Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part V – EXPERIENCE

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Nanda Wanninayaka

Nanda Wanninayaka nanda.wanninayaka@gmail.com

Jokers (and jerks – including Mr. Anura Dissanayaka) apart, there are two mainstream candidates in the run-up to the presidential election on November 16, 2019. Well, whether you like it or not, it is Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (GR) and Mr. Sajith Premadasa (SP) who are the front-runners for the contest and the others are just vote spoilers.

In these few articles, I am comparing and contrasting the two persons in question in 10 areas of concern in alphabetical order. This post deals with the EXPERIENCE of the two candidates. Read Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part IV – ELECTION CAMPAIGN for the previous post. The next area, LEGACY of the two candidates, would be dealt with in Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part VI – LEGACY.)

EXPERIENCE

Almost all the former presidents concerned, except for Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, came to the high post with a wealth of experiences in active politics. According to many this experience will have the upper hand in the election process as well.

Gota

As far as experiences concerned, Gota is not what you call a career politician. He has only 10 years’ experience as an administrator in the capacity of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development. Whatever said and done about the ways he carried out affairs in that position, none can contradict that he was a highly effective administrator as he won the war against Tamil Tiger terrorists and made the country, especially Colombo, clean and orderly, two tasks that many of his predecessors or not even the leaders of the country could boast of. And the people have a natural fear of him turning out to be a dictator with his experiences as a former army officer, a justifiable fear of many concerned citizens. Even if Gota is inexperienced in politics, he has the inevitable support of the former president Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) and the rest of the Rajapaksa clan which is a very strong outfit at any challenge.

Sajith

In addition to Sajith’s experiences as an MP, a deputy minister and a minister in local politics, he has interned in the US Foreign Relations Committee under Senator Larry Pressler. Wikipedia says Sajith has met many other influential senators, including the former presidential candidate late Mr John McCain and the former Secretary of State Mr. John Kerry. This will be an added qualification to Sajith if he or his election campaigners make use of those areas to silence his critics who say Sajith doesn’t have much exposure with the rest of the world. It is questionable how he carried out with those high-level friends though. Sajith keeps ranting he has a lot of links with the developed world and will be able to get foreign aid to develop Sri Lanka. But with the economic model he suggests which is full of freebies, one starts to doubt if much difference can be done with charitable handouts without increasing the productivity as a nation. Unfortunately, his election campaign is focused on petty issues and thousand and one undeliverable election promises which won’t help much these days as the masses already know these promises cannot be delivered. But, the voters in this country have been so gullible to promises such as 8 pounds of grain to rice from the moon to bread at 3.50 LKR to free Wi-Fi, haven’t they?

Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part IV – ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Nanda Wanninayaka

Nanda Wanninayaka nanda.wanninayaka@gmail.com

Jokers (and jerks – including Mr Anura Dissanayaka) apart, there are two mainstream candidates in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled to be held on November 16, 2019. Well, whether you like it or not, it is Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (GR) and Mr Sajith Premadasa (SP) who are the frontrunners for the contest and the others are just vote spoilers. After the election day, they will end up as also-rans.

In these few articles, I concentrate on the strengths and the weeknesses of the two candidates by comparing and contrasting 10 areas of concern in alphabetical order. This post deals with the ELECTION CAMPAIGN of the duo. Read Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part III –EDUCATION for the previous post. The next area, the EXPERIENCE of the two candidates, will be discussed in the Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part IV – EXPERIENCE.)

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

I am sure the election campaigns must have played a key role ever since the democratic elections were introduced in modern representative democracy which came into play since the 17th century. In Sri Lankan context, elections had been rather peaceful till that scoundrel of a politician, the late Mr J. R. Jayawardene became the Prime Minister in 1977 and then declared himself as the executive President of Sri Lanka without having a separate presidential election. Though he gained an unassailable 5/6^th power in the parliament through a democratically held election, he ensured peaceful elections will not happen again not only within his political lifespan, but also through the next President Mr Ranasinghe Premadasa era which abruptly ended in the hands of a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in 1993. Then parachuted Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga into Sri Lanka’s political void in 1994, first as the Prime Minister, then the President the very same year through rather violent elections as she had to fight against the then UNP government. The country had seen enough election violence between 1977 to 1994 and by then and was fed up with the rigged elections which came with a “bonus” of election violence with scores being killed and injured by the state-sponsored violence. So, now politicians have to execute their election campaigns with fair play with creative methods than unleashing violence.

