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A weathercock election

The majority of the people of Sri Lanka go to the polls on Tuesday to elect five provincial councils that very few people of the country know very much about and, for that matter, never really wanted. These councils are the direct result of the Indo - Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987 that was signed under pressure from the war in the north which it was supposed to end in return for substantial devolution to the provinces modelled on the Indian states.

The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) that came here to underwrite the agreement was not able to ensure the promised peace. The signing of the agreement set off a second insurrection in the southern and central parts of the country with the JVP jumping on the largely SLFP bandwagon to try and topple the J.R. Jayewardene government on the Indian interference issue. The result was that the country was taken to the very brink of anarchy and the effect of the shockwaves set off then have not yet fully subsided.

Sri Lanka did not get the promised peace in return for devolution. Ironically, the predominantly Tamil areas in the north and the east where both the demand and the logic for devolution was strongest, got nothing at all. The North East Provincial Council of Chief Minister Varatharajah Perumal that was elected under an IPKF umbrella to run the temporarily merged northern and eastern provinces had, if we may borrow the words of the poet, a life that was "nasty, brutish and short."

The rest of the country got provincial councils on the argument that "you can"t give to Jaffna what you don"t give to Hambantota." The result was the duplication of political and administrative structures throughout the country at vast cost to already burdened taxpayers and benefit to already obese politicians. The people got very little if anything and the northeast where devolution has been a crying need continues to be run by a centre-appointed governor.

The provincial councils certainly served the politicians. They got salaries, duty free Pajeros and many other perks. The SLFP which said that the councils were useless and boycotted the elections to the first of them changed gear later. It must not be forgotten that Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga"s political star began to rise after she was elected chief minister of the Western Province. Nobody can know who would have got that prize if Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali was not assassinated in the run-up to that election.

This week"s election is really an exercise to show the country which way the political winds are blowing before the parliamentary and presidential elections that are due next year. Most analysts are agreed that if the PA performs strongly this week, the president may well opt to call an early election for that office she promised to abolish in the first year of her present term. The executive presidency, obviously, is not hated that much by those who berated the office loud and long and pledged to abolish it pronto. In fact, most thinking people are happy that in the context of LTTE terror and the war situation that Sri Lanka has a strong centre even though the government"s technical parliamentary majority remains a solitary vote.

The voter has heard very little of the real issues during the campaign that will end tomorrow. Dushanaya and bheeshanaya (terror and corruption) remains the threadbare battle cry of a government which has emasculated its own commission on bribery and corruption set up with a two thirds parliamentary majority provided by the UNP. We hear nothing now about the Bolgoda Lake bodies although the Chemmanai graves, though yet not dug, remains in the news. The fact is that it is difficult for a State, however well-intentioned, to fight the LTTE or JVP type of terrorists with its hands tied behind its back. While not condoning state terrorism, we must also be realistic and remember that the Queensberry rules cannot only apply to one side.

Wayamba happened too recently for people to forget what most agree was the worst election the country has ever known. After the president"s first admission, the government has been straining every nerve and sinew to say that the election was not as bad as has been made out. People who were once the darlings of the present regime, as long as they turned the spotlight on UNP misdoing, have now become ogres in the pockets of foreign paymasters. The Daily News quoted the president yesterday alleging that the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence is "a cat"s paw of foreign espionage." The question that arises in that context is whether those who promise a clean election think its best to damn the umpires before the match.

The courts have proved to be the people"s best bulwark against an establishment that has interfered with the franchise. Tuesday"s elections are a result of the supreme court"s determination that there was no good reason to postpone these elections that should have been completed last August. The Additional Solicitor General has admitted in court last month that the events of the Wayamba were an "eye-opener." It is to be hoped that the elections officers and the police, particularly, do not assist or permit electoral fraud. Whoever wins or loses, let the people exercise their democratic choice freely and fairly.

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