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SRI LANKA: The Post-Election Road Ahead for President Rajapaksa

COLOMBO, Feb 8 2010 (IPS) - Sri Lankans witnessed one of the country’s most contentious elections ever when President Mahinda Rajapaksa staved off the challenge posed by his former Army commander, Sarath Fonseka, and clinched more than 1.8 million majority votes during the Jan. 26 poll.

Both presidential contenders gained popularity after the Sri Lankan military successfully wiped out the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last May, ending a civil war that spanned more than two decades and cost over 70,000 lives.

Rajapaksa’s new term, set to begin this November, will be full of challenges, as the charismatic leader tries to grapple with the economy and fast-track development. He has promised to develop the war-ravaged north and open a dialogue with minority Tamil political parties, promising to seek a political solution to their long-running grievances.

Since his re-election, Rajapaksa has maintained a reconciliatory tone despite the overwhelming majority of the Tamil votes going to his rival Fonseka. “I am the president of those who voted for me and those who did not,” he said at the Election Commissioner’s Department a day after the election, or within minutes of the announcement of the highly anticipated results.

The road head, however, will not be easy. Rajapaksa will have to make some tough decision that will not please his nationalist Sinhala voter base if he is to come up with a viable solution to the Tamil problem, a leading academic told IPS.

“He will have to bring in the Tamil minority into a position of political power. To do that he will have to take decisions that could be interpreted as concessions,” Terrence Purasinghe, a lecturer at the Sri Jayawardenapura University, told IPS.

Purasinghe believes that Rajapaksa has the best chance to pursue such bold moves. “He is in his second term,” he said, adding that the Constitution forbids him from seeking another term. Being “very popular,” he is in the best position to make such decisions and not worry too much about the political fallout.”

Other observers feel that the newly re-elected president’s decisive victory also strengthens his hand even more. “Rajapaksa’s decisive re-election as president of Sri Lanka gives him an opportunity to move the country forward on multiple fronts: political reform, economic renewal, and reengagement with international players,” the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies said in a paper on the Sri Lankan election written by Uttara Dukkipati, research assistant with the Center’s South Asia Program.

Rajapaksa has indicated that he is not shifting attention from the minority issues. “It is necessary that we give equal priority to the tasks of national reconciliation and the building of trust among all sections of our people, as well as to development that will take us to our rightful place in the community of nations,” he said in his message on the commemoration of the country’s 62nd independence on Feb. 4, his first to the nation since his re- election.

Tamil political parties who backed Rajapaksa during the election think he is their best bet. “If he was not elected, all the development plans, some already implemented, would have been disrupted. He understands the issues facing the Tamils and he will deal with them,” said Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, a former Tiger eastern military commander who broke ranks with the LTTE command in 2004. He is now the Minister of National Integration in the Rajapaksa administration.

Rajapaksa, however, could not gain the support of the largest Tamil party represented in parliament, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The alliance did hold several discussions with the president before the election and before coming forth with a decision to support Fonseka instead.

“The current government has not shown any interest in solving the issues of the Tamils. The President did not give satisfactory responses (during the discussions),” TNA member of parliament Mavi Senathiraja said. Post-election the TNA indicated that it was willing to reopen talks with the President.

Rajapaksa also said that he was willing to consider giving more political powers to the Tamil minority. “I am certain that the people in the north and east could stand on their own feet through a solution wrought by devolving powers to the villages and empowering them in the entire country,” he said in his speech on Independence Day.

But only time will tell how far he is willing to go in devolving power from the centre.

For the tens of thousands of Tamil minorities who fled the fighting between government troops and the LTTE, the more pressing need is getting back to normal life than being granted more political power.

As the fighting wound down in May 2009, over 280,000 civilians fled areas in northern Sri Lanka known as the Vanni, which were held by the Tigers. Of these, more than 150,000 have returned to their home villages while a little above 105,000 still remain at welfare camps.

For those who have returned to their homes like Angela Croos from the village of Arippu in southern Vanni, the immediate need is development. “What we need is permanent peace. We do have peace in the country, but we are still struggling to get back on our feet once again,” she told IPS.

“We have problems when it comes to basic facilities such as toilets, transport and medicine. The nearest hospital is around six miles away. We have to cross a river. The road is not in good condition. We hope that these problems will be addressed now that the election is over.”

Rajapaksa allayed these concerns when he declared national development and the economy were also high on his agenda.

“Our country, which fell back in progress because of the war, needs to be advanced swiftly. Peace alone is not enough,” Rajapaksa declared in his Independence Day address. “One country, one people, one law. That is our way, the only way.”

Said Croos: “We can only believe and hope that things will be better now; we have been through hell.”