Vindictive Politics in Sri Lanka

" When short sighted and self interested persons would suppress freedom of the press and arrest the political opponent , it would be unfortunate if the glorious county of Sri Lanka would not be able to relieve itself of such trends."

by N.S.Venkataraman

(October 02, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is really funny to see the style of functioning of democracy in Sri Lanka that former Chief of the Army staff has become a traitor overnight and will have to stay in jail for another thirty months now. One wonders as to the whether the jail term would be further extended , if Mr. Fonseka would continue to pose a political challenge to the present President of SriLanka. Obviously, the democratic process in Sri Lanka has now taken a beating and has failed with the opponent presidential candidate being put behind the bars after his defeat in the election. One also wonders as to whether Mr. Fonseka would have hauled up the present President of Sri Lanka , if Mr. Fonseka were to have won the election.

It is extremely difficult to believe that a person who was the Chief of Army Staff and who led the war against the rebels under the orders of the present President of Sri Lanka could be called a traitor and corrupt person acting against the national interest, whatever may be the verdict of the court martial.

One cannot be blamed if he would suspect that politics in Sri Lanka has become vindictive . Obviously, great damage has been done to the reputation of Sri Lanka as vibrant democracy.

For the democracy in a country to be successful and efficient, it is necessary that those participating in the politics of the country should be tolerant and not vindictive. It is surprising that the leaders in Sri Lanka has not realized that hatred only would beget hatred and vindictive methods would only create bad blood, causing great disquiet and instability in the country. Any one interested in the progress and long term interest of Sri Lanka and its reputation as a fair democracy cannot indulge in practices such as arresting the political opponent who dared to contest in the elections .

Those in charge of the county should have a long term perspective and should be able to think beyond the present time and above personal politics. If such quality would not be exhibited, then that particular region would lose its claim as a democratic country. Sri Lanka is now facing such threat.

In a healthy society, good democratic traditions have to be built up over a period of time and those in charge of the country and the politicians in office and in opposition would only be able to do so. The present political climate in Sri Lanka clearly indicates that while those in charge of the country can do a lot of good to the reputation of the nation, they can also do a pretty bad job and spoil the fair image of the country, by indulging in counter productive and vindictive politics.

When short sighted and self interested persons would suppress freedom of the press and arrest the political opponent , it would be unfortunate if the glorious county of Sri Lanka would not be able to relieve itself of such trends.

The ball is now clearly in the court of the President of Sri Lanka who must use his popular mandate to restore great standards in Sri Lankan democracy by ensuring that vindictive politics would be avoided. Otherwise, the history would find fault with him and he should be concerned about such possibilities.