(A Review of Sinhala, Tamil, and English newspaper reports that focused on the discourses and opinions emerging on political stages in the north and south about the demands and rights of marginalised communities, including the people of the north and east and plantation sector communities. This is based on a sample of newspapers that were published between 27 August and 2 September.)
Sinhala and English newspapers’ behaviour
In the heat of the upcoming presidential election, last week, there were usual political speeches, disputes, election promises, election campaigns, as well as mudslinging. One important development seen last week was that all three leading presidential candidates unveiled their manifestos.
National People’s Power’s (NPP) presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake released his manifesto on 26 August, while President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa released their manifestos on 29 August.
From that point on, every Sinhala, Tamil, and English newspaper had published news about manifesto launches on the front page and more detailed reports with photographs on inside pages.
In the Sinhala newspapers that we studied, the manifesto launches had been published as an advertisement, while reports about the manifestos quoted these manifestos’ contents and included statements made by the relevant presidential candidate or top politicians of the relevant party during the manifesto launch. Aruna, Dinamina, and Lankadeepa newspapers can be cited as examples. However, none of the Sinhala newspapers that we studied seemed to include any comparative or analytical articles on presidential candidates’ manifestos. At the same time, almost all Sinhala newspapers that provided a mere news report that lacked an analysis of the manifestos’ content had paid great attention to matters pertaining to economic development, health, education, and foreign policy. All those Sinhala newspapers had forgotten to report what the manifestos have said about fulfilling the demands and guaranteeing the rights of the Tamil people living in the north, east and plantation sector and of marginalised communities. Those people seem to have been marginalised not only in the Sri Lankan society but also in the pages of Sinhala newspapers.
At the same time, the above-mentioned patterns (in Sinhala newspapers) could be observed more or less in English newspapers as well.
Detailed reports about the manifestos of Dissanayake, Wickremesinghe, and Premadasa had been published in The Daily Morning newspaper on 27 August and in the Daily Mirror newspaper on 30 August. However, there was no mention of the proposals presented by the trio in order to resolve the issues faced by numerically minority communities.
However, compared to the Sinhala newspapers, English newspapers had published more comparative and analytical articles for some reason and had not been limited to mere reporting.
The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Times newspapers had published analytical articles criticising the NPP’s manifesto on 29 August and 1 September, respectively. The article published by the Daily Mirror newspaper was the lead story on the first page, and it had paid attention to pointing out flaws in matters relating to economy. At the same time, a long article had been published on the fourth page of The Sunday Times newspaper, and the article, which had used sarcastic language to some extent, had attempted to ridicule the entire manifesto. However, even to ridicule, the writer had not paid attention to anything that had been proposed by the NPP to resolve the issues faced by the people of the north, east, and the plantation sector. In addition, the purpose of both these articles was to slam the opponent of the candidate these media institutions support, not to provide a constructive analysis to educate the readers.
On 1 September, the Ceylon Today newspaper had published a comparison of the three manifestos presented by Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake, and Premadasa, and this comparison, published on the fourth page, discussed 14 selected topics. Although it had paid attention to matters pertaining to women and people with diverse sexual orientations, notably, it did not discuss the demands and rights of the people of the north, east, and the plantation sector despite them being one of the pressing issues in the country. Among the topics selected for discussion were the Constitution and law, which were mentioned as headings. All three main candidates had proposed constitutional reforms in relation to national unity. But, under that heading, Opposition Leader Premadasa had only mentioned that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution will be fully enforced until a new constitution is enacted. Under that heading, there was no mention of the proposals presented by other two candidates regarding this matter.
In a context where the three main candidates have within their capacity proposed various solutions with regard to the demands of numerically minority communities, those matters had not been even briefly discussed under the relevant heading. Was it a mistake made by Ceylon Today journalists, or were those matters intentionally ignored?
