Govt. as the Opposition

 

Editorial-June 25, 2013

Having usurped the powers of other state institutions and rendered them weak and malleable the government is now encroaching on the Opposition turf, if how it is handling the issue of devolution is anything to go by. Time was when the J. R. Jayewardene government defended devolution and went so far as to plunge the country into a blood bath to implement the provincial council system while the then SLFP-led Opposition was going full steam ahead to torpedo the 13th Amendment albeit in vain. But, today, the government is opposing and supporting devolution at the same time! Its leftist coalition partners are backing devolution to the hilt and its nationalist constituents like the JHU and the NFF are on a campaign to have the provincial councils abolished. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is, true to form, temporising, having allowed the pro-devolution and anti-devolution groups in his government to do as they wish. He has made a virtue of necessity, we reckon.

The UNP is speaking a kind political Creole which is hardly comprehensible, where devolution is concerned. What one gathers from its gobbledygook is that it is wary of challenging the status quo, but mum’s the word on its part as regards the full implementation of the 13th Amendment; it has only promised ‘meaningful devolution’ in its proposed draft constitution, whatever that means. The leftists in the ruling coalition have stolen the UNP’s thunder by openly opposing moves to dilute the 13th Amendment. On Monday, several ministers told the media that they were for devolution and the 13th Amendment must not be tampered with.

The JVP has renewed its call for the abolition of the provincial councils, but the government’s nationalist allies, the JHU and the NFF, are doing a far more effective campaign against devolution than the Rathu Sahodarayas.

The government seems to have taken a leaf out of the book of South American logging industry which sets up and funds environmental outfits to stage mild protests against deforestation so as to shut out the genuine anti-logging campaigners capable of posing a threat to its interests. With its coalition partners now campaigning both for and against devolution, the government can rest assured that protests either for or against the 13th Amendment will not get out of hand.

Another ruse that the government has adopted to preclude the Opposition from harnessing public resentment to gain the much-needed political traction when ruling party politicians get into hot water is to have Cabinet ministers condemn those miscreants far more vigorously than the UNP and the JVP do. A Northwestern provincial councillor who recently forced a female teacher to kneel down in her school had the entire Cabinet coming down on him like a ton of bricks, so much so that he had to tender his resignation. (However, let none be so naïve as to think he will be punished by the party.) This method may be called political back burning in that, like firefighters who stop a forest fire by clearing an area ahead of it with the help of a new fire that spreads in the opposite direction to the advancing flames, the government neutralises public anger by engineering protests against the rogues within its ranks when they get exposed for misconduct or crimes. A Cabinet minister has even called for a code of conduct for politicians and flayed some of his own party men! His call may have struck a responsive chord with the unsuspecting public fed up with politicians.

While the UPFA is thus craftily playing the roles of both the government and the Opposition to safeguard its interests, the UNP is busy digging itself into a hole. The sacking of 20 odd dissidents could not have come at a worse time for the ailing party which alone has the potential to be an effective countervailing force against the government. Instead of battening down the hatches and waiting for the political storm to pass, the UNP leader and his rivals are going for each other’s jugular. The government couldn’t have wished for a better Opposition!