Sri Lankan Australians have high hopes for new president Maithripala Sirisena
Saturday, 10 January 2015 03:13
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Community welcomes poll result and hope ethnic tensions between Sinhalese and Tamils will ease
The Guardian.com: Members of the Sri Lankan community in Australia have welcomed the election of Maithripala Sirisena, saying they hope it signals the end of ethnic tensions that have plagued the south Asian country.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ruled the country for almost a decade, conceded defeat after a presidential election that has been described as the most significant in recent times.
Rajapaksa was largely credited for bringing an end to a decades-long civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority, but his presidency has been fraught with accusations of war crimes committed towards the end of the conflict.
Sri Lankan Australians said the election results show the electorate’s discontent with the Rajapaksa Government.
“It was anticipated,” the outgoing secretary of the Tamil association of Queensland, Kathiravelu Navaratnam, said. “People were looking for a change and the change has happened.”
Ruwan Walpola, president of the Sri Lankan association of New South Wales, said: “The people have spoken. Sri Lanka is a robust democracy and this [election result] is democracy in action. I’m pleased that the transition has happened peacefully.”
Navaratnam said he hoped the change in government would mean better relations between Sinhalese and Tamil citizens, and urged both parties to “sit down and talk about change”.
“If we can’t do that in a democracy, then where can we do it?” he asks.
Sam Pari, from the Australian Tamil congress, said Sirisena, who was a confidant of Rajapaksa and a member of his government, has questions to answer about his role in the civil war.
“Sirisena was acting defence minister during the final days of the war when the highest number of civilian casualties and alleged war crimes took place according to UN reports,” Pari said.
“As far as the Tamils are concerned, in order to return to normalcy in our lives accountability and justice remain our priority concern, and it is vital the international community continues its role in pushing for this as well as an end to the culture of impunity in Sri Lanka,” she said.
But Malee Dissanayake, vice president of the NSW branch of the Sinhalese cultural forum of Australia, said Rajapaksa was “a very good person” who surrounded himself with politicians who were not in touch with the concerns of everyday people.
“He was the one who finished the war … and personally I have a big respect for that,” Dissanayake said.
But she acknowledged that claims of corruption levelled at the Rajapaksa Government may have some validity.
“He had another two years [in which to call an election],” Dissanayake said. “Why call an election now?”
She said Sri Lanka could learn a lot from Australia on how to run a free and fair election, and on how to cultivate a peaceful and tolerant society.
Walpoli said that peace would be unlikely while community members referred to themselves as Tamil or Sinhalese rather than as Sri Lankan.
“I think you should talk about the community as a whole,” he said. “Let’s hope peace remains and let’s hope we don’t return to those dark days of 30 years of conflict.”
Walpoli said that the relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka will remain strong no matter who was in power.
“The ties between Sri Lanka and Australia date back a long way,” Walpoli said. “I don’t think that will change.”
The Sri Lankan High Commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe was in Colombo for the election result and was unable to speak to Guardian Australia.
Dissanayake thinks that while the bilateral relationship between the countries is strong, the power to improve it lies with Sirisena.
“If he wants to make it better, he can,” she said.
