Monday 19th February, 2024

There are signs of the SLPP-UNP government shifting its focus from its economic recovery efforts to populist politics. The ruling party politicians are using public assets to bribe electors in a bid to recover lost ground on the political front. They are in overdrive, distributing state land among farmers and spending taxpayers’ money generously on poor relief. However, there is no guarantee that the government will stop trifling with the people’s franchise and hold elections.

The next presidential election is about eight months away, according to the Constitution. However, fear has been expressed in some quarters that the government will do its damnedest to put off the presidential contest.

There is no constitutional provision for postponing a presidential election, but anything is possible in this land like no other. The Provincial Council and Local Government polls have been made to disappear; the very politicians who bankrupted the economy have undertaken to revive it. This is like the custody of a rape victim being awarded to the rapist himself!

Interestingly, some political leaders have already declared themselves the winners in the presidential race to be held! They are behaving as if they were capable of time travel. One of them is peddling an absurd argument that his recent visit to a neighbouring country, as a state guest, is proof that foreign powers are of the opinion that he will be the next President! He is insulting the intelligence of the leaders of the foreign government concerned, for only those sans any knowledge of psephology will make such a conclusion so early, and act thereon in making foreign policy decisions.

Sri Lanka has never been short of bogus messiahs either in politics or in other fields. The economic crisis has apparently swollen their ranks. Nothing describes the gullibility of Sri Lankans better than an aphorism attributed to American showman, P. T. Barnum — “there’s a sucker born every minute.”

It may be recalled that tens of thousands of people flocked to a village in Kegalle, in 2020, to buy a herbal syrup (Dhammika peniya) that a shaman touted as a cure for Covid-19. Some eccentric characters claim to have attained Enlightenment, and disappear after collecting colossal amounts of funds from their followers. There have been instances where some self-proclaimed messiahs found themselves up a creek.

A person who went about in a limousine, recently, claiming to be Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, and offering to guide the public along the path to liberation, has been ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment after being arrested and produced before court. But politicians hoodwink the public similarly with impunity although they too should be dealt with by the men in white coats. They include the person who pretended to be a saviour and promised the so-called Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour, took more than six million people including the members of the Maha Sangha for a ride, achieved his presidential dream and then plunged the entire country into depths of despair.

Let the self-styled messiahs of both the government and the Opposition be urged to stop trying to realise their presidential dream at the expense of the efforts to straighten up the economy. They ought to intensify their focus on how to clean up the economic mess of their own making, and work out a national strategy with the help of all stakeholders to extricate the country from the debt trap so that whoever becomes the next President, it will be possible to put the economy on an even keel. Likewise, the onus is on the public to act wisely without falling for the wiles of the bogus messiahs lest they should ruin the future of their children.