Attempt to meddle with affairs of sovereign State

PA protests IDU resolution

The People's Alliance has viewed with dismay and deep concern what it calls the factually flawed, politically motivated and highly intrusive resolution of the International Democratic Union (IDU) which the PA claims is calculated to interfere in the internal affairs of the sovereign State of Sri Lanka.

Issuing a release in this connection, the Party states: "Our attention has been drawn to press reports concerning a resolution adopted by 'The International Democratic Union" (IDU) at a meeting held in Washington D.C. recently.

In a press release issued in Washington after the meeting by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the Opposition and the United National Party (UNP) under the wholly misleading headline 'World Political Leaders Unanimously adopt a Resolution calling for Sri Lanka Presidential Election in 2005', it is stated that in the resolution 'the IDU expressed its concern at the attempts made by the Government of Sri Lanka to postpone the Presidential election scheduled for this year. The IDU supports the efforts of the UNP and other democratic organisations to ensure that the sovereignty of the people is upheld and the people of Sri Lanka are able to exercise their franchise for the election of a President of the Republic this year'.

The press release adds that party leaders from 26 countries including three Prime Ministers participated at the meeting. They included the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, Chairman of the US Republican Party Ken Mehlmen and Liam Fox, Chairman of the Conservative Party of the UK.

According to the press release 'at Prime Minister Howard's initiative, the IDU party leaders expressed the hope that member parties from Sri Lanka, Norway, Canada, Germany and Honduras succeed at elections due in this coming year.' Although the organisation describes itself as the International Democratic Union it is in fact an association of individuals only from conservative right wing parties.

The British Labour Party, the Democratic Party of the United States, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, the Congress Party nor even the BJP of India and many other current ruling parties in democratic countries are not members of the Union.

The IDU has 149 full members from Conservative parties of around 50 countries.

Australia has 14 members of which the Liberal Party has six including Prime Minister John Howard and the Australian Embassy has eight; the Conservative Party of Canada has eleven, the Croatian Democratic Union has eight, the Nea Demokratia Party of Greece has seven, the Conservative Party of Norway has four including the Foreign Minister, the KMT (Kuomintang) Party of Taiwan has eleven, The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom has three including Liam Fox, shadow Sectretary of Foreign Affairs. The United National Party of Sri Lanka has three members. They are Ranil Wickremesinghe, Milinda Moragoda and Devinda Subasinghe.

In the rest of South Asia, apart from Nepal which has an observer from the National Democratic Party, no other country has even one member of the IDU. Thus the three members of the UNP in Sri Lanka stand alone as the only members of the IDU in the entire sub-continent.

This is why the headline of the UNP press release from Washington DC referring to "World Political Leaders" is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.

The stated wish of the IDU that member parties from Sri Lanka and certain other named countries succeed in elections due this coming year clearly reveals the partisan nature of the IDU.

The People's Alliance registers its deep concern at the factually flawed, politically motivated, highly intrusive resolution of the IDU which is calculated to interfere in the internal affairs of the sovereign state of Sri Lanka. The assertion that the Government of Sri Lanka is attempting to postpone the Presidential election and that there is a threat to the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka and their right to exercise their franchise are not only baseless but also extremely provocative.

This assertion displays a total lack of understanding of the legal considerations pertaining to a Presidential election.

According to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the Commissioner of Elections, not the Government, has sole responsibility for fixing the date of a Presidential Election.

The calculation of dates is provided for in Article 31 of the Constitution. The independence of the Commissioner of Elections is assured by Article 103 of the Constitution.

The decision of the Commissioner relating to the date of the Presidential election maybe reviewed by the Supreme Court which is the sole authority for interpreting the Constitution.

The IDU resolution is a simplistic, ill judged, factually incorrect, politically inspired and brazenly partisan attempt by a group of politicians meeting in a third country to undermine the authority of the Commissioner of Elections, to intimidate the Supreme Court, deride the Constitution and insult the people of Sri Lanka, all at the behest of the three members of the UNP, members of the IDU, who have deliberately misled the IDU in order to secure a resolution designed to serve their narrow political objectives in Sri Lanka.

Another sinister aspect of this sorry episode is the attempt by the UNP to show that it has the support of the Norwegian government for its domestic political agenda. It will be prudent for the Norwegian Government to disassociate itself promptly from this petty UNP manoeuvre, if it wishes to be taken seriously as an impartial facilitator in Sri Lanka's peace process.

The people of Sri Lanka will shudder at the thought that the IDU has designated the UNP as the custodian of democracy in Sri Lanka.

The history of the UNP's anti-democratic practices is too well-known for the people to forget. They remember only too well that the UNP is the only Party that perpetrated a reign of State terror, which presided over the massacres of 33,000 youths and Buddhist monks, as well as the illegal imprisonment and harassment of thousands of democratic political opponents.

The parties of the People's Alliance alone relentlessly waged a battle to restore democracy in Sri Lanka, while many of our members were being killed by the UNP government of which Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe was a leading Minister.

Democracy remains safe today in our country only because one Party had the courage to fight against the UNP government's efforts to destroy it.

The IDU's total ignorance of realities stands exposed."