The race has begun

It looks as if President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already launched his campaign for securing a third term even before being sworn in for the second one. What matters most in power politics is reaching out to the people at the grassroots as well as attending to their pressing needs in a tangible way, for it is their votes that matter at an election. The President is doing just that. He is conducting development review meetings at the provincial level like the recent one in the North-Western Province, where he scored heavily, as it were. These gatherings are, to some extent, reminiscent of the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa's 'mobile service', which became a huge success in that the voiceless public who had suffered at the hands of the callous bureaucracy for years got instant relief thanks to his intervention.

Bureaucratic lethargy and callousness could ruin a government however strong it may be politically. For, the administrative mandarins and other public officials derive some pleasure by driving people who seek their services from pillar to post. It is the government in power that has to bear the brunt of people's frustration which is usually given expression at elections. President Rajapaksa seems to have realised the need to keep bureaucrats et al on their toes all the time.

During the first few years of his current term, President Rajapaksa endeared himself to the masses by taking on terrorism and eliminating it. Dividends accrued to him in terms of a second term. But, in times of peace, people tend to forget their heroes as evident from Churchill's defeat at the first election after WW II. The President has got into the development mode to further his political interests as peace is no longer marketable and the people have almost forgotten the war. But, his ambitious development plans are sure to go awry unless they get properly implemented. Therefore, he has no alternative but to go all out to make bureaucrats, politicians and others do as he says. He knows people love to see errant, hoity-toity officials who ride roughshod over them being taken to task by someone. At the development review meetings, the President apparently makes it a point to entertain the public by hauling such panjandrums over the coals besides jolting them into taking action to solve people's problems!

While the President is apparently campaigning for a third term, the UNP is papering over the cracks. Its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is seen these days in the exalted company of Wickremabahu Karunaratne applying paappa on thaappa! He must be the first leader of the Grand Old Party to have descended to that level to gain some political mileage and distract his party from the real issues confronting it. Such diversionary tactics, however, have a short lifespan and, before long, he will have to address the UNP's internal problems threatening its unity with some of its MPs and influential members demanding that he step down as leader.

The UNP has no way of avoiding the next presidential election as it cannot 'outsource' that task again. Therefore, it will have to start grooming its presidential candidate without wasting time. Ranil cannot even dream of entering the presidential fray again after having lost twice and run away once.

Who else will be able to rival President Rajapaksa next time? This is the question that the UNP will have to ask itself presently. It has to make some tough decisions, sort out its internal problems including the debilitating leadership tussle and emerge as a formidable countervailing force against the present regime. It cannot shift the onus for opposing the government to others.

(The Island)