Presidential poll: Voters face a Hobson’s choice

For the past few weeks I have been musing about who I should be voting for at the November 16 presidential election.

Call it Hobson’s choice, term it a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea – the facts are that there is nothing much to choose between the two major candidates. We are in effect being asked to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Once more, we voters, like the girayata ahuvechcha puvak gediya (arecanut caught in the jaws of a nutcracker) will get crushed whichever way we turn.

Sometimes, I feel I should vote for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This is a man with a reputation for getting things done – whether it was successfully prosecuting the war against the Tamil Tigers, making use of our post-war military personnel and resources to clean up and beautify Colombo or being a tough administrator with a no-nonsense “accomplish the mission” attitude.

Having been through the last four and a half years where nothing significant was seen to be done because the president and prime minister were too busy jousting with each other, where we had piles of stinking garbage all over the streets of Colombo, where we endured strikes by various trade unions ranging from the government medical officers and school teachers to railway workers and university staff, I yearn for a president who can effectively govern instead of leaving us citizens subject to trains that do not run and hospitals where doctors do not work. These are times during which politicians in power as well as the country as a whole lacks discipline. We the people deserve to have a leader who himself is disciplined and can also instill discipline into our people.

But then another part of me baulks at the idea of voting in another five years of Rajapaksa family rule, where nepotism, cronyism and favouritism again become the order of the day. While Gotabaya will undoubtedly have capable, educated and respected people in his team, he will also have to bring in his not-so-educated and not-scrupled supporters - - like the silver tongued Two Passports Wimal, the young Night Race enthusiast and brother Ten Per cent -- into his governing team. And while we all want to live in a disciplined country, we would also like a little freedom to criticise those in power and to live in a society where the media are allowed to perform their role without worrying about white vans and fourth floors.

Given the negatives associated with Gotabaya, I sometimes muse, maybe it would be better to vote for Sajith Premadasa – a seasoned politician who showed that he had the shrewdness and political nous to outmanouvre his boss Ranil and claim the UNP nomination. This is a man who has established a reputation of working hard for the poorer sections of our society, providing housing for the people and reawakening villages. This is a man who has been educated in an English public school (where we are told he captained the first XI cricket team -- unlike Gotabhaya, who did not play any representative sport while at Ananda). He can also claim to have a degree from the London School of Economics ( although it must be admitted that his was one of those ‘also ran’ Aegrotat degrees which is awarded to students “on the understanding that had the candidate not been unwell, he or she would have passed”.)

Sajith at 52 years of age will be a fresh face, a man of a different generation compared to the septuagenarians and “over sixty fives” who have been running the country for the past four plus years. He will bring in new ideas and has proved to be an articulate speaker in both Sinhalese and English – a bit of a contrast to Gotabaya who we can remember screeching at BBC journalists and more recently turning to his Big Brother to answer simple questions posed by local journos.

But Sajith comes with a price tag – because if elected he will be beholden to the professional politicians of his alliance. They will want to continue enjoying the fruits of office by demanding lucrative and prominent portfolios from the new president. A new face at the helm but the same old rascals bonding together in the background!

I sometimes even ask myself whether, instead of trying to choose between the lesser of these two political evils, I should cast a protest vote – as several folk have been telling me they are going to do on November 16th. Should I show my displeasure at the choice on offer by casting my vote for someone like the decorated military officer and civil engineer General Mahesh Senanayake, the cleverly opinionated but scrupulously honest Professor Rajiva Wijesinha or the successful entrepreneur Rohan Pallewatta who combines business acumen with musical talent? I certainly will not vote for the presidential candidate Namal Rajapakse – one politician with that name is bad enough – but I just might consider putting a cross for Anura Kumara Dissanayake to acknowledge the order and discipline with which he and his supporters have conducted his campaign.

We will certainly have a difficult decision to make soon.

I can only hope that we gullible voters will not (as happened to us at the previous election) be conned into putting into office a man who will then, together with his catchers and hangers-on, utilise the next five years to feather their own nests and bleed our country dry.

I sometimes even ask myself whether, instead of trying to choose between the lesser of these two political evils, I should cast a protest vote – as several folk have been telling me they are going to do on November 16th