Cost of winning
Poll ethics
Cost of winning
The recent Cabinet decisions on the abolition of diesel
tax; re- duction of national defense levy, allowances to public servants
and pensioners plus absorbing nearly 40,000 casual workers into the permanent
cadre of the state sector shows what is almost a "reckless disregard''
for public finance. In one sense, these decisions are tantamount to insulting
the intelligence of the electorate.
The Sunday Times today publishes what the Government did less than an
year ago (dropped prices before elections and raised them soon after the
polls were done.) Though lowering the cost of living was a dire need, the
motives are utterly suspect, and therefore the whole exercise assumes the
proportions of a farce. Perhaps, it seems the government in-charge is taking
some sinister delight in making things difficult, in fiscal terms, for
whatever government that is next in power. The government should be urged
to desist from "winning the elections at all costs,'' because the polls
are only a necessary evil, and the state has to come back to reality soon
when the circus of the franchise is over.
Poll ethics
The Commissioner of Elections has various new powers
that he could use at the December 5th elections, which hopefully should
remove any necessity for having foreign election observers in any part
of this country.
The elections this country had upto the year 1977 were a model to all
self-respecting democracies, but our experience with elections held after
that, with the attendance of foreign observers, is that most of these gentlemen
prefer to "see no evil hear no evil and speak no evil.'
Some of these observer missions legitimized what have been some of the
most horrendous election-rigging that may have been witnessed anywhere,
in any part of the world, with vague pronouncements such as "there was
a reasonable reflection of the will of the people.'' They chose to ignore
the fact that in a close call, the result from one or two districts could
turn defeat into victory.
Some of the most notorious election manipulators, it was galling to
see, grinned on national television last week and admitted to their role
in depriving the voters of their right to elect the government of their
choice. The leaders of the UNP, seemed to be happy with the fact that these
cheats were now on their side.
The franchise is the bedrock of parliamentary democracy. The Elections
Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police and their officers have
got away too easily all too often in the recent past effectively conniving
in robbing the people of their franchise. The concept of accountability
must be dinned into these two gentlemen for all the agonising that has
been witnessed, and heard of in public debates in recent times.
It's a great pity that people know elections are being manipulated.
When elections are reduced to a Mafia-type showdown, instead of a test
of ideas, a country forfeits its right to call itself a functioning democracy.
Perhaps the polity is turning a corner, because too many people have realized
the damage that is inflicted in the long-term, to stability and democracy
through these unsavoury election games. |
