Editorial

Both India and Pakistan celebrated their 70th anniversary of Independence from British rule, and with it marked the same number of years of hostility, suspicion, rage and arguments over the disputed territory of Kashmir, the departing rulers left behind after partitioning the sub-continent.

Such is their animosity towards each other that both countries are armed with nuclear weapons to defend themselves. Without an amicable settlement of their differences, SAARC, the South Asian regional grouping of which they are member-states remains stuck in the mud, unable to get economic cooperation moving for the upliftment of the millions living in the region, for bilateral issues have been left out of its Charter.

Without the resolution of these longstanding thorny bilateral issues, SAARC is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
As one may see it from afar, the two countries, both dear friends of Sri Lanka and its people, need to overcome the divide and rule legacy left behind by the colonial masters. Instead, they are drifting towards post-colonialism – Pakistan towards China and India towards the United States. There are countries exploiting the current impasse over Kashmir and feeding on the India-Pakistan rift.

Sri Lanka in years gone by, especially during the tenure of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike took a proactive role in international affairs. Given her closeness to the political leadership of both countries, she was eminently qualified to have made an effort to play honest broker in reaching some settlement, but maybe she too felt it was too much for her to undertake.

With SAARC incapacitated in negotiating a diplomatic breakthrough, the unlikely resolving of that vexed issue, two of Sri Lanka’s good friends in the region, it seems, will go their own way, drifting more and more apart bringing benefit only to neo-colonial geo-politics much to the detriment of those in this neck of the woods.

Mutual survival may keep both parties together
The two-year ‘marriage of convenience’ finally comes to an end tomorrow, and with no immediate plans for any extension of the bond (no pun intended), the political future of the National Unity Government of President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP and Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe’s UNP shall remain in a state of ‘animated suspension’.

The country and those watching overseas will also remain in a state of suspense not knowing the course the Government will take. The President has called for an unofficial extension till the end of December at least to get the Budget through. One thing is for sure though, mutual survival will keep both parties together despite the sparring, for as long as it takes.

There was great anticipation that the electoral toppling of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government in January 2015 would usher in a National Government between the two main protagonists in Sri Lankan politics. The alliance was announced even before the Parliamentary elections of August that year, but when neither party obtained an absolute majority it also became a political necessity for both.

The UNP leadership eyed a two-thrids majority to bring in a new Constitution and relative political stability as they embarked on taking the reins and running the country with the PM at the helm. Unfortunately, along the way things went awry. A cabal forming themselves into a CCEM (Cabinet Committee on Economic Management) seemingly sidelined not only the Cabinet, but also the President – or so the President felt.

That was fodder for SLFPers on the President’s side to pump him with the suggestion not to trust the UNP. And so the mutual trust at the beginning turned to mutual distrust. In the meantime, the pro-Sirisena SLFP Ministers began publicly criticising the UNP. Even if it didn’t have the imprimatur of the President directly, it certainly had his concurrence indirectly as he began to assert himself. One of the earliest indications was last June (2016) when he put his foot down and insisted on sacking the then Governor of the Central Bank in the face of the PM’s direct intervention to save him.

That incident should have sent a signal to the UNP hierarchy that it was not a mere bone of contention between the two leaders, but more so, that the President was not willing to be a lame duck President but rather wanted to pursue his own agenda. Read into this, the President deftly ignored the nation’s agenda by appearing to renege on an election promise to abolish the Executive Presidency.

He would state that through the 19th Amendment he was arguably the only Executive President in the world to voluntarily shed his powers, something he probably rues having done while the UNP at the time ran the show and he set his sights on the 2020 Presidential election for a second term.

The ‘kambaadili’ as they say in the local language, meaning tug-of-war has seen the Yahapalana (good governance) regime turn the administration of the country from the expectant politics of results to the politics of conflict. The pro-Rajapaksa SLFP camp is stirring the pot on the sidelines and the JVP is adding spice and coriander to the brew.

The great hope that the economy would ‘take off’ with Western aid, assistance and investments by the countries that made no bones in wanting the Rajapaksas ejected from office did not materialise. The new Government of 2015 eventually had to continue with the Rajapaksa mantra of seeking financial assistance from India and China in what is turning out to be a volatile issue for the future.

Is the country so divided on SLFP-UNP lines, or is it just the politicians dividing the country for their own political gain? The way some frog jump from one party to another doesn’t seem to indicate there’s that much ideological differences between the two parties. Still, many believe the dichotomy in the current leadership is that the President lives in the 1970s and the PM in the 2050s.

For the present, the National Unity Government is floundering. This is not about the achievements or otherwise of this Government, for there are some pluses. It is about the experiment in the UNP-SLFP partnership. The end is nigh in their relationship and the journey they began only two and a half years ago is on the rocks. The Government will not necessarily fall. Self-preservation of their offices will be the glue that will bind them together.