May 10 to decide the future of East

By Shanika Sriyananda

The people of the East, who are breathing fresh air of freedom, are now ready to decide their future within the next five days. The political parties including the two main political parties - the UPFA and UNP- are in the fray to elect the first ever Chief Minister for the Eastern Province.

While the ‘D’ Day is nearing, their political candidates are on a political crusade - accusing each other for breaking election norms and ethics. The Sunday Observer interviewed some of the main players of this ‘political game’.

East to be best province - Basil

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government will not drag the people of the East back to the previous ‘dark era’ but will convert the province into one of the best provinces not only in the country but also in the South East Asia, Senior Presidential Advisor MP Basil Rajapaksa said.

He said that though the Eastern province has much potential for development due to its rich natural resources, the development was stalled mainly because it was under the control of the LTTE.

“Soon after the East was liberated by the security forces, the government planned the Eastern development. While defeating the LTTE terrorists we gave priority for the development projects in the east”, Rajapaksa, who is giving the leadership for the government development package for the East - the East Reawakening program- said.

He said that the development projects were carried out well and people were happy with the development that was taking place in the Province, which was neglected since the British period.

“The government has allocated massive sums of money for these projects to develop infrastructure facilities and expedite the resettlement of IDPs”, he said.

Rajapaksa said that the UPFA government was fully committed to provide employment for the Tamil youth in the East, where the unemployment problem was most challenging. “We want to uplift their living standard, he stressed.

According to Rajapaksa, the government has given priority in providing employment for Tamil youth. He said that Tamil undergraduates would be given employment within the next three months. Another program to provide vocational training with the assistance of the USAID has already been commenced in three districts - Digamadulla, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

“Under this program, scholarships for higher education will be granted to these youth. They will be given training abroad and they could easily find employment in Middle East and Korea”, he said.

He said that agro-based farms and industries would be set up in Batticaloa district with the assistance of the private sector. According to Rajapaksa the Karadiyanaru farm would be converted into a model Agricultural Centre and a state-of-the-art Information Technology Institute would also be established soon.

Special Advisor to the North East Infrastructure Development and ‘Nagenahira Navodaya’, Chandra Fernando, the former IGP said that people of the East were confident that the Mahinda Rajapaksa government would lead their province towards development and peace. He also said that people suffered under the LTTE clutches and they were forced by the LTTE to feed their cadres.

“The newly elected local government members will make the Province one of the best and exemplary one in Asia”, he said.

Fernando said that the Nagenahira Navodaya, the massive development project for the East was initiated with the liberation of Thoppigala, the last stronghold of the LTTE in the East.

According to Fernando, people in the East could were not move out of the province due to lack of transport facilities and they were isolated from the rest of the provinces. “ During the last four months 174 new buses were added to the public transport system of the province”, he pointed out.

He also said that over 30,537 families in Batticaloa have been re-settled upto last April and 17,992 families in Trincomalee district. “ These people are provided with electricity, and other infrastructure facilities. Post offices and schools are functioning well”, he said.

Shivaneshathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, Acting Leader of the TMVP:

The TMVP victory is certain. The Majority of Tamils will support the TMVP. They want a Tamil person to come to power.

We believe that this government is committed to find a durable and fair solution to end the national problem. We are contesting in the election mainly to solve the problems faced by the people in the East.

President Rajapaksa has proposed to solve the problem through the 13th Amendment and we believe that the TMVP also strongly believes that this problem can be solved through the 13th Amendment.

That is the main reason why we have decided to contest under the UPFA. We will contest the three districts and we strongly believe that 15 TMVP members will be elected to the PC. I am ready to become the Chief Minister.

This election will be a landmark election which defeat the terrorism and the TMVP will create a new generation in the Eastern province. Tamil youths are peace-loving and are against the gun culture.

Our security is threatened as the LTTE still wants to kill our members.

So until our security is strengthened we will have to be armed but we will not lift our arms against democracy. At the same time we will not allow anybody to kill our cadres.

TMVP is not biased and will serve all the ethnic groups in the region equally. The TMVP is not another conventional Tamil political party always confined to the Opposition. We want to be with the ruling party and the alliance is inevitable when it comes to development of our province.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake:

We still wonder why the government wants to have the Eastern polls in a rush. The present environment in the province is not conducive for an election as the LTTE is still attacking the border villages in the province.

