Editorial

With the official gazetting of the postponement of elections to local councils, the national pastime of holding elections, postponing elections and arguing about them is on the cards while at the same time questions arise as to what earthly use they eventually serve given who ends up elected.

The fact that the wheels are coming off the ruling coalition that roared to power and place in late 2019 is plain to see. Dissent is gathering momentum. Last week, the President seemingly tired of the bickering within his camp, and the not so friendly fire from his own team, returned fire by sacking a state minister and even closing his ministry — clearly a message to other dissidents.

The public at large is, no doubt, awaiting the opportunity to ‘teach those in power a lesson’ while hunting for the next gas cylinder or milk packet in endless queues. That opportunity is also being robbed from them now. Elections are an escape valve for a disgruntled electorate and in its absence, pent-up emotions and frustrations can erupt in some other wayward direction. Political instability in the midst of an acute economic crisis is something the country can do without.

A remark from a youth suggesting the President go for a referendum to ask the people if he should add two years to his term due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 warranted mention by the President in a public speech. This reference has not gone unnoticed, for these are the seeds that germinate into controversial issues about elections.

On the other hand, what have these hundreds of local councils provided the people?  The existing electoral system has resulted in these councils no longer being grassroots governance because the voter no longer knows his ward member and vice-versa. The quality of the elected councillors leaves much to be desired in most cases.

Former Local Government Ministers experimented with dissolving inefficient or corrupt councils, or politically opposed bodies and appointed Special Commissioners to run them. Some worked well, others made a bad situation worse. Sri Lanka has no shortage of elected representatives. The surfeit of such persons would make other democracies blush. For a country of 22 million there are 5,138 elected representatives paid for by the public purse.

When Parliament says it cannot reveal details about the educational qualifications of MPs, one should shudder to think of those at the lower level of representative government. Their claim to fame and licence to plunder after every election is that they have the people’s mandate.

An extended term for these councillors will only give them another year to repeat that nauseating refrain.

Soliciliting foreign intervention

The Indian FS had told a TNA delegation that called on him not to expect India to fight their battles with the Sri Lanka Government. The message has fallen on deaf ears. The TNA has decided to write to the Indian Prime Minister asking him to intervene on their behalf to have Provincial Council elections held, among other outstanding demands.

They have tried to rope in the Upcountry Tamil and Muslim parties to their cause but there is reluctance among these parties. A Muslim party leader once wrote to the Saudi king and Pakistani Prime Minister and obtained funds direct to his account during a former Rajapaksa Administration. This intrigue was ignored due to political expediency at the expense of national interest. That leader is now questioned for complicity in terrorist activity.

The TNA writing to the Indian Premier is the work of the typical fifth columnist — who undermines a nation’s unity, and sovereignty. It has long been the proxy of the Indian Administration. When the 1983 race riots broke out in Sri Lanka, they all ran for safety to state guest houses in Delhi and Chennai. That was until such time as the Indian Government ditched them and found the LTTE to be the preferred choice as the ‘sole representatives of the Tamils in Sri Lanka’.

It was only after the Sri Lankan security forces crushed the LTTE that the TNA is back in the political saddle of the North and hoping the Indian Government would pull its chestnuts out of the fire. Whether the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo should even accept such a letter and be the postman for the TNA is a point to ponder.

There can be frustration when political demands are not met by a sitting Government. That does not, however, give the TNA justification to seek a foreign Government’s intervention in what are domestic issues. Soliciting such foreign intervention should be made constitutionally unacceptable. India after all did not hesitate to flex its military muscle to extend its hegemony over Sri Lanka and set up Provincial Councils so that its puppets can run them in the North while they pulled the strings. The TNA is trying to give some legitimacy for further Indian interference.

What the TNA is forgetting though is that much water has flowed since India’s adventurism of the 1970-2000 era. The Indian Government no longer needs to be burdened by the pressures of coalition politics and to placate the regional political parties at the expense of disrupting good relations with countries in its immediate neighbourhood that are now being aggressively wooed by China.

In doing what it did in Sri Lanka in the not too distant past, India lost the natural goodwill that existed among a majority of Sri Lankans for whom India was their holy land — the land of Gautama the Buddha.

Today, there is a new dimension playing out with the China equation and winning the support of the Sri Lanka Government which is tilting towards China, is the better option for India. It must recognise and capitalise on the growing unease among the local population in the south of Sri Lanka of the Government getting sucked deeper into China’s orbit.

In the circumstances, for India to hitch its wagon to the fluctuating fortunes of the TNA will be to its own disadvantage, especially when it can extract its pound of flesh from the dead-broke central Government in Colombo. As for the TNA it is time to cut the umbilical cord with India, that dumped it once before, and win its political demands on its own steam.