Somebody is electing a government?

Arguably, the upcoming general election boils down to an internecine war within the government and opposition parties, and seems at least on the face of it, to have little to do with electing the next legislature — or plainly put, our next government.
The result has been taken so much for granted and the opposition has not helped one bit in dislodging that view, irrespective of all the hoopla surrounding the so-called Fonseka Court Martial affair.
In the final analysis the country is barely distracted by the election, which is unusual in Sri Lanka where politics is the main topic of lobby room and kopi kade conversation. That may still be so, but the people are not bothered about how this turns out as they already know, and this has inculcated a certain voter apathy which may perhaps be reflected at least somewhat in the eventual vote turnout on April 8..
But taking the vote for granted is deplorable, particularly because this has meant that the internecine wars between party candidates has been in turn taken for granted, as the primary point of contestation in these elections. It is not at all about which party would win — it is all about who will get in and who will end up at the bottom of the pile.
The hapless opposition’s role in all of this is firstly to be condemned, even though a measure of sympathy is de to the opposition for the much vanquished state that it is now in. But, however serially defeated it may be, it is the duty of the opposition to oppose and to put up a good fight and state unequivocally that the objective is to win and form a government. Instead of this, the opposition has been speaking entirely about not allowing a two thirds majority for the government which shows that the fight has gone out of the opposition, which is to say the least, probably entirely demoralizing to its supporters —- who need some sort of optimistic message, to support the opposition at a time when such support may be sorely needed.
Not for a moment is it suggested here that the people have no right to elect the government they want by the majority they want to give it —- but this comment is to underscore that the gamut of political leadership available has to be inspiring, in order that the people are given a real choice on the day of the vote.
This is hardly what seems to obtain. It is inevitable that the intra-party rivalry would become even more intolerable as the election day draws near, making this more of a home vs. home bloodbath than it already is.
One needs almost suspend disbelief upon realizing that most of the candidates, opposition or government, are indeed not saying anywhere that their party should come to power — all they are saying is that they as individuals should come to power. It is absolutely true that the contestants have already taken for granted that the party votes have already been carved out and that nobody can do anything about it - which makes the election all about who gets what share of the two separate pies.
This is almost a crazy way of enacting the serious business of democratic franchise which should be all about contending issues and contending platforms, whose proponents are vying for administrative power and control of the apex legislature.
But instead the contest has deteriorated into a reality-TV style pantomime between various individual actors.
It is not too late for the people to treat this as a real election about electing a government, even though their political eldership has lost sight of this fact in the process of tearing up their intra party rivals. Your vote is not about a two thirds majority but it is about who governs us - - at least in the legislative branch, for the next six years.
This is not a trifling consideration to be decided on the basis of what the leader of the opposition says (“Do not give a two thirds majority,”) it is about weighing your options though people keep saying that it is a Hobson’s choice these days.
Perhaps Ranil Wickremesinghe calculates that if enough people vote on the basis of not awarding a two-thirds to President Rajapaksa’s coalition, there may be an accumulation of votes for the opposition that would eventually tip him over the top! He must be very sanguine if he thinks so, but that is not exactly the most attractive strategy to win elections.
Yes, the reality may be that a thumping government party victory is inevitable, but that’s not the way in politics that battles are meant to be fought.
There are outcomes called ‘upsets’, though we are not clamouring for one given the hapless state of the opposition; but yet it is still incumbent upon the opposition to fight to win so that a stirring challenge would at the least keep the government on its toes.
There is no sign at all of this happening — instead it is a matter of comparing mug-sots and deciding where to put those numbers 1, 2 and 3. It doesn’t seem to be democracy in the least, but seems to have all the potentiality of a go-cart race.