A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Sri Lanka: Do Elections Matter?
Unfortunately, whoever wins the context, the poor voter will be the ultimate loser. How many times is he or she going to be fooled by this phantom democracy?
In
all democracies, whether they are matured or not, periodic elections to
change governments have lost their credibility and substance in the
prevailing neoliberal economic world order. In this order it is global
capital represented by its corporate oligarchs that actually dictates
policies and sets the agenda for political parties and their leaders to
implement.
These parties are nothing but agents of this global oligarchy
that permits them to introduce cosmetic changes with some nationalist
veneer, but without structurally damaging the set neoliberal agenda.
In essence, what makes the difference between competing political
parties is the way they repackage and sell it to the voting public.
Thus, the choice presented to voters at elections is one of form and not
substance, like choosing between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola. Major
parties sell the same wine in differently coloured bottles.
Given this global background Sri Lanka is about to face at least two if
not three elections before the end of this year. The election virus is
spreading fast starting from President Sirisena himself. Every one of
his moves including his late awakening about the bond scam and drug
menace is taken with an eye on the forthcoming presidential election.
Whether he stands a chance to be a nominee for that office on behalf any
of the major political parties is still a sixty-four thousand dollar
question.
In the case of the General Election however, the two chief contenders
are the UNP and SLPP. President Sirisena’s SLFP rump, a possible third,
may split and join either of the other two, depending on who promises
what to SLFP members. The same goes to other minor
parties except perhaps JVP, which, given its revolutionary past and
prolonging reluctance to come out with a manifesto, is destined to
remain in the opposition at least for the time being. There is no doubt
that this party has the potential to become the third alternative in the
future.
The real question is, do these elections matter? The question should be
split into two parts: Do they matter to the voters and do they matter to
the contestants. The choice facing the Sri Lankan voter in both
elections, presidential as well as parliamentary, is limited to names
and labels rather than policies and programs. To concentrate on the
General Election for the moment, what are the economic policies and
programs that are going to improve the living conditions of the ordinary
citizen offered by the two main parties?
There was a time when UNP and SLFP presented a distinctly different set
of policies and approaches in respect of economic and developmental
issues that confronted the country. While both parties supported a mixed
economy, UNP, as it is now, was more market
oriented with open invitation to foreign capital than the SLFP. The
latter even formed a coalition with the left to make that difference
even more distinct. That was at a time when even internationally, this
difference was reflected starkly in the economic policies of not only
between the two superpowers during the Cold War but also between major
parties in other countries.
The situation has radically changed after the end of Cold War
and collapse of economic dirigisme. Economic liberalism is the solitary
economic paradigm that has gone global and Sri Lanka’s two main parties
had no choice but to embrace it totally.
Given this economic congruence between the two contending parties, how
differently are they going to solve at least the following problems
facing the country currently? A persistent and worsening trade deficit
causing currency depreciation, which alone is contributing to increase
the burden of an already unbearable national debt; rising cost of living
leading to increase in the incidence of poverty, household debt and
even suicides; falling standards of public health and education;
uncontrolled corruption and a growing market for narcotics; and callous
neglect of natural environment.
Which one of the two parties has so far come out with a workable policy
package to tackle these issues? None, to be precise. Why? Because, they
both know very well that these issues are mostly systemic in origin and
that the two parties are absolutely powerless to change the system. The
country has been dragged so deep into the open economy quagmire since
1977, that what any government can do is to introduce some palliatives
to ease the pain temporarily through the annual budgets, as Minister
Samarawickrema has done recently. In such a situation do elections
matter to an ordinary voter?
However, they matter a lot to the current and aspiring politicians. As
far as common people are concerned their economic fortunes or
misfortunes will continue with little change, whether it is the UNP or a
UNP-led coalition, or, SLFP or SLFP headed coalition that governs over
them. If there is to be some improvement in people’s living conditions
that will largely be in spite and not because of Government policies. On
the contrary, to the politicians in the field, victory at elections
open unlimited opportunities to accumulate wealth and fortunes. To
become a parliamentarian in Sri Lanka is the quickest way to amass
wealth under the cover of law. How else can one explain the wealth of
Sri Lankan parliamentarians, some of whom do not even possess the basic
educational credential to qualify for employment in the open market? To
the vast majority of them elections provide an opportunity to
invest on their future.
Thus, without any meaningful economic policies to fight for or solutions
to offer, and with unquenchable thirst for political power, how are
these politicians going to convince voters to choose them? There will
always be the ethnic and religious issues to whip up the emotions of
electors. Controversies over constitutional amendments, devolution of
power, status and place of Buddhism, and federalism and so on are never
resolved but kept in reserve to bring them back to political platforms
on the eve of elections.
This had been the running saga of Sri Lankan elections, and the
forthcoming one will surely be fought on these issues. In the prevailing
economic world order such issues do not impinge on the working of the
order itself and therefore are tolerated.
Unfortunately, whoever wins the context, the poor voter will be the
ultimate loser. How many times is he or she going to be fooled by this
phantom democracy? If my memory is correct, this is the third time I am
suggesting that Sri Lanka requires a technocratic cabinet with an iron
fist at the helm. Periodical elections to choose policy bankrupt
political parties and their leaders are not going to deliver that
outcome.
(The writer is attached to the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Western Australia.)