Presidential Poll result an SLFP victory
Prof. Wiswa Warnapala Higher Education Minister
The coalition of parties, a motley group of political parties with
divergent views, for which General Sarath Fonseka gave leadership, has
been defeated at the Presidential poll which gave special recognition to
some of the fundamental realities of the Sri Lankan polity. As Aristotle
once said, the study of politics signifies a method or a form of
enquiry, concerned with the human behaviour in political societies.
Ernest Barker, a British political scientist too saw this fundamental
difficulty in the study of highly volatile political societies.
Sri Lanka, since 1931, developed into an effective political society
based on a dynamic electoralism that helped in the construction of
popularly elected Governments based on a fairly fluid competitive party
system.
Electoral changes
Poll results was people’s verdict. File photo |
As we all know, electoral changes in a third world polity cannot be
studied with an acute analysis and with an excessive claim to
exactitude. In other words, psephology cannot be easily applied in the
context of certain third world states largely because of the fact that
the fundamental realities of an electoral change cannot be easily
dissected. Complexities associated with an electoral change are many and
varied, and the variables cannot be easily identified.
Yet the major trends associated with the process of change could be
identified and this has been the experience of Sri Lanka. In my view,
this kind of interpretation is applicable in the context of the
electoral changes in the developing world where the style of the leader
makes a big impact on the popular electorate.
The style of leadership and the charisma which one commands is of
fundamental importance. In Sri Lanka, all our national elections or
electoral contests, since 1947, have been studied and the unique
feature, which came to be highlighted, has been the changing nature of
the electoral dynamics in the country.
Political inspiration
It is in this particular context that a short analysis needs to be
made of the Presidential poll of 2010 which, as we witnessed at all
elections since 1956, activated the traditional rural base, from which
the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, since 1951, derives immense political
inspiration. This base, though sometimes changes with grievances and
aspirations of the rural voter, remains solid when it is tied with the
electoral fortunes of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
It was the SLFP, since its inception in 1951, built its electoral
fortunes on the basis of the loyalties of the rural masses, whose
leaders constituted the alternative political leadership which came on
the scene in 1956.
Since then, the SLFP remains the main political agent of the rural
masses and it is on the basis of their active support that the party is
sustained. This interpretation, though unpalatable to our opponents who
still grudge the solid rural base of the party, speaks of the
fundamental reality; it was the rural voter, whose political
potentiality came to be mobilized by a plethora of pressure groups
associated with the SLFP since 1951, who became the arbiter in the
island’s electoral conflict.
The principle of representative government is based on consent, and
this consent is achieved through periodical elections and Sri Lanka,
through a variety of elections, has shown its vibrancy as a democratic
State.
It was through this principle the Governments in the past carried out
the wishes of the majority of the governed, and at all situations of
electoral change it was the rural voter who determined the course of
change. In post-1956 Sri Lanka, people elected a majority of
representatives to give effect to their wishes, and all public policies
of the period were introduced with a view to addressing the issues of
rural Sri Lanka.
Needs and interests
The Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa introduced a series of
such programs to benefit the rural poor and the backward areas in the
country and such programs helped in the mobilization of support from the
rural areas where the SLFP was strong. This, however, did not mean that
the interests of the urban areas were not addressed; the fundamental
need was to focus on the needs and interests of the rural people as they
represented the historical base of the SLFP - which always claimed that
it was a political party based on the interests, grievances and the
aspirations of the common man - the common man was in the rural
peasantry who stood behind the party since its inception in 1951.
The political activism of the rural peasantry is an integral element
of the historical foundation of the SLFP which, though enters into
alliances with the progressive political parties, continued to
strengthen its historical base in the rural areas.
Rural voter
The fundamental issue of the Presidential election was whether
President Mahinda Rajapaksa should remain in power for another term; he
began with a massive fund of popular support as he was the architect of
the victory over the LTTE which, in the eyes of the rural voter, was
historically an outstanding achievement unparalleled in the history of
modern Sri Lanka.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, with this singular achievement, emerged as the
most popular political leader of post-independent Sri Lanka, and it was
through this posture of a leadership that he achieved a unique charisma
which no other leader achieved in modern Sri Lanka. This achievement of
his, along with the unique charisma of his own, was enough to enthuse
the rural voter who, under the astute leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa,
saw a plethora of rural reconstruction programs in the rural areas of
the country. The public policy decisions began to focus on the
development of the infrastructure in the rural areas, from which the
SLFP traditionally derived political inspiration and political support.
Commitment
SLFP’s ideology, to a large extent, is based on the interests and
aspirations of the rural peasantry. Mahinda Rajapaksa, as a person
nurtured in the politics of the impoverished Hambantota, always thought
in terms of the historical foundations of the SLFP and he never deviated
from the SLFP’s main standpoints of policy.
It was this commitment to the historical foundations of the SLFP
which helped him, on two occasions, to obtain an astounding victory. The
historic victory at the Presidential poll 2010 - where the coalition of
evil of the Opposition was defeated - was primarily a victory for the
SLFP as it was its traditional base in rural Sri Lanka which gave the
required majority.
Birth of a new era
The results indicate beyond doubts that the rural voter, unlike its
urban counterpart, gave near-total support with both commitment and
gratitude; we know that gratitude is culturally an important trait of
the rural voter who, in addition to his attachment to the historical
foundations of the SLFP, saw the birth of a new era in the emergence of
Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is a period of resurgence for the oppressed people
in the rural areas.
All traditional instruments of political mobilization and all symbols
of political legitimacy were effectively activated and the traditional
rural voter extended absolute support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to
provide leadership to a new process of change, and it, though likely to
be based on the requirements of the changing world in the 21st Century,
need to be based on the historical experience of the SLFP which still
remains the dominant political party in the country. Its unique ability
to derive inspiration from the Sinhala heartland cannot be
underestimated.
It has a strong political base which, as the Congress Party of India,
gets itself activated during national elections and the people are
mobilised politically to rally round the party and its candidates.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, like both S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo
Bandaranaike continued to believe in the traditional mould of the SLFP
and remains absolutely loyal to its traditional commitments.
Its ideology is always articulated and this gave him enough dividends
during the course of the campaign which made him the most formidable
political personality in Sri Lanka. This is no exaggeration; it, in my
view, was the fundamental truth. Max Weber, referring to the charismatic
qualities of leadership, says that ‘men do not obey him by virtue of
tradition or statute, but because they believe in him’.
To be continued |