Vigilance protest by the relatives of the missing victims in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi District (2024 April 07) The aforementioned protest is ongoing as of 2,600 days.
The fight by Chithandi farmers in Batticaloa to reclaim Madhavanai grazing area in Mayilattamadu is still ongoing 207 days later (on April 06, 2024).
protests by vigilantes against tyranny by the Kalmunai North Regional Secretariat administration For the thirteenth day in a row, they are putting up different slogans in front of the Kalmunai North Regional Secretariat (2024 April 07).
Furthermore, it is evident that there were intermittent demonstrations against the encroachments in the north and east in numerous regions. Specifically, the Shivratri worship might have been impeded by the Vedukunari Adhisivana temple.
The Eastern Development Center, Batticaloa District Civil Society Organizations, and Anti-Terrorism and Emergency Relief Bills may have been protesting for permanent appointment in Trincomalee under the temporary and contractual employees union setup.
Even though there have been numerous protests against the ruling class for a few days in response to the needs, none of the government ministers, including President Ranil Reddy, or the opposition lawmakers, including Sajith Premadasa, have been able to take any positive action because they are unable to acknowledge the genuine demands of the Tamil people and offer a solution.
On the other hand, the police have a record of bringing legal action against members of the Tamil National Political Party, former members of parliament, university students, and representatives of civil organizations. All that the current administration has done to quell the protests is arrest and imprison democratic protestors and use legal action to suppress them.
In this scenario, as the presidential contest is being planned, contenders from the majority race are campaigning and pledging to win.
Under the guise of good governance, the Federation of Tamil Nadu had 16 members of parliament led by R. Sambandan in 2015. He promised to provide a new constitutional amendment and a coalition-based political solution, but in the end, he did nothing. Sambandan would serve as prime minister until 2020.
Tamils in Kalmunai have been fighting against the administrative limitations for the past 206 days. Numerous representatives of civil society organizations, members of the Tamil National Political Party, and particularly the Jaffna-based MPs for the Sri Lankan Tamil Republic Party supported that campaign. University students are also taking part in and offering support for the vigils, along with District Sreedharan, National List Member Kalaiyarasan, and former MPs Amparai Koteswaran, Batticaloa Arianetheran, Yogeswaran, and Sreenesan.
In a similar vein, on June 17, 2019, a hunger strike was initiated under the Good Governance government. Sankarathna Kalmunai Subhatira Ramaya Vikaradhipati Ranmuthugala Thero, the chief priest of the Kalmunai Murugan Temple and the leader of the East Sri Lanka Hindu Clergy Association, along with Aruthanda Kirubairaja, the Christian pastor of Kalmunai, Alakakon Wijarednam, Chandrasekharam Rajan, and other members of the Kalmunai Mahanagara Sabha, fasted until the end of their lives.
On June 21, 2019, while the hunger strike was in progress, the then-prime minister Ranil sent a fictitious letter of promise from Colombo promising to end the protest at Kalmunai permanently. The ministers sent were Mano Ganesan, Daya Gamage, and M.A. Sumanthran, a member of parliament for the Tamil National Federation and the speaker at the time. The ministers and lawmakers who had come there fiercely objected to the letter appointing an accountant to the Kalmunai North Regional Secretariat since it indicated a three-month period, which they could not accept.
On April 7, 2024, the three-month vow and fictitious letter made by the current President, who was also the Prime Minister, on June 21, 2019, will have been in effect for nearly five years. That day, Prime Minister Ranil broke his commitment. On the other hand, Ranil is currently the executive as President. He hasn't been able to keep his word thus far. He was powerless to stop the administrative oppressive authorities from what they were doing at the moment.
Now that the presidential election is approaching, Ranil is getting ready to run for office once more and seek the support of the Tamil people. It is the current president who is unable to resolve even this minor problem.
