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Sangaree and Elections

by Thiru

Will the Sinhalese and others elect Sangaree? Does the current constitution allow him to become the first non-Sinhalese Buddhist prime minister/president ?  Like SWRD Bandaranayake and Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sangaree can renounce his religion and language to be accepted by the Sinhalese Buddhists. Even then, however,  I doubt the Sinhala Buddhist electorate will elect him. The island's electorate is too divided along ethnic lines for a Tamil to be elected by a Sinhalese or to be voted into a high elected office.

Why did not Ananadasangaree contest in a predominantly Sinhalese area or a Muslim area in the last general election? He could have won and shown the world he is a true blue 'Sri Lankan Tamil,' accepted by the Sinhalese & others ? At least in the Colombo area he could have contested, instead of being so roundly rejected by the voters of Jaffna.

Now he is nobody but an appointed Tamil. Even a true blue Sinhalese Buddhist 'Sri Lankan' like Laksman Kadirgamr could not get elected from the southern constituency. It will be a good challenge, Mr. Sangaree!

It is not too late for Mr. Sangaree to run in the next election. After being elected from outside the NorthEast, the Sinhalese, who overwhelmingly appreciate Sangaree now, can form a national government with Sangaree as the Prime Minister and resolve the Tamil issue within the current consitution as the JVP and JHU want.

Will the Sinhalese and others elect Sangaree? Does the current constitution allow him to become the first non-Sinhalese Buddhist prime minister/president ? 

Like SWRD Bandaranayake and Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sangaree can renounce his religion and language to be accepted by the Sinhalese Buddhists. Even then, however,  I doubt the Sinhala Buddhist electorate will elect him. The island's electorate is too divided along ethnic lines for a Tamil to be elected by a Sinhalese or to be voted into a high elected office.

It is simple deduction, therefore. The island's ruling class & the international powers are only using Sangaree to weaken the Tamil cause.

Disenfranchisement

Will Sangaree, together with Tisssaranee Gunasekara and Dr Rajasingham Narendran, actively campaign for a unitary Sri Lanka to become a secular democracy like India in which the prime minister, Manmohan Singh and the president, Abdul Kalam are not from the majority community, the Hindus, or to become like secular Singapore where the elected president is a non-Chinese? If they did, I am sure proxies of the JVP, the JHU, the Sri Lankan army and Army Intelligence would wipe them out like they are doing to the Tamil youths in the northeastern province of the island.

By the way, in the international assessment of good governance, what has been the ranking given to the Sri Lankan governments led by the Sinhalese Buddhist leadership in the last 58 years? Parliamentary democracy started in Sri Lanka in 1933, yet even today they are not in the first ten for good governance.

What protection has successive governments given the Tamils, starting with their first legislative act after independence, the disenfranchisement of the Tamils & Muslims of Indian origin in 1948?

The major problem in Sri Lanka still  lies in the inability of the Sinhalese Buddhist political leaders, the Sinhalese-owned media, the Sangha, and the racist and undisciplined armed forces to see other communities as equal members of the one nation.

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