The Hindu : Where campaigning was at its imaginative best

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 30, 2004

International

International

Where campaigning was at its imaginative best

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, MARCH 29. The first phase of campaigning for the April 2 parliamentary election ended today, bringing the curtains down on a high-decibel electronic media offensive in which popular movie songs and images from the past were painted before Sri Lanka's 12 million-strong electorate.

Despite the media offensive, no swing is discernible yet in favour of any party. Election meetings are to end tomorrow with rallies to he held here by the two main contestants, the Opposition United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), led by the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe's ruling United National Party (UNP).

One reason for the near absence of a visible swing is that the two main contestants took broadly similar positions on the two main poll issues — the peace process and economic conditions.

The first general election in decades to be preceded by two years of unbroken peace saw the cost of living emerging as a main campaign point of the UPFA — an alliance between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (UPFA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

On the peace front, the UPFA promises continuity and adds that it will handle it with the "correct approach."

The month-long TV advertisements saw Sri Lankan politics at its imaginative best. The UPFA aired archival scenes from 2000. As the President presents the draft Constitution, the then Opposition UNP MPs protest and then burn it. Mr. Wickremesinghe, the then leader of Opposition, sits unmoved. The message of that advertisement is: `Peace is not a joke.'

The UNP has Mr. Wickremesinghe as its main campaign figure. In a black and white film, the Prime Minister says "it is only the United National Party'' which can "finish the job" of bringing in "lasting peace" and "economic development."

The image exercise also focused on the past. The UNP made the JVP's inclusion in the UPFA a campaign issue and sought to revive memories of a violent past. A young girl, for instance, is shown peacefully reading a magazine, a gunshot rings out, a red dot freezes the image and the message flashes — that innocents were killed during the JVP insurrections. The past violence is also brought out by the UPFA through an advertisement with Mr. Wickremesinghe in the dock, giving evidence before a 1997 inquiry commission on alleged disappearance and torture during the JVP's second insurrection of 1989-90.

Tamil film songs

For Tamil-speaking voters, popular tunes starring south Indian film stars — Rajnikant and the late MGR — are aired along with the images of the candidates. Reminiscent of the late MGR's bullet injury election campaign, the wounded former UNP Minister, T. Maheswaran, who survived an assassination attempt earlier this week, campaigns from his hospital bed. As the bullet injury is prominently shown, the injured candidate pledges to work for his people "till the end."

A popular song (Singam onru purapattathe) from a film starring the south Indian superstar, Rajnikant, seeks support for the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), campaigning on the UNP ticket. Songs from Tamil movies are not new in Sri Lankan campaigns. In the northern Jaffna peninsula and the upcountry plantation districts, songs from MGR films seek the popular attention for the candidates.

To the tune of an original score, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader, Rauff Hakeem, `shares' the TV screen with scenes showing the party's founder, late M.H.M. Ashraff, in filmy slow motion style, conveying the message that Mr. Hakeem is following the leader's path.

Competent Authority

With the formal campaigning ending tomorrow, the Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake, has appointed a Competent Authority for the State-run TV and radio institutions — Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation — until the conclusion of the Parliamentary elections.

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