An election of a different sort

What we are going to witness on January 26, next year will be an election of different sort; an election in which the manifestos of politicos who lock horns will not have a war/ethnic problem to write about pages and pages.
During at least the last 15 years, the war with the separatist LTTE, some may refer to this as the ethnic problem, dominated the election manifestos of presidential candidates of all political parties.
However, the underlying theme of the upcoming Presidential election would undoubtedly be the economy. Since the war has ended, whoever may contest may not have to present their solutions on how to cope with the LTTE, but how to develop the country’s economy!
Now, the war is evidently fought in the economic fronts. Instead of peace talks, devolution of power or full-scale military actions, those who eye the leadership of the country are now giving promises to reduce cost of living, increase salaries and curbing corruption. In other words, the main theme for this times Presidential election would be the economy.
Although there are whispers of the 13th Amendment and the 17th Amendment here and there, the Presidential candidates seem to have clearly understood that it is their economic plan for the post-war Sri Lanka that would enable them to obtain the highest seat.
This could be the reason for them taking this long to present their election manifestos to the public. None of the key Presidential candidates have so far presented their election manifestos to the people of Sri Lanka.
There is no doubt that whatever they present in their manifestos will attract the keen interest of the people, may be more than ever, since everyone is expecting a miracle turn around of the Sri Lankan economy. So far, the politicos were saying that the biggest impediment for the development of the country’s economy was the war with the LTTE. So, once the war is over, with the absence of the biggest hindrance for development, it is no wonder that the people are keen to see how Sri Lanka would be developed.
Therefore, the Presidential candidates should be more careful with their manifestos because, first, as said, the people have a keen interest about them and second, they expect the politicos to fulfil whatever the promises written in those manifestos as there is no war that they can hide behind.
When we look at the contemporary history of Sri Lanka, election manifestos had been able to stir little interest. Of course politicians during election times refer to their respective manifestos with much vigour, they show some sort of coyness when talking about their manifestos once they are elected.
This lack of interest may be due to the fact that people probably had realised that the politicos would never keep the promises made in their manifestos. The other reason could have been that the Sri Lankan people were politically immature as they may have tended to neglect the manifestos of these politicos for their deceitful faces and lineage.
But now that era has gone by and people prefer the policies of politicians to other things. This may mean danger to politicians who are still trying to do obsolete politics, but those who keep to their policy documents may not face any obstacle.
Specially, the Presidential candidates should be careful when they are giving promises of economic nature, because the people may tend to think that whatever the politicos promise in election platforms should come true, simply, as there is no war.
Therefore, the advice we can give the politicians this moment is never give promises that you cannot keep because the people are far more serious this time than you politicos probably be imagining.