A supreme irony

Rajapaksa indeed will be reduced to a mere bystander, as his once diehard stalwarts but now Ministers under Ranil Wickremesinghe hurl barbs and accusations across the floor of the House at their one time colleagues, but now members of the Opposition out of choice. Such are the vagaries of politics.

by Lalith Allahakkoon

( August 26, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is indeed a supreme irony that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has to contend with. Well entrenched in power following the war victory Rajapaksa virtually toyed with opposition political parties inveigling their members into the Government fold as a matter of course. A body blow was dealt to the UNP when he lured 18 of its members in one go, with perks of office in 2008.

Those who defected parroted the by then threadbare excuse of wanting to strengthen the hands of the President to develop the country post war. The next party to suffer was the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress whose members were bought over behind the backs of its leader Rauf Hakeem who too eventually gave in rather than suffer humiliation. In this manner Rajapaksa split and destroyed all political parties for acquiring the numbers for his earmarked project of passing the 18th Amendment to rule forever or at least till such time his progeny was of the right age to taker over the baton.

Events though have come full circle and the former President is today getting his comeuppance having to witness before his own eyes the UPFA/SLFP disintegrate and a sizable section of it joining the new Government.

A new Cabinet is to be sworn-in tomorrow that will comprise elected members of the SLFP (and possibly those who entered through the National List) in what is billed as a National Government. There are also to be Deputy Minister slots reserved for others. Rajapaksa and a group among the die hard members of his clique who promoted his come back has opted out and have vowed to remain in the Opposition as a separate group. Among those who will be given Cabinet portfolios are former General Secretaries of the UPFA and the SLFP both of whom were in the forefront of the Bring Back Mahinda campaign.

It will indeed be interesting to see how the defectors will now face Mahinda Rajapaksa who will be an Opposition back bencher (he has refused to be named Opposition Leader). It will be more interesting to see how those who once sat together at Opposition press briefings prior to the election to rave and rant against the maha benku bendumkara mankollaya (the Central Bank Treasury bond Highway robbery) will thrash out this issue, placed as they are in different camps. UNP members must be wearing wry smiles observing UPFA stalwarts and their former General Secretary going for each others’ jugular over the National List appointments and will also be rubbing their hands together with glee on seeing Wimal Weerawansa who seemed inseparable from Susil Premajayantha in their joint bid to make Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister accusing the latter of cutting ‘deals’ to obtain a Cabinet portfolio in the new Government.

Rajapaksa indeed will be reduced to a mere bystander, as his once diehard stalwarts but now Ministers under Ranil Wickremesinghe hurl barbs and accusations across the floor of the House at their one time colleagues, but now members of the Opposition out of choice. Such are the vagaries of politics.

The UNP though should be vigilant. These one time MR loyalists may now be in their camp, but care should be exercised to ensure that there won’t be any sabotage by those ensconced in Ministerial office from the Opposition. The UNP hierarchy should come to terms with the fact that the National Government is only for a two year duration although there is agreement to extend this period by consensus. We are here not suggesting that deliberate attempts will be made by some holding Ministerial office to slow down work or delay projects under their Ministries in order to attract public criticism towards the new Government. At the same time one should also not lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of any political party is to wield power some day. The UNP is only all too well aware of the manoeuvring skills of Mahinda Rajapaksa and should prepare for this.

Hence Ministry Secretaries who are the real ‘implementing officers’ should be told to be extra vigilant to ensure no sabotage takes place. Now, with the formation of a National Government collective responsibility of the Cabinet should be enforced strictly. There can be no criticism of the Prime Minister as happened in the recent past where SLFP MPs who were doled out Ministerial office went onto accuse the Prime Minister of various wrong doings. The UNP will also do well to ensure no vital information within Cabinet is passed on to the MR camp to be exploited. All Ministers should fall in line and do the PM’s bidding. There can be no factions based on party lines if the National Government concept is to succeed. Those of the Opposition who were on the war path with the PM but now inducted into Cabinet should act with responsibility. It is a supreme irony indeed that a vociferous Opposition MP who offered the PM a bottle of poison at a press briefing just before the election, inviting him to commit suicide, will soon be part of the National Government and made to serve under the very Prime Minister he invited to self destruct.

( The writer is the editor of Daily News, Colombo, in where this piece was originally appeared)