Lie nailed

A big lie has been in circulation ever since the night of January 26, the day of the Presidential election. It was a lie with a mass circulation. Both print and electronic media took up the lie and spread it around.

Originating in the field of new media, first as a SMS message it crossed the shores of Sri Lanka and reached even far away lands. The international media, without verifying its authenticity spread it further. Nevertheless a lie remains a lie. Mass consumption is no proof of authenticity. If circulation alone is proof of authenticity many of the fake products in the market would out-place the genuine products.

Obviously a lie has to be big to receive such mass publicity and mass consumption. Yes. It is a big lie, Yes, a Big, Big lie. One may call it the lie of the Century.

Last Wednesday Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake nailed the lie hard and fast. As the highest authority in charge of the Presidential election 2010 he expressed 100 percent faith in the election and its results. The Commissioner is no novice. He is a very senior public servant with years of experience in conducting polls. He has an unblemished career. He had gone through much harder times and has never feared to take action against any wrong doings.

By spreading a lie that the Presidential election was flawed, rigged the defeated NDF candidate was casting aspersions not on the winner but on the good name of the Commissioner and his staff. Perhaps, he is a new comer to elections and would not know the mechanisms of polling, counting etc. Apparently he was made to believe that his victory was certain by others around him.

What was strange was that seasoned political leaders like those of the UNP and the JVP also began to repeat the wailings of the retired General. In fact, the UNP Leader first acknowledged that the election were free and fair but later retracted his word.

The election process in Sri Lanka is both transparent and fool proof. The polling day was free from violence. There were no incidents that warranted invalidation of the votes cast at any polling station, as the Commissioner said. A high percentage of registered voters voted. That itself shows that a favourable environment was there for polling. The ballot boxes were sealed in front of party agents.

The latter also accompanied the boxes to the counting centres. The counting was manual and fully transparent. Counting results at each counting centre were given to the agents of the candidates and displayed for the public. Data entry in the computers was by the Colombo University who did the job since 1981. There integrity was never questioned by anyone. Not even in this case.

The entire allegation of a computer fraud was fiction. It was a baseless lie. The Commissioner’s explanation was sufficient to calm the conscience of anyone that was misguided to believe the Big Lie.

But it was also not enough to calm those without a conscience. The Opposition leaders still allege fraud. Still spread the Big Lie. Why?

One explanation is that having found all their pre-election propaganda coming to naught they are using the Big Lie as their only campaign slogan for the forthcoming General Election. The much publicized protest last Wednesday was a flop with only the party faithful coming to Hyde Park.

The Opposition should know that the Sri Lankan voter is wise and would not fall for Gobbelian propaganda. Is it necessary to remind the Opposition that Gobbels himself was disillusioned and at the end the people saw through his lies?

As the Elections Commissioner rightly said any aggrieved party could go to the Supreme Court for redress. They should do so within 21 days of the poll. Already a week has passed. The best course of action for the retired General and his supporters is to hurry up and go to the Supreme Court without continuing their campaign of lies and damn lies. Then the truth may dawn on them.