Sajith Premadasa, the current Leader of the Opposition, is the next contender for president. North East Tamils and Tamils living in the hills had fully supported him in the most recent 2019 presidential election. He doesn't like Sajith, which is the reason behind that. Because of their animosity for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the front-runner in the presidential race, Tamil voters supported Sajith. He was not chosen, though. He was chosen by the Sinhalese due to racist propaganda. We can't expect the Tamil people to ignore this and support Sajith in the next presidential election as a result.
He was unable to put up a long-term fix for the widespread racial issue. Additionally, he frequently panders to Sinhala nationalists. He hasn't even been able to speak out during any of the protests that the Tamil people in the Northeast are currently conducting, despite being the leader of the opposition.
Sajith Premadasa has agreed that Ranil Wickremesinghe will remain the party leader and prime minister, according to Minister Akhilaviraj Kariyawasam.
But Sajith turned it down. He declared that he would not submit to any requirements in order to run for president. He claimed that his only demands were related to his values and any prerequisites. There will be numerous attempts by Ranil to manipulate Sajith. Because JVP Ranil now intends to align himself with Sajith, given that Anurakumar Dissanayake's leadership enjoys significant support from the Sinhala community.
Thirdly, the front-runner, Anurakumara Dissanayake, is trying hard to win over North-Eastern Tamil voters with a variety of initiatives. The individual who traveled to Canada last week also had discussions about it with some of the Tamils from the Eelam Tamil Diaspora.
He is currently making efforts to personally engage with the Tamil National Parties in an effort to win their support. Regardless of the Tamil leaders and diaspora Tamils he encounters, he has no plan to address the issues facing the people of North East Tamil country.
The JVP and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa filed a petition at the North East Court, which was split into two provinces after it merged in 2006. Tamil people are aware that it is a party. The Tamils wonder how they can continue to support Anurakumar Dissanayake given the extremely discriminatory environment within his party. There's also the belief that he will implement equitable policies if elected president. He will not, however, approve the Tamil people's original political option.
It appears that the Mahinda Rajapaksa brothers are struggling since the emerging party does not have a better candidate than these three. They intended to field Namal Rajapaksa for president, but fierce resistance inside the party prevented them from identifying a worthy contender. In the end, they are forced to back Ranil. But if the results of the presidential election are made public, we should anticipate that things will change.
It is anticipated that a few more challengers than these front-runners may run for president. This time around, six or seven members of the majority race are running for president, but none of the candidates who represent the dominant Sinhalese community have any plans to address the ethnic conflict that affects the Tamils in North East. In actuality, casteism will be exploited by all politicians to pander to Sinhalese voters and win their support.
They all believe that a Sinhalese candidate will not be able to win over the Sinhalese population if they make false promises about the Tamil problem. In this kind of circumstance, a Tamil general candidate might demonstrate to the world Tamil unity by fielding a Tamil candidate.
However, the reality is that none of the parties can agree on anything. The notion that there cannot be a Tamil general candidate was categorically denied by I. Sampanthan, President of the Tamil National Federation. He claims that the idea to field a general candidate on behalf of the Tamil people in the upcoming presidential election is not well-liked by the Tamil populace.
In such a situation, the North-East Tamils will now face the dilemma of whom to support the Tamil National Parties. Because there is a history of Tamils voting in the last presidential election as a tool to defeat one person. In particular, the history of the defeat of Sarath Fonseka in 2010 and the history of the re -overthrow of Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015, the history of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which used Sajith Premadasa as a tool to bring down Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in 2019. However, even when Gajendrakumar Ponnambala's Tamil National People's Front only demanded that the Tamil people should boycott the presidential election, most of the Tamils did not pay attention to it. They have asked to boycott it in the upcoming presidential election. Let's wait and see to what extent it is possible. The same situation where other Tamil parties are unable to take a decision will continue in the presidential election this time.
Without the party's knowledge, certain members of the Tamil parties are also likely to accept substantial quantities of money in secret in order to support their favorite presidential candidates. The fact that money is covertly obtained and used in campaigns to persuade voters to back the candidates who received their support is not shocking. It's also known that certain members of the Tamil parties are telling themselves that since the legislative election will take place following the presidential election, they may use the monies that will be available to them in that election.