{"id":94321,"date":"2019-10-25T16:42:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T23:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94321"},"modified":"2019-10-25T16:42:39","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T23:42:39","slug":"sri-lankans-must-vote-a-leader-who-is-that-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/25\/sri-lankans-must-vote-a-leader-who-is-that-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankans must vote a Leader – Who is that Leader?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Without a doubt this is a crucial\nelection. Sri Lanka is going to elect its 7th<\/sup> President who is also\nthe Head of State and the Head of the Armed Forces. The President has a\nhumongous task ahead of him. While we cannot expect him to satisfy all of our\nindividual aspirations there are some common pledges that he must pledge to\nuphold with responsibility & accountability. It is the role of the citizen\nvoter to work out the common themes applicable to all that cannot be\ncompromised \u2013 national security \/ law & order \/ equal rights under one law\nare just a handful of themes that all voters must agree on whatever political\ncolour they are aligned to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is imperative that the country\naccepts that fielding common candidates with political motives endangers the\npillar of the Presidency and that is an aspect we have seen via the 6th<\/sup>\nPresident secretly promoted to contest by an alliance that had individual\npolitical aspirations to advance through the elected candidate. Are voters\naware of proxy candidates? Should voters give their vote to such proxy\ncandidates? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, we have seen the\ntweaking of the constitution, the shocking interference in the judiciary & judicial\nsystem, the administrative apparatus, law & order network and detrimental\nActs\/Bills passed often without debate, without majority vote, without being\nmade public and drafted by foreigners. The magnitude of the damage will be felt\nwith a change of government which is why voters need to elect the correct\nperson who can provide leadership & authority taking responsibility for the\ntasks delegated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt, elections are times\nwhen campaign teams use every mode of communication to promote a candidate.\nHowever, this Presidential Election is no talent show \u2013 we should not be\ndiverted by how best the candidate speaks, looks, plays cricket, sings, its not\nthe colourful propaganda that should count but the content of the message the\ncandidate is conveying. Voters must take interest in his vision and it must be\nconsistent with one\u2019s own or his vision must be one that will inspire voters to\nlook forward to the future, voters must wonder what the candidate\u2019s action plan\nfor our future is. We should not be fooled to accept freebies and promises and\na candidate who in desperation is promising the sun and moon should never be\ntaken seriously. Governing a country with over 20million people and taking care\nof the country\u2019s assets, resources, flora, fauna etc is far more serious than\nthe theatrics displayed on stages or silly statements made to make audience\nclap & laugh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now VOTERS should be asking of\nany candidate HOW\u201d he proposes to make his vision happen not simply accept\nWHAT\u201d his vision is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now VOTERS should question his\n\u2018ABILITY\u2019 against his promises. Here is the most important stage of testing\ncredibility. We must pause at this stage to recollect decades of LTTE terror\nwhich started under the 1st<\/sup> President and continued under 4\nPresidents and it took the 5th<\/sup> President to have the courage to take\na decision against tremendous diplomatic\/international & local pressure\ndemanding he does not militarily defeat the LTTE. His decision not to listen to\nthem but to listen to the victims will enter history books because none of the\nprevious leaders did not have pluck to take the decision that the 5th<\/sup>\nPresident did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have over 30 candidates\ncontesting \u2013 most are not even known by majority of the populace but there are\n4 contenders that we can turn our attention to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a contender who\nrepresents a party that has been responsible for 2 insurgencies and deaths of\nthousands of Sinhalese and armed forces personnel. His party is the richest\npolitical party in Sri Lanka. Sometimes many of us have wondered what party his\npartymen are supporting \u2013 their own or others. The third candidate is another\nwho left the country, worked on a US military base, returned to command the\narmy and a month after retirement announces Presidential bid angering a contender\nwho had been groomed a couple of years\u2019 back as an \u2018alternative\u2019 candidate.