Flashback

'Time will tell impact of hardline propaganda against TNA'

by P. Krishnaswamy

While there is an assumption that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), contesting as the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchy (ITAK) is likely to sweep the polls in the North, tomorrow's poll is likely to demonstrate the success of other Tamil political parties, including some parties that are new and a new independent group contesting from the Jaffna District, comprising former LTTE cadres, calling themselves ' Crusaders for Democracy.'

In the Jaffna electoral district alone, 15 political parties and six independent groups are contesting which is almost twice the number in the last parliamentary polls. Among the Tamil political parties are the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) led by former parliamentarian and All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the All Ceylon Tamil Maha Sabha (ACTMS), a newly formed political party led by Dr. K.V.Wigneswaran formerly an advisor to the erstwhile Northeastern Provincial Council, Chief Minister

Regional political leaders

A.Varatharaja Perumal, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) led by former Minister Douglas Devananda, the Crusaders for Democracy (CFD) led by veteran journalist N.Vithyatharan and comprising exclusively former regional political leaders and activists of the LTTE ex-combatants of the decimated LTTE and the Eelavar Democratic Front (EDF), the political party of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) with Rajanathan Prabhakaran as its leader.

The other 10 political parties, including the UNFGG, the UPFA, the JVP and other mainstream parties, have also fielded Tamils from the local communities as their chief candidates. All six independent groups have Tamils from the local communities as their chief candidates.

A similar situation prevails in the other electoral districts of the North and the East, posing a close fight for the TNA which hitherto easily swept the polls, Parliament and the Provincial Councils, with the overwhelming support of the Tamils with not many strong contenders from among the Tamils. Two of the independent groups have been fielded under the auspices of a former Tamil Minister to scatter the Tamil votes, according to informed sources.

Although, TNA leaders have expressed optimism that the changing political scenario will not have an impact on their vote bank, there are other challenges as well confronted by them in the run-up to the polls. The Chief Minister (CM) of the Northern PC, C.V.Wigneswaran, appointed to the post two years ago by the TNA and considered an influential and prominent Tamil leader, openly announced his decision to keep away from the polls campaigns in support of the TNA, for reasons best known to him.

Right choice

In his latest media release, he has called for Tamil voters to make the right choice without making any reference whatsoever to the TNA.

These statements came from him after his visits three weeks ago to the US and the UK to attend meetings of the Tamil diaspora communities. Leader of the TNPF, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, with his political agenda in line with that of the decimated LTTE and supported, according to reliable information, by sections of the pro-LTTE diaspora communities has, in his polls campaigns, branding the TNA as 'traitors' for its gestures of goodwill towards the government and the people.

One has to wait until the polls are over and results announced to find how voters have reacted to such communal hardline propaganda against the TNA and how confident they are about the TNA that has represented them in the past for over two decades and have now put forward, in their election manifesto, a federal structure for a unified North and East as a solution to the ethnic problem, although they may not comprehend the implications of such demands.