What are the deciding factors at the
presidential elections that will be held within a month on the 8th
of January 2015, the 47th anniversary of the death of Ven. Dambarawe
Ratanasara Thera. It is certainly not the killing of the Thera while he was
going on a demonstration against a bill on usage of Tamil by the UNP
government. Many people have forgotten the incident and it would not be an
issue at the elections after nearly fifty years. January 8th happens
to be the birthday of the late Mr. S W R D Bandaranaike but it is very unlikely
that even Chandrika Kumaratunga remembers the day though she is fond of
referring to so called Bandaranaike phobia of Mahinda Rajapaksa. If at all, it
will be Mahinda Rajapaksa or his supporters who would mention the two
anniversaries during the election campaign.
It is mainly the diehard UNPers, few
academics and some so called educated people who would pay lip service to
democracy and good governance. It has to be said that they only pay lip service
as they would not compare the SLFP led governments with the UNP governments of
yesteryear on good governance and democracy. The UNP is not a paragon of virtue
as far as good governance and democracy are concerned as Ven. Maduluwawe
Sobhita Thera himself knows. There is no so called good governance or democracy
anywhere in the world and the UNP was not an exception. The seventeenth and
eighteenth amendments are good for after dinner speeches as the common man is
not bothered by any of these. The removal of Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake will not
be an issue at all, as it was done legally even by the standards of so called
democracy. It is good as a conversational topic for the so called educated
people and if the former Chief Justice, I forget the serial number attached to
her by the pundits who still believe that she is the CJ of the country, comes
in support of the uncommon candidate Maithripala Sirisena, it will only devalue
further her doubtful credentials.
The common man whom I meet in three
wheeled vehicles and among the traders along my road at Maharagama are not at
all interested in democracy and good governance. However they know that there
have been more elections under Mahinda Rajapakse though it may not be a yardstick
of democracy as far as some “intellectuals” are concerned and they talk of the
tarred/concrete roads, highways, their job opportunities, electricity and water
supplies to their homes, and of course the freedom to travel to any part of the
country without any fear. They know that
their spouses and the children will return home from workplaces and schools as
the case may be and that they do not have to guard the schools of their
children on a rotational basis. The average Sinhala person may not have read
the thirteenth amendment but he knows that Prabhakaran wanted a separate state
and that he resorted to terrorism that was defeated by Mahinda Rajapaksa or in
their language Mahinda Mahattaya or Janadhipathithuma. He also knows that the
former Presidents including Chandrika Kumaratunga could not defeat Prabhakaran
and terrorism. However he knows that Ranil Wickremesinghe signed a pact with
Prabhakaran which is called a ceasefire agreement and with that the latter got
the upper hand. However, the average person does not know that according to the
constitution only the President can declare war and peace as stipulated in
Article 33 (e) and Chandrika Kumaratunga as the President could have annulled
the ceasefire agreement if she wanted using her powers as the President. Thus
he is not aware that Ms. Kumaratunga was party to the ceasefire agreement, and
Mr. Wickremesinghe had to carry the blame by himself. It is a case of blaming
the father only while leaving out the mother for the birth of the ceasefire
agreement.
The average Sinhala person knows that
the thirteenth amendment is on separatism though the pundits will claim that it
is not so. The average person may not have heard of little now more later
policy of Chelvnayakam but he knows by intuition that the “coming colour is no
good” with respect to the thirteenth amendment. He is against the thirteenth
amendment and would like to see it abolished and not the eighteenth amendment
that has no relevance to his day to day life. The eighteenth amendment has
relevance to the lives of even the pundits only in the abstract and its
abolition is only a good conversational topic as has been mentioned earlier.
If an amendment to the constitution is
going to have some impact on the Presidential Elections it is the thirteenth
amendment that affects the lives of the people and not the eighteenth or the
seventeenth amendments. The average person may know neither the intricacies of
the thirteenth amendment nor that it was hatched by Indira Gandhi on the
instructions of England and US but he knows that it was foul and that it
undermined the sovereignty (freedom or nidahasa in his language) of the
country. However, he also knows that the provincial councils based effectively
on the thirteenth amendment (he is very unlikely to be aware of the provincial
council act) cannot be abolished with so many Chief Ministers, Ministers and
members, but would like to curtail some powers given by the thirteenth
amendment, such as land powers and police powers. The average person unlike the
“intellectuals” is not interested in abolishing or curtailing the powers of the
executive presidency but would be happy to see that some powers of the
provincial councils are curtailed. The average person knows that the LTTE could
not have been defeated without an executive president who could stand up to
pressure. He may not know exactly who applied pressure but he is aware of
“parippu diplomacy” of the Gandhis and Solheim who considered Sri Lanka as his
kitchen. Though he may not formulate in the same words he knows that executive
presidency is only a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition to
safeguard the sovereignty of the country. He knows that neither JR Jayawardhane
nor Chandrika Kumaratunga could stand up to pressure from various forces but
Mahinda Mahattaya could do so. As far as Maithripala Sirisena is concerned the average
person knows his record as the Minster of health who could not stand up to the
pressure of the doctors. The average person, unless he is a diehard UNPer would
not think of Maithripala Sirisena as a strong personality even in his dreams.
The average person by this time has lost
his faith in the Parliament. The crossovers are not going to help him to have
any confidence in the Parliament, and if those who spend money over the
crossovers think that they could manipulate the destiny of the country with
their wealth and funding then they are mistaken. The crossovers only undermine
the authority of the Parliament if it had any, and would increase the
confidence in a strong executive president. Those who encourage crossovers only
help Mahinda Rajapaksa unknowingly or knowingly. The individuals associated
with crossovers may think that they have a mass base that depends on their “personality”
but they will learn their lessons after the presidential elections. It applies
across the board from Maithripala Sirisena to Hirunika Premachandra through
Tissa Attanayake. Most of the crossovers are not based on any policy but on
personal reasons. The average person by now has realised that the crossovers
only undermine his vote at the elections and he would like to see that his vote
has a value over the entire period of any Parliament. With respect to a strong
President he knows that his choice would not be bought by any agency and by
selecting a weak defector as the so called common candidate of not one common
opposition but of different oppositions with different policies the oppositions
have failed.
The average Sinhala person would not think
of good governance or democracy when he votes but of the “nidahasa” of the
country and of a person who would defend the “nidahasa” against all the powers.
In short the presidential elections are only another step in the struggle
against vijathika balawega (non national powers) and not on defending some
abstract concepts imposed on us by the very same non national powers.
Nalin De Silva
10-12-2014