The ruling coalition calls itself the United People's Freedom Alliance or the UPFA for short. But, if the inane utterances of some government politicians are anything to go by, it is doubtful whether they are au fait with people's burning problems. They seem to think that the war was the only problem people ever had and now that the LTTE has been crushed, everything is hunky dory.

Yesterday, at a government press briefing, Minister Champika Ranawaka urged the people to bear with three ‘minor’ issues: the cost of living, threats to the media and the executive presidency! Opinion may be divided on safeguarding media freedom and scrapping the executive presidency, depending on the colour of the glasses people use to look at them. Some of them may not care two hoots about attacks on the media or whether the executive presidency stays or goes. But, how on earth could any sensible person discount people's economic woes? To claim that the cost of living is a minor issue is to make a molehill out of a mountain, to say the least!

We have reason to believe that the government does not subscribe to Minister Ranawaka's ill-conceived and audacious contention, for President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whatever his other failings may be, is a practical politician with an ear to the ground. That may be why he is not flaunting the current inflation figures indicating a steep decline. He knows people cannot eat statistics however impressive they may be. Although the inflation is on the wane, according to the Central Bank, people's purchasing power has not recorded a discerning increase.

That people continue to vote for the present regime does not mean all of them enjoy three square meals a day. The war against the Tigers ended with the final battle at Nandikadal last May, but the bitterly fought 'kitchen war' against the wolf continues. President Rajapaksa got it right when he reportedly told some of his guests recently that he did not go by statistics but wanted to boost people's purchasing power. That was also the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa's line of thinking. He famously said: Minussunge athe mite salli gewasenna oney. (People must have money in their hands.) That is economic horse sense!

Minister Dallas Alahapperuma yesterday boasted on the SLBC that usually governments in power had their vote banks eroded at elections but the UPFA was an exception. At yesterday's press conference, he neither endorsed nor took exception to his ministerial colleague's assertion that the cost of living was not a major issue. However, the government is winning elections not because the people's lot has improved. It is on a winning streak because people are without an alternative to it vis-à-vis threats, both perceived and real, to the county from within and without.

Had the UNP taken on the LTTE and defeated it instead of appeasing it at the expense of national security interests, people would have voted for it overwhelmingly. Or, its defeat would have been less ignominious and devastating if it had at least desisted from pandering to the whims and fancies of internal and external forces hostile to this country in the post war period.

What fuels the UPFA's electoral performance is people's patriotism, which has taken precedence over all other major issues including the cost of living. The UNP does not care to dip into the government's political 'fuel dump'. The day it does, the government will have its work cut out; its vote bank will begin to dwindle.

By now euphoria would have been over and the Opposition could have capitalised on economic difficulties of people to make a comeback but for the anti-Sri Lankan campaign by the Diasporic Tigers backed by some western governments and their propaganda shock troops. They have provided the government with a rallying point. These days, politically speaking, Channel 4 keeps the Rajapaksa government going! BBC, CNN, the Boston Globe etc. ably assisted by some local Opposition politicians, will be helping President Rajapaksa with his re-election campaign in a few months! The more the West and its propaganda acolytes attack this country in a bid to revive the LTTE, the higher President Rajapaksa's popularity goes.