What future after the General Election?
by Victor Cherubim
( August 15, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary General Election on 17 August 2015 as many observers predict will be a defining moment perhaps, a game changer, for two main reasons.
A Tame Affair
After the “yahapalana” the so called 100 days government, of President Sirisena, a rainbow coalition of parties ushered in a measure of “good governance,” it was quite
natural to expect a cloudburst of verbal thunder, sporadic lightning and torrential downpours literally so to speak, during the run up to the election. But it was a tame affair. Fair enough, even the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was restrained under provocation. The Elections Commissioner was able to moderate the usual fanfare, “cut-outs,” tamasha’s etc, and the Election so called “democracy in action” was kept to a comparable low key. The Army was in barracks, unable to take any sides, the Police had never witnessed such an unforeseen mild event, that the general public were said to be somewhat bored. Even Gotha decided to go abroad. This was unexpected, unusual in many respects to Sri Lanka, where past elections were considered somewhat notorious but colourful. Small wonder the Commonwealth contingent of “observers” hardly had much to do, to search or ransack malpractices.
An expectation of a New Stability and Security
After nearly thirty years of war, the people of Sri Lanka are looking forward to a time of peace and quiet. They want a new approach, an innovation in thinking. A new stability and security is a great source of warmth and pleasure. This election happens to be the first major impact on public life, six years since the war. It can have many different impacts on a society that it is impossible to generalise. At the same time throughout history the world over, elections held years after a prolonged war have had major implication and effect on societies.
One of the stark effects of a clean up after excesses of wars and peace is reconstruction and rehabilitation. Reconstruction after a war by its very nature is often done in haste. It encourages and breeds corruption and poor governance. Rehabilitation on the other hand, depends very much on what the society was before the war, what the war was about and many other variables.
General elections are corrective mechanisms where the public have their say. It is at this time that the public makes judgment. Most often the judgment is on improvement of the economy. Improvement cannot take place without good governance.
The result
Whatever the result one thing is certain after the election, Old ways of doing things will naturally have to change to meet the wall of expectation of the masses. The coming together of various parties to change Sri Lanka for the better has brought with it high expectation. Great expectations require great leadership and even the old will bend with the new to survive.
