Hampers and promises

It is hilarious that the chief strategies as opposition and government party rev up their election campaigns are pocketbook gambits which are tried and tested over time ——- the goodie cart is now arriving on overdrive, (...or Santa Claus is coming to town, late?)
Last week a government that refused to bring down the price of fuel for years, abruptly did so, even though there was a stubborn refusal earlier despite court orders. The president is pained by the price of rice which he is trying to bring down because rice, the staple, must be certainly an ingredient in the goodie-cart.
But, the General was also on goodie overdrive, even though he cannot actually give any goodies. But he is full of pocketbook promises.
He says that he would give fertilizer at Rs. 350 and offer a 10,000 rupee public service salary increase, improbable, but now a staple offer on his platform.
For both sides, its last grasp, or it last gasp effort at winning the basic housewives vote.
It is the usual cynical campaign politics of election gundus and promises for everything from the moon and beyond.

“Fonseka petrol”

All this is not without the attendant hilarity. The petrol price decrease has caused people to talk about “Fonseka petrol’’ and soon there would be price decreases that would encourage jokes about Fonseka bread and Fonseka flour, it is said.
General Fonseka himself has tried to forget the traitor-patriot bind by suing the Sunday Leader, which has the dubious distinction of being ‘best friend’ that got him in trouble.
He decided to sue the paper for not properly retracting the story of Gotabaya Rajapaksa giving orders to kill LTTE surrendees. He has since denied saying any such thing in the interview.
The overall visibility of the Rajapaksa campaign is however naturally greater than that of the Fonseka effort.
This is not unfathomable, not only because the government has the state machinery at its disposal but also because Fonseka himself is still the unknown quantity and finds it difficult to be on a sustained basis in the public eye.

Accumulation

He is still the “unknown angel’’ fighting the “known devil’’ and essentially needs some sort of major campaign event - - a positive one this time, not a negative one such as the Sunday Leader caper - - - to give him more time in the spotlight.
However, the UNP backed common candidate and his backers seem to think that there would be an accumulation of sentiment that favours him which would compensate for what is lacking on the campaign trail.
The JVP vote, the Karawa caste vote, the disaffected Tamil vote, the urban business-class UNP vote and finally elements of the patriotic pro-army vote, they hope, would come together to help him tip the balance on January 27th.
The government is sensitive to the fact that though there is no real media that the Fonseka camp can count on, there is a real grapevine today fuelled by e-mail and website gossip which is effectively functioning as Fonseka’s campaign device.
Fonseka, an army man is not entirely a great communicator, but the grapevine is doing a considerable job for him.
The president’s campaign is far less subterranean and very much on the surface, and in fact most times so large and loud that it’s almost in your face.
This week there was also the campaign controversy about the public debate which the president does not want with Fonseka but Wimal Weerawansa now wants.
Apparently Weerawansa wants to expose the General’s son in law’s alleged arms deals. The General has refused to debate a “pig’’ but as for the alleged son-in-law’s arms deals, nothing is preventing Weerawansa from making the facts public if he is so sure?
It appears we ain’t seen noting yet anyway. From all sides, honada honda sellang elivena yameta.