Sri Lanka: Political history
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A political history: 1956-2013
The Hindu, April 2, 2015
From Solomon Bandaranaike’s election in 1956 to Trincomalee massacre of students happened in 2006 to Velupillai Prabakaran’s death to this year’s development of Rajapaksa’s defeat, here is a detailed history of how Sri Lanka has been seen in the political scenario. Maithripala Sirisena has now won the presidential elections.
2014 President Mahinda Rajapaksa doesn’t allow the UN to investigate the war crimes during the Tamil Tiger insurgency. Mahindra Rajapaksa in an interview with The Hindu says that he faces the twin challenges of external pressure for an international probe into allegations of war crimes and internal pressure over the dialogue process with the Tamil National Alliance.
Nov 2013 Sri Lanka hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) but political heads of India, Canada and Mauritius skips the meeting. Rajapaksa satisfied with India’s representation at Commonwealth meeting
Sept 2013 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wins election at the Northern provincial council.
Aug 2013 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says Sri Lanka was showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction.
Feb 2013 On February 19, 2013 a series of photographs showed Velupillai Prabakaran’s 12- year son Balachandran hit by bullets by a British channel’s documentary. The incident created controversies against Sri Lanka’s armed forces conduct in their final stage of operation against the Tamil Tiger rebels. However Rajapaksa government denied shooting anyone.
Sri Lanka dismisses film on Prabkakaran son’s death
Jan 2013 Rajapaksa dismisses Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake after finding her guilty on three offences including financial irregularities.
2012 Rajapaksa government dismisses UN report which states that Sri Lanka intimidated UN members investigating abuses at the end of the civil war in 2009. UN blames itself for failure during Eelam war climax The former Sri Lankan Army Chief, Sarath Fonseka freed after two and a half years. Sri Lanka was in the same state when it came to ensuring justice to the victims of numerous Human Rights violations.
2011 United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was appointed to monitor the government’s implementation of Human Rights.
2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa re-elected. He promises to restore an independent National Human Rights Commission along with other commissions.
March 2009 Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan (Karuna), former deputy leader of the LTTE joins Rajapaksa's cabinet.
May 2009 On May 18, 2009 Velupillai Prabakaran was killed by the Sri Lankan army. The war between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan military reaches its bitter end and the Tigers decide to silence their guns in the interest of Tamil citizens.
LTTE supremo Prabakaran believed dead
Battle at its bitter end: LTTE
Protest against ‘killing’ of Prabhakaran
2008 Government blames LTTE after 12 civilians killed and 100 injured over a suicide bomb attack. Government launches massive offense ending the 2002 ceasefire agreement.
2007 At least 28 people, which includes 14 cadres of the LTTE, die in clashes between the security forces and the Tamil Tigers in September.
2006 The political killings, child soldiers, abductions, and clashes between the government and LTTE creates tension around the country. The Trincomalee massacre of students happened in 2006. It was considered to be act of state terror. Vankalai massacre of four minority Sri Lankan Tamils. It was also considered to be act of state terror.
2005 Rajapaksa elected for the first time.
2003 The Sri Lankan government and the LTTE hold peace talks and agree on a ceasefire.
2000 The European Union criticises both the Tamil Tigers and security forces concerning the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
1999 A female suicide bomber attacks a police station in Colombo targeting the head of the terrorism unit, Mohammad Nilabdeen.
1995 The third Eelam war breaks out after a suicide squad attacked two naval vessels in Trincomalee killing 12 soldiers.
1994 President Kumaratunga again initiates peace talks with LTTE.
1993 An LTTE suicide bomber kills Ranasinghe Premadasa, the third President of Sri Lanka during a May Day rally.
1991 LTTE suicide bomber kills Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu. He was instrumental in bringing the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
1990 Second Eelam War breaks. East Province taken over by Sri Lankan Forces after heavy fighting. The LTTE continue to kill civilians in the Eastern province.
1988 Nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) protests against the Sri Lanka-India agreement.
1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which was intended to end the civil war between Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists and LTTE, signed.
1983 ‘Black July’ riots erupt in Sri-Lanka; about 64,000 people were killed.
1977 LTTE was formed.
1970 Sirimavo Bandaranaike re-elected and she brings back Sinhalese nationalism.
1965 Opposition party wins the elections and tries reverse the nationalisation.
1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes first woman Prime Minister in the world. She was sworn in on July 21, 1960 after her United National Party won the elections.
