SRILANKA is urgently in need of reconciliation and unity....!!!

Where is the beef and how will it be cooked?

Two thousand and nine will be a year to remember and with relief, regret, sadness, hope and joy or a mix thereof depending on one’s political sympathies and affiliations. It began with the smashing of the MTV studios and assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunga, its mid point was the defeat of the LTTE which brought relief to most after three decades of debilitating war and the incarceration of some three hundred thousand Tamil civilians in camps thereafter.
It ends with a presidential election campaign in which the two main contenders were key players in the defeat of the LTTE and closely identified with the culture of impunity in respect of human rights violations. Public discourse throughout the year was dominated by the war and the categorization of opinion into two camps – patriots and traitors – a categorization that endures into the presidential election campaign with accusations of betrayal following the disputed Sarath Fonseka interview with the Sunday Leader. Two thousand and nine also ends with the hope and expectation in some quarters of change – to dynastic rule, corruption, nepotism, the erosion of respect for the Rule of Law and constitutionalism. In others, there is the fear of greater militarization of government and governance, international conspiracies determined to effect regime change.

It is a mixed bag no doubt and the interest generated by the presidential contest is underpinned by uncertainty as to its result, whoever wins. It will be followed by a general election and in all probability hiatus and uncertainty will only subside by the middle of the year, the earliest. At the same time however, will the key challenges and issues confronting the country be addressed and the means of their resolution put into motion? Granted it is from one perspective, still early days of the campaign. The campaign will hot up in the New Year. However, the way that it has proceeded so far does not inspire much confidence that the real issues and challenges will be confronted beyond the slogans and broad platitudes of change and a better future, abolition of the presidency, corruption and nepotism, betrayal and hidden agendas.

Where’s the beef? How will it be cooked?

The incumbent has yet to enlighten us as to what he will do once re-elected and assure us that it will not be more of the same. Will he change the constitution and in what direction? Will he complement military victory with a political settlement? What does he intend to do with regard to the Rule of Law and his intentional violation of the constitution as exemplified by the fate of the Seventeenth Amendment? What about corruption and nepotism? Will there be even an acknowledgement of the extent to which it continues to erode governance? Human rights, the cost of living and the economy? Gratitude and appreciation for having defeated the LTTE alone may not be enough to win this election nor a mere promise of a better future. We need to know what this future looks like, if a future of any promise it is to be. Another edition of the Chinthanaya cannot be another edition of platitudes and homilies.

The opposition makes much of its commitment to change and it appears to be the case that this is what has the most resonance with voters. The change it proposes is in the form of a new constitution, the immediate implementation of the Seventeenth Amendment and an Anti- Corruption Commission. Yet the direction of constitutional change has not been fleshed out and some have been disconcerted by remarks about the executive presidency being replaced by an executive prime minister. What will be the modalities of constitutional change? Will the process prescribed in the current constitution be followed or will there be a resort to populism and arguments about mandates which have been advocated in the past? Part of the opposition’s argument about change is that the end does not justify the means. It would be politic for it to assure the country that it will adhere to this when effecting change in the event it has the opportunity to do so. Furthermore, what will be the structure of governance – the powers of the president, the prime minister, executive, legislature and judiciary? There is admittedly a minority of the electorate that is interested in these issues and in a tight election, which this one may turn out to be, their interests and anxieties cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Significantly, the opposition does have questions to clarify on the economic front, given the conflicting ideological orientations of its two key components – the UNP and the JVP. Is it the case that the Fonseka campaign is of the opinion that the economy should not feature prominently or at all in this campaign because the issues are of governance and corruption and that in any event their candidate is running to abolish the office he aspires to and therefore economic issues should be reserved for debate in the general election campaign? From a more realpolitik perspective, if this is its view it may not have to be as much concerned with the minority of the electorate alluded to above, but with the rural masses to whom constitutionalism and corruption may well be of less concern and significance than the cost of living.

Human rights and the allegations of war crimes is one area in which there is more heat than light and little prospect of any action though action on this front is badly needed. The controversy over the Fonseka interview with the Sunday Leader and its fall-out is significant in revealing that every attempt is being made to deny that the LTTE leaders who came out carrying a white flag were killed in cold blood. This is shoddy and it casts an aspersion on aspirants to leadership in a country that has just defeated terrorism and is urgently in need of reconciliation and unity. Will there be a commission of inquiry? The reputed journalist D.B.S Jeyaraj has written an article with details about this incident. Will action only be taken if it will be at all, internationally?

The irony of this election is that in order to create a contest, the issues that go to the heart of the future of this country are in real danger of being obscured. Two thousand and ten may well end up generating more excitement and hiatus than change.

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