The Sri Lankan crisis is a multi-faceted catastrophe, with the worst-ever economic crisis, Covid-19 induced socioeconomic challenges and political fluidity collectively making the people suffer in all aspects of life, in turn paralysing the nation. Out of the total 8.8 million labour force, 4.5% remain unemployed while reductions in income continue to impact education, health and nutrition for a significant proportion of the population. However, the national debt, United States Dollars ($) 92.43 billion in its highest value in 2022, has continuously increased over the last few years and remains the top priority and a critical challenge for the country's next leadership.
This vicious cycle of the crisis has dragged the country to its knees, resulting in a complex situation that prolonged recovery. The way out demands well-designed policy solutions while addressing the immediate socio-economic hardships of the people. Therefore, the Presidential Election of this year (2024) is a defining moment to reshape the destiny of 22 million people. The new leadership is challenged to address the debt crisis while mitigating poverty, inflation, and unemployment, as well as providing health and education. The question is which political party has the required sound policy vision, expertise to deliver and political will to face the complexities. As a country, we will fail collectively unless the parties can disseminate these answers and almost 17 million eligible voters are able to comprehend them in an unbiased manner before the Presidential Election on 21 September.
Communicating manifestos and policies
Popularly, most political parties and their candidates often state ‘what’ the solutions should be and would be. But ironically, they fail to say ‘how’ the solution will be implemented. Hardly any popular politicians who are vocal on different media platforms can constructively explain how they would bring about the required change in the country in social, economic, and political aspects. Instead, they make irresponsible ad-hoc statements with calculation errors to present wrong facts, false accusations against each other, and continue to mislead the public.
Party manifestos and policies must be communicated beyond the conferences and high-profile events. Given that more than 80% of Sri Lanka’s population is in rural settings, how are the policies that affect them being communicated to them? Are their voting decisions influenced by their understanding of which party has the best policy solution to their problems?
In the absence of systems and platforms for people to learn credible information about party policies, certain influencers can hijack the communication process and manipulate the public with their agenda. Thus, voters end up making decisions based on the load of criticism directed towards different candidates and parties instead of objectively understanding the collective vision of those who are committing to uplift the country from the current crisis. Well, voters do have their side of the story justified based on past political experiences and the hardship that they faced in accessing essential goods and services during the peak of the economic crisis. This needs to be acknowledged and considered in the Election campaigns when reaching out to the public. You are dealing with a population that is economically, emotionally and politically wounded.
Often, effective and comprehensive policies are not understood by the public. Thus, employing different mediums and engaging them in the process is vital. Yet, in Sri Lanka, policymakers and parties lack such practices.
Policy communication refers to a deliberate process in which policymakers and politicians adopt strategies to communicate their policies to the public and engage them in the policy-making process.
When policy communication is absent or without a proper strategy, good policies fail, opportunities are missed, and the country lags in development. Often, for policy to be successful, theoretically (and practically), three elements matter: problem, politics, and policy solutions. Strategic communication facilitates these three aspects to create policy windows that enable good public policies.
Informed voters are crucial
It is a visible fact that the voter behaviour in this Election has drastically changed, including popularly a significant shift in political ideologies that have overshadowed past negative experiences such as political and human rights violations, failed coalitions, corruption and even certain parties that historically and publicly hindered development, etc. However, religious and cultural issues, recent regime failures, and incidents in the past two years (since the ‘aragalaya’ [the public movement seeking the resignation of the then Government led by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa]) have significantly impacted voter behaviour during this Election. While it is crucial to have the voters rationalise the decisions based on their experience and how the country’s socio-political situation affects their lives, it is also essential for voters, who have the opportunity to decide the way forward of the country, to ensure that their decisions are influenced by: a) understanding constructive and pragmatic solutions for short-term problems and long-term sustainability beyond the promises made on stage and social media; and b) developing an understanding of who has the experience, expertise and political will to implement them. Identifying a leadership with all these elements may be challenging. However, voters need to prioritise such leadership over political biases, as ultimately, Elections are not for experimenting or giving chances but for ensuring responsibility and accountability, which is, in fact, the need of the hour for Sri Lanka. Such leadership can be achieved only when we elect people with experience in leadership, knowledge and expertise in crucial policy domains and who have the political will to deliver.
Furthermore, the media, one of the critical pillars of exercising democracy, has a vital role during Elections in bridging the public and policy by ensuring that credible information is channelled to all. The media has the capacity to provide necessary and comprehensive information to the electorate in making informed choices, as well as be able to hold officials and institutions accountable. Therefore, media organisations need to function in an unbiased manner and play their role in the country’s recovery process by countering misinformation.
Evidently, addressing these macroeconomic challenges requires complex policy solutions and minds that are trained and experienced in constructively addressing them while maintaining political stability.
Therefore, as citizens with electoral power, people equally need to be responsible and accountable for making informed decisions and electing the most capable leadership with pragmatic policies. The challenge for everyone is to rationalise the decisions beyond religion, ethnicity, class, and political biases. Sri Lanka cannot afford another ‘aragalaya’. Thus, informed decisions in the Presidential Election 2024 will determine the country’s future.
(The writer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, India)
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication