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Act with an even hand

Despite all the cosmetic gestures that have been made up to now, the signs are that the forthcoming provincial council elections scheduled for April 6 are not going to be anywhere near peaceful. The recent incident at Gampola that led to the death of a person described as a PA supporter and injuries to many others has been an early signal of potential violence. It is the duty of all political parties, and most so of the government, to ensure that there is no further escalation of the violence we have already seen.

The pity is that these elections do nothing for the country except add to the taxpayer's burdens. The provincial councils are the result of the Indo - Sri Lanka agreement between President J.R. Jayewardene and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that was intended to end the northern insurrection and the civil war that resulted. India was keen that the regional autonomy that the Tamils had long demanded be granted by this device and Colombo, on the logic that you cannot give Jaffna what you do not give Hambantota, devised the councils that nobody in the south ever demanded.

Paradoxically, there has been no autonomy in the northeast where the need for such devolution has long been a strident demand and, in the view of many, a crying necessity. Save for the brief period during which Chief Minister Varatharajah Perumal ran the temporarily merged northern and eastern provinces under the security blanket provided by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), the area has been under governor's rule. Elsewhere we have had provincial councils and governments which have substantially boosted public expenditure by duplicating political and administrative structures with no commensurate benefits for the people.

The public hardly know who the members of the provincial councils are and what service these councils have rendered anybody except their own members. Meanwhile we have embarked on an exercise to elect new councils and the political war that has ensued is not only costly in terms of public money but also threatens to spill public blood as we have seen. Time was when the SLFP said that provincial councils were utterly useless and boycotted them. But the party was to later change its mind and it is well known that it was the PAs victory in the southern provincial council election that paved the way for Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga to become chief minister of the Western Province and win national power.

With national elections due next year, what spurs the politicians today is the desire of both the PA and the UNP to show the people the winner. Vaasi paththata hoiya or hurrah for the winning side is very much a part of our national psyche. Hence the no-holds-barred effort to demonstrate a winning streak come what may. Lankans are cynical enough to expect and experienced enough to know that incumbents routinely use the machinery of the state to enhance their own political fortunes. Even the IGP has gone on record admitting that the sorry events of the Wayamba campaign that is now behind us had shattered what little police reputation that remained.

But is there an effort to correct this situation? If anybody from a UNP motorcade bearing Central Province PC candidates threw a bomb or a grenade at PA supporters on the roadside, the greens must take the responsibility for what has followed. But is it not the business of police to prevent obstruction of public highways by people who think they can burn tyres on the roads with impunity. What will happen to Mr. Punchi Singho if he seeks to light a mock tyre pyre on the Galle Road? Would the police idly stand by and watch? We ourselves published a graphic front-page picture of blazing tyres in the middle of the road just before the Wayamba poll with unconcerned policemen and soldiers standing around.

The president herself, no doubt influenced by public anger at the events of the Wayamba and the negative publicity abroad, appointed the all party polls monitoring body which she chairs. The first promise that all banners and other publicity displays would be removed within 72 hours proved as good as bread at Rs. 3.50 a loaf. The last scheduled meeting of the committee was abandoned with no notice to members. Two former DIGs, recalled from retirement after the PA assumed power, have been named directors of the monitoring committee's secretariat. Were other members of the committee consulted before these appointments were made? Or is this similar to the appointment of the new secretary-general of Parliament?

It is essential at this time that whatever the government does to ensure that the PC elections are free and fair is undertaken with an even hand. Government must act impartially and appear to be acting impartially. So also the police. The fracas we saw last week over the direction which the UNP platform at Nittambuwa was facing is a case in point. If platforms are not allowed to face the main road, the rule must be uniformly applied to all with no exceptions. There's less than a month to go for the people to see how even handed the authorities are.

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