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People say yes to Mahinda Chintana

THE battle is over and the victor is known. Mahinda Rajapakse will be the leader of this country for the next six years.

In gathering all the votes that brought him to the highest office in the land, he had to face a great deal of mudslinging, and the most unethical propaganda campaigns that any aspirant to high office in this country had to face.

An outdated election law introduced when there was no private electronic media, placed restrictions on how the State media should behave during an election, but had nothing to say of the private electronic media.

Having to face only impotent guidelines issued by the Commissioner of Elections, whose hands too were tied down by the same outdated law, the private electronic media ignored every aspect of media ethics in seeking to vilify Mahinda Rajapakse and snatch victory away from him.

All this makes it imperative that Mahinda Rajapakse gives high priority to changing the elections laws of this country for the conduct of a genuinely free and fair election in his agenda of work.

This also requires the establishing of the Elections Commission as required under the 17th Amendment to the constitution, which has so far been ignored by Parliament.

Both main contenders had one major qualification that made them the only candidates their respective political parties could consider for nomination for the Presidency. Both had been loyal to their parties from the time they joined them.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was with the UNP from the beginning of his politics in 1977, both in victory and defeat. Similarly, Mahinda Rajapakse too had never left the SLFP from the time he was made an organizer for Beliatta on the demise of his father the late D. A. Rajapakse, in the late 60s.

This steadfast commitment of Mahinda Rajapakse to the party, from which he first entered politics, should stand him in good stead to make him abide by the Alliance that nominated him, and his own "Mahinda Chintana" that he presented to the people.

Although some thought of him as a non-starter before the campaign proper, and a weak candidate in the beginning, as the days passed he grew in stature until he was able to command the trust and respect of the vast numbers who voted him as the next Executive President of Sri Lanka.

Forging a coalition

The best test of his political maturity was his ability to forge a political coalition of those with very different views on important subjects, and keep that coalition of diversity together throughout a gruelling campaign.

His next test of political maturity and sagacity will be in his ability to keep this coalition together when in office, and also draw towards him those with other shades of political thinking too, to solve the pressing problems facing Sri Lankan society.

While some spoke of the need for a national government, the people have chosen as their leader one who leads a wide ranging coalition.

The public endorsement of the UPFA and the "Mahinda Chintana" must now make him strive to bring about an even greater unity and meeting of minds in order to resolve the most pressing issued before the people.

This is none other than the National Issue, and the war that continues on its own dynamic despite the existence of a Ceasefire Agreement.

In this it will be necessary for him to test the UNP's honesty in saying it is only an alliance between it and the SLFP that could solve this issue, and invite them to share with the coalition of the people's choice their own contribution towards solving this issue, in keeping with Mahinda Rajapakse's stated commitment to bring a lasting and honourable peace to this country.

The rhetoric of the campaign trail when the UNP kept inviting, nay urging, the SLFP to joining it in solving this issue is now over. It is now the testing time of political honesty.

The UNP cannot, or rather should not run away from participating in a joint effort at solving this national issue, because it was defeated at the polls.

It won sufficient votes to confirm its position as one among the two major political parties in the country, and thereby has a responsibility by the people and the country to be a party to a possible solution and genuine end to the war.

It should be an end to war with Constitutional guarantees to the Tamils of protection of their rights; working out new administrative arrangements or devolution of power among people; and ensuring pluralist politics and respect for human rights throughout the country.

Promises to keep

With all the promises made during the campaign by both sides, it will be necessary for the new Executive President and the UPFA to begin on delivering those promises very soon.

Even if all the economic concessions do not come at once, the people will be more than satisfied if the first steps are taken to eradicate corruption in governance and the administration.

The earlier that steps are taken to rid our administration of politics and politicization, the happier the people will be. Bringing the corrupt to book with speed will make the people give the Government time to deliver on economic concessions.

If the thinking that went in to prepare the Mahinda Chintana is to be put into practice it will not be difficult to chart a new economic course that is the need of the people, instead of copying what has gone wrong in other countries that demand open economies in our part of the world, while keeping their own economies comfortably restricted.

Early steps should therefore be taken to establish the National Development Economy envisaged in the Mahinda Chintana.

The UNP's task

With the election campaign with all its mud slinging, mutual accusations and shrill rhetoric over, the UNP will certainly have to take a long hard look at what made it lose.

There is more than one reason for this, the first being that they were not considered credible in their promises, especially after their performance after being elected in December 2001.

There will certainly be questions raised about the quality of leadership of the party, especially the leadership capabilities of the candidate who lost.

The power struggles of various types within the UNP are no secret. However, as one of the two largest and influential parties in the country, a change in leadership is something that should be done with the greatest of consideration of the impact of such a move on the party and the electorate.

In this context it may be good for the UNP to look at how the Conservative Party is spending so much time looking for a new leader, after its present leader Michael Howard lost to Labour in the last general election.

It has to seed its candidates for leadership and bring out the best, and till then not take hasty action over leadership change that would lead to implosion within the party.

One does not yet know whether Ranil Wickremesinghe has said he would bow out of the leadership, as many would expect him to do.

Even if he does, it would be good for the UNP to have him at the helm until a smooth change of the guard can take place, making use of his experience in leadership and governance over so many years.

The campaign is over and it is now the time for the wounds of battle to be allowed to heal. It is the time to end political animosities that were heightened during the campaign, and reach out to mutual understanding, particularly among the two main rivals.

This cannot be a difficult task for Mahinda Rajapakse after all the patience he showed through the campaign, sometimes in the face of grave provocation from his own side.

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