LIVE IN HOPE, NOT ON HOPE

The queen will not be attending the CHOGM in Colombo, but this seems not to have disturbed any of the leaders who are slotted to attend. There will be no doubt an avalanche of commentary about the issue that will try to interpret the queen’s decision as some sort of a no vote on the CHOGM. As usual all this of course will be a great deal of nonsense.

Despite oppositions in Australia and in the UK trying to milk the Sri Lanka issue to the hilt to embarrass the Cameron and Gillard governments -- because this is what oppositions are wont to do – the respective Prime Ministers of the two countries have been emphatic about the fact that they have no problem with the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, or with the Sri Lankan government.

There may be a sop granted to the oppositionists, and they might be allowed the luxury of thinking that the queen is not going to Sri Lanka due to some issue that has to do with human rights or reconciliation. But the queen is aged and infirm, and may have preferred to avoid the arduous journey.

CHOGM is but one event. But if the interpretations in the daily newspapers are to be considered, there is going to be a calamity for the regime, with the Northern Provincial Council election preceding the CHOGM. They have begun to speculate about the possibility of a split in the governing coalition if the NPC elections are to be held.

This is grotesque! There may be ideological differences, and the UPFA’s coalition parties may have their different agendas as they must. But at all times, they have rallied round the President and their wholehearted support for CHOGM at this point when there is every indication that the NPC elections are going to be held as scheduled, is the surest indication that newspaper doomsday scenarios are just that -- newspaper doomsday scenarios.

The real problem is that the uneasy forces of the assorted disgruntled feel that the rug is being pulled from under their feet. CHOGM is going ahead without a blip. As far as the eye can see, everything is set for a smooth ride in the months to come, with upstanding political issues being addressed one by one including the Northern Provincial Council elections.

The point is that the Opposition has to learn to be more constructive than disruptive if there is any hope these oppositionists entertain for a political future.

They cannot try to go for the low hanging fruit which are of course the perceived flaws of the government which they think will make slim pickings. But as the CHOGM issue has shown, the fault lines are imagined.

Though this is not to say that everything has been plain sailing which is certainly not the case with all of the nation’s enemies within and without having trained their guns on the government, the big issues have all proved to be giant damp squibs for the gape mouthed oppositionists waiting for some sort of redemption.

This is why it is worth repeating that one final lesson has to be learned by the collective Opposition which is that there is no easy road to power. There has to be a vision. Bare knuckled rage and breast beating against the government just would not do.

This means that it might curiously help the Opposition if only its leadership and the civil society NGO leadership which wants the Opposition in power in fact helped causes such as CHOGM. The people would take to the sincerity of constructive support, and then the Opposition might have a chance or at least some sort of a starting point from which to begin a slow forward march.

To draw a political lesson from this by the way, Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in a constructive effort. First he endeared himself to the people. He made use of his opportunities to win hearts and minds and did not squander them in fits of banshee rage. Teeth gnashing will not help; the Opposition must learn, ‘or depart.’