RESURGENCE OF COMMUNAL STRIFE WITH GOVT IN CRISIS MODE

As if the electoral bashing it was subjected to at the Local Government polls was not enough, the government,in short order, had to face the further assault of a new round of bruising, destabilising communal violence. While anti-muslim mob violence in the Kandy district according to police claimed two lives, 45 businesses and homes, four ‘places of worship’ (mosques), 11 vehicles and injured 11 in a grenade blast, the damage to the government’s alreadyshaky credibility is not similarly quantifiable. Add to that the effects of negative publicity in international media and the repercussions on business and tourism, the overall picture is one of a government in deep crisis. Unfortunately,the sections of the yahapalana leadership seem to be in a state of denial over the reality.

While the ineffectiveness of police in quelling the riot at the initial stages has come in for questioning, the arrest by Thursday of one of the kingpins of a racist Buddhist-nationalist group along with nine others may have offered some re-assurance to targeted groups. With the declaration of a state of emergency for seven days and the deployment of armed forces, the situation was said to be under control by the end of the week.

Add to that the effects of negative publicity in international media and the repercussions on business and tourism, the overall picture is one of a government in deep crisis. Unfortunately,the sections of the yahapalana leadership seem to be in a state of denial over the reality.

In the immediate aftermath of the stunning electoral defeat at the hands of a new political party, the Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna (SLPP) of which former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is de facto leader, some political leaders acknowledged that the electorate has given them a ‘signal’ that they must respond to with appropriate reforms. But this seems to imply nothing more than an intention to deliver ‘more of the same’ but in bigger doses.

Economics gurus have asserted the need to accelerate programs under the prevailing neo-liberal agenda,bound as it is by IMF conditions. They have not made the slightest hint of any change at policy level. The furthest the free-market ideologues would go, is to say there has been a ‘communication problem’ with a failure on the part of government to ‘educate’ people on the benefits of its open economic policies, which include privatizing, sale of state assets, facilitating land sales to foreigners, long term plans to get small farmers off their land to make way for large scale agribusiness, mega tax incentives for foreign investors, increased taxes for the people, reduced subsidies etc. There is no acknowledgement of the pain that these attempted reforms have been causing, that people do not need to be ‘educated’ about. The recent heavy-handed police crackdown on Anuradhapura farmers protesting a drinking water project using reservoir water needed for cultivation purposes - whatever the merits of that scheme may be - showed the government’s contempt for the local community, which apparently had not even been consulted on the plan. Further evidence of a government in ‘denial mode’ was seen in Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s attempts to dismiss the SLPP victory by playing with statistics to argue that Rajapaksa was in fact the loser, claiming that the UNP along with its fellow-travellers in parliament had jointly obtained a higher percentage of votes.

While the ITAK victory in the North was more or less predictable, it was the mood of the Southern electorate that was really put to the test in this election. Which ever way you look at the results – in terms of majorities in councils, or vote percentages, or absolute numbers polled – there is no getting away from a verdict that amounts to an overwhelming rejection of yahapalana policies. And so the blame-game of each coalition partner blaming the other for the electoral debacle, began. After the rift was papered over with statements from both sides saying that the coalition was ‘still intact’- for media consumption no doubt - all that the government had to offer by way of ‘change’ in the end was a cabinet re-shuffle that turned out to be a non-event. While being confined to the UNP ministers the high point of the (still unfinished) re-shuffling related to the portfolio of Law and Order. Addressing a Foreign Correspondents Association forum on Thursday (8) Minister of Sports and Cabinet Spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekera, in candid observations on the unresolved conflicts both within and between the UNP and SLFP factions in government, remarked with characteristic humour on how this sensitive portfolio had been bestowed on the ‘leader of the rebel group’ of the UNP. “So they are also trying to minimize their problems!” he said. Responding to a question as to what happened to the proposal to appoint former Army Commander and Regional Development Minister Sarath Fonseka to the post, he elaborated on the SLFP’S reasons for objecting. “He is still a Marshal in the army. When an army person is going to handle the Police it’s going be a huge issue” he said, adding that police personnel were very concerned about the matter. He further pointed out that the Field Marshal had been jailed for two years by the previous government. “He has a grudge with all these people. ….. We have to think of all these things. So we said an army Field Marshal shouldn’t be appointed (to this post)” he said.

It will not be lost on the Southern electorate that the Field Marshal not so long ago announced his readiness to give evidence against Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s former ambassador in Brazil whom some South American human rights groups sought to charge with war crimes. To his credit, current Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senananyake reportedly told Fonseka ‘not to settle personal scores at the expense of the army.’ If the cabinet re-shuffle was intended to address popular discontent, it is quite a stretch to imagine how those who backed Fonseka’s appointment expected it to appease an angry Southern electorate that has sacrificed sons and daughters from practically every village in the 30-year war.

Both the UNP and SLFP face internal issues Jayasekera admitted. He explained how, soon after the election, the SLFP had met their party leader President Sirisena and presented a comprehensive document on how the party should go forward in the next two years, and how they should ‘act in government.’there were many suggestions – “with the PM, without the PM, with an SLFP PM etc.” he said.“the president said he wanted a big change – to re-shuffle the cabinet and try to control the problems we have” and go ahead with a new program. But there was a “problem because the PM himself told the media he’s not going to give up and he’s going to be there.”

It would seem, the election result exposed a political leadership hopelessly out of touch with its own constituents

The minister said the government was “going on with its day to day work, but there are problems with the government.”his remarks suggested an extremely fluid situation prevailing within the ruling coalition, compounded by serious policy differences between the main coalition partners. It would seem, the election result exposed a political leadership hopelessly out of touch with its own constituents. If it expects to survive the electoral mauling it has just been subjected to,the Unp-led coalition will need to snap out of ‘denial mode,’ turn its searchlight inward and re-calibrate its policies after making some effort to connect with grassroots sentiment.