Eastern local government polls

Democracy or more terror?

The polls in the east have been held up as the model for ‘liberation’ of all LTTE controlled areas of the island. They are, the government claims, reason to hope that things, if left in their capable hands, will get better. Incongruous thinking, especially in light of the fact that the Rajapaksa-led UPFA coalition has chosen unbelievable allies in its race to bring democracy to the restive Eastern Province

By Dharisha Bastians
Outgoing US President George W. Bush in his final State of The Union address to the American people on Monday night, woke up to the reality that the US economy was headed towards a recession, and promised bigger budget cuts and better healthcare. Too little too late, his potential successors in Congress, including front runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were thinking no doubt. Democratic candidates who have grabbed the biggest headlines in the race towards the US presidential election this November have healthcare and the economy high on their priority list. The fact that even Republican candidates are toeing the same line means that the US people can expect such issues to take precedence when their next President, Democrat or Republican takes office in January 2009.

It gets you wondering, with a local government poll impending in the east in less than two months, what do the people of the east have to look forward to?

The polls in the east have been held up as the model for ‘liberation’ of all LTTE controlled areas of the island. They are, the government claims, reason to hope that things, if left in their capable hands, will get better. Incongruous thinking, especially in light of the fact that the Rajapaksa-led UPFA coalition has chosen unbelievable allies in its race to bring democracy to the restive Eastern Province.

TMVP Leader and former LTTE renegade commander, Col. Vignayamurthi Muralidaran alias Karuna Amman was just sentenced to nine months in a British jail, for travelling to the UK on false travel documents. When the British authorities cracked the Karuna case, there were widespread ramifications for the Foreign Ministry , which had issued the British High Commission with a Third Person Note (TPN) – a state to state document – requesting that one “Gunewardane” be granted a visa to travel to Britain to attend a conference. Making matters worse, in the course of his testimony, Karuna Amman has reportedly implicated Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa for having got him the necessary documents to leave the country.

The answers, forthcoming from the government to such charges leave much to be desired. Some government ministers have gone on record asking the media to furnish the implicating documents, to commence an investigation into the matter of how Karuna Amman, responsible for the massacre of 600 policemen in 1995, and countless atrocities and harassment since then in the east after his defection from the LTTE, obtained a diplomatic passport issued by the government of Sri Lanka.

All this on top of allegations of government collaboration with the Karuna faction, legally registered as the TMVP, which is credited with child recruitment, extortion and terrorizing the people of the east since the group got a foothold in the area. Despite the uproar among international human rights organisations and the international community about this alleged government involvement with the notorious Karuna group, the government has met all these charges with brick-wall like reactions, claiming to know nothing.

Which is why it eludes any sane human being, how the very same government could turn around and ally itself with the very same Karuna group when it comes to contesting the eastern local government election. If one was to be brutally frank, it is already a foregone conclusion that the eastern poll will be a one-horse race. The TNA, considered to be the proxies of the LTTE’s Wanni faction has already gone to court to seek an injunction against the poll in the east, and for TNA candidates to contest this poll would be nothing short of suicide. The UNP and the JVP have already opted not to contest the poll and reports of violence have already dogged Sri Lanka Muslim Congress’ attempts to remain in the race.

There is no doubt that the election on March 10 will be one of the bloodiest Sri Lanka has seen in recent times. The country has been upping its free and fair poll record to some extent in the last three or four years, despite some election list irregularities and pre-election violence has been at an all time low. The eastern poll already looks to be the one to shatter all this good work. Bloody and violent elections are rarely fair. And far from taking all steps necessary to minimise these threats to a truly democratic election, what does the Rajapaksa government do? It allies itself with the biggest perpetrators of the violence themselves. To say nothing of the damage it will cause to its long-term alliance with the EPDP which will be competing in the east with the Karuna Faction for places on the local government councils.

Perhaps it is because the government honestly doesn’t care any more. Perhaps it is because they know that the only party with any chance of winning the election in the east, whether by bullet or ballot, is the TMVP. They are the ones carrying arms and for fear of these weapons alone, they have little competition. What is left of the election contenders will no doubt be taken care of.

And so in an election that will most closely resemble gang warfare, the government has picked a side. It will side with one of the most violent, most brazen gangs and will thereby go on to win this election too. They will then hold the eastern local government poll up high at international forums and before the local populace, and hail it as one of the administration’s greatest victories for democracy and freedom.

What can the people of the east expect? Very little forsooth. For one thing, local government councils are powerless bodies with no hope of functioning without massive support from the centre. For another, if the victors are bound to be the Karuna group, in its political avatar, the TMVP, the people of the east are in for a lot more blood and gore – and a lot more terror.