posted
Yesterday were the presidential elections. The government elections - prime minister and all other cabinet ministers, etc. - are held separately. This election was for just the president, the top position in this country. Thirteen men were running, but only two had a chance of getting elected - Ranil and Mahinda. Ranil was the prime minister until the last governmental elections a year and a half ago, and then Mahinda was elected. Mahinda is the same party as the current president, crazy woman Bandaranaike.
Bandaranaike is psychotic, I swear - her father was in politics, as was her mother, and her husband ran for office but was assassinated, and then she was elected. She alternates who she accuses of killing her husband depending on who she hates at the moment, and evidence has no part in it.
Anyway, despite Bandaranaike and Mahinda belonging to the same party, Bandaranaike has been mudslinging against Mahinda. I don't know why, but it has become very obvious that she doesn't want him being the next president.
Ah well.
Moving on. So. Ranil is the popular vote and pretty much everyone thinks he'll win the election. He's also for peace, which is, usually, considered a good thing. Mahinda is all over the place - allying himself with this group and that, despite conflicts between his allies. Some of the groups he's allied himself with want to close the economy - be self-sufficient or something and not allow so many imports. Don't know what they think about exports. If this group succeeds, it's likely that the Sri Lankan economy will die, and fast. Inflation will go through the roof even worse than it has been in the two and a half years since I arrived.
Mahinda is not so much for peace. Well, stands to reason - Bandaranaike wasn't, either. So yesterday, voting happens. We see this morning on the news that one district had only 900 out of a possible 55,000 voters showed up to vote. What? That's outrageously low.
It wasn't until later that we got the full story. That all, or perhaps only most, of the districts in the north and the east - the LTTE, or Tamil Tiger areas - were like that. Originally, the Tamil Tigers were saying yes, vote, everyone is free to vote. But polls were indicating that Ranil would get majority votes in the north and the east.
In those areas, people who want to vote have to leave the Tamil Tiger controlled areas and go to government controlled areas to vote. Today, the LTTE (allegedly, but it's so consistent with their practices) tossed grenades at people who attempted to cross into government controlled land to vote. Then no one would cross over. Hence the whole 900 of 55,000 voters showing up. Why? Because they didn't want Ranil winning the election. They didn't want the peace process to move forward.
The Tamil Tigers, we hear, want to say "Oh, but look, we tried peace. It didn't work. Now that the peace process is stalled, we'll take war." And because of that, Mahinda, who was popular in other areas, won the election. Mahinda, who doesn't care about peace or the economy. And so this country will, it would seem, plummet into economic chaos and war. And I'm here to witness it.
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posted
Wow. The Tamil Tigers are one of the great evils in this world. Good luck Quid. Perhaps its not as bad as it appears.
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posted
I'm not actually scared for me. The war, when it happens, is mainly in the north and the east, and in that respect, the Tamil Tigers ain't that bright. They end up destroying their own people and the land they live in, including the land they want for their own separate country. Very little of what happens takes place outside of those affected areas.
And no, I don't want to go back to Canada. I'd rather see the rest of the world. I just find it pathetic how little actual freedom there is here.
Now for more on the presidential candidates. I haven't been here long, so there's a lot I don't know. Fahim and I were talking last night, and he mentioned that, up until Mahinda allied himself with absolutely everyone (win at all costs strategy), he thought Mahinda was likely the better candidate - he came across as having better morals and more integrity. Not so much now that he's willing to sell his soul to every political party out there.
For example, Mahinda allied himself with the Buddhist monks' political party. The monks do not want peace, nor do they want religious freedom. They want something more akin to a Buddhist religious state and they would prefer that conversions to other religions be made illegal. That bill, as far as I know, hasn't yet passed.
Ranil, on the other hand, is corrupt, but from an elite perspective. As in he'll crack down on corruption with those he doesn't want to be corrupt, but he'll allow his elect to be as corrupt as they want.
posted
Wow, quid, from my comfy spot here in the U.S. this is fascinating reading, thanks for sharing your perspective.
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See, from my previously comfortable spot in Canada, I didn't know about stuff like this other than from news, which tends to be dry and boring, so in my egocentric view, I tend to think it's interesting to others as well. If that makes sense - I'm just barely waking up and my brain isn't totally on yet.
More about yesterday.
These elections were considered to be very peaceful compared to previous elections. No body count, which, in Sri Lanka, is a huge improvement, and only hundreds of complaints of election violence. Compare to the election in spring of 2004 with 6 dead and over 1400 counts of election violence and you begin to understand.
However, most of those counts of violence were in the north and east and perpetrated by the Tamil Tigers.
Also, no curfew after the elections this time, either. There was no curfew after the spring 2004 elections either, but apparently, previous to that, curfews were common to the point of being the norm. Also, no rioting that we've heard of, and historically, that's also the norm. All in all, it bodes well.
Yesterday was Fahim's day off, and we haven't been out and about in over a month because of Ramadan, which ended, what, a week ago? Oh, how I lose track of time! During Ramadan, Fahim doesn't like going out if it's not necessary - he's already dehydrated and it'll just make him more sick and irritable. I don't really want to do that to him, either. So yesterday was our first opportunity in quite a while.
We went out. We hadn't heard of any rioting and things seemed calm, so we went.
First thing we noticed - more than half the shops and stores were closed. Not just in our neighborhood, but everywhere. Would the places we want to go be open? No idea, but we decided to risk it.
Very little traffic. Where normally, it would be bumper to bumper, there were perhaps six vehicles in a one block stretch, sometimes less.
Men with guns. They were everywhere and there were lots of them. Some barricades were up, but that's normal here, especially around minister's houses and the like. But many many more men with guns. And when we're talking guns, we're talking rifles as well as the, whaddya call 'em, sandbagged barricades with automatic weapons behind those.
Honestly, though, men with guns are common enough here that it wasn't scary. It looked more preventative than anything else.
Buses were nearly empty. Understand, first of all, that a lot of the buses were co-opted to be used for election purposes. I don't know if it's to transport election workers, or those who want to vote, or what, but whatever the specifics, that's where most of them went. With not very many buses on the roads, most people stayed home because there's no way to get around, hence the empty buses. This also, of course, contributes to the closed shops and stores.
Lots of foreigners were out. Lots and lots and lots and lots of pasty white people. I don't know if it was just easier to notice them without the crowds of brown, or if there really were more out because they're taking advantage of no crowds today. Either way, there were loads of them.
Um, yeah, I think that's about it.
We went to one of the DVD places we shop at at MC, and they see us approaching the closed, locked door, recognize Fahim, and let us in. We're memorable simply because we buy 20+ DVDs at a time. Yesterday, we bought Lost season 1, Fawlty Towers, and about 30 or more movies. Yeah, they remember us. Anyway, they let us in and lock the door behind. I guess they want to control who comes in. Not sure what they're scared of, but on a post-election day, anything is possible.
We were going to do our grocery shopping at Arpico on the way back, but even that, a huge department store (huge by local standards, not by North American standards) was closed. This store is almost never closed. It's traditionally open Poya days (Buddhist holidays - full moon days - and the biggest deal here), Christmas, everything. But not yesterday. Luckily, we have enough food so it's not a problem.
I suppose we should check out the news and see what kind of developments there are since yesterday. Maybe.
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I just find it pathetic how little actual freedom there is here.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Anyway, they let us in and lock the door behind. I guess they want to control who comes in. Not sure what they're scared of, but on a post-election day, anything is possible.
