years. In 422 polling station, 571,484 voters will elect 234 representatives out of 1171 candidates.

US residents watching the situation in Sri Lanka are delighted to see the restoration of democracy and freedom in Jaffna, after many years of cruel and authoritarian rule over the Jaffna Tamils by the dictatorship established by the LTTE under Pirabakaran. Dictators like Pirabakaran, as indeed the more famous ones of this century like Hitler and Stalin, are able to draw the support of ambitious hirelings who are highly qualified professionals while the ordinary people are subdued into silence by fear. So, since the liberation of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan government, a prime objective has been the speedy restoration of democracy through the establishment of a local government that would be run by elected representatives of the people of Jaffna. That it was able to do this within two years of the military success in Jaffna is a credit both to the government and the Sri Lankan army.

It has not been an easy task. The defeated and retreating terrorists demanded that the population flee Jaffna, creating the fear of army harassment. When these were discovered to be false, the LTTE obstructed the return of refugees by attacking transport vessels and food supplies mobilized by the government. Even when the LTTE held its iron grip on the people of Jaffna, the Sri Lankan government paid its resident government officers in the region, even though they had to obey LTTE orders, and spent around Rs. 2.0 billion annually on maintaining food supplies to the region where taxes were being collected by the LTTE for its war against the government. It is difficult to find such magnanimity in history in the annals of such bloody conflicts. And while the LTTE and its sympathizers in Colombo surreptitiously exploded bombs to kill civilians and government leaders, the Tamil population, 35% of whom are resident in the predominantly Sinhala populated south, remained protected and unharmed. Considering that the LTTE carried out a murderous ethnic cleansing of Sinhala and Muslim residents in the North and East, this is a remarkable testimony to the peace-loving people of Sri Lanka.

Much credit must also go to Maj-General Balagalle, the senior military officer in Jaffna, for his campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Jaffna civilian population which was brain-washed by the LTTE for so long. Sri Lanka Telecom is providing 2,000 new telephone links for Jaffna to end its long isolation and assist business development. Also, the government will be holding public service entrance examinations in Jaffna to enable the Tamil residents of Jaffna to conveniently participate in these.

Four Tamil parties are participating in the elections: Peoples' Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Eelam Peoples' Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). No national parties are seeking office, leaving the field to racially-based Tamil parties. The prize is the office of the Mayor of Jaffna, being sought by Mr. Manikkathasan of PLOTE, Mr. V.M. Kugenthiran of the EPDP, Mr. M.K. Sivajilingam of the TELO and Mr. Thambiraja Subathiran of the EPRLF. Since the murder of Mr. Alfred Duraiyappah, the UNP mayor in 1975, by the LTTE, the office has been a high risk position.

The role of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) has been ambivalent. The party which led the opposition in the Sri Lanka parliament later became a prominent backer of the armed LTTE terrorists, with its leader Mr. Amirthalingam sending letters to expatriate Tamils to solicit funds for LTTE terrorism while pretending to be a legitimate political party. The TULF double game had its terrible price: consorting with the devil inevitably means hell. The LTTE does not tolerate other aspirants to Tamil leadership. With the assassination of the TULF leadership by the LTTE, the TULF remains rudderless. Its list of candidates for the Northern polls was disqualified on technical grounds because its candidates were under-age: they couldn't find qualified candidates in Jaffna to run on their ticket.

Real peace will come to Jaffna only when the Tamil people throw aside racial groupings and come back into the mainstream of Sri Lankan politics - something the leaders of the Tamil people have been leading them away from since free elections commenced in 1931. While free elections are the symbol of democracy, its practice requires that people should learn to tolerate dissent and make compromises to live in harmony with other people.