UPFA guarantees the future, but will tomorrow ever come?
Mahinda promises 'mother of all promises' in promised land
Eat your heart out, Ranil. If its promises the Lankan people want, Mahinda Rajapaksa revealed on Tuesday there was no one worthy of his mettle who could hold a torch to his innate political genius to deliver promises by the container load than himself.
Waking to life from his six months semi-retirement of wishful thinking, he promised the Lankan public everything but the sun, moon and stars and those were left out, no doubt, only because the people already had it free. Everything else was on the UPFA manifesto that he unveiled at the Henry Pedris Grounds this week; unveiled according to the best caricatured image of the consummate politician signing the blank promissory note in return for the nation's vote.
And if that wasn't enough to warm the cockles of the nation's heart, he avowed sans a blush to give the people a 'guarantee for the future', the title and new slogan of the latest UPFA manifesto, having summarily discarded to the dustbin of the past, the two week old slogan "let's start afresh" as not containing enough bluster and promise to seduce the masses.
Doling out his promises galore in the swank arcade where springs the fount of eternal hope, former president now UPFA parliamentary candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose own uncertain future lies in his irreversible past, smoothly sought to balm the thousand and one fears for the future every human breast doth harbour by issuing the solemn pledge, 'don't stress over the future for we give the UPFA guarantee for the tomorrow that never comes.'
From the merry Christmassy manifesto of his promises, he promises Rs. 50,000 for every 18year-old voter who fails the Advanced Level exam to pursue 'human resources educational development'. He promises to increase the Mahapola Scholarship by Rs. 6,000 for every student. He promises a Rs. 25,000 basic wage for all State sector employees. He promises an increment Rs. 3,000 to all private sector workers. He promises a house for every Lankan. He promises every couple who marries after August 17 Rs. 200,000 to go forth and multiply.
He promises to restart 58,000 development projects which he claimed had been stopped by the present government. He promises to immediately reinstate 1.5 million people who, he claimed, have lost their jobs as a result of the stoppages these last since months. He promises to bring about national unity. He promises to achieve permanent reconciliation. He promises to eliminate corruption, even as he had grandly promised to eliminate it in his much vaunted Mahinda Chinthana manifesto for a "Brighter Future" at the 2010 Presidential Election.
Then, on the threshold of his second term as president, he had solemnly sworn: "I will address this social decline and establish high values and ethics by eliminating fraud, corruption and malpractices which have engulfed our society for a long time, and will take whatever measures necessary to eradicate criminal activities. I will appoint an independent board comprising independent and politically unbiased intellectuals under a new constitutional amendment, to eliminate all forms of corruption, fraud and malpractices. As the first Act of Parliament, I will introduce a special act to eliminate fraud and corruption, malpractices and violation of tender procedures in government corporations, boards and financial institutions."
He promises to protect the rule of law which he claims has suffered under the UNP government these last six months. He promises to rebuild mosques that have been destroyed. He promises to introduce broadband Wi-Fi connections to every household, unaware perhaps that on that same day Ranil Wickremesinghe had signed an agreement with the vice president of Google to make high speed Wi-Fi available islandwide by March next year.
Want more? If that isn't enough promises for one day to fill the nation's larder of hope and see
The difference between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa is not as simple as the difference between salmon and tuna or prawn and shrimp.
the hungry winter through, he also promises to bring a new constitution within six months of victory. After having refused to hear the clamour for constitutional reforms during the last four years of his rule when he had a comfortable two-thirds majority in parliament to change the much discredited 1977 Constitution without having to tolerate the degrading spectacle of MPs holding 'bring and drink' midnight feasts in the Well of the House, here he is promising to change it now when the widely held view is that no political party will be able to muster a simple majority in Parliament this August, let alone bag a whopping two-thirds majority.
The difference between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa is not as simple as the difference between salmon and tuna or prawn and shrimp. When Ranil Wickremesinghe promises to introduce a new constitution he does so in his capacity as the UNP's official prime ministerial candidate and as the leader of his party. Having never enjoyed presidential powers nor possessed a two-thirds majority in Parliament to introduce a new constitution and see it passed, he can be excused for harbouring even a faint hope that finally he will be in a position to achieve his goal and keep his promise.
On the other hand Mahinda Rajapaksa makes his grandiose promises, including the all-important one to introduce a new constitution, merely in his present capacity as just another aspiring parliamentary candidate. He is not the chairman of the UPFA. That position belongs to his declared opponent, President Maithripala Sirisena, whose avowed wish as bluntly stated to the nation on July 14 is to see Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated at the forthcoming election.
Neither is Mahinda Rajapaksa the party's official prime ministerial candidate. Only a self appointed one. Furthermore, President Sirisena who has the last word on the matter constitutionally speaking has publicly sworn he would never appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. Thus for Mahinda Rajapaksa to be in a position to even glimpse the prospect of his promises twinkling in the distant sky, he has many miles to go, many rivers to cross, many hurdles to jump and many battles to win before he can lay claim to any meaningful victory and unsheathe his Sword of Excalibur.
Technically he is skating on thin ice. As to what will happen practically in the future, well, not even Maithripala Sirisena will be able to guarantee the result. As far as the promise of introducing a new constitution goes, Rajapaksa's credibility is in question for having had the two-thirds parliamentary majority in his pocket for over four years to bring about the necessary reforms he neatly kept his hands out of it and declined to pull out his constitutional rabbit.
But who knows? Even miracles may finally happen. And even Mahinda Rajapaksa may ride on his promises to power and deliver his mother of all promises to guarantee the future which no prophet, messiah, sage or religious leader could ever do. But then again, the former president's solid sterling 'Guarantee for the Future' maybe coming with the prediction proof certificate issued by the former royal astrologer with the Sumana seal of approval firmly stamped on it.