1959 On September 25, 1959, Solomon Bandaranaike was shot by Talduwe Somarama, a Buddhist monk. He succumbed to injuries the next day.
1956 Solomon Bandaranaike was elected as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. He made Sinhala the only official language. More than 100 Sri Lankan Tamils people were killed after the Tamil members of parliament protested.
2015: Fall of Rajapaksa
Kingshuk Mukherji@ timesgroup com
The Times of India January 10, 2015
The Southern Expressway leading up to Colombo is calm, deceptively so. The government has changed. The man whose name many hesitated to take, some out of deference, others out of fear, will no longer be president of their country.Mahinda Rajapaksa suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of friend-turned-rival Maithripala Sirisena. Many concede that the dispensation they have voted into office may not necessarily give them a great government.“Had there been an option like NOTA as India has, I would have gone for it. In other words, the candidate I wanted to defeat has lost,“ says Nalaka Pereira, an executive in an IT firm in Colombo.
In many small towns of this island country, development shows. Roads are smooth, expressways built in concrete.Banks, ATMs and finely stocked supermarkets do brisk business, even in villages. No one denies the development story of Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa. But they complain of cronyism, family patronage and corruption.
Voices in Colombo also speak of the media being stifled. There is simmering anger against the disappearance and killings of journalists. Today as results of the keenlywatched Rajapaksa-Sirisena face-off stream in, villages along the expressway are abnormally quiet at high noon.Barring low-key celebrations at the coastal town of Hikkaduwa, there is little to show in the southern parts that this is a moment of change and a new beginning.
“In India, on results day sweet makers probably make a killing, here we struggle to find customers since most markets are closed,“ says the shop attendant of Bombay Sweet Mahal in Galle Street, Colombo.Perhaps the Sri Lankans prefer the safety of quiet celebrations.
“We are a Buddhist country and our belief in peace and compassion is fundamental to us. Many of us did not appreciate some extra constitutional and often violent tactics of key people in the outgoing government. But who can rival the towering personality of Rajapaksa,“ says Vijitha Priyadarshini, a hospitality industry employee. “The previous dispensation had one authority figure. The new will have many .Wonder what they will do? Will there be multiple centres of power saying different things creating confusion?“ she says.Many talk of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga's behind-the-scenes role in keeping the opposition together.What role she will play in the new government is a question everyone is curious about.
A TV channel beaming the election results ran a dramatic colour-coded map of the island nation showing the entire north, east and parts of central Sri Lanka swept by “common candidate“ Maithripala. “Even a town like Negombo, traditionally pro-Rajapaksa, voted Maithripala. This is unbelievable,“ an election watcher in Matara says.
In any case, the die was cast against the incumbent the day both the Tamils and the Muslims decided to vote en bloc for the common candidate.“Maithripala's defection was a master stroke. It came as a stunner and the ruling dispensation was forced to change strategy overnight. They were expecting an opposition charge led by Wickramasinghe and others but with Maithripala skippering the rival camp, the story had changed,“ he says.
In the once strife-torn parts of Jaffna, Rajapaksa's government worked a furious pace rebuilding. The results show.The Colombo-Jaffna highway is a dream. In Jaffna town, there's a push for change and in many years for the first time its Tamil population has a stake in the country's political future.“I went to Kerala at the height of the war,“ says S Sridharan, who runs a hotel in Jaffna.“Now I am back, I have redone the hotel and business is picking up. I want good governance and stability ,“ he says.
Rajapaksa made a last minute bid to shore up his fortunes in the north addressing a rally in Jaffna five days ahead of polling. Despite his rebuilding efforts, the process of integration and reconciliation clearly failed to impress the electorate. Rajapaksa lost by huge margins in Batticaloa, Jaffna and other Tamil areas, where voter turnout was higher than any previous election.
In the capital, a journalist with the public broadcaster said the lack of transparency was the biggest failing of the outgoing government. “Arrogance and good governance seldom go hand in hand. This administration lost its humility and was not open to criticism. That proved its undoing,“ he says.
2018
Rajapaksa triumphs in local elections
R Hariharan, The Empire Strikes Back, February 21, 2018: The Times of India
Rajapaksa triumphs in local elections, his shadow looms again over Sri Lankan politics
The shock waves of the landslide victory of the newly formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, backed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in local government (LG) elections held on February 10, has left the fragile coalition of President Maithripala Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) in total disarray. Many members of both parties are pressuring the leaders to quit the alliance and form the government on their own, while the two leaders are blaming each other for the debacle.