Gota

Even though Gota comes from a family which produced many a national-level politician to the country, is not a typical politician as he was a serviceman in the army, then a computer professional in the USA and then the Secretary to the Ministry of Defense & Urban Development in Sri Lanka. So, he is a better administrator than a career politician. So, his campaign is obviously weaker than that of his rival Sajith. Having understood this, Gota has allowed his supporters, mainly comprise of many professionals from a myriad of areas to steer the campaign for him. His campaign uses a lot of technology and social media and the internet at its best. This is where Gota has the upper hand over Sajith. Rather than unrealistic election promises, Gota’s camp addresses the prevalent challenges the country faces and the voters might go for him if they are convinced of his prowess. As per the traditional style campaign is concerned, Gota’s elder brother Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa who is a career politician throughout his adult life, takes great care of that part of the battle I guess.

Sajith

When you look at the number of new Facebook accounts, FB groups, newly started news websites, etc., that support Sajith, it is crystal clear that a Putin-style campaign is in action to promote Sajith, just like it happened with Mr Donald J. Trump‘s election campaign to support the latter’s White House bid. Gotabaya’s campaign is nowhere near, not even close to counter Sajith’s. To me, his traditional style campaign also is stronger than that of Gota’s. Sajith fought against all odds and “grabbed” the opportunity to get the candidacy to represent UNP-led camp, just like his late father did in 1988 and to everyone’s surprise, has been able to garner almost all the support from his party (maybe barring Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe.) If not for the unrealistic promises the former keeps giving the public and the stupid remarks he does at election rallies, I am sure he will be able to secure an unexpected win this November, just like Trump did in his trails to the White House in 2016.

Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part III – EDUCATION

Posted on October 26, 2019 by Nanda Wanninayaka

Nanda Wanninayaka nanda.wanninayaka@gmail.com

Jokers (and jerks – including Mr Anura Dissanayaka) apart, there are two mainstream candidates in the run-up to the presidential election on November 16, 2019. Well, whether you like it or not, it is Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (GR) and Mr Sajith Premadasa (SP) who are the frontrunners for the contest and the others are just vote spoilers. After the election day, they will be also-rans for sure.

In these few articles, I will take the trouble of comparing and contrasting the two persons in question in 10 areas of concern in alphabetical order. This post deals with the EDUCATION of the two candidates. The previous post about AGE of the two candidate, read Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part II. The next area, the EXPERIENCE of the two candidates, will be discussed in the Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part IV)

EDUCATION

The presidential candidate’s education has been a concern in politics but most politicians in the country have a little to offer the country where their brain departments are concerned as the majority of them is poorly educated. Even those who were well-educated haven’t done justice to their education or the country by taking sensible policy decisions.

Gota

In Gota’s case, he obtained his primary and secondary education at Ananda College, Colombo, and a Postgraduate Degree in Information Technology from the University of Colombo in 1992, which is impeccable as a futuristic leadership even though his opponent has the edge over the former in terms of youthful energy. There are no known records about his academic achievements when he was a schoolboy. His post-graduate degree in IT must have been obtained after retiring from the military I guess. Unlike his counterpart, Gota was in the military and he must have gone through much military training as it was his profession. Usually, people who join the military do so as soon as they finish their Ordinary Level (OL) or Advanced Level (AL.) So, comparing them with a civilian’s educational qualifications won’t be reasonable I guess.

