[But for others, including the country’s Tamil minority, a Rajapaksa victory is cause for fear. His tenure as defense secretary was marked by accusations of human rights violations, including the murder and abduction of journalists and political opponents. They expect a crackdown on dissent and a turn toward authoritarian rule. Rajapaksa denies the allegations.]
By
Hafeel Farisz and Joanna Slater
 |
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Supporters
of presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa gather at a campaign rally
in Bandaragama, Sri Lanka, in early November.
(Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
|
COLOMBO,
Sri Lanka — In Sri Lanka’s
first national elections since the devastating Easter Sunday terrorist attacks,
the vote may come down to the question of security.
Sri Lankans will cast their ballots Saturday
for a new president. The man tipped to win is a familiar face: Gotabaya
Rajapaksa, once the country’s defense secretary and the younger brother of Sri
Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
His supporters credit Gotabaya Rajapaksa with
helping to end the island nation’s brutal, decades-long civil war in 2009.
During the election campaign, he has made national security a focus and
promised to keep Sri Lankans safe.
But for others, including the country’s Tamil
minority, a Rajapaksa victory is cause for fear. His tenure as defense
secretary was marked by accusations of human rights violations, including the
murder and abduction of journalists and political opponents. They expect a
crackdown on dissent and a turn toward authoritarian rule. Rajapaksa denies the
allegations.
Saturday’s presidential election is a
decisive moment for the nation, said Gehan Gunatilleke, a human rights lawyer
and research director at Verité Research, a think tank in Colombo, the capital.
“We have to understand that Sri Lanka is in the midst of a project that is much
larger than one election cycle,” he said. “It is a choice between intolerance
and freedom.”
Across the political spectrum in Sri Lanka,
there is widespread anger and frustration at the failure to prevent the
coordinated terrorist attacks that took place April 21. The nine suicide
bombings were carried out by local extremists and claimed by the Islamic State.
The attacks killed more than 260 people at churches and luxury hotels in three
cities.
A subsequent investigation and parliamentary
hearings revealed that the government had received specific warnings of an
impending attack but did not take preventive actions. What’s more, the bitter
rivalry between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe impeded the functioning of the government’s security apparatus.
“We need a country to live in, and it is a
country which needs to be safe,” said Kumara Perera, a manual laborer in
Colombo who earns less than $3 a day. He believes Rajapaksa is the right person
for the job. The current leadership “had five years, and look at what they have
done,” he said.
Sirisena is highly unpopular and is not
standing for reelection. While a record number of candidates — 35 — have
submitted nominations, the race has two clear front-runners: Rajapaksa and
Sajith Premadasa, a candidate from the current prime minister’s party. (Sri
Lanka has a directly elected president as well as a prime minister selected by
parliament.)
Premadasa has also assured voters that
national security is a top priority. He pledged that if he wins the presidency,
he will name a decorated army commander, Sarath Fonseka, as his defense
minister. Fonseka commanded the Sri Lankan army at the end of the civil war and
is a bitter rival of the Rajapaksa family: He was Mahinda Rajapaksa’s chief
rival for the presidency in 2010.
There are no polls to gauge the state of the
campaign. Some strategists believe the race between Rajapaksa, 70, and
Premadasa, 52, has tightened in the campaign’s final days and that Premadasa
could pull off a surprise win. Premadasa has drawn support from the country’s
rural areas, where his message of alleviating poverty has resonated.
Premadasa’s supporters say a Rajapaksa
victory would be a win for a strident brand of Sinhalese nationalism, which
could exacerbate existing tensions in Sri Lanka’s multiethnic, multireligious
polity.
Most of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are
Sinhalese Buddhists. But there is also a sizable Tamil minority, most of whom
are Hindus. Muslims consider themselves a third ethnic group, and there is also
a Christian community.
Among Tamils and Muslims, there is
trepidation at the idea of a Rajapaksa presidency. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said
he intends for his brother, the former president, to assume the post of prime
minister. He also has the support of hard-line Buddhist nationalist groups
accused of stoking religious tensions that have resulted in violence against
minorities.
K. Ramesh, 40, a native of Jaffna in the
largely Tamil northeast, works in Colombo as a driver. He said he feared the worst
if Rajapaksa wins. “The military will take over,” he said. “They are already
flexing their muscles in anticipation.”
Members of Rajapaksa’s Podujana Peramuna
party say there is no reason for alarm. Gotabaya will be “president of all Sri
Lankans — of the Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils,” said Mahindananda Aluthgamage,
who served as a minister in the government of Gotabaya’s brother. “The country
wants security, peace and stability, and that is what he will deliver.” Meanwhile,
he said, the allegations of prior human rights abuses are “unfounded lies.”
Malinda Seneviratne, a former newspaper
editor turned political commentator, echoed that view. “The choice is really
between weak and effective government,” he said. “A choice between a government
willing to bow down to the United States and other powers, or a government
serving the people’s interest.”
Both Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa are
viewed as close to Beijing. China has sought to extend its influence in Sri Lanka
through major infrastructure projects dogged by allegations of corruption,
including the development of a port city on the shores of Colombo.
One issue complicating Rajapaksa’s candidacy
was his American citizenship, which he received in 2003 after moving to Los
Angeles in the early 1990s. On Sunday, Rajapaksa’s lawyers held a news
conference to display what they said was a certificate proving he had renounced
his citizenship earlier this year, but his opponents questioned its authenticity.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy told a Sri Lankan television station that
the embassy was unable to comment on individual cases, citing privacy
regulations.
Compared with prior national elections, the
current campaign has been largely free of violence. On Thursday, an author who
published a book critical of the Rajapaksas was stabbed by four assailants who
accused him of harming Gotabaya’s campaign, according to a report by AFP.
“The run-up to the election was relatively
peaceful, but the campaign in the media is the worst we have ever seen,”
Mahinda Deshapriya, the chairman of the election commission, told Al Jazeera,
criticizing television networks for coverage that had contravened poll
directives. The election commission’s directives to the media included giving
fair coverage to all candidates.
For voters like Chandana Henadeera, 52, who
supports his family by driving an auto rickshaw around Colombo, the lack of
pre-election violence was a relief. His main concern is earning enough money to
pay for the education of his three children. “This life consumes me,” he said.
“We don’t have enough money to eat, let alone educate my children. I just hope
someone will ease our suffering.”
Slater reported from New Delhi.
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