Flashback
Colour and party symbol take backseat:
Good governance takes centre stage
by Dhaneshi Yatawara
As the parties wound down their campaigning for tomorrow's
Parliamentary elections, political messages became somewhat clearer. The
two main coalition parties, naturally being heard more than others, play
a critical role in reshaping the country's political culture.
These two major political formations, the United National Party led
United National Front (UNF) for Good Governance and the United People's
Freedom Alliance (UPFA) are competing with each other to gain public
attention to win a parliamentary majority to get effective control of
the next government.
Coalition
The UNF, the coalition against the re-shaped UPFA, is definitely a
broader coalition than the one which contested the Presidential
elections earlier this year. In the shift from the UNF, the United
National Party(UNP) as the largest party of the coalition, showed
significant changes in its polices.
Political parties holding significantly different political opinions
like the Sinhala nationalist group, the Jathika Hela Urumaya along with
minority parties, such as the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, joining the
coalition led by the UNP to win the common aim of establishing good
governance became politically effective in the public eye. Agreeing on
winning over a common belief rather than the colour and the party symbol
is appreciated by people.
The emerging trend is to create a change in governance of Sri Lanka
rather than maintaining the status quo of a political party.
The change the UNP had to incorporate during the recent Presidential
Elections, slightly glided the party towards a more broader aspect. A
party that operated and disciplined under one strong leadership since
its inception, opening up to different political parties with extreme
views was a significant drift, especially at grass root level.
Victorious comeback
The UNP staged a victorious comeback at the recent Presidential
Elections becoming a strong part of the political coalition. The
coalition that spearheaded the political change on January 8 identified
the frustration held by the average citizen mainly over corruption of
politicians, partisan nature of governance, nepotism, the cost of living
and disregard for the rule of law by those in authority.
The anti-corruption campaign was the highlight of the propaganda when
the soft spoken, less popular, non iconic leader Maithripala Sirisena
won the presidency.
In the post war era ending nepotism, corruption, bad governance and
politicisation of institutions seems to give a Government a better
chance than arguing for stability and national security. Militarisation
has been another key issue of discussion in the wider public arena. Free
media was a strong slogan in the Presidential campaigning and a key
point of the UNP-led coalition. The change of media culture was felt
especially where the State media became comparatively more free and fair
unlike in the past where it was treated as the mouthpiece of the
government. Limiting the powers of executive presidency was a major
factor.
The UNP was campaigning for during the presidential elections.
Ironically it is the constitutional change made by the UNP's former
legendary leader former President J.R. Jayewardene.
With the broader coalition the UNF seems to be facing a change of
mood in urban and rural areas with the political atmosphere changing
from 'one party government' to 'joined party government'. The mood has
not been so far predicted by the once famous astrologers and magicians.
One of the deciding factors at this election will be the voter
turnout. Between the January 2010 presidential election and the
parliamentary elections that followed in April 2010, the turnout dropped
from 74.5 percent to 59.31 percent. A higher turnout favours the UNP,
while a lower turnout is bad for the UPFA at the August 17 election.
|