The Sinhala majority in the south do not choose the candidate that they want to vote for by reading and analysing manifestos. At the same time, most Sinhala-Buddhist people do not accept that the people of the north, east and the plantation sector are dealing with an issue relating to their right to life. Therefore, for the southern voter, manifestoes are just another firework that they see during election season, and not a decisive factor that has an influence on their vote. At the same time, most of the floating voters make their final decision based on the best gimmick presented by candidates towards the end of the election campaigning period or based on the winning wave, and not by reading manifestos or thinking analytically or logically. Journalists do not bother to provide an in-depth analysis of manifestos for the people of the south perhaps because the former is also a by-product of that community.
However, certain English newspapers had shown a different behaviour. For example, on 27 August, the Daily Mirror newspaper had published a report on the NPP’s manifesto on the first and second pages, and it discussed how Dissanayake had presented his party’s opinion on establishing national unity. He had stated that, instead of continuing to tell beautiful stories about establishing national harmony, what needs to be done is implementing it more practically and politically. The said report further mentioned that they (NPP) will bring a new constitution for that purpose. Although this report too did not mention other proposals made by the NPP for the people of the north, east and the plantation sector, it had briefly pointed out that there is a ‘national problem’ in this country and that it requires our attention.
On the first and second pages of the Daily Mirror newspaper published on 30 August, two reports had been published about the manifestos presented by presidential candidates Wickremesinghe and Premadasa. The report about Wickremesinghe’s manifesto said that the power acquired by the central government will be given back to Provincial Councils and that the Provincial Councils will be given land and police powers subject to a decision of the Parliament. Going beyond what Wickremesinghe has said, Premadasa had stated in his manifesto that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution will be fully enforced until a new constitution is enacted. However, these newspaper reports did not mention it at all. Although Premadasa had offered a more direct solution compared to Wickremesinghe when it comes to the issues faced by the people of the north and east, the Daily Mirror newspaper, owned by a relative of Wickremesinghe, did not mention it even briefly. Was it an attempt to hide Premadasa’s proposals from Colombo-based, English-speaking diplomats and Sinhala and Tamil scholars, and to highlight only Wickremesinghe’s policies?
On 1 September, The Sunday Times newspaper had on its sixth page published a report which included a positive, comparative analysis of the three main presidential candidates, i.e. Wickremesinghe, Premadasa and Dissanayake. The special feature of this article was that, it had specifically and analytically discussed the proposals put forward by the three main candidates to resolve the issues faced by the people of the north and east. It would be accurate to say that only The Sunday Times newspaper had published such a constructive article that week.
Certain issues hidden or ignored by Sinhala newspapers are highlighted in English newspapers, and it may be because the English readership includes both Tamil readers as well as a group that takes decisions after taking into account facts without blindly following others, which raises a need to provide news reports that suit their analytical thinking pattern.
Tamil newspapers’ behavior
When the manifestoes of the leading southern Sinhala candidates were released, unlike Sinhala and English newspapers, Tamil newspapers published news about them with great interest and attention. It is noteworthy that those reports went beyond mere reporting and took a more analytical approach. The Tamil voter is more conscious than the Sinhala voter when it comes to the responses to their demands and rights presented in southern politics. That is because, unlike the Sinhala people, they have had to constantly struggle to win a number of rights that go beyond fuel, cooking gas, and electricity.
Therefore, news reports about manifestos sometimes express Tamil people’s hopes about a better future, and sometimes, they reflect their frustration. In a context where none of the Sinhala presidential candidates have presented positive solutions to the demands of the Tamil people as expected by the Tamil people, reports published in Tamil newspapers were a combination of approval and disapproval.
Almost all Tamil newspapers had published advertisements and analytical reports about manifesto launches. We pay special attention to analytical reports.
“Anura and Sajith are in a race concerning the devolution of power” is a statement that is somewhat sarcastic. That headline contains a hidden question that asks whether they are genuinely fighting to devolve power for us. That report extensively discusses Dissanayake’s position on the devolution of power as well as remarks made by Premadasa about the matter during a meeting in Trincomalee. In addition, it mentioned NPP manifesto’s proposals that are favourable to the Tamil people. The news report had been prepared in such a way that one could obtain in-depth knowledge about those proposals with all the relevant details, which was not observed in the case of Sinhala or English newspapers.
