Editorial

And so, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa threw his hat into the ring for the forthcoming Parliamentary elections with some pressure politics this week, the culmination of a long drawn-out, well-orchestrated campaign that saw his successor, President Maithripala Sirisena, eventually capitulate.

The timing of Mr. Rajapaksa’s announcement from his hometown of Tangalla on Adhi Esala full moon poya day was carefully crafted. It is unlikely he would have declared his candidature without a tacit understanding already reached that he was not going to be snubbed. He also got a jibe in; “Unlike others,” he said, “I never left the party”. The message was meant to resonate with faithful followers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), whose current leader is Mr. Sirisena.

For months, the country has had nothing better to do than witness Mr. Rajapaksa stirring the pot; pulling strings within not just his own SLFP, but the broader coalition United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). He was able to garner their support with his presence and his perseverance.

Nominations for the General Elections scheduled for August 17 are due to begin tomorrow, and despite Mr. Sirisena straining every sinew to thwart the re-entry of Mr. Rajapaksa into the political arena, on Friday he waved the white flag in surrender due to the sheer avalanche of support Mr. Rajapaksa was able to muster. Efforts to wrest control of the party of which he was once General Secretary under Mr. Rajapaksa, but a mere puppet General Secretary as he himself was to admit later, failed.

In the process and in desperation, Mr. Sirisena rolled back the January 8 verdict of the people that rejected President Rajapaksa’s incumbency, and thereby, vicariously, his Government. Using his Executive powers, and with the concurrence of the reluctant United National Party (UNP) Government, President Sirisena tried to win friends and influence party decisions by doling out Cabinet portfolios to SLFP MPs, some of whom were under a cloud of suspicion for criminal acts while serving under President Rajapaksa. The power struggle within the SLFP was clearly won by the Rajapaksa faction; the Sirisena faction badly shown up and further hamstrung by his not being able to pick his own Cabinet because of an election promise to the UNP to form the Government.

It was not magic that attracted the numbers to the Rajapaksa faction. At the beginning most started gravitating to the newly elected President leaving Mr. Rajapaksa in the lurch. But with a string of corruption charges against SLFP MPs, and warnings by President Sirisena that rogues and rascals would not get nominations again, the ranks of the Rajapaksa faction swelled. Losing the intra-party tug-of-war, a second reversal was made by way of ‘go slow’ orders on the anti-corruption front.

Party politics overtook national requirements to punish corrupt former Ministers and election promises to clean up Government were as easily forgotten as they had been made. Now, the 180-degree turnaround is full circle with the agreement to give Mr. Rajapaksa nomination despite public pronouncements he would not. Previous arguments to SLFP leaders as to how the SLFP could give nominations to someone who is corrupt, and repeated assurances to his Prime Minister, that Mr. Rajapaksa would not be nominated have all fallen by the way side.

A revolt in the SLFP was in store. Mr. Sirisena ran the risk of splitting the party and giving that benefit to the UNP at the forthcoming polls. His own ouster from the party presidency was not to be ruled out. He now has tough choices ahead. Even though he is not running for election next month, he must think with whom he would prefer to run ‘his’ Government. The Supreme Court has, after all, said that he is the Head of Government and head of the Cabinet, despite the 19th Amendment curtailing some of his Executive powers.

Our Political Editor last week quoted how Mr. Rajapaksa told him that he should be able to trust him (Mr. Rajapaksa) more than the UNP leader, his current Prime Minister. The President must have been searching for an answer. Should the UNP be able to cobble up more seats in the upcoming poll, President Sirisena will be in a cohabitation Government, but with the party that ensured his own job. Should his own party, the SLFP win command of the next Parliament, he will have to live with the same undercurrents he has had to face these past months, to which he eventually succumbed. He can fall between the two stools. No one will envy the hot seat he sits on. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

One option available for him is to stay neutral at the forthcoming elections. He has already said he will not contest another Presidential election, though increasingly, his words are losing sincerity. He must promote himself from a politician to a statesman, if he can. The country has long been split by an Executive President who is the head of one political party alienating half the population which supports other parties.

The country is not advanced, either economically or by way of democratic institutions like in France or the USA, to sustain itself notwithstanding a partisan Executive President at the helm. In India, there is a President above the party political fray and in Britain there is the Queen as the unifying factor.

As for nominations from tomorrow onwards, the search is on for candidates. Parliaments all over the democratic world are witnessing a drop in standards. In Britain – the Mother of Parliaments, as they say, they lament the advent of the “professional politician”; the candidate who comes up the party ranks. Parliament no longer comprises a cross-section of society – the lawyer, the doctor, the banker, the brick-layer and the trade unionist — instead, it is the party worker. In India, they have had issues with a plethora of criminals entering the legislature, and when they go to jail their wives taking their places.

The Proportional Representation (PR) and the preference voting system bred this lot of miscreants entering Sri Lanka’s Parliament. The party leaders have a heavy responsibility cast on their shoulders. The last time, the UNP gave nominations to a tele-drama actress who didn’t know the difference between the 13th Amendment and the 17th, but she got more votes than the seasoned politician who recommended her. Then, she blithely dumped her voters and crossed over to the Rajapaksa Government.

Whatever President Sirisena has been saying about dropping rogues and rascals from the party’s nominations list, the SLFP Administrative Secretary is on record saying that his party MPs in the last Parliament will not have to face interviews – that they will get nominations automatically. One wonders why then, did Parliament have to be dissolved, Rs. 4 billion spent, if we are only going to have more of the same. That is going to be the sad state of affairs.