POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Tamils Losing Faith in Kumaratunga

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Apr 28 1999 (IPS) - Sri Lanka’s sizeable Tamil minority community is fast losing faith in President Chandrika Kumaratunga who has stumbled after bold steps to end the 16-year-old ethnic violence in the Indian Ocean island nation.

Tamil citizens and political groups who had pinned great hopes on the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) when it took office five years ago, now feel “frustrated and depressed.”

Political observers caution that this may cost Kumaratunga valuable Tamil support in her bid to retain office. Buoyed up by wins in the recent regional polls, the PA is eyeing early national elections this year to choose a new Parliament and head of state.

The polls are due next year, but analysts expect Kumaratunga to advance the schedule to cash in on the PA’s impressive show in the last of a series of provincial council elections.

Kumaratunga must keep an eye on Tamil support. The government has a one-vote majority and relies on allies like Tamil groups.

“Tamil sympathy for Kumaratunga has disappeared. I don’t think the Tamils are in a position to accept any more promises,” said Suresh Premachandran, secretary of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), a former militant group.

“The entire Tamil population had believed she would finish this war and bring peace,” he added.

A bold peace plan, centred on a radical devolution of powers to the northern and the eastern regions where most Tamils live, has been blocked by the opposition.

“There was so much of hope when she was elected. But all that has vanished. We are disillusioned, angry, afraid and frustrated,” said a Tamil woman who lives in Colombo.

Another Tamil woman recalled cooking traditional delicacies to celebrate Kumaratunga’s election in 1994. “There was so much of hope particularly since she is also a widow like many other Tamil women. Now there is only despair,” she said.

Kumaratunga was elected President three months after her coalition’s August 1994 win in the parliamentary poll. She had then promised a swift end to Sri Lanka’s biggest political problem and to restore dignity to the minorities.

Tamils were among the major supporters of the charismatic leader, the daughter of two former prime ministers.

Soon after taking office, the PA brought the Tamil Tiger rebels to the negotiating table. But the peace talks ended abruptly in April 1995 and government troops began battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the first time under the PA.

Kumaratunga tried to woo the rebels by offering sweeping autonomy for the provinces. But the main opposition United National Party (UNP) has rejected the nearly three-year-old proposal.

More than 75,000 people have died in the ethnic violence unleashed by Tamil militants demanding an independent homeland. Tamils make up 12.5 percent of the about 19 Sri Lankans and have complained of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese community.

The government asserts that it will be able to implement the peace deal, but Tamil parties supporting the ruling alliance disagree.

“I don’t think they can do it in this term of office,” said Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Front (EPDP) whose former militant group has 13 lawmakers.

The government has also angered Tamils by discontinuing job quotas introduced by former President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1992 which earmarked 12 percent of recruitment to the elite Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) for Tamils.

“The PA has done away with this system and few Tamils enter the public service now. Another category is teachers. The north and east is badly understaffed with teachers,” said noted Tamil political commentator Dharmaratnam Sivaram.

Tamils are “submissive, frustrated and depressed” and many want to leave the country, said Maheswary Velautham, a Tamil woman lawyer who organises a free legal clinic for Tamils.

The community also complains of harassment by security forces. “It is a disadvantage to be a Tamil nowadays. You are an instant target for harassment by security authorities when your identity is known,” said Sivaram.

“The government thinks all Tamils are Tigers. This harassment hardens the attitude of the Tamils. We are helpless. Nobody fights for our rights,” complained Velautham.