By Vishwamithra –

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Can I take that Risk? If I take it, what can happen to me, my family and my country? These are the nagging questions, the opposition wants the people to ask themselves about the National People’s Power (NPP) and its leadership. But would the people ask these questions and if the opposition is correct in their assumption, how would the people answer them? A totally new context is being created. A challenging circumstance is being forced on the AKD and his Party. As a matter of fact, the fundamental challenge of the NPP remains this very context. And its resolution to the NPP’s favor would be the one they are hoping for.

But the NPP cannot vacillate on this very critical issue. Any hesitancy or procrastination would be seen as conceding to the opposition and that alone would be the death-knell for its desire and wish for an electoral victory, either at Presidential or Parliamentary elections. Seen through the prism of the electorate, these questions are very valid and legitimate. Having launched a political movement in 1971 as a revolutionary party wedded to the Marxian principles and a violent overthrow of an incumbent government, then transforming itself into a mainstream political party committed to parliamentary democracy in 1978 and then again going back or being driven into political exile by the Jayewardene government in 1982, reemerging as a political tool of murder and chaos in the ’87 – ’89 period cannot be deleted from men’s memories so soon and so easily. But yet, on the side of the current NPP, what was in action and what caused all that chaos and mayhem was the old Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and its then leaders  Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando (Keerti Wijayabahu), D M Ananda, Shantha Bandara and Upatissa Gamanayake and the lot.

Yet the current NPP, the successor to the old JVP has a handful to explain and whole lot of justification to do. Whether the masses would accept it or not, such explanation and justifications need to be addressed to the broad masses without any reservation, without any equivocation. The NPP owns the ears of the masses now. They do not need to be hiding behind any innuendos or slogans; its leadership seems to be the only set of politicians the people have decided to listen to. But when the political theater graduates from one of mass-information to one of real campaigning, the gear changes; its grueling adjustments and the uphill climb that the machine has to travel demand that the current leadership take the people into total trust and confidence; it shouldn’t be so difficult as it is to explain away the countless misdeeds of corruption and financial dishonesty the Wickremesinghes, Rajapaksas and the Premadasas have collectively committed.

This is where the mantle of real and honest leadership matters; this is where the people would be able to tell the adults from adolescent children. AKD, Sunil Handunheththi, Wijitha Herath, Bimal Ratnayake, Harini Amarasuriya, Wasantha Samarasinghe and Lal Kantha, either collectively or separately need to take ownership of the issues of the ’71 insurrection and the ’87 – ’89 mayhem. They need to do it before the issue is laid on top of the forthcoming political platform-speeches from the opposition. Take the challenge to the opponent. Make your perceived weakness your prolific strength. That is bold and daring political strategy.

Both Fear and Risk would be exploited to the hilt by the Premadasas, Wickremesinghes and the Rajapaksas for sure. Do not, do not wait until they raise it. Waiting would be playing the traditional game. It would be succumbing to the ways and manners that the status quo would grapple with a subject of this magnitude. Being silent would not drive away the significance or its impact, either positive or negative, on the voters’ mind. Risk (Avadanama) and Fear (Bhaya), two simple words, but used in an adventurous and politically strategic context and if allowed to be defined in terms of the opposition, might seal the deal for the SJB or the Wickremesinghe/Rajapaksa combine. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Prudent planning is planning for every conceivable possibility. Also anticipating what the opposition would undertake to do and then take cautionary and prophylactic measures to counter the anticipated action by the opposition. Idea is to be, not one step, but ten steps ahead of the adversary. Can the NPP do that and can they do that with absolutely one hundred percent success? That is why I have been writing in my earlier commentaries that there is no rest for the tired and weary. Your adversaries, SJB and UNP/SLPP combine can be vicious, nasty and utterly ruthless. You need not be nasty and vicious in your responses, but you need to be equally or more ruthless in your execution of your plans and strategies.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is not a good man. One cannot expect any political decency nor any loosening of his grip of his Executive powers. He belongs to that category of men and women whose vengeful mayhem could reach infinite capacities. Having been unsuccessful in garnering mass support at any and all of his past ventures at which mass support has been a crucial necessity, when all of a sudden gifted with the switch of political power at his fingertips, he could stretch his arms and legs whatever the direction they have to stretch in order to attain or retain his goal. Leave no advantage for him; any and all of the toolkit that is available for every politician should be foreclosed before they pounce upon them.

If Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa choose to brandish the Risk and Fear weapons against AKD and the NPP in the context of mass-trust, use the same weapons (tools) against them. The answer is simple and self-revealing. Can the masses take the Risk once more or not Fear once more the failed persona and the failed political parties. If Risk and Fear is applicable to the untested and untried NPP, how can the people Risk and not Fear the the perennial failures of seventy six years. Drive home the point relentlessly. Repeat, repeat and repeat many times the words of Risk (Avadanama)  and Fear (Bhaya) in their daily utterances. Its use cannot simply be overstated.

In an overall strategy of a Presidential Election campaign, what needs to be done does not necessarily exceed what should not be allowed to be done. Political gaffes and unforced errors committed by the second and third tier campaigners are as critical and of immeasurable value when enhanced and elongated to suit the party that is using such unforced errors and gaffe by one party. Nevertheless, there is no redemption from a committed error, forced or unforced, or a gaffe after they’re committed. They cannot be undone.

The NPP campaign has been in full gear for some time now; only they seem to be adequately organized to run a sustained election campaign, at least it seems so now. Yet, the apathy of the Wickremesinghes and Premadasas cannot be regarded as they are incapable of running a well-oiled and properly organized election campaign. In so far as election campaigns are concerned, running election campaigns on traditional contours is the pride of the UNP and the SLPP. However, in that sphere Sajith falls way behind the UNP. Yet when a binary choice is what has been offered before the people, when clear and unapologetic lines are drawn, the status quo still has an unquestionable advantage. The NPP and AKD and his cohorts would have to face many known and unknown challenges.

AKD has shown so far that he’s extremely capable of handling any and all contingencies. Yet what they have to realize is that election campaigns are not run on paper; nor are they capable of being run according to the planned and plotted fashion. Unpredictable factors would be many and   varied. But having a disciplined leadership and properly trained staff at all levels, political, administrative, advertising and ground-game, are indispensable for eventual success. Speeches on platform is only but one aspect of the campaign. Crowd attendance is necessary but it will not tell the whole tale.  The NPP and AKD have come so far but one day it should not be told: no further. How far and another mile or two would not hurt.

How far could AKD travel? how far could he reach in his endeavors? how high could he climb on the ladder of political success? Only the voters can answer those questions. In the same vein, the voter himself would have to travel with the NPP and arrive at the set destination. When the sun goes down in the distant horizon, when the infinite skies embrace the far away seas at the very horizon, all men and women absorb the spectacle with abundance of hope and aspirations; we as fellow travelers, cannot let AKD and the NPP travel alone; it’s a hazardous journey and a harder capacity would be required to come to a perceivable end. Let us lighten their burden; let’s get rid of the Fear and share the Risk. AKD and the NPP are worthy of it.

*The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com