Most memorable vote in North since 1977

As voters go to place their ballots in the current phase of the Local Government elections, most eyes, especially those overseas, have been focused on the hustings in the North of the country.

These are the first democratic Local Government elections being held without the threat of intimidation by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since 1982. They are also the first since the end of the civil conflict two years ago.

Readers will probably remember a previous election in the Peninsula, when party lists won entire Pradeshiya Sabhas with as few as seven votes, because the voters were kept away by the LTTE threats.

The day on which the elections are being held is also significant. On this day, 28 years ago, Sri Lanka's nightmare began with a bang which resonated around the world.

The world generally dates what came to be known (thanks mainly to journalist Mervyn de Silva) as the 'Eelam War', from July 23, 1983. It was on this day that Velupillai Prabhakaran and his henchmen ambushed the Sri Lanka Light Infantry's convoy 'Four Four Bravo' at Thirunelveli.

Military operation

From the LTTE point of view, this was an important event. It was the first time they detonated an Improvised Explosive Device in conjunction with an ambush. It was also their first real military operation - previous actions had been confined to robberies, murders and attacks on Police stations.

It was also important in that this action pushed the LTTE into the position of primus inter pares among Eelamist militant groups - a position which had hitherto been held by Prabhakaran's bete noire and the target of much of his criminal activity, Uma Maheswaran's PLOTE.

Even more importantly, it provided the extremists in JR Jayewardene's government with a pretext for the Black July pogrom, in which innocent Tamil civilians all over the country were targeted by government thugs.

In broad daylight, Tamil people were murdered. The Police and Army had orders not to interfere. Non-Tamils who sheltered Tamils received death threats.

Ethnic tension

There was unprecedented looting as Tamil shops and houses were plundered and set on fire. A cartoon in the 'Aththa' paper of the time summed it all up: one thug tells another thug 'when I see all the goods in that shop, I feel my patriotism rising'.

Black July also proved a disaster for the Sri Lankan national idea among Tamils. It created a massive support base overseas for the LTTE's operations in a huge diaspora of embittered Tamils fleeing what they saw as Sinhalese persecution.

In actual fact, most Sinhalese people were appalled at the death and destruction. The pogrom was less an expression of ethnic tension than of state violence, the culmination of a series of attacks on opponents among the populace as a whole.

It all started on July 23, 1977 when JR Jayewardene was sworn in as Prime Minister of this country. Before the election he had promised he would 'give the Police a holiday' and this is what he proceeded to do, establishing a pattern of violence which was to be the hallmark of his rule.

Jayewardene's goondas, using government vehicles went around strongholds of the SLFP and the Left attacking supporters of his opponents, destroying their homes. The Police did not intervene.

Political violence

In particular, these blackshirts targeted Attangalla, Yatiyantota, Dompe and Ruwanwella. In Kegalle district alone some 9,000 families were rendered homeless. Thousands went into hiding in jungles and plantations all around the country.

After about three weeks of this political violence, the goondas turned their attention to Tamils. Fifty thousand Tamil people were rendered homeless and about 300 were killed.

Although the ferocity of the second series of riots was less than the first, 'the riots of 1977' are generally perceived as ethnic, when in reality they were primarily aimed at silencing the opponents of the regime, be they Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim.

The pattern was repeated in 1979, during the General Strike of 1980 and during the Jaffna DDC elections. The Presidential Election and the infamous referendum of 1982 were marked by unprecedented electoral violence, with thugs taking over entire polling booths.

It is in this context that we must look upon the Local Government Elections of July 23, 2011. Voters can go to the polls confident that they can exercise freely their democratic right to elect their own councillors.

For the first time since 1977, the people of the North and East are, by and large, free from violence, whether sponsored by the state or by terrorists.

It does not really matter who wins these elections - whoever ends up getting elected, they will have been put there by the people themselves. It will be a victory of the people.

It is surely the hope of all decent people that this people's victory of July 23, 2011 will put paid finally to the dreadful cycle of violence and loss of freedom begun on July 23, 1977 and punctuated by the events of July 23, 1983.