In one of Liyanage Amarakeerthi’s short stories, he writes of a fishing village in the North Western coast of Sri Lanka around the time of the southern insurgency in the late eighties. The story is built around a young woman who is posted as a teacher to the village school. She is full of ideals with a vision to uplift the lives of the children under her care. In the village is a local fisherman (with a wife and young son) who is known as a supporter of a group opposed to that of the ruling party. Soon after an election where the ruling party’s candidate has won, the fisherman’s hut is surrounded and the man is asked to come out. The wife wants to go with him too but, knowing the fate that awaits him and his wife if she also came, he admonishes the wife and asks her to stay behind and look after the son. A while later, a gunshot is heard; the next day, the fisherman’s body is washed ashore, partly devoured by sharks. The woman dare not complain although she identified at least two of the men who abducted her husband. She also feels it necessary to protect her son from the truth of the tragedy. The young lad thinks that it was a shark that killed his father and his behaviour in the woman teacher’s class at the village school is that of a neurotic rebel. He is obsessed with killing the shark, the killer of his father. To this end, he cultivates the friendship of a soldier in an Army bunker by the sea and is thrilled when he is allowed to touch the soldier’s rifle. Not long after, the young lad also disappears.

It seems that it will be stories like this, both fictional as Amarakeerthi’s as well as true ones, which are going to dominate the upcoming Election or elections: tales of rights violations, revenge, power and politico-military one upmanship. As this column is being written, we still have no indication as to which of and when the elections will be held. It was stated that President Rajapakse would be making that announcement at the SLFP’s Convention on Sunday 15th. That was when General Fonseka was still a serving officer and ineligible to contest any election. But Fonseka handed in his retirement papers in the week before the Convention date. He was now free to contest. That seems to have brought about a re-think in the minds of Rajapakse and his advisors and the expected announcement did not materialize. We still do not know if Fonseka will decide to be candidate, but if he does, certainly Round 1 has gone to him.

Fonseka will undoubtedly be a formidable candidate, whether he is one of two or three leading candidates. But a Presidential candidate, even with a mandate to abolish the Executive Presidency, must be a strong personality with an independent mind. That is why any talk of conditions being placed on acceptance of Fonseka as a common candidate seems politically immature, or even puerile. Conditions only tend to undermine a candidate. If he decides to contest, Fonseka must be free to publish his own manifesto (no doubt in consultation with leaders of friendly political parties) and announce his candidature as an independent. Other political parties, both in the opposition and even within the government now, will then be in a position to support him based on that manifesto.

In terms of our Constitution, the present Parliament will automatically cease to function on 2nd April 2010 unless dissolved earlier. So the holding of a Parliamentary election will probably happen in the first quarter of 2010. But a Presidential Election is not required until November 2011. For a variety of reasons, we are a bruised and divided nation now. Having a Presidential Election now, long before it is mandatory in terms of the Constitution, is going to bruise and divide the nation even further. Already the battle lines have been drawn and the tone and tenor of some of letter writers in the opinion pages of the newspapers is ugly. It is going to be counter-productive and go against those whose candidature they are trying to promote. How can war heroes turn traitors overnight when they have done nothing to betray the nation’s interests? With elections coming up, all parties will be wooing prospective voters. The leader writer in Thurday’s Island thinks that the SLFP’s invitation to the TNA is, like other alliances among opposition parties, a contradiction wrapped in ironies. There is nothing wrong in all this as long as policies and principles are not compromised. All parties unfortunately engage in name-calling their opponents but that does not prevent them coming together later. What is crucial is that alliances must be based on a clear mutually acceptable programme that is intended to take the country forward.

The first and most vital item in any manifesto should be to rid the Constitution of the clause relating to Presidential immunity. It would be unfair now to impute motives to J R Jayawardene when he included this clause in the 1978 Constitution. But, making use of this immunity clause, President Rajapakse has blatantly violated the Constitution by not appointing the Constitutional Council and the Elections Commission and by appointing his own nominees to Commissions like the National Police Commission, Human Rights Commission and the Public Service Commission. In the forthcoming national elections, these Commissions, intended by the Constitution to be independent, are going to be playing a crucial role. Sadly, they will be in no position to play an independent role. So it is important that all parties and candidates make a solemn pledge to lift Presidential immunity and to uphold the Constitution at all times..

A prophet, it has been said, is not without honour except in his or her own country. Club de Madrid is an organization of former Heads of State dedicated to strengthening democratic values, good governance and leadership. Over seventy former Heads of State representing over fifty countries are reportedly members of Club de Madrid, contributing their time, experience and knowledge to further the objectives of the organization. Last week, the Club had its annual conference in Madrid and the theme was ‘The Political Dimensions of the World Economic Crisis’. Our former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga had the honour to be invited to address the Conference on ‘Employment, Social Welfare and Democratic Rights and Duties.’

But this was not all. On the final day of the Conference, when the Board of Directors was elected by consensus, Kumaratunga found herself one of the twelve Directors of Club de Madrid. Former Prime Minister if Netherlands Wim Kok was elected President and Ms Jennifer Mary Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Vice President. This is a singular honour which all Sri Lankans can be proud of.

In view of the recent shameful invitation extended to the leader of the military junta in Myanmar to visit Sri Lanka, it is relevant to note that Club de Madrid wrote a letter in May 2009 to the UN Secretary-General urging him to secure the release of Myanmar’s elected leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. That was before a sham trial against Suu Kyi for breaking the terms of her continuing house arrest. Following the trial, Club de Madrid issued a statement in August: "The Club of Madrid voices its deep concern over the recent decision to continue and prolong the prison sentence of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We believe that continuing to deny her freedom is harmful not only to her health and well-being, but to the health and future of Burma/Myanmar’s people and nation as well. We call on the country’s rulers to work with the opposition towards dialogue and reconciliation, and offer our support to the international community towards such a process. In particular, we support the petition submitted on behalf of Suu Kyi’s family to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and we call on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to continue steadfastly in his efforts to secure an unconditional release of Suu Kyi, and a restoration of inclusive, participatory, democratic discourse and electoral processes in the country."

As many of us know, Suu Kyi was elected to power in a landslide popular vote in 1988. But the military intervened and she and her party were never allowed to take office. Myanmar has been ruled by the military junta ever since and for the last twenty years, the popular democratically elected Suu Kyi has been at least under house arrest throughout the period. And this is the junta whose leader our government thinks fit to host and entertain.

Through an excellent series of booklets published by the Civil Rights Movement around the early nineties, this column has quoted before the writings of Suu Kyi. Her words are still relevant to us not only because of the invitation extended to the junta leader but also in view of the impending elections here: "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it……With so close a relationship between fear and corruption, there is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife, corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched….Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power…..The main impetus for struggle is not an appetite for power, revenge and destruction but a genuine respect for freedom, peace and justice. The quest for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community. It is part of the unceasing human endeavour to prove that the spirit of man can transcend the flaws of his own nature."