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Anura Kumara Dissanayake spoke in Jaffna yesterday, as he addressed a rally ahead of elections later this month.
"We are winning, " he said. "We will win by lakhs in the South."
This sounds eerily familiar, even though it may or may not mean the same thing, given who said it. But, the implication is clear. We can, and will win this election with or without you. This sounds as ominous now as it did when Gotabaya said it in 2019. Worse in a sense, because unlike last time around, most of the "progressives" are either in the National People's Power (NPP) or ‘backing this horse’. God forbid we say anything that could rock the boat.
Dissanayake (also referred to by his initials AKD) goes on to state,
"Jaffna must also be stakeholders of this victory. Do not be labelled as those who opposed this huge change. Be a stakeholder in this change… When the South is gearing up for change. If you are seen to oppose that change, what do you think the mindset of the South be? Would you like it if Jaffna was identified as those who went against this change? Those who opposed this change? Would you like it if the North was identified this way?"
This is clearly a thinly veiled threat. At best, it was a bad attempt at coercion. Even if this was not meant to be a threat of possible reprisal in the future, when you ask an ethnic minority if they want to be seen as an "enemy" of the majority who is voting for "change", it is essentially telling them, get on board or else...!
"I assure you again. We will win. But, you must become stakeholders of this victory. Don't be those who oppose it. Ever."
Adding salt to the wounds, he puts the onus of “change” on the Tamils, by placing the “responsibility” on them to vote if they want a change, with no acknowledgment whatsoever of the unholy alliances his party has had with successive governments who’ve systematically discriminated against Tamils, Muslims and the Malaiyaha Tamil communities, throughout history.
He then makes a patronising appeal of the intellects of Jaffna to “lead the way, shape the opinions of the people of Jaffna, to not endorse the political programme against voting for ‘change’, and to tell ‘your’ people that such a decision would be wrong.”
He ends with a final 'hope' that "[the people of the North] will be bestowed with the necessary 'wisdom' and 'intelligence' to make the right decision on September 21.”
For a man whose party origins were founded on empowering the working class, he doesn’t seem to think too highly of their capacity to make an informed decision regarding their own lives.
Even IF we were to give AKD the benefit of the doubt. To say, he didn't mean anything 'sinister' by what he said above.
Let's take a quick look at what he and his party have said and done to show minorities exactly where they stand, in the recent past alone.
"Dissanayake said that his administration will not seek to punish anyone accused of human rights violations and war crimes during Sri Lanka’s brutal 26-year civil war. Even the victims do not expect anyone to be punished. They only want to know what happened.”
I'd like to know which victims AKD's referring to here, because having worked more than 13 years as an activist now, I've never met a family member of the disappeared for instance, who has only asked to know the truth! Whilst of course there could be exceptions, for him to so blatantly dismiss decade-long calls for justice and accountability by victim families, just so he's able to protect the “war heroes” (being nurtured as a key voter base for the NPP), is pretty appalling.
And most recently when AKD addressed over 1,500 Buddhist monks in Maharagama, he "assures" the Sangha that Article 09 (giving foremost place to Buddhism) will not be touched, and that it has 'divine protection'. And that it's only a few 'extremist' groups shouting against it.
Just in case AKD wasn’t clear enough, NPP member, Nalinda Jayatissa yet again addresses the Sangha and the Sinhala Buddhist majority at a recent rally, stating “to rest assured that the NPP is committed to protecting Article 09, and to nurturing and nourishing Buddhism, as this is obviously a majority Sinhala Buddhist country and Article 09 has never been a problem in this country”.
Just to be clear, what he’s saying in essence, is that the Constitution giving foremost place to Buddhism has never been a problem in this country!
Please let this sink in.
"You did it (the war) with guns. We rallied the people around it (the war) as a political movement," - K.D. Lal Kantha, May 19, 2024.
Lal Kantha openly worshipping and posing for photographs, with rabid racist Gnanasara, who has publicly incited and partaken in unleashing brute violence against the entire Muslim community. If this is not a clear indication of what little consideration is given to the grievances and deepest fears of the minorities of this country, I don’t know what is.
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Now imagine for a second, the audacity of the leader of such a party, to try and coerce the Tamil people of the North, to "do the right thing", "vote for change" and “join hands with the South” to usher in a new era!
Finally, I ask each of you who support the NPP, especially those who have spent most of your adult lives working with, and on behalf of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, what is the “real change” NPP is promising the numerical minority communities of this country? Because I am just not seeing it.
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Note from the author: This is by NO means an endorsement of the Greens or Rajas. This is a warning to all mainstream parties, especially from the South, to check their majoritarianism and to work sincerely to win the confidence of the people of the North and East, who have been failed by every successive Government since Independence.
