Western PC Verdict: Sinhala “wave” for Govt Though Minorities voting against
by Kusal Perera
The much awaited Western Provincial Council Elections were over 24 hours ago and the results have just rolled in for the constituencies in all 03 districts, sans individual preference vote counts that may take another 24 hours (today, Sunday 26 April) or even more. On the face value of the results, the Rajapaksa regime that contested as the UPFA has swept the sheet clean with 64.7% of the votes polled and 68 seats out of the total 104 in the Western Provincial Council. It’s a big win no doubt with the main Opposition the UNP managing only 29.6% of the votes polled and 30 seats. The JVP once again got totally decimated with 2.4% votes giving them just 03 seats from all 03 districts.
In a country where even local government and provincial elections are campaigned for on strictly "national issues" instead of development and other issues relevant to the local and provincial areas, the call for a vote in support of the Rajapaksa regime for eliminating "Tamil terrorism" was the centre stage of this WP elections as it was in all other previous PC elections. This time the call was much stronger with all media crying out loud that the Tamil Tigers have been almost wiped out and this vote for the ruling party at the Western PC elections would be a vote of gratitude to a leadership that saved the nation from Tamil terrorists. Thus the campaign for votes went beyond that of an election campaign and was clearly planted in the Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic campaign this regime organised around the war during the last two and a half years.
The hype that was created in the final push for the remaining patch of land in Mullaitivu, despite its human agony, its human slaughter, mobilised Sinhala Buddhist votes here in the Sinhala majority South, though distancing all minorities from the government. This regime showed it is not so much worried about Minorities. It thus tried to force itself even in the Colombo city area, trying to pull out a victory that would give them an advantage as one that for the first time defeated the United National Party (UNP) in its own traditional stronghold.
Western Province (WP) holds a very important key in showing how the political fate of different political ideologies and political parties fare in the social psyche of Sri Lanka . WP holds or has accumulated over 51% of the countries wealth and thus is the richest of all 09 provinces. Also, the WP has a very cosmopolitan population with a high percentage of Minority ethnicities and religious populations resident in large patches, especially in Colombo . While the two districts Gampaha and Kalutara have 91 and 87 per cent Sinhala populations respectively, Colombo has only a 76 per cent Sinhala population. Colombo has a 13% Tamil and a 10% Muslim population that is a Moor and a Malay population taken together. According to the Colombo District Secretariat, within this Sinhala population of 1.7 million in the district, 13.5% are Catholic and Christian.
These are all factors that had serious implications at this WP elections. While in most constituencies where the Sinhala Buddhist vote dominate, the UPFA polled well over 70% as in Kaduwela (70.1%) and Kesbewa (71.0%) in Colombo district, Horana (75.9%) and Bandaragama (73.3%) in the Kalutara district and then in Attanagalla (72.9%) and Dompe (75.2%) in the Gampaha district. In other constituencies with a good Sinhala majority, the UPFA still managed over 60% of the votes polled as in Kotte (61.9%) and Homagama (66.1%) in Colombo district, Katana (68.8%) and Kelaniya (64.5) in the Gampaha district and in Matugama (67.8%) and Panadura (66.6%) in the Kalutara district.
The trend in voting clearly showed a big shift towards the Rajapaksa regime where the Sinhala Buddhist vote was concerned. Thus even in constituencies like Ja-ela and Wattala where there is a concentration of Catholic and Christian vote, with over 62% and 63% turning out to vote, the UPFA still managed over 58% votes polled. Let's not forget that here in Sri Lanka , though Christian or Catholic, as a Sinhala voter they have often tried to identify themselves within the anti Tamil hype to look very much Sinhala. A typical inferiority complex in a Sinhala Buddhist hegemonic society. Yet where the Minority voters like Tamils and Muslims increase in their presence as in Dehiwala (51.0%) and Borella (49.9%) the UPFA is seen losing their clout.
This is amply demonstrated in the voting in Colombo city. Here the UPFA loses all 05 constituencies. Colombo the commercial hub with a population of 642,163, Sinhalese make up only 41.4 percent of the city's population, while Sri Lankan Tamils are 28.9 percent, Moors and Malays total 25.6 percent and Indian Tamils adding another small 2.2 percent. It's thus 58.6% non Sinhala population as against 41.4% Sinhala in the city of Colombo , a unique demographic pattern in any city outside the N-E provinces.
Therefore, the Sinhala war hype, the agony of the Wanni people, the huge cry against a human carnage unfolding in the Mullaitivu coast, have all played against the otherwise popular Rajapaksa regime. In the 03 electorates Colombo North, Central and West, the Rajapaksa regime could not go beyond 30% and in the remaining 02 constituencies, Colombo East and Borella, they got less than 50% of the votes and lost.
