by T. Sabaratnam; Colombo, April 27, 2004
Weekly Review
A significant aspect of Thursday’s inaugural session of parliament was highlighted by Jathika Hela Urmaya (JHU) leader Ven. Methananda thera when he said: “Eelam has come to the House.”
The presence in the chamber of 20 men in silk verti, national and salvai and a lady in kanjeewaran sari and Hindu members wearing the vipoothy, santhanam and kunkumam in their foreheads made a profound impact, which caused the JHU leader to make the provocative comment.
But on Thursday, after the 9-hour election of the Speaker in which the Opposition candidate, W. J. M. Lokubandara, won the prestigious post of Speaker by a single vote on the third round of voting, the JHU and TNA were subjected to prolonged hooting and harassment by government parliamentarians led by the JVP. TNA members were called ‘kotiya,’ Sinhala for Tiger, and JHU monks were castigated as ‘supporters of kottiya.’
TNA parliamentarians said they were not worried about being called kottiyas. “Why should we get worried about being calling Tigers? We are actually proud of the Tigers,” said Jaffna district MP Raviraj.
But TNA leader R. Sampanthan made a distinction. “Unlike what the venerable Buddhist priest said, we did not represent Eelam in the House. We represent Tamil nationalism,” he said.
TNA deputy leader Mavai Senanthirajah explained their decision to wear the national dress thus, “It was our conscious decision. We wanted to show the Sri Lankan people and the international community that we are a distinct nation; that we are the representatives of Tamil nationalism. The Sinhalese and the world should be made to accept it. Wearing national dress was the best way to focus on our nationalism.”
The national dress clearly indicated to the viewers of the live telecast of the speaker’s election the presence of Tamils in the chamber. TNA members looked different from others. They provided the contrast to the Buddhist priests in saffron robes who represented Sinhala nationalism.
Historians and political analysts agree that the prime cause for the current Sinhala- Tamil conflict is the result of the Sinhala leadership’s failure to accept and accommodate Tamil nationalism. Sinhala leadership was only concerned with satisfying the aspiration of Sinhala nationalism and consolidating the Sinhala hold on state power and ignored Tamil nationalism, its parallel.
Joseph Pararajasingham, who entered parliament on the national list, said the focus after Karuna’s failed attempt to rake up regional feeling is on Tamil nationalism. “Tamil nationalism is the theme of our May Day celebration in Batticoloa,” he said.
Fractured Sinhala Polity
The Speaker’s election intensified the clash in the already fractured Sinhala polity. The Sinhalese race has been politically split into the UNP and SLFP since the formation of the SLFP by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1952. The JVP, which launched armed insurrections in 1971 and 1989, has now emerged as a third political force among the Sinhalese. Buddhist monks, who won nine seats in the April 2 parliamentary polls on the Jathika Hela Urumaya platform, have introduced a fresh factor into the Sinhala political scene.
Their entry into politics is a challenge to the JVP, which nursed the Sinhala chauvinistic electorate for its political benefit. The monks, with their extreme stand on the ethnic issue, wrested part of the Sinhala chauvinistic constituency to its side and pose the danger of eroding further the JVP base.
Added to that irritant, the sudden decision of the JHU to defeat the SLFP-JVP strategy to get their candidate for the post of Speaker elected enraged the JVP leaders.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga and JVP leaders made a valiant effort to get their candidate, D. E. W. Gunasekera, elected. Kumaratunga spoke to the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the JHU and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to win them over to their side, but failed. Then she tried to get individual members of the CWC and SLMC over to her side.
Kumaratunga succeeded in enticing three MPs – two from the JHU and another from the party in the opposition. Those three members increased the government strength to 109, which was sufficient to win the election in the 225-member parliament. With the decision of the seven members of the JHU to abstain from voting and the replacement of TNA Batticaloa district MP Kingsley Selvanayagam not formally informed to the Secretary General of Parliament, the actual voting strength was 217. Kumaratunga and her new friends in the JVP was then certain of victory.
There were two hitches they had to tackle. The first was to pin the JHU to its decision of abstention. The JHU was annoyed that two of its parliamentarians – Ven, Ratnaseeha Thera and Ven, Oannananda Thera – were abducted by the government. To pacify the Sangha Council of the JHU, Kumaratunga paid a midnight visit to their headquarters and told them that they did not kidnap the two monk parliamentarians. But the information the priests had was different. They were told that one of the two priests was kept in the custody of a presidential advisor and other by the JVP.
Their information was proved correct when those MPs were brought to parliament on Thursday morning by the presidential advisor and a JVP law-maker. And in the first round of the voting these MPs voted with the government, making its voting 108.
The second hitch was to enable the opposition MP to vote with the government. This he could not do openly. So the government needed a secret ballot. JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa asked for secret voting and got it. The opposition, smelling the rat, decided that all opposition MPs should show their neighbours the ballot paper before putting it into the ballot box.
