When cowards shiver

Friday 20th January, 2023

A memorable line uttered by the eponymous protagonist in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar—’Cowards die many times before their deaths’—comes to mind when one sees the grandees of the SLPP-UNP government shivering, unable to face the local government (LG) elections. It may be said, with apologies to the Bard, that cowards lose many times before their defeats.

When Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena recently tabled a ministerial report on a Bill that seeks to amend the Local Government Elections Act and increase youth representation, the Opposition let out a howl of protest, claiming that the government was trying to use that Bill to postpone the LG polls. Calling that move only a feint, we warned that a killer hook would follow. It seems to have come sooner than expected in the form of the Regulation of Election Expenditure Bill, riddled with flaws and deficiencies, which we will discuss in a separate comment.

Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told Parliament yesterday that the proposed law would not apply to the upcoming LG polls, but the Opposition is convinced otherwise. Both Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and NPP chief Anura Kumara Dissanayake are of the view that the Bill will cause the LG polls to be delayed if it becomes law. Dissanayake has said that after securing the passage of the Bill, the government will have someone seek a judicial intervention to make the EC abide by the new law, and the formulation of new regulations, etc., will take time and delay the LG polls. The Opposition therefore asked the government to introduce an amendment to the Bill to the effect that it would not be applicable to the LG election scheduled to be held soon. Its call went unheeded.

The government, which is all out to delay the LG polls, might succeed in its endeavour, but it will not be able to avoid crushing electoral defeats. The UNP-led Yahapalana government managed to postpone the Provincial Council elections, in 2017, but suffered humiliating defeats at subsequent elections.

State Minister Sanath Nishantha has been trounced at a co-operative society election in the Puttalam District, according to media reports! A Rajapaksa loyalist, Nishantha is a staunch supporter of President Ranil Wickremesinghe as well. One may wonder what possessed him to contest a co-operative society election, but his ignominious defeat could not have come at a worse time for the government, which pretends to be confident of winning the LG polls while doing everything in its power to postpone them. It has given the government a foretaste of what is to come. Now that a state minister has lost a co-operative society election, what is lying in store for the SLPP and UNP candidates in the LG election fray is not difficult to imagine.

It is a pity that Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has been accused of being party to a conspiracy to postpone the LG polls. He endeared himself to the masses by standing up to repressive regimes and safeguarding the people’s franchise. He gained national prominence in 1983 by winning one of the 18 by-elections that the then President J. R. Jayewardene had to hold in the constituencies where the UNP lost the heavily-rigged referendum, which extended the life of the eighth parliament in the most despicable manner. Gunawardene won the Maharagama seat, and three other Opposition heavyweights, Anil Moonesinghe, Richard Pathirana and Amarasiri Dodangoda won Matugama, Akmeemana and Baddegama, respectively, despite savage violence unleashed by the JRJ regime, which also resorted to widespread rigging. Forty years on, Gunawardene has joined forces with Jayewardene’s nephew, Wickremesinghe, and is drawing heavy flak for trying to postpone elections. Richard Pathirana’s son, Ramesh, is a minister in the current regime, which is all out to deprive the people of their franchise. Justice Minister Rajapakshe made a name for himself as the Chairman of the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), in the late noughties, by exposing the fraudulent divestiture of Sri Lanka Insurance and Lanka Marine Services, and thereby paving the way for the nullification by the apex court of those shady deals. He too will sully his reputation if the new law to be made is used to postpone the LG polls despite his assurances to the House that it will not affect the upcoming mini elections.

Pity the land that is in need of leaders who have the backbones to face elections, one may say with apologies to Brecht.