A tragedy of two prime ministers but whose coke is the real thing?

A PRESIDENT IN SEARCH OF A PM: A NATION IN SEARCH OF A GOVERNMENT - - Something’s rotten in the State of Lanka: A Nation without a legitimate Government tottering perilous on brink of economic doom and anarch

Sunday, December 02, 2018

It is the best of times for the Rajapaksa fraternity to make hay while the torrid sun shines. It is the worst of times for the Wickremesinghe clan whilst it ponders over its present plight in the drab, dark moonless night.

It is the epoch of Rajapaksa belief that they can rule without public murmur or judicial censure. It is the epoch of Wicremesinghe incredulity that the red carpet  of governmental power could be so easily pulled from under his feet by presidential whim and fancy, never mind what the 19th Amendment held.

DE JURE PRIME MINISTER: Ranil Wickremesinghe

It is the turning point in a nation’s history, a nation now given to make its tryst with destiny on a habitual basis eerily on a Friday night: One that will determine its future course. One that will determine whether the future holds for all Lankans a season of light, of sunny skies, or a season of darkness, of perpetual night.

This turning point presents the nation’s spring of hope and whether it will turn to be the winter of despair will depend on how all of us will respond to the challenge.

Even as Charles Dickens wrote in his opening page of the Tale of Two Cities, ‘We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

DE FACTO PRIME MINISTER: Mahinda Rajapaksa

Today in Sri Lanka, we have a moustachioed former president with black hair enthroned in the prime ministerial chair by presidential fiat occupying the Prime Minister’s office down Flower Road. Today in Sri Lanka, we have a clean shaven Prime Minister with white hair enthroned in the prime ministerial chair by presidential appointment and ratified by a Parliamentary majority, living under siege at the Prime Minister’s official residence, Temple Trees.

As the Cocoa Cola ad tacitly put it some years ago, when facing competition from Pepsi and other colas, Coke: It’s the Real Thing, and the question on the people’s lips is  who’s the genuine article, and who the counterfeit?

That, of course, is not a matter to be determined in Lanka’s bars and taverns; nor in the public funded Parliamentary canteen where the purported government’s ministers meet to give expression to their views, avoiding as they do the chamber of the House. And even though the present crisis has turned the Lankan populace of 22 million people into experts of constitutional law with each having, according to his or her party hue, a definite opinion on the matter, only the courts can deliver final judgment on the issue.

This Friday morning, 122 MPs of the UNF, the TNA and the JVP sought refuge in the judiciary, the still extant bulwark of the people’s fundamental rights and the guardian of the people’s liberties.

They petitioned for a Writ of Quo Warranto — a writ or legal action requiring a person to show by what warrant an office or franchise is held, claimed, or exercised. They asked the court to seek from Mahinda Rajapaksa to show on what legal basis he holds the office of prime minister. And also for his cabinet coterie to show on what legal basis and by what authority they function as Ministers and or Deputy Ministers. They also requested the Court for a declaration that Rajapaksa and his ministers are not entitled to hold the office of Prime Ministers and Ministers or Deputy Ministers.

It’s an action they should have taken much earlier, not awaited the storm to break. Especially, when the dark clouds of deluge were hovering overhead threatening to burst. As the SUNDAY PUNCH has repeatedly commented these last three weeks, it was not the dissolution of Parliament that really mattered in this grave constitutional crisis but the gross failure to address the original sin – whether, under the 19th Amendment, a prime minister after having being appointed by the President could be summarily be sacked and another appointed in his place — that led to this calamity that mattered most.

Just to refresh the memory bank. As The Sunday Punch commented on 18th November:

“What was the root cause? Though it may now seem rather academic to many, isn’t it the failure to address the original sin that made the duly elected Ranil Wickremesinghe in August 2015 as the leader of the party commanding the largest majority  in Parliament and his appointment as Prime Minister on that basis alone, be now cast East of Eden by presidential dictate?”

“That too, like the dissolution of the parliament affair, would probably have to wait a Supreme Court judgment, not a G.L. Peiris ruling as a final say on the matter attendant with Executive blessings.”

“Under the 19th Amendment, once the president has appointed a prime minster, he can only be sacked on certain grounds. Those grounds have not arisen to justify his removal. The question arises thus whether the president has violated the constitution and acted ultra vires his constitutional powers when he arbitrarily appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister whilst the incumbent premier still held legal office, neither having died, not resigned nor removed by a no-confidence motion or by Parliament rejecting the appropriation bill or the Government’s statement of policy.”

Thank God, that the UNF, prone to procrastination, as it had been for the last three years in office, has finally decided to bathe in Hulftsdorp Hill’s fount of justice and let the public determine who emerges cleaner after the judicial scrub. For things have come to a pretty pass in the life of this nation in a matter of five weeks. Whilst the country stands perilous on the brink of economic doom, whilst its people battle each day to keep the wolf from their doors with the ever rising cost of living; whilst the value of the rupee continues to slide even further down the slippery slope despite the much vaunted boast of  Rajapaksa that  he accepted the President’s invitation to become prime minister because he had the magic wand to arrest the trend — nothing of that sort has come to pass except a meaningless power struggle that has damned its protagonists in the eyes of the people and shamed the nation in the eyes of the world.

