Sunday Times 2
A peaceful new year!
View(s):With 2018 less than a week old, I would like to wish all my readers a peaceful and safe new year. How time flies! Just three years ago, the new year of 2015 dawned with us all waiting to cast our votes in a presidential election, just as we are now waiting to cast our votes in the local government polls less than six weeks away.
Same old story, different actors: President Sirisena and others read out a pledge to dedicate themselves to elect “educated representatives with high integrity, free of fraud and corruption” at the BMICH recently
Claiming then that they would usher in a new regime of righteous government (nicely sloganised into the catchy Yahapalanaya), Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe gathered unto themselves others who also felt that the Rajapaksas had to be removed. Although Mahinda Rajapaksa had led the country to victory over the LTTE six years ago and ended the war, the subsequent mismanagement and corruption under his presidency was proving too much even for us tolerant Sri Lankans – and on January 8, 2015 we resoundingly delivered our verdict through the ballot box.
Looking back on the past twelve months of 2017, I have been asking myself: has the situation really changed with all this promise of Yahapalanaya? In those days Mahinda’s sons enjoyed a privileged position in the country – being virtually above the law and allowed to indulge themselves in their chosen hobbies of night car racing and rugger playing. These days President Sirisena’s son (when he is not visiting Colombo night clubs and creating havoc) is similarly enjoying a privileged position – being taken into the United Nations General Assembly as a member of the official Sri Lanka delegation even though he is neither a foreign service officer nor a member of parliament.
In those days President Rajapaksa’s brother in law Nishantha Wickramasinghe was gifted the chairmanship of SriLankan Airlines – and we all know what a tender-less mess he made of that enterprise. These days, President Sirisena’s brother P.G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena functions as chairman of another money-making organisation, Sri Lanka Telecom. Interestingly, one of Kumarasinghe’s first actions after being appointed chairman was to apply for a whopping increase in his salary!
In 1960 President John Kennedy, when criticised for appointing as Attorney General of the US his brother Robert Kennedy (who had no previous legal experience in any state or federal court), laughed off the criticism with the jest that he as President needed someone he could trust. In 2015 Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, when asked why he appointed his brother Dammika as chairman of the Ports Authority, is said to have provided a similar reply. Of course Robert Kennedy had a law degree and went on to prove himself in office. Dammika Ranatunga’s only claim to fame is that as a cricketer he played in two tests for Sri Lanka. We can only wish the brothers well and hope that Dammika, who unlike Bobby Kennedy does not have a law (or any other) degree, can help his brother by carrying out Arjuna’s instructions and look after the Ports Authority.
Now the word democracy comes from two Greek words demos meaning ‘people’ and kratos meaning ‘power’. The fundamental idea is that the people hold power. I have realised over the past three years of Yahapalanaya, however, that we people don’t really hold or have any power once we have finished voting.
The way democracy operates in our country, we the people are being repeatedly hoodwinked by those who crave power. We vote to elect representatives into parliament – and soon we find that those whom we have not voted for have been appointed into parliament through the back door by the president. Perhaps he is wiser than us and knows what is good for the country better than we the people do. More likely, of course, he (like Mahinda) needs the support of these chameleon-like rejected politicians so that he can hang on to his own position – and keep them sweet and favourable to him by rewarding them with plums of office!
We all know that Mahinda made no secret of the fact that he used his position to look after his own, and freely distributed perks and ministries to keep disloyal politicians loyal. He was a wolf – but a wolf in wolf’s clothing.
The present set of leaders despite all their talk of just Government have been behaving exactly like Mahinda did in gifting what they believe is rightfully theirs to distribute – from ministries to chairmanships – to keep the fickle parliamentarians on both sides of the house happy. Both Sirisena and Ranil are behaving like wolves no different from Mahinda – and the sheep’s clothing they wear is fooling nobody.
At the BMICH a few days ago President Sirisena was talking big about using his sword to ensure our politicians would be free of corruption. He even got the participants to jointly read out a pledge to dedicate themselves to elect “educated representatives with high integrity, free of fraud and corruption” who would work “in accordance with the conscience of the public for the protection of the motherland”.
Come February 10th, we will all get the opportunity to vote – and I am sure that we will elect into office a bunch of representatives who will be no better than those we already have. They will be no more scared by Sirisena’s sword than by his much publicised “madu valigey”.
And we will once more be taken for a ride by these holier than thou politicians who got together to depose Mahinda Rajapaksa because they claimed he was presiding over an administration riddled with nepotism, favouritism and corruption.
Same old story. Same old problems. Same old corruption.
The only change – different actors.