Ranil revives the Perumal bogey

The swearing-in of those elected to the local bodies in the Batticaloa District at the Presidential Secretariat signified the importance the government attaches to these elections that, after 14 years, gave the people of the area an opportunity to exercise their franchise in a free and fair manner.

The charges that the election was not free and fair come mainly from the ranks of those who did not have the political courage to stand for election, and others who did not want to see the success of even an experiment in democracy in the East that would bolster the position of the government, lead to a further weakening of the LTTE, and go against the political machinations of the UNP.

There are many foreign correspondents too who apparently had not visited the Batticaloa District during the entire election campaign, or on the date of the election, who repeat the charges of the UNP and some of the NGOs, including those that sprung up mushroom-like during the election campaign, about an election that was punctuated by violence, which is not supported by any evidence.

They also ignore the fact that over 50 per cent of voters did turn out and were able to cast their votes, which is commendable in a situation where the people had been denied the vote for so long and in the climate of fear that was created by those who were opposed to this election.

It is now clear that the UNP is licking its wounds after its non-contested rout of its position in the Batti Polls. The excuses being trotted out by it about the extent of violence had they contested and the twisting of the comments by PAFFREL to suit their thinking, carries no weight in a situation where it is seen by the public as a cowardly organization with no policy to offer to the people of the East.

If the UNP missed the bus in the Batti Polls, as many of its own supportive critics put it somewhat mildly, there are signs that it is now being compelled to catch the next bus, which will be the first ever polls to the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC).

Yet even here the UNP is already busy issuing hollow warnings, which seem to indicate that it is preparing for a defeat in the coming poll which will be held in May, and soften the effect of such a situation.

We already have the loudest political joker in the UNP pack, Lakshman Kiriella, charging that the Government was planning to move the STF out of the East at the insistence of the TVMP, in a calculated attempt to prepare the ground for the rigging of the coming polls to the EPC.

Apparently, the UNP believes this to be the way to prepare the way for what it expects to be a defeat, despite the record of earlier elections in the East, indicating that the UNP does have substantial support in the area.

This is why its National Organiser SB Dissanayake was critical of the party not contesting the Batti Polls and confident of its performance in the EPC election.

But, SB Dissanayake is clearly not among those who take the big decisions in the UNP today, with a struggle already on to replace its General Secretary Tissa Attanayake to accommodate a London-returned favourite of the UNP’s still powerful former chairman.

Sinister warning

Apart from these defeatist sound-bytes coming from the UNP, there was what seems to be a more sinister warning that came from its leader that a successful performance by the TVMP in the EPC poll may lead to a repeat of the Vartharajah Perumal situation.

The UNP leader was no doubt referring to the proclamation of “Unilateral Declaration of Independence” by the former Chief Minister of what was the North East Provincial Council, just before he left the island and set sail to India, in what appeared to be the failure of the experiment in devolution brought about during the UNP’s watch under President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

The Perumal situation is a favourite of those who oppose any form of devolution of power in the country, and it is strange to come from the leader of the UNP that was responsible for the 13th Amendment that made it possible for Perumal to be elected the Chief Minister of the NEPC at the time.

There is no doubt that the presence of the IPKF in the country then did play a major part in the election of the Perumal-led EPRLF to lead the first NEPC. But, faulting Perumal for what appeared to be a last act of desperation, which had no teeth in it, and using that situation to drive fear among the people of giving any accommodation to former separatists shows more of knavery than foolishness.

This is not what is expected from a party that was responsible for the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and the 13th Amendment, and has not, to all public knowledge, dished its belief in the need for maximum devolution of power in the country, although there has been a recent, somewhat wimpish, announcement that the UNP does not favour the federal set up, which flies in the face of the once strongly held positions of the party.

Using the Perumal act as a bogey to drive fear among the people of having any dealings with those who once fought for a separate Eelam along with the LTTE, savours of crude racism that many who continue to support the UNP believe the party is incapable of descending to Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s warning that any electoral success of the TVMP in the East will lead to a repeat of the Perumal situation, ignores all that the UNP did that led to what is now being foist on the people as the worst possible dangers facing the Sri Lankan state.

