Columns

A nation’s outrage burst in full flow last Sunday evening when President Maithripala Sirisena thought fit to induct 26 members of the SLFP as Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers of his government, rolling out the red carpet of welcome to a questionable coterie of the Rajapaksa regime the people held in opprobrium and had voted never to see returned to power again.

It was not so much that Maithripala had flouted one pre-election promise not to increase the Cabinet to more than thirty that surprised the public and caused the horror but the shock that he had chosen to appoint the self same lieutenants of the corruption-ridden Rajapaksa regime as his own new standard bearers of his vision of change.

The word on the street was that President Maithripala had either, entranced in a sublime state, taken the practice of loving kindness to extraordinary lengths and, whilst playing the role of a political Sadhu Sumedha, generously distributing his people-gifted executive powers on the Prime Minister and asking naught in return, was bestowing maithri and karuna in abundance on his political enemies regardless of their conduct; or that he was nursing a political death wish that would place in peril the very wellbeing of his government and put his own credibility on the line.

Maithripala Sirisena swept to power as the messiah of change at a time when corruption was rife and dissent stifled. He was the nation’s star of hope to usher in real change which was to change the executive presidency, to crack down on corruption and to restore honesty, decency and transparency in government and in the conduct of its members.

The people had seen for themselves the flagrant abuse of power done under the flag of patriotism; the plunder of the nation’s coffers done in the name of development and the squander of a nation’s wealth in extravagant tamashas held in the name of national celebrations. And they had seen enough, had enough and clamoured for change: Real change. One that would transform Lanka from a failed state due to corruption, nepotism, selective law enforcement, family dynasties and white van terror into an enlightened success state based on the true ideals of democracy.

But is that real change any longer possible to achieve when some of the most proactive members of that vile regime against whom real change is directed, are now ensconced as honoured guests in the royal box, swigging the same old arrack from new bottles? Had the Avurudhu koha come early this year in March to lay its rotten eggs in Maithripala’s nest whilst it’s still being built?

PUBLIC WORSHIP: Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who joined President Maithripala's Government, last Sunday, goes down on her knees to worship and pay pada namaskara Mervyn Silva style, to the then President Rajapaksa, at last year's May Day, just ten months ago. She even staked her house as a wager that Mahinda Rajapaksa will win the Presidential election in January, before changing her faith seven days ago to the man who won the Presidency.

And the question on the nation’s lips is whether the crackdown against corruption will now be relegated to a back seat, whether inquiries into those facing charges will quietly slip into parking mode, whether the impetus that existed to bring the corrupt to justice will now lose stimulation? Will the momentum lose its spur and fizzle out in apathetic inertia?

A few of these SLFP MPs who formed the Rajapaksa Old Guard and have now become the new President’s men and women, even face charges of corruption. For instance S. B. Dissanayake has a complaint lodged against him at the Bribery Commission. So does Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi. It is one filed by her former predecessor in office, the then Minister of Power Champika Ranawaka and now her cabinet colleague, over a coal shipment.

When a person faces criminal charges or allegations of conduct unbecoming that warrants investigation, the normal and correct practice followed in government departments and companies is to interdict the officer pending an inquiry and to await the findings of guilt or innocence before any further action is taken. This was followed in the recent fiasco concerning the Governor of the Central Bank. Arjun Mahendren has been sent on leave until the inquiry into the Treasury bond scandal is complete.

But such seems to be the indispensable nature of services both S. B. Dissanayake and Pavithra Devi have, during the Rajapaksa years, rendered to promote the public weal that, regardless of the charges they face, they have been deemed more than worthy to be appointed to the high offices of Government, with S.B. made the cabinet Minister of Rural Economic Affairs and Pavithra made the State Minister of Environment. In their cases, they did not have to await clearance from the Bribery Commissioner to be rewarded handsomely. They were picked from the Rajapaksa gutter and overnight switched on to shine as exalted stars in the new government’s Maithri Way.

And as for being paragons of decency in wielding the tongue dexterously, the strong suit of many of the old cohorts is that they are Mariya Kade naturals, born, bred and blessed with the gift of the gab spiced with the natural street flavour to create a one man or one woman’s Billingsgate at any time or place.

