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| Pic courtesy www.therepublicsquare.com |
A few days from now Sri Lankans will elect an all-powerful
executive president. It will be the
seventh presidential election since J R Jayewardena created the office through
the 1978 Constitution. There are 19 in
the fray. The front runners or rather
the incumbent with incumbent-edge and the main contender with edges of his own
have made the speeches, heaped invective on each other. Loyalty has been questioned, loyalties have
shifted. This way and that. There are claims and counter-claims. Trading of insults.
It’s election-business as usual in Sri Lanka. In a parallel universe though elections would
be quite different. Let’s take a stab.
In a parallel universe today’s friend would have been
yesterday’s friend and will be tomorrow’s friend as well. In a parallel universe objection would be
expressed long before elections are called and with no room for doubt that
objector (or ‘crosser’) is motivated by self interest.
In a parallel universe election manifestos will not read as
the auctioning of non-existing resources.
Manifestos, moreover, would not be so lengthy that few if any would read
them. They would also be precise and
without contradiction.
In a parallel universe, candidates and their supporters will
think twice before unleashing venom on those in different camps. Before they point out flaw they would examine
if they are unblemished and if they so find that they have tumors themselves,
will desist from firing salvos.
In a parallel universe hero will not advertise him/herself
and neither will he/she seek to describe or define others. Similarly, villain will not have to be
labeled as such for his/her villainy will be obvious. The voter, consequently, will not have to
peel off labels and other identifiers.
In a parallel universe there will be no place for the
fly-by-night self-righteous. No one will
claim ‘I am principled,’ but instead the voter will assess the true weight of
‘principle’ in the overall political persona.
In a parallel universe there will be no place for
end-justifies-means politics. The
goodness of outcome desired and for the making of which support is solicited
will be reflected in every step taken, every word spoken and every single act. Authenticity will be discerned less by
reflection on policy statement than on action, what is praised and what is
condemned. Short cuts will be avoided
and short-cut-takers duly cut short.
Convenience will be abhorred.
Principled behavior even if it costs will be observed and rewarded.
In a parallel universe there will be a level playing
field. There won’t be non-citizens with
vested interests pumping money into campaigns or so-called civil society
outfits that see election-monitoring as a business. State resources would not be abused by the
parties in power and those who have abused state resources previously and who
are now at the receiving end of things will not cry foul. The police as well as those in charge of
running the election would be strictly impartial; there would be no
arm-twisting of these officials by politicians.
In a parallel universe candidates would respect one another,
agree to disagree, recognize strengths as well as perceived weaknesses. In a parallel universe candidates will focus
less on personality than on policy and program.
In a parallel universe would-be voters will not be bombarded
with unsolicited text messages and emails.
Walls, trees, rocks and other surfaces natural and otherwise will not be
covered with posters in a parallel universe.
Candidates and their supporters will work on the assumption that the
voter is intelligent and quite capable of making informed and rational choices;
they will not be taken as consummate morons who need to be ‘educated’ about what’s
what and who is who.
In a parallel universe, ladies and gentlemen, we would not
see what we’ve seen over the past six weeks or so. That must say a lot about the state of
affairs in our nation. It also says
something about us, the voters. We really
can’t pat ourselves on our backs, can we?
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