Article 21: (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
The purpose of democracy is to ensure an equal opportunity for everyone to partake in governance. The word democracy stems from the Greek word meaning “rule of the people.” Now, if the people are to rule, it means that they have the power. However, although Sri-Lanka is a democratic country, not all the people have the power.
When the majority of the people in a country are of one ethnicity, and do not believe in power sharing, or in meeting the needs of minority groups, then minority groups can never hold power that allows them to better their situation. If parliamentarians can run on platform that completely ignores the needs of minority groups, then they will never need to make change for minority groups to remain in power. Even if all the Tamil people in Sri-Lanka voted for one leader running for Prime Minister/President who representative of them, but the Sinhalese majority voted for another leader, the leader the Sinhalese chose would ultimately win because of the larger population. This system prevents Tamil leaders from ever gaining a majority in parliament, and prevents a Tamil leader that represents Tamils from ever holding high positions in the Sri-Lankan government.
Now, if a Prime Minister/President is supposed to serve the people of the country they are in charge of, shouldn’t they at least treat the citizens with equality? J.R. Jayawardene, Former President of Sri Lanka was quoted by the Daily Telegraph, 11th July 1983 saying, “I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people… now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion… the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here… Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” Does this sound like a leader represents the 20% of Tamils in Sri-Lanka?
Clearly, the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Sri-Lanka have failed the Tamil people, they do not represent them, they do not serve them, and they do not care for them. If this is the case, why should the Tamil people not have their own governance system, where they can choose their own leader? Tamils should be able to choose a leader that represents them, and takes their needs and concerns into account.
Thousands of civilians who were caught in Vanni last year, and as a result forcibly displaced were allowed to exercise their right to vote; how can a country be named democratic when it denies its own citizens of the right to vote?
This is an excerpt from April 8, 2010: In the Killinochchi Central College Cluster Polling Centers only 362 out of 7,504 total registered voters have been able to cast their votes in the first set of 8 cluster polling stations. Furthermore, in the second set of 8 cluster polling centers only 283 out of 10,240 voters have been able to cast their votes by 12.00 noon,” CaFFE statement said. (Tamilnet)
By having non-representative members run for positions of power, by having non-representatives re-instated, and by being denied to vote, Tamils in Sri-Lanka have been denied the right to partake in the governance of Sri-Lanka.
Credits:
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=31511
Tags: Speak Out
