by Himangi Jaysundere
The leader of the Sihala Urumaya, S.L. Gunasekera in an interview with "The Island" this week said that "The parliament that is to come will in all probability be a very hung parliament and the likelihood is that the parliament elected on the October 10 will not last for more than twelve to eighteen months in which event there will be another General Election. If the Sihala Urumaya is able to get a reasonable number of seats at this election it will undoubtedly be in a position to form a government at the next election in the year 2001 or 2002" .

Mr. Gunesekera who answered some vital questions which are likely to arise in the minds of many a Sri Lankan as they get ready to vote next week said: "I have heard it said in some quarters that there is no purpose in voting for SU because it cannot form a government and the need of the hour is to topple the PA. This is an old story which has been repeated time and again when a new party surfaces, with the result that we continue to suffer under the SLFP and it’s allies or the UNP and it’s allies which are two sides of the same coin. He said, the fact that there is no purpose in defeating the PA merely to put the UNP in power or vice versa is worn out by the fact that Mr.Ronnie De Mel has never contested two consecutive general elections from the same party. He could change over only because those two parties were identical.

The Tamils and the Muslims never thought in those simplistic terms. The Indian Tamils realised that the CWC could never form a government but they kept voting for Thondaman because they wanted an Indian Tamil voice in Parliament, a member of their race to safeguard the rights of their race with the result that they were able to get citizenship by the production of an affidavit and so many more privileges which they would not have got had they not acted so he said. If the Muslims had thought that Ashraff who was unknown in 1989 could not form a government and the need of the hour was to topple the UNP they would not have got the privileges that Ashraff was able to give them. They voted on the basis that they needed a Muslim voice in Parliament. It was so with the Indigenous Tamils, they never thought in terms of it being useless in voting for the Tamil parties because they can’t defeat the UNP or the PA.

Q : The Sihala Urumaya justifies it’s existence on the grounds that no political party speaks on behalf of the Sinhalese. But minority parties claim that both the UNP and SLFP are mainly Sinhala parties and represent Sinhala interests. What are your comments ?

A: The two major parties are undoubtedly composed mainly of people who are Sinhalese in name but not Sinhalese at heart. If they were Sinhalese at heart they would not betray the rights and interests of Sinhalese for a mess of political pottage. To give just a few examples : when the Sinhalese of Welioya were at the receiving end of artillery shells and mortars and had to flee to refugee camps, they were very badly in need of bunkers in their villagers to enable them to leave the insanitary and overcrowded refugee camps in which they were living under inhuman conditions, the government did not care one bit for them or provided them with even a single bunker. On the other hand the government spent over Rs 30 million from the funds of the Rehabilitation Ministry for the construction of buildings for Tamils and Muslims in the North Western province which was not subjected to any terrorist attack.

No Sinhalese in the Government or the Opposition took up the cause of those Sinhalese in Welioya and it was only some of the founder members of Sihala Urumaya including myself who through the Thavalama development foundation (This is not to be confused with Mangala Samaraweera’s Peace Thavalama) collected and contributed funds and caused the construction of 75 of those 612 bunkers and are in the process of constructing more. Another example is , Ashraff demanded the construction of a harbour at Oluvil, where there is no bay or indentation but the course is a straight line. The purpose of building the harbour, at enormous expense to the public was to provide employment to Muslims. Though the construction of a harbour at Oluvil was as nonsensical a project as building an airport on top of Sigiriya, there was no protest from the UNP. Thirdly the Sinhalese never wanted Provincial Councils or a Federal state but both the government and the UNP insist on converting this country into a Federal state just to appease the Tamils and the Muslim supporters of Ashraff. These are but a few examples of the degradation of the Sinhalese by the UNP and the PA .

Q : You say that Sihala Urumaya is not a racist party but also make the claim that you represent Sinhala interests. On this basis aren’t you placing the SU in the same category as the SLMC and Tamil parties like the TULF ?

A : No. Racism as we see it constitutes a policy in terms of which the party advocates that the members of one race should be granted rights and privileges which are not available to members of other races by reason purely of their membership of their race. Or a policy in terms of which members of some races are subjected to disabilities to which the members of one or more other races are not, purely on the basis of their race. Sihala Urumaya advocates no such outrageous policy. SU believes that all citizens of this country what ever race, caste, creed, religion or political affiliation is entitled to equal rights with every other citizen in every inch of our territory. That is to say that there should be absolute equality among individual citizens.

However, as regards the demands of racial or ethnic groups it is the policy of SU that if for example the Tamils as a race make a demand which is inconsistent or irreconcilable with the demands made by the Sinhalese, then the will of the Sinhalese must prevail because 12% or 18 % can never be equal to 74%. The reason why SU is committed to safeguarding the rights and interests of the Sinhalese is because the rights and interests of the Sinhalese have been bartered away by successive governments and need to be restored. The prevention of any further erosion of those rights is purely and simply the rectification of a manifest injustice done to the Sinhalese race and the rectification of an injustice cannot under any circumstances constitute racism .

Q: You are not in agreement with the principles of devolution of power in the North and East, but all Tamil parties insist on this principle if they are to forsake separatism. Thus will you be able to bring about national unity ?

