Dr. Raja Johnpulle, a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the United National Party (UNP) was watching the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) procession as it meandered past his house in the Anuradhapura town around 3.30 in the afternoon of Wednesday, the 19th. He's seen these over the years, often with a degree of bon-homie associated with the politics of a by-gone era.
The one-time Ambassador to the former Soviet Union did not quite realise that times have changed. Some of the over-enthusiastic supporters of the ruling party got off two bikes and began tearing down the huge cut-out of Major-General (Ret.) Janaka Perera, the UNP's Chief Minister nominee for yesterday's North Central province council elections.
Dr. Johnpulle intervened to tell the UPFA boys that they can't do that. This was his house, and he was entitled to have any cut-out within his premises. That did not deter them. More people joined. Armed with poles they dealt a blow to the 68-year-old medical practitioner opening a big gash on his head.
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| Medical Practitioner Dr. Raja Johnpulle had served the people of Anuradhapura for nearly four decades but on Wednesday a political mob set fire to his residence and dispensary. An inmate is seen searching for any items or documents that might have survived the blazing attack. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
Then, from inside Dr. Johnpulle's house a gun shot was heard. A UPFA supporter among the mob dropped on the road. The procession turned into a chaotic frenzy and people began throwing stones at the Johnpulle residence, as the doctor was forced to jump over the rear wall of his premises into the adjoining General's Hotel premises.
Then, the crowd had turned into a mob, entered the Johnpulle residence with petrol-bombs and burnt the entire house down to cinders. All Dr. Johnpulle's documents - medical records of patients, deeds, bank statements and personal mementos of a lifetime's service to the people of the North Central province and his country turned to ash.
Later, Dr. Johnpulle met DIG Pathirana and asked what the Police did when all this was taking place. The UNP claimed it has video footage of a North Central province VIP and his son inside the Johnpulle residence. The UNP was displaying this as proof of their involvement in the arson. Then, yesterday, Dr. Johnpulle and his wife faced another ignominy - an insult to injury - they were prevented from voting because they didn't possess their National Identity Cards (NIC), which were burnt in the fire. However, the intervention of an Assistant Elections Commissioner enabled them to cast their vote later in the day.
That same night, the brother of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary, Maithripala Sirisena was set upon by UNP goons and mercilessly assaulted. Dudley Sirisena, the owner of mills that marketed rice under the brand name 'Sudu Araliya', was returning from an election meeting at Jayanthipura, when he came across some UNP supporters at the Bendiwewa area. UNP supporters claim he began abusing them, and in turn, they had forced him to kneel. One of the UNP supporters had then rushed and brought down further partymen, including a candidate. Then they began assaulting him, fracturing his ankle in the process.
Sirisena was rushed to the Polonnaruwa hospital, and then to the Accident Ward of the Colombo National Hospital. He was discharged the next day, but not before giving a statement accusing a UNP candidate of being among those who set upon him. On his return, SLFP supporters organised a welcome ceremony in front of the UNP candidate Hemantha Hettiarchchi's residence, as if to prove a point.
These two incidents give a glimpse of the type of violence that was witnessed on the eve of yesterday's polls to the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces.
The total number of election related incidents in the four districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kegalle and Ratnapura was more than 200, and assaults and shooting as high as 50; damage to political party offices - with shooting involved - was 31. Misuse of state property was reported at 25 cases, which is an indictment on the UPFA Government, though none of these eventually matters, because little or no action is taken these days over the misuse of state property.
In stark contrast to what happened in the run-up to the polls, polling day itself was relatively calm. Independent polls monitors reported a group of UPFA supporters led by a Minister of having assaulted some people in the vicinity of the Zahira College polling booth at Mawanella (Sabaragamuwa province) and that six vehicles in the Minister's entourage travelling without license plates.
In Balangoda (also Sabaragamuwa province), supporters of another Minister were reported to have snatched the polling cards of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) supporters.
There were also reports of chasing away of voters in Polonnaruwa and UNP polling agents in Horowapatana and election campaigning beyond the Wednesday midnight deadline, but from what was anticipated, the incidents were not what many analysts believed would occur.
These analysts believe that, more than any effective policing on the ground or measures adopted by the Elections Commissioner to stem malpractices or vote rigging by pressing for the production of the NIC before issuing a ballot paper, it was the fact that the UNP, and to some extent the JVP decided to meet fire with fire against the ruling UPFA, that calmed things down on D-Day.
It was in the afternoon that tension mounted in most of the two provinces after the morning passed fairly peacefully.
