With the Tamil Tigers defeated in Sri Lanka, the Tamil vote might now decide the election

[ConsAreLiars]

One option is the current president who ordered the bloody and brutal campaign that killed off what had become a very vicious and oppressive ruling clique within the NE of Sri Lanka and killed and refugee'd and interned a huge number of civilians. The other main contender is the General who designed and carried out that campaign.

AJE reporting is that they will vote against the President and for the General as a way of saying things, for them, life is even worse now and thus expressing their view that:

"The time for change has come!"

Seems that saying that, voting that, is rather different from getting that.

[depakid]

1. Gotta love the irony there

[ConsAreLiars]

2. From what I've read via Wiki,

The current President is the leftist and the General is the neo-liberal conservative fascist. Follow the links here to see if you (those who might read this) see it the same way or have other information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Sri_Lanka . I doubt voting for a supremacist-militarist-fascist will serve their interests. But hey, if MA voters can go for an insane nutter, why can't they.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

3. Sri Lankan politics is complicated

For reasons I can't adequately explain, throughout Sri Lankan history the left wing has always been the most militant and nationalistic and when in power they have implemented the most racially discriminatory policies against the Tamil minority. In recent history, the neo-liberal conservatives have actually been the ones seeking reconciliation and promoting racial equality with the Tamils. It was because of a neo-liberal, conservative Prime Minister that the peace process between the government and Tamil Tigers begun in the first place and it was actually the left wing Rajapaksa administration that withdrew from the peace process and started the civil war again

And the Rajapaksa administration is corrupt, authoritarian and as an appalling human rights record as well. Journalists, editors and others who have been critical of the government -and in addition Tamil dissidents in the like -have frequently been murdered or "disappeared" over recent years. The treatment of Tamil refugees has also been appalling

Nothing is ever as it seems in Sri Lankan politics. Try these links
http://www.theage.com.au/world/sri-lankan-poll-may-be-decided-by-tamil-vote-20100122-mqk7.html

You can also read this -it was written by a newspaper editor widely believed to have been murdered by the Rajapaka administration. He wrote this column -forseeing his own murder that was published after his assassination
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/13/wickrematunga-final-editorial-final-editorial

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Thanks for that information and the links.

Far too many years ago I entered 'Ceylon' wondering what a Buddhist-majority nation might feel like. Probably the most beautiful land on the planet, but in a couple weeks Martial Law was declared and the corpses of university students murdered by that army were being tossed into rivers to be washed out into the ocean.