by R. Cholan; published April 4, 2004
‘The Voice of the People is the Voice of God.’ This is democracy.
Many are unhappy with the ‘voice’ spoken by Sri Lankans on April 2nd. Headlines and editorials lament the expected instability of a hung parliament. They are wrong.
The results of this election will not bring any new instability to Sri Lanka; it will only be a continuation of what’s been going on for some time. As a matter of fact, I think the ‘messages’ that Sri Lankans – Sinhala and Tamil – gave at this election are not bad at all.
Here is what I think the ‘messages’ are:
1. Give the lady a taste of her own medicine. For two years, Chandrika, the street-fighter President, gave hell to the gentlemanly Prime Minister Ranil. By giving her party a lead to form the government, but without the majority in the parliament, the people have put her in the ‘hot-seat’, similar to what Ranil was in until now.
Ranil had a majority-government in the parliament, but suffered because of restricted powers. Chandrika has the powers, and can now form her own government, but without a clear majority. How better could the people have fine-tuned this punishing shift?
People are also aware that this parliament too will be short lived. Chandrika will get a good ‘whipping’ for a year or two, and then will be booted-out for ever. The only question is whether Ranil is up to the task!
2. The people punished Ranil and the UNP for dillydallying with the peace-process, and missing opportunities to dispose of a selfish and greedy President.
3. The people also punished the SLFP for aligning themselves with the racist JVP, by reducing the number of SLFP parliamentarians.
4. By increasing the number of JVP parliamentarians, and by adding xenophobic Monks to the parliament, the Sinhala electorate has shown the world that anti-Tamil racism is on the rise. What better time to do this than when the international community is watching. This, no doubt, is an open invitation to the international community to step in.
5. The Tamil electorate has, once and for all, demolished the myth that the LTTE has no popular support. In a single stroke Tamils have not only said that they are solidly behind the LTTE, but also booted-out all anti-LTTE elements.
Hey guys and gals, the people have spoken. Vox populi, vox dei.