Kleptocracy To Kakistocracy

By Grusha Andrews –JUNE 10, 2018

“Kakistocracy: noun, plural kak·is·toc·ra·cies: a government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power. Origin: 1829, coined on analogy of its opposite, aristocracy, from Greek kakistos “worst,” superlative of kakos “bad” (which perhaps is related to the general  word for “defecate;” caco-) + -cracy.” Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper.

Austin

President’s Secretary Austin Fernando has thrown in the towel. It appears that even the most experienced, patient, persevering and shrewdest of strategists cannot take it anymore. Fernando, one of the last living Humphrey Applebys in Sri Lankan civil service has lifelong training at keeping his marbles together under extreme circumstances. Even he seems to have lost it. He is no political celebrity and if at all, an outcaste in the equation of modern ethno-religious politics. At best he will be footnoted in history. But his alleged departure has serious connotations, apparently soft, yet, sinister ‘end of an era’ of sorts. According to Colombo Telegraph, the touting for a new President’s Secretary is apparently carried out by the sorry political charlatans of the caliber of Shiral Lakthilake who has approached Hemasiri Fernando with the job. Whether it is Austin Fernando or Hemasiri Fernando who continues is immaterial. The seriousness lies within the crux of the matter. Hemasiri Fernando would be the tragi-comic end to a tragi-comic Presidency. But, then, Hemasiri Fernando is actually smarter than the President of our Republic. He will not, in all estimate, immerse himself in this putrefying political mess that we call the Presidency of Sri Lanka.

Someone just can’t get along with others

Here we have a President, with eighteen good months of his Presidency left, on his third bid for a President’s Secretary. The highest office in Public Service is not an appointment to be made casually to test on the run. What was he thinking when he appointed much maligned Palitha Abeykoon  with an alleged murky history to the highest office in Public Service? That this office will suddenly transform the man in to the administrative face of Yahapalapaya? What was he thinking when he appointed Austin Fernando, ultra-liberal 75 year old at the time of appointment? That his ex-boss was going to change his ways? That his belly was going to turn black?

The inability of the President to get along with others is symptomatic of the dearth of intellectual sophistication on his part. It may be Fernando’s failure too. Did Fernando seriously think that this was going to have a Bollywood ending? That Sirisena was going to wake up one day and exhibit Presidential qualities? That with his anomalous and perverted plotting to merge with Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a conjoined 2020 bid, Sirisena was not going to block Facebook, websites and TV stations? Sirisena, whose recent verbal torrents bewilder even people with little sophistication and finesse, cannot be expected to fathom constitutional or administrative complexities or logic. Sirisena appears intellectually and temperamentally in-equipped for the office of President.

The class clash of Sirisena with anyone outside his reality is not limited to Fernando. Sirisena has consistently exhibited an abysmal inability to grip the seriousness of his office. The President of our Republic is fundamentally unable to tolerate reason. In a co-habitation government, he is repeatedly proclaiming that he will ‘claim the economy’ from the UNP with the help of the ‘economist aid’ Lalith Samarakoon, the famed wannabe Governor of the Central Bank in Sirisena’s imaginary second term. He is shuffling the cabinet like a dysfunctional poker addict. He is appointing a Catholic Karawa man as Governor of Central Province today and retracting the appointment tomorrow when the Mahanayakes agitate. He neither has the foresight to avoid such blunder, nor has the strength to stand his ground. He is unaware of the 100 day Programme. The freshly appointed General Secretary of the SLFP is proclaiming to move “forward towards victory of SLFP with Mahinda Rajapaksa” with its actual lame leader standing right next to him. He ought to understand that he’s been unceremoniously and lovelessly removed from the hearts of his electorate. Worse, no one fears him. Niccolò Machiavelli famously wrote in The Prince “better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both”. The man can evoke neither love nor fear.

Kleptocracy

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe can take the elephant’s share of the credit for solidifying Sri Lanka’s position as a post January 8th kleptocracy. Rallying millions of citizens under the banner of Good Governance to oust the demonized Rajapakse kleptocracy tainted with MiG deals, nepotistic looting, day light economic robbery and deal making, Wickremesinghe and his “Royal Boys” lost no time in executing the Bond Scam which perhaps surpassed the magnitude of the cumulative Rajapakse lootage over 17 years in just 100 days.

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