Politics, sport and a bard for Lanka - EDITORIAL

The glorious uncertainties of cricket is the greatest attraction of the game. Strange though it may seem, this is how today’s presidential election is also poised. There is no clear-cut outstanding candidate who is likely to win the contest outright. The contest this time around is between multiple candidates and the outcome is uncertain. 

Funnily enough, the aspirants to the presidency in this year’s election are using a tactic popularised by disgraced president Gotabaya who is reported to have hired thousands of ordinary people involved in a word-of-mouth campaign saying he (Gota) was assured of victory -Gota thamai’. 

Today we are witnessing a similar campaign ‘Anura will win’ ‘Sajiya thamai’ or ‘Ranil can’.   

However, none of the main candidates have shown a great deal of difference in the policies they have put before the people. All have accepted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement put in place by the present president, in varying degrees. 

The NPP and the SJB speak of renegotiating aspects of the agreement. The chief proponent of the agreement warns us of the dangers posed if we do not abide by the agreement. 

In 1996 a mighty atom (the then Sri Lankan Cricket Team under Captain Arjuna Ranatunga),against all odds won the cricket’s plum -the World Cup. This September, the glorious  uncertainties of Sri Lankan polling patterns can bring in the most unexpected winner at today’s presidential election.  

Whoever wins today’s poll, if he is to make any worthwhile change in the lives of our long-suffering people, he must first dethrone ‘King Corruption’ which reigns supreme in our country.  

We well remember the diverse scams which brought our populace to the point of bankruptcy. We have heard of innumerable charges of corruption being made regarding the construction of highways. Various white elephant projects were built amidst elephant corridors which serve no purpose. 

The main aspirants to the presidency this year have at one time or another, been part of the governing structures which indulged in some form of corruption to a greater or lesser degree. This makes them culpable. 

It is these ‘misdeeds’, together with the rousing of racial and religious divisions which continue to divide our people. Resultantly we have been unable to bring out the best in our people for the benefit of the country.  

For nearly thirty, of our 76 years of independence, we have fought and killed each other. We forgot we are all children of Mother Lanka. We blindly followed leaders who used race and religion as a means to achieve their selfish aims and ambitions. 

We have used our ingenuity and resources for destructive purposes rather than to develop this nation to its full potential.  On 13 December 2016, India’s former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon,in an interview with ‘The New Indian Express’, estimated Lanka’s civil war which ended in May 2009, cost the country around US$ 200 billion.  

Is it surprising that by 2022 our country was forced to declare bankruptcy? Our total foreign debt stood at US$ 34.8 billion by the end of April 2022! We are still not out of the woods and the debt has to be repaid. Today our economy is moribund so-to-say. The foreign debt is merely restructured and still to be repaid.  

This election is very, very important to us and we need to make every vote count. In the past our vote was mainly one of protest. This must change, we need to look rationally at the candidates and vote for policies and past record.  

Today our country lies in economic and spiritual ruin. All types of criminality takes place on our shores, our children are malnourished. Females cringe in fear as rape stalks our land. But, as the poet once said pride of the past still pulses hot in our people’s veins. 

Let our vote bring in a bard for Lanka. A bard to soothe our joys and pains, an unselfish man who asks not what this country can do for him, but rather what we can together, do for our country.