From Biden To Trump, Mahinda To Ranil! Have We Run Out Of Choices?

By Mohamed Harees –

“The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the values, the dreams of the people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“I don’t feel represented by the candidates the parties in power keep offering up,” says a citizen, writing for an online publication, which shares “anonymous narratives to promote civil discourse.” ‘[A]nd I won’t vote for a ‘lesser evil,’” he says. “People who are less trusting of their fellow citizens and who are less trusting of government officials to do the right thing are less likely to vote,” he says. “If you believe that your representatives and government officials are all out for themselves and cannot be trusted to behave in a moral fashion, then voting is likely to be seen as useless.”  Most believe elections bring offer any credible choices, little change, that politicians are corrupt and out of touch and that courts do not treat people fairly.

These are the “Hobson’s choices” in politics today. The phrase  originates from a 17th century English horse trader who, it is believed, rented horses to customers on his own terms. There is broad agreement that the Houses of Parliament offers a retirement home for aged politicos, a recovery ward for defeated politicians; a well-paid sinecure for some long-term, elite group of cunning businessmen, and a springboard for opportunistic wannabees in politics and not offering much talents with fresh thinking. Whether it is in the US, UK or Sri Lanka, dissatisfaction with democracy is related to economic frustration, the status of individual rights, as well as perceptions that personalities in politics today are corrupt and do not care about average citizens.

Biden told a crowd in Vegas that he recently met with Francois Mitterrand, the French president who has been dead for nearly 30 years. Then again, Biden reportedly referred to Sisi, the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico. He will be likely to be in the race again. Already the oldest president ever, Biden is 81 and would be 86 at the end of a second term. Trump, the probable Republican presidential nominee this year, will turn 78 in June. To some extent, so are the credentials of Trump – who recently confused Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey. He also confused Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, with Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House speaker.

Americans see the next presidential election shaping up as a national trainwreck. According to polls, they view the election of either Joe Biden or Donald Trump as president would be a setback or a disaster for the United States. Opinion polls show the twice impeached, quadruply indicted ex-president narrowly leading Biden – and experts say ‘it would be a disaster for America’. A majority of voters in six swing states consider President Trump and Joe Biden mentally unfit to be president, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll. Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, publics around the world held the United States in low regard, with most opposed to his foreign policies. This was especially true among key American allies and partners. Both Trump and Biden applied their unilateral approaches to foreign affairs as was seen in their  related to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

For 227 years the United States, the world’s principal capitalist power, has also changed its leader every four years and has always chosen between two parties, Republican and Democrat, but the country’s situation does not vary. Whoever the president is, the ferocious imperialism continues and a high level of consumption for its working class is maintained, while the most important decisions continue to be taken on Wall Street (the oligarchs who handle the money) or by the military-industrial complex, which sets its rapacious foreign policy as an imperialist nation.  The idea that the US is a democracy is objectively and qualitatively false. This is not a controversial point, it’s empirically verifiable.

If the masses are constantly told they can change those political realities they disagree with in the next voting cycle, radical change in the “now” is quelled. Unethical business transactions by politicians or deadly bombings overseas, under this symbolic democracy, are not seen as systemic realities inherent in the governmental system but temporary decisions that can be corrected by voting in next election. Indeed, Trump droned the same community in Yemen as Obama. Biden followed upon the same pro Israeli policies( in fact worse) like Trump. It is not a surprise, because they are all part of the governmental system. Yet because masses are told they can vote people in and out of office and people assume domestic economic policies or foreign policies will radically change as soon as another president is elected. A symbolic democracy maintains the status quo by making us think in election cycles that we allegedly have control over and not systemic realities that will continue until the structures of power are dismantled, no matter who is in office.

The behaviour of many British political leaders has also been nothing short of abhorrent. From Tony Blair whose lies along with Bush led to a million and more deaths in Iraq, to Cameron, Boris and to Rishi Sunak or even Nigel Farage – these men have shown no qualms about misleading and lying to the public in furtherance of their own narrow political ambitions. Sri Lanka too boasts a similarly long list of abhorrent ‘leaders’. The electoral system and the corrupt establishment – big business, the media, the international community and the state itself – promotes, legitimises and profits on the back of these lying, corrupt politicians.

Sri Lanka’s rulers have repeatedly disregarded the country’s best interests for personal gain. However, despite eliminating the LTTE, no one has compromised Sri Lanka’s long-term standing as much as Rajapaksas.  The family first came into power in 2005 with the election of Mahinda Rajapaksa as president, who quickly appointed several members of his family to senior positions – most notorious among them, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who served as Secretary of Defence at the end of the war also led an authoritarian rule after his election in 2019. The Rajapaksas cunningly used an unashamedly a pseudo ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ nationalist political machine to rule on a platform of racism, silencing human rights defenders and crushing dissent, particularly from numerically smaller Tamil and Muslim communities.

