Horses and donkeys
Editorial-December 11, 2014, 8:12 pm
The upcoming presidential poll is bound to go down in history as the electoral contest that caused the highest number of crossovers. Its aftermath is also likely to see many more defections as well as the return of some turncoats.
Some more crossovers are expected during the next few days and both the government and the Opposition are determined to outdo each other in the defection circus as it were. Common presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena has assured his supporters that an ‘exodus’ from the UPFA is imminent and asked them to be patient. The government, having secured the backing of the UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake and persuaded JHU heavyweight Udaya Gammanpila to return to its fold yesterday, is promising a bigger surprise within the next few days. Social media, in overdrive, keeps the chatterati agog.
It is popularly said that many randy, blokeish males have the bad habit of condemning as strumpets decent women who reject their advances. Similarly, political parties insult those they fail to prevent from decamping and hail as heroes and heroines others who join them. Both the government and the Opposition claim they have got racehorses and lost donkeys during the last two weeks or so. It is a case of one man’s donkey being another man’s horse!
Gammanpila’s decision to back President Rajapaksa has split the JHU down the middle and the rebel group in the party led by Ven. Medhananda Thera is likely to make the most of the situation to win over some more party stalwarts who have pledged their support to the Opposition common candidate. The UNP has succeeded in creating a rift in the CWC which has pledged its support for President Rajapaksa.
The unfolding political drama or, more appropriately, soap opera is a slightly rehashed version of what we watched in 2010. There has been a change in the cast including the protagonist. Last time, it had only a few episodes but this time around it has been divided into many to keep the voting public in suspense. But, they are already aware of the storyline!
At the 2010 presidential election, there were Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the UNP, the TNA, the JVP, the SLMC, some SLFP dissidents, NGOs and the LTTE groups active overseas in one camp and President Mahinda Rajapaksa (from the SLFP), the LSSP, the CP, the JHU etc in the other.
At present, instead of Fonseka, the Opposition alliance has Sirisena as the presidential candidate and the JHU has been an addition. The JVP is backing the common candidate without getting actively involved in the campaign. The TNA will definitely back Sirisena as it wants to see the back of Rajapaksa, but it will delay announcing its decision until the eleventh hour in a bid to deny the government time for a counter propaganda onslaught; the SLMC is also very likely to throw in its lot with Sirisena in the end even at the risk of a split. The President’s camp consists of the same allies save the JHU or part thereof.
Slogans and issues are also more or less the same. In 2010, too, Rajapaksas were accused of corruption, abuse of power, nepotism and cronyism and they called their rivals traitors and puppets on strings furthering the interests of the enemies of the state.
A presidential election is a kind of joust where two contenders charge at each other, lances poised. The horse and donkey circus (or dog and pony show) may provide the public with entertainment and help the candidates attract media attention, but there is very little the defectors can do to influence the outcome of a presidential contest, much less help anyone win.
