Government has failed to jump-start

By Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2018-01-18


The Local Government election campaigns are on and voting is close by. This time without preferences and ward orientation compulsory, no doubt eager political and social elements have entered politics from all parties. As political parties have fielded their candidates in a hurry, there is still the possibility that many fools or unfit candidates, too, would have received nominations to get elected to this bottom level of power.

But, nominating such a person as a candidate the parties are doing a disservice to the people for they cannot put an end to the corruption, money rackets and even nepotism present in politics today and will not get the voters to break free from the trapped, incompetent and backward feeling.
Much worse, it is such fools and misfits who are easily moved in to racist fascist political tendencies. They become famous politicians by shouting against minority communities. On the other hand, take the case of the people in the north-east for example; the presence of excess Sinhala soldiers, the failure to free more Tamil land held by the military and the failure to abolish the Prevention of Terrorism Act are all particularly detrimental to the restoration of normalcy in this region.

However, this grievance of being trapped and the incompetent feeling, as shown above is not specific to the north-east or to the Tamil people, although they are the most vocal about the failings of the Government to deliver on its promises. Clearly the complaint regarding the slowness of the government is more widespread.

In Sri Lanka, all those who voted for the Government to ensure that there would be good governance, expansion of democracy with a Constitution acceptable to all communities and economic prosperity from all over the country are dissatisfied with the progress that has been made so far. They see the failure of the Government to take those accused of corruption, abuse of power and racist fascistic oppression to trial and to prison as indications of infirmity of those who may do the same in the future. On the other hand, the less political larger population whose main priority is to improve their standard of living and get out of the poverty traps they are in, are disappointed that the Government has patently failed to jump start the economy. Some bourgeoisie economists demand that Sri Lankans must accept the reality that the country as a whole is not generating enough wealth and it had been the main cause for their disintegration into smaller groups divided by regions based on nationality and religions, while the majority is dominating the minorities due to the folly of the past leaders who were stupidly hero - worshipped by the people. This is putting the cart before the horse. It is the development under capitalism that created nationalist consciousness that was misdirected by parochial political leaders.

There were vulgar racists in the past who advised people to boycott elections as it happened at the first provincial council election in 1987 and later at the 2004 general election and the whole world knows the consequences. In 88-89 the JVP led the racist campaign against devolution, parity of languages and citizenship for Upcountry Tamils. They killed many people and in the end the bourgeois State carried out a repression where nearly 40,000 disappeared. In 2005 the election boycott by Tamils gave the opportunity to Mahinda to win. He destroyed the Tamil liberation and finally established a fascist regime. Today, too, there are theoreticians who advise people to go to polls and to cast spoilt votes at the oncoming Local Government elections. To any sensible person it should be clear that there is no sense in wasting votes but time is ripe now for the Sri Lankan people to shutter this barrier in their mind and break free from the trapped-in feeling of incompetence, to select the right candidate to represent them at this lowest level of power, in the journey to take the country forward to democracy and development.