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| Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The impatient walk of presidential ambition Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake Judging by the statements made in the course of the UNP's Jana Bala Meheyuma or demonstration of 'People's Power' it would appear that the march would end at Rajagiriya, surrounding the office of the Commissioner General of Elections.
The Commissioner General of Elections is a man who is holding his office not through any pleasure, but due to his dedication to duty, and also because he has to be there until the proposed Elections Commission is established. Even a petition to the Supreme Court let him retire, did not succeed. It is known that he has been treated in hospital more than once for a heart ailment, and one can have nothing but sympathy remains in place, waiting for the President and the Constitutional Council to reach agreement on the composition of the Elections Commission. One can only hope that if and when this happens, it is not a shoddy compromise such as the one that placed Reginold Cooray on the chair of the Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council once again. Having seen the Commissioner General of Elections work, I am fully aware that he is not one who would speak at the wrong time, or at the pressure of people who want him to talk. The senior public servant he is, one can be sure Dissanayake knows his duties, and whether or not he should make statements to please politicians and their marching hordes that are apparently confused by the statements of rival politicians. The pressing need to get the Commissioner General to break his silence is clear when one hears Ranil Wickremesinghe keeps on saying that the most urgent of the public just now is a presidential election. He does not say how he tested the public mind. The march of promises As the green march progresses one finds that quite contrary to Ranil Wickremesinghe's repeated statements that they are not a party that gives false promises to the people, what is being done in the long trek from Devundara to Colombo is to give promises that cannot be, are mere daydreams or totally unreal. There is a change in the type of promises, though. No more (as yet) promises of gold bracelets and chains for the youth, or designer jeans for cultivators who work on paddy fields. Ranil is mum about chewing-gum, although the UNP leader must be chewing the cud of his party's own findings that the main cause for the UNP's defeat at the last election was its badly thought out alliances with the SLMC and CWC, although it is only part of the truth. The UNP leader despite claims about not making election promises is now making them on a massive scale. Possibly thrilled by the young cheer leaders surrounding him, he has made a promise at Balapitiya that once elected President he will provide jobs to three million people. It is indeed a surprising promise to come from a man who as Prime Minister headed an administration that cut more than 300,000 jobs within two years and froze all employment in the public sector. Not surprisingly in keeping with the tradition of all 'promising politicians', the UNP leader did not say how and where he will find all this employment, and how long it will take after his anticipated victory in the polls for the promise to be implemented. Sweep of the tsunami There is every sign that Ranil Wickremesinghe expects to be swept into the office of Executive President of Sri Lanka on the crest wave of the debris resulting from the tsunami of 26/12. Six months after the tsunami, the UNP is carrying out a huge hoax on the people, about tsunami relief. The posters in this massive orchestration of public deception are all about the lack of any relief provided by the government to the people affected by the tsunami. A complaisant media ready to echo the green elephant's trumpeting repeats the story ad nauseam; they interview members of the marching hordes who all say that not a single permanent house has been built for the tsunami affected, while others say they have received no form of relief at all, not even cash or dry rations. The better known propagandists for the UNP who analyse the daily newspapers on TV give maximum time to such news, all aimed at painting a huge canvas of falsehood, only to help the UNP and its leader achieve burning desire for executive power. All this is when the truth is that nearly 40,000 temporary homes have been completed, and 7,000 permanent homes are also already built, with another 7,000 to be completed by end of July; and that millions have been disbursed to these same people by way of cash and rations of food and other essentials. But the truth is not of the essence in the attempt to walk to power on the bodies of 40,000 victims of the tsunami. So, the hero of the marching hordes, some of them possibly from tsunami unaffected Hanguranketha too, makes the great declaration, nay promise that within 90 days of his being elected president housing problem of the tsunami victims will be solved. This can't be a very welcome promise for people shown wailing in public over the delay in housing by the present government. Even if the presidential poll is held this year, which will be around November, if Ranil's expectations come true, then these people will have to wait, at least a full seven months more for permanent shelter. If the election is next year as said by the President, then these people will have to wait 19 months, presuming Ranil is the winner. How can one believe that people who make such promises are concerned about the sufferings of the people at all? Not satisfied with such blatantly crooked campaigning, the UNP is reviving its habit of mud slinging, too. The victim is Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, who Ranil fears will be his opponent. Ranil promised to reveal to the people those who pocketed tsunami aid. Now his propaganda machine is trying its utmost to smear Mahinda with the mud of corruption, complete with posters, failed motions in parliament and through TV presenters turned UNP organisers who make rowdy appearances on TV talk shows. The UNP with its own feedback apparatus must be knowing that all such propaganda, however hyped up by its stooge media is not being swallowed by the people. That is why they are showing increased concern about the silence of the
Commissioner-General of Elections. Their plea is very simple. Say the words
that the next Presidential Election will be held this year. What a huge
effort indeed to breach the silence of one man. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The Deputy Leader of the UNP Karu Jayasuriya is being repeatedly quoted
from various locations of the UNP's march, insisting that the Commissioner
General of Elections is duty bound to declare when the next presidential
election will be held. He insists that the Commissioner General should make
this declaration, especially because there is confusion in the minds of the
people by some statements being made that the next presidential poll will be
held next year. 
