The Island Editorial

Polls Chief or NARA head?

11 February 2017

 

Time was when the Sri Lankan polity suffered from polls diarrhoea, as it were. The Rajapaksa government would hold staggered provincial council and local government polls almost annually so much so that people got fed up with them. Today, the country is suffering from polls constipation, so to speak.

The Joint Opposition (JO) tells us that it does not think the much-delayed local government polls will be held this year. Some of its heavyweights made this observation following a meeting with Chairman of the National Election Commission (NEC) Mahinda Deshapriya on Thursday. The NEC cannot be blamed for this situation; it finds itself in a constitutional straitjacket though it is being described as independent. Vital decisions on elections continue to be made by politicians in power.

Many people naively expected the public sector to bounce back after the implementation of the 19th Amendment, which restored the so-called independent commissions being flaunted as a panacea for all ills in state institutions. They deserve to be treated to croton and jak leaves (kos kola) which the incumbent government has urged the public to consume by way of food substitutes.

The incumbent IGP has made a cringeworthy public display of his servility to government politicians; he was caught on camera talking to a minister very obsequiously and promising not to arrest a suspect some weeks ago. The CID and the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division) have been reduced to mere appendages of the government. They are a modern version of the Gestapo. The National Police Commission has been rendered toothless. The Auditor General has incurred the wrath of government politicians for remaining fiercely independent. The self-proclaimed champions of good governance vilify him at every turn and are all out for his scalp. The less said about the Attorney General’s Department the better!

Ruling party politicians heap abuse on upright state officials in public with impunity. The yahapalana government has, through such tactics, succeeded in keeping the public service under its thumb. The judiciary continues to be manipulated by the powers that be and some courts remain open till midnight, during weekends and even on Poya Days, either to remand Opposition activists or bail out government backers.

The high octane performance on the part of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption to probe the opponents of the government is sadly lacking when complaints are lodged against the yahapalana politicians or their henchmen who are apparently too big to be caught.

Worse, the yahapalana regime has denied the public their franchise though sovereignty is said to reside in them. The local government polls, which help people to have themselves heard at the grassroots level, have been postponed indefinitely and the ruse the government leaders, afflicted with polls-phobia, uses to justify their decision is that the delimitation commission reports are riddled with errors. They have at long last said, under political pressure, that they will gazette the delimitation review committee report shortly. But, the politicians who fear polls will adopt another ruse to put them off again.

What one gathers from the utterances of the Polls Chief is that the NEC is ready to conduct local government elections once the delimitation issues are sorted out once and for all and a clear signal is given by the government. So much for the independence of the NEC! Deshapriya, on Thursday, true to form, ducked a curve ball from a scribe as regards the postponement of the mini polls for political reasons. He only made a cryptic remark, which made us wonder, albeit momentarily, whether he was the Polls Chief or the Head of NARA (National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency). He only said there could be dangerous underwater currents in a seemingly placid ocean. His oceanographic quip would have sounded convincing had he added that people’s franchise, carried by those strong currents, was now stuck in an ocean trench. It is a pity that the NEC is all at sea!

Deshapriya was intrepid enough to withstand political pressure and conduct a presidential election, where a powerful President––Mahinda Rajapaksa––with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, seeking a third term, was defeated and the transfer of power happened smoothly in 2015. He even descended on a state media institution during that election and had a fabricated news item unfavourable to the Opposition candidate corrected immediately. He earned public plaudits for that feat. But, today, he lacks courage even to speak his mind about undemocratically postponed polls. Instead, he is talking in riddles. When he is asked about polls he talks about the sea! Yahapalanaya has proved to be more effective than any other palanaya in gagging public officials.

It is our fervent hope that the affable polls chief will recover from the yahapalana shock soon!