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Panaceas for peaceful campaigning

The pitched battle currently underway among rival political parties to capture votes, occasionally generates interesting debates on how things could be done better in this scramble for political supremacy. Yesterday our pages devoted to the election campaign juxtaposed the views of two political rivals on environment-friendly campaigning, the poster war and connected issues. The politicians in question were Minister A.H.M. Fowzie and former UNP MP, Milinda Moragoda.

We quoted Moragoda sometime back as saying that he would be conducting a "clean" campaign - one that would be devoid of posters, cut-outs and other standard propaganda material which, admittedly, do more harm than good. Speaking on the same subject yesterday he also pointed out how this brand of electioneering, besides violating the law, impacts substantially on the financial resources of political candidates, thus throwing some of them into want and financial ruin. The end result of this process is corruption because some successful candidates are tempted to make good their monetary losses by resorting to corrupt deals and sleazy bargains while enjoying office.

Besides the cancer of corruption, high spending on traditional propaganda methods also aggravates environmental problems, such as the accumulation of waste paper in public places and sound pollution.

This is sound reasoning and few would quarrel with Moragoda's approach to electioneering but Minister Fowzie's response to his views were equally thought - provoking. His position was that environment-friendly electioneering could be afforded by only the affluent and the influential. He pointed out that newcomers to politics and those without financial resources had to resort to popular methods of campaigning, such as the pasting of posters, to capture the public eye. If they do not do so, they would never be known.

This problem could be remedied by political parties by introducing new-comers to the public, months before the polls, Minister Fowzie suggests. This will enable them to be known by the electorate, thus obviating the need for a wasteful election campaign.

These are valuable proposals which should be seriously considered by political parties and their leaders. Elections in this country have always been attended by violence and bloodshed and all safety measures should be adopted to make polls more peaceful and civilized.

While considering the views which have been aired thus far for less turbulent campaigning, thought must also be given to the dire need to establish a culture of peace in the country. The norms of democracy and the core values of tolerance and understanding form the bed rock of civilized living. The need is great to instil these values in the popular consciousness. Until concerted moves are made to make this a reality, peace will continue to elude us.

• Editorial of  The Observer - LTTE and national politics 8.11.2001:
  

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