SLFP unbroken for 20 years, will it give way?
View(s):“Macho, the Government didn’t do well at the Uva polls no!” says Panchi Singho, sipping a cup of plain tea at the ‘Thay Kade’ in Timbuktoo village. “Adey, don’t say that ‘Masina’, Rajapaksa’s party won no, even though with a slender margin,” counters Sakvithi, the carpenter, adding “however they need to provide some goodies to the people to win back support.”
Those goodies as widely expected would come in the form of the November 7 budget. The budget will be a ‘beautiful’ basket of goodies aimed at appeasing the people as the Government heads for two crucial elections – Presidential and Parliamentary. Which one would be held first is still unclear with the pendulum swinging this way and that way on the first one being the presidential polls.
The Pope’s visit next January has also disrupted the elections calendar for the President as an election campaign cannot be held during his visit.
The Uva poll is a wake-up call for the Government that its invincibility is at stake. A stronger showing by the joint opposition could very well oust a regime that has held firm for a straight five years since the war. In fact the United People’s Freedom Alliance, led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and earlier the People’s Alliance have held sway for a virtual 20 years (since 1994) compared to the earlier record 17-year rule of the United National Party (UNP). Even though the UPFA honeymoon was interrupted by a UNP government 2001-2004, then President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved parliament and in the polls, the SLFP party triumphed. Thus for all purposes, it has been the SLFP that has been in power for 20 years.
The Uva poll has given the government more than its own share of headaches. The economy, despite all the tom-tom beating by the Treasury and the Central Bank of an economy that has peaked with foreign investment flowing in and unlimited foreign reserves with figures to show, the situation on the ground is not that hunky dory. Sathosa trucks (as our picture shows in this section) selling goods on the street at reasonable prices itself reflects the fact that prices are high and inflation is up.
Further, reducing interest rates to stimulate investment in the economy has not worked and is a matter of concern for the Central Bank.
This is why the Treasury would, inspite of its own pressures to cut spending and raise revenue which has fallen below target in this financial year, be under pressure to offer goodies and sops in the budget. The main UNP, even though it’s facing its own share of problems – Sajith vs Ranil – came up with a much better performance not only because its chief ministerial candidate Harin Fernando put on a good show but that there is a sense of resignation amongst the people that the regime has been in for too long just like the UNP’s unbroken run of 17 years, when people simply got fed up.
The only difference then and now was that the anti-UNP opposition was united then while it is not now and today it’s the people’s power at the polls that would have to call the shots.
The people’s antipathy towards the Government was also reflected in a pre-budget poll conducted last month in the districts of Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, Galle, Kandy, Batticaloa, Ampara and Kurunegala – among a total of 2,400 respondents. Most respondents said budgets don’t benefit the people while inflation and cost of living is still high contrary to Government pronouncements. Asked whether budgets are designed to serve the people and their aspirations, more than 60 per cent of the respondents in both surveys, polled separately last week, said ‘No’.
The level of confidence in the government is also waning going by comments made in that poll. More and more people are resigned to the fate that national budgets and the entire budget preparation purpose don’t serve any purpose; and there is no use of complaining, the Business Times-Research Consultancy Bureau (BT-RCB) island-wide poll and survey revealed.
Seeking the views of residents in eight districts – Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, Galle, Kandy, Batticaloa, Ampara and Kurunegala – through streets interviews and via email, the newspaper-research survey showed that no one believes budgets anymore and that ‘the real thing’ is outside the traditional presentation of the national budget, though politicians and media make a ‘big song and dance about it”.
A significant feature in the poll was the emergence of corruption as an issue in the village. Earlier it was a middle-class, Colombo-centric problem but the results of the Uva provincial council may have also reflected this trend, which is a warning to the government that unbridled corruption by a bunch of government cronies may eventually lead to its downfall. If not nipped in the bud now, the results could become disastrous. Corruption is an issue now; no more is it an urban headache.
Transparency is another core issue. Lands and properties are given on unsolicited proposals, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) last week in fact ‘admitted’.
In a response to a Business Times story on unsolicited deals, UDA chairman Nimal Perera responded: “…we wish to clarify that some of the lands earmarked for developments are connected with some legal and physical constraints and in such a situation the UDA is compelled to entertain unsolicited proposals because of the fact that the investors are required to be mindful about the ground realities and the time taken for resolving the issues. Besides, the clearing of issues connected to those lands contains some degree of uncertainty. The calling of public tenders for leasing of such unclear lands is practically impossible and in such situations UDA has no option other than entertaining unsolicited proposals to promote the developments.”
So the cat is out of the bag. Public land is owned by the people and a Government acts as trustee on behalf of its people. The people have a right to know. If not for the Business Times story, the UDA’s explanation wouldn’t have been made public, as far as we are aware.
This is why transparency and governance is lacking and that to some extent was reflected in the strong showing, short of winning, by the opposition at the Uva poll. In today’s context and the trends emerging Sri Lanka’s rural populace is unlikely to bite into the handouts and a beautiful basket of goodies via the budget. Only an effective and independent police force and judiciary enforcing a rule of law that is applied equally to all starting from the President downwards can turn the winds of change.