Political polarisation: Diversity of candidates

By Jayasri Priyalal

When the Ukrainian Presidential Election was held on 31 March, there were 39 candidates registered for the poll, and Volodymyr Zelensky got elected by popular vote. In Sri Lanka, there are 35 candidates – just short of four – have placed their deposit to contest the next Presidential Election on 16 November.  Ukrainians had to vote for many rounds to eliminate the unsuccessful candidates and elect their President.

The Commissioner of Elections will have a tough job to announce the winner of the forthcoming Sri Lankan Presidential Election. There was an interesting suggestion in a social media comment, a request for electorates to cast one non-preferential choice along with the three preferred choices in the ballot paper, expediting the elimination process. It is a praiseworthy option for the Commissioner of Elections to consider in order to ease his burden in future elections. 

The people of Ukraine elected Volodymyr Zelensky as their president, an actor playing the role of then-incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in a popular TV comedy series telecast in Ukraine. Therefore, Volodymyr Zelensky has been introduced as a famous comedian, sans any political experience, who came forward to challenge the incumbent president and defeated him at the election. For many Sri Lankans, it will be hard to select one comedian from the rest. It appears that President Volodymyr Zelensky has now given a new life to many other politicians who are working hard to become jokers and comedians. 

This writer has been critical about the democratic deficiencies now widening in the many of the representative democratic systems in the world in previous articles. The trust deficiencies towards the political leaders and political parties has resulted in this development. The popular will of the majority of the electorate is not sufficiently reflected in its elected governments.  So this is not unique to Sri Lanka; although we have an elected Executive President, Prime Minister, Cabinet of Ministers and a Parliament, sadly, there isn’t an effective government.  The operative word used in the phrase is ‘active’ and not ‘stable’. 

Traditionally, in many representative democracies, political parties are formed by lobbying for opinions and policies and rallying the citizens for propagating social progress through elected governments.  Unfortunately, the absence of plans for the common good is the signature identity of many political parties that have mushroomed in Sri Lanka’s recent past. Many of them propagate narrow self-interests and personal egos of closely-knit gangs. 

This has proven the gravity of the political polarisation in the country, resulting in a massive slate of candidates for election of a non-executive President. The electorate will undoubtedly get further confused between hope and faith in the political system in Sri Lanka following the election.  The elected president will not be able to execute the sovereign right of the people.

During the last Presidential Election held in 2015, the investigative Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder was the crime that was extensively used by the Yahapalanya campaign to catalyse anger to win public sympathy. Ukraine will re-surface many times in various election platforms in Sri Lanka and elsewhere; however, sadly Lasantha Wickrematunge’s name may not reverberate as in the past.

Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager of President Donald Trump, is now serving a jail term having admitted felony of being an agent for the Ukrainian government. Since 2004 he has been lobbying for then-Ukrainian President Victor Yankovic, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the period in which the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Ukraine Udayanga Weeratunga started his tenure. The controversial MIG deal, siphoning $14 million out of the agreement surfaced during the same period. The late Lasantha Wickrematunge exposed this corrupt deal in the media, for which it is alleged that he was murdered in cold-blood. 

The US special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation found Paul Manafort’s acts of felony as an agent for Ukraine and justice was delivered. He is now serving a jail term. The Sri Lankan comedy of errors is such that the fugitive ambassador apparently is in custody with authorities in Dubai, but is yet to be tried in a court of law. Furthermore, the killers of Lasantha Wickrematunge are running scot-free. Justice delayed is justice denied.  

Democracy is the best mechanism humans have come up with for navigating the trade-offs and weaknesses inherent in different socio-economic systems. Unity in diversity can be established in a democratically functioning society as all citizens aspire for prosperity. As democratic societies create opportunities for individuals’ well-being to be achieved through their own efforts. The recognition of everyone's cultural identity, religious beliefs and value systems becomes a fundamental right. So exercise your franchise cautiously and consciously.

Mistaken identities of many of the listed candidates will surface and become a subject for criticism, debate, discussions and evaluations during the election campaigns in 2019.  “Suba Saha Yasa” was a local stage play whose storyline dealt with concealing the identity of a king and his guard, exchanging their authority; thereby testing the role and the rules. In the current context, it appears that in Sri Lankan society there aren’t trustworthy institutions or leaders with impeccable character to execute the sovereign will of the people. As such, I guess a remake of the old “Suba Saha Yasa” will be staged soon, following the eighth Presidential Election as the new Yahapalana version.