The United National Party, the leading constituent in the ruling coalition yesterday stepped up calls to get out the vote in the forthcoming February 10 local government poll, warning of a return to an ‘era of darkness’ if the Rajapaksa-led party makes inroads at the election.
“Elections have consequences – and sometimes they are dire,” warned UNP General Secretary Minister Kabir Hashim, who is busy on the campaign trail mobilizing the party base in the grassroots contest to capture urban and municipal councils. In a statement issued last evening, the UNP General Secretary said too much had been sacrificed in the battle to defeat authoritarian rule in 2015, to risk a return to that ‘era of darkness.”
“The return of the Rajapaksa scourge may render our country lost to us forever; peace will remain elusive and prosperity reserved for the privileged few,” he emphasised, as the party steps up efforts to recall excesses and abuse by the former ruling family to the electorate, ahead of the local government elections.
“There is no election too small when the stakes are this high,” the top UNPer warned.
The UNP General Secretary, who serves as Minister of Public Enterprise Development, acknowledged that the Government – and the nation – “had miles to go”. The full text of Kabir Hashim’s statement:
As the country faces its first election since 2015 and memory grows short, when people ask the inevitable question in this election season – ‘what has this Government done after all the promises?’ – it is easy to throw up our hands. But the results of the 2015 election, and the changes it wrought to the country, its democratic institutions and political culture are tangible and reverberates across all spheres of Sri Lankan life three years on. For the first time Parliament has taken full control of public finance, with a member of the Opposition chairing the House Committee on Public Accounts and scrutinizing the annual Government budget. Embracing and nurturing Sri Lanka’s legacy of free education and free health services has been a priority for this Government. We are proud to be the Government that provided medical insurance to every school child of Rs 200,000 per annum since 2017. We are proud to be the Government that slashed the prices of cardiac stents for heart patients, while offering them free of charge to all patients receiving treatment at Government hospitals. Not so long ago, the dreaded white vans were harbingers of repression, tragedy and death. Today white van ambulances, offered completely free of charge, save hundreds of lives every day. Democratisation has begun in earnest, with independence restored to state institutions and public officials. An exploitative electoral system has been overhauled, bringing politicians closer to their constituencies and having elections unfold so quietly that it is easy to forget polling season is in full swing. For 40 years the rotten ‘manape’ system plagued this country’s elections and its politicians, bringing with it infighting and corruption to finance expensive personality contests. This system has been scrapped in this upcoming local government election, and the results of that change is already manifest in the manner in which this poll is unfolding across the villages. Today, the Government is lampooned in the national media and the opposition is afforded more airtime than ever before. The vilification of the Government by some of these organizations has been severe; and in many cases they have been unjust. Yet the media has faced no reprisals. The age of calling newspaper editors and threatening them is over. The age of abducting and killing independent journalists is over. The freedom to speak openly against the Government and the highest officials of the land is thriving. As an incumbent Government none of this goes in our favour. But we celebrate this freedom, because it was fought for and won in January 2015; because an unfettered and vibrant press is a keystone of our democracy and must be protected at all costs. I only hope that this new found freedom and the heady breezes of democracy blowing across our island will not make our friends in the media forgetful of a dark and not-so-distant nor by falling prey to petty political interests, mislead the people and place this nation once more on a slippery slope towards autocracy and repression. While we may not yet have rid our culture of corruption and waste, for the first time in decades, there is accountability for those crimes. Ministers have been forced to resign for failing the people and their mandate. The promise of January 8 2015 was a Government of the people that would be accountable to the people. Greater transparency, rule of law, due process and the principle that no single person would be permitted to operate above the law – these were the tenets of the binding contract we signed with the people in 2015. The UNP has proven it will respect that mandate. For the first time in living memory, a sitting Prime Minister testified before a Presidential Commission investigating the bond issue. I myself went before the Commission, as did our Party Chairman. All of us have submitted to being interviewed and questioned by the Attorney General’s Department, - a department that was freed from the iron grip of the executive through the 19th Amendment – by our Government. As a party we stand committed to punish those guilty of abuse or corruption in the bond issue and any issue going forward, and we will do this without fear or favour. Yet as a Government and a nation, we have miles to go. Perfect republics are not built in a day, or in a few years. When we took on this task three years ago, the UNP knew it would not be easy; that there would be stumbles and roadblocks on the way. But the will to change – and if necessary be changed as a party – remains as strong as ever. In the battle to defeat authoritarian rule three years ago, too much was risked, too much was sacrificed to risk a return to that era of darkness. A return of the Rajapaksa scourge may render our country lost to us forever; peace will remain elusive and prosperity reserved for the privileged few.
My appeal to the UNP and all my fellow citizens is to go out and vote on February 10. The right to vote in free and fair elections, without fear of intimidation and reprisals, without a tipping of the scales was hard-won. Exercise that freedom and show up at the polls, because decisions are ultimately made by those who turn up to vote. And as we have learned, time and again – elections have consequences – and sometimes they are dire. There is no election too small when the stakes are this high. Your vote is your voice – make sure it is heard.