By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham

Interestingly, there were three similarities between the Opposition political parties in southern Sri Lanka and the Tamil political parties in the north and east at last month’s Local Government (LG) Elections.

The first similarity is that the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) is considered the common political enemy by both sides. The second is the inability of the parties in both regions to come together to take on the ruling party. Thirdly, more than one month after the elections were concluded, these parties are still holding talks and trying to jointly form administrations in the local bodies.

The NPP also continues to face problems in the formation of administrations in most of the local councils, except for the ones where it has an absolute majority. The NPP has a problem in forming administrations jointly with parties it accused of misrule and corruption in the past. But it has no problem seeking the support of elected members from independent groups even if they are former members of the same corrupt parties.

The leaders of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) will, in due course, be compelled to understand the practical difficulty of continuing the old practice of projecting themselves as an ‘exclusive’ party in electoral politics.

Some members of the Opposition parties are said to have supported the NPP in the secret vote to elect chairpersons in some local councils and Opposition parties have accused the Government of trying to lure their members with money. The accusation comes in the backdrop of the ruling party’s insistence on holding a secret ballot to elect chairpersons in the disputed local bodies.

Marriages of convenience?

The main Opposition parties are making great efforts to unite and form local administrations where the combined number of seats won by the Opposition and independent groups is higher than the number of seats won by the ruling party.
In a significant political development, the four Opposition parties – Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), United National Party (UNP), and People’s Alliance (PA) – announced that they had reached an agreement to form a unified administration in LG bodies where the NPP does not have a majority, and that they had already formed administrations in some councils.

They hope to take control of more councils in the coming days, accusing the ruling party of trying to capture certain LG bodies through unethical means.
There is no other common ground between these four parties, except their opposition to the NPP. If there was at least a semblance of commonality in policies between them, they could have come together in the elections to take on the ruling party.

Are the people going to believe when the leaders of these parties say that they have come together for the common purpose of providing quality public service through local authorities? We will be able to know, in the coming days, how many councils they will be able to take over through joint efforts.

Political expediency of Tamil parties

Similarly, in the Tamil majority areas of the north and east, the Tamil parties are hell-bent on preventing the NPP from taking over the administration of any local council. The NPP is the common political enemy of the Tamil parties, just as it is of the Opposition parties in southern Sri Lanka. But the ‘traditional’ party rivalry between them and egocentric personality clashes of their leaders have prevented them from contesting the LG Elections together.

The Tamil parties, which saw the unprecedented victory of the NPP at the Parliamentary Elections last year as a great threat to their political existence, told the Tamil people during the election campaign that they would contest separately but would work together in the administration of the councils.

Tamils voted for these parties and enabled them to recover from the setback they had suffered six months ago. But the main Tamil parties have failed to display the political sagacity and maturity needed to set up local administrations jointly as promised to the people.

It can be seen that the Tamil parties have divided into two camps, namely the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) and the Tamil People’s Council (TPC). They compete with each other in the process of forming the local administrations.

The All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by Parliamentarian Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has so far functioned under the name of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). However, after the setback at the Parliamentary Elections, Ponnambalam changed his intransigence and showed interest in forming alliances.

There is, of course, a welcome element in his change of mind to align with other Tamil parties compared to his past politics. Their alliance, called the Tamil People’s Council, has aligned with the Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) after the elections.

Ponnambalam and his associates now have no discomfort in embracing some of the parties they earlier criticised as ‘traitors’ to the Tamil cause. They also issued a declaration that they had formed a “principle-based coalition,” although the practical and immediate objective was to secure the support of elected members of those parties to form local councils.

Meanwhile, the ITAK has shown no interest in forming alliances. Its President C.V.K. Sivagnanam and Acting General Secretary M.A. Sumanthiran held talks not only with the leaders of the DTNA, but also with Ponnambalam to seek their support to form administrations in the councils. But as expected, they were unable to come to an agreement because of their differing political interests.

The ITAK then sought the support of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) of former Minister Douglas Devananda. Sivagnanam went directly to Devananda’s party office in Jaffna City to meet him. His action is being criticised as a ‘sin’ by the Ponnambalam camp.

A political culture that identified the various Tamil militant movements (which are now political parties) as ‘untouchables,’ siding with governments and acting politically and militarily against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the war, has now been forced to undergo a change for political expediency. A question arises as to the criterion for distinguishing between these parties when seeking their support to form councils.

The ITAK has now come to an agreement even with the Tamil People’s Alliance led by former Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran to get the support of its members who have been elected to a few local councils in Jaffna. Sumanthiran, who was fiercely criticised by Wigneswaran until recently, went to the latter’s Colombo residence and signed the agreement.

However, Wigneswaran’s party, along with the Tamil People’s Council, has supported an independent group to form a local administration in Jaffna last week. No one can say in advance what kind of approach the parties will adopt according to their political convenience until the process of forming all LG administrations has been completed.

ITAK Acting General Secretary Sumanthiran has been forced to warn that disciplinary action will be taken against their elected members if they try to act against the party’s decision.

The road ahead

It is amazing that Tamil politicians and their supporters are issuing announcements after the formation of local council administrations as if they have captured a territory previously controlled by their enemy. Social media is awash with ridiculous posts by the supporters of these parties. So much for their understanding of Tamil politics and the predicament of the Tamil people.
The efforts being made by the Tamil parties today in the formation of local authorities will be useful in the long run only if they are prepared to abandon their old ways and work unitedly for long-term goals.

In politics, compromise is a very important process by which opposing parties reach an agreement by making concessions to each other. It is not a complete consensus; such a possibility is extremely rare. Nevertheless, it will lead to a situation that will help to satisfy the interests of the parties involved to some extent. The real compromise is to come to a common position, recognising differing aims and priorities.

There is no doubt that Tamil parties have started a give-and-take approach in the formation of local authorities, keeping in mind their individual interests. It would be a great thing if this approach extends to the completion of the four-year term of the existing new LG bodies and helps in fulfilling the basic needs of the Tamil people in an effective manner.

Let us wait and see, as our Tamil politicians have just started learning the politics of give and take and of compromise.

Courtesy:Sunday Morning