Farewell to democracy?

Thursday 16th February, 2023

The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime is in overdrive to derail the local government (LG) elections. It might succeeded in sabotaging postal voting. It knows that it is highly unpopular, and an electoral contest at this juncture will seal its fate. It is a dead man walking!

In 1994, the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga offered the Northern Province to Prabhakaran without elections for a period of ten years in a bid to make him eschew violence. Her plan went pear-shaped. The Tiger chief is pushing up the daisies, but it looks as if the Rajapaksas, who claim credit for defeating the LTTE, were set to rule the entire country without elections for ten years or even more, with the help of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

If the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe alliance is allowed to use the country’s economic difficulties as an excuse for refusing to allocate funds for elections and throttling people’s franchise, then it will be able to stay in power without elections indefinitely, for the economic crisis is not likely to go away in the foreseeable future; it will continue to claim that funds cannot be allocated for elections.

The government has disrupted the process of printing ballot papers by directing the Government Printer to ask for an advance payment from the Election Commission (EC) and not to procure anything on credit. That the government is so broke that it cannot allocate funds for elections is a blatant lie. Wasteful expenditure is rampant. More than Rs. 200 million was spent on the recent Independence Day celebrations; mobile toilets alone cost the taxpayers more than Rs. 15 million, according to the Opposition. How can a government that makes a splurge on toilet paper claim that it has no funds for ballot papers?

Let the public officials who have allowed themselves to be used by the powers that be as a cat’s paw to pull political chestnuts out of the fire be warned that they will be held to account for their actions, some day, and their political masters will not be there to protect them.

The JVP is making a hue and cry about the government’s relentless efforts to sabotage the LG polls. It has even threatened to take to the streets to protect the people’s right to vote. But it stands exposed for its duplicity. The ‘Red knights’ in shining armour currently on a mission to save the damsel of Sri Lankan democracy had no qualms about helping the UNP-led Yahapalana government postpone the Provincial Council elections indefinitely in 2017. The JVP, the SLFP, the TNA, etc., joined forces with the UNP to secure the passage of the obnoxious Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Act of 2017 for that purpose.

If only the JVP had respected the people’s franchise in the late 1980s, when it unleashed savage terror to scuttle elections, and killed hundreds , if not thousands, of people who dared exercise their legitimate political rights. It obviously feels no remorse for its past crimes. The least it can do to make the discerning public take its much-avowed commitment to democracy seriously is to tender an unqualified apology for its barbaric violence and savage attempts to disrupt elections during its second reign of terror (1987-89).

The SLPP dissidents have also condemned the government for trying to sabotage the LG polls. Where were these worthies when the mini polls were postponed last year? They unflinchingly endorsed that anti-democratic act.

SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam has told the media that his party respects the people’s franchise, and the Rajapaksas have never postponed elections. Has he forgotten that it is the Rajapaksas who put off the LG polls last year? Supposing his claim that the SLPP is against a poll postponement is true, then who wants the LG elections derailed? Is it President Wickremesinghe? If so, the SLPP can prevail on him to desist from doing so. The President has to do as the SLPP says for obvious reasons. The Rajapaksas and their hangers-on are running with the hapless public and hunting with the President.

The shamelessness of the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime reminds us of an apocryphal story about a Mudaliyar who was troubled by the womenfolk in his village entering his estate at dawn and removing the coconuts that fell overnight. He failed to prevent the theft, try as he might, despite all his powers and coercive methods. One of his lackeys undertook to keep the women at bay, and succeeded in his endeavour. Asked by his master how he had accomplished the task, the minion said he walked about in the buff, and women ran away! There are situations where the shameless succeed and the civilised fail.

Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe once likened the country’s crisis-hit economy to a vehicle that had gone out of control and was careening down the hill. He said the immediate challenge before him and his team was to get into it and stop it before it crashed. EC Chairman Nimal Punchihewa and his team are facing a similar challenge on the political front. These intrepid officials have to put the brakes on the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe juggernaut bearing down on the people. Theirs is an uphill task, given the desperation of the beleaguered regime, and they deserve unstinted support from everyone. Let all those who cherish democracy be urged to circle the wagons around the EC.