Focus on Rights
Reflections of a community's will
Female factor critical of poll practices
By: Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
In a small line room festooned with yellow and
red streamers off the main Nuwara-Eliya road, activity was intense a day
before Tuesday's elections. It was a novel development, one of the rare
instances that a community organisation braced itself to brave the hustings
and certainly, the first time that a women's movement had taken the plunge.
Independent Group 2 known as the Sinhala Tamil Rural Women's Network
(STRAWN) had several contradictions to their credit. Contesting the Central
Provincial Council elections as they did from a gender platform, men nevertheless
formed a major part of their organisation as was evident from the numbers
streaming into the line room that cold Monday morning and rather endearingly
identifying themselves as belonging to a women's network.
The group, in fact, fielded fourteen women and six men from widely differing
faiths in an effort to provide a bulwark against the gigantic forces of
the PA, the UNP and the CWC.
The candidates were deliberately chosen from both Sinhalese and Tamil
community workers, a majority of them being fluent in both languages.
Their excitement was infectious, made somewhat tragic however by the
foregone conclusion that their efforts, in spite of all the evident bravado,
were bound to be futile.
" Our aim is to show the people here that there is an alternative
to the major parties.
The JVP has very little profile in this area, even though their visibility
is high in other parts of the country. We are trying, like them, to project
a third force. Whether we succeed or not is not the point. What matters
is that we tried and we will keep on trying" said leader of the group,
Wimali Karunaratne.
In terms of actual polls victory, her words were prophetically pessimistic.
Contesting from Walapone, Hanguranketha, Kotmale and Nuwara-Eliya, her
group was able to gather only a mere 2, 335 votes in contrast to the monolithic
vote banks of the mainstream parties.
By virtue of votes coming into their name from the Kandy district, parts
of which had been long famed for their radicalism, the JVP succeeded in
securing one seat in the Central Provincial Council.
Excepting this, the bulk of the seats were won by the PA (26 seats)
and the UNP (23 seats) with the UCPF winning one seat and the CWC linked
National Union of Workers (NUW) securing six seats through their entrenched
power base in Nuwara-Eliya and thus holding the balance of power in the
Council.
Karunaratne blames the antagonism of the mainstream parties and widespread
intimidation by some politicians whom she has no hesitation in specifically
naming, as being responsible for the defeat, which was more crushing than
expected.
Her organisation records a current membership of about 28, 500 including
a male membership of 5000.
For her and other candidates contesting from her party, it is inconceivable
that such a small number of votes could have been all that is recorded
to their name.
One of the districts from which they contested, namely Walapone was
acknowledged to be among the worst hit by election malpractices on Tuesday,
which included not widespread stuffing like in Wayamba but rather general
intimidation indulged in by politicians of all three major political parties
contesting in the area. We had no weapons. We had only the power of our
voice. Ultimately that did not prove to be enough. But we will not give
up the fight," she says.
The decision of STRAWN to contest the polls and thus transform itself
from a community organisation to a political force was born out of the
failure of successive governments to respond to their demands, particularly
regarding the marginalising of vegetable cultivators and potato farmers
in the area. Translating this frustration into awareness that community
lobbying has its own limitations, it was decided that political action
was imperative. That decision stands unchanged.
Indeed, the community base of her organisation which has worked for
the past eleven years in the hill country mobilising around issues of poverty
alleviation, micro credit, health and nutrition, education, sexual and
reproductive rights, environment and ethnic harmony remains for them the
best inspiration to continue the struggle.
 Contrast
this scenario with a far more depressing one. In the North Central Province
and the Uva Province, the advent of women from the mainstream parties was
particularly evident with PA candidate Jayani Tissera and UNP candidate
Rani Adhikari securing the highest number of preferential votes from the
NCP while the Uva province saw the same for PA candidate Nalini Weerawanni.
The catch however is immediate. All three candidates are not only the
wives of party frontliners in the area in the best political traditions
but to add noticeable insult to injury, both Tissera and Weerawanni are
reportedly bowing themselves out of their elected positions in order to
accommodate their husbands to the Chief Ministerships of the respective
Councils.
Their husbands being, of course, parliamentarians who have not contested
the elections and are thus in no position to morally claim the right to
lead the Councils but will undoubtedly be bequeathed that right owing to
the peculiarities of both the legal and political culture of the day.
Tuesday's elections thus illustrate several very obvious lessons. On
a basic level, it has to be granted that this week's polls were a palpable
relief from Wayamba. As is all too apparent however, Wayamba is no standard
to measure oneselves by or to feel self congratulatory because its excesses
were not repeated.
