Will the bud from the mud be nipped in its first bloom?
‘Pohottuwa’ will be the biggest loser if election victory hopes are dashed
'THE SUNDAY-BEST SUNDAY SLAM'
What has for years been a contest to decide who best can clean the drains and sewage, who best can rid a town’s tons of garbage, who best can light the streets’ lamp posts and best deliver a community’s demands and service its needs, has suddenly turned from a genial, genteel, urbane affair to elect city fathers and mothers, into a gigantic life or death war between titans battling for Lanka’s throne.
One whose outcome may well portend the downfall of the Government in the years to come; foreshadow the breakdown due to irreconcilable differences of the SLFP-UNP union of convenience; and ring the death knell to the lotus hopes of Rajapaksa’s faction, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, as it faces its baptism of fire.
But whatever the outcome of this local government election, you can bet your bottom buck that both the two major parties, the UNP and the SLFP, even if they lose, will survive the holocaust; and will live to rise again to fight another day. But can the same be said of the SLPP, the G. L. Peiris front for Mahinda’s third advent?
Can one dare to place the new Central Bank 1000 buck note issued this week to commemorate Lanka’s 70th year of independence, on a wager that the Rajapaksa party will have an afterlife to speak of should it die in battle on February 10?
Thus would it not have been with some trepidation, some iota of lurking doubt that Prof. Peiris, chairman of the SLFP breakaway faction, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the SLPP, and its ghost leader and chief sponsor Mahinda Rajapaksa would have awoken this Sunday morn wrapped in the quilt of fear that they may be proved wrong in their proud boast they have the people’s backing, come this Friday when their swank and swagger is put to the test?
For all their wild bragging, for all their bravura performances on the nation’s stage to brainwash the collective psyche that the masses are still with them; for all their pompous claims made not even a month after Rajapaksa lost to Sirisena in the 2015 January presidential election, that whatever the poll results determined that eventful January day, the masses were then and still are solid in their support for the former Rajapaksa regime and crave the return of Mahinda R to rule the roost, assume the throne once more, at the helm of political power, what will be their future were the people’s verdict to rule otherwise?
That the fantasy bubble -- the balloon of hope they have blown so big with much hot air -- will burst should the people prick it with the pin of their ballot and prove them all wrong? That their party’s symbol -- the lotus bud -- will only rise from the mud to expose its presence above the watermark, each and every one of its thousand white petalled lips splattered with the self same mire from which it rose, with its core rotten black, only to wilt and droop in the Yahapalana sun and fall to the muddy origins from whence it was born?
Though the bets are heavily placed on the UNP as odds on favourite to steal a gallop to the post over its rivals -- even though it is handicapped, encumbered as it is with the bond scam dead weight -the spectators’ binocs should be firmly fixed and focused on the two stallions running in this greyhound race exalted to the level of a Royal Ascot, gasping for air in the final furlong to outdo each other and win a respectable second position to gain a credible outing in the all important 2020 Derby to follow.
In this three cornered battle, the fight to the death is not between Ranil, Maithripala and Mahinda. The battle is for second place. Between Sirisena and Rajapaksa. A war between Sirisena’s belief in just governance which is steadfast in spirit but slow in implementation for it takes not only him but the masses from every strata of society to abide by the faith uphold it faithfully and Mahinda’s conviction in his own Chinthanaya which is swift and final which needs naught but himself to implement without any divergence of opinion as the best course for Lanka. That enabled him to claim he reunited Lanka’s North with the rest of the country only to end up giving the Chinese a foothold on Lankan soil by creating an appendix of land on Colombo’s shores.
It’s not that the people have lost their faith in democracy. They demonstrated their commitment to its ideals when they voted for Sirisena three years ago for his vision to dawn a new era based upon the precepts of democracy, called by another name, namely, Yahapalanaya. The worrying factor is the people’s short term memory. The hard disk is solid. But the RAM can crash overnight. Especially DRAM, Dynamic Random Access Memory, which demands the memory must be constantly refreshed or it will lose its contents.
