NPC Elections: Sampanthan’s Leadership To TNA And The Way Forward

By R. Balachandran -September 23, 2013 

R. Balachandran

TNA’s overwhelming victory in the Northern Provincial Council has become the talk of the town as it results clearly showcased the aspiration of the Tamil people in the North.

Even though the TNA’s victory in the election was predicted well ahead, the final result came as a scathing blow to the ruling UPFA alliance. The reason behind this is that, TNA’s plead to the people in the North to give them not just a win but a two thirds majority was granted emphatically.

Given the prevailing situation in the country, TNA’s landmark victory in the Northern Provincial Council could be attributed the party’s strategically planned and executed election campaign.

Selection of Mr. C.V. Wigneswaran as the chief ministerial candidate

Unlike for the Eastern Provincial Council elections, the TNA had to decide on a chief ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council elections.

This, however, proved to be an opportunity for the party’s leader, Mr. Sampanthan, to learn from past blunders. The veteran politician did not make the same mistake twice as he went on to impose himself on the party’s decision to select a Chief Ministerial candidate.

It was not an easy decision for Mr. Sampanthan as all those who opposed Mr. Wigneswaran and supported Mavai Senathirajah had valid reasons for their arguments. In spite of the internal riff raff, Mr. Sampanthan tactfully brought the TNA to a consensus at a very tough parliamentary group meeting.  Looking back, there is no doubt that the outcome of that monumental meeting was emphatically manifested in Saturday’s election results.

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Northern PC: Lesson To Learn, Landmine To Avoid

By Dayan Jayatilleka -September 23, 2013 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Having been in my early 30s, a Minister in the North-East Provincial Council a quarter century ago – I resigned within six months –  I remember how easily it can all go wrong and what the landmines are. I also have some sense of how they may be avoided; what must be done and what is to be avoided by both sides.

The primary task of the newly elected Council led by Justice Wigneswaranmust be to last its full term; to “remain at the crease” in cricketing parlance, putting runs on the board but not throwing one’s wicket away. As with a Presidency, so also with a Provincial Council and even more so, by which I mean that the tasks of the second term must not be attempted in the first.

It is likely that Tamil nationalist sentiment assesses the degree of external support to be such that the Government would be unable to dissolve the Council. That is a very risky calculus, because the NEPC was dissolved despite a far stronger external presence on the ground in the North-east, namely, the Indian Peacekeeping Force.

Two factors combined to effect that dissolution and a combination of such factors could do so again. One was political adventurism on the part of the Council, manifested in the announcement, not of an independent Tamil Eelam, but of a deadline and the intent to declare a separate state if certain demands were not met within a specific time frame.  Those demands included a Sri Lankan troop pullback. In short, the first factor was a manifest threat on the part of the Council.                        Read More