Changing political discourse

Looking around the world, Sri Lanka looks once more like a fairly reasonable place to live in. Not so long ago, this could not be said, what with a civil war raging in the North, people fearing to leave their homes because of the bomb threat and the economy dragging itself along by its bootlaces.

This is no longer the case. The end of the conflict which wracked this island for nearly three decades began a process of restoring normality in everyday life. The extra confidence generated by the end of the war saw a rapid increase in the rate of growth, driven by internal leisure activity and external tourism.

This year, both neighbouring India and Pakistan are experiencing major power outages, which are affecting the way their economies function - which Sri Lanka managed to avoid. Both are experiencing internal terrorism; this week’s multiple low-grade bomb explosions in Pune showing up many holes in the security screen (including malfunctioning closed-circuit television cameras).In Bangladesh, the international non-governmental organisations Médecins Sans Frontières, ACF International and Muslim Aid have been told to suspend their services in the Cox’s Bazaar district because they ‘were encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees’ after Myanmar’s recent sectarian violence.

Socio-economic fabric

Outside the South Asia region, we find holes beginning to appear in the socio-economic fabric. Sectarian violence is becoming rife in Egypt and Nigeria. In Honduras, a deepening conflict between private agribusiness guards and poor farm workers contributes to a homicide rate of 86.5 per 100,000 (Sri Lanka’s rate is 4.6).

In Europe we find entire economies collapsing, four years after the American ‘toxic assets’ meltdown. In the USA itself, ‘economic growth’ is not lessening unemployment, with manufacturing indices falling steadily lower. Meanwhile, lax gun-control laws (there are 4.5 million new gun sales annually) and a culture of violence have contributed to 100,000 shootings (and 30,000 deaths) every year: last month’s Aurora carnage was no freak. Meanwhile, the 8,000 licensed gun shops in the states on the country’s Southern border with Mexico are doing a roaring business, selling assault rifles to ‘straw purchasers’, proxies for trans-frontier drug mafias. About 50,000 people have died in the past six years in Mexico’s Drug Wars.

Mexico’s narcotics cartels have spread their corrupting tentacles throughout the body politic: on Tuesday four high-ranking army officers were indicted on charges of protecting a Sinaloa-based drug syndicate. The corruption has also infected American government departments.

National resources

Even in placid New Zealand, Transparency International’s ‘World’s least corrupt country’, allegations have emerged of widespread institutionalised corruption, this time in the Immigration department.

Massive visa frauds are being claimed to take place in Immigration New Zealand’s offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Dubai, Pretoria and Bangkok; and also perhaps in those bureaus dealing with Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Middle Eastern student applicants. Visas are also alleged to have been issued in New Zealand itself to fishing crews, with no audits to ensure that labour law requirements are met. However, these assertions are nothing compared to the evidence of monster sell-outs of Papua New Guinea’s virgin forests. According to the environmental organisation Greenpeace, five million hectares of forestry were given away to logging and palm-oil companies under the ‘Special Agricultural and Business Leases’ concession, with little revenue to either the government or the traditional landholders.

These leases represent approximately 12 percent of Papua New Guinea’s seven million tonnes of forest-stored carbon. The carbon rights sequestered in these forests, valued at about US $ 23 billion, have also been given away. The fact that Sri Lanka is relatively free from these ills is a credit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government, which has acted to return the country to peace, while protecting the people’s sovereignty and keeping a firm grip on national resources.

Superstitious belief

However, the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) cannot afford to rest on its laurels. It is facing elections to three provincial assemblies in the midst of one of the worst droughts of recent years - which is especially detrimental, given the popular superstitious belief in the rulers’ responsibility for the weather.

The main Opposition United National Party (UNP) is making hay while the sun shines, lambasting the government for perceived ills. Unfortunately, UPFA politicians respond in kind - making a very special target of the extremely vulnerable Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The bane of Sri Lanka’s politics has been the extent to which negative propaganda is used to decry one’s opponents, rather than statements of policy. In recent years this has been worsened due to the highlighting by certain broadcasting stations of the sound-bites of politicians, rather than at least the gist of their speeches.

There is a great need for the pattern of this discourse to be altered. Confrontation must remain - after all it is the essence of democratic politics. However, the pattern of discourse has to change, both in content and in style. Greater emphasis should be placed on policy differences, on where parties stand on the different issues which face us. Politicians need to devote more time to the why and the how of the pillars of their platforms. They are not really grappling with the two biggest issues facing Sri Lanka today: how is the economy to deal with the world economic crisis - which is due to run for a long time - and how is the country to confront the burgeoning problem of Climate Change? The continuing world recession is only now beginning to bite us, while the ongoing drought is a harbinger of what Global Warming has in store. Politicians will have to deal with these two problems at the international, national, regional and even village levels.

We need to see more serious political discussion with the people about these issues. Now is the time for the politicians to become statesmen, to set course on a new voyage to protect and enhance the freedoms and comforts so bloodily safeguarded.