Why Tuesday's polls were minus widespread election malpractices was
due in no small measure to the public outrage that arose in the wake of
Wayamba, resulting in the staff of the Election Commissioner's Department
and very importantly, the police streamlining their act, rather than to
spectacular initiatives taken by either the Government or the UNP or indeed
the All Party Monitoring Committee. On a commonsensical level too, the
diffusion of party members in five provinces made the concentration of
subversive forces in one area all the more difficult. As the experiences
undergone by STRAWN and other independent groups specially in the Central
Province indicate, the polls could have been a far better reflection of
the community will.
Indeed, the cynics would say that Wayamba's riggers had learned their
lessons well and had gone about their business in a less crude manner.
The forthcoming Southern Provincial Council elections will demonstrate
for a fact whether the electoral process in Sri Lanka is on its way to
recovery or whether the April polls were only a perfunctory and none too
perfect breathing space.
For this, the expansion of power to the Commissioner of Elections, as
requested by him, is imperative.
To what extent the Government will respond to those needs, will continue
to be a good indicator of its genuine mea culpa.
This week's elections are also important in other respects. While the
advent of the JVP, the MEP and the NLF could be counted as a significant
achievement of the present electoral system based on proportional representation,
electoral reform that minimises the defects of PR remains crucial, including
fundamentally a decrease in the vast amount of resources presently needed
to contest any poll whether on a provincial or central level.
It is for this reason that power particularly on a provincial level
remains in the hands of selected politicians from established parties who
then field their own wives, sons and daughters in distastefully dynastic
power games.
The April polls show that there are community organisations who are
now taking a deliberate decision to engage in transformative politics in
the country's electoral process. Regardless of how committed they would
be once within that process, these organisations should be given a fair
chance to prove themselves before the electorate.
Perhaps then, the high percentage of disillusioned voters who rejected
their votes on Tuesday, represented most eloquently by one particularly
disgruntled soul who had scrawled across his ballot paper "these are
all scoundrels" would be diluted.
India hurtling towards crisis
By Vaijayanthi Prakash our correspondent in New Delhi
New Delhi : The prediction of India's one-man demolition
squad, Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, that the BJP government in New Delhi could
fall any day between April 15 and 17, may not come true and the doomsday
may well be some weeks or months away.
But what is certain is that India is hurtling towards instability, with
the government's fate hanging by the thinnest of threads, and the opposition's
ability to form and sustain an alternative government, very suspect.
The Vajpayee Government was taken by surprise when the stormy petrel
Jayalalitha, went back in her assurance that she was with the government.
Back in her home ground in Chennai, she sought the sacking of Defence Minister
George Fernandes, and reiterated the demand that Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat
be reinstated forthwith and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be set
up to probe the charges of corruption he had made against the Defence Minister.
When Mr. Vajpayee refected these demands, the iron Tamil lady withdrew
the two ministers she had in the Vajpayee Cabinet, stopping short of pulling
the rug from under the government and throwing it out of office.
But Ms. Jayalalitha's intentions were clear. She wanted the government
to go, no matter what happened in the aftermath. She could not care less
if the Congress (I), the single biggest party in the Lok Sabha (the lower
house of parliament) was dithering.
Sonia Gandhi was wary about stepping into the BJP's shoes as a Congress
Government would be as unstable. The arithmetic of the Lok Sabha was just
not encouraging. The situation in the week ending April 10 was confused
in the extreme. If on the one hand, the BJP seemed determined to hang on
to power by seeking new allies, Dr. Swamy and the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) stalwart, Harkishen Sing Surjeet, were jetting around the country
trying to sew up an alliance that would not only ensure the overthrow of
the BJP but also offer a relatively stable alternative government.
The rationalist DMK is ideologically opposed to the Hindu fanatic BJP.
The DMK is also anti-Congress, and is more so now that the Congress is
building bridges with its arch rival, the AIADMK. But the DMK might support
a Congress - Left coalition if the Left (say Mr. .Basu) were to lead it.
The TMC is pro-Congress and pro-Left, but is at the same time congenitally
anti-Jayalalitha. It cannot support a government with the AIADMK in it.
And in any alternative government, the AIADMK will be a crucial partner.
The TDP is anti-BJP ideologically but then it cannot join the Congress
bandwagon because in its home turf of Andhra Pradesh, its principal rival
is the Congress. But like the DMK, the TDP could support a left-led government,
doesn't matter if the Congress is a critical prop.
The BJP can count on the support of the Akali Dal of Punjab, the National
Conference of Kashmir, the Shiva Sena of Maharashatra, the Pattali Makkal
Katchi and MDMK. Then of course, there is the Samata Party of George Fernandes
in Bihar. The BJP is trying to woo the Bahujan of Samj Party of Uttar Pradesh
(UP), but the BSP's pound of flesh includes the sacking of the BJP Chief
Minister of UP, Kalyan Singh.
Surprise: No gloating victories, nor bitter
defeat
By Dilrukshi Handunnetti, Our Lobby Correspondent
It was a cold, wet day. But the verbal sparring
inside the House by the Diyawanna was hot. The redeeming factor however
was the dramatic reduction in the levels of trading insults- in the aftermath
of crucial provincial polls where the ruling PA swept the board clean by
5-0.