The election had built in uncertainties as this was the first time mixed voting system of proportional and first-pastthe-post voting was adopted for LG polls. Moreover, the parties had to nominate women for 25% of their contestants. The two partners of the coalition contested separately on their own and there was a lot of acrimony between them during the campaigning. Sirisena tried and failed to win back SLFP members in the opposition who were supporting Rajapaksa. UNP’s own internal leadership squabble affected its performance.
70% of 15.8 million Sri Lankans voted to elect a total of 8,293 members to 340 local bodies (24 municipal councils, 41 urban councils and 275 divisional councils) in the election. According to official results, SLPP secured 44.65% of votes and captured 231 local councils, UNP was a distant second polling 32.63% votes to secure only 34 councils; the Sirisena-led SLFP and its National Peoples Freedom Alliance (NPFA) got the worst drubbing, polling a dismal 13.38% votes to capture only 9 councils. The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) – the lead party of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) – captured 41 local councils.
Undoubtedly, SLPP’s vote mostly came from southern Sinhala rural voters indicating the former President Rajapaksa has maintained his support base in the Sinhala heartland. Though LG elections do not necessarily reflect political trends in parliamentary polls, Rajapaksa seems to have retained much of the 47.6% votes he polled in the presidential election in 2015.
Though local issues dominate LG elections, they serve as a barometer of political parties’ strength at the grassroots. Moreover, the much delayed LG elections were also a mid-term reality check on the performance of the ruling national unity coalition which had defeated Rajapaksa not once, but twice, in presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015. If Rajapaksa’s current revival continues, he may well bounce back on political mainstage when elections for nine provincial councils and parliament are held in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
The main reason for the failure of UNP and SLFP appears to be people’s disillusionment with the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition for failing to deliver upon their promises of good governance. Perhaps, the most glaring failure related to the inordinate delay in punishing those responsible for misuse of office, corruption and cronyism during the Rajapaksa regime even though 34 such cases involving Rajapaksa family members and their cohorts have been investigated. On the other hand, Sirisena government had its own baggage of scams like the one involving Raja Mahendran, governor of Bank of Ceylon in issuing sovereign bonds in 2015 and inclusion of tainted members in the coalition.
The government’s co-sponsorship of a UNHRC resolution to investigate human rights excesses and war crimes allegedly committed by the army during the Eelam War probably hurt the nationalist sentiments of many southern Sinhala voters. Sirisena is now reported to be trying to force Wickremesinghe to step down from the PM’s post. On the other hand, Wickremesinghe is said to be contemplating a government on UNP’s own strength.
Finance minister and UNP leader Mangala Samaraweera said, “LG polls 2018 is a timely wake-up call to Yahapalana [good governance] government to get back on track.” Civil society leaders are pressuring both parties to work unitedly, as they do not want Rajapaksa’s autocratic rule once again.
Fall of Sri Lanka’s unity government would be of some concern to India. India owes it to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition which restored balance in the country’s relations, skewed in favour of China during Rajapaksa’s rule. It suits India that TNA has been broadly supportive of the halting efforts of the national unity government to address the Tamil question.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone the extra mile to win back Sri Lanka’s confidence, with success. Squeezed by China’s debt burden, Sri Lanka needs India’s helping hand more than ever before. So, we can expect Sri Lanka to pursue its current policy on India even if there is a change in the ruling coalition.
However, there is a qualitative change in the strategic setting in Indian Ocean region in Sri Lanka’s vicinity, after Maldives President Yameen declared a state of emergency defying a Supreme Court judgment to release former President Nasheed and 11 other parliament members from prison. China has a huge stake in the Yameen government and has explicitly warned India to desist from “interfering” in the internal affairs of Maldives.
Though such a contingency in Sri Lanka does not appear within the realms of possibility, India will have to watch developments in Sri Lanka carefully as China is increasingly dominating Sri Lanka in many facets. The handing over of Hambantota port to the Chinese on lease legitimises China taking suitable measures to protect its interests. This has increased Sri Lanka’s importance in India’s strategic security architecture and India would always prefer a stable and friendly government in Sri Lanka.
The writer served as the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka (1987-90)
