Please aknowledge the will of the majority and respect the rights of the minorities

People of Sri Lanka have voted for gratitude, President Mahinda Rajapakse himself acknowledged this fact. Now it is time for the president to reciprocate and be gracious to the people who brought him back to power.

Now we have to move on, respecting the will of the majority and respecting the democratic framework; General Sarath Fonseka also needs to do this. If the disparity of votes between Rajapaksa and Fonseka was not that great, many would have backed up Fonseka's claim that election malpractices was great enough to change the outcome of the election. But a disparity of 2 million votes (out of a population of about 20 million people - mind you the voting population is smaller than this) is just too great to be attributed just for election malpractices. So lets not destabilize Sri Lanka by getting embroiled in lawsuits that will not end in anything positive.

Nevertheless, undoubtedly, election malpractices have occurred. The post-election speach of the Election Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said it all. If any minister in the ruling party is not acknowledging malpractices, it seems that they are still not sincere to the aspirations of the people, and are still trying to hoodwink the people. To increase the credibility of the government, thus strengthening it further, President Rajapaksa needs to acknowledge this, at least privately, to his own minsters, and make sure that this does not happen in the following elections. He should control his ministers.

The Sinhala votes lost to the putative "TNA-Fonseka pact" will remain unquantifiable, and this may have been the biggest impediment for the General's victory. Without really knowing the contents of this "pact", people panicked. Both candidates fueled their respective campaigns on the inertia generated by ending of the war. If LTTE is well and truly finished, why did we fear these pacts? It is dangerous to say that most of the Tamil people who voted for TNA or Fonseka to be terrorists (I saw one dunce of a minster insinuating this). We should not create terrorists out of ordinary people. If the Tamil people are still voting for the TNA, TNA must be doing something right, we need to identify this, and make sure that they are comfortable enough to vote for any politician they like, not on ethnic lines. In this regard, we need to applaud something that President Rajapaksa said, soon after the victory. He said that he is glad that he was happy to see the Northern people voting (who were for so many years suppressed by the LTTE), even if they didn't vote for him (Mahinda). This is a step in the right direction, and the other minsters need to follow this.

Sarath Fonseka also did not play his cards well, regarding the allegations of the pact. I felt that he could not express his true feelings due to the fear of loosing the Nothern votes. His bondage and dependency to the UNP, TNA and JVP, was too great for him to do anything about this at this point. This is a risk of running as a common candidate, the political straight jacket was too tight for him to maneuver. I felt so sorry to see the our outspoken and smart general this way.

One of the greatest points for concern is the way in which the media was used to carry out a mud-campaign against the general. The government should set an example for other media units to follow, but it was Sirasa (TV and Radio) who lead the way. Sirasa set an example by providing a far balanced view of the election campaign. More seriously, government has set a precedence by showing that it is ok to use any means to meet even a trivial end. This is not a message that Sri Lankans should aim to follow in their everyday life; foe example we do not need more three-wheeler (tuk-tuk) drivers to be cutting the lanes, overtaking on the left and creating havoc with the law abiding citizens.

Now the point is we have democracy, now we need liberalism. We need to acknowledge the will of the majority while respecting the rights of the minorities. Everyone should help our returning president to achieve this, and hope that he keeps the promises that he made.

One of my great many wishes, which may or may not come true is for Rajapaksha and Fonseka to reconcile, to ride one last time, to bring glory to Sri Lanka, yet again.