What is the way
out for president Maithreepala from this political quagmire?
Srilankan
politics has always been strange, unpredictable and hilarious to onlookers who
have no vested interests in the process. Though it should not be the case most
of the citizens act as if they have no interest in the proceedings but treat it
like a soap opera that can be watched on TV in the evenings discuss mostly for
academic interest and of course the amusement and fun the actors provide.
I remember a TV journalist
from ITN who was in Thalai Mannar to report on war once told me that state
televisions will lose most of their viewers to private channels once the war is
over because most viewers watch state tvs because they have better access to
war fighting in North and East and hence the coverage carries more footage on
the action. Now this daily dose of
action has been replaced lock stock and barrel by the political discussions and
press interviews by politicians. If Srilanka has a proper rating system for tv programs like Nielson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings
,
which I doubt very much, I think the programmes with highest rating would be
press interviews by politicians. We should
not be surprised if , like teledramas ,if channels sponsor press interviews
after even paying fringe politicians and air those programs at regular prime
time, time slots.
Back to the
title, what would be the outcome of a pradeshiya saba election of a usual PS in a majority Sinhala area if, yes a big
IF, elections are held now without any
major changes to the ongoing political divide?
My guesstimate would be as follows
UNP- 50%
SLFP(MR)- 25%
SLFP(MS)- 20%
Others- 5%
So as per my
estimate having elections at this point of time is definitive hara-kiri for SLFP MS faction. Coming third
and in some cases fourth, depending on the ethnic composition of that
particular electorate , will completely erode the faith and trust on the
presidency and also shake the foundation of the party presidency to the extend,
that he will not be able to hang onto it even with the leverage of presidential power.
On the other hand
he cannot avoid holding elections for ever, because it will be damaging not only from the view of voter here but that
of the international community as well. So this is a dilemma. He has two
horns to select , as of a bull, on either of which he might be impaled, having
the elections or postponing it.
But I feel he has a way out from this, because of the loath
that is growing among the citizens who are fed up of cronyism, corruption
thuggery and mafia style politics of local politicians for many decades. People
associate that stigma with all local
politicians of all hues except probably JVPers.
The citizenry suspect , justifiably of course, that most of
the seasoned local politicians from both
major parties cannot be trusted to run the affairs of local councils.
If president Sirisena can mobilize a group of people who have
never involved in politics but professionals with some standing among the
socities they live, and present a common
plan of work, with a time frame, that will show the electorate that they are
different to local politicians who ruled hitherto and has a viable and decent agenda that will
uplift the standards while providing a professional and clean administration to
the citizens , he can get the SLFP to win or at least contest with equal
footing with UNP in PS elections.
The programme of work should include garbage disposal, recreational activities , participation of citizens in deciding concrete road construction and other projects etc to make the running of the PS a complete transparent one.
Yeh. I have experienced things about these fresh bloods. But within this system, new faces, professionals, honored men are side lined by the ppl themselves. Its pretty sure
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