A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, June 3, 2017
Why President Sirisena’s Position Should Be Buttressed?
“Coalitions though successful have always found this, that their triumph has been brief.” ~Benjamin Disraeli
President Maithripala Sirisena was
not elected President as a candidate representing one single party. He
was the candidate of a combine. That combine consisted of the parties
that represent the two major ethnic groups, Tamils and Muslims, and the
United National Party (UNP), the leading single political party in Sri
Lanka since Independence. No more than a marginal few of the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party (SLFP) voted for him.
The entire Southern province was swept by Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Bulk of the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, nearly 65%, voted for Mahinda
Rajapaksa. Close to 85%, if not more, of the Tamils and Muslims voted
for Maithripala Sirisena. Almost 100% of the UNP voted for him. In other
words, if not for the Tamils, Muslims and the United National Party,
Maithripala Sirisena would not have been our President today. All of the
aforementioned are ‘facts’, not ‘opinions’. Yet the humility has gone
the Maithripala way and arrogance belongs in Rajapaksa’s lap.
Then
followed the parliamentary elections. Not only did the Rajapaksa-clan
and his local (Sri Lankan) cohorts expect and boldly predict a sweeping
victory for the SLFP. Even some foreign embassies, particularly those
embassies that represent countries that were closely connected to the
Rajapaksas’ alleged transactions came out of their usually muted
diplomatic shells and privately talked about a parliamentary majority
for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime
Minister. They were wishfully giddy about a Mahinda-comeback. The
Champaign was ready; fire crackers waiting to be lit and parties
prearranged. When the results were announced, the United National Party
secured a majority of parliamentary seats. Yet it failed to secure an
absolute majority. Hence a coalition government was formed. For the
first time in the histories of the leading political parties in Sri
Lanka, an uncommon and unprecedented decision was reached.
A
coalition government came into being. The only stakeholders of the
coalition are the UNP and SLFP. The voters in Sri Lanka, collectively
decided that the best alternative to a Mahinda Rajapaksa’-led
cabal-government was a coalition between the two leading political
parties representing a nation, though a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and
multi-religious in real terms, that is increasingly becoming
Sinhalese-Buddhist in nature and orientation. The results of the General
Election in 2015 produced a UNP plurality, not an absolute majority.
This was an error committed by the collective mind of the Sri Lankan
electorate. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe campaigned
for the UNP candidates while President Sirisena refrained from
campaigning for the SLFP candidates. Maithripala Sirisena, as was
elucidated at the very outset of this column, was elected to office by a
combine of Tamils, Muslims and 100% of UNPers. He simply could not
campaign against the UNP candidates. That would have greatly hurt those
who elected him, not to forget his pristine conscience. However,
President Sirisena’s absence from the campaign trail in the General
Election did not help the UNP significantly. Consequently, chances of a
UNP-only government evaporated. An agreement between the two leading
political parties ensued and a ‘coalition’ government was formed, much
to the distress of the UNP voters and ‘suspicious-delight’ of the
SLFPers.
What
then followed is what we are having now: a Cabinet, enormous in number
and grievously disproportionate to the work at hand and an egregious
renunciation of a campaign pledge. A natural consequence of a coalition
government- trying to accommodate each and every plea, reasonable or
unreasonable, of the coalition partners- is overshadowing the need for a
manageable Cabinet and a bureaucracy supporting the government policies
and principles. The ‘permanent government’, the
official bureaucracy which is made up of Sri Lanka Administrative
Service personnel in Sri Lanka, does not seem to be aligned with the
political leadership of the current Administration in Sri Lanka. (The
same is alleged to be in practice in the chaotic Trump Administration in
America. In the United States they call it the Deep State).
There are reasons for it. The entire bureaucracy, excluding one or two,
was in place for the entire period of the Rajapaksa regime. They had
become part of the web of corruption and nepotism. Some of them were
cronies of the previous First Family. They are as sinful as the
politicians who commanded them in that period.