The Conflict in Sri Lanka: Ground Realities - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

Sri Lanka Elections and Tamil Participation
- Rajan Sriskandarajah
[Totally oblivious to a fifty-year transformation in the Tamil political
consciousness, the Sinhalese claim that Tamils were intimidated
into not voting” Whoever they (the Tamils) chose in the past
didn’t bring any satisfaction. So, this time they decided
not to choose any. What is wrong with that?” asks Rajan
Sriskandarajah.]
If, the only explanation the Sinhala society can come up with for
the Tamil non-participation in the presidential election is that the
LTTE forced them to, then we have a problem. I am not referring
to the radical gossips and conjectures being bandied about in
such abundance in the Sinhala south. It is that even the more
moderate Sinhalese seem to believe this.
None of the Sinhala opinion writers have entertained the
possibility that maybe; just maybe, the Tamil people didn’t want
to vote at this election. If only these writers had paused to look at
the present Tamil attitude towards the Sri Lankan state, instead
of focusing on their own wishful thinking, they would have seen
a different picture. But, they only listen to Tamil quislings and
opportunists, to paint a picture that they like. As a result, they
have become totally oblivious to a fifty-year transformation in the
Tamil political consciousness.
For over five decades, since independence from the British
colonial rule, Tamils dutifully voted at many elections, and in
remarkably large numbers. Time after time they trekked to the
polls and stood in line to cast their ballots. This, they did for a
system of government in Sri Lanka that is fundamentally flawed,
and wholly and indubitably stacked up against them.
What did they get in return for their decades-long participation
in this so-called democracy? Their elected representatives got
the ignominious privilege of sitting, and permanently so, in the
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