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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Explosion of political myths Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake Many a myth about politics in Sri Lanka was exploded in the recent Presidential Election. Yet the current myth in the UNP is that it was Milinda Moragoda's statement about the UNP helping to create the Karuna breakaway group, which caused the LTTE to order Tamils in the North and East to boycott the Presidential Election. Those who believe in this obviously do not understand the LTTE at all. But what is even more absurd about this, is the myth that had the voters in the North come to vote, they would have voted for the UNP. This is political clairvoyance of the absurd. It is based on TNA's votes in April 2004, bringing 22 members into parliament. It was the UNP's mythical belief that all the votes cast for the TNA, in what has been accepted as a wholly rigged poll, full of intimidation, would have come to them. Infantile thinking If that is infantile thinking, what is worse is the UNP's admission of hoping to win the Presidential Election through another round of massive polls rigging, by the LTTE. Little did it realise the LTTE's own political strategy, as well as the awareness that it could not carry out such blatant rigging and impersonation this time due to the new rules introduced by the Elections Commissioner and strengthened by the Supreme Court. Caught in the now exploded myth of the Jaffna vote being pro-UNP, it has totally forgotten that there are now more Tamils from the North in the Western Province than in several districts in the North. Is it even sure that these Tamils voted for Ranil in the recent poll, and if they did why could the UNP not carry away the Western Province? It's time the UNP stops chewing the political cud and got back to serious thinking as to why the vast majority of the Sinhalese preferred Mahinda Rajapakse to Ranil despite the massive and often crude media campaign against the UPFA candidate. Political myth Another political myth doing the rounds for some time is that of the political "king makers" namely Arumugan Thondaman and Rauff Hakeem. It has been part of the recent conventional political wisdom that neither major party can get a majority without these two opportunists being on its side. This myth was blasted substantially but not wholly in April 2004, when the UPFA won the largest number of seats in parliament without them. Yet, the myth was re-established by the UPFA having to get Thondaman on to its side to have a majority in parliament. However, November 17 this year really exploded this myth. Mahinda Rajapakse won a majority of the national vote, without these mythical king makers being on his side. Both Arumugan Thondaman and Rauff Hakeem who do not show a commanding strength among their traditional vote bases, will now have to re-think their bargaining power when elections come around again. There was a strong and correct belief from 1947 to the mid 1950s that the Christian and mainly Catholic vote would always go for the UNP. It was mainly the Pope vs. Marxists. The situation changed in 1956, when of all places the LSSP's Dr. Hector Fernando was elected from the "Little Rome" of Negombo. In the same election, the SLFP's Hugh Fernando came from Wennappuwa. The myth of Christian solidarity with the UNP was over. One would have believed that political analysts would have realised that the power of the Christian, particularly Roman Catholic clergy, over how their flocks use their franchise had ended. But it was obviously dormant and re-emerged at the recent Presidential Election. The crudest attempts were made to get Christians, particularly Catholics, to desert the SLFP and other left parties and swing over in large numbers to the UNP. There were fears spread, even from pulpits and leaflets distributed near churches after Sunday service, that a vote for Mahinda Rajapakse would be a vote to destroy Christianity in the country. Lalith Kotelawela, in his newfound Christian zeal, even called on the Christians to awake, as if they were in slumber. The results showed that they did awaken to realise the crooked nature of the campaign to manipulate their thinking. They exploded again the myth of the Christian-UNP axis, and used their franchise to teach those who did it, never to use the pulpit or apostolic messages sponsored by corporate giants to influence how they would use their vote. Another myth Another myth firmly established in Sri Lankan political thinking was that the SLFP can never lead any government without the Bandaranaikes. Well, November 17 blew the lid off that too. Despite the lukewarm support for Mahinda Rajapakse from the Bandaranaikes he won the Gampaha District handsomely, including the electorates always considered the fifedoms of the Bandaranaike clan. Never before have so many political myths been exploded in one day's
voting. A big hurrah to the Sri Lankan voter. |
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