By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
Colombo, June 15 – Interestingly, there were three similarities between the opposition political parties in southern Sri Lanka and the Tamil political parties in the north and east in last month’s local government elections.
The first similarity was that the ruling National People’s Power ( NPP) was considered the common enemy by both sides. The second was the inability of the parties in both areas fronts come together to take on the ruling party. Thirdly, with more than a month after the elections were over, these parties were still holding talks to form administrations in the local bodies.
The NPP also faces problems in the formation of administrations in most of the local councils, except for the ones where it has an absolute majority. The NPP has a problem in forming administrations jointly with parties it accused of misrule and corruption in the past. But it has no problem about seeking the support of elected members from independent groups.
The leaders of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) will, in due course, be compelled understand the practical difficulty of continuing the old practice of projecting themselves as an ‘exclusive ‘party in electoral politics.
The main opposition parties are making great efforts to unite and form local administrations, where the combined number of seats won by the opposition and independent groups is higher than the number of seats won by the ruling party.
In a significant political development, the four opposition parties – the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) , the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the United National Party (UNP) and the People’s Alliance (PA) announced last week that they had reached an agreement to form a unified administration in local government bodies where the NPP does not have a majority.
In a joint press conference, Tissa Aththanayake, national organizer of the SJB, Sagara Kariyawasam, general secretary of the SLPP, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, the general secretary of the PA, and Thalatha Athukorala, general secretary of the UNP, said that they had already formed administrations in four local bodies and would take control of more councils in the coming days. They accused the ruling NPP of trying to capture certain local government bodies through unethical means.
There is no other common ground between these four parties, except their opposition to the NPP. If there was at least a semblance of commonality in policies between them, they could have come together in the elections to take on the ruling party. Are the people going to believe when the leaders of these parties say that they have come together for the common purpose of providing quality public service through the local authorities? We will be able to know, in the coming days, how many councils they will be able to take over through joint efforts.
Similarly, in the Tamil-majority areas of the North and East, the Tamil parties are hell-bent on preventing the NPP from taking over the administration of any local council. The NPP is the common political enemy of the Tamil parties, just as it is to the opposition parties in southern Sri Lanka. But the ‘traditional’ party rivalry between them and personality clashes of their leaders had prevented them from contesting the local elections together.
The Tamil parties, which saw the unprecedented victory of the NPP at the parliamentary elections last year as a great threat to their existence, told the Tamils during the election campaign that they would contest separately but would work together in the administration of the councils. The Tamils voted for these parties and enabled them recover from the setback they suffered six months ago. But the main Tamil parties have failed to display the political sagacity and maturity needed to set up local administrations jointly as promised to the people.
It can be seen that the Tamil parties are divided into two camps, namely Ilankai Thamizharasu Katchi (ITAK) and Tamil National Council (TNC ). They compete with each other in the process of forming the local administrations. All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by parliamentarian Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam, has so far functioned under the name of Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF ). But, after the setback in the parliamentary elections, Ponnambalam changed his intransigence and had showed interest in forming alliances. Their alliance, called the Tamil National Council, has aligned with the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) after the elections.
Ponnambalam and his associates now have no discomfort in embracing some of the parties they had earlier criticised as ‘traitors ‘ to the Tamil cause. They also issued a declaration that they had formed a “principle-based coalition.”
Meanwhile, the ITAK has showed interest in forming alliances. Its president C.V.K. Sivagnanam and General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran held talks not only with the leaders of the DTNA, but also with Ponnambalam to seek their support. But as expected, they couldn’t come to an agreement because of their differing political interests.
The ITAK then sought the support of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) of former minister Douglas Devananda. Sivagnanam went directly to Devananda’s party office to meet him. His action is being criticised as a ‘sin ‘ by the Ponnambalam camp.
A political culture that identified Tamil militant movements (which are now political parties) as “untouchables,” if they sided with governments and acted politically and militarily against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) at during the war, has now been forced to undergo a change for political expediency. A question arises as to what is the criterion for distinguishing between these parties.
The ITAK has now come to an agreement even with the Tamil National Front led by former Chief Minister of Northen Province C.V. Wigneswaran in Jaffna. Sumanthiran who was fiercely criticised by Wigneswaran until recently went to the latter’s Colombo residence and signed the agreement.
It is amazing that Tamil politicians and their supporters are making announcements after the formation of few local councils as if they have captured territory earlier controlled by their enemy. Social media is awash with ridiculous posts by the supporters of these parties.
Efforts being made by the Tamil parties today for the formation of local authorities will be useful in the long run if they are prepared to abandon their old ways and work unitedly for long term goals. Compromise in politics is a very important process.
There is no doubt Tamil parties have started a give-and-take approach in the formation of local authorities keeping in mind their individual interests. It would be a great thing if this approach extends to the completion of the four-year term of the existing new local government bodies and helps in fulfilling the basic needs of the Tamils in an effective manner.
END