When the counting was done the Secretary General found one vote spoilt and that that was the vote of a member from the opposition. The procedure adopted for voting was the voter should write the name of the candidate for whom he is voting and sign his name at the bottom. In the spoilt ballot paper, the voter had written W. J. M. in big letters and Gunasekera in small letters. He must have written W. J. M., the initials of the opposition candidate, in big letters, shown it to the neighbour and written Gunasekera in small letters and put it in the box. He had done it purposely to spoil his vote.
The voting in the first round was a tie – 108 for Lokubandara and 108 for Gunasekera, necessitating the second round of voting.
In the second, the opposition MPs followed the previous procedure of showing the ballot paper to the neighbour. The government MPs objected to it and invaded the aisle of the chamber where the ballot box was placed and sat on it, preventing the balloting. The Secretary General cancelled the ballot.
In the third round the secrecy of the voting was maintained. Knowing that the member who had spoilt his vote in the first round would vote with the government, UNP leaders pleaded with the JHU to vote with them. The JHU met and decided to stick to its decision to abstain from voting, but decided to neutralize the two votes its members had given the government. Thus, during voting two of its members voted for Lokubandara. The result was Lokubandara polled 110 votes against Gunasekera’s 109.
The government, especially the JVP, was furious. With Lokubandara in the chair, the UNP can frustrate Kumaratunga’s effort to enact a new constitution abolishing the executive presidency which would create room for her to be in politics as the prime minister or leader of the opposition. The current constitution debars the president being in politics after the completion of the second term of office.
Lokubandara being in the chair would help the opposition to impeach the president. The Speaker must entertain the motion before the impeachment procedure is set in motion.
The victory of the opposition in the election of Speaker poses more threat to the government when it meets on 18 May to elect the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees. The opposition is trying to get those posts also. If it succeeds, Kumaratunga will be in an awkward position. She would not be in a position to govern.
Kumaratunga and the JVP leaders see only two options open to them. The first is to threaten the JHU monks and force them into submission or to drive them out of politics. To do that the JVP is using the only language known to it: violence. The temples in which the monk MPs reside are attacked, threats to their life have been issued, a poster campaign against them have been launched and protest marches have been organized.
One poster accused the JHU monks of being an insidious cog in a ‘Tiger – Elephant’ conspiracy to destroy the Sinhala nation. (Elephant is the symbol of ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party) Another poster poked fun at the JHU and called it ‘Hela Karumaya’ (‘National Curse’)
Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka Thera charged that the JVP is carrying out a three-stage plan to eliminate the JHU. “The first stage is character assassination. The second is physical intimidation and in the third, they would eliminate us. They have succeeded in implementing the first and second stages. Now they are getting ready to eliminate us,” the JHU Gen. Secretary alleged.
This harassment, as happened in the case of Tamil people, is showing signs of the opposite effect. The monks are becoming defiant and their popularity is growing.
Peace Talks
President Kumaratunga’s surprise invitation to Norway to continue to function as the facilitator, and the JVP’s softening of its stand on its insistence on the Mahaweli Ministry and its entry into the cabinet should be views in this background.
Kumaratunga telephoned Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and asked him to facilitate the resumption of the peace talks. Bondevick accepted the invitation and said they would do so if the other party, the LTTE, also invite them.
A high level delegation including the Foreign Minister, Mr. Jan Petersen, his deputy, Mr. Vidar Helgesen, and Special Peace Envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, will visit Colombo next week. The delegation will meet Kumaratunga and Pirapaharan to work out the modalities about the resumption of the talks. Norwegian sources said their effort would be to arrange a suitable time, place and an agreed agenda for the talks.
Kilinochchi sources said Pirapaharan will insist on continuing the earlier format of meeting in a neutral country and that the talks should be between the government and the LTTE, the two combatants, in the presence of Norway.
In addition, a politically and militarily strengthened Pirapaharan will insist that the talks should be based on the recognition of the concepts of Tamil Nationality, Tamil Homeland and Tamil Self-rule as embodied in the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals submitted by the LTTE to the previous United National Front government of Sri Lanka. During the recent meeting with the Tamil National Alliance MPs Pirapaharan reiterated the importance of the ISGA proposals.
There are other irritants that will have to be sorted out before talks begin. The army under Kumaratunga has started backing deep penetration attacks through its hired Tamil gangs as Sunday night’s incidents in Batticaloa show. A Tamil –speaking group had traveled in a van and killed seven LTTEers including four invalids.
Analysts say Kumaratunga’s call for the resumption of the peace talks was aimed at consolidating her government politically and financially. Politically, she is trying to entice TNA support. Financially, she is trying to get the funds donor countries have pledged.
The British and Australian envoys in Colombo met with Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama on Tuesday and told him that the funds pledged to Sri Lanka would be released. But they wanted the government to show progress on the peace process.
Kumaratunga must realize that the days of deception had gone. The international community now insists on implementation.
Originally published April 28, 2004