And perhaps it was to refresh this fickle memory province of the Lankan mind that UNP Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera chose to address last week when he issued a statement to warn the masses of their frequent fits of amnesia and the need to guard against it when he said:
“It is an election that will determine if Sri Lankans will live free or under the yoke of fear, impunity and grotesque abuse of power by a single family and its henchmen. For this local government election on February 10 is much more than a regional contest to capture political power in urban and municipal precincts. It is an old regime’s first real attempt to recapture power and restore an old, corrupt and dictatorial order.”
“As memory fades and we are embroiled in the politics of the present, it is easy to forget that once, not so many years ago, a Government shot and killed its citizens for the crime of demanding clean water. We need to ask ourselves, where all the white vans have gone. Where have the grease yakas gone?”
“We must question why the Government’s political critics and dissidents are not being thrown in jail. Why media organisations are not attacked and burned any longer. Why journalists are not being abducted or killed. Remember the night races – the gift of an indulgent father who wielded all the power of his presidential office to ensure his sons could have a good time? Remember the time when young men paid with their lives for the crime of being a rugby rival? Remember when an incompetent brother- in- law to the President ran the national airline to the ground? Remember how it was impossible to speak openly about the excesses of the ruling family except in hushed whispers not so long ago?”
“Of course, these are basic freedoms that citizens in any functioning democracy should take for granted. But it must never be forgotten that there is a profound correlation between the end of this tyranny imposed upon the citizenry and the fall of the Rajapaksa regime in 2015. And it is this culture of extravagance, abuse of state property and state terror that is trying to make a comeback in the February 10 local government election.”
“Electoral inroads made in this poll could be used to attempt to recapture national control in future elections. So while the forthcoming election may be a ‘little one’ it has national consequences that could reverberate for years to come, casting long shadows over the lives of Sri Lankans who have begun to live unfettered and free again today. Yes, perhaps we are not where we hoped to be by this time. But we will get there. Change is incremental, political systems are entrenched and sometimes immovable; but the will to change remains as strong as ever. With the Rajapaksa regime and its fellow barbarians at the gates once more, Sri Lanka is at another crossroads at this election. In a way, this makes the choice clearer for all those citizens who want liberty, democracy and peace. On February 10, the people will have to choose once more -- will we continue the march to freedom or herald a return to fear?"
Or in other words, will the fears of the past be turned to future tears should the ogre at the gates storm Sirisena’s Yahapalana citadel and take the whole nation hostage?
Sirisena and Rajapaksa know the knackers’ yard awaits them both if they lose to win second place in their sprint to the finishing line. Should Rajapaksa win over Sirisena, Sirisena’s dream of being president for a second term will be over. If Rajapaksa were to lose, his claim to possess the charismatic right to the love of the people and thus declare his divine right to the throne of Lanka will end with his fantasy and die with his dream?
It would not matter much to the nation if the UNP won or lost and surrendered supreme place to Sirisena’s SLFP at the local government election this coming Saturday. Life will go on as usual. You’ll hardly notice the difference. A coconut may be a hundred bucks, but precious liberties, the right to life itself, will remain safeguarded, even as it has been for the last three years.
And though strikes, especially the doctors’ strike over SAITM, have served to cripple the nation’s forward march, the Government has not deemed it fit to make the ‘white van’ fleet an essential service to quell the dissent.
But on this 10th, if Maithripala gets steamrolled and lies flattened under Mahinda’s merciless destructive juggernaut, think what a world of difference it will make to the nation.
What it would mean to this nation’s future and how it will shake the shattered pillars of democracy which the coalition government have only just begun to restore from scratch, if the people were to shout ‘ open sesame’ to Ali Baba’s cave of countless thieves and set them free to enjoy their ill gotten wealth?
Think before you vote. It’s not for better drains or brighter city lights. Not for better sewage disposal or better garbage collection. But for a better lifestyle that guarantees your right to breathe the ozone air of fundamental freedoms. The right to life itself.
For, after all, man does not live by bread alone. But has often died a countless deaths under the jackboot of tyranny in his cowardly quest for a piece of rich cake to stock and fatten his belly rather than seek rich fulfillment in replenishing his larder of self respect.