POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Giant Trade Unionist’s Passing Away a Blow To Kumaratunga

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Nov 2 1999 (IPS) - The death of Saumyamoorthy Thondaman, who championed the rights of Sri Lanka’s plantation workers and was an influential politician, has dealt a hard blow to President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s bid for re-election, analysts said.

Thondaman, who died on Oct. 30 after a severe heart attack, had on the morning of the same day pledged his fullest support to Kumaratunga for the Dec. 21 presidential poll, at a meeting of his Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC).

“His death has come at a bad time for Kumaratunga who was relying on Thondaman to deliver a block vote on her behalf,” said a senior editor working at the state-run newspaper.

“There is going to be a lot of horse-trading and trade-offs by Kumaratunga and the main opposition candidate Ranil Wickremasinghe now that Thondaman is gone.”

Most people in Sri Lanka evinced interest in the impact of Thondaman’s death on next month’s presidential poll, than on the veteran trade unionist’s contribution to the plantation economy and trade union movement.

“CWC chief’s death a blow to CBK (Kumaratunga)” was the headline in the Sunday ‘Leader’ newspaper, while Monday’s ‘Island’ newspaper discussed the battle for leadership stakes in the CWC in a story headlined ‘Who’ll be the next CWC leader’.

Thondaman, 87, was the son of poor Indian plantation workers who were brought to Sri Lanka by the British in the thousands to work on tea and coconut plantations in the central highlands.

Emerging as a trade union leader, Thondaman set up the CWC in the 1950s and became the mentor and protector of more than half a million workers of Indian origin and their families.

“He almost single-handedly managed the emancipation of an extreme underclass, the estate Indian Tamils, to a point where they not only enjoyed universal franchise but were almost in a position to be kingmakers in the Sri Lankan state,” wrote Rajpal Abeynayake, a ‘Sunday Times’ political columnist.

Thondaman won enormous concessions for plantation workers through better wages, living standards and citizenship rights and was not afraid to strike repeatedly, in support of demands. Dozens of strikes called by the CWC crippled the production of tea and rubber, the country’s main export commodity.

Abeynayake said that under Thondaman’s leadership “estate Tamils”, as they are popularly known, grew from an indigenous version of the untouchable class to being “the envy of the Sinhalese landless peasantry in the highlands”.

Since 1977, he has been a Cabinet minister in the successive administrations of Presidents Junius Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Dingiri Wijetunga and now Kumaratunga for a record, unbroken period of 22 years.

Analysts said Thondaman was a kingmaker during elections due to his ability to get the best deal for the plantation community from any party interested in seeking his support.

“He had no special affiliation with any political party. He was prepared to negotiate even with the devil as long as his people were benefited,” one analyst said.

In recent years however, there have been deep divisions in the CWC, particularly after Thondaman brought in his grandson, Arumugam as possible successor ignoring long-time lieutenant, M.S. Sellasamy.

A disgusted Sellasamy clashed briefly with the elder Thondaman and left the party some 10 years ago, to form his own plantation union that backs the opposition United National Party (UNP).

Analysts said the younger Thondaman’s immaturity and inexperience has led to a split in the party that has so far not publicly surfaced due to his grandfather’s grip on the CWC.

“But without his (political) mentor, the younger Thondaman won’t be able to hold the Congress together. It appears that already cracks are appearing,” one analyst said.

The younger Thondaman, whose father has stayed away from politics, was quoted in a TV interview, on Monday, saying the party would continue to support Kumaratunga at next month’s poll. “There is no dispute on this,” he said.

But P.P. Devaraj, a deputy minister in the government and a senior vice president of the CWC, is expected to emerge as a serious challenger to the younger Thondaman, analysts noted.

The late politician is to be given a state funeral on

Thursday. Thondaman was a minister in Kumaratunga’s cabinet while representing parliament as a UNP member.

In 1994, Thondaman and four of his party colleagues were appointed MPs in a UNP list of appointed MPs. But this was under the terms of an agreement where they were free to act independently even if it meant opposing the UNP.

When Kumaratunga won the December presidential elections that year, trouncing the UNP, Thondaman accepted an offer from her to join her Cabinet.

Black flags are fluttering across plantation areas in Sri Lanka, where the workers, many of who are still recovering from the shock of Thondaman’s death, have unofficially declared a period of mourning from Sunday to Thursday.