The polarisation of the electorate on ethnic lines that had been highlighted at the previous elections was not so visible at the last week’s Parliamentary election or it was eclipsed by some of the new developments in the north, this time. Nevertheless, the drastic drop of votes and seats obtained by the main Tamil political coalition, the Tamil 
National Alliance (TNA) is one of the major highlights this time.
"Sinhalese nationalists like Weerasekara do not believe in the existence of an ethnic problem in the country and vehemently oppose devolution of power and provincial councils. President Rajapaksa too had already expressed his aversion to devolution"
The TNA, the party which dominated the north for decades had 16 seats in the last Parliament but managed to secure only 10 seats at last week’s election. Its vote bank too had plummeted from 515,963 (4.62 percent) to 327,168 (2.82 percent). Where have the voters who had left the party which contested under the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) gone? They seem to have been carried away by two trends – extreme Tamil nationalism and a trend from the regional ethnic politics towards the national politics.
Two hard-line Tamil nationalists, the former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran who contested under his Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) and leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam seem to have eaten into the TNA’s vote bank considerably. They had bagged over 100,000 votes. Also, Angajan Ramanathan secured the solitary seat won by Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The party had outshined both Wigneswaran’s TMTK and Douglas Devananda’s Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP).
Devananda’s party could also be considered as one representing national politics, despite it carrying the Eelam tag in its name, as he was fighting against secessionist policies since he accepted the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987, even facing the LTTE on the battleground. His party along with the SLFP had outdone parties led by Wigneswaran and Ponnambalam.
In the East, Tamils have elected two loyalists of Rajapaksas, S. Viyalanderan who contested under Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Chief Minister of Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan. Pillayan has almost equaled the number of preferential votes secured both ITAK candidates who were returned from Batticaloa District.
"Two hard-line Tamil nationalists, the former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran who contested under his Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) and leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam seem to have eaten into the TNA’s vote bank considerably. They had bagged over 100,000 votes"
It is a well-known fact that Tamil people in general so hate parties led by Rajapaksas that they even voted Field Marshal (then General) Sarath Fonseka who spearheaded the victorious last lap of war against the LTTE, at the 2010 Presidential election. Yet, this time a sizable number of them have voted for the SLPP and parties already joined hands with it.
Obviously this is not a sign of them accepting the SLPP policies, especially the one towards the ethnic issues, as many leaders of the SLPP attempt to suggest. This seems to be their frustration over the impracticality of political slogans of traditional Tamil leaderships and a craving for the resolution of their economic woes caused mainly by the thirty year-long war. They might still love those slogans, but their impracticality is increasingly obvious to them during the past several decades.
This, in a way, vindicates the contention by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who told the media during his first overseas visit to India in November last year that Tamil people’s problems could be resolved by economic development and not by devolution of power. It is not clear whether this is a permanent change in ideology. However, it is up to the government now to grab the opportunity. Reconciliation, as President’s Counsel Muhammad Ali Sabry, the only Muslim minister appointed to the Cabinet said in a televised interview on Swarnavahini on Monday, is a two-way process where both sides have to step towards each other.
"It is a well-known fact that Tamil people in general so hate parties led by Rajapaksas that they even voted Field Marshal (then General) Sarath Fonseka who spearheaded the victorious last lap of war against the LTTE, at the 2010 Presidential election"
One of the important and interesting incidents in the appointment of Cabinet and State Ministers by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday was the appointment of Rear Admiral (retired) Sarath Weerasekara, the first Director General of the Civil Security Force as the State Minister for Provincial Councils and Local Government.
This reminds us Mahinda Rajapaksa as President appointing controversial Mervyn Silva as the State Minister for Media in April 2010, at a time when the latter had been accused of attacking media institutions and journalists. The parallelism is not in their characters or what they have done to the country, but in the attitude of them toward the subjects, they were assigned to.
Unlike Silva who is an unruly person, Weerasekara is a war veteran who played a pivotal role in the defeat of the LTTE. However, both were appointed to handle issues anathema to them. Weerasekara’s stance on devolution of power in general and provincial council system, in particular, is well known. Besides, he has been appointed Provincial Council Minister against a backdrop of many second-rung leaders of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) calling for the abolition of provincial councils, through the annulment of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution along with the 19th Constitutional Amendment.
"One of the important and interesting incidents in the appointment of Cabinet and State Ministers by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday was the appointment of Rear Admiral (retired) Sarath Weerasekara"
The provincial councils were a direct upshot of the highly controversial Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 and were meant for the Northern and Eastern Provinces in order to resolve the ethnic issue. Sinhalese nationalists like Weerasekara do not believe in the existence of an ethnic problem in the country and vehemently oppose devolution of power and provincial councils. President Rajapaksa too had already expressed his aversion to devolution.
Therefore, it is comprehensible if Tamils are wary of the future of those councils, in the light of the election of Rajapaksa as President and appointment of Weerasekara as the minister in charge of Provincial Councils.
However, Justice Minister Ali Sabry during the same televised interview on Monday said that Provincial Councils would not be abolished. Against the backdrop of calls for the abolition of the 13th Amendment, Sabry, responding to a question stated that the 13th Amendment involved international obligations on Sri Lanka as it was promulgated under the Indo-Lanka Accord. He also said that the government did not want to create a situation that would push the Tamils to the wall which might lead to another separatist rebellion.
All in all, it is not clear if the government would grab the opportunity to win over the minorities in general and Tamils in particular, under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration.