The last five weeks have only witnessed the usurpation of power through a constitutional coup; and no ten bucks or five bucks reduction in the price of petrol can reduce or douse the fires it has ignited. The unseen economic cost to the nation will never be known. And the wages of sin, perhaps, will never have to be paid by the guilty but will ultimately find its way to the door of the humblest hamlet and be levied upon the innocents who have no voices to speak, no coin to barter and no thirty silvers to gain for serial sell outs.

This week saw the non attendance in Parliament of the purported government. Not once, but twice. The Speaker had given advance notice that Parliament will be convened on Tuesday. Whilst those presently labelled the opposition, the UNP, the TNA and the JVP duly turned up en masse and even two tie coats turned turn coats turned up plus the Buddhist monk who had become a born again MR catcher, it  was no show by the purported members of the government in de facto power.  It was no show again on Thursday, though some did turn up at the Parliamentary canteen where, it appears, they mark their roll call and issue their warped discourses on parliamentary procedure whilst tucking into the public paid for grub.

Once known as ‘Seenie Bolay’ but now UPFA’s main underarm spin bowler S.B. Dissanayake, for instance, said on Thursday there would not be any change of government and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa would continue in his post.

Addressing a news conference held at the parliament complex, he declared that the prime minister would not be replaced. “There are no vacancies for a Prime Minister or ministers in the government. No other person will be appointed to that post. This government will continue.” He said the Speaker could not play around with a government appointed by the President. He then, probably, looking at the leaves in his tea cup, predicted the results of the general election if held soon. His forecast: “We will be able to form a government at an election while the UNP will be reduced to 65 seats, Hakeem to three seats, Bathiudeen to two, the TNA to 13, TPA will lose its seats and Digambaram will win one seat.”

The ongoing farcical spectacle turned even more nonsensical when Mahinda Rajapaksa expressed his own reason why he and his party members were not showing their faces in the House. Responding to a question as to why the government MPs had boycotted parliament sittings once again, he said that they don’t intend attending an illegal gathering. Fearing, perhaps, that he will be judged by the company he keeps, he declared, “We are not avoiding anything. We simply don’t like to attend an illegal gathering,” and added that parliament sessions were being held illegally and accused Speaker Karu Jayasuriya of not respecting the law. “The Speaker doesn’t respect the law. We decided not to attend because of his arbitrary actions,” he said.

Whilst the situation stayed in a state of stalemate, the man who had impetuously brought the whole scenario into play and who had out of constitutional order created constitutional  chaos the night he appointed Rajapaksa as prime minister, held a meeting with the TNA leaders and requested them to find the solution to deliver the hapless nation  from the wretched impasse he had rashly fathered.

The TNA response was terse and to the point. In a statement issued on Thursday it said:

“The Member of Parliament appointed as Prime Minister on the 26th of October has not been able to prove that he commands the confidence of Parliament though one month has lapsed since the said appointment and though Parliament has met several times during this period. On the other hand, Motions of No Confidence in the said Hon. Member as Prime Minister have been passed in Parliament on 14th and 16th November.

“The voice votes taken in Parliament have been confirmed by 122 Members signing and transmitting to both your Excellency and the Hon. Speaker statements to that effect.

“The view of the majority of the Hon. Members of Parliament on the issue of whether the said Hon. Member commands the Confidence of Parliament to be the Prime Minister has been negative and has been demonstrated beyond doubt.

“We wish to point out that,

1. The inability of the Hon. Member to prove that Parliament has confidence in him as Hon. Prime Minister, 2. the votes of No Confidence passed against the said Hon. Member on the 14th to 16th November pertaining to his claim to be the Hon. Prime Minister; have created a controversy in the Country as to whether the country is without a Prime Minister, a Cabinet of Ministers, and a lawfully constituted Government for more than a month.”

The TNA statement further added: “In the circumstances to ensure that an Hon. Member of Parliament is able to command the confidence of Parliament as Prime Minister we the Members of Parliament of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi, will support the restoration of a Government headed by the UNF as it existed prior to 26th October; the Appointment of a nominee of the UNF who in the opinion of Your Excellency is able to command the confidence of Parliament as Prime Minister.”

Earlier on Thursday evening the President had met the Speaker and a statement issued from his presidential media unit had this to say: “The Speaker told the President that all spheres of the country have become unstable today. He said the rapid depreciation of rupee and the collapsing of the investment sector and the tourism sector would be unbearable for the country. Therefore, the Speaker said that immediate solutions should be given to the instability to which the President responded positively. The President also commended the Speaker’s contribution to find solutions.’

It has become increasingly clear that the architect of the chaos cannot engineer the solution but has to seek the help of others to pull him out of the mire. They may well extend a helping humane hand to do so, though, alas, sad to say,  the president will not come out smelling roses from the dregs of the Diyawanna Oya he himself had needlessly churned and muddied.