Despite who will win it, the upcoming election in its own right is paramount because it marks a key turning point in Sri Lanka’s 57-year post-independence political history.  Unlike at any other moment in its history, the progressive civic forces have come to the front, demanding a better country. It seems the majority of Sri Lanka public has decided to transform themselves to citizens from subjects, who actively partake in the democratic process.

That is why this election is important.  The indifference most of the Sri Lankans have towards elections is positively declining. That is why we see a number of citizens’ group, artistes, and sportsmen openly campaigning for either candidate. We see this as an extremely positive development. We shouldn’t think that all these people campaigning for either incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa or common opposition candidate Maithiripala Sirisena are expecting political and other sorts of favours once the candidate they support wins.

Yes, earlier it happened, but looking at some of the young artistes and citizens’ groups who are actively campaigning, we think our assumption is correct. In Western countries and even in neighbouring India, celebrities actively take part in political campaigns from time to time. For example, ace Hollywood actor George Clooney actively supported Obama in his campaign to become the President of the United States of America. But, up to now, Clooney hasn’t been appointed as at least a ‘Presidential Advisor’ on acting or cinema!

 At the same time, a healthy political culture is slowly building up. If the common opposition candidate wins the election, it might change the nature of all the other future election campaigns in this country. To his credit, common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena has stayed away from traditional methods of publicity to gain traction for his campaign. The use of cutouts, posters, hoardings, etc. is minimal in his campaign. This directly challenges existing knowledge we have about Sri Lankan elections. Up to now, all the candidates thought more the visibility more the votes. The underlying thinking was that the amount of money you spend decides the number of votes you get. This has brought in a number of people to the parliament, provincial councils and to other governing authorities with money but nothing else. Their sole purpose, once elected, is to earn the money they spent with interest. Therefore a win for the common opposition candidate could trigger a new political culture, which gave more weight to policies and not to posters.

On the other hand this could be the only election, where the two main political parties representing minorities in the country backing a candidate without their narrow racial agendas. All the while, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) pledged support to main political parties and their candidates on the basis of what their people would get out of it. That was why they were criticised for doing racial politics and not national levels politics. But this time both, SLMC and TNA appear to have somewhat deviated from their usual racial politics for the national cause of ensuring good governance, rule of law and a corruption-free system.

All the leaders of these parties may have not liked to rally for good governance and rule of law, depriving themselves of all the comforts and privileges they enjoyed. But it’s the ordinary public behind these parties who forced them to do so because the majority of Sri Lankan voters are now politically matured enough to think beyond cast and creed. Even if a new regime came, the people’s forces that now have awakened shouldn’t subside. That’s what happened in 1994. We should keep on asking questions and should show the door to leaders who don’t respect our aspirations and intellect. We should keep the fire burning all the time!