All the political parties that contested
at the Uva Provincial Council Elections have claimed that they won the
elections. This includes Sarath Fonseka and his party who think that some forty
thousand votes that they should have received have been cast to some other
political party or parties due to some “gilmaat”. Fonseka may be a good soldier but
unfortunately he is not even a bad politician. He simply does not understand
politics. It is good for him as well as the country that his party is dissolved
as any dream of them becoming the so called third force has vanished to thin
air following the election debacle at Uva. However, that does not mean that the
JVP has become the third force once again or that they have got the remote
control. The JVP at a Presidential Election would poll around 3% of the valid
vote and that would reveal the strength of the party. The fact of the matter is
that there are no third forces in the country and parties other than the SLFP
and the UNP in that order have been reduced to also ran positions. This applies
to TNA and Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) as well that would cease to
exist without the support of the western countries through the dispersed Tamils
in the west.
The UVA elections have been won by the
western forces, though with minor hiccups here and there, due to default. It is
not a victory that was achieved after a
struggle but a victory that was handed over by the SLFP in a platter. It is not
a victory for the UNP as they could not even win the Badulla District with a strong candidate such as Harin Fernando and
the entire UNP working for him. It was the climax as far as the UNP is
concerned and now they are on the downhill path. Young Hiran Fernando has no
future in the UNP in spite of his “manapes” and he had been the much talked
about “Billy boy”. The results should not have come as a surprise in a
country where even so called leading Bhikkus talk in terms of good governance,
as if the latter is the Biblical truth. The good governance is a western
concept that cannot be applied in Sri Lanka, and these Bhikkus who do not know
how to adopt “Dasa Raja Dharma” in the present context could only shout slogans
on so called good governance. Good governance could work for Scotland, Gordon
Brown the labour leader in Scotland, who is actually led by the English and
others, but not for Uva. However, in the absence of Dasa Raja Dharma the humble
folk in Uva were bewildered and they had to select between the SLFP and the
UNP.
The JHU did not contest the Uva
Provincial council elections knowing probably what the outcome would have been.
On the other hand the JNP of Wimal Weerawansa contested alone in Badulla
demonstrating the support they have in the district. The fact that their
candidate won in Moneragala does mean only that the voters prefer the former as
an individual and not as a member of the JNP. Had the JNP contested alone in
Moneragala as well the JNP would not have won a single place in the Uva
Provincial Council. It is clear that the politicized Nationalistic Movement
(Jathika Vyaparaya) is in the decline. The Jathika Vyaparaya is presently
represented by the SLFP alone and not by MEP, JHU or JNP but how long can the
SLFP survive without a truly nationalistic policy.
It is true that it was the SLFP as a
political party under the political leadership of the President and the
strategical leadership of the Defense Secretary that won the “warfare” against
the most ruthless terrorist group in the world supported by the western
countries, Jayalalitha and the Gandhi family and the Indian Congress. The SLFP
unlike the UNP, the agent of the western forces has a policy independent of the
west as far as the Tamil terrorism is concerned. With respect to Tamil racism
as well though its policy is not as clear cut as in the case of terrorism, it
has a healthy policy irrespective of what the pundits associated with the JHU
and JNP have to say. None of these pundits advocated that the 13th
amendment should be thrown away soon after the Nandikadal Victory, though now
they claim that the government should have done so then. I know personally from
the APRC days the President was not for the implementation of the 13th
amendment in toto and that he was against giving police and land powers to the
Provincial Councils unlike ministers such as Nimal Siripala de Silva. In fact
it was after a meeting with the President, the members of the APRC signed a
statement to the effect that the relevant clauses of the thirteenth amendment
would be implemented for the consumption of India.
It so happens that as far as the
nationalistic policies are concerned the difference between the SLFP and the
UNP at present is mainly due to Mahinda Rajapakse. If not for the President
there is hardly any difference at present between the SLFP and the UNP as far
as the nationalistic policies are concerned. However, it has to be mentioned
that unlike the UNP, the SLFP is prepared to listen to the Jathika Vyaparaya. The
nationalist movement is responsible for the present state of affairs as the Vyaparaya as a whole
has failed to evolve nationalistic policies as far as economy, politics and
politics are concerned. When people are asked to select between the SLFP and
the UNP they have the task of selecting Mahinda Rajapakse or David Cameron so
to speak of. Most of the people may not know who Cameron is but it is a
question of selecting either the intuitive nationalism of Mahinda Rajapakse or
western policies on development.
The provincial Council elections were a
victory for the President as the people had selected him over the western
policies. However, at the same time the western policies have come a long way
after 2009 Nandikadal Victory in economics and culture though in international
politics Mahinda Rajapakse has clearly established his position as a respected
statesman. The next presidential election, in spite of Sarath Silva’s arguments
would be won by Mahinda Rajapakse and until 2020 the UNP and Ranil
Wickremesinghe would not be able to do well at Presidential elections. Ranil by
then would be old and the country would be thinking in terms of the next
generation.
The people in Uva Provincial Council
limits have given a verdict against the non nationalistic ministers such as
Nimal Sirpala de Silva and Dilan Perera who lost their Badulla and Halliela
electorates respectively. At the same time they have shown the door to Tissa
Attanayake who is not another R Premadasa in the UNP to become its leader
having come from the non English speaking elite. Attanayake lost his “village”
electorate Viyaluva, and soon after the elections to the Provincial council
tendered his resignation from the post of General Secretary of the UNP. The UNP
is doomed to be the party of the western biased English speaking elite and it
is the absence of a truly nationalistic policy in economics culture and
politics as far as the SLFP is concerned that would keep the UNP as a force in
Sri Lankan politics.
It is the SLFP that has to learn a
lesson from the elections. The party has no future apart from the nationalistic
policies and it is time the party goes through the report of the Buddha Sasana
Commission to find out where they stand after nearly sixty years. The future of
the country belongs not to the UNP, the agent of the west and the English
speaking elite of the country but to the SLFP, and not even to the JHU or the
JNP. However, the SLFP has to go to its roots if the party wants to be the
future of the country.
Nalin De Silva
24-09-2014