People take to the street, ef in 2024 Budget
Old Sampanthan’s tion Trade unions and other groups intensify protests before next Monday’s Budget
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa exchange greetings as President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Foreign Minister Ali Sabri look on at the NAAM 200 ceremony at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium on Thursday. Pix by Indika Handuwela not stop at that. He seized the opportunity to say the matter has been of great concern for his party and for him personally for some time now. Sampanthan has not been able to attend Parliament on some occasions due to his ill health and age. Last year, he said, as concerned members, some of the seniors of the ITAK (Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi – the principal partner) including himself had met Sampanthan and shared their concerns. Unfortunately, he said, he had refused to quit and explained that Trincomalee’s people elected him at the 2020 elections, knowing well that he was not in the very best of health. That was how he had become the number one candidate, he had pointed out. Ninety years old now, Sampanthan is approaching his 91 birthday on February 5, 2024. Sampanthan did not respond to calls made to him both in Colombo and at his residence in Trincomalee.
The TNA is made up of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO),th e People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), and the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK). It has not been an easy task for Sampanthan to keep the TNA together. Out of the three constituent parties, two are headed by former militants.
A senior Tamil journalist of the north said that Sampanthan in 2020, initially told his party central committee and his constituency district offices that he would not stand at the 2020 general elections. As members persuaded him to stand, he agreed under two conditions, one, he would only serve one year and would resign for someone from his party to takeover, and two, some named person from Trincomalee to be placed as the primary candidate in the list of nominations depending on the vote share. Neither condition has been satisfied to date. The TNA gained only a single nominated MP position which was given to a member from Ampara and not Trincomalee.
For many months now, the TNA has been in the throes of a crisis. When nominations closed for the local council elections, there were no candidates fielded by the TNA. Internal bickering led to partners functioning in their individual capacities. Moves are now afoot to bring some form of reconciliation, Mavai Senathirajah, leader of the ITAK and principal partner of the TNA, said yesterday. He said the ITAK central committee would meet today (Sunday) in Colombo to discuss the latest developments. Having arrived in Colombo from Jaffna on Friday, Senathirajah went for a meeting with Sampanthan.
He acknowledged that there were media reports calling for the resignation of Sampanthan. However, we are not sure about these reports and need to verify them. My duty as chairman is to present it at the Central Committee meeting and discuss issues. For this, I am ready with the details and will table them at the meeting. He dismissed claims that Sampanthan was “inadequately representing” the Trincomalee district and asserted that he had rendered yeoman service. All issues would be taken up at the Central Committee meeting, he added.
Among the other developments has been a request by the three-member Committee of Inquiry probing the Channel 4 disclosures. The Committee wrote to President Wickremesinghe seeking an extension of the time given to it. The deadline when a report was expected was October 31. The Committee is headed by retired Supreme Court Judge S.I. Imam and comprises Air Chief Marshal Jayalath Weerakkody and A.J. Soza, President’s Counsel. Britain’s media regulator Ofcom, has already rejected a complaint from retired Major General Suresh Sallay, head of the State
Intelligence Service (SIS) over the Channel 4 programme.
Strikes and protests
The government is also monitoring a string of strikes this week in different sectors. They include:
October 30: A number of provincial and state-level public service trade unions with the participation of Development Officers, Management
Service Officers, Grama Niladhari Officers, Samurdhi Officers, and Provincial Public Service Sector Personnel and other office services staged a protest in Colombo over a series of demands including a demand for a Rs. 20,000 allowance or pay raise through the 2024 budget.
November 1: Multiple groups protested to denounce electricity policies. Workers from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) demonstrated outside CEB Headquarters at noon to oppose a move to bring in foreign stakeholders.
Another protest organised from Divulapitiya to Colombo was dispersed by the Police and six persons including Sanjeewa Dhammika, the secretary of the Electricity Consumers' Association, and a Buddhist monk were arrested. They were granted bail on the same day. They were due to march to Colombo and reach the CEB headquarters by night.
November 2: Staff of all 17 state universities were on a token strike over a series of demands including a demand for salary revision and increasing allocation for the education sector in the upcoming budget. The Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) launched a series of islandwide strikes starting from November 2. It was, however, called off on Friday.
The focus of the strikes appears to be to mount pressure on the government ahead of the November 13 budget. Nevertheless, President Wickremesinghe has declared that there would be a pay increase for the state sector and expressed the wish that the private sector too would follow suit.