The power of a choice

Gloomy weather across the island over the last week served as an apt prelude to the political storms set to engulf Sri Lanka as its established and aspiring Parliamentarians take time out of their busy schedules to plead their good intentions and secure public approval in the run up to 17 August polls.

Electoral reforms, no confidence motions and the right to information recede into the background and once again, the nation wrestles with a collective sense of déjà vu as it waits to see what Mahinda Rajapaksa will do next. 

As is to be expected in such situations, the former President has been vocally dissatisfied with the trajectory of ‘yahapalanaya’ since he was ousted by popular mandate of the people of Sri Lanka. His most pressing concern – judging from the politically and ethnically charged statements delivered during visits to religious places of worship across the country – would have to be the resurgence of the LTTE; a foe he claimed in 2009 had been utterly vanquished in 2009 and many times over since.

Perhaps seeking his own political rebirth, Rajapaksa and his supporters have been working hard to secure an SLFP nomination that he may contest against the UNP, a prospect which he no doubt relishes. He has assured us that he has learned from his past mistakes. There is much afoot behind the scenes but will he be allowed to contest and if so, in what capacity? This is after all the same man who once said: “The UNP shivers when an election comes and my name is mentioned and so they look for someone and our idiot got caught.”

Turning to that other major force in the upcoming election, it still remains to be seen how much popular support the UNP has managed to consolidate since its arguably vicarious victory in January and through the tenuous tenure of its subsequent care-taker Government. The party has been battered by its own share of scandals with the allegations around the Central Bank Governor refusing to die out, thanks in no small part to vociferous opposition from the SLFP; something that the freezing of COPE investigation findings and the expiry of no confidence motions against Finance Minister Ravi Karunayake and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will do little to diminish.

Meanwhile, with the failure to pass 20A, minority parties may either be feeling either cheated of an opportunity to compete under a fair and representative electoral system, or  – given the hasty manner in which the bill was formulated – fortunate to have a place at all.

Seven weeks may seem like an eternity for a party that is consolidating popular support or a blink of an eye for one that seeks to regain lost trust, but which is which? The UNP proved unable to avoid scandal in just six short months, while the SLFP has been frantic in brushing its members’ own ill-gotten gains under the rug. If everyone is corrupt, is no one corrupt?

Sri Lanka is set to face much more severe challenges moving forward. The economy is teetering on a precipice of debt, investments have slowed, Geneva human rights sessions loom large and the country has yet to reconcile. 

Pondering such existential questions, the thoughtful voter will no doubt feel burdened by the choice that he or she is being asked to make but if the recent dynamics of Sri Lankan politics has taught us anything, it should be that we don’t simply have to live with the choices we make. If we’re willing to accept our faults then we can always do something to rectify them.