Editorial

The main opposition party complained to the Elections Commission (EC), asking them to ensure a ‘level playing field’ in respect of implementing the laws at the forthcoming presidential election. The grouse was that the EC was serving the President, who is a candidate at the election, and them with different spoons, as the former’s office was allowed to go ahead with its programmes while the latter was being told not to.

It is not that the EC has not asked the President’s Office to stop its programmes, but the Presidential Secretariat has dismissed that missive, arguing that the Government does not come to a halt—a ‘nonagathey’ (a period of inactivity according to auspicious times during the traditional New Year)—when an election is due. They have pointed out that some of what they do are social welfare programmes for the poor and linked to the IMF economic recovery plan.

While government activity need not grind to a complete halt, what is usually witnessed is an accelerated work schedule at this time. When the President is himself a candidate, it can be perceived as an unfair advantage bestowed on him, but that’s the way it goes with an executive presidency. Also, by the same token as the opposition party complaint, when one opposition candidate has the financial wherewithal to launch a community welfare programme, it in itself becomes not the level playing field towards the other candidates (other than the President).

The EC is no doubt in a dilemma and opts to place a blanket on all such activities as the way out. There are many other election laws and guidelines related to ‘level playing fields’, some of them simply absurd.

One of them is where it is required that all candidates are given equal publicity in the state media and private media, which are required not to say bad things about any candidate. So if there’s a well-known rascal among the candidates, the media must keep silent. Only favourable publicity is permitted. This is a joke.

At the last presidential election (2019), 35 candidates came forward paying the paltry deposit of Rs. 50,000, and 32 of them together only polled 1.75 percent of the votes cast—21 of them receiving less than 10,000 votes each and one of them a mere 976 votes. There were 12,000 plus polling booths countrywide, and this means these 32 candidates must not have had a single agent at these booths. This was not because they didn’t receive any media coverage, but clearly only wanted a joyride on this bandwagon.

And what do they receive in return for the Rs. 50,000? They get 90 minutes of free time on national radio and another 90 on national television on taxpayers’ account. Of course, those with undeclared money can buy even more air time. Helicopter services are available at rates determined by the time and location of travel. There are free postal services, and what’s more, a police guard is assigned to each candidate to boot.

As these issues of individuals exploiting the lax election laws are hardly looked at between elections and only focused upon as they approach, it is an opportune moment to reform these procedures, enabling any citizen the freedom to contest while ensuring the state apparatus is not exploited and taxpayers’ money is not wasted on some publicity-seekers and spoilers.

Be prepared: West Asia can explode

The Government’s swift reaction to proactively address the potential adverse impact on Sri Lanka of this week’s brazen twin assassinations of pro-Iranian militant/freedom fighters/terrorists in Beirut and Tehran by Israeli forces is a welcome move.

The fallout of these killings in West Asia is expected to have a direct bearing on this country, as foreign affairs experts remain divided if the ongoing conflict in that violent, volatile region escalates into a full-blown regional war. The disruption of supplies, including oil imports, price escalations, and the displacement of Sri Lankan workers in the region can cause irreparable damage to the country’s fragile economy, just about finding its feet from the disaster of 2022.

Clearly invigorated by the rapturous welcome he received from the US Congress, the Israeli Prime Minister knew he could get away with ‘blue murder’ with its backing. The extraterritorial and extrajudicial targeted assassinations of a Hezbollah military commander in Lebanon and a political apparatchik of Hamas in Teheran within 48 hours have Israel setting new Standards and Rules of War. Already they are using food, medicine and displacement of people as ‘weapons of war’, and justifying assassinations of opponents in sovereign states abroad as self-defence.

The murder of the Hezbollah commander is as if to tease the group based in Lebanon to join the battle Israel is waging against Hamas. The murder of the Hamas political leader is to lodge a bullet in the very negotiations he was part of to bring about an end to the Israeli hostage crisis and nine-month military offensive in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. It seems a message from Israel that it is prepared now for a ‘fight to the end’ with these two groups.

Israel’s Parliament is preparing to declare UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) a terrorist organisation and eject it from doing humanitarian work in Occupied Palestine, where the death toll since October last year is now closing in on 40,000. Some 200 UNRWA officers have been killed in the Israeli incursion into the Gaza region. Two million Palestinians are in a relentless struggle day in and day out, and deeply traumatised children are bearing the brunt of the bombings so soon after COVID-19. UN Security Council resolution after resolution is being ignored, and international humanitarian law is blatantly ignored by Israel with the United States backing.

For Sri Lanka, fortunately, recent privatisation decisions to remove the monopoly on the Petroleum Corporation’s fuel distribution have ensured the people get their requirements from multiple sources. Food supplies seem to be under control, as most of it comes from the East.

It is good that the Government has taken into account these contingencies and initiated advanced planning without waiting to hit the panic button if events in West Asia turn bad. There will also be no need for shortages, artificial or otherwise, and emergency imports that have made ministers and officials rich over the years. Anything can happen as the world braces for an explosion in West Asia.