Sunday Times 2
There’s no honour among politicians
Having just got my degree and desirous of a career in journalism, I had to fill up an application in which I gave the names of two respectable referees who could vouch for me, present myself for an interview with my original certificates (there were no photocopiers in those days) and then submit myself to questioning by a panel of three gentlemen well experienced in the newspaper world.
It was only after I had satisfied them that I had the knowledge, temperament and ‘stick-to-it-iveness’ to do the job I had applied for that they selected me for what was my first paid employment. I imagine that most of my readers can remember how they got their first job. We had to prove our potential to deliver the goods so we could be entrusted with the task for which we would be paid.
What a contrast to the way we select the people who govern us!
The only qualification a politician needs these days is the ability to convince or hoodwink a bunch of gullible voters to elect him or her to parliament or a council. Neither relevant experience nor educational qualifications related to the task they will have to perform are required.
Once someone is elected to parliament by us voters, their next step is achieving the objective of becoming a minister — with all the perks and privileges that it brings. It does not matter whether one is a full-fledged cabinet minister or a deputy minister or a project minister – what matters is that one is accorded the privilege of being labelled “Minister” with a pork barrel at one’s disposal.
As to which ministry one receives, it depends entirely on how useful one can be to one’s leader. Someone who has no concept of health economics or preventive health can be made Minister of Health – while someone who does not know the difference between a sergeant and a wing commander (after all, they both have three stripes on their uniforms) can be entrusted with the vital job of Defence Minister.
What seems to matter is not the minister’s knowledge and experience or even his or her capability of doing the job – but how loyal and useful he or she would be to the leader. Sometimes, parking someone in a particular ministry can be a tactic that keeps that particular minister in a position where he cannot be a threat or mount a challenge to the leader.
And the shifting allegiances and loyalties demonstrated by politicians all over the world make us citizens want to cringe. Just look at the US, where in 2016 Senator Ted Cruz of Texas opposed Donald Trump’s attempt to become president. Trump referred to Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted” while Cruz used to blast Trump as a “delusional narcissist”. Come 2018, with Cruz struggling to retain his senate seat in next month’s election, he has swallowed his pride and requested Trump to come down to Texas to campaign for him.
And in our own country, President Mahinda Rajapaksa received a rude shock in 2014 when his “loyal” Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena came to his house to have dinner – and the very next day disloyally betrayed him by leaving the cabinet to challenge him for the presidency.
It is not difficult for us now to draw the conclusion that it was not so much a desire to “restore democracy” or “save the nation” that prompted Sirisena and his supporters within the SLFP to go against Rajapaksa.
After all, they had not protested when Rajapaksa impeached the chief justice, curtailed freedom of speech or used violence against demonstrators. As Rajapaksa consolidated power within his own family and continued to exclude more and more people from the political process, senior SLFP members like Sirisena began to realise that this process of marginalisation was excluding them from what they saw as their rightful share of power and the benefits that came with it.
It was only then that Sirisena and his backers decided to go against Rajapaksa.
And now, just like Ted Cruz humbly seeks the help of Donald Trump to stay in power, Maithripala Sirisena appears to be humbly seeking the help of Mahinda Rajapaksa to shore up the sinking Yahapalana government – and stay on in power.
It was not so long ago, in August 2015, that Sirisena wrote a five-page letter to Rajapaksa in which he stated, “Should the party secure a majority, the prime minister should be another senior, but not you. Even if I have to intervene to form a coalition, you will not be the prime minister.”
Fast forward to October 2018 and we find the same Sirisena meeting Rajapaksa to have dinner at S.B. Dissanayake’s home. Whether they had hoppers and coffee as they did on that fateful night in 2014 or whether they munched on cadju nuts supplied by SriLankan Airlines is not known. But what is known is that the men who fiercely contested each other for the presidency in January 2015 are now seeking to get together.
The guiding principle of all these politicians – whether it be Ted Cruz or Maithripala Sirisena – is to employ all means at their disposal, even making friends and sucking up to their former enemies, so they can stay in power for as long as possible.
It has long been said that there is Honour Among Thieves – but what we can clearly see is that there is no Honour Among Politicians.