Sajith

On the contrary, Sajith attended the S. Thomas’ Preparatory School, Mount Lavinia, and the Royal College, Colombo two prestigious local schools and Mill Hill School, England and thereafter London School of Economics (LSE) of the University of London graduating with a BSc in Economics, Politics and International Relations. (I am not sure if he was graduated from those two institutions though. Some speculate he did not.) Thereafter, he attended the University of Maryland, Washington, USA to pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Management. (People have the same doubt for this also. I think Sajith himself has to come up with the truth. In the past, former president Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga also was questioned about her true educational qualifications.) Anyway, if those two claims are true, Sajith has the edge over his opponent academically. But I don’t understand as to why his camp doesn’t answer the allegations, especially from his own party strongman Mr Ravi Karunanayake, that Sajith hasn’t passed GCE Ordinary Level (OL.) I don’t understand the meaning of this harsh allegation against Sajith. He was studying in England during that age group and we know well there are equivalent or even higher exams than just local OL. The nomenclature of exams changes from country to country and in some countries there are no national exams like in Sri Lanka, but there are grades given on a student’s track record like SAT, etc. With the educational qualifications Sajith possesses, it is absurd that he or his campaign doesn’t capitalize on those. Like his opponent, Sajith’s academic track record as a schoolboy is not known but he is a decent, yet amateur singer and a musician who can play guitar, piano, and drums to my knowledge. I think these talents must have come from his father who also was a half-baked artist himself.

Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part II – AGE

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Nanda Wanninayaka

Nanda Wanninayaka nanda.wanninayaka@gmail.com

In these few articles, I will be comparing and contrasting the two persons in question in 10 areas of concern in alphabetical order. This post deals with the AGE factor of the two candidates. In my previous post, I discussed the ACHIEVEMENTS of the duo. Read it at Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part I. In my next post, EDUCATION of the two candidates will be discussed. Await the next post, Gota or Sajith? – The Agony of Choice – Part III.

AGE

One’s age will be another factor but this is always tricky. If you are too young to contest at a presidential election, he/she will be considered inexperienced and if he/she is too old, he/she will be considered both mentally and physically unsound for the job at the helm of the country to lead it forward. It is the way you present yourself that matters more than the real age at the election I guess.

Gota

Gota is exactly 70 years old by now, the same age in which the late President Mr. J. R. Jayawardene became the prime minister of Sri Lanka. There is this universal argument that the leader of a country should be a young or middle-aged person rather than a person who is closer to the next world than this. The world is evolving faster with technology, new frontiers of economics, and emerging markets are the main concerns to develop a country. The leader of a country should be young and open-minded enough to welcome such changes. If Gota is elected for two consecutive presidential terms, he would be 80 by the time he leaves the office which doesn’t look good for the country or himself. Then again, a legendary leader like Dr. Mahathir Mohamad happened to come out of his retirement and he was voted in by the public as they believed the former still can lead the nation at the age of 93. So, Gota being an effective president cannot be ruled out even though he is 18 years older than his comparatively younger opponent. This is something I won’t predict at this stage as a lot can happen in 5 years if not 10.

Sajith

Sajith is just 52 and will be the second-youngest president after Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga who became the president at the age of 49. Sajith says he is energetic and dynamic but he has to prove it beyond just words. The downside of his comparatively young presidential candidacy is that he hasn’t been able to prove that he is mature enough for a 52-yer-old by his speech, action or behavior. I wonder whether he has enough time left to change the voters’ perception as we are only three weeks away from the big day. Besides, him telling the voters that he would work 20X7X365 has only earned him a sarcastic reaction by the public than doing any good for him. What Sajith has to understand is that what his father did (in going to bed very late and waking up very early) won’t excite the present-day voters as everyone understands that a human being needs sufficient rest and decent sleep. Working 20X7X365 means you are not organized. I think it is the high time Sajih stopped talking about working-20-hours-a-day drivel. I am not sure if there is any advisor to tell him to stop bunkum or maybe he just ignores the advice, just like his father used to and keep talking gobbledygook like this.