Dr Sudath Gunasekara. President Senior Citizens Movement Mahanuwara

Ranil Wickramasinha received 4,706,336 votes in 2005. This comprised mainly the UNP block vote in the other parts of the country and the Estate votes. This time too UNF got majority of Estate votes. Then how did it come down to 4,000,00 at this election. Is it the strength of the UNP defectors who are now with the government? Or didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t all the UNPers vote? Or is there any other hidden reason behind this massive erosion?

Last time (2005) MRƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s 4,887,152 included nearly 450,000 JVP votes. Had they voted with the Opposition this time MR would have got only 4,437,000 and Opposition should have gone up to at least 5,156,000. With the NE this figure would have gone up to 5,156,000+ Why did it not happen?. Votes of all minority dominated areas in the north, east centre and the urban centres have gone to them as clearly shown by the election results.

In this backdrop how did MR go up to 6,000,000.

Did the JVPers also vote with MR this time. Then what happen to the floating and new votes. Why did the UNF failed to attract at least some of them. Was it because MR was more appealing or the strategy of the Opposition was wrong.

Can you explain all this with the usual allegation of rigging? Even if there was, then why was this phenomenon apparently dominant in the South only? Why didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t that happen in the Tamil areas where the voter response was weak and where such manipulations would have been much easier? Also it would have enhanced the image of the government in the outside world as well. The voting patter in both areas, Sinhala dominant and Tamil dominant, in my opinion, clearly indicated that both communities have cast their vote voluntarily according to their inner conscience. If some one can tally the data in the returns sent by the District Returning officers and the final results of the Election Commissioner then, the riddle ends there.

Is it real voter response, manipulation or magic? The onerous is now with the joint opposition. Does the swansong of the Commissioner of Elections and the wide spread rumors can provide some clue to clarify this riddle? This is the onerous responsibility of the joint opposition before the next Parliamentary Elections. Their future political fortunes will largely depend on how they perform in this political gamble and re-adjust their future political strategy in keeping with the aspirations of the majority. Their failure to do so and be realistic in Sri Lankan politics at least now, will definitely mark their political doom in this country.

The overall results of this election have clearly brought out few highlights. Firstly the polarization of opposite forces round their own axes has once again taken place, perhaps more strongly than in 2005, as I have pointed out in September that year. At the same time one can also note that clearly the Tamil and Muslim communalism and separatism are not yet dead as I have said in an article immediately after the defeat of the Nandikadal episode, the physical defeat of the LTTE outfit, is only the positive beginning of a long and difficult journey; although it was definitely the correct beginning. The map of Lanka depicting the behavior of the electorate has clearly established this minority mindset without any doubt. One can see this very clearly how it has dotted around the North and the East and minority dominant areas at the centre and the major urban centers of the Island. They are dormant but still actively simmering like ember under the ashes. It is like a sleeping volcano. No one can predict as to when it will erupt in to high heavens. But at the same time people of this country have defeated these ugly forces for the second time within a short time span of Seven months. The first being the physical defeat of Prabhakaran and his local outfit at Nandicadal by the Sri Lankan forces and the second by the people at this election.

When the government defeated the LTTE in last May it fulfilled its duty by the people as promised them at the 2005 Presidential elections. In response to that political action on the part of the government, this time the people of this country have endorsed and consolidated the inalienable sovereignty of the majority and the political reality of this country. This I think is their inalienable right which the colonial administration has been able to suppress temporally.

So in the wake of this backdrop the most important issue at hand with the government, I think is to defeat this cancerous minority superiority complex that was implanted by the colonial rulers prior to 1948, recently fuelled by India and natured and nourished by party politics ever since independence, or at least since 1957, so that it will never raise its ugly head on the soils of this Island. That will make the present day rulers immortal as those who restored the political reality that was there for millennia in this Island nation. The anti – Sri Lankan forces both at home and abroad and the pseudo-intellectuals, some who have become victims of dollars and other who have become prisoners of imported ideologies will repeatedly cry for a political solution. Yes of cause it has to be a political solution. There is no argument or the slightest doubt on that; but certainly it should not be at the expense of the 2500 year old dominant heritage of the majority in this country, the pith and substance of which is Sinhalathwaya as Nalin Silva has very correctly and repeatedly pointed out.

I hope the Tamils and Muslims must understand the reality at least now, give up their divisive and communal mindsets and learn to integrate with the major community and live with them amicably without quarrelling for separate kingdoms and special privileges no minority group any where else in the world enjoys. Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they accept that this was the land of the Sinhalese through out history and they have never wronged the minority groups? The Sinhales have given them land, employment and even their women to marry and integrate. So where is this discrimination they are talking about? It was always they who have first pick up a quarrel and created problems for themselves and try to put the blame on the Sinhalese. Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they realize that, unlike them, the Sinhalese have no other country to go and this is the only land on earth they have. Tamils have their motherland in India and Muslims in Arabia. They always dream of those countries like the Slave in the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-SlaveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s dreamƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of Longfellow. Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they renounce this mentality and treat this country as their only motherland that was the Land of the Sinhala People from the beginning of history. Why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they get out of this minority mindset and integrate with the Sinhala people like minority groups in other countries have done. Very recently I read a news item where even Malays who number about 50,000 also now want to assert their political and social mobility. I am wondering whether they too want a separate section of the country for self rule. All these people should understand that they all have ceased to be Malay, Tamil or Muslim the moment they decide to be citizens of Sri Lanka and thereafter forget for good as to from where they came.

Another pestering problem the Sri Lankan government has to solve is the never ending Indian interference with our domestic affairs. If India is so concerned about Tamils in this country why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t she take them all there and look after as their relations by putting them on the lap of luxury. Why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t they concede that they are no longer Indians any more? I think it is high time that India puts an end to this ugly meddling in the affairs of other countries.

I wish and hope the government will pursue for a 2/3rd majority in Parliament at the coming general election and then go for constitutional changes and make this an epic opportunity to restore all what we have lost to the Magha invasion in the 12th century and re-create a new Sri Lanka as one country and one nation that will be once again the pearl of the Indian Ocean. It is high time the opposition also put the country before the party at least now and stops allegations and counter-allegations, ends their vituperative politics and resolves to be proud partners of this historic change and go down in history as patriots of the 21st century who actively participated in the process of history making. I think those who did not vote MR at the Presidential election can make this national dream a reality at the forthcoming General Election. That will definitely dawn an era of wisdom for opposition politics in this country.