By
Rasika Jayakody
Will Salman Khan come?
While the UNP is gearing up to launch the ground-level campaign, the government is trying out new ways of pandering to the sentiments of the urban voters, especially in Colombo. Inviting famous Bollywood actor Salman Khan to support the campaign of President Rajapaksa was part of that plan. Although the opposition dubs it as a “ridiculous” move, the government is of the firm belief that it would be a “masterstroke” to draw the support of the Colombo crowd who are predominantly non-SLFP.
Although Bollywood actors and actresses are no aliens to politics, Salman Khan has never been part of any major election campaign in India. However, at the recently held general election in India, Salman Khan supported a Congress Party candidate named Priya Dutt.
“You think Modi is best candidate for you, you vote for him. I live in Bandra I will vote for Priya Dutt, Baba Siddiqui. You vote for the best man in your constituency,” Salman Khan said in Ahmedabad making his political views clear.
Dutt is the sister of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and a Congress politician standing from Bandra. Salman and Sanjay Dutt are great friends.
Apart from his acting career, Khan has been involved in several charities during his career He has started an NGO called Being Human which sells T-shirts and other products online and in stores. A portion of the sales goes to a worthy cause supporting the underprivileged. Being Human Foundation is a registered charitable trust set up by Salman Khan for helping the cause of the underprivileged.
The invitation has been sent to the famous Bollywood actor by Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa who plays a key role in the President’s election campaign. Namal, according to sources close to him, is also a friend of Salman Khan who visited Sri Lanka on several occasions. However, the Bollywood actor, who has dominated the silver screen for almost two and a half decades, is yet to respond to Namal Rajapaksa’s invitation.
UNP ‘accelerates’ ground-level campaign to counter Tissa’s Claim
Just two and a half weeks before the election, Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena launched his election manifesto at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre. However, the launch of his election manifesto did not lack ‘drama’ – with which the political sphere of the country is characterized these days!
As the event began, the electricity supply to the Viharamahadevi Park was cut-off due to undisclosed reasons and as a result, digital microphones did not work when Maithripala Sirisena made his speech unveiling the election manifesto. At this point, the Common Candidate of the opposition made a smart move by continuing with his speech despite the power-cut. As a result of this, the power-supply was restored within a short period and the event went ahead, as scheduled.
Meanwhile, an organizer who spoke to ‘The Nation’ during the event said water-supply to the area was also limited during the event. He dubbed this as a move to discourage supporters of the opposition from participating in the event. However, despite such moves, a large number of opposition supporters gathered at the event to welcome the much awaited election manifesto of the opposition.
What is Temasek?
The election manifesto, more or less, was based on constitutional and democratic reforms proposed by the opposition at the outset of its campaign, with some populist inclusions catering to the” mass market. From the government’s point of view, the most important proposal in the election manifesto of the opposition was the model it proposed to develop the state sector and the state institutions. The Common Candidate’s election manifesto said, it would streamline the operations of certain state sector institutions through the Temasek model adopted by Singapore over the past four decades.
The government, while expressing its views on the election manifesto of the Common Opposition, said this would be a major step in the direction of privatizing state sector institutions. Spokespersons of the government added that it was exactly the same thing the United National Front government attempted to achieve in 2002, when it presented the “Regaining Sri Lanka” plan. They said “Temasek” model is nothing but a reincarnation of “Regaining Sri Lanka” which was severely criticized by the Sir Lanka Freedom Party and the Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna who were then in the opposition. A few hours after the election manifesto was launched, several trade unions affiliated with the government held a press conference in Colombo, criticizing what they termed as “privatization plans” of Maithripala Sirisena’s government.
However, it was clear that even the trade union leaders of the government did not have a clear understanding of the Temasek model. Therefore, it is important to have an understanding of the Tamasek model as it will play an important role in the country’s state sector if the Common Opposition comes to power after the upcoming presidential election.
Temasek, a holding company for SOEs in Singapore, was created in 1974, when it inherited 35 companies from the finance ministry. Its inaugural portfolio contained several of the firms that made Jurong eye-catching, including its shipyard and its bird park. In the four decades since, Temasek’s portfolio has both multiplied (it is now worth S$215 billion, or $172 billion) and gone forth: only 30% of its holdings remain in Singapore itself. Its domestic holdings are concentrated in what Singapore calls “government-linked companies” (GLCs), such as Singapore Airlines (of which it owns 56%) and SingTel, a telecoms company (52%).
Temasek’s charter obliges it to increase the value of its holdings over the long term. This is a remarkably simple aim compared with the Chinese government’s manifold ambitions. It wants its holdings to promote technological progress, favoured industries and national security, among other things.
As well as clarifying objectives, the Temasek model also allows the state to distance itself from the management of its enterprises, without relinquishing ownership. Temasek avoids meddling in the day-to-day running of the GLCs in its portfolio, which are free to hire professional managers at market rates. With a few exceptions, it does not directly appoint board members either. This is partly because it does not want to become privy to price-sensitive information that might limit its ability to trade shares.
It would be interesting to see as to how the Tamasek model would fit into the state sector of Sri Lanka which is not so willing to embrace change. Therefore, the opposition will, in all probability, face countless challenges if and when it tries to introduce the Temasek model to state enterprises in Sri Lanka.
Special meeting
The main problem on the part of the campaign of the Common Opposition was its slowness when it comes to activities at the ground level which is the bastion of President Rajapaksa where the election is concerned. It was clear that the leaders of the Common Opposition were quite upbeat about the large number of crowds attracted by its presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena. However, political analysts repeatedly pointed out that crowd-support do not translate into votes automatically and there should be a systematic approach to attract their votes.
Having realized that, the United National Party convened a meeting for all its electorate organizers a few days ago. The meeting was held at ‘Sirikotha’, the headquarters of the main opposition party with the participation of several key front-liners of the party. They were briefed on how they should work to draw the people’s support at the ground level. Special instructions were given on the manner in which they should operate on the day of election – especially with regard to polling agents. The United National Party has already decided to strengthen its activities at the ground level to avoid illegal acts and election law violations on January 08.
Also, this was the first meeting for the electorate organizers of the party after the exit of Tissa Attanayake, former General Secretary of the party. Atanayake was the only person in the top-rung leadership of the party who was aware of the ground-level machinery of the UNP. He was in full control of the ground-level mechanism and had an in-depth understanding of its operations. This was exactly what Attanayake meant when he said he had the key to the “election-machine” of the party and when he left Sirikotha, the UNP headquarters, he brought the key with him. Attanayake said it would take at least three months for the new General Secretary of the party to find the key.
However, speaking to media few days back, a senior UNP Parliamentarian had responded to Attanayake’s statement saying the former General Secretary did not have any secret information pertaining to the ground-level machinery of the party.
“The former General Secretary’s statement is nothing but an attempt to create some self-made value for himself. Every minute detail with regard to the ground-level machinery of the party has been documented and there is no “secret-recipe”. Even when Tissa Attanayake was the General Secretary, we had photo-copies of those documents as there were rumours that he was holding secret negotiations with the government. Therefore, the statement he makes about his “key” to the ground-level machinery of the party
is nothing but a frivolous one,” Parliamentarian told media. He also added that there was a delay in starting the ground-level election campaign of the party as it was waiting for the launch of the election manifesto.
Courtesy: The Nation