The mood was unusually quiet. There was neither gloating over victories
by the PA nor barrages of accusations hurled by the Opposition.There were
also no self congratulatory speeches about the liberation of the Madhu
area.
When Deraniyagala member of the UNP, R.A.D. Sirisena opened the innings
for the Opposition, despite the electoral blows suffered by the party,
he paid bouquets and brickbats to the government with equal ease.
"Soon after a volatile election in Kegalle which was engulfed in
SLFP orchestrated violence, it was sad that the Dedigama doctrine had returned
with a vengeance" pointed the MP, expressing shock over the recent
violence.
He said if not for mass scale rigging in Aranayake and Rambukkana, winning
Sabaragamuwa was well within the UNP's reach.
He did not lose the opportunity to rub in the fact
that Tamils were the biggest victims of the election fever-something unbecoming
of a government bending backwards to please the community.
 But
UNP's Mahiyangana member Lakshman Seneviratne was in no mood to mince words.
Representing an electorate in which the UNP secured victory, even at the
disastrous 1994 Presidential polls, the MP refused to compromise and the
mood inside the House changed dramatically with a few errant PA members
scoffing him occasionally as a 'dead loser'.
Breathing fire in the aftermath of a stinging defeat, he directly accused
two PA politicos whom he called 'ulu gadol deviyos' who allegedly bartered
building materials for polling cards.
"The deputy minister spearheading the PA campaign openly flouted
election laws and held a dozen meetings on the day prior to elections.
He roamed the area, heavily armed, accompanied by noted thugs instilling
fear in the people.
"The young MP who assisted him was no better. They collected polling
cards one day ahead and got supporters to mark preferences and stuff the
ballot boxes the next day" he said with vehemence.
He then accused the police deployed in Mahiyangana,of accepting false
complaints by political opponents and acting in connivance of the PA local
leadership.
Mr. Seneviratne alleged that as he was threatened with immediate arrest
at the drop of a hat, he had to stay indoors while his supporters of the
area were mercilessly beaten up, their houses robbed and set on fire allegedly
by this PA's twosome who went on the rampage.
"The two proved to be dynamite in a poor backward electorate but
what the PA should remember is that elections can be rigged but winning
hearts and minds of the people requires something different," he said.
Trying to dilute the argument was PA's new entrant Senerath Sugathadasa
who replaced S. B. Nawinna. He said a bankrupt UNP had opted to taint the
PA to cover up its own inadequacies. He proposed the UNP should stop shedding
crocodile tears and evolve a winning formula. UNPers who were quiet till
then, chorused themselves hoarse with "Wayamba style formula!".
 TULF's
R. Sampanthan, usually objective saw the election results as a definite
endorsement of the PA's broad policies and nothing to do with rigging.
But he did not feel the same way about the NorthEast situation, and
took the Government to task. Observing a serious drift from the PA's earlier
stance towards conflict resolution, he criticised it for choosing the war
over political solution to resolve the conflict, appealing that the war
could never bring back the country's past glory.
These theories received tacit approval from PA's Eastern province representative
H.M. Weerasinghe who said: "There are idiots in all political parties,
Senseless politicians were all condemned to become idiots. This is not
a new phenomenon and the people simply accept this." The entire House
rippled with the unbridled laughter, rare in a house so divided.
Following him with a long list of PA's tyrannies
in the run up to the Sabarag amuwa polls, was UNP's young turk Kabir Hashim,
visibly smarting from the defeat.
He said that rigging and intimidation was the PA's winning formula as
it lacked a people's base. Instead of genuinely testing it's strength,
the PA had adopted devious modes and terrorised the people, he alleged.
The Muslim MP was also disturbed by the fact that
'purdah' clad women had been intimidated so much that they opted not to
go to the polling booths, risking their modesty.
" Your problems are increasing. In addition to malpractices and
your leadership's failure to curb them, the intra party rivalries over
the 'manapes' figured prominently, " he claimed
 PA's
Mahinda Amaraweera was in a militant mood, but contrary to his usual deliveries
targeting the JVP, he turned his guns this time on the UNP.
Elections in Sri Lanka were always ridden with violence, only the extent
differed. The recent polls were far better than anything the UNP ever held,
so the tearful speeches should stop he said.
"Despite UNP's organised campaigns supported by the media and monitoring
groups, the PA had fared well.
False complaints yielded no results and there were only a few serious
offences, while petty offences were considerably high," he argued.
Blaming the PR system, he said that it only resulted in 'brother killing
brother' and sowed seeds of dissent.
While the post mortem continued with hardly anything being mentioned
about the extension of emergency,chief ministerial nominee for Sabaragamuwa,
Athauda Seneviratne appealed for peace and prosperity in the dawning New
Year.
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