The reality of what led to the Perumal situation was that the UNP from the very outset of the NEPC acted in a manner to deny to the new political unit of devolution what it was allowed under the 13th Amendment.

The UNP administration of the day systematically obstructed any moves by the NEPC led by Perumal and the EPRLF to use the powers available under the 13th Amendment to manage the affairs of the North and East to serve the needs of the people of that region.

The situation was so bad, as this column once described it, that the Premadasa Administration even turned down funding for a water supply scheme proposed by the NEPC for the town of Trincomalee, which was the key town of the temporarily merged NE Province.

It was in the turning down of funds for development projects in the area, and not devolving the functions that had to be devolved under the 13th Amendment, that the disenchantment with the operation of the new devolved political dispensation began.

This was made worse by the repeated use of the powers available to the Centre under the Concurrent List of Subjects, whereby the Centre took back the functions that were devolved giving rise to a situation in which the very principles of the 13th Amendment were being negated.

It is this policy of the UNP, led at the time by President Premadasa who was opposed both the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord and the 13th Amendment that led to the situation in which in a final desperate move Varatharajah Perumal made his declaration of a separate state and simultaneously set sail for India.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was a key member of the Premadasa Government, as Leader of the House, cannot be ignorant of all of this. It is political chicanery to warn the country of an impending danger of the repeat of a “Perumal situation” without going into all these facts that led to the ultimate situation of the toothless UDA.

This is not to deny the involvement of the IPKF in bolstering the EPRLF, the raising of the Tamil National Army and other developments that took place at the time, with the footnote that all of this was meant to weaken and fight the LTTE, which reneged on its pledge to lay down arms.

But, those who hark back to those days with dire warnings to the public of a repeat of history are unaware of the many changes that have take place since then.

They obviously do not take into consideration that very active presence of the government in the East today, especially the considerable development work that is being undertaken there, which can and must have an impact on the political developments there, including whether the TVMP remains armed, and also for how long it will need to carry arms.

National Flag

Those who now warn the people of a return to the ‘Perumal Situation’ in the East must also recall a very important development there in which too, Varatharajah Perumal was a leading participant. It was the hoisting of the national flag in Trincomalee to mark Independence Day after the NERPC was established.

Then hoisting was done by Chief Minister Perumal, which signified his total allegiance to the Sri Lankan state, and not to any divisive forces. By this one act he had moved away from his days of armed militancy against Sri Lanka.

Those who now revive the bogey of Perumal, would do well to reflect on what policies that the UNP government of that day finally led to this man who was bold enough to make the ultimate demonstration of his support for a single undivided Sri Lanka, to ultimately flee the country, having made a worthless although symbolic declaration of UDI in the North and East.

It is also necessary to recall that the enemy that Perumal fought then was the LTTE that remains the principal enemy of the Sri Lankan State today, and that Perumal and the section of the EPRLF that supports his thinking remains hunted by the LTTE, not for usurping its role of being the first to declare UDA in Sri Lanka, but for the greater offence from its point of view, of supporting the Sri Lankan state and also raising the national standard in open declaration of that support.

It is time the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe gave more thought to these realities, when they now insists that, as the Government has stated, that the 13th Amendment would be implemented fully as the initial move to reach a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict in the country.

To demand full implementation of the 13th Amendment and at the same time warn of the dangers of a emergence of a new Perumal shows and dangerous dichotomy of thinking, that smacks of the worst of political opportunism, that neither serves the needs of the people of the East nor the broader national interest.

It is necessary for the UNP to take a much broader view of developments beyond what the future holds for Ranil Wickremesinghe and his continued, but understandable, desire for power. That is one possible way it can change its record of its defeats in elections, whether national, provincial and local, and bring a more meaningful vision of political change in the country.