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by Rajan Philips

Local government elections should be about local matters. About what matters to people most directly in their daily lives - about housing, drinking water, sanitation, garbage, transport, electricity, and children's schooling.

But the political parties and the pundits would have none of it. They declared the 30th March local elections to be a referendum on the Geneva peace talks and the peace process. And so it was.

The results were a stunning victory for Mahinda Rajapakse and a strong signal to continue with the talks and the peace process. He can now claim a new mandate, unconstrained by any so called MoU. MoUs are for business, not politics.

The supporters and detractors of the UNP leader are blaming each other for yet another defeat. The leader himself is searching for southern consensus in northern New Delhi. All of them want a 'national government' - a convenient euphemism for a bloated cabinet.

The JHU has managed to discover victory in defeat by claiming that the local polls were a victory for Mahinda Chinthanaya to which the JHU had signed on. They too count who only sign and whine!

The JVP has no excuses. Only an explanation, that holds no water. Its supporters were the most motivated to vote. It exalted its expectations. It issued ultimatums against everyone who did not agree with its approach to peace and political solution.

In the end, its rout only confirmed the secret of its recent successes: JVP makes electoral gains only when it is propped up by one of the two major parties against the other. On its own it can only hold its own, but cannot make much of a gain.

Within the SLFP/PA, the Bandaranaike siblings, who consummated the marriage with the JVP in 2004, now want out, while Mahinda Rajapakse who vehemently opposed the union then is not keen on a divorce now. Those who think like the former president think it is time for President Rajapakse to call a new parliamentary election.

Not another election

All three ideas - dumping the JVP, national government, and an early parliamentary election - are bad ideas.

It would be a mistake to isolate the JVP in the peace process at this stage. The JVP articulates the real concerns of the marginalized sections in Sinhalese society. Their leaders should realize that their chauvinistic stand on the Tamil question is counterproductive to their egalitarian goals for the Sinhalese.

To that end and Wimal Weerawansa's latest perorations notwithstanding, President Rajapakse should give the JVP leaders more time to evolve and understand that the country needs to devolve. It is also a bad idea to dissolve parliament now and call a new election to form a majority government. A majority government is not an assured outcome.

What is more, Sri Lanka has been having an election of one form or another practically every year since 1999, and the people are tired with too many elections and too little work between elections, not to mention the little detail that elections cost lots of money.

Nor will a so called 'national government' provide the panacea for all our problems. If the UNP MPs want to support the government on specific issues, they can do so from where they are - in the opposition. In practice, national government will be a bloated cabinet - with one minister for every two MPs from every party.

Making a minority government work means building coalitions and parliamentary majorities across party lines on an issue by issue basis. President Mahinda Rajapakse has a demonstrated capacity to work across party lines and, armed with the success at the local polls, he is well positioned to form different coalitions on important issues.

He also has the security of tenure for six years and even more, so he can deal positively with people of different political parties, unlike his predecessor who spent her entire second term plotting and machinating to extend her tenure.

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