The Real Game Will Start After The Elections: Wigneswaran’s Pentathlon
By Kumar David -August 11, 2013 |
Prof Kumar David
The pentathlon consists of five tasks and though the challenges facing the prospective TNA Administration and Chief Minister (CM) designate C. V. Wigneswaran (CV) resemble a decathlon, I will limit this study to the first five in priority.
(a) Shielding the NP Administration from wilful and/or contingent obstruction by the Centre, the Governor, and a military which has been aggressively interfering in civilian life.
(b) Demilitarising the North, ensuring safety and security on the streets, especially for Tamil women; ending the de facto status of these areas as if occupied by an alien force.
(c) Ensuring that swathes of land seized by the military are returned and resettlement is smooth; dealing with the tragedy of war widows and orphans.
(d) Building an energetic, able and efficient administration for economic activities and day to day management. Recruiting talented people for this endeavour.
(e) Working within the discipline of a party – notwithstanding the TNA is an alliance. CV has no experience of party dynamics and discipline; he needs to learn fast.
English educated Tamils are euphoric about the TNA’s choice of candidate. They are enamoured of CV’s credentials in respect of (d); that is if he is allowed to get on with the job. This is a big IF and I will return to it, but he is a cut above the pygmies strutting as Chief Ministers in other provinces. He is decent, intelligent, educated and capable of running a showpiece administration in contrast to the pigsties that pass for provincial administrations elsewhere. But my concern, my IF caveat, remains.
Will the NP-PC elections be held? It was an international dagger at his jugular, not wisdom nor statesmanship that forced Rajapakse’s hand. Will he manufacture a pretext, perhaps engineer a vicarious legal challenge that an obedient court will uphold, to call off elections? The threat, though never absent, is receding as Indian and international opprobrium will be unbearable. On the other hand, if Sinhala extremism challenges Rajapakse on the streets, does he have the balls to resist? That too I doubt, so the matter is not closed, but I will resist temptation to digress from the pentathlon.
