Nittewa

It's Saturday. The release of the UPFA/Mahinda Rajapakse manifesto for the Presidential Election of 2005 was supposed to come out tomorrow (Sunday). This is already after one delay from last week. But now it seems they have pushed it back another two days to Tuesday. The news on the State Broadcasters has been dodging this fact and making it sound like it's the most normal thing for a candidate to not have put forward a manifesto this far out from nominations.

But this makes some people question, is a manifesto important to the Mahinda for President Campaign? And do they even have one?


Do they have a manifesto?

Everyone is starting to say, and they're probably right, that the UPFA and Mahinda Rajapakse do not have a manifesto! If that were to be true, and if they're in the process of cooking one up in a hurry, then it's not going to have much committment behind it. It's going to be a mere vote-getting, promise-making document that's going to be forgotten about soon after the election. (Not that the UNP manifesto is much more than that itself).

It seems the problem is that Mahinda's manifesto was written mainly by the JVP and it didn't contain any committment to a federal solution to the ethnic conflict. So it seems CBK wasn't very happy with it. We may see her as a crazy woman now, but she has had a genuine desire to resolve the conflict, and she has very clearly displayed this through her actions in the past and I don't think she's going to let go of that now.

If she gets her way then the JVP aren't going to be very happy with the manifesto. Mahinda's going to have to pick very very soon which way he's going to swing. Mahinda's never had a solid stand on what he thinks should be the solution to the conflict. He hasn't really shown a committment to a political settlement and his pacts with the JVP and JHU have made a lot of people wonder if he really wants to settle the problem the way CBK has wanted to for the past decade.

The fact that they haven't yet decided on anything is indicative of the big struggle going on within the UPFA government right now. Is there going to be a split before the election? That's where things look like they're going. What is that going to do to Mahinda? Hmmm.


Do they need a manifesto?

Quite a few people I know seem to think that the Mahinda camp doesn't need a manifesto because people are going to vote him in not because they like him, but because they want to defeat Ranil and the UNP. Personally I think that's a pathetic way to become the President (if he wins).

This is probably why the fact that they have not yet put forward their manifesto has not become an issue. The JVP and JHU crowd who're going to vote for Mahinda are going to do it because their party is backing him. They're not really concerned about what Mahinda is going to do if he becomes President. All they know is that if he does become President, their party is going to have a lot more of a say in what goes on, and that's good. They're not in this to make a President who can lead the country, but to make a puppet for their leaders to control.

The fact that Mahinda might actually become President without having to tell the country what he stands for, and what he plans to do for the country, is really really sad.

posted by Morquendi @  11:15 AM   || 4 opinion/s ||