Known Widowhood Is Better Than Unknown Marriage

By Somapala Gunadheera –August 28, 2015

Somapala Gunadheera

According to a Sinhala proverb, this is what a wise widow had said when she was asked to marry again. The saying offers an insight to those who are trying to form the next Government. Impliedly, that is what the guardian angel of good governance, Rev. Maduluwawe Sobhita meant the other day, when he said what the country was asking for is good governance, not coalition.

In any case, putting the two main Parties together would not produce a national government as long as other Parties stand out of it. The indications are that even those two are not going to be fully together. A part of the SLFP is being permitted to join the Government, while the balance has the right to remain in the Opposition as long as they obey the high command. That would be a unique introduction to Parliamentary government, facilitating a favoured political Party to eat the cake and have it, not to mention the threat to democracy caused by remote control of elected representatives. It is also unfair by the rest of the Opposition as the unprecedented arrangement would block their legitimate rights and options. If challenged in Court, architects of the plan may have to eat humble pie.

Moreover the evidence is that the unification effort is going to burden the taxpayer seriously. The connected bargaining has become a strain on the 19th Amendment that was put together with great expectations. The effort to satisfy the quid pro quo of the newcomers in terms of ministries has resulted in fanciful rationalizations of the constitutional provision on the size of the cabinet of ministers. Slipshod arrangements made to attract the defectors is bound to cause avoidable damage to economy and efficiency of government.

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