The election merry-go-round begins - Editorial

It is time now for elections again. In other words it is time now for lying in public forums, for deception of masses with false promises, for distribution of liquor to the supporters of political parties, for putting up posters even on walls of temples and for insulting, assaulting and even killing opponents.

The authorities of the Elections Department would now tell us that they would not allow anybody to breach election laws, irrespective of his or her party or status. They would especially tell us that they would not allow the parliamentarians and ministers from the ruling party to misuse state property and state media in their election campaigns.

However, election laws would be violated in broad-daylight under the very nose of the authorities. Posters would spring up in every nook and corner of which most places would be illegal for the purpose, but, the police would turn a blind eye towards them. Sometimes the elections authorities would suddenly wake up from their apparent deep slumber and deploy police personnel to rip off the posters, but not from all the areas where the election campaigns are being conducted. Still, the giant cut-outs of powerful politicians would stand intact in spite of the orders of the elections authorities.

Political parties would conclude their nominations for the Western and Southern Provincial Council elections on February 6, and voters would find beauty queens, actors, actresses, thugs, drug peddlers and people who shot to fame just due to their relationship with existing politicians as they are likely to be elected to the two provincial councils. It is a pity that people too would be more attracted towards these “celebrities” and those who can spend lavishly on their election campaigns than the very few decent or educated candidates.

Then there would be a period of one month or so during which these candidates would hold meetings to educate or inform the voters of their suitability to represent the latter and their plans to serve them. However, people would find only invectives against the opponents, rhetoric and heaps of praises of the respective party leaders in the speeches on election platforms. What would lack in those speeches would be what is needed most, a reliable and comprehensive future plan for the upliftment of the respective area as well as the people.

But people would applaud and cheer their performances on stage and reward them on the day of the polling. The rights of the people end there and the close proximity of their representative would be out of bounds for them thereafter for another four to six years as the case may be. Then what we would hear or read in the media are the stories of killings, sexual assaults, drug related stories and similar crimes committed by many of these “people’s representatives.”

Who is to blame? Several government ministers during the Central and Northern Provincial Council elections last year put the blame on the voters for the criminal and fraudulent activities of politicians.  Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Rajitha Senaratne said during a meeting in Kandy that the brainless politician who had forced a teacher to kneel before him had been elected by the people and not by his parents, therefore, the people have to be held responsible for electing corrupt politicians. Also UPFA General Secretary and Minister Susil Premajayantha while addressing a press conference said that it was the responsibility of the people to “catch” those who misused state property for their election campaigns and his party could only advise its candidates not to misuse public property. “What else can we do?” he asked incredulously.

These ministers were not totally wrong. Though the major share of the responsibility for the criminality and fraudulence in politics lies with the leaders of political parties since it is they who choose criminals and fraudsters to “represent” the people in parliament, provincial councils and local government bodies, needless to say that it is the people who bring them to power. Both parties are culprits while the people are the inevitable victims of the process; hence the onus is on the people to get themselves freed from this vicious circle.