Blind leading the blind

The General election is exactly one month away and while the UPFA has decided to continue with its Mahinda Chintana - Idiri Dekma Presidential Manifesto, the UNP and the DNA are yet to come up with their respective policy programs. There are no signs either of their emergence in the coming days so that the voter can educate himself sufficiently to make a decision.

Instead both parties are content playing a double game. While the DNA which is virtually the JVP has centred its campaign around detained former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka in earnest the UNP has in doing so with some reticence given the unfolding revelations in the on going investigations. Yet its leader, time and again compliments the JVP stands in this regard.

Therefore while throwing darts at each other for public consumption it is clear that both sides are set to coalesce in the New Parliament to function as a common alliance. This is borne out by the fact that the main plank of the DNA campaign is to secure the release of Sarath Fonseka in the hope of mustering some sympathy with the tacit support of the UNP for the same purpose.

Hence the focus appears to be Sarath Fonseka where the JVP is concerned with tacit backing from the UNP which for obvious reasons has not made Fonseka their main campaign plank.

Thus the electorate is today confused as to where the principal Opposition party stands. Here is a party steeped in the great traditions of democracy and which was once a monolith that functioned as a cohesive unit jealously guarding its avowed policies and principals today virtually orphaned without a policy program of its own on the eve of an election.

Come a General election it was the first party to come out with its agenda for the people through the Party manifesto charting its policy program for the country. Whether the voters took these seriously or not is altogether a different matter. The grand old party was always explicit of what it plans to do for the people and the country. It never hedged its bets. Leaders such as Dudley Senanayake, J.R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa may have taken different paths to achieve their goals. But they were all spelled out to the people in no uncertain terms so that the voters could make informed decisions.

But sadly today the UNP for the first time in its existence has been caught up in a bind on the eve of an election being unable to come up with a solid policy framework for the country. Its main speakers on election platforms say that the party will join hands with the DNA to form a strong alliance in Parliament to challenge the Government.

If so what is the common program of the Joint Alliance? It is incumbent on them to inform the people on what basis they are going to come together. And what of the UNP?

Is the UNP going to jettison its traditional policies to accommodate the JVP contesting in the garb of the DNA. This the electorate should be told. Is the Grand Old Party going to subscribe to the radical policies of the JVP which is rabidly anti free-market or is the JVP going to embrace the neo liberal policies of the UNP? How is the UNP going to reconcile with the JVP’s perennial hatred of the West which the UNP openly cultivates. The electorate must know this, lest confusion creeps in.

For the educated voter the strategy appears to be for the UNP and the JVP to gravitate round incarcerated General Sarath Fonseka through the medium of his wife, though going their separate ways to garner votes separately to coalesce later in Parliament. Although the UNP appears to have abandoned Sarath Fonseka on the surface the comment made by its leader on election platforms that their first task after winning the poll will be to secure the release of Fonseka has virtually given the game away.

If that is the case the public is entitled to know what is in store for them in the unlikely event of the UNP/DNA Alliance obtaining a majority. Because at the moment it appears that both sides are hedging their bets not wanting to show their hand. This is a hitherto unknown phenomenon in the election history of this country where two sides are working at cross purposes in the open but are nevertheless planning to join forces subsequently.

Is the common aspiration of Alliance based solely on securing the release of Sarath Fonseka? Is this not a case of the blind leading the blind?