No peace in sight On December 21 Chandrika Kumaratunga was reelected to a second six-year term as president of Sri Lanka.
The main election issue was the war in the north and east of the island, and the still unresolved national question of the Tamil speaking people.
Chandrika won only 51%, down from 62% in 1994. This is largely because of her broken promises to bring peace and economic justice. Her Peoples' Alliance Government has taken a hard line in the war against the "Tamil Tigers" (LTTE). Chandrika was hell-bent on a chauvinist campaign which aroused the rural masses. Her ballot-box stuffing, intimidation of voters, and misuse of the electoral machinery.Few people voted in the mainly Tamil northeast, where more than 2,000 polling stations were relocated at the last minute. Many abstained.
Just over 4% of voters supported the left regroupment candidate M. D. Nandana Gunathilaka. A member of the JVP, he was supported by the NSSP (Fourth International) and the Muslim United Liberation Front (MULF). These groups have been discussing and working together on a range of questions. The joint candidate was also supported by the Democratic Workers' Congress (DWC) which is mainly based among Tamil plantation workers.
in Congress bf the Fourth Internationa Transformation and regroupment Regroupments of forces determined to learn the lessons of the historical abomination that was Stalinism and to continue, against the winds and the tides, campaign was very successful in this! sector. She also benefited from a sympathy vote after a bomb attack in her final campaign rally.
Unlike in 1994, Tamil-speakers rallied round Ranil Wickremesinga, leader of the right-wing opposition United National Party, who promised to negotiate with the LTTE if he became president. Wickremesinga received 43% of the vote.
The independent Electoral Violence Surveillance Centre said the election was "less than satisfactory" in more than a third of the country, as a result of 12 International Viewpoint #319 February 2000 called for an end to the dictatorial executive presidency, an end to the war, peace and democracy under a lett government, and resistance to WB, IMF & WTO neoliberal policies. In a separate document, the parties also reached a minimum basic agreement on the national question of the Tamil people.
In the 1980s, the JVP became involved in Sinhala chauvinism and violence. But in recent years it has resisted and opposed such tendencies.
Almost 24,000 voters (0.3%)
to fight against capitalism are being realised in a number of countries. In all the countries where such possibilities exist, the organisations of the Fourth International are ready to be part of the re-groupment process. We consider this as an important step towards the recomposition of the anti-capitalist left on a world scale. At the international level, the Fourth International is an active participant in regroupment, bringing with it the advantages of a long tradition of combat against capitalism and Stalinism. * Price: E5.51D. International Viewpoint, PO Box 27410, London SW9 9WQ, Britain.
international Viewpoint@compuserve.com>
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* Sri Lanka
Argentina * grotesque aspects of banana most frivolous, republics:
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