Have voters already made up their minds?

- Who is this superhuman? Arahat, saint or demigod? Call him what you may. He is none other than Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa, as described in the favourite paper of the Rajapaksas on Christmas Day as the ‘greatest humanist of post independence Sri Lanka.’

By Gamini Weerakoon

(January 04, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The usual sincere and hypocritical New Year good wishes of peace on earth and happiness to all mankind have been made and with the waning of the full phase of the moon, bottles were pulled from under tables, from inside the boots of cars and from other hidden places — as required by the Poya Day law — and merriment commenced much to the anger of crusaders and dharmavijaya warriors of the anti booze brigades.

Now there is no time to lose. We have plunged back into that high morality drama of the 2010 presidential elections enacted to the lowest of moral standards with heavy mud slinging, physical bashing (mercifully no guns and bombs as yet) and washing of dirty linen with some worthies even taking to the higher realms of laundering and of course mellifluous sycophantic prose of one’s favourite hero.

Bakthi Gee

All concerned claim they are for the highest of moral standards and the contestants are the epitomes of these morals. Read the following lines in the editorial page of the Daily News on Christmas Day… ‘The country was gifted with the right leader at the right time who is politically matured, who is devoid of the communal mind set, who respects all communities alike, who has the flair to convince anyone and turn even the foe to become friend, who respects women folk as the fountain of motherhood, who dearly adores children — the posterity of our nation, who esteem family values, who is dedicated to safeguard the cultural heritage and religious ethics, who are conscious of the important roles played by the farmers and fisher folk, and the workers for developing the nation, who understands the heartbeat of the ordinary people, who knows the aura of the environment and the surroundings and more than everything who dearly and truly love the country before self and more than anything in the world.’

— Sadhu, Sadhu! Haro Hara! Hallelujah! It is quite a mouthful even for the Daily News when an incumbent president is running for re-election.

Who is this superhuman? Arahat, saint or demigod? Call him what you may. He is none other than Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa, as described in the favourite paper of the Rajapaksas on Christmas Day as the ‘greatest humanist of post independence Sri Lanka.’

And all this in a state newspaper over which Mahinda Rajapaksa has complete control of and is responsible for impartiality and balanced reporting in the state media!
In contrast Sarath Fonseka, who after rising from his virtual death bed led the army to victory in the 30-year old war and being hailed as the ‘saviour of the nation’, ‘greatest soldier of Sri Lanka’, the ‘greatest army commander’, ‘patriot’ and ‘war leader’ has within weeks of his decision to be the common opposition candidate been lambasted by the state media as ‘a scoundrel’ and ‘traitor’ propped up by communalists, Western puppets, and foreign lackeys.

The issues

The issues at stake are: Rajapaksa stands accused of nepotism, gross abuse of power, non implementation of the constitution, gross corruption in government, failure to maintain law and order, bring ghastly killers particularly of journalists to book , failure to implement his main pledge given at the last presidential election — abolition of the executive presidency, profligate expenditure to remain in power — a 100 strong cabinet and the failure to produce a solution to the national problem — grievances of the Tamils. Rajapaksa’s one claim to be elected: ‘I won the war’.

Fonseka claims that he won the war as the army commander. He will abolish the executive presidency, the running sore in the body politick and end the nepotism of the Rajapaksas. He is accused of betraying ‘military secrets’ in a press interview and is thus called a traitor. The ire against him is that he had dared to contest the ‘maharajano’.

The gullibility of the Sri Lankan voter has been taken for granted by both sides. Last week we heard of the accusation against Fonseka of having ‘politicised the military’ with him running for presidency. On the other hand we see Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President’s brother whose only claim to be the Defence Secretary is that he is an ex- army officer claims to have directed the war, despite being a political appointee. Is this not ‘politicising the military’ or militarisation of politics?

Credibility

Whether the Bakthi Gee sung and abuse hurled against Rajapaksa and Fonseka are correct or not what do the people believe? Would a people said to be the most literate among all South Asians and even among most of Asia, accept this sudden transformation of a national hero into a traitor and the ruling incumbent to be a demigod devoid of all human frailties? The SLFP though being the second most senior party has let its propaganda campaign to be led by the loudest empty vessel that produces more sound than sense, JVP renegade Wimal Weerawansa.

Last week he was challenging Fonseka to a debate on the alleged arms deals of Fonseka’s son-in-law. Whether one is for Fonseka or against him could a contestant for presidency take on such absurd challenges from a political riff-raff? Do state propagandists now going ahead in full blast think that the Sri Lankan people are horses, asses or both?

As the rhetoric reaches a frenzied pitch, it is worthwhile to ponder whether this is having any impact on a significant proportion of the electorate. Some political analysts are of the opinion that already the voters have made up their minds and all this frenzied cacophony carried on in the media — particularly the state media — will not have an impact. Some intelligent voters, it is said do not vote for a candidate but against a candidate — not because he has confidence in the person he will vote for but because the other is a proven scoundrel.

Turn out

The outcome will of course depend on the turn out — in recent elections a significant proportion of UNP voters have refrained from voting. This is a classic example where honest citizens elect undesirable candidates by refraining from voting. There is also the issue of a vast number of Tamil voters not possessing identity cards and may be prevented from voting. The number is estimated at over two million voters which would certainly be a decisive factor. Like in the previous election will Tamil voters keep away from the polls?

Election Uncles are coming!

Last week a seven-year-old rascal living down our road came bolting into our garden, quite breathless. On inquiry, Podi Eka, as he is called by neighbours, blurted out: ‘Election Uncles are coming’. Why was he scared of Election Uncles? ‘I hear they kiss and carry children and I don’t like it at all’, he cried out and took off saying that he was going to climb the mango tree in his garden and not come down till the Election Uncles departed from our lane.

Shouldn’t there be a law against this form of child abuse?