Whether the UNP wins or not, in many ways the Rajapaksa administration has done it a favour by giving a wake-up call to a party in the doldrums. The party's grassroots organisations machinery had collapsed, and the party leadership seemed unconcerned. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe seemed to opt for a strategy of mobilising international pressure to brow-beat the Rajapaksa government, rather than use People Power. Rajapaksa often was annoyed with foreign ambassadors and governments lecturing him, and would turn to the people and complain that Wickremesinghe was being unpatriotic. Which is one reason why he went to the people so that he could get their mandate and prove to the world that what he was doing, was the right thing by the country.
The party's NCP Chief Ministerial Candidate, Janaka Perera, himself lamented how weak the UNP was at grassroots levels in the province. The elders had either resigned themselves to the fate of the party, while the middle aged with a future ahead had drifted to power centres. The youth found the left parties more attractive. The party's Colombo-based hierarchy had lost complete touch with its once powerful rural base, the vote-basket or the vote-bowl of the party. The twin elections in the NCP and Sabaragamuwa at least gave some life to the dwindling membership.
The entry of Major Gen. Perera and film star Ranjan Ramanayake helped raise the profile of the UNP in both these provinces that had not thrown up a second string of politicians. Not that the ruling UPFA had either. When one goes through the list of candidates from the UPFA, they are either, husbands, sons or uncles of existing politicians which quite rightly raised the issue whether this was all for the benefit of certain politically influential families in these provinces.
Both, Perera and Ramanayake took up the challenge of systematic violence unleashed by the ruling politicians of these provinces. Not that election violence is the monopoly of any one party, but it is usually the ruling party that engages in it first because party supporters know that the police will be slow to act against them.
The UNP must be hoping that the standing up to the violence in the NCP and Sabaragamuwa would hold it in good stead if a general election is called or more provincial elections are held. With the Wayamba provincial council election
next on the cards, one need not have such a long memory to recall the worst election ever held in Sri Lanka under the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga. She herself had to concede to "some cases" of violence taking place. The point now, though, is that some of those who spearheaded the violence on that occasion at Wayamba are now with the UNP, and quite capable of re-enacting this violence, this time on behalf of the Opposition.
The Government threw in the full muscle for these two polls. State media worked round-the-clock interviewing Cabinet Ministers, and unleashing some pugnacious Cabinet Ministers who loyally served under the Prime Ministership of Ranil Wickremesinghe to launch a vitriolic tirade on him.
On cue, the news that the Army had marched into Tunukkai and Uyilankulam towns in the Wanni area and taken command of the A-9 highway broke in the national media on polling day. The military drive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was very much part of the Government's platform during the campaign. It went as far as to ask for a vote for the Security Forces fighting the terrorists (by voting for the UPFA).
As much as it may seem a little unfair to drag the soldiers into the murky political battleground, the Government continues to score on the fact that it is committed to eliminating the LTTE once and for all.
In diplomatic circles this week, there was, if grudgingly sometimes, admittance that the Security Forces were indeed making headway and the annihilation of the LTTE was nigh.
Whether this came after comments made by India's National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan after his recent visit to Sri Lanka, when he said that the Sri Lankan Army may win the battle (against the LTTE), and is therefore the official Indian perception of the on-going military offensive, is not clear. But more and more western diplomats seem to believe that the LTTE's days are also numbered, though it would too premature to predict its capitulation this early.
There were some concerns in the Defence Establishment late this week whether a Taliban attack outside Pakistan's main ordnance complex on Thursday which killed over 50 people would disrupt Pakistan's military supplies to the Sri Lanka Army now on a roll in the Wanni using heavy artillery on LTTE targets.
The Wah factory in Islamabad is a heavily guarded complex, the hub of Pakistan's defence industry where about 25,000 workers produce explosives, ordnance and weapons in about 15 factories.
A Pakistan High Commission official in Colombo said that they did not believe that the factory itself was harmed as the suicide attacks occurred outside the complex.
In the days ahead, the Government's political health will be hitched more and more with the Security Forces successes against the LTTE. This is bound to be the case when prices keep rising, and stories of corruption at high levels seep into the population.
The Opposition UNP will need to meet this irresistible appeal to the masses by the Government; Country First, Stomach Second.
By putting forward Maj-Gen. (Ret.) Janaka Perera, the UNP was able to negate the Government's accusation that the UNP was an anti-national party. But some UNP leaders still keep harping on a political solution with the LTTE, something that is not only not sexy with the vast majority of the Sinhalese electorate, but also sounds hollow in the backdrop of Security Forces advances. It will be time for the UNP to re-think this line if it is to mount some challenge to the Rajapaksa administration which seems to be able get the mileage it wants despite all the odds otherwise stacked against it.
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