VIEWPOINTS

WINDS OF TRUE CHANGE LIE OVER THE ISLE

Wijith DeChickera urges the people and their elected representatives to interpret the election result as a plebiscite for peace with justice

Shall it be left to the good offices of the president and parliament alone to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the electoral results of 2024…?

Much editorial and analytical ink was spilled over the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2024. And between flagging paradigmatic changes in politics and forcing the analogy of plate tectonics to describe the seismic shift governance underwent, insufficient attention was paid to a far more pressing matter of national importance.

One means that beckoning potential of the way our island as a whole voted for change, heralding good news for the neglected project of national reconciliation. But those glad tidings were drowned out by a cacophony of voices in city, chamber, cocktail circuit and coffee mornings wailing plaintively about socioeconomic woes.

As LMD noted, “the results of two electorates speak volumes of the hope, faith and confidence [for a sea change in the] Vanni electoral district where the National People Power’s (NPP) winning of two seats edged out the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) with a seat apiece; and the remarkable three it secured in Jaffna over ITAK’s one – the first time a non-Tamil party swept the poll there.”

Could it be that “on such pillars are built hopes of a new Sri Lankan identity majoring on shared power and cooperative national developmental efforts, where racial disharmony and strife prevailed before?” [LMD: State of the Nation – December 2024]

The reality is that after years – in truth, decades since independence from colonisers whose watchword was ‘divide and conquer’ – the people of the north and south voted overwhelmingly for the same politicians to represent their interests in parliament for the next five years.

Shame be on them who think evil of it that ‘north’ and ‘south’ were united in their expressed values as at arguably no time since 1948!

In relegating to the dustbin of history political parties that at some time played ‘the race cards’ beloved of scoundrels – nationalism, patriotism and majoritarianism – voters in the south rejected the divisive politics of war victors, benevolent tyrants dividing the nation into those who loved the country or not, political messiahs majoring on national security over unity and false prophets who promised a ‘Singapore’ but delivered a ‘Korea’ of the ’50s.

The corresponding eviction of rank chauvinism and narrow ethno-nationalistic aspirations by northern and eastern electorates signalled that the traditionally contested regions usually split along racial and religious lines were ready to ditch their erstwhile deliverers in favour of tyros at governance – if it could offer even the faint fresh prospect of a true new beginning.

Shall it be left to the good offices of the president and parliament alone to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the electoral results of 2024 taken in tandem?

Or is it not incumbent on the people and their multifaceted agencies and instrumentalities to interpret these voting patterns as a plebiscite on national reconciliation – with its attendant panoply of issues: from peace with truth and justice; through land and police powers; to the restoration of a more equitable quality life, developmental rights and civil liberties?

It would also help matters of national paramountcy no end if the NPP would walk as assiduously as it so persuasively talked along the campaign trail – tyros to social media though most of their stalwarts still are, somewhat hamstringing the seriousness they would otherwise already have brought into the dining and living rooms of the bourgeoisie and unconvinced elites.

For one, demonstrating in their parliamentary praxis – after all, they have that rara avis: a super majority – the genuineness of erstwhile rebels and insurrectionists in enacting that most revolutionary of acts… long postponed by conservatives, progressives and radicals alike: namely the abolition of the much maligned and ambiguously located executive presidency; emblematic of so many abuses of power under successive regimes.

And for another, the dismantling of that extensively misused apparatus of misery, suffering and international ill reputation: the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and all its agents and instruments, which made Sri Lanka the bane of global institutions, nations and economies to our detriment once too often. Much in the way of our country ratings, creditworthiness, investor confidence and potential investment hangs in the balance.

Last but by no means least, the Herculean task of cleansing the Augean stables of waste, bureaucracy (aha, no more clock watchers in city hall and penpushers in public offices?) and mismanagement (hurrah, an end to endless strikes and sundry trade union action – QED!), as well as the cancers of systemic and endemic corruption, which impoverished a nation state, Mother Lanka and lost generations of her children.

Dare we dream big? Or is the more pertinent question dare we not dream at all?

A sporting champion once observed that one misses one hundred percent of the shots you never take. Pity, criminal shame and eternal regrets if nation, state, country, people and their elected representatives miss or forgo this cardinal opportunity to get our beloved Sri Lanka on the right track – perhaps for the first time in our long and chequered history.