Elections, broken promises and paid protests outside a High Commission

Tomorrow (6 May) Lankans of voting age, will once again wend their way to polling stations for the third time in seven months. This time around, voters will participate in the long delayed local government elections. Government has also promised Indian premier Modi to hold Provincial Council elections as per requirements of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 early next year.

We are seemingly faced with a Hobson’s choice. Our past ruling political parties have been riddled with corruption. The present administration has not had sufficient time to be too deeply involved in corrupt practice. It has however shown a willingness to go after corrupt individuals no matter their standing in society.

On the other hand, the present government has been reneging on its main pre-election promises on many occasions. For instance its promise to renegotiate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout has been a non-starter. It promised to abolish the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), but used the same to arrest an individual protesting against Israeli genocide in Palestine. 

Our new leaders also promised to bring down the cost of living. However, it has not only failed in this effort, but our socialist-leaning president is warning trade unions not to demand increases in workers’ salaries! 

To make matters worse, the local government elections are being held under skies darkened by a looming conflict between our closest neighbours India and Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan for the deadly terrorist attack on 22 April which led to the death of over 20 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. However no proof of the charge has been revealed. 

Both countries are nuclear armed. Additionally, India’s nuclear facilities are based in the south of that country and literally in our backyard so-to-say.

Both countries have been extremely helpful to us at different times in our somewhat eventful recent history. During our long-drawn ethnic conflict, Pakistan helped government forces at a time when many countries stopped providing military supplies needed to confront terrorism in the form of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

At that time India put boots on the ground in our country ‘to help end’ the terrorist war. Unfortunately the Indian move created grounds for another armed conflict in the form of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising against the presence of Indian troops on our soil.

On the other hand during our financial meltdown in 2022, it was India which provided the Line of Credit which saved Sri Lanka from economic ruin. 

In these circumstances it was strange to see our government permitting demonstrations to take place in front of the Pakistani High Commission on more than one occasion. Making matters worse, our sister paper ‘Sunday Times’ revealed its journalists saw participants being paid for participating in the demonstration.

On earlier occasions when tensions between our nuclear-armed neighbours broke out, our then leaders refrained from taking sides. This allowed those leaders to play a significant role in easing the tensions between the belligerents. It made Lanka an honest broker who could be trusted by both nations.

Should not our government look more closely into who was involved in organising a demonstration in front of a friendly nation and for what purpose? Former Premier Ms. Sirima Bandaranaike, though a late-comer to active parliamentary politics performed this task in an exemplary manner even during the crisis which led to the break-up of Pakistan.

Today our foreign relations seem to be in a tangle. We have signed a Defence Agreement with India. Yet India is a member of the US led QUAD -a military group antagonistic to China. Yet China helped us when our country faced possible starvation in 1952 via a Rubber-Rice barter deal.

Our present government needs to ensure we maintain our non-aligned status. We need to build on the friendly relations cultivated by past governments. It is not enough to claim friendship/camaraderie with all nations big and small. We have to prove this through our actions in the international political arena. 

If not we may end up an appendage of one or the other big powers, running hither and thither at their every beck and call.