What do Sanath Jayasuriya and Geetha Kumarasinghe have in common? Or, for that matter, Susanthika Jayasinghe and S.B. Dissanayake? The latter question might prompt a few educated guesses but the correct answer is that they have all appeared on stage, supporting President Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidential election campaign.
We shouldn't be complaining about that per se because we claim to be a democracy and in a democracy everyone, including sports stars and film stars, have right to say what he or she wants to say. And I'd watch Geetha Kumarasinghe any day in preference to say, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, for instance.
However, the same cannot be said about Sanath whose campaign debut was much like his batting these days -- nervous, hesitant and all too brief. But who can blame the poor man, he wants to play for the World Cup next year and what better way to do that than sing for your supper?
But the question is: is that what this presidential election campaign has boiled down to? Showcasing celebrities to pull crowds and seduce a few voters in the process? Remember R. Premadasa? He used to get Mohamed Rafi to attend the UNP May Day rally at Galle Face and they flocked in their hundreds of thousands to listen to Rafi sing, not Premadasa speak, but nevertheless, it made a good page one picture on the second of May.
So, now this election has become a battle of proxies. The mud-slinging is quite liberal on both sides and it is usually done by someone else. And there are some curious aspects about this exercise and the way it is being done.
Batting for the President is a virtual 'second eleven'. It is the Rajithas and Weerawansas that hog the limelight at media briefings and on talk shows on the idiot box (is that why they call it that?). Why we even saw the Rajitha-Weerawansa duo flank a hastily imported ex-Army officer who was doing the dirty on 'Sarath aiya' as he called the General.
Who knows, at the rate this campaign is evolving, next week we might find a retired lawyer from the Tangalle Bar, flanked by Mano Ganesan and Mangala Samaraweera, regaling us with anecdotes about how 'Mahinda malli' fleeced his clients!
What is curious is about the presidential campaign of the President is that the pinch hitters who attack from the word go — the Dilshans of the campaign — are not from the senior ranks of the SLFP. Instead, they are from the 'ehindaas', the motley crowd collected from other political parties and wannabe political superheroes.
So, you wouldn't find the Ratnasiris, Di Mu Jayaratnes or Basil Rajapaksas washing the dirty linen. Even the more verbose likes of Nimal Siripala and Dullas Alahapperuma are assigned the task of campaign rallies and the usual rhetoric. And we wonder why? Apparently mud-slinging is a fine art and Wimal and Rajitha are the best artistes.
Frankly, if I were to offer a suggestion as an impartial observer (I am told the Commissioner of Elections is getting those types down for the 26th), it is a tactic they should abandon forthwith. For instance, whenever Rajitha opens his mouth, I am sure it costs the President a few votes. The good dentist is better off opening others' mouths and making some money out of it, only if he can keep his own, firmly shut!
As for Weerawansa, with the TNA pledging their support for the General, he is saying that he is now part of the 'Koti havula'. One would expect someone with only an iota of common sense-like Weerawansa, for instance, to realise that calling Fonseka a 'kotiya' would be like calling Mervyn Silva an 'arahat' but the man carries on regardless!
I am no advertising expert, but there is this uneasy feeling, especially about the ruling party's campaign, that their tactics may be having quite a paradoxical effect. There is such a lot of mud slinging, so much so that even a genuine allegation is now likely to get labelled as 'mud'! And we would have to thank Wimal and Rajitha for that!
On the other side, there is a different problem for the proxies who are battling on behalf of the General. There are so many batsmen out there playing different strokes -- quite like our cricket team in the middle of a familiar batting collapse -- that they may well end up on the losing side, if someone doesn't put his head down and play a patient innings.
There is the 'other' Sarath -- Sarath S -- saying that the General cannot really abolish the Presidency even if he wants to, he can only modify it -- and out goes Sarath F's main campaign slogan. Then there is Sampanthan in the North saying he supports the General 'unconditionally'.
The icing on the cake comes from the JVP which is saying it would not allow the North and East to merge again. How a future President Fonseka would reconcile all these opinions beats me!
Of course, the General must have taken a leaf from President Mahinda's book. In the 2005 campaign Mahinda Rajapaksa was all things to all people — and how well he succeeded, although with a little help from the LTTE ordered boycott in the North and East. The General must be thinking he can do a repeat of that but surely, hasn't someone told him -- or his proxies — that some things are better left unsaid?
The General himself must mind his Ps and Qs. Visibly irritated at the ex-army chap's allegations against him he lashed out, calling the latter a 'kalavedda' and a 'paaharaya'. I'm sure he'd argue that after forty years in the barracks, he was being charitable with his exposition of Billingsgate but it was the state media which played his outburst over and over again!
President Mahinda of course goes about at his emotional, breast beating, teleprompter assisted best. He has called this a battle between sausages and bada-iringu. Remember 2005? Then, the Ranil vs. Mahinda battle was termed the ham bacon vs. kurakkan battle and thanks to the spin put out by Mahinda's propaganda wizards, kurakkan won.
This time however, how the President could lump the JVP with sausage eaters is questionable and we know that those sausage manufacturers who are on an even keel with the President won't be too happy either — after all, much of their produce has been despatched to the buffet tables at Temple Trees where it is open house these days in keeping with the best traditions of Medamulana hospitality.
As election day approaches, other issues are creeping in. Some say that as always in Sri Lanka, when voters cast their votes they vote their caste and these undercurrents surely exist.
That is the only issue which has thankfully not been discussed openly as yet and we haven't seen anyone exhort voters to vote for their caste, but with nine days to go even that is a possibility, if we give Weerawansa or Rajitha half a chance.
In ten days' time though, we will have winner of this contest. And the winner takes it all. That is when the loser would have to find something else to do — like Sanath Jayasuriya has taken to modelling in Mumbai and addressing campaign meetings in Ambalangoda.
And, personally, I don't relish the prospect of seeing either President Mahinda or General Sarath modelling: seeing them topless at the Nallur kovil put me off that one! |
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