A victory for Easterners

The people of the East have spoken. Suppressed by the LTTE and discouraged by the horrors of war for decades, they have tasted freedom and democracy at last. Saturday's Provincial Council Election proved beyond all doubt that the Easterners were ready and willing to embrace democracy and pluralism.

The process of democratisation in the East began with its liberation by the Security Forces last year. The Security Forces began the humanitarian mission to liberate the Eastern masses soon after the LTTE closed the Mavilaru sluice gates and completed it in just one year, with zero civilian casualties.

But the Government did not stop there. Realising that the Eastern Province was one of the most impoverished and battle-scarred areas in the country, the Government began the Eastern Resurgence programme which seeks to uplift the people's lives and infrastructure facilities. The programme is now going ahead rapidly.

The Government did not rightly want a militarised Eastern Province. Its aim was to establish a civilian administration as soon as possible. With this noble aim in mind, the Government held local polls for the Batticaloa district on March 10. It was conducted very peacefully contrary to fears expressed in many quarters. In fact, many commentators felt it was one of the most peaceful elections ever held in Sri Lanka.

On Saturday, the Government held elections for the Eastern Provincial Council election. This is the first time that a separate election was held for the Eastern Provincial Council, following the Supreme Court verdict on de-merging the North-East Province. By all accounts, the election was free and fair.

The huge victory of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) signifies several factors. It is an overwhelming mandate for the Government's role in liberating the Eastern Province and starting the Eastern Resurgence. Implicit in the mandate for the UPFA victory is the fact that any other administration would have been at loggerheads with the Central Government.

That would inevitably have led to differences between the two sides on funding, development projects and administrative matters. Now that both the Central Government and the Eastern Provincial Council belong to the UPFA, there will be no such differences of opinion, paving the war for the smooth implementation of policy decisions and development projects.

The other most significant factor is the transformation of the Tamil Makkal Viduthulai Puligal (TMVP) to a democratic entity. One cannot expect a militant group to change their ways overnight, but credit must be given to the TMVP for the manner in which it approached the process of electioneering, which was completely alien to them until this year.

Many groups expressed fears that the TMVP would continue to use arms for their elections campaign. These fears turned out to be unfounded as the TMVP kept faith in democratic principles. This was indeed exemplary as the TMVP faced a huge threat from the LTTE, which had made the TMVP keep their arms. One hopes that conditions would soon be created which would make the TMVP give up arms altogether.

Just as the LTTE could not prevail over the TMVP, it could not drive fear into the hearts of the voters despite several attempts, the most serious one being the bomb attack at a hotel in Ampara on election eve.

They followed it up with the destruction of a ship in Trincomalee. But none of these incidents could diminish the determination of the Eastern masses to reject the LTTE's terrorism and opt for democracy.

Now that the dust is settling on the Eastern Poll, we hope the processes of formally establishing the Provincial Council and naming the Chief Minister and other ministers would follow without delay. The Council has an immense task ahead and it should lose no time in getting down to work for the benefit of he Easterners who voted it in.

The provincial council devolution process itself should be taken to its logical conclusion - the installation of a Northern Provincial Council. The Security Forces are poised to clear the major stumbling block that prevents a poll being held immediately - the LTTE. They have already made much headway in this regard.

The Government, on its part, has already taken tentative steps towards the restoration of democracy in the North. A high-powered three member committee headed by Minister Douglas Devananda is already probing all aspects of Northern development and public welfare.

The entire Nation must now rally round the Government and the Security Forces to encourage them on the noble mission of liberating the people in the entire Northern peninsula from the scourge of terrorism and restoring democracy.