{"id":212327,"date":"2020-08-02T23:59:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=212327"},"modified":"2020-08-08T21:36:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T16:06:41","slug":"election-2020-the-war-dividend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/election-2020-the-war-dividend\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2020: The War Dividend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>By <a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sachithanandam+Sathananthan\">Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_202551\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-202551\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-202551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Dr.-Sachithanandam-Sathananthan-45x45.jpg 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-202551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Sachithanandam Sathananthan<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Political astrologers and soothsayers are crawling out of the woodwork: it must be election time!<\/p>\n<p>They are busy crying themselves hoarse exhorting voters to deny a two-thirds majority to the SLPP in this week\u2019s parliamentary elections. One strand within the Sinhalese anti-2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> group wishes to stop the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/stopping-the-landslide\/\">electoral \u2018landslide<\/a>\u2019 to arrest the general authoritarian drift, ensure a strong parliament and preserve 19A. The other miniscule Sinhalese one, apparently impressed by arithmetic, is urging \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/vote-tactically-for-whoever-can-give-the-regime-the-best-run-for-its-money\/\">vote tactically<\/a>\u2019 to oppose the 2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> and block the President acquiring more power but is apparently scheming to prop up powers of the Prime Minister (against the President) in return for the usual acolyte\u2019s perks. What could they be? Another diplomat\u2019s post? A perch in the Foreign Ministry via a national list? Time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> majority Sinhalese group unabashedly looks forward to the mailed fist coming down on all who oppose the President\u2019s endeavour to build a virtuous and disciplined society in \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/29\/my-prediction-on-the-august-5th-general-election-landslide-victory-for-the-slpp-and-a-white-wash-for-the-unp-and-nemesis-for-all-other-political-parties-and-independent-candidates\/\">the nation and our motherland<\/a>\u2019. Another <i>Pohuttuwa<\/i> devotee eagerly expects the new SLPP government to clean up \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/03\/why-sri-lankans-should-vote-for-pohottuwa\/\">the Augean Stables<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s try to make some sense of this feverish discord.<\/p>\n<p>Up-Country Tamil, Ceylon Tamil and Muslim Peoples don\u2019t need prodding. They together with residual Sinhalese (UNP?) voters had decisively cast their votes to rescue democracy from the jaws of autocracy in the 2015 presidential election. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-task-of-malaiyaha-ceylon-tamils-muslims-at-the-presidential-election\/\">We expected them<\/a> to restate their commitment to democracy in 2019; Tamils and Muslim Peoples did but Sinhalese voters, drawn by ethno-religious calls to present a common front to the \u2018enemy\u2019 by and large defected to the SLPP. As one Sinhalese analyst explained, the \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=214230\">down trodden, persecuted, humiliated majority community<\/a>\u2019 backed Rajapaksa\u2019s victory. Whether or not to grant a 2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> majority to the SLPP is a matter for the \u2018down trodden\u2019 Sinhalese People to decide.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The support for Premadasa in the 2019 <i>presidential<\/i> election was based overwhelmingly on Up-Country\/Ceylon Tamil and Muslim Peoples\u2019 votes. In the <i>parliamentary<\/i> election due in three days, most of Premadasa\u2019s non-Sinhalese votes will dribble into the respective Up-Country, Tamil and Muslim parties. To influence the Sinhalese constituency he would need to supplement UNP\u2019s remaining but divided votes by clawing back some from SLPP\u2019s \u2018down trodden\u2019 Sinhalese vote bank \u2013 predominantly Buddhists reinforced by their clergy \u2013 or form electoral alliances with the Up-Country, Tamil and Muslim political forces. Short of a miracle within the next 72 hours, neither option is likely.<\/p>\n<p>Apologetic assertions that Premadasa is the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/why-sajiths-sjb-ranils-unp-are-quite-distinct-and-sajiths-is-the-already-existing-progressive-center\/\">progressive centre<\/a>\u2019 possessing a \u2018social base\u2019 reaching back to his father\u2019s time and evidenced in the 2019 presidential election are delusional at best. Bluster about \u2018organic opposition\u2019, \u2018populist pluralism\u2019 and so on is hogwash!<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, a word about blocking the lurch towards autocracy. During the run-up to the November 2019 presidential election some painted an almost doomsday scenario. One Sinhalese analyst alleged the <a href=\"https:\/\/srilankabrief.org\/2019\/10\/presidential-election-2019-in-simple-terms-the-choice-is-between-dictatorship-and-democracy-jayadeva-uyangoda\/\">choice is between dictatorship and democracy<\/a>, between SLPP\u2019s Gotabaya Rajapaksa and NDF\u2019s Sajith Premadasa. Our astrologers and soothsayers, many with titles in front and alphabets behind their names, beseeched Sinhalese voters to manipulate their preferential votes to deny victory to Rajapaksa. But the Sinhalese constituency willingly voted for a \u2018strong\u2019 leader. Our political science \u2018pundits\u2019 failed to see it coming although the writing was clearly on the wall!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Sinhalese anti-2\/3<sup>rd<\/sup> \u2018democracy\u2019 group blames mainly the Rajapaksa brothers for the drift towards authoritarianism. But they are merely continuing a tradition former President JR Jayewardene introduced and accelerated with his 1978 Constitution, buttressed by his Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Rule. Jayawardene\u2019s \u2018Dharmishta\u2019 government is reflected in Rajapakse\u2019s \u2018Virtuous\u2019 society; Jayawardene brutally \u2018disciplined\u2019 the working classes and their trade unions while Rajapakse is instilling \u2018discipline\u2019 in society. Coffee table liberals and democrats in the South cheerfully welcomed (<i>albeit<\/i> with occasional bleats) the sorely needed stability Jayewardene\u2019s Constitution promised; Rajapaksa has similarly assured a stable government. As Jayewardene\u2019s army <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-army-the-operation-in-jaffna-july-1979\/\">intensified militarisation<\/a> first against Tamils in 1979 and later in the rest in the country, most southern liberals and democrats patriotically muted their opposition (\u2018Terrorists have to be killed, no?\u2019) in order not to hinder the war against \u2018terrorism\u2019 in the north. The militarised administration in the north and east post-2009 and the Task Forces Rajapaksa is installing are integral parts of, and are deeply rooted in, Jayewardene\u2019s authoritarian tradition. Southern liberals and democrats who supported, condoned or were deafeningly silent about the above are complicit in the authoritarianism they so abhor. They are compelled to live the dividends of their opportunism and should relish the rewards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":205669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Election 2020: The War Dividend - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/election-2020-the-war-dividend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Election 2020: The War Dividend - 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