Strategy of shooting targets on a revolving platform

The view of the Sri Lankan political scene in the post ‘terrorist war’ period could be described as marksmen of the Rajapakse regime — media and political — having pot shots at figures on a revolving stage. The figures on this revolving stage or this merry-go-round are those such  as former US Ambassador Robert Blake (now Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia), GSP Plus, Erik Solheim and the Norwegian government, Hilary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and other European leaders and diplomats, NGO leaders local and foreign, and of course Ranil Wickremesinghe. The targets remain in focus for a few days or a week or two and move away only to reappear after sometime for the firing to recommence.

Target practice

There is nothing wrong in this shooting practice except that the targets seem untouched by this verbal abuse and the political status quo remains the same. What are hired guns, voluntary defenders of the faith, patriots etc. for? They do seem to have a specific objective: Keeping the selected subjects in focus.

But they also serve another seemingly sinister purpose: Keeping subjects that are of vital interest to the ordinary people out of focus. The country is now in election mode with the Southern Provincial Council elections close at hand and a parliamentary and perhaps even a presidential election close at hand. But who talks about the price of bread? The price of a loaf of bread during the tail end of the UNP regime was around Rs. 13. Now it is around Rs. 45 to Rs. 50!

What of the price of fuel even though world market prices plummeted? They did not come down with world market prices and now the international prices are once again on the up and we had quite recently an upward revision. What of the prices of other essential goods such as pharmaceuticals, rents, housing construction?

This moving target strategy has worked because it is based on the backdrop of winning the ‘glorious war’. The people have been carried away by the military victory over terrorism — although terrorism is still with us — as seen by the support to the ruling party at provincial elections. The fact that terrorism has not been eradicated is evident that most of the security measures that restrict basic freedoms of the people are still in place. But the war euphoria has still not worn off.

How long?

How long can this charade go on? Till the elections, even presidential elections are over?

Right now the target on stage is Erik Solheim and the Norwegian government. They are accused of helping the LTTE to get arms from Somalia by altering end user certificates required to purchase arms from China. If the allegations are true it is a very serious matter that should be taken up, even by the UN. But evidence for these allegations has not been forthcoming.

It would be very hard to convince America and European nations without hard proof being produced even though it may have a tremendous impact on audiences of Southern Province election rallies. The government has not officially made such an allegation but the story quoting ‘well informed sources’ in the media achieves the objectives of the disseminators.

Democracy or conspiracy

Conspiracies against governments and their leaders have been alleged ever since the death of the first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake. To cut short this long list let’s begin with 1977 and the Jayewardene government. JR alleged a ‘Naxalite plot’ and even charged the conspirators  in courts but they were released. President Premadasa kept talking about conspiracies hatched against him until he woke up one morning to find a motion of no confidence being planned against him by his own ministers.

Chandrika Kumaratunga too spoke of many conspiracies against her. These were all intra party conspiracies not the planned assassinations of Velupillai Pirapaharan.

Now President Rajapakse speaks of conspiracies being plotted against him and his government. Going by these ‘conspiracy’ allegations it could be said that Sri Lanka has not been a democracy but an extended conspiracy. While it would not be fair to dismiss all claims of conspiracies off hand but the sceptical public now tend to treat them as instances of  crying wolf. Unless positive proof is forthcoming it tends to undermine governments particularly in Western democracies.

Taking pot shots at those not to the liking of the ruling party could be a safe, delightful  and profitable pastime  but all these ‘perceptive’ analysts are not thinking or not saying where they think their ‘beloved motherland’— it’s the term in vogue these days — is heading to.

TV channels carry speeches of government leaders painting a roseate future of the country. Such democratic, socialist, socialist nirvanas are usually painted on the eve of elections. The people, if they are wise enough,  will view the performance of a government based on ground realities, the most basic of which is the budget.

Present the budget

If the economy is sound as claimed, tourists and massive investments are flooding in, colossal development projects are now on stream, let all this be said and explained in the budget debate before the Opposition.

But now some political canaries such as JVP renegade Wimal Weerawansa who are used to test the air in political mines are saying that there should be no presentation of the annual budget but only a Vote on Account.  This would deprive the people of knowing the true state of the economy. The presentation of the budget could test the allegations the Opposition has been making.

What is the contribution made by the US$ 2.1 billion IMF loan to build up the country’s foreign exchange reserves; what are the conditionalities imposed by the IMF; what’s the true budget deficit (or even a surplus going by the rhetoric of our perceptive analysts?) and how much of relief can be given to all the suffering masses — not only to government employees and organised labour.

David Vs Goliath

And now America is giving a further boost to Mahinda Rajapakse albeit not for the love of him. Moves are being made to investigate ‘war crimes’ in Sri Lanka by the American Senate. It’s, as we said before, Goliath America Vs David Mahinda Percy Rajapakse of little Lanka. Whom do you think Sri Lankans will cheer and vote for? The strategy of shooting targets on a revolving platform is working.