How can the government say that they will hold a free and fair election as the TMVP is still armed and they force people not to vote and try to win the election at the gun point? The situation in the Baticoloa district is worst and people were threatened and forced to vote for the TMVP by the armed TMVPers.

There are different election rules for the Opposition while the UPFA and the TMVP candidates are holding election propaganda meetings even after 6 p.m. in contravention of election rules. The State resources are abused to the maximum. More than half of the Ministers and their officials are now in the East.

We are contesting the election with all these difficulties and the government did not think that the UNP will contest the polls. We educate people in our election platforms and already started to reach the people in very rural areas of the province.

We have not decided as yet to whom we should offer the Chief Ministerial post. The Eastern polls will not be a free and fair election but the UNP is confident that it will win the majority of seats at the PC.

JVP Chief Ministerial candidate Wimal Piyatissa:

The JVP will win the election as the people of the East know that only the JVP helped them after the tsunami disaster.

With over 3,500 party cadres, the JVP helped these people for three months without any bias towards their ethnicity.

The JVP has commenced its election campaign in last April and now we have completed the phase I & II. We are now in our third phase. We have 17 candidates from Digamadulla, 14 from Batticoloa and 13 from Trincomalee.

The party policies of the JVP is very much clear and we are the only party that named a candidate for the Chief Ministerial post.

The LTTE has started attacking the border villages in the East. So it is not conducive for an election at the moment?

The government has not taken any action to disarm the Pillaiyan group.

They still run the election campaign at the gun point. People live in fear. We do not think that there will be a free and fair election on May 10.

Ankugan Kandasami, EPDP Campaign Leader, Batticaloa District:

Our major concern is a free and fair election. The Eastern liberation will be more meaningful if the people are allowed to elect their own representatives in a peaceful manner.

The other important aspect is that the voters should be allowed to elect their representatives without force and the candidates should be given the opportunity to carry out the election campaign without let or hindrance. The EPDP is rendering maximum service to the people in the East.

The main intention of the EPDP is to uplift the living standards of Tamils in both North and East.

Group Leader EPRLF, Batticaloa District Rasaiya Thurairatnam:

If the government wishes to win the hearts and minds of people they should take steps to hold a free and fair election. If there were no intimidation we would have won the last local government election.

The major problem in the Batticaloa district is unemployment. Over thousands of youth are still unemployed. The lack of infrastructure facilities is another problem.

These are challenges that we have to face in the district.

Why we contest the election is that we want to form a people’s force against the LTTE. The EPRLF will achieve this not at gun point but in a truly democratic manner. To defeat the LTTE meaningfully, more powers should be given to people.

Batticaloa Group Leader of the EROS, Rajanadan Prabhakaran:

We know that Tamil militancy cannot fulfil the aspirations of the Tamils. It is only through the democratic means that the grievances of the Tamils can be remedied. The EROS commends the efforts taken by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to restore peace in the East within a short period of time.

If we want to defeat the LTTE, powers should be devolved under the 13th Amendment. We welcome that move and it is high time to use the opportunity given to us.

The EROS is contesting the Eastern PC polls to defeat terrorism and bring an honourable peace to the Eastern people. Throughout history Tamils were misled by the Tamil leaders in the North but now people of the East have realised the truth. They cannot be fooled any more.

The EROS is confident, it can gain a considerable victory at the polls and we want to develop the Eastern region since it was neglected for decades.

Director, People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) Kingsley Rodrigo:

If the prevailing situation continues for the next few days, we can hope for a free and fair election on May 10. Over 1,400 candidates belonging to 18 political parties and 60 independent groups are campaigning for the polls.

The postal voting was concluded in a peaceful manner with a least number of complaints. There were 28 complaints of election violence including two killings.

The PAFFREL monitored over 25 elections for the last two decades and we are the only election monitoring body which is granted permission by the Commissioner of Election to remain within the polling booths.

The main obstacle for the PAFFEREL is that we are using the 2006 election registers. Normally we prefer the latest revised registers. The other factor is that a considerable number of people in the Province have migrated to India. National Identity Card is also another problem.

The majority of the people do not have NICs. We hope the Election Commissioner will make arrangement to tackle this problem. We are not on the side of the government. We are doing our best to do election monitoring and this allegation levelled against us each time.

Once we were branded as UNPers and then JVPers and now we are in the UPFA fold. But we are an independent election monitoring body. So we are not worried about these allegations, he reiterated.