Guilty By Default

Sri Lanka is just 18 days away from a general election that is likely to be a watershed in its post independence history; much of it having been wracked by war and civil disturbance. The April 8 poll will be the first to be held in relative peace with the end of the war — the last such poll being in 1977 which in itself was a watershed event with J.R. Jayewardene’s UNP romping home with an unprecedented 5/6th majority.

Such a result is unlikely to be seen in the foreseeable future under the system introduced by the ‘Old Fox’ himself — Proportional Representation where even obtaining a two-thirds majority is a near impossibility.
However the all-conquering Mahinda Rajapaksa seems determined to achieve the impossible and is going full steam to achieve the coveted two-thirds majority. In his eagerness to achieve this goal Rajapaksa has committed the cardinal sin that almost all of his recent predecessors are equally guilty of – nominating persons with dubious track records purely for the purpose of winning at any cost.

Not to be outdone, the opposition in its attempt to halt the Rajapaksa juggernaut has indulged in the same sin and nominated persons who are more likely to be at home presiding over the affairs of Wanathamulla Sports Club. But it has to be said at least on paper the opposition seems to have exercised some sort of due diligence on its candidates and the general quality seems to be a tad better than that offered by the ruling party. Of course nothing pleases the opposition more these days than to point out that all the bad eggs who were among them are now in the ruling camp and those remaining are in modern parlance ‘virtual’ saints.

Be that as it may the dilemma facing the 14, 088,500 electors is the same as the one they have been facing over the last couple of polls. How does one pick the best out of the worst possible lot – on both sides of the political divide? It is not going to be easy and if the same carelessness as displayed in the last general election is displayed once again then the people will truly get the government they deserve as famously stated by one of the founding fathers of the United States and its third President, Thomas Jefferson.

Given half a chance the average Sri Lankan will be quick to boast about our 2500 years of ‘rich’ history. So then how is it that a people with such a rich and long history can not come up with 225 credible people to represent them in parliament? It is not that there is a dearth of candidates either – there are all of 7, 620 candidates contesting the April 8 poll vying for the 225 job opportunities that guarantee a life of luxury and a pension in five years.

Sri Lankans need to do a lot of soul searching as to why things are what they are. “What to do…this is our karumay (fate)” they lament and in less than three weeks will again proceed to mark the cross on their four feet long ballot papers perpetuating the very karumay they complain of.

The root of the problem is that the voters rarely hold those elected responsible to keep their word. Election promises remain just that – promises. And the voters seem fine with that.

It was way back in 1994 that the first promise was made to abolish the executive presidency. President Kumaratunga having quickly forgotten about this promise once in office not only proceeded to seek re-election for a second term but at the end of the second term tried valiantly to stay on for another year but the then chief justice Sarath Silva would have none of it and told Kumaratunga to pack her bags.

The incumbent when he first campaigned for the post in 2005 again promised furiously to do away with the executive presidency but just like his predecessor, quickly forgot about it once elected and when the time was right, quite nonchalantly sought re-election for a second time and won comfortably. To add insult to injury he once again campaigned on the basis that he would abolish the post. Now three months after that election and as is to be expected there is not a hum on ‘abolition’ or even settling for an amendment of presidential powers. The electorate? Well, silent as usual.

It is interesting to note, almost intriguing, that Sri Lankans do not have a culture of litigation in the public interest. In a country of 20 million people and potentially an equal number of ‘sue-able’ issues only a handful of cases have been filed and concluded and even in this instance the motives of the litigants have been proved to be far removed from the public interest.

Even in the present hostile election environment many are the sins that are being committed that beg public intervention but except for the usual responses that emanate from a handful of institutions, silence rules. Politicians have mastered the art of capitalizing on this not-so-helpful trait of ours and the result of that is the political disaster that we have on our hands. It is the people and no one else, who by default are guilty of having created the politicians that we have.

Take for instance the court marshal of presidential contestant Sarath Fonseka. The main charge against the General since the conclusion of the poll was that he had been planning a coup to overthrow the government. But to the surprise of all, when the charge sheet was finally made public there was absolutely no mention of any coup. Yet, to date many of the General’s supporters remain locked up in jail on the very charge of assisting Fonseka to plot a coup. The bottomline is that there is no coup charge against Fonseka but his supporters are being held for supporting him to plan a coup!

The opposition is no better. They have been shouting from the rooftops that a computer ‘jilmart’ did their candidate in at the presidential poll. But just like in the case of Fonseka, when the opposition filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the results of the presidential election, there was no mention of any computer jilmart – their main grouse.

At the end of the day it is a case of politicians taking everybody else for a ride and the ones that win the day are the ones that persist in doing this.

It was Benjamin Franklin who over 230 years ago had cause to utter the timeless truth that  “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” In the same breath he went on to add, “As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Need one say more? As we look around today what we see not only proves the great man right but also begs the question whether we Sri Lankans are ‘capable of freedom.’