Anura and Sajith are in a race concerning the devolution of power, Kaleimurusu, 8-27
Also, on the eighth page of the newspaper, a critical article had been published about Dissanayake’s proposals regarding the rights and demands of the Tamil people. It read:
“Without fighting with Buddhist and Sinhala extremists in the south, and without siding with the Tamils, he unveiled his exemplary plan in an unbiased manner.”
“He has been able to carefully present his plan in the gap existing between the two parties, in a manner that does not subject him to accusations of ‘surrendering to the Tamil people, giving everything the Tamils asked for, betraying the country for the Tamil Eelam, betraying the Sinhala people’ or attract the wrath of the Sinhala people, and in a manner that does not cause great dissatisfaction among the Tamil people and also does not align with the Tamil people’s expectations.”
Also, an article on the eighth page of the Kalaimurusu newspaper published on 28 August discussed how the Tamil society disapproves of the NPP’s contradictory policies.
The article said that ‘although the NPP had presented several progressive opinions with regard to resolving the ethnic issue and establishing ethnic harmony,’ it expressed disapproval of the statement given by Dissanayake to a foreign media institution that ‘his administration will not endeavour to prosecute anyone in connection with war crime and human rights violation allegations pertaining to the 26-year civil war.’
The article also stated: “It is through these ideologies that these fake leftists who call themselves leftists reveal and prove that they are racists immersed in Buddhist-Sinhala chauvinism.”
At the same time, on 27 August, the Eelanadu and Tamil Mirror newspapers had published articles expressing some appreciation about the NPP’s manifesto.
After 29 August, most Tamil newspapers had published analytical articles comparing the manifestos of the main presidential candidates, i.e. Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake, and Premadasa.
Especially when it comes to the manifestos presented by Premadasa and Dissanayake, a considerable number of Tamil newspaper reports had been published about the proposals presented by them to resolve the ethnic problem, and these proposals were seen as somewhat optimistic. At the same time, there were reports that expressed deep disapproval of Wickremesinghe’s policies.
The Malayimurusu newspaper published on 29 August, and also the front pages of the Pudiyasuhandiran and Eelanadu newspapers published on 30 August, provided extensive reports discussing all the proposals presented in Preamadasa’s manifesto with regard to the ethnic issue. In addition, the front pages of the Thinakaran and Kaleimurusu newspapers published on 30 August discussed the contents of Wickremesinghe’s manifesto and the solutions presented in connection with the ethnic issue.
Strong criticisms about the contents of Wickremesinghe’s manifesto had been published on the fourth page of the Kaleikadir newspaper and the ninth page of the Kalaimurusu newspaper published on 30 August. The headline of the Kaleikadir report was ‘There is no bigger unprincipled opportunist than Ranil’. The report mentioned that although he claimed that he will give priority to the ethnic issue when he assumed office as the head of the State, now, the direction of his political journey has completely changed.
The Kalaimurusu newspaper had compared the manifestos of all the three main candidates, and had stated that when it comes to resolving the ethnic issue, there are some progressive features in the manifestos presented by Premadasa and Dissanayake. However, stating that ‘President Wickremesinghe seems to have repeated the same old baila (song) in his manifesto’, the report had severely criticised his manifesto. The report further claims that although Wickremesinghe had shown in the past that he has a genuine desire to resolve the ethnic issue, he has now deviated from that desire.
At the conclusion, the report read: “When looking at these manifestos, it seems that Premadasa and Dissanayake accepts pro-Tamil views to some extent, while Wickremesinghe is trying to side with Buddhist-Sinhalese extremists.”
The Sinhala people in the south want a comfortable life with a proper supply of fuel, cooking gas, and electricity. But, the people in the north, east, and the plantation sector are still struggling to enjoy their minimum human rights.
The north- and east-based newspapers that published reports about the manifestos in the three languages tell the story of the great divide between the two main ethnic groups in the country.
Subhashini Chathurika