Pavithra Devi’s extempore performance on the TV talk show Vada Pitiya shortly before the January election, showed her innate talents at its supreme best. Irked by a comment UNP MP Ajith Perera cast, she unleashed a nonstop harangue in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defence which confirmed that hell hath no fury than a woman galled. And as viewers watched their wonder grew how one small mouth could hold all the venom she threw to flay her opponent, making the hapless Ajith, trying to get a word in edgeways and failing miserably, gallantly give up the battle stating he felt nauseous to hear Pavithra Devi’s verbal dysentery unplugged.

And as for S. B. Dissanayake’s caddish use of the polished, pristine Sinhala tongue, Hirunika Premachandra’s pre-election pro-Maithripala television commercial says it all. The advert starts with a clip of S.B. Dissanayake, then the man Rajapaksa appointed to be in charge of the Groves of Academy as the Minister of Higher Education, making his notorious public speech where he says, “Chandrika must be dashed on the ground, thrown on the ground, her clothes must be removed, she must be stripped naked and be forced to run naked in a mad trance on the roads.” Hirunika then cuts in to ask ‘who did he strip naked but the women of Lanka, me and you,’ and then declares, ‘We tolerated enough, on January 8 lets show our power’. The appeal is then made to the public to vote for a maithri era and promises ‘New Nation in Hundred Days’.
Then at another public meeting before the elections he attacked Maithripala and bragging sans basis that he had defeated Maithripala for the post of SLFP secretary, asked, “Can this pendha Master shake even one lock of President Mahinda’s hair?” But this Thursday he had changed gear and stated in an interview that after 2010 the way the Rajapaksa government acted was the same way Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein had acted. He now says that though he remained in the Rajapaksa government he was highly critical of the way things were done. He also states that he does not agree with those who want to bring Mahinda Rajapaksa back as Prime Minister.

National governments are born in times of war when the common enemy is at the gates. Rarely do they emerge in times of peace, unless there is a common pressing objective to be achieved when warring camps fold their tents and, with profound awareness of what the hour demands, call a truce and shelter together, temporarily sacrificing their own interests to advance the nation’s manifest concerns and aims.

So what was this present pressing objective that urged installing 26 members of the repugnant Rajapaksa old guard, into a cabinet that was promised to be as clean as a whistle?

All it has achieved is to have given the Government a simple majority of one. Today the score card reads Government 113, Opposition 112, inclusive of the Speaker’s casting vote. But is this majority of one worth the price the Government had to pay in terms of its own credibility? Hasn’t the President, as chairman of the SLFP, any power over the way the party members vote? At least on important Government bills, cannot the chief whip be ordered to lash his power and ensure party members vote along party lines and not on individual consciences?

To his credit, Maithripala strove to keep his election promises. His determination to cut down on tamashas and waste the nation’s wealth was shown in the simple and charm ceremony he held to take his oath of office as President. He slashed the prices of fuel significantly and reduced food prices extending much needed relief to the people. He set about mending shattered fences with Lanka’s neighbours, especially India and succeeded in showing the western world the new Lanka he led was fit and eligible to take her rightful place again amongst civilized nations of the world.

He successfully exorcised the phantom Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and appointed the most senior judge as the new holder of that hallowed office. He appointed a new Bribery Commission to inquire into the hundreds of complaints of corruption that flowed into the office in tidal waves. Whilst this body was charged with the responsibility of roping in the thieves, he set up a special investigative unit to inquire into mega corruption, In a bid to track down the missing 5.6 billion US dollars, or Rs. 734 billion, the Government claimed the Rajapaksa Family had siphoned off from the national coffers, he sought the assistance of the World Bank, the IMF, The United States, Britain, the EEC and India with each agreeing to help.

Then on March 15 in keeping with his manifesto promise to change the Executive Presidential System, radical constitutional changes were embodied in the proposed 19th Amendment which had, as commented last week in the Sunday Punch, the practical effect of turning the president into the nation’s ceremonial mascot and making the Prime Minister the de facto president of Lanka. Though it may well require a referendum, he was on the right track and on course to achieving his set goals before the 100-day honeymoon ended.