\nNeedless to say, it was clear that the \u2018common candidate\u2019 tamasha had not gone\ndown too well with the masses and there was need to find a different name for\nthe backers of the \u2018common candidate\u2019 – \u2018alternative\u2019 was the name and it was\neasy to tap into various civil groups who were angry with the political system,\nget them all pumped up to promote slogans that was subtly meant to say \u2018Don\u2019t\u2019\nVote X\u2019 \u2013 by now many people had picked up on the plan and ironically the\ndisgruntled voters of the party laying the plot are now likely voters of the\n\u2018alternative\u2019 candidate\u2019 we may see some drastic changes happening to change\nthis status quo in days to come. Then we come to one of the two main candidates\nwhose father managed to break the uncle-nephew party and not only become its\nleader but by a whisker win the Presidential elections. His tenure in power has\nbeen marred by many controversies overshadowing his achievements against a\nmassive onslaught of rumors probably by those who think that the uncle-nephew\nparty should not have gone to a classless head. Be that as it may one credit to\nthis 2nd<\/sup> President is the spick and span manner in which he kept the\nPublic Service administrative system who was always kept on attention with\nstrict discipline. His son ironically faced the same obstacle in being\nnominated but has not been lucky enough to contest from the party that he\nremains deputy head. Instead he has had to contend with an bird emblem while\nstruggling to rally his party\u2019s supporters to once again vote for the same\nemblem that this grand old party had no choice but to vote for in 2010, 2015\nand now 2019. Judging by the stage talk we realize that he is only appealing to\nthe lowest 30% class of supporters and thus there is no vision \u2013 no mission \u2013\nno action plan and no strategy that wows the rest of the vote base. Will the\n70% of its supporters decide to vote the alternative, not to vote or give a\nchance to the most popular candidate will be seen as campaigning progresses.\nBut certainly there is a good 40% capable of being won over for they too want\nto look forward to a future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we come to the final\ncandidate who has been brandished by names that has shown tarnishing his image\nis the only way to downplay his rising popularity. We must learn to give credit\nwhere credit is due irrespective of the party. We all appreciate JVP role in\nde-merging the north & eastern provinces and that appreciation will remain.\nSimilarly, it is necessary to benchmark his role firstly since he\u2019s been\ncompared against politicians, secondly because he\u2019s related to a political\nfamily, thirdly because there is a coordinated attack to keep him away from\nbecoming a people\u2019s representative. This candidate served a good number of\nyears in the military, was overseas and returned to take over a position that\nprevious takers had failed to deliver. His coordination capabilities together\nwith other traits surfaced for the public to notice him as a future leader.\nRegime change afforded him a golden opportunity to build his base among\nprofessionals, academics, youth and across the expat communities. It is no\nexaggeration to say that the people chose him and the political party had no\nchoice other than to nominate him. His post-conflict development and other\nprograms raised his scorecard further. Against the other main contender\u2019s\nsingle achievement of building houses that the poor have to pay for the fourth\ncontender has given people not the fishing rod but teaching how to fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most important signs\nin a leader is not just to claim to be the leader but to have people\u2019s\nacceptance and the best example of this can be shown in the manner the most\npopular contender declared his campaign would be poster-less and his rallies have\nhad no posters even the one\u2019s who would have loved to show their support by\nprinting massive cut-outs desisted honoring his wish. Now this is an amazing\nexample of people listening to him & following his instructions and this\nshows that he is ready to take the mantle of head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country needs a quality\nstatesman not a farcical character. The Nation must be able to look up to the\nPresident. His plan must be our plan. His vision must be our vision. Just as he\nhas to do his duty we must also do our duty by the nation. We cannot be\nspectators finding fault. We must be equal participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vote wisely \u2013 we cannot have the\nkind of weak leadership we suffered since 2015. A Leader is one who can\nmotivate people towards a common goal \u2013 our goal is to uplift Sri Lanka &\nits people, protect and foster it for future generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who can take up that challenge to lead & motivate us \u2026 he is the person whom you should vote for!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali D Waduge <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without a doubt this is a crucial election. Sri Lanka is going to elect its 7th President who is also the Head of State and the Head of the Armed Forces. The President has a humongous task ahead of him. While we cannot expect him to satisfy all of our individual aspirations there are some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}