Monday, April 03, 2006

Mahinda, The Great



Last week’s LC polls results signifies an important twist in the pathetic tale of Sri Lankan politics, now it seems that the all powerful president has received a commanding mandate to carry forward his ‘Mahinda Chintanaya’ and all that without the firepower of Wimal and his red clowns. At this point in time, Mahinda Rajapakse seems tall, towering and mighty. He seems to have beaten the odds, done the impossible and now seems to be in-tune with the will of the masses. My mind goes back to the time not so long ago when the name ‘Rajapakse’ meant little to the very people he now seems to command.

The year was 2003; one Ranil Wickramasinghe was in the Temple Trees, I and a cousin of mine was asked to deliver a package of fish on behalf of my uncle who happens to be the chief organizer for SLFP in one pro-UNP district. I recall browsing around the streets of the much envied part of Colombo, asking directions for a ‘Mahinda Rajapakse’ residence, some people hardly knew the name, let alone the residence. Yet after barely two years after the incident, Mahinda have gone from the leader of the opposition back then, to the prime minister, and then to the all-mighty president. His escalation from a political nobody to THE political everybody is truly extraordinary and for that fact alone he should be respected.

However, the title of this post is misleading; the man himself has a long way to go before begin called ‘great’. If he wishes to get there, then he must subscribe to some other sort of philosophy, because ‘Mahinda Chintanya’ is not designed to get him there. ‘Mahinda Chintana’ and other type of these rata-perata-type supposedly pro-poor ideologies are in essence – fake. When put into practice these so-called pro-poor chintanayas or ideologies are nothing but a set of block policies of no-privatization, fertilizer subsidies and other goodie bags to please the masses, all the while trying desperately (at least by some) to follow a sort of a free-market economy. The mahinda chintanaya as a philosophy too is fundamentally flawed; it tries to instill great national pride by calming to promote local industries and enterprises by restricting foreign imports, but what it really says is that Sri Lankans and its entrepreneurs cannot face the global challenges and we must run away from those challenges instead of facing them head on. So the mahinda chintana can be appropriately named as ‘ponna-chintana’ without damaging the underlying philosophy.

Unfortunately though, the leader of the grand green party or his merry men fail to use these in their campaigns, the United National Party has become an entity which has no brand, or anything at all that is sellable to the masses. It is a sad plight, to a party and its leader who at least in my opinion led the most successful government of free Sri Lanka. It must be accepted however that the UNP faces a tough challenge. It’s hard to argue a case against a program that aims to give a glass of milk to poor school kids, or a program that promises jobs for unemployed youth or indeed to make a case for a Cease Fire Agreement, when it’s been brutally violated time and time again.

But the challenge should be taken up; it should be taken up because it’s the right thing to do so, and because if these populist policies are stopped and lasting peace achieved, there is no telling where this country can go. Therefore the UNP must focus on its strengths rather than trying to minimize its weaknesses. If the multi-ethnic vote base is the strength then go for it, come up with slogans, logic and find people to carry the message. Focus on strengths, and then perhaps one day the giant can be tackled. It is an eventuality it’s just ‘when’ that remains to be seen.

Deane.

4 comments:

sittingnut said...
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sittingnut said...

mahinda chinthanaya/pona chinthanaya is cynical hypocrisy at its best. only idiots and rogues can really 'believe' the things in it.

as for this election i don't think it had anything to do with the chinthanaya . voters as usual when electing lesser governing bodies went for governing party which is the clever thing to do if they at least hope to improve their local services given most local councils financial dependence on central government.

thanks to this election jvp probably realized that it is very far from actual power and they will soon decide which way they will go in the future, more closer cooperation with buffalo thus risking the fate of old left or more independence from slfp . that decision will shape the future of sri lankan politics more than anything unp or slfp do.

unp should wait, hypocrisy and incompetence alway gets exposed and jvp will either dissolve itself inside upfa or (more likely)they will split completely. just wait.

Deane said...

ya.. it will be intresting to see what the Jeppas do..

for Maestro..

Yes.. as someone mentioned somewhere sometime ago..

democracy has a way of giving people what they deserve


as for UNP will come into next year.. i donno about that, it's hard to pull of a 2001-like turn over with the current UNP numbers in parliment.

unless something like a pro-chandrika faction springs up if mahinda screws CBK over SLFP leadership.. a possibility if CBK has the energy..

i think though.. it would take, at least 18 months to build up some credibility and to hav a chance.

as for 2011 presidency.. well.. we might want to skip the whole election.. and ask H.E Prabha who he wants, and install the president.

Deane said...

geez mestro .. i thought im pro-unp

ne way kudos machan.. keep it up.. god certainly has funny ways of showing his affection to his soldiers.. wudnt u agree..

this reminds me of sometthing.. the place is study has funny lifts.. sometimes it comes down and suddenly goes up..

once we were wating for the lift just after ranil lost the election.. a friend of mine commented.. 'mey lift eka nikan apey andu wagey.. enna enawa eth enney na'

so god better do something fast :P