Face to face with governance

For the new batch of Parliamentarians:

Governance is re-visited in many ways as the election campaign reaches mid way point. It beckons the prospective parliamentarians not as an illusive concept but a way of bolstering the country's territorial integrity defended recently amidst great sacrifices. It is rendezvous with destiny for the seventh Parliament, coming to grips with the nuances of governing.

Right off the top there is the much sought mandate to establish the broader parameters of governance in areas like developmental goals, enrichment of human resources, public policy on administration and norms of justice. Could cultural diversity be sustained without imperiling cohesive governing capacity? The contentious post-tsunami funds allocation battle in the East (PTOMs) of yesteryear comes to mind.

Those steamy debates trying to conceptualise the nature as well as the unit of governance are perhaps behind us due to presidential election that preceded the general election setting the stage for a deliberative process shored up by an overwhelming mandate already in place. It is an unassailable position for the executive to be in guiding the ship of state with a steady hand.

The electoral deluge changed the political terrain for good in January and the confusing surfeit of irritable side distractions vanished. Voters seemed bent on holding on to an upward mobility mind-set. Could we enhance the optimistic trend towards growth and cohesiveness without creating a morass of irrelevancies?

The distribution of the amenities available for agriculture, getting fertilizer for the crops in time and the broader outreach for everyone to reap the benefits of a fairer society-just to name a few priorities-come into sharp focus.

Such political discourse is a mosaic embodying contours of unity amidst diversity constituting many points of origin and distinct tendencies. There are marked impulses to reject sectarianism latent among many groups as stakeholders are given a seat at the table and a sense of having arrived. There is a compelling desire to learn all about the terror war, its ramifications and the leaders who shaped it and were shaped by it.

Metamorphosis taking shape

The country is now forging ahead with new vigour. There can never be a retreat into stark reaction or a fatal passivity induced by disillusionment or despair as during the dark early days of the terror war. We could feel the metamorphosis, a far less stressful transiency than what we endured for decades facing the vicious divisive darts from all sides, trying to ram through their point of view which even endangered the protagonists beyond recovery.

Today, in a much more finely poised electoral landscape, any slippage by anyone in this or that corner of the map is a humongous loss not easily salvageable. Clinging on to hope is a luxury everyone is allowed and they will talk of a nail-biting campaign until it is over: a far cry from the brash predictions from the Opposition we saw in January.

Consequential history in the making

We are witnessing consequential history at every step that would determine the course of events for the next decade.

That would even have profound implications for the trajectory of Sri Lankan politics for a longer period.

Many were wrong about almost everything. Even avowed revolutionaries got almost no predictions right at all, beyond the cranky hair-splitting minutiae they spewed out.

Collectively they bungled their way around and the electorate always had the last laugh.

It had been shown a dozen times before, the coalescing tactics of many a pundit proved that most of them have little clue about what the electorate is about to do, and had only a mild, limited ability to influence events once they commence. It is amazing that predicted political gyrations that spelled doom never happened.

Glittering sonic boom

The winners always rebound with a glittering "Sonic Boom," the most apt metaphor for destruction that wrecks hastily arranged political alignments built on lose sand of expediency and at loggerheads on vital policy dictates. Catastrophic errors that bring them down were almost guaranteed by the lack of foresight of the leaders.

Politics should not be a dog eat dog phenomenon but a well-thought out mind-set. Those who pooh-poohed serious attempts to assess the country's progress always lived to tell a pathetic tale. Yet pompous hauteur will live with us no matter what, whether expressed as hard or software computerese, perhaps the least apt metaphor for explaining things to the electorate.

Ii is amazingly comical that there is a surfeit of such defective know-how surfacing at election time. The apparent punditry riff is bracing stuff. Those trying to analyze political moves are at times baffled by them but none commands complete faith as the voters always provide a devastating finishing touch when the results are announced. The landslide trajectory is savagely unstoppable at times.