And then, after such an impressive litany of achievements, he had to go and queer the pitch by introducing staunchly loyal figures of the disreputable old regime as members of the new cabinet. If the nation feels let down, it is because the people’s idea of real change do not envisage the prospect of seeing faces they hold in contempt tarnishing the new image the government is eager to promote. To the people, it seems an ostensible return to the old practice of the Rajapaksas where members’ loyalties and their acquiescence were purchased by the offer of ministerial portfolios at public expense. But it is also due to Maithripala having to first consolidate his power within his own party, which fails to realise it has in him the symbol of atonement for the party’s past sins.

Despite his appointment as the SLFP chairman on January 15 and his subsequent leadership of UPFA as well, the President still continues to tread the ground with seeming uncertainty, unsure whether the corrupt members of his party are withholding their support as a bargaining chip to escape punishment for their crimes against the people. He must address this state of affairs within his own party and start cracking the whip to enforce some discipline amongst the rank and file who are appearing to act more and more like a bunch of schoolboys on a field trip without the class master.

On Thursday, at another ‘Bring Back Mahinda Rally’ held at Ratnapura, 25 MPs and scores of Provincial Councilors defied a party ban and attended the meeting organised by the hapless Gang of Four — Wimal Dinesh, Vasu, and Gaman — desperately searching for an orphanage and a surrogate father. That they could flout party orders with such impunity does not bode well for party discipline nor does it speak much for Maithripala’s leadership qualities. Even his decision to appoint the 26 SLFP members to his Cabinet was ridiculed on the stage with Wimal Weerawansa having the nerve to state, “some of the SLFP MPs accused of corruption had been appointed ministers of the new government. Those who condemned Minister S. B. Dissanayake as one of most corrupt politicians have appointed him a Cabinet minister. The real SLFP MPs had joined the mass movement to bring back Rajapaksa while the corrupt joined the Sirisena government for personal benefits.”

Many have come forward and joined hands with Maithripala not to serve the nation but in the hope that such a move may save their political skins. Many more await the summons to climb aboard the ‘yahapalana’ train. Until such time arrives, they make do by climbing aboard the ‘Bring back Mahinda’ stage to receive the Wimal Weerawansa ‘good character’ certificate, issued with the same scrupulousness as his wife’s passport.
The de-politicisation of the Supreme Court could not have been made until the Phantom Chief Justice was exorcised from the Bench. The Bribery Commission could not have been made effective until the old Commissioner, who was appointed by Mahinda Rajapaksa, was removed and a new Commissioner appointed in his stead. Likewise how can a supposed national government made up by those who may still secretively owe allegiance to the former president, be expected to be in the vanguard of genuine change and be at the forefront of the corruption crackdown?
The only way out of this impasse, where his own party of Rajapaksa henchmen appear to be holding him to ransom, is for the President to dissolve Parliament as soon as it is practically possible and call for fresh elections. Nominations to the SLFP membership should be given strictly according to the guidelines suggested by PAFFREL recently. Only then will the President be able to ensure the emergence of a clean SLFP fit to govern. Only then will he be finally rid of those in his party – beholden to the former President after growing fat on his largesse — trying to sabotage the Maithri Government. Only then would this mockery of Parliamentary democracy end. Until the Augean Stables which have not been cleaned for the last 10 years are cleansed, real change will be but a pipe dream.

As Mahinda Rajapaksa said this Monday when asked how he felt about those SLFP MPs who had accepted Ministerial portfolios, “All are supporting me. No one is against me. Just name anyone. Then I can inquire from him. As far as I am concerned no one is against me. How can those who were with me for several years go against me?” Aye, there’s the rub which must give President Maithripala pause. For in his bid to form a national government by raising fallen fiends from their comatose, seedy states, will he only succeed in giving new life to the infidels of change to eclipse a nation’s sunrise that has only just begun to dawn?

In the warm auspicious afterglow of victory with jubilation thronging the air even the lion may lie down with the lamb. But after the brief spell of summer sunshine is past and when winter’s harsh winds of reality blow cold, will President Maithripala find that his 100-day honeymoon has ended prematurely and that nature has reverted to its usual self and become once again ‘red, in tooth and claw’ and the day, not blue in hope and liberty but like the night, black in grime and soot?