I went to see the candidate Maithripala Sirisena at a business forum but I got was a whole lot of Ranil. Sirisena is not comfortable in English, which is part of the problem, but Ranil talked most of the time. It honestly made me uncomfortable.
The problem a lot of people have with Maithripala is that they don’t trust the people behind him (ie, Ranil and Chandrika). Ranil, as the dictator of the UNP, and Chandrika as the old guard of the SLFP are part of Sri Lanka’s frustrating pre-war politics. They’re both smart and way less corrupt than the Rajapaksas, but they’re also both pretty unsuccessful leaders. A lot of people don’t want to go back to that. I understand that.
I’ve known that Ranil is behind most of Maithripala’s policies and the UNP is the biggest vote base behind him, but at this particular event, it didn’t really feel like Maithripala was the Presidential candidate. Ranil talked most of the time and he wasn’t especially deferential to Maithripala. The takeaway was more ‘trust Ranil he’s smart’ than an introduction to the actual candidate.
And Ranil is smart, but still. Honestly, I wish that Ranil had stepped down as UNP leader after losing in 2005 and that we had evolved a new leader with his own voter base by now. Instead disaffected people keep falling off Mahinda’s team (Sarath Fonseka from the military and now Sirisena from the SLFP) and they have one month to become national politicians. And it messes up their lives. Meanwhile Ranil gets to keep his job no matter what. He’ll still be leader of the UNP, win or lose.
As voters we end up voting for a curtain with a motley coalition behind it. For me I can think about it and make that decision, but it’s not a clear situation where you’re voting for a guy and that’s what you get. I guess it’s like a Sri Lankan marriage in that it comes with a whole family attached. If you vote for Mahinda you get his brothers and sons and 800 hangers on. They’ll probably be abusive and mortgage your house and pawn your jewelry to build random shit in Hambantota. If you vote for Maithripala you get CBK and Ranil who’ll be all awkward and annoying and can’t even talk to people at holiday parties.
Bad Choices
Sigh. That’s what we’re left with. Maithripala seems like a genuinely nice guy who understands the concerns of the common people so neglected by Mahinda. He is, however, not very charismatic and doesn’t have a national power base of his own. He would be highly dependent on other people for foreign and economic policy. What you’re voting for is essentially a caretaker President beholden to a new Parliament run by Ranil. They’re talking about a National Government and Ranil is the one with the ideas.
And he does have a lot of good ideas. But it still doesn’t feel like a vote for something as much as a vote against Mahinda. And I don’t know if that’s enough.
This is just me thinking out loud here. Me personally, I would much rather have a caretaker government even including a lamer like Ranil than the wasteful and lawless mafia elite that’s emerging under Mahinda. I mean, genuinely thanks for all he’s done, but two terms is enough for me. For me it’s the best of a bad choice. I do think that a weaker executive and stronger institutions in better for the country. But this still isn’t the ideal situation. Not by a long shot.
I’m voting for Maithripala but I’m not that happy about getting Ranil.
We need to arrive at a situation where governance is depedent on institutions rather than personalities/people. Individuals shou;d not matter, only the system should matter.
This can only come from reforming the system of governance, hence the vital importance of the constitutional reform. Get it right and fix the system and we need not worry too much about who comes into power. Other countries regularly change leaders without too many people worrying about it. I have been told that visitors in Australia on election day do not even realise that there is an election going on, life is pretty much normal and people take a change in leadership in their stride.
The drama, the violence, the curfews the propaganda, the tension that we experience here are all the symptoms of a broken system.
Once we fix the system there may be changes in leaders and changes in policies but with an indepedent civil service, judiciary and a more powerful parliament to hold the cabinet to account, the most lunatic excesses will be curbed.
I have elaborated on some ideas here:
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2014/02/who-should-run-country.html
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2014/11/democracy-constitutions-and-politicians.html
Agreed that CBK and Ranil are percieved as fucktards, and the opposition doesn’t have a lotta charisma on their side. I think it’s generally seen that My3 is a placeholder – people vote for him not because of the man but because of the opportunity to bring down the Regime.
“Meanwhile Ranil gets to keep his job no matter what. He’ll still be leader of the UNP, win or lose.” That’s the whole point. Ranil is smart. Do you think he really cares at all about the people at all he uses to achieve his ends or about the strength of the UNP?
Ranil’s short periods of time as prime minister have measurably been the best for the nation. He might be hated by the nationalists and even more so by the racists but how is that not a good thing. Fuck you for suggesting that he is incompetent as any moral individual would be with Mahinda and the political cancer that is the SLFP.