This was despite the Tamil vote in Colombo not going to the polls as strong as it did in previous elections. They had their own reasons for taking this election as one that did not consider them any more as a necessary voter. As one that has any importance in Sri Lankan politics. While the UPFA campaign was a government campaign for winning the war, which obviously left out the Tamil people, all others including the UNP did not take the Tamil voter as an important factor. The UNP shied away from standing with the Tamil people who were being savagely treated in the Wanni. The UNP has not been very clear where they stand on the Tamil conflict with different leaders having different explanations and all leaders in the UNP happy the war is being won – by the "war heroes" as they wish to say. Therefore the Tamil vote that went the UNP way was a "Protest" vote against the Rajapaksa regime and then because the Democratic People's Front's 03 Tamil candidates who contested Colombo district in the UNP list campaigned on a platform of their own, led by Mano Ganesan.
So did the Muslim vote. They had their own list fielded by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauf Hakeem. There was also the internal clash within the UPFA in Colombo city. Their own Muslim candidates in the city came under goon attacks and were prevented from campaigning. The UPFA thus projected itself as a Sinhala dominated power bloc in Colombo . Therefore in Colombo , the Muslim vote too, either went the UNP way or to the SLMC.
This Western Provincial Council election thus shows a very strong polarisation of the Sri Lankan society along ethno-religious lines. The Sinhala voter has not bothered how it would live in a fast deteriorating economy, with consumer prices flying higher, the rupee gradually losing its buying power, all democratic life brutally suppressed and large lay offs in the private sector due to the financial crunch weighing heavily on their lives, given the promise that the Tamil terrorists would be completely wiped off.
All of it has made the Tamils in particular and the Muslims in general consider this government as one they wouldn't ever trust. This Western Provincial Council election shows that Minorities therefore as a rule has voted against the Rajapaksa regime, while as a rule the Sinhala Buddhist voter has gelled more with this regime on the war campaign.
It's now getting more clearer. We are a stubbornly dividing society with Minorities not wanting to have any say in what the Sinhala government does here. The question therefore is, what the future would be, if this trend persists with Colombo governments sticking to their racist politics for Sinhala votes. Not giving the minorities due recognition, but not wanting them to go away either. A dog in the manger no doubt.
Dept of Elections: Western Province Elctions Results
17 Comments
What is the validity of the often sited excuse by the Government and majority of educated Sinhalese Diaspora that mjority of the Tamils are living in the South with dignity and freedom ?
Except the Colombo city the Sinhalese has kept their homelands secure with overwhelming support for the Gotha-Sarath-JHU- Mahinda chinthanya.
In the NE they have conquered the homelands of Tamils and Muslims and have diaplced the civilians and reduced tehir numbers too. The colonisation of Tamil Muslim homelands will soon colonised under former Commnader Chandrasri while the diaplced people are in the refugee camps with the help of Cochairs, China and India's aid and Under UN supervision. All these are a digrace to UN as a supreme body.
The WP election seems to have been decided more or less on ethnic lines. The majority of Sinhalese voters have been convinced to vote for the war effort of the GOSL as against its record of economic mismanagement and corruption.
This has to be viewed against the massive publicity campaign launched by the UPFA where they have made maximum use of state resources and taxpayer’s money to bolster their election campaign. The personal intervention of the president himself, where thousands of people where transported on an almost daily basis in state owned buses and feted at Temple Trees at state expense, must be an overwhelming factor. Along with this is the continuing effort of the President to weaken the UNP by buying over wavering opposition politicians is continuing. The use of state and underworld gangs to obstruct opposition campaigns and the inability of the Government controlled Police to enforce law and order is another crucial factor in this victory.
The Sinhalese public have once again displayed their gullibility and lack of political maturity by voting en masse for this corrupt and racist regime. True the war was a dominant factor in the security and stability of our nation, impacting our daily lives. However the Provincial Elections are not a referendum or platform for approving of the war or proving our patriotism. Rather it should be the platform for electing capable and decent candidates who will service the day to day requirements of the populace. Today the entire democratic political system has been hijacked by the ruling family and all politicians are nothing but their lackeys and stooges. The opposition parties have been reduced to a minority with the option offered to them to join the government and subscribe to the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’. Many have succumbed to this offer by joining the government and thereafter becoming political vegetables, incapable of expressing their opinions on any worthwhile topic.
Despite these ‘victories’, it is yet to be seen if the Government can achieve its targets in the economic and social fields. Its failures in these fields are exacerbating day to day with fall in revenues and increasing taxation of ordinary people. As said by Abraham Lincoln “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.
obviously recent wave of bus bombs still fresh in their minds.
violence breed more violence - kindergarten lesson. the foundation of any faith. unfortunately it did not occur to trotskist amirthalingam et al back in 1974. they needed a revolution.
