Sri Lanka It's Happening

November 15, 2005

Election campaigning ended at midnight yesterday. That means the pedagogues of the JVP can stop their shreeking. The people of the country have two days to sit and reflect on the policies of the two main candidates and decide which one to vote for.

The trouble is that the JVP candidate Mahinda, does not seem to have much in the way of policies. The only policies of not is being against privatisation and the peace process. Speaker after speaker on the Mahinda/JVP platform have hour after hour been spitting out their venom against the opposition leader Ranil, yet there has been nothing of substance in any of these speeches.

The prime minister himself seems to have been making the same speech over and over at every meeting/press conference/rally. Sometimes he changes the order of the paragraphs just to make us think he is making a different speech. But if you look closely none of the speeches contain anything other than a list of ethnic and religious groups in the country and creating an atmosphere where everyone can live without fear and in dignity. Unfortunately he hasn't taken the time to explain how this is to be achieved.

The UNP candidate Ranil on the other hand has been talking about issues. While there are quite a few shreekers in his own camp, even the most ardent UNP supporter doesn't pay them any attention.

Unfortunately for Ranil, the vast majority of Sri Lankans don't vote on issues. The majority is too stupid to understand simple economics. Many simply cannot comphrehend Ranil's international safety net. Ranil should have learned all this by now having lost so many elections in the recent past. Unfortunately for him and unfortunately for the country he never seems to learn.

Posted by raditha at November 15, 2005 11:34 AM