Whom to vote

I tell you

By Helasingha Bandara

(March 30, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) In Sri Lanka, despite the claim for a 90% literacy rate, only about 20% of the voting public use their vote in any meaningful manner. The rest waste their votes for reasons that are not hard to fathom. Some examples are that some from the remaining 80% may vote for an actress with the wishful thinking that she would visit them in a dream to help them wet their pants or at least they get an opportunity to gather in her back garden for a political meeting and would have the fortune of seeing her naked through the glass window of her bathroom. Some others may vote for the mere fact that the MP knows him/her by the first name. “Ha Appuhamy Kohomada?” “My god he knows my name” exclaims Appuhamy. He is a friend, Appuhamy concludes in his mind. What Appuwa does not know is that the MP learned his name from the Grama Niladhari sitting beside him at the meeting only two seconds before he called Appuhamy by name. Another group votes for a certain party just because their neighbours belong to the opposing party. Let me tell you whom to vote to prevent you from wasting your vote. It is not unfair to tell some people in Sri Lanka whom to vote although it may be construed as being cocky. Whom to vote?

Not the UPFA

Do not vote for the UPFA. I guess the SLFP led coalitions have ruled the country for 16 years so far. With the next six it will be 22 years and beyond because within the next six years Rajapakshas will make sure that they will remain in power forever in Sri Lanka. The country will have governance similar to that of Orwell’s governance in his 1984 and indeed worse than that of Sadam Hussein’s governance in Iraq. We will have husbands spying on wives and vice versa, parents spying on children and vice versa, siblings spying on siblings, friends spying on friends etc. No one would be able to speak his/her heart out for the fear of reprisals. Servile obedience to the rulers will be demonstrated everywhere with most of them eulogising the state for survival. This would be a gradual change of the system in which people do not even realise what is happening to them. In fact this process has already started. Simon Navgaththegama once wrote a play on a similar theme and asked me to do the main role. I was still at school and unfortunately a change of school for me coincided with this proposition and I missed the opportunity. The play was based on a prediction of a wise old man. He came to a certain village and told the villagers not to drink the water that the next rain brings down. They were asked to store water to avoid drinking the new water. Drinking this water would make people insane the old man said. The villagers mocked the old man and happily drank the new rain water and all of them became insane except one man who kept on drinking uncontaminated water that he stored on the advice of the wise man. The lot who became insane did not even realise they had become insane as everyone behaved in the same manner. Yet they immediately noticed a difference in the behaviour of the one man who remained sane. For them he was insane. He could not survive alone in the hostile environment around him but to drink the contaminated water and become one of the lot. Once we all become insane under an insane rule we will see no difference.

The gap between the poor and the rich will be wider. The rich are the politicians and their cronies. They will have the government blessing to steal from the people and in turn the people will become poorer.

Robbery, mugging, rape, intimidation, harassment, murder and so on will be rampant but would not make headlines as no one would dare to publicise those because the perpetrators would have the state protection.

There won’t be an independent judiciary or law enforcement agencies. They all would be working for the rulers. The subjects will be penniless, helpless and destitute.

Certainly not for the UNP

United National Party is called the grand old party. Yes it is old but not grand any more. It has lost the favour of gentlemanly leadership since the leadership was taken over by a Cobra (Naya) by design, replaced by a Russell’s Viper (Polanga) also by design and then passed on to a Cat-Snake (Mapila) by chance.

The Naya introduced a cursed political system and a rotten constitution that could be manipulated for the advantage of the politicians and politician makers and to the detriment of the people. The masses have been caught up in this escalating curse without hope of escape or rescue.

Together the Polanga and the Mapila caused death to at least one hundred thousand citizens of Sri Lanka. The Polonga for his murderous instinct ordered the killings of his own people and thousands perished. Then in his baseless paranoia he provided arms to the Tigers who used them against the rest including men, women, children, Buddhist monks, Hindu Priests, foreigners and the surrendered police officers.

The Mapila in his folly agreed to a disastrous peace agreement that made the Tiger the most powerful carnivore with a cache of technically superior weapons that was sufficient to decimate entire Sri Lanka. The strength and ferocity given to the Tiger by the peace accord caused death to thousands of soldiers as well as civilians on both sides of the ethnic divide. You do not want to vote for such a party. Snakes may shed their skin but do protect their fangs to kill their pray, the only way that they know how to survive.

The TNA? I don’t know

I have no heart to tell the Tamils not to vote for their own people. My personal view is that the TNA gets nowhere with the old songs of a separate state, North East Merger and self-rule. They would be better off if they focus their strength on the provision of equal opportunity, in education, employment and the service provision without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, social or economic status, disability, sexual orientation etc.

Vote for the DNA

It is safe to vote for the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Sarath Fonseka because they will not come to power this time. The question of the true nature of the unknown would not arise.

However if the DNA is sent to the parliament as a formidable force the UNP will start to dissolve. The remaining good politicians of the UNP and also the disillusioned good politicians of the UPFA will join the DNA. That will make them win six years later.

A formidable DNA will leave the Rajapakshas with two options. One is to make hay while the sun shines and disappear and the other is to change the governance to restore democracy, law and order and judiciary independence, to eliminate corruption and to develop the poor masses with the hope of winning again. If such a change comes why should we need to change the Rajapakshas? They are welcome to bring such a change and stay forever!

I beg someone translate this into local languages and publish.