Politics Of The Middle Finger

By Sarath de Alwis –July 21, 2016

Sarath de Alwis

“We know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”~ Donald Rumsfeld

‘Coitus whilst concealing cojones is a risqué but a refreshingly apt Sinhala quip which ridicules blatantly obvious subterfuge of charlatans. Cojones in context is courage to do something. The absence of cojones implies undersupply of courage. The relevance of the pithy expression compels me to use it to anchor this commentary on the UNP led good governance of the past eighteen months.

There is nothing wrong with Arjuna Mahendran making a comeback in the admiration of Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. If the Prime Minister wishes to tell the president ‘up yours’ it is his privilege. That does not mean that we the people who voted for the change of 8th January 2015 should remain silent.

Time has come for plain and honest speaking. There was a time when we mistakenly believed that the change of 8th January would help people understand how the government operated. We hoped that it would encourage people’s participation in political decisions. We hoped that government officials and ministers would be held accountable.

President watching the vote on the 19th amendment

A president wavering between quid pro quo politics and the promise of good governance has painted himself to a corner. The grand alliance he hoped to forge when he announced his candidacy at the new town hall on 22nd November 2014 has not unfolded in the manner he and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga planned. They reckoned that a defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa would ipso facto deliver them control of the SLFP. It turned out to be dreadful delusion.

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