Friday, 7 February 2014 04:43
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The date for the Southern and Western Provincial Councils have been announced, allowing a starting gun of sorts to declare the poll fight as officially on. It has also provided several insights on the progression or regressive elements of Sri Lanka’s democracy.
The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) grabbed the headlines early in the publicity race by naming a string a female celebrities as being in the line for nomination consideration. Front page attention was paid to these ladies but the discourse was disappointing if not downright sexist. The broad view was that female celebrities did not have the capacity to be effective politicians, a view that was vehemently expressed despite several female celebrities being members of parliament since 2009.
Anarkali Akarsha led the way in celebrity addition to Parliament in 2009 and was followed the subsequent year by Rosy Senanayake, Upeksha Swarnamali and Malini Fonseka. All of these individuals were made famous by their onscreen presence or association with it, yet the new aspirants gained far stronger criticism than their predecessors ever did.
The common belief that these women were “bimbos” and therefore were unfit for public office was expressed, without the same yardstick being applied to male candidates. Commonly many male politicians in Sri Lanka are openly suspected of being corrupt or having links to illegal crime including the drug trade, yet they were not subjected to the same dismissal as the latest round of female celebrities were. Still others, male and female, who were out to get a political leg up through their influential fathers were also staunchly removed from this censure. The double standards were marked.
The Government, after initially inviting such nominations, then pandered to public opinion by refusing to approve nominations, earned themselves a double round of disgrace. Hirunika Premachandra who sailed through most of these rough waters on the strength of political patronage by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and sympathy over her father’s demise is now portrayed by UPFA as the result of “modern thinking,” if the words of SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena are to be believed. Yet no one in the higher ranks of the Government has stepped forward to explain the thought process behind the celebrity carousel and its contribution to Sri Lanka democracy.
The main Opposition remains mired in internal mayhem, which has been evidenced by two telling incidents that have surfaced in the media. One was the altercation between UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Kalutara District MP Thewarapperuma, who has accused the former of mismanaging nominations, an accusation in part motivated by his son not being allowed to contest, if reports are to be believed. The other incident was the resignation of MP Ravi Karunanayake from the Nomination Board in protest of the 17 organisers of the Southern and Western Provinces not being given a hearing.
The upshot of these events is that the UNP remains a despondent force in the upcoming polls and, despite having much ammunition against the Government, is unlikely to find an effective mode of making a deep mark.
Nonetheless, there is no loss of options for the voter with 49 independent groups attempting to enter the fray. If even half of them are approved, the vote paper will break its previous record for length. While this can be seen as a triumph for inclusivity, public coffers will suffer and voters will continue to have to make do with quantity over quality.
