Of that hermaphrodite

Editorial-April 5, 2015, 

The late President J. R. Jayewardene, who was notorious for abusing his executive powers in every conceivable manner and setting very bad precedents in the process, once said the only task he could not accomplish was to cause people to undergo sex changes. But, today, it looks as if the unbridled executive powers he vested in the presidency have helped render lawmakers, save a few, gender confused.

Having actively backed President Maithripala Sirisena’s successful presidential bid, the UNP, the JHU, the TNA, the JVP and the DNA are wary of criticising him. The SLFP cannot be critical of its leader for obvious reasons. He has also effectively silenced the SLFP’s coalition allies; he is the leader of the UPFA and they are at his mercy.

President Sirisena promised us good governance, but, upon being sworn in as the Head of State, he unflinchingly vaporised the then government which had a majority in Parliament and installed a minority one. He decreed that Mohan Peiris, who had been functioning as the Head of the judiciary, was not the Chief Justice. Then, he appointed as the Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva, whose party is not in the Opposition!

Former Constitutional Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris pointed out in a brief interview with this newspaper the other day that there had to be a clear distinction between the government and the Opposition. The SLFP was an integral part of the UNP-led government and, therefore, any of its MPs could not be the Leader of the Opposition, he stressed. Arguing that the present arrangement encouraged public cynicism, he maintained that ‘if that corrupt system was authoritatively upheld, then future governments with strong majorities could divide parliamentary membership between government and Opposition keeping sufficient members to run the government and sending the remainder to the Opposition to claim the Office of the Leader of the Opposition’. Anything is possible in this country like no other.

One cannot but agree with the law professor turned politician that the SLFP is not in the Opposition. Even a layman with an iota of common sense can see that the SLFP cannot keep the post of the Opposition Leader and what we are witnessing is the very antithesis of democracy. The sooner this farce is brought to an end the better!

What the country needs is not a slimy political hermaphrodite but a strong Opposition capable of taking on the President and the government for the sake of the public. The ongoing political polygamy only causes further erosion of public faith in Parliament and serves the purpose of anarchical forces waiting in the wings.

All yapping, no biting

Those who voted for President Maithripala Sirisena in January expected each and every rogue who had stolen public funds under the previous government to be chained, pilloried, whipped with a cat o’ nine tails and thrown into jail after the change of government. But, nearly three months have elapsed and nothing of the sort has happened. They have had to settle for a media circus replete with rhetoric and theatrics.

The people sat up last week when the government announced that information had surfaced of a mega road construction racket. At last something had been unearthed, they thought. Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told the media that the government had successfully renegotiated the Outer Circular Road Highway with the Chinese contractor concerned and cut its cost by a whopping 30 billion rupees which he said would have gone to a VVIP of the former government. But, alas, the people’s happiness was short lived; the Chinese Embassy in Colombo officially disputed his claim. It was hoped that the government would make China eat humble pie; but a red faced Senaratne meekly claimed at a subsequent media briefing that he had only repeated what Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said!

The previous government earned notoriety as a Chinese puppet and, therefore, those who voted against President Mahinda Rajapaksa may refuse to buy into China’s claim that there has been nothing shady about the deal at issue. If the government can stand its ground and prove that the cost of the aforesaid project had actually been increased by about 40 percent owing to corruption and that a VVIP was to benefit from kickbacks, it will be able to honour its pledge to expose and prosecute the corrupt who lined their pockets under the previous government; above all, it can stop the bring-back-Mahinda campaign in its tracks. The burden of proof is on the government.

The big guns of the present administration came on TV in the run-up to the last presidential election with stacks of files which they claimed contained vital information about corrupt deals under the then government. They sought a popular mandate to prosecute the corrupt. But, no one has so far been arraigned for bribery and corruption. The government worthies are still hurling allegations and groping in the dark. If they lose credibility by making claims they cannot prove, the benefit of doubt will accrue to the corrupt.