Just how gullible people are can be demonstrated by the fact that Duminda Silva a person who has two court cases going against him on charges of rape has obtained the highest number of UPFA preferential votes and may be the next Chief Minister of WP. Next in place is Thilanga Sumithipala a bookie by proffession. Both have crossed over from UNP. Third is Udaya Gammanpila of the JHU. Any bets?
Hopepully when this phase of war is over there still will be people like Kasul Perera to continue the agenda of hatred against the Sinhala Buddhists. Your cruel subconscious desire to segregate people and see the bloodshed continue is manifest in your commnet that it was the "inferiority of the Christians" that made them vote along with the majority. On the contrary I was very pleased over this development. A total disapointmnet for people who wished to see another front "Buddhists vs Christians"
What can you do about the fact that Sinhala Buddhists are the majority? Who would vote for their own destruction.
Knowing the numbers how did the UNP expect to win? I expect peopple like Kasul Perera to be able to judge the mood of the people and taking the statistics of ethnic composition of WP to predict these results in advance. That minorities will not vote for UPFA is no big discovery. They never did.
It is upto the minority leaders to join hands with the majority or continue with the agenda of hatred. Help is available from the likes of Kasul Perera.
So the Sinhala Christians and Catholics are not a minority, according to this guy. I suppose thy would have been regarded as such if they had voted UNP! The only minorities are ethnic ones, according to his "logic".
More importantly the writer attempts to depict a sweeping win as a defeat and a thumping defeat even in the UNP's old stronghold the western province, as somehow a victory which confirms a weakness of the Govt! It must be about gus like this that Lenin once wrote "Some comrades think that minus three is greater than minus two".
So this much hyped proposition of the Sinhala supremacist extreme that the Sinhalese are a minority in the Colombo city - that went out to harden
majority feelings more against the Tamils than the Muslims - is totally
false and fabricated. And as for coming of age of the democratic culture,
of which we have nearly 70 yrs of experience, we are clearly not even
beginners. Whereas Colombo city and suburbs have been for some years
nothing more than a dump of rotting, ill-smelling, germ-infested garbage
that includes some of the more fashionable parts of the City proper, voters have had the distant war in their minds. Woefully lack of school
facilities, unhealthy and overcrowded hospital facilities, increasing
drug addiction and crimes related thereto, poor roads, increasing ghettoes, a total break-down of the CMC administration where the Commissioner and MMC's physically mauled each other, gun-toting crime gangs lead by Govt-supported Ministers and MPs are issues that should have been at the forefront of voters minds. The coercion and intimidation that was encouraged to undermine democracy in the EP and the North has made its entry in the Colombo city and district. It will take a long time to get rid of this under the present politicl culture.
It is more goodbye to democracy than a celebration to MR and his
administration. Gangsters have taken over the political running of the WPC with CMC having gone this way years ago. One has but pity and sympathy for the decent voters of Colombo the District silenced now as their cousins in the NEP long ago. It shall not be long before even the better-heeled citizens of Cbo 7 may not be able to walk and travel around their beloved city safely even in the day.
Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan
All these Sound Advices with all the sounds of the Guns and Empty advices by the International Comedians and Indian Jokers are for this Western Provincial Election. Certainly Srilanka is in Deep, deep mess all over the world.
By Bumper Sticker from Tamils against Genocide (TAG) has attracted many and stopped asked me what is these all about. I certainly love to explain the current plight of the Tamil and the Blood thirsty Sinhala Army.
South Africa has seen ANC with Huge Victory and the leadership wants Eelam as the only solution
Tamil Nadu election is on the Eelam platform; certainly this has electrified the Tamil Nadu youths and irked the Congress I.
Few years ago, I think it was in Asian week published an article that Tamil Rebels (especially LTTE) is influencing the formation of governments in two countries. This was over 15 Y ago.
The present climate seems that we are seeing the same still in the South Asian polity.
It seems Tigers whether dead or alive, will continue to influence the politics of the two Countries in many elections to come.
Who said the LTTE got wiped out?
We need more open minded and visionary people like you Kusal,
Take care and be safe.
Regards
April going to May...
Since the article deals with percentages of entire constituents, it should also be pointed out that in this election the turn out was around 60%. Which means 40% of people didn't excercise their vote - which is an important piece of information when analysing the ethnic distributions in Colombo and how they voted.
There are very few people who could properly analyze the result of the PC elections. Over 500,000 UNPiers refrained from voting, for there is no way one could convince Ranil to refrain from supporting or embracing a certain type of individuals to take the lead role in the UNP.
Besides there are a lot of voters who believe that Mahinda has liberated the country from Tamil terrorrists because of the media circus, least realizing he is becoming a terrorist himself thanks to his brothers and clans.
Very insightful analysis - the election results clearly show the attitudinal shifts in present-day SL society with regards to the Rajapakse administration and the military offensives...one wonders what the result would be like if the ethnic minority voters in the Northern, Eastern and North-Western provinces were given a free and fair opportunity to express their political views at an election.......
What an analysis! Sinhalese are the terrorists! SL Govt repeatedly declared that LTTE are the terrorists, not the Tamils in general. Still this man emphasises that the Sinhalese are murdering "Tamil Terrorists"! When the poll stats don't support his Sinhala -Buddhist theory he isolates the "Sinhala" part in Sinhala Non-Buddhists and thrashes them also! I suppose this man is also a "Sinhalese", which goes on to show that there are Sinhalese who will even sleep with any terrorist, notwithstanding their ethnicity.
Dear Kusal Perera,
Thank you for your very perceptive article.
Racist politics are nothing new to Sri Lanka.
SWRD took Ceylon along that path.
JR Jayawardene said on the 11th July 1983:
"I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion... the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy."
Why starve the Tamils? Just allow them to manage their own affairs.
Segaran
The results clearly indicate that the Tamils in Colombo had totally rejected the TNA MP's requests and had voted to UNP and/or SLFP. By the way, the Tamils lawyers in west had also requested the Tamils in Colombo not to vote to UNP/SLFP but that also was rejected.
Good: at least the Tamils now have got back their right to vote without any pressure from LTTE and its hooligans.
I dont know how far what you foresee the division of society is true . It is true the goverment used very strongly the war issue in the electon campaign which they feel have a great impact on the people at the moment and any government would have acted the same way. May be you are unmindful of the fact that Sri Lanka havent had any developing plans and have been entangled in a cronic civil for about 30 years . What had been done to boost the economy was rather patch work to eark out the living than well planed programes aming at future. Your views on the war in the north are impractical and partial. I dont understand how agony murder or slaughter be avoided when a country wages war against a terrorist outfit even though it is not justified. we all are very good at lip service. Let me ask you a question , Have we had any other alternative rather than a military action ? Your artical is in a way is provacative and distructve. You feel today the minorities are sidelined , forgeting the fact that the 30 years agony was a reult of what you mention today. Today more than anythingelse people have understood the importance of living together and repect each other. Is this foreseen as distancing people ?
What LTTE has been doing was strengthening the Sinhala chauvinist forces in the South.
LTTE always undermined the moderate Sinhala politicians by betraying their trust. The greatest betrayal was committed against Ranil. Ranil went for the peace talks whole heartedly and wanted to solve the ethnic issue. Prabakaran revived the LTTE and got full control over North and East. As usual,he is not happy when People are happy in North and East.
His betrayal cost Ranil his chances in president election and his parliament control. It is not that bad as others like Rajiv Gandhi, Premadasa and so on got killed.
Now, I guess, Prabakaran is a happy man, cornered and counting his days to become a “Martyr”.
Correction to my piece above. I meant Colombo District
and not Colombo City - where the Sinhalese continue to be the dominant majority. Incidentally, I have no complaints against this natural phenomena. Nearly 40% abstained from voting or whose Polling Cards, like in the last Presidential Elections, were sabotaged. Many voters in Cbo - openly tired of the Rajapakse regime and more for reasons of a better run City/District than the one they now have - wanted a change. But their democratic rights were again violated by their being disallowed to vote. So where is the legitimacy here? The ideal party who should be championing the people's cause - the UNP - lies bruised, paralysed and virtually leaderless. The more vocal sections of the Govt were, until recently, all from the UNP. From the musical chairs thereafter people are confused who is from the UNP and who from the Govt - that is democracy today a la Lankan style.
Look at the choice for Chief Minister to the richest and most populous Province in the country. One is an underworld bookie with a trail of crooked deals against his name and alleged to have master-minded a
mafia-like gun killing within Hultsdorp Courts itself;
another underworld gangster who has several cases of murder, abduction and rape against him - including a sensational one of a girl with a well-known face. He had both mother and daughter kidnapped and held captive with impunity for days within Colombo 7 itself.
Within the Colombo city itself gun-toting gangs in suspected Govt vehicles moved around Grandpass, Maradana, Kotahena, Maligawatta and other areas threatening those believed to possibly vote against the Govt. People just kept indoors. Very soon Colombo will see Chicago (1940s) style of machine-gun killings,
kidnappings, robbery. Living in Cbo will become hell. One feels sorry for the law-abiding Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others who are rendered to tears.
Governance, the Law and Order system never reached such low levels in our modern history. Want to take a bet on what people pray for daily?
Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan