Editorial

President Maithripala Sirisena must be wondering what on earth happened to the time that has so swiftly gone by since his surprise election victory exactly two years ago. He now finds two-fifths of his term is already over, with precious little to show for it. He assumed the high office he holds under exceptional circumstances. He brought with him some fellow travellers disgruntled for the indifferent treatment in the old Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, but Mr. Sirisena rode to power and place essentially with the support of his hitherto political arch rival, the UNP.

The minorities and a minute breakaway faction of the then ruling party, the SLFP, pushed him over the bar to clinch the crown. Yet, he seems to have acquired for himself only a crown of thorns.
President Sirisena’s Administration has been plagued by dissension from within the Government and within his own party. So much so, he is unable to face the people at an election in so short a time since becoming Head of State and Head of Government. This is an unprecedented situation probably comparable only to the 1960 elections when the UNP lost a snap poll only a few months after its win, and in 1971, when the SLFP-led United Front Government faced a bloody youth uprising less than a year after a thumping electoral victory.

This week’s public spectacle surrounding the refusal by the Minister to accept the Local Government Delimitation Committee Report, the President delaying the signing of the controversial Hambantota Port agreement with the Chinese, the public embarrassment the Government faced over the foundation stone laying ceremony for a car assembly plant, and last but not least, the rejection by the President of the Task Force recommendation for a foreign judge to sit on a virtual war crimes tribunal, was the epitome of a dysfunctional Government at work.

All this commotion has given the ‘Joint Opposition’ a sniff at returning to public office, something many still feel is far too premature to happen despite ongoing bungling of statecraft by the dis-united Government in office.
This experiment in National Government borne out of special circumstances that was primarily aimed at ousting a political dictator in the making, has gone awry. The bickering is now intensifying and the President no less is complaining the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing; he is, no doubt, referring to himself as the left hand.

Last week, his frustration spilled over when he appointed one of his economic advisers to counsel him on the Hambantota port cum industrial zone project — a veritable port city in the South. He seemed convinced by a complaint from the Ports Minister who has said that he has been left out of the decision-making process over a crucial project under his very nose.

Sections of the Government have worked ‘on the blind side’ as a rugby scrum-half would do, with the Chinese Ambassador on the Concession Agreements for the port and the industrial zone, while the Ports Minister was possibly distracted with another project – putting up a massive Christmas tree on Galle Face Green. There was no edification coming even at a news conference as to what these concessions were as the two Ministers baulked at the assembled media corps and walked away without giving the answers.

Coming as they did one after the other, the public being misled to believe that the world famous German car manufacturer, Volkswagon was opening a plant in Sri Lanka showed how desperate the Government was for at last, some ‘good news’ for the people that foreign investments are a coming and jobs for the jobless are a coming. That VW was in deep, deep trouble but was still investing in Sri Lanka seemed too good to be true. Now, the Government has been forced to backtrack on the claim that foreign investors of repute from the West are here. Even then, this project was something that was mooted during the Rajapaksa era only to have been stalled due to micro competitors, which is one case of abuse of power and corruption during that time.

The people are therefore, left with few options. The classic local idiom, which is now considered sexist and therefore politically incorrect was that the choice is between a woman with a cold and a woman with a cough. What is their future? Do they go with the present or return to the past? This Government lost its credibility very early in its tenure with the Central Bank bond scandal, which continues unresolved to this date. While the State’s anti-corruption units are pursuing previous holders of public office for misusing official vehicles, the new players have invested their monies won from the bond scam in commercial banks.

It is not that these happenings are unknown to the masses as well. Out in the countryside, at least south of Polonnaruwa, there is a groundswell of public opinion developing against this fledgling Government.
The Government’s own hierarchy is now speaking out against its own team. One Minister (who says he’s fit to be the President himself) finds this Government to be run by a “clique”. He is not incorrect. The President is complaining that his partner, the UNP, is pulling down his party (SLFP) cut-outs in the provinces and permitting his arch-rival (SLFP dissidents) cut-outs to remain standing.

On the foreign front, Sri Lanka had regained the friendship of the West, but abandoned the Non Aligned Movement, capitulated to China and kept India guessing, All the effort put into a hard fought battle (in ousting a potential dictator) is coming to naught. In fact, the bad old days of not so long ago seem even preferable to the present confusion and become mixed signals to some who were in the vanguard of those battles then.
Politicians in power must exude confidence, but unless they do so with an understanding of actual realities on the ground, all will be lost. Unless the President and the Prime Minister speak with one voice, and act together, the country might see a replay of the Dudley Senanayake-J.R. Jayewardene syndrome that divided the UNP of yesteryear. The left of centre SLFP and the right of centre UNP must both come to the Centre.

A moribund Administration will have to be activated if any development plan is to work, and the people must not lose trust in their Government leaders. People must not be made to prefer the very system that they detested not so long ago. All will be lost if that happens.