Concerns over the widespread corruption and nepotism of Rajapaksa rule and their assaults on judicial and media freedom appeared initially to hardly dent his popularity. Such was the apparent culture of impunity that while they changed the constitutions to ensure immunity from prosecution and to bolster their family rule. . attacking the island’s Muslims. (Most among these minorities did not vote for Rajapaksa and he believed that the narrative against them bolstered his Sinhalese Buddhist credentials.) He did so while undermining democratic institutions and establishing an increasingly authoritarian regime.

Despite the historic Aragalaya, which saw the exit of  Gotabhaya, nothing much has changed, This year the Independence Day parade marched past President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been ruling  with no public mandate. It came at a time when the cost of living, and the state of bankruptcy and  inflation has made life unaffordable for a huge number of people, and Sri Lanka has the second-highest rate of acute malnutrition among children under 5 in South Asia. As families cannot afford to have enough food to eat and bear the cost of fuel to send their children to school, the lavishness of the celebration jarred with the everyday realities of most Sri Lankans. Corruption of the political and administrative establishment  has been sky high, while the country is run by rogues and criminals with no public credibility. His ‘Yahapalanaya’  tenure of office has also been riddled with corruption and misrule. Today, he is offering himself for re election along with candidates from Pohottuwa, a party polluted with characters who led Sri Lanka to ruination.    

When there is such a sour, negative political environment, voters in general are looking for change. They  usually look for new voices, new people. But, it is not what happens. Honestly, though, voters deserve a share of blame for this mess. The blame here is largely on people themselves. People consistently tell pollsters that they want other options on the ballot, and they do so in numbers that suggest success for rival efforts. But when offered candidates who aren’t Democrats or Republicans, voters rarely take advantage. Nor do they give much money or support to political entrepreneurs between elections in hopes of expanding the range of ballot options beyond those put up by the major parties. As awful as the two major parties undoubtedly are, and as unpalatable as their likely candidates promise to be, the public needs to take a large share of the blame for this situation. If leading contenders for high office are so terrible, voters should choose somebody else. And if putting the government in the hands of politicians from either major party threatens disaster, it shouldn’t have been allowed to accumulate enough power to do such harm. The country may face disaster, but it’s self-inflicted.

It is clear that this democracy is not, strictly speaking, ‘the people’s government’, Representative democracy is a real farce. For more than two centuries now, since the French Revolution and the independence of the United States, it has been instilled in us, almost by force, that ‘democracy’ is an exercise of going to vote every so often. If that happens periodically without interruption, and leaders change, we think we are in a democracy. If not, then: dictatorship! This is the farce of democracy. In many cases, the people vote for the party rather than the candidate, and are swayed by election propaganda or the false promises of politicians.  Moral leaders have less chance to win elections because election results are rigged through financial inducements, intimidation and brute force. In the present democratic system, all sorts of immoral and corrupt practices are given the opportunity to pervert society. The very nature of the present system is that it favours the capitalists and exposes the administration to immoral and corrupt forces. Once the winning party form the government, they get ample opportunity to indulge in rampant corruption and political tyranny for five years. In the subsequent elections — whether on the provincial or state level — the same absurdity is repeated.

This type of political opportunism has been going on in Sri Lanka since independence.  But once the elections are over, the exploitation of the common people continues unabated in the garb of political democracy, and other areas of social life are completely neglected. Today millions of Sri Lanka citizens are being deprived of the minimum requirements of life and are struggling to procure adequate food, clothing, housing, education and medical treatment, while a handful of people are rolling in enormous wealth and luxury.

The prerequisites for the success of democracy are morality, education and socio-economico-political consciousness. Leaders especially must be people of high moral character; otherwise the welfare of society will be jeopardized. In today’s limited two party system, moral leaders have less chance to win elections because election results are rigged through financial inducements, intimidation and brute force. In the present democratic system, all sorts of immoral and corrupt practices are given the opportunity to pervert society. The very nature of the present system is that it favours the capitalists and exposes the administration to immoral and corrupt forces.

In a system by a two party system for decades however, the last few years has shown us that economic turmoil, the confusion and chaos that comes with coalitions and the increase in public awareness and activism have enthused the emergence of a credible third party as a significant factor in national politics in Sri Lanka. NPP in this regard has shown its mettle to a force to be reckoned with in Sri Lankan politics, despite the vain attempts by the main parties to tarnish its public standing through misinformation and social media onslaughts referring to their past.      

Political democracy has become a great hoax for the people of the world. It promises the advent of an era of peace, prosperity and equality, but in reality it creates criminals, encourages exploitation and throws common people into an abyss of sorrow and suffering. The irony is that the same elite group gets elected repeatedly and election campaigns are held as rituals because political parties have become dynasties. On paper, this citizenry may be fully empowered and enfranchised but in reality, they are not.  It is very common for the typical citizen to feel ‘betrayed’ by politicians, political parties and their ideologies. . Citizens must, therefore, understand ideas about citizenship, politics and government. They need knowledge to make decisions about policy choices and the proper use of authority, along with the skills to voice their concerns, act collectively and hold public officials (i.e., elected representatives, civil servants, and appointed leaders) accountable. Citizen education should be promoted. Only then, the likes of Biden/Trump/Boris eras such as ‘Mahinda/ Ranil’ can  be ended in Sri Lanka.

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