Egypt’s Opposition Dumber Than Lanka’s

By Kumar David -July 28, 2013 |

Prof Kumar David

Obfuscated “revolutionaries” who threw away the Arab Spring: Egypt’s opposition dumber than Lanka’s

The years since January 2011 in Egypt and May 2009 in Lanka have little in common, except the crass stupidity of the opposition. But this is worth probing since political leaders, if they think at all in historical terms may pick up a tip or two and that could benefit us all. Let me state my case up front: In both cases, the opposition has lost sight of the whole for the part and proved incompetent at reaching alliances and compromises for the greater good. Individual self-interest, sectarianism and dated ideology have prevailed over long-term values. I offer Ranil as an example of self-interest pushing aside general interest; the petty obstacles to trade union unity as sectarianism; and the JVP’s harebrained notions about Tamils, India and revolution as moribund ideology.

My focus will be Egypt and mostly I will leave readers to draw their own parallels. The underlying premises are that arresting military rule is the bottom line in Egypt, while turning back the drift to dictatorship, defeating rampant power abuse, and crafting a democratic constitution, represent the common political good in Lanka. The difference is that in Egypt the revolution won and then fritted away its gains; the voyage of its life was drowned in shallow waters of sectarianism (the radical opposition) and bankrupt ideology (the Islamists). In Lanka, conversely, the masses thirst for harmony with the established power and acquiesce to the worst regime since independence. In Lanka as in Egypt, the people and their leaders have been their own worst enemy, but in different ways.

Egypt: A quick recapitulation                   Read More

Mahinda-Gota Split: Where Stands The SLFP? Will There Be A CBK – Second Coming?

By Rajan Philips -July 28, 2013 

Rajan Philips

Real or faked, a Mahinda-Gota split has political implications. A fake split could have unintended consequences, even precipitating a real split.  Whether fake or real, the sibling split is primarily over one issue and one issue only: the unlucky Thirteenth Amendment. But the split over 13A goes beyond the siblings and it is no fake but real within the UPFA governing alliance itself. What is not clear is – how is the SLFP split on this? Where does the SLFP stand over the split, real or fake, between the President and his Secretary brother? If SLFP parliamentarians are leaning one way or the other, are they doing it for real, or, are they faking allegiance, while waiting a different leader? Where is the SLFP in the real split over 13A in the UPFA?

If the Mahinda-Gota split is real, it would mean that the split is not only political but also personal. If, however, the split is a political fake, then there is no split at the personal level, and really no split at all. Even on 13A, while the younger Rajapaksa is implacably opposed to 13A, the older brother has never wholeheartedly supported it. The President doesn’t care if 13A is dumped, while the Secretary cannot sleep till it is dumped. A split, it might be, with the Defence Secretary wanting the amendment thrown out right away no matter what, and the President vacillating between diluting and repealing it while trying to ‘shape up’ the fallouts.

As we know, the President is on his favourite hobby horse again – the parliamentary select committee, this time to ‘impeach’, if I may say so, the Thirteenth Amendment.  So he has packed the committee with all the rabble rousers against 13A, whose political godfather is Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. With brutal symbolism, the President has also excluded from the committee that dedicated constitutional beaver and supporter of devolution, Tissa Vitarana.

Disturbing and curious Read More