Editorial

21st October 2001

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  • Cost of winning
  • Poll ethics 
  • Cost of winning

    The recent Cabinet decisions on the abolition of diesel tax; re- duction of national defense levy, allowances to public servants and pensioners plus absorbing nearly 40,000 casual workers into the permanent cadre of the state sector shows what is almost a "reckless disregard'' for public finance. In one sense, these decisions are tantamount to insulting the intelligence of the electorate.

    The Sunday Times today publishes what the Government did less than an year ago (dropped prices before elections and raised them soon after the polls were done.) Though lowering the cost of living was a dire need, the motives are utterly suspect, and therefore the whole exercise assumes the proportions of a farce. Perhaps, it seems the government in-charge is taking some sinister delight in making things difficult, in fiscal terms, for whatever government that is next in power. The government should be urged to desist from "winning the elections at all costs,'' because the polls are only a necessary evil, and the state has to come back to reality soon when the circus of the franchise is over.


    Poll ethics

    The Commissioner of Elections has various new powers that he could use at the December 5th elections, which hopefully should remove any necessity for having foreign election observers in any part of this country.

    The elections this country had upto the year 1977 were a model to all self-respecting democracies, but our experience with elections held after that, with the attendance of foreign observers, is that most of these gentlemen prefer to "see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil.'

    Some of these observer missions legitimized what have been some of the most horrendous election-rigging that may have been witnessed anywhere, in any part of the world, with vague pronouncements such as "there was a reasonable reflection of the will of the people.'' They chose to ignore the fact that in a close call, the result from one or two districts could turn defeat into victory.

    Some of the most notorious election manipulators, it was galling to see, grinned on national television last week and admitted to their role in depriving the voters of their right to elect the government of their choice. The leaders of the UNP, seemed to be happy with the fact that these cheats were now on their side.

    The franchise is the bedrock of parliamentary democracy. The Elections Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police and their officers have got away too easily all too often in the recent past effectively conniving in robbing the people of their franchise. The concept of accountability must be dinned into these two gentlemen for all the agonising that has been witnessed, and heard of in public debates in recent times.

    It's a great pity that people know elections are being manipulated. When elections are reduced to a Mafia-type showdown, instead of a test of ideas, a country forfeits its right to call itself a functioning democracy. Perhaps the polity is turning a corner, because too many people have realized the damage that is inflicted in the long-term, to stability and democracy through these unsavoury election games.


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