The Event that few predicted would happen did in fact happen and the rest as they say is History
Much has been written in the past few
says since 7am on Friday 9th January, when Mahinda Rajapakse
conceded, and left Temple Trees. I am merely adding to this in my own personal way,
how I saw the whole campaign unfolding.
When the Newspapers on the 18th
November 2014 displayed the 250 color pages of paid advertising wishing the
President on his birthday, that would have cost the Government of Sri Lanka Rs125M,
as I don’t think any of them were paid with money earned by anyone! I realized
that this unnatural act would result in something big, and I did not know what
it might be at the time.
Immediately thereafter, when the
President signed into law his intention to seek an unprecedented 3rd
term, as expected, this mythical word called “the common opposition candidate”
was who we were waiting for! Every name under the sun was bandied about, except
the eventual candidate. It also showed how people viewed the abilities of their
proposed candidates, and on reflection, I don’t believe anyone of them would
have been able to deliver, as their negatives, all exceeded that of the
eventual candidate.
I was not privy to who and how he was
chosen, and eventually the real story will come out, as currently only dribs and
drabs of those who wish to claim credit have been put as a matter of record. On
the morning of the announcement, I had a call from my contacts in Polonnaruwa
asking if it was true that Maithripala Sirisena was the candidate, and I, though
I was aware said I did not know, especially as he was a died in the wool UNPer
who said that if he was, then he would NOT work for the campaign, especially as
under his leadership in Polonnaruwa the UNPers had suffered much harassment and
discrimination in all areas of life. I can also vouch for that as I, from
Minneriya and Hingurakgoda, where I used to farm, had to contend with much of
the results of this suffering, of jobs not being given due to affiliations, and
samurdhi benefits being denied for political revenge, and such like.
The two photos that I have included in
this blog entry were taken when Maithripala Sirisena came to the New Town Hall
on Friday, 21st November around 3.30pm, before he went into the
Hall, to announce his candidature in the presence of Ex-President Chandrika
Kumaratunga and a whole host of crossovers that afternoon.
I know many people will say that what
happened after that is as they say is history, and I will elaborate some of the
significant developments in the interim, with personal anecdotes.
We were eagerly expecting the 22
crossovers soon thereafter and that did not happen, and I heard many people
grousing, why he was permitted to be the candidate, when he was not able to bring
whom he had promised!
Then at the Christmas Party of one of
the most prominent Businessmen in Sri Lanka, on the 5th, where even
the current PM, Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe was a guest there was grave doubts
about pulling this off. I had to assure the guests we could do so!
Then as the campaign got into full
swing, we heard of the organizational chaos of the campaign HQ. Whilst this was
not so at Sirikotha, it was an even bigger problem for us, where we just did
not have the funds, to carry out even a percentage of the work we wanted to
carry out, as the Party was just not given the funds by anyone, as I presume
the big boys did not think we could win, and other expenses given priority.
Our part of the campaign had to be done
on a shoestring, and we had to rely on the dedication of many of the young
people who came to work with us. I was able to get a limited number of posters
and campaign literature printed under the patronage of my boss, and so we had
to be very careful in their delivery. I gather even the money that the
Organizers of the UNP received were little and at the last moment, and not all
received their allocations. Some were not able to get organized by that time.
CBK on the other hand had received a
large chunk of change from a benefactor, which she used, like father Christmas
to both buy loyalty and dole out for campaign expenses, though she did not have
the organization we had, and therefore money was not used in my opinion
productively. We could have done 10 times more productive work for the Rupee in
that sense!!!
I was glad that the Candidate said that
he would not try to compete with the President on cutouts, and the President
had looted enough funds to run a very expensive campaign where even with the
full use of the state resources, he was able to dole out money willy nilly for
ads, posters, cut outs decorations and campaign offices (empty) at all corners,
breaking all election rules, and use intimidatory tactics.
It is therefore under all these incredible
odds, that we pulled this off. As the Independent Elections Observers report
pointed out, the whole weight of Govt. infrastructure was used by MR, and
despite the odds and a record turnout (81.5%) which could favor him as much as
us, has given a firm indication of the people’s mandate for Change. I am
getting a lot of calls now, from people who have not called all this time!
Where were they when we needed their help desperately, and we had no one who
would help us even with the chump change?
2 comments:
In reality the Common Candidate would have also won over 50% of the Sinhala Buddhist vote.
Like you said, there was intimidation and gross election violations of every imaginable type, in the Rajapakse desperation to hold on to power. Worse the mud slinging which was boldface lying aimed at frightening a easily excitable electorate did its share to protect the Govt. vote. So my contention in this is that at least another 500,000 votes would have gone to the Common Opposition candidate, increasing the gap by a further 1 Million votes, giving MS over 7 million votes out of the 12 million cast.
This point is very important and in a free and fair election that would have been the case. Therefore there can be NO DOUBT that MS did in fact win this election by an overwhelming margin, previously unthinkable, if people were allowed to make a rational choice on a level playing field which it was NOT.
We will do well to know that, and in your blog entry a few days ago, where those that were not able to vote were highlighted, this block of 300,000 net benefit is not included in the 1 M difference referred to above.
It is therefore with this basis that the 100 day program must be looked at, and therefore implemented in FULL, as one that the electorate has endorsed, and done within this period, and the MPs in parliament must be made fully aware that it is their duty to pass the necessary two thirds majority in Parliament to implement the necessary provisions of the 100 day program.
The President in his address to the Nation also endorsed and reiterated his commitment to carrying this out to the letter prior to dissolving parliament in May for the next general election, where the parties are likely to contest on their own tickets.
Let this be a reminder to all of the power of the people, that the institutions, namely the Army Commander, the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, and the Elections Commissioner were singularly able to prevent the attempted Coup by Ghotabaya and Mahinda Rajapakse that would have plunged this country into a period of anarchy and darkness, and let us thank God, that their presence of mind in NOT taking orders from a Chief who had not just had is wings clipped, but removed, and impotent buffoon in the form of the swollen headed Gota, shown the door, and had to meekly submit to the classy Ranil, who permitted them to leave without being hand cuffed. Where is this rascal Gota who needs to be arrested along with MR?
Interesting stories. This election was historic and knowing the short term Sinhala mind will be forgotten in 30 days. Keep the stories for posterity. Seems CBK knows how to get things done in politics
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