The Best Outcome I Expect From Today’s Election

By Jude Fernando –August 17, 2015

Jude Fernando

“In this society, the representative institutions, democratic in form, are in content the instruments of the interests of the ruling class. This manifests itself in a tangible fashion in the fact that as soon as democracy shows the tendency to negate its class character and become transformed into an instrument of the real interests of the population, the democratic forms are sacrificed by the bourgeoisie and by its state representatives’’ Rosas Luxemburg.

The best outcomes of today’s election result would be a resounding defeat of theMahinda Rajapaksa led UPFA and the UNP succeeding in forming a coalition government with the help of the ethnic minority political parties and the JVP. The country could expect a better future only if the stability of the coalition is forced to being vulnerable to the pressures exerted by the JVP and the ethnic minority political parties. This is necessary in order to hold the UNP, as the lead partner of the coalition, accountable for its promises. Ideally, the JVP’s support for the UNP should be conditioned on it being in charge of at least two ministries, preferably the Ministry of Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Irrigation. Similarly, the minority parties should demand a firm commitment to transitional justice as a necessary prerequisite for meaningful reconciliation and a political settlement for the ethnic conflict.

The government lead by the UPFA would be disastrous for the country, as it would see the resurgence of the previous regime’s political culture, derail the reforms initiated under Maithripala Sirisena’s regime, and let those responsible for corruption and abuse of power during the previous regime escape accountability. In particular, the rather limited but noteworthy progress of President Sirisena’s regime in creating conditions for an independent judiciary, law enforcement agencies, and the civil service will be undermined if a UFPA government is elected into power.                                                    Read More