Chandrika tells people to vote without fear

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, from whom incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa took over leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party founded by her father and former Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranaike, on Saturday accused the Government of indulging in corruption, misuse of power and violence to prevent the people from choosing who should govern them and said " let us do all that is necessary in the next few days, to ensure a free and fair election, in which we will guarantee every ones right to vote without fear".

In a statement, she said she was shocked into breaking her silence by the "unprecedented statement of the Commissioner of Elections, that he would withdraw from his responsibilities, if the Government and its leaders continue to blatantly violate his directives".

She said "the prevailing violence and breakdown of law and order, poses a serious challenge to democracy, democratic institutions and values, as well as all our basic freedoms we cherished and protected with so much sacrifice through the past centuries".

Mrs Kumaratunga called upon the Government to instruct the police and other relevant agencies to take action to halt the escalating violence, take action to ensure compliance with the Elections Commissioner’s directives as per the elections law, including an immediate halt to "the abuse of state assets and misuse of public officials for election purposes".

She also asked the Government to take action to prevent "intimidation and thuggery on polling day and in the following period". This, she said, would not be a difficult task, "if the President and his Government sincerely execute their responsibilities".

In an open call to SLFP members to defy the diktat of the leader, she asked them "to remain true to the ideals of the Party – the Bandaranaike policies".

The most important of these were democratic values, respect for the fundamental human freedoms, for decency and non-violence, for honesty and lack of corruption. "These form the strength of the foundations on which our party built its popularity, gained the confidence of our people and long periods in government".

The former President, who secured a second term in November 1999 by a narrow margin after surviving an LTTE assassination attempt on the last day of the campaign, came out with this statement barely a day before the campaign for the current Presidential election, in which Mr Rajapaksa is pitted against opposition backed Gen Sarath Fonseka, is set to end.

While Mr Rajapaksa was a co-founder of the SLFP along with her father S W R D Bandaranaika, Mrs Kumaratunga was not a part of it until she returned from England in 1994 and merged her party, founded by her assassinated husband Vijaya Kumaratunga, with the SLFP and took over its leadership from her ageing and ailing mother Sirimavo Bandaranaika, leading to a revolt by her brother Anura Bandaranaika and his eventual cross-over to the United National Party.

In end-2001, when Mrs Kumaratunga was President, the UNP returned to power and signed a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE in February 2002. Mr Rajapaksa was then the Opposition Leader. When Mrs Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament after accusing Mr Wickremasinghe of having, compromised the country's security, fresh elections followed, but the UPFA got only 105 seats in the 225-member Parliament in the ensuing elections.

It formed a government with the support of Mr S. Thondaman's CWC and the JVP and Mr Rajapaksa was made Prime Minister to steer the unsteady ship.

When her term ended in November 2005, Mrs Kumaratunga was pressurized by the JVP to nominate Mr Rajapaksa as the presidential candidate.

After his success, Mr Rajapaksa took control of the party which had till then remained her family's fiefdom. She did not take kindly to it. She went into a shell only to come out four years later to take a swipe at Mr Rajapaksa and try to scuttle his chances of getting a second term.

The immediate provocation was a bomb attack on the house of Mr Tiran Alles, a rich Sinhalese businessman and among the most important allies of Gen Fonseka, in Colombo on Friday. Appearing before television news channels for the first time in recent years, Mrs Kumaratunga condemned the attack in unequivocal terms.

- Asian Tribune -