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We are free now; we don’t want one family to rob our freedom
View(s):It is a pleasure to be invited to comment on yet another election — a pleasure made even greater because, after five years, I am now writing as Paakshikaya instead of as Viruddha Paakshikaya which was my nom de guerre all these years! That change was possible because of what happened on January the eighth, when the people of this country decided that enough is enough, restored democracy and chased away an autocrat.
On August the seventeenth, they have another chance. As I see it, the choice before them is simple. It is not about the UNP versus the SLFP. It is not about Ranil versus Mahinda. It is not about Yahapaalanaya versus Mahinda samaga negitimu (awakening with Mahinda). It is not about who the next prime minister should be.
It is simply about whether citizens of this country want to be free or whether they wanted every aspect of their life — their education, their job, the road they travel on, the television programme they watch, the bank they do their business with, the hospital they seek treatment from, the airline they fly in, the game of cricket they enjoy, the verdict in their court case — to be decided by one family.
The opposition and its self-proclaimed prime ministerial candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa (which by the way, is a designation disputed by their own party leader!) are lamenting that our government has done nothing in the past six months and that development has ceased. Now, is that true, everyone must ask themselves; have we really done nothing?
Look around you.
Look at the news on state television: Do opposition parties get air time?
Look at the decisions given by the courts: Have some of them been against the government? Has the Chief Justice been impeached as a result?
Are people free to protest?
Are there larger than life cut outs of the Prime Minister at every street corner? Wasn’t the opposition having a field day, organising ‘bring back Mahinda’ rallies with permission being granted for them, without power cuts in those areas and with live coverage?
Isn’t the lovable ‘other Mahinda’, Mr. Deshapriya our methiwarana comasaaris (or Maco as everyone calls him) getting tough on those who break election law?
There have been other changes as well: Sarath Fonseka, instead of wearing a prison jumper, is wearing a Field Marshall’s uniform and has a road named after him. Shirani Bandaranayake was reappointed Chief Justice and retired gracefully. The 19th Amendment was passed, despite all the obstacles that were placed before Parliament by Rajapaksa acolytes who wanted to see him crowned as king for the third time.
So, even though no one was sent to the guillotine and though Shiranthi Rajapaksa did not ask us to eat cake instead of bread, January the eighth was every bit a revolution. We now have to decide whether we wish to protect those freedoms we won on that day, or hand them back on a platter to the man who took them away from us.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Rajapaksa gave political leadership to the war that destroyed the LTTE. He cashed in on that and won the 2010 elections handsomely. But that didn’t mean he and his family have a blank cheque to use and abuse the country’s resources, positions of power and privilege and democratic freedoms just because he was hailed as the ‘rata beraagath naayakaya’ (the leader who saved the nation). And, even that title is being questioned now after what happened at Akuressa the other day, when Rajapaksa lunged at a supporter with raised fist. He says he didn’t and if we are to believe him, he should be called ‘angilla beraagath naayakaya’ (the leader who saved his finger) instead!
Looking at the opposition, one wonders whether this is a presidential election and Rajapaksa is running for president again. The entire lead up to the campaign was about whether Rajapaksa would be given nominations. Now, it is a campaign that has Rajapaksa in the forefront. We hardly hear of any other candidates; they are dwarfed by Rajapaksa’s shadow. And this, when the President has quite categorically said he would not be appointed Prime Minister even if his party won the elections!
And speaking of the ‘other candidates’, if the SLFP had the courage to pick a decent set of candidates for the election in keeping with the wishes of their leader Maithripala Sirisena, I daresay that we in the UNP would have had a fight on our hands. Thankfully for us, two loyal Rajapaksa slaves, Susil Premajayantha (who presided over the tradition of leaked question papers at the Department of Examinations) and Anura Yapa (who presided over the kangaroo court in Parliament that sacked Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake) ensured that the same old people who have been caught with their hands in the till and have had their reputations sullied are running for office again. It doesn’t take a Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena to predict the outcome, does it?
And what exactly is the opposition offering the nation? More of the same, perhaps? With less than four weeks to go for the election, we don’t know yet! The JVP launched its manifesto on Wednesday. We in the UNP launched our development programme for the next five years on Thursday. The UPFA, meanwhile, is still deciding what it should sell to the country to try and regain power. They may be arguing about whose picture to have on the cover — Maithri’s or Mahinda’s? Or the title: they can no longer call it ‘Mahinda Chinthana’, can they? Well, let us hope that at least a few minutes before campaigning ends on the fourteenth of August, Dilan Perera will ride on the pillion of his motorcycle and bring us their manifesto, like he did with their nominations for the National List!So, there it is in a nutshell, folks. Do we want to go back to era of one family rule or do we make changes to our political culture and look forward to a peaceful, efficient and democratic government?
In fact, the opposition’s slogan, ‘Mahinda samaga negitimu’ unwittingly says it all: Mahinda was asleep during the last five years of his rule, dreaming of being in power forever and ignorant of the goings on around him. Unfortunately for him, the people of this country won’t allow him to rise again.