Phillip Said ...
The last minute harrassment of opposition leaders and their aides,attempts to transfer key police officers (DIG Lewke from the north,cancelled by the election commission),indicates that one's worst efars are about to take place,an election where the current incumbent "organises" his victory at an=y cost.From all available information ,there is a huge surge in favour of the slogan for "change",a vote in favour of Herr General der Fons.The earlier street apprehension that he might prove to be a military dictator has evaporated with the massive combined support of the entire opposition.Chandrika's eleventh hour support for Herr General will count significantly,as she is the one leader in the country with the least amount of controversy surrounding her rule an commands respect nationwide.The SLFP which Pakse-Raja heads now was founded by her father SWRD and turned into a huge politcal force by her mother,which she further developed.Loyalist SLFP supporters will now be in a dilemma as to whom to support,as said before,both candidates legitimately share the victory over the LTTE.
The hard facts are that the exorbitant cost of living and airborne inflation,is in the eys of the Lankan polity due mainly to excessive corruption and nepotism of the "Pakse-Raja" family.The unseemly in-family fighting for the spoils of office,power and pelf,are open secrets in the island and the larger Pakse-Raja's cutouts get,the more hated he is getting.The disappearance of journalists continues-another last night,and if there is a free and fair eelction,Herr General will win.But Pakse-Raja and truly family are finished if they lose.It will be another case like the fate of the Ceaucescus.where can he and his huge clan hide? In such a scenario,with all the organs of the state under his apparent control and millions of rupees allegedly being liberally thrown at the voters (just as the vote in TN experienced),Pakse-Raja could engineer an election as controversial as the recent election in Iran.If he "wins",then the physical fate of the opposition,is in real danger.The attacks that have been perpetrated against critics of the Pakse-Raja regime have been increasing in savagery and judging from the election violence,will be nothing to what will take place after counting day.Human rights in Lanka might descend to the bottom of the pit
I am very surprised about your comment. You seem to be an unbiased person, and you just seem to have written a highly biased viewpoint here.
First, how did you come to the conclusion, if free and fair elections are held SF would win? People talk about state media is biased. Yes it is totally biased, if it has not been totally biased, the so called independent media would destroy MR. The so called Independent media is totally biased towards UNP. So, this gets balanced with the state media.
There have been many polls conducted, one of the polls conducted by India (some Org. which I can't remember the name, but seem to be an unbiased pole) mentioned MR would win around 60%. Kalaniya Uni Poll says the same thing (Can be biased, I don't know). Lot of internet poles shows results according to who they affiliate. Therefore very unlikely some one can figure out who the winner is going to be. But you are making a statement if they are held free and fair, SF would win. How can you make such a biased statement. Aren't you aware that there are a large community of SL who do not have similar view as the people in Colombo (Who are very much Pro UNP)
Chandrika's support for SF is would not have much impact. All political savy people know who Chandrika is. She is the one who went to all other nations complaining about SL and it's human rights at the midst of the war. Further, SF is a creation of CBK. Without her support SF wouldn't be there. Therefore there are no surprises that CBK would do such a thing.
Your statement about Engineering a vote so that MR would win is an insult to the SL people. How many people can MR buy. There are 20 million people. There wouldn't be enough money in the country by half of the vote to win. Please do not under estimate SL and denigrate our political system. Yeah, it is not perfect, but it is not so bad as well. In the past there were free an fair elections under MR (Not 100%, but previously no one complained). So how can you come to conclusion that suddenly this is not going to be a free and fair election?
Also, you are talking about election violence. The number of deaths are less than 10. Even if it hit hundred, that is much much better election. Look at the past election violence of Sri Lanka, this is nothing compared to previous levels.
Disappearing Journalist. Do we care? No. Sri Lanka has our own flavour of democracy. It is very unlikely most of SL care enough about disappearing journalists. It is not an election Issue for SLs. We have plenty of Journalists, and dissaperance of one would not have any impact of the out come of an election. Also the government cannot stop media by kidnapping one journalist since there are plenty of electronic media that has plenty of articles against the government. Disappearing journalist are an issue for the west and other nationalities, but very little impact on our voting.
Therefore totally disagree with your belief that SF have a chance to win this election plus, that this election would be an Iranian style election. Only people who try to convey this message is the ones who already realize that SF is going to loose and trying to figure out a way to defeat MR through violence.
And also if you read the Sunday Leader, which is a paper totally against MR, has published articles stating that MR is going to win, because people believe that SF is not the rightful owner of the war victory. The reason for that is, as you most probably know, we credit the war victory to king Dutugamunu and not the commander who won the war for him (This was stated in the Sunday Leader, and not something made up by me).
People have to figure out whether they are going to vote to end corruption or they are going to vote to safe the country from the West and the LTTE. Most of the Sinhalese in Colombo would vote for SF. My belief is most of the Sinhalese from other part of the country would vote for MR (This is my belief only, not 100% certain). Most of the Muslim and Tamil Vote would go to SF.
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