May Day and reconciliation

The celebration of May Day as a labour festival originated in the United States of America. Ironically, the USA is one of a handful of countries which does not observe the international day of workers. This year, Police attacked demonstrators in Oakland, California, with tear gas and ‘flash-bang’ stun grenades, whilst in New York Police were deployed against picket lines of ‘The 99 percent’.

In Chile -which voted against Sri Lanka’s human rights record at Geneva - May Day demonstrators in the capital Santiago were attacked with water cannon. In another key US-allied country, Colombia, activists in the capital, Bogota had to run to avoid teargas fired by the Police.

By way of contrast, in Sri Lanka over 10,000 Police personnel were deployed to provide security for May Day rallies, with about 2,000 in Jaffna, where the Opposition United National Party (UNP) held a joint rally with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA); the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which is part of the Governing coalition, also held its rally in Jaffna.

Oldest democracies in Asia

The tone was set by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who told a rally of supporters of his United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the Colombo Town Hall grounds that the government was committed to preserving the public sector and would not privatise the people’s assets.

He said that imperialists were attempting to get hold of the nation’s assets and that, Sri Lanka being one of the oldest democracies in Asia, ‘regime change’ would only be possible through the democratic process, not by foreign-assisted conspiracies.

The President also took a dig at the UNP, saying that Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe should have tendered an apology to the people in Jaffna for the disruption of the District Development Councils election and for the arson attack on the historic Jaffna library in 1981. He affirmed that his government had adopted a policy of ignoring petty differences among the working masses, such as ethnicity and religion, in the struggle for freedom.

Mahajana Eksath Peramuna leader Dinesh Gunawardena, addressing the rally said Ranil should remember that the UNP had a history of banning May Day rallies. National Freedom Front leader Minister Wimal Weerawansa told the assembly that the UNP rally was dedicated to enslaving the masses, to making this country a backyard of the imperialists and to suppressing the freedom and rights of the working masses.

Indian Parliamentary delegation

Meanwhile, the UNP’s woes continued, with the dissident group using the commemoration of President Ranasinghe Premadasa, slain by the LTTE, as a political platform against Ranil’s leadership. Factional spokesperson UNP Southern Provincial Councillor Maithri Gunaratne made this clear on the day prior to May Day, quipping that Ranil Wickremasinghe was not travelling to Jaffna to talk about the workers' rights, but to go whale watching on a private cruise in the Gulf of Mannar.

Dissident group leaders flayed the leadership of the UNP for holding a joint rally with the TNA, long seen as a Parliamentary surrogate for the LTTE, on the day of Premadasa’s assassination.

However, promising signs for the future of the reconciliation process emerged from the joint UNP/TNA May Day rally at St. Roches Ground in Jaffna - apart from an attempt to hoist the Tiger Flag of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The rally began with the leaders of the two parties, Ranil and R Sampanthan hoisting the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka. The message was further underlined by Sampanthan who repeated what he had told the Indian Parliamentary delegation last month, that he was for a united Sri Lanka. He had also told the Indian delegation that he was not in favour of separation and that he was ‘proud to be Sri Lankan’.

National issue

For his part, Ranil told the gathering that the national issue should be resolved by the formulation of a ‘home-grown solution’ and that Sri Lanka should not allow the matter to be internationalised. He said that there was a need for the government and the Opposition to mount a joint effort to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

This positive sign from the joint Opposition, which had hitherto appeared to support foreign intervention in relation to ethnic problems, seems to have elicited a response from the government. It was reported that the nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya, part of the UPFA, had said that the fact that the UNP and TNA held their rally under the national flag and, especially, TNA leader R. Sampanthan carrying the national flag should be highlighted.

Meanwhile leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem said that he would try to persuade the TNA to come to the negotiating table to talk to the government in order to arrive at a consensus on the proposals to be submitted to the Parliamentary Select Committee.

Tamil Diaspora

Certainly, the u-turn by the UNP and the TNA has caused consternation in among the hegemonic ideologues in the Tamil Diaspora. Their official internet organ ‘TamilNet’ virtually frothed at the mouth, rebuking Ranil and Sampanthan.

TamilNet also wheeled on the ‘Tamil Speaking people’ label, conveniently forgetting the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the North and East by the LTTE. This appears symptomatic of an attempt by the Diasporic hegemons to use the ‘Dambulla incident’ to incite ethnic hatred, both here and abroad.

This is apparent from the declarations made recently by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M Karunanidhi’s recent declarations. Accusing him of opportunism, UPFA National List MP, A H M Azwer said that being an octogenarian, Karunanidhi seems to be suffering from amnesia about his silence over the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

What this May Day proved, if nothing else, that Sri Lanka is fast returning to normal, notwithstanding the pronouncements of the Diasporic hegemons or their allies both domestic and overseas.