The Tamil parties are not the Tamil people, the Tamil parties are but an articulate section of the Tamil people. I have no doubt that even if there is a devolution of powers and regional councils are created the overwhelming majority of Tamil people living among the Sinhalese in the seven provinces outside the North and East will not go to the North or the East. Devolution cannot be of any use to the Tamils living outside the North and East. So, to say that the Tamils want devolution is an oversimplification. It is The Tamil political parties representing a section of the Tamils, I cannot say whether they represent the majority or not, who want devolution . But the fact that they want it, does not mean that it must be granted. The North and East of this country is equally the property of the Sinhalese of the South as of the Tamils of the North and East, just as much as Matara and Colombo are the property of the Tamils as they are of the Sinhalese. We see this as one country and no section of people have special rights to or in any part of this country. Therefore the fact that a minority of people want devolution of power to districts does not make it a legitimate demand even though the bulk or all of those making the demand belong to one race. If one were to take the principle of the different provinces of this country , the boundaries of which were done without any kind of historical or logical basis. It would follow that for example the Sinhalese of Ruhuna may well be able to demand a separate state or demand some special rights for themselves and the Muslims of Puttalam as well. SU does not subscribe to any such pernicious policy and believes the demands of those Tamil parties is totally unjust and is one with which the vast majority of the people of this country do not agree and is one therefore that cannot be done.

As for the question of whether we can build national unity because Tamil parties demand devolution our position is simply this ; If national unity means unity among the different races who inhabit our land, that unity already exists in the entirety in all parts of this country except in those parts in which the tigers rule or are active, that is in the North and East, where the tigers are hell bent on committing genocide on all Sinhalese and Muslims and murdering every Tamil who opposes or does not obey them to the letter. In the circumstances no Sinhalese or Muslim can live safely in those parts of the country and most of them have been either killed or chased away. In all other parts of the country the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and other races live in perfect peace and harmony. Whatever the politicians say, members of the different races including Tamils eat together, play together, pray together and work together. There are clubs, Associations and Trade Unions with Tamil leaders and Sinhala members and Sinhala leaders and Tamil members, With Muslim leaders and Sinhala members and vice versa.

It is only those self proclaimed liberals living on the largesse of foreign funded NGO’s, who propogate the myth of having to build national unity. Because if they say that national unity does exist, their funding will stop.

The only other people who talk of building national unity which already exists is the UNP and PA and they do so just to pander to the whims of the racist Tamil parties. In these circumstances to our minds once the LTTE is destroyed, national unity will reign supreme in this land, provided of course that the government in power acts fairly and does not discriminate among citizens whether on the grounds of race, caste, creed or religion.

Q : You have been looking after the interests of the people living on the borders of the Northern and Eastern provinces. Do you have a plan to protect them against terrorist attacks?

A : Yes. It is the policy of the SU that the tigers must be destroyed root and branch and that the war must be fought under a professional leadership and not under a leadership of professional stooges. There must be a scientific and determined war effort where the troops are given the objective of crushing the tigers and that objective never changes. Having done that it is also our policy that troops who fought to regain the territory lost to the tigers must be given land in the North and Eastern provinces and that a string of 45 villages should be established to counter any recurrence of seperatist terrorism,

Q : In you estimation what is the extent of support SU is getting now ? How many seats do you expect to win ?

A : We are getting considerable support and it is growing everyday, but it is very difficult to quantify the support and say that we will win a particular number of seats. We are only 168 days old and hence we could not penetrate the entirety of the country. Most of our organisational work was done in urban areas and we just began going into the villages when parliament was dissolved. These also make it difficult for us to say exactly what our support would be. Even though I am a pessimist , I do believe that we should win a minimum of 7-8 seats on the data available at the moment.

Q : Is it correct that your party is appealing for atleast one vote from each family ?

A : We are appealing for all the votes of all the families. But if there are families which feel that they cannot give us all the votes because of their loyalty to the UNP or the PA, then we tell them : we don’t agree with your loyalty to the UNP or the PA because neither of them deserve loyalty. But if that is your wish give us at least one vote from your families for the sake of our country.

Q : Does SU enjoy mass support or only from middle class Sinhala professionals ?

A : No. We have support from all sections of the community to whom our message has gone. During this campaign, I have found that we have support from people from all walks of life.

Q : Do you have enough funds to fight the elections. What kind of support do you get from Sri Lankans abroad ?

A : An election is a very very costly business. Particularly today when people are averse to attend meetings to hear what parties have got to say. The campaign has to be conducted mainly through the media, advertising and through the distribution of printed matter. These are all very expensive items particularly for a new party which has to inform it’s people about it’s symbol, principles and policies and the identities of those who form it’s leadership. The need for funds is far greater than that of the older parties which are well known in the country.

Although we have received a considerable amount of donations from the Sinhalese both at home and abroad, for whose generosity we are ever greatful, I cannot say that we have enough to mount our campaign as effectively as we could. what we have is barely sufficient to do the basics of our campaign which is something that we have done.

Q : What is your objective of contesting seats in the North and East ?

A : When we speak of the North and East in electoral terms it means the Jaffna District. The Wanni district comprises of Mannar, Vavuniya, Mulativu, Batticaloa, Trincomali and Ampara. Trincomali and Ampara have considerable Sinhala populations and we do have a prospect of winning the seat in each of those districts, Particularly because some of the founder members of SU have done a considerable amount of development work in the Trincomali and Ampara Districts.

Similarly we expect to win the seat in the Wanni District, which includes Welioya and the Sinhala Paththuwa boundary, which are also areas in which we have done a considerable amount of rehabilitation and development work. As for Jaffna and Batticaloa, they are as much a part of this country as Hambantota and Matara. There is no reason why the Sinhalese should not represent the Tamils of Jaffna or Batticaloa.

I think it is time we broke through the barriers where Tamils vote only for Tamils. The Sinhalese have consistently voted not only for Sinhalese but also for Tamils, Muslims and even Europeans and Burghers. Why then should we think that the Tamil voter of Jaffna will remain in the strait jacket and vote only for communal Tamil parties. We have not just put forward a list, our candidates are in Jaffna distributing leaflets and campaigning. Indeed the government agent of Jaffna is reported to have said that the only posters that are to be seen in Jaffna are those of SU.