Rajapaksa Reaches Out to Tamil Voters
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is assiduously wooing Tamils, both Sri Lankan Tamils (SLT) living in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the Tamils of Indian Origin (TIO), living in the plantations of Central Sri Lanka, ahead of the January 8 Presidential election.He has not only toured the North and East more than once, but has made some promises, which will attract those who had suffered during the war against terror.In his manifesto, Rajapaksa has said that he will appoint a special committee to go into the question of releasing young men and women detained on the charge of collaborating with the LTTE. Vehicles and lands seized from the Tamils during the war and after will be returned, he said.
To the plantation workers of Indian origin, he has promised that each family will get 7 “perches” of land (enough to build a small house). Besides, they will also be given houses. A plot of land and a house have been a long standing demand of the plantation workers. At present, they live in cramped hovels called “Line Rooms” as they had been since the 1840s.It is significant that till now, all Lankan governments have rejected the Indian origin plantation workers’ demand for land and houses. The Rajapaksa government had been planning to put the workers up in multi-storeyed tenements on narrow plots of land, a scheme rejected by the Tamils.
On the political front Rajapaksa has promised to turn parliament into a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution.While Rajapaksa’s manifesto has something at least for the Tamils, even as it is silent on devolution of power, joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto does not even mention the Tamils and their concerns. So far, he has not visited the Tamil areas nor has he spoken about the Tamils.
Apologists for Sirisena say that the Tamil issue has been given the miss to prevent Rajapaksa from dubbing him as pro-Tamil and even pro-LTTE. But Tamils in the North have noticed this lacuna and are put off by it. Many have reportedly decided to boycott the election as the “choice is between the devil (Rajapaksa) and the deep sea (Sirisena).”However, the politically conscious Tamils including activists of the Tamil National Alliance, the Tamil National Peoples’ Front, the Global Tamil Forum and the Tamil United Liberation Front, are against a boycott. They have not openly backed any candidate, but have asked people to vote. They are also conducting a low key, house to house campaign in favour of Sirisena if only to see Rajapaksa humbled.
By P K Balachandran
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