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An outdated election law introduced when there was no private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Elections, whose hands too were tied down by the same outdated law, the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. |