In the last few months, all but the most lazy or technophobic
pundits have commented on how Obama's
savvy use of the Internet in his presidential campaign would provide aspiration
for budding politicians all over the world. Skeptics countered that many of Obama's
innovations simply wouldn't work in the developing world, where access to the
Internet is still very expensive and not widely spread.
To judge by the unfolding election campaign in Sri Lanka,
the lessons of Obama's campaign went unheeded. ICT4PEACE, one of the best blogs
exploring the role of technology in
conflict transformation, has posted a very useful comparison
of the web strategies of several politicians running in elections to Sri
Lanka's Western Provincial Council scheduled for April 25th. There is very
little of Obama's tech-suaveness about their campaigns: the candidates show
very little knowledge of the potential of mobile technology, have very little
(if any) content in local languages (Tamil and Sinhala), don't offer any
options for online donations (the site of one candidate says it does but offers
no real mechanism for wiring the money), and are not very keen to disclose
their assets. No wonder they are not very popular: one candidate has only a
dozen Facebook friends, while another is barely over a hundred. Perhaps, online
revolution in electioneering will have to wait, at least in Sri Lanka.
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