Tamils In Presidential Predicament

By Munza Mushtaq

Torn between two war heroes a majority of the country’s Tamil population scattered across the country and especially in the north and east, are in a quandary over whom they could choose at next year’s presidential election.

With opposition Tamil parties alleging that the main contenders – incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka have penalised their community over the recent years, there appears to be little choice for the thousands of Tamils when it comes to exercising their franchise on January 26, 2009.
While some Tamil political parties were looking at introducing a common Tamil candidate for the election, the move, according to senior Tamil politicians would likely be counterproductive.

The proposal to bring in a common Tamil candidate was mooted by the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) led by Mano Ganesan, who has already approached the Tamil National Alliance with the idea, while the TNA it is learnt is looking at this option, a final decision will be taken on the matter after the party meets shortly to deliberate its stance over next year’s election.

The Sunday Leader however learns that while some parties are considering introducing a common Tamil candidate to compete alongside Rajapaksa and Fonseka, several senior Tamil politicians have already warned TNA Leader R. Sampanthan against the move, and have instead proposed that the TNA campaign for the third presidential candidate who is New Left Front Leader Wickramabahu Karunaratne.

Meanwhile, despite proposing the candidature of a common Tamil candidate, Mano Ganesan’s DPF on Thursday announced his party’s conditional support to common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka.

The DPF support to Fonseka was tied down to several demands including abolishing the powerful Executive Presidency, implementing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution along with the setting up of the Constitutional Council and Independent Commissions, resettling the internally displaced persons in their original places of residence and complete transparency during prosecution of Tamil detainees at the Boossa and other detention centres in the country.

“We are urging the Tamil community in the 17 districts outside the north and east to vote for Sarath Fonseka,” Ganesan declared.

He however noted that discussions were still underway with the TNA over the predicament facing the civilians in the war torn Northern and Eastern Provinces as a majority of them did not want to vote for either candidate. “We will continue discussions and then come to a decision as to how the north and east people can exercise their franchise on January 26th,” he said.

He emphasized that his party’s main priority now was to drive out President Rajapaksa and his government. According to Ganesan, if Fonseka is elected president, he will immediately call for a parliamentary election.

While, both the government and the United National Party have been attempting to woo the TNA for its support, the alliance has declared that the Tamils cannot vote for either candidate – Rajapaksa or Fonseka.

“Do you think the Tamil community can vote for either of these two candidates?” TNA MP Suresh Premachandran queried. He alleged that both Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka have suppressed the Tamils.

“Both these candidates have harassed the Tamils to the core, they should also take responsibility for the massive number of civilians who languish in displaced camps, so voting for either candidate is impossible for the Tamil community,” he told The Sunday Leader.

While the TNA is yet to make a decision over whom to extend support to, the party opined that the choice for their community was very limited.

The TNA MPs have also been meeting their supporters at grass root levels and seeking their thoughts on the present situation. “The people are annoyed with both of them. As far as the Tamils are concerned – they are both the same. While the people want this government thrown out, they also don’t like the thought of Fonseka as a future president,” Premachandran highlighted.

Meanwhile, the Akhila Ilankai Tamil United Front (AITUF) has decided to support Wickramabahu Karunaratne at next year’s election.

The party’s General Secretary K. Vigneswaran told The Sunday Leader that the first choice was for Karunaratne. But once both Rajapaksa and Fonseka outline their plans for the minorities, then the party will decide who would get the second preferential vote.
“Karunaratne has been a champion of the rights of Tamils and Muslims for years, and morally we can’t give our primary preference to anyone else other than him,” Vigneswaran said.

Meanwhile, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Leader V. Anandasangaree while maintaining that he will not dispute claims made by the TNA that both Rajapaksa and Fonseka did penalize the Tamil community, pointed out that whoever agreed to his party’s demands will get the TULF support.

Anandasangaree will come out with his set of demands soon after nominations on December 17.

But he emphasized to The Sunday Leader that a political solution under the Indian model and not under a unitary constitution will figure on top of his list of demands to both candidates.