Pillows changed as cure for headache?

It was only the other day that we said in these columns politicians would be the winners and the people losers after the mini polls. And today we have all parties claiming to be winners. Even the UNP, which lost almost all what it had in hand, claims the polls outcome to be a ‘victory of sorts’, given the fact that the government failed to bag all the councils despite its win at the presidential election a few months ago. The UNP’s claim could be justified only on the grounds that it had expected a worse outcome and was relieved to have secured 35 councils.

What we heard from the UNP after the presidential election was a different story. Mahinda Rajapakse’s victory, we were told, couldn’t be considered as such, because he had gained only 25,000 odd votes more than the fifty per cent mark. The UNP also claimed that it had won one half of the districts at that election and was sanguine of winning a future election. It kept telling its supporters that it was capable of forming a government next year. The problem with rhetoric and propaganda lies is that they tend to explode in one’s face. That has happened to the UNP. It should thank the JVP for its decision to contest separately thus causing a split in the anti-UNP vote. Else, it would have been left with only a handful of councils.

The JVP has put up posters thanking the people for their support for its ‘victory’! It has secured only one council, and that, too, had been under its control. Before the election we heard ad nauseam from the JVP leaders that they would win many more councils. Hence their demand from the UPFA, for contesting together, that they be given control in one third of the councils to be won and fifty percent of the number of seats. They came nowhere near that target. They were so cocky that some of them even claimed they were ready to take over the country! The JVP may flaunt accretions to its vote base and the increase in the number of councillors as achievements. But it ought to come to terms with the fact that increases in the percentage votes could be deceptive at an election characterised by voters’ apathy and a relatively low voter turnout. And, it should also be noted that the supporters of an ideologically driven party like the JVP rarely grow apathetic. They vote en masse come hell or high water.

The JVP should realise that the people are still wary of taking it into confidence fully. The electors are using the JVP the way housewives make use of chilli powder—in small measure—lest the political broth will be too hot to be of any use. Even if a rehabilitated tipper drinks a glass of milk near a Palmyra palm, it is said, the people tend to think he is drinking toddy. But the JVP continues to make the mistake of reminding the people, through its annual commemorations, of events and faces that they detest and want to forget. Such gimmicks may be attractive to its dyed-in-the-wool cadres but they are repulsive to the general public, whose support is essential for winning an election.

The JVP of today has, to its credit, bid farewell to arms and remains unprovoked despite attacks by the two main parties, most of whose members are armed. Its strategy has paid off to some extent and helped it become the third force in Sri Lankan politics as the polls results indicate. But it has a long way to go by effecting further changes to its strategy and discarding its ideological shibboleths, if it is to be recognised by the people fully.

The government is still celebrating victory. But it has had itself saddled with another burden. Now it has to perform at all levels, from the President down to the PS chairmen. Even if a road gets peeled off in a remote area under the purview of the 223 councils under the UPFA control, the blame will be placed at President Rajapakse’s doorstep in Colombo. Winning an election may be an easy task but the problem is to deliver on the pre-election promises. So, the time has come for the newly elected councillors and their mentors to get down to the jobs they got votes for. Garbage piles, litter strewn roads with potholes, stinking drains that are home to swarms of mosquitoes, councils reeking with corruption and a plethora of other problems at the grass roots await the arrival of the newly elected.

Have the people, as the saying goes, changed pillows as a cure for headache, by electing a new set of politicians to remedy local government ills? Only time will tell.(TIO)