Democracy scores big in the North

That the UPFA had won the overall majority of Local Government bodies in the 2011 LG polls was clear from the results of the first phase in March this year. The polls last Saturday only confirmed this, giving it 250 local bodies of 330 that were polled on both occasions.

The analyses of the July 23 polls for elections to in the North is largely focusing on the performance of the UPFA, in what has largely been unknown territory to it for very long. Observers and commentators from both here and abroad, from the media and NGOs alike, not unexpectedly, have been focusing on what they describe either as a resounding victory for the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, or on what is seen as the defeat of the UPFA in the majority Tamil province, where the LTTE once held sway.

What is ignored is the very aspect of democracy that has given whatever result available for analysis, on the basis of statistics, political impact or propaganda mileage. When reading most reports that gloat over the overall success of the TNA in winning the vast majority of local bodies in the North, there appears to be clear pleasure that a party once known, and which did behave, as the proxy of the terrorist LTTE, had the biggest gains. There is a hardly veiled attempt to show that the voters of the North preferred a pro-LTTE organization to any other in the field.

Political solution

The statements from the TNA following its success also attempts to show that they still carry the torch of LTTE ideology, although acknowledging reality by stating that they do not advocate separatism any more. Like most commentators, especially from interested NGO or ‘civil society’ groups, the TNA too see in these poll results the need for an early political solution to the concerns and aspirations of the Tamils, with no proper survey of the people’s views to arrive at such a conclusion, based on the results of Local Government polls.

It is necessary to recall here what President Mahinda Rajapaksa has stated on many occasions, especially during and after the Presidential poll of January last year’s and the General Election that followed. In both these elections the UPFA did not, in the North, have the success it had in other provinces. But, what President Rajapaksa said was that his main concern was to give the people of the North, the right to vote that they had been deprived of for so long, due to the terror of the LTTE, and the activities of its political proxies and other agents, both local and foreign.

The President’s reaction to the results of the last Saturday’s Local Government polls in the North was no different. Whether the UPFA won a majority or not, and certainly the former would have pleased him more, his main satisfaction was in the ability to successfully hold what has been broadly reported as free and fair election to 69 local bodies in the North, and by this once again giving the Tamil people of the North the democratic right of choosing their own local authority representatives, which they were deprived of for so long.

Immaterial of which party has had the most gains it is the Tamil people of the North who are the real winners in this contest. They are the winners in being able to choose their representatives who will run their Local Government administrations until the next round of voting. This is no small success, in the context of a province where the LTTE through its ruthless terror had prevented the functioning of any democratic institutions and saw to it that anyone who dared oppose it, from teachers to trade unionists, politicians and Tamil leaders were eliminated in the most brutal way.

Northern polls

The very success of the TNA in the Northern polls also calls into question much of the warnings and claims made of polls violence and intimidation, carried out to favour the UPFA. The reports that were given by local polls commentators, especially to some foreign media, were that the possibility of a free and fair election was gravely in doubt, with the government using the security forces and para-military groups to help the UPFA candidates. In the event, all of this fear mongering was proved unreal by the voters of the North who chose who they wanted to run their local administrations, except in a few places, that can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

The results of these Northern polls do not detract from the necessity to have a political solution to the problems of the Tamil people. After the conclusion of an armed conflict that has caused so much loss to the country, with problems that began over the rights of the Tamil people and later manipulated by politics on both sides of the divide, the call for a political solution, is one that has the highest priority.

Yet, it is not possible to take the readings of the first free Local Government election in the North, after nearly three decades, to work out the blueprint for such a solution. It is a matter that needs careful study both by the government, and those opposed to it, including those who won in this latest local round in the North, to produce a solution that will be lasting and will safeguard the democratic rights that have now been restored to the people of the North, from any threats in the future.

It is interesting to note that those who have won in the North and are raising many an old slogan about the rights of the Tamil people, hardly made any such noises when the Tamil people of the North were held captive there and denied all democracy.

Winning and losing is all part of the democratic process. This is a country that has seen governments overturned by the ballot on many occasions.

The faith in the democratic process, at least the aspect of elective or representative democracy is strong in our people, albeit with some questions about the realities of party politics, and the commitment to democracy among many politicians and political parties.

Yet, the results of last weekend’s polls in the Northern Province have produced a winner that has not been named so far. It is Democracy. The adherence of the various contestants to the true spirit of democracy may be in question. But the people were able to participate in the democratic process and declare who their representatives should be.

This should give a major boost to the process of reconciliation and strengthen the faith of the people of the North in the success and rewards of the democratic process.

Even with a low tally of nearly 25 percent at these local polls, President Rajapaksa has cause to be pleased once again, and also encouraged, with the UPFA’s success in restoring democracy to the people of the North. This is why the government’s first reaction to last Saturday’s result was to state that development work in the North will continue, where democracy has won and is taking root once again.