After the vote

The victory may not be as emphatic as Mahinda Rajapaksa expected when he advanced the presidential election by almost two years. His main opponent,former army chief Sarath Fonseka,is reported to have taken about 40 per cent of the vote in a campaign that assembled a rainbow coalition of Rajapaksa’s political opponents. Rajapaksa and Fonseka,his army chief who successfully ended the LTTE insurgency last year to abruptly retire from his post and announce a presidential bid,had positioned themselves as war heroes looking to clinch the peace. But given the circumstances — rumoured coup,etc — that informed Fonseka’s retirement,the contest was predictably personal. And the worry now is that this personal confrontation could polarise the post-election,and importantly post-civil war,politics on very partisan lines.

Sri Lanka today faces the monumental task of converting the end of the LTTE’s 26-year civil war into the end of the conflict. The last year has been bruising. When victory finally came,it came at a huge cost,in terms of civilian deaths and displacement as well as economic setbacks. Moreover,it is not clear that the paces of the contest for the president’s post have in any way addressed the kind of political gestures that are necessary to consolidate the post-civil war peace in formerly LTTE-dominated areas. That task is still pending. As the victor,President Rajapaksa should realise that the faster Sri Lanka’s politics exits from post-result fractiousness,the easier he will win the confidence of the international community. He needs to acknowledge that the civil war is over by signalling an end to the authoritarian temptation that’s dominated Colombo and that threatens both Tamils and the Sinhalese. The victory moment demands that he focus on peace with Tamils and the transition of Sri Lanka towards an inclusive democracy.

India cannot dictate Rajapaksa’s agenda,but it can nudge Sri Lanka along a positive agenda. New Delhi has carefully kept distant from partisan politics,but post-elections it too must signal an exit from the security-dominated outlook of the LTTE years. As Sri Lanka’s nearest neighbour,India is invested in hopes for reconciliation and political calm in that country. The two countries now also have the opportunity to cooperate more coherently on trade and infrastructure development.