Better the known devil than the unknown angel

By Dharisha Bastians

The people of the Western Province went to the polls last Saturday to elect their regional representatives. It was a mini-poll that assumed proportions of a national election, largely because the all important capital of Colombo happened to be one of the electoral districts that would poll on April 25, along with the slightly more suburban Gampaha and Kalutara. With the Elections Commissioner having allowed a campaign period of over two months, the election managed to creep its way into the political consciousness of the Colombo residents despite the ongoing noise of the military operations in the north that have occupied pride of place in the attention span of most Sri Lankans for the better part of a year. This infiltration was owed in no small measure to the poster blitz and incessant advertising by the most marketing-savvy UPFA candidates in the loop: R. Duminda Silva and Thilanga Sumathipala. It also helped that they happened to have the deepest pockets, leaving other government contestants far behind, with the ‘squeaky clean’ Udaya Gammanpila being the only also-ran to have made any kind of impression.
For the main opposition, Rosy Senanayake worked her charm among the few voters who bothered to show up and the even fewer who felt a compelling desire to vote for the UNP. No other UNP candidate appears to have made much of an impression on the Colombo voter, with even promising candidates such as attorney at law Shiral Lakthilaka not having made the cut.
Fascinating though the prospect might be to contemplate a provincial administration run in large part by (a) a man being sued for statutory rape, (b) a bookie and (c) a beauty queen with no claim to political leadership other than a crown she won almost 30 years ago and a women’s talk show, the ground reality is that they won’t really be in charge of anything much. The provincial councils are a complete waste of public money in that they only afford second rate politicians the opportunity to whiz around in SUVs, escorted by armed guards and make no impression whatsoever on the people in the provinces they allegedly serve. Ascension to these white elephants however is certainly a cause of celebration for the Silvas, Sumathipalas and Senanayakes, who have by virtue of popularity (or notoriety) managed to circumvent the usual political route – from poster boy to pradeshiya sabha member to provincial councillor etc. Instead, given that the provincial council has little or no bearing on the running of things in the Western Province, the ‘preferred candidates’ can spend their time preparing for the next step: election to the national legislature.
It is important to stress at this juncture that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this particular order of ascension. The trouble it portends is something entirely different. While it might not worry a body too much that the likes of Silva and Senanayake are running things in a redundant provincial legislature that has really no bearing on anything of importance, it is a whole other set of consequences if these characters end up being the candidates between whom we must choose at a national election. Because, it is a fact that this country is becoming increasingly bankrupt politically and at each election, our choices keep getting worse and worse.
And whatever one’s personal views might be about Silva and Co. the fact remains that they were the choices of the masses and in a democracy, the people are sovereign. The majority choice, in a democracy, can never be wrong. But it is also a fact that any voter needs to have a decent set of choices in order to make an informed and educated choice. In Sri Lankan elections, each choice seems worse than the rest, and clearly the Western Province voter has decided ‘better the known devil.’ It behoves the leadership of both main political parties to take stock of what kind of candidates they are putting out there and while it is futile to expect them to make any decisions for the good of the nation, we cannot stop appealing to their better instincts, indeed if such things exist.
With the conclusion of this latest provincial poll, the murmuring has begun within the UNP once again, with party bigwigs now planning to get involved in yet another attempt to oust the Party Leader. And while their leadership battles might make for interesting comic reading, it will be interesting for the UNP seniors to take a long hard look at the preferential voting results and allow some cold hard facts to hit home. It is a tragic tale indeed when the top two candidates in a district that was once considered a traditionally green bastion happen to be defectors from your own party. Both Silva and Sumathipala campaigned vigorously for the UNP in the 2004 general election and the subsequent local polls. Their success story is the UNP’s personal tragedy, that they are unable to keep even the bottom rung members within their fold.