Vedda Chieftain Uruwarige Vanniyaletto announced on Monday his plan to form a new political party and field its own clansmen as independent candidates to contest the local government.

He told the Island newspaper: “I have instructed the community leaders in those areas to nominate their candidates. We have been voting for the main political parties for decades. But those elected from these parties do not look after our interests. They visit us only during the times of election campaigns to get our votes. We have decided not to support any political party again. No government has cared to look after our interests.”

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But is this wise? Wise for the survival of Vanniyaletto? Wise to expect a community’s leaders to promote the community’s interest once they become fully entrenched in politics?

The bold champions of the Sinhala Buddhists have been the Rajapaksa-led SLPP which amassed a record 6.9 million votes plugging the patriotic card. Its leader former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his inaugural speech, unashamedly swore to protect and foster the rights of the majority community against all else. Did he or his party members do so? The only interests they protected and fostered were their own. The Sinhala Buddhist lamb was fleeced unreservedly and left naked for world powers to eye its meat for a carrion feast.

How manifestly wise 6.9 million voters were when they elected Gotabaya as President to look after their interests, can startlingly be seen by photographs published this week showing the holidaying ex-President and his family enjoying the wonders of Miracle Park in Dubai whilst his countrymen pray for a miracle to find food on the table.

Will the fate that befell the majority race lie in store to befall the ‘vedda’ tribe that has withstood the vicissitudes of time and fate for thousands of years and kept its traditions, customs and lifestyle intact for generations?

The Mahavamsa Chronicle records the origin of the ‘Vedda’ species as starting after Vijaya’s arrival on the northwestern shores of Lanka in 543 BC. But the ‘Veddas’ give short shrift to the Mahawamsa tale that the founders of their line were the betrayed Kuveni’s son and daughter whom Vijaya had sired and abandoned without remorse.

Rejecting the chronicle’s account out of hand, they’ boasts an ancestry well over 16,000 BC. Lankan archaeologist Deraniyagala maintained the ‘Veddas’ are racially akin to the 30,000 BC’s Balangoda Man. Even today, this indigenous tribe rejects the name ‘Vedda’ which means ‘hunter with bow and arrows’, derived from the Pali word ‘viyaadha,’ and hold themselves as ‘Vanniyaletto’ which means ‘forest dweller’.

Throughout the last two thousand years of recorded history, the Vanniyaletto have retained their distinct racial identity and stoically lived by the natural laws of the jungle. In common with indigenous people in other lands, they have worshiped nature and revered its austere code, content to take from their environment only what they need to survive.

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Today these ancient natives of Lanka have settled close to rural villages and many engage in slash-and-burn or Chena cultivation. But their wooden bows and arrows have not been turned into stools and chairs, for their zest for hunting to supply their meat-rich diets has not dimmed the slightest. But what has emerged stronger is the threat to their natural lifestyle.

Dambana, near Mahiyangana, can be considered the capital village of the Vanniyaletto. Here their traditions and language are still kept alive and kicking. It is from here that the present tribal chieftain, Uruwarige Vanniyaletto, rules his jungle domain and rues the intrusion into his preserve.

With modern development, their traditional hunting grounds have shrunk in size. Like elephants stepping out of their natural habitat when denied access to their feeding grounds, these proud people feel the pressure to stray beyond their natural perimeters into unknown terrain.

But is stepping into the political fray, the true answer to their animistic prayers?

The traps laid out in the political rat race with easy cash as bait are more lethal and permanent than the snares set to trap rabbits in the jungle. Will the representatives of the tribal clan have the moral fibre to resist temptation when served on a platter? Will avarice overcome contentment, and lead them to betray their people’s trust? Sway them to sell the tribesmen’s collective birthright, which they have forsworn to defend, down the river for personal profit even as Sinhalese politicians have bartered the nation’s sovereignty?

Isn’t there a better way to reach out? The world will lend a keen ear to the strident voice of a distinct ancient tribe in its battle for survival. But the world will be deaf to a voice drowned in the cacophony of political assembly.

Has the Vanniyaletto chief been ill-advised? Of late, he has emerged from his jungle lair more frequently than in the past and has taken a shine to basking in television’s limelight. His appearance, a few months ago, on the TV quiz show ‘How to become a Millionaire’, no doubt, would have increased his fan mail and, perhaps, whetted his appetite for greater fame.

But even as misplaced ambition urges him to think his tribe can be turned into a political force, he should perhaps, focus on whether he has the numbers needed to meet the task. The population of his tribe is held to be less than 500. Can a chosen few, representing that number, make any difference? Once the novelty of having a Vanniyaletto in the chamber has worn off would anyone take notice, except to buy their vote?

Would the Vanniyaletto representatives end up as doomed as the few Buddhist Sasana defenders in robes in Parliament were when novelty faded and was replaced by scorn? They have to look no further than at the solitary monk who now sits in Parliament, contemptuously dismissed by many as of no importance.

The Vanniyaletto leader announcing the decision to contest elections said: ‘We have to look after our own interests.’

All well and good. It’s the fundamental right of every adult citizen to contest elections. But before the exercise of this particular right, the wise elders must ask themselves, whether plunging with eyes shut into the political mire will be in the best interest of the community or whether it will spell the beginning of the Vanniyaletto’s end.