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Democracy rose from the ashes this Tuesday evening when the Supreme Court salvaged its moribund corpus from the flames the Executive had engulfed it in, only to be plunged into worse hellfire on Thursday morn when an unruly parliamentary mob turned the bleak House to a house of bedlam, in their attempt to gain, through mayhem and brute force, what had been denied to them unequivocally by the apex court of the land.

But if Thursday’ s parliamentary fracas had seemed to resemble the scene at a toddy tavern on labourers’ pay night, Friday afternoon’s violent ruckus smacked even worse. In fact it demonstrated how Asia’s second oldest Parliament had sunk to its nadir, to the bottomless sewers from which, smeared in excreta, the former regime hoped to rise to power and did not give a rat’s posterior as to how they stank.

If there had been any need to prove that Mahinda Rajapaksa did not command the confidence of the majority of the House, this was the inconvertible evidence required. For had he had the 113 magic number tucked in his belt, there would have been no need for the dramatics.

First, let’s take the chronology of events. On October 26,  Friday night, the President first set the ball in motion and shoved the nation down the slippery slope to anarchy when he appointed his sworn enemy former President Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister in the misguided belief that he commanded the majority of the House, effectively sacking the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe  without whose indispensable support in 2015, Sirisena would have never risen to hold supreme office in the land but would, in Sirisena’s own words uttered in January 2015, ‘have been buried six feet below had the Rajapaksa regime returned to power’.

Second, the next Friday, November 2, having doubts whether Rajapaksa could muster the necessary numbers in the House, Sirisena prorogued parliament to give time to Rajapaksa to collect the scalps. But it soon became clear that not all the resources at Rajapaksa’s  command to entice the grasshoppers from the green green grass of the UNP turf could persuade many to take the quantum leap and fly off to the wild blue yonder, though of course, a handful of serial hoppers did. But the expected exodus never materialised.

Third, the following Friday, November 9, in yet another symptomatic  burst of recurrent Friday Night Fever, the president took the extraordinary step to dissolve Parliament itself and to call for general elections, even though the constitution did not permit him to do so till four and a half years had passed in the life of this Parliament unless Parliament had urged him to do so with a resolution signed by a two thirds majority. This was the legal requirement in the 19th Amendment which Sirisena himself had introduced and got enacted by more than a five sixth majority in April 2015.

PARLIAMENTARY CHAIR CHAOS: JO’s Johnston throws a chair at the police squad to thwart them from escorting the Speaker to occupy his rightful Speaker’s Chair. Pic by Ishanka Sunimal

On Tuesday the thirteenth, after hearing over ten fundamental applications filed in the Supreme Court against the president’s midnight gazette dissolving Parliament contrary to the constitution, the Chief Justice Nalin Perera and two other Justices Prasanna and Priyantha Jayawardena unanimously held with the petitioners and granted an interim injunction which temporarily made invalid the presidential proclamation until final determination on December 7.

That indeed put the spanner in the presidential timetable and the timing could not have been better for the ousted UNF and their comrades the TNA and the JVP. For last week, in the midst of enormous pressure from the international community and locally, the president had issued a gazette reconvening Parliament on November 14. Thus, when the UNF and its partners walked into Parliament they were not gate crashing but were only arriving as the invited guests of the House which the Supreme Court had opened for business as usual.

As the Sunday Punch commented three weeks ago on October 29, two days after the President had appointed Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and just two weeks  after he had appointed Justice Nalin Perera as the new Chief Justice:

“If there’s one blessed thing that he has done during these past four years, it is to have used all the four chances that presented before him to appoint the nation’s Chief  Justice with great sagacity.  To have chosen the best for the task, irrespective of his own political agenda. To have restored the independence of the judiciary and salvaged the respect from the depths which, in the public eye, it seemed to had fallen during Rajapaksa times.”

“After Parinda Ranasinghe who was appointed in 1988 by J. R. Jayewardene, Nalin Perera was one who had risen from the ranks, like a lotus from the mire, to bloom in the Supreme Court sun without a single spot of blemish on his petals. Again Sirisena had made the right choice. And it hardly took a half day’s work for the Constitutional Council to meet and unanimously approve the nomination.”

And Chief Justice Nalin Perera who had said at his inauguration speech, “I understand some may find it hard to believe that ‘I’ stand here without a political bias or favouritism or a secret strategic personal agenda that brought me here”‘: and had sworn on the Bible of his Christian faith and quoted chapter and verse from the Bible as to how a judge must discharge his judicial duties when he said:

“Judges are asked to perform a function that is truly divine. The Holy Bible brings out this idea in the following way: I quote from 2 Chronicles 19:6-7: “Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for mere mortals but for the Lord, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the Lord be on you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

He said: “Judges therefore may do well to realize and remember the seriousness of their vocation even before God. For if their office was meant to serve such a high cause, then the failure to rightfully do so on their part constitutes a grave offence.”

And declared: “It is indeed when truth alone triumphs in courts that we can expect people to have faith in the judicial system. As such the integrity of officers functioning in the administration of justice becomes a must. The actual good faith of judges and therefore the ability of the society to rest securely on the same is the bedrock of a successful judicial system. This truth makes the officers in this field strongly bound by a demand for the deepest form of personal and professional integrity“ – Chief Justice Nalin Perera has shown that in the face of stormy winds that must surely have visited him in the nation’s tempest, he had stood steadfast to his faith and to the solemn oath he had sworn  to uphold with the Good Book as his witness.

But the Star of Hope that had shone so bright on Tuesday eve atop Hulftsdorp Hill did not glimmer for long when its shining rays and its holy spirit was barred entry to the House of Commons where the political mammon with scant regard for the rule of law  held supreme sway with its batons and brawns.

When the business of the House commenced on Wednesday and the Speaker called for the no confidence motion to be voted on, members of the Rajapaksa fraternity raised a disruption that made it impossible for the Speaker to register the vote name by name. Instead he had to resort to declare that the no confidence motion against Rajapaksa had been passed by a ‘voice test’.

The Speaker conveyed the decision of the House to the president along with the signatures of 122 members of the House who had supported the no confidence motion against Rajapaksa. It was actually 126 when 4 MPs had crossed over on the floor of the House to claim solidarity with the ousted government.

The following day when parliament resumed its sittings the disruption by JO forces had moved from the vocal to the physical. That night the President met the party leaders and issued a statement stating that he could not accept the no confidence motion passed by Parliament against his nominee Mahinda Rajapaksa. And urged that it to be presented to the House and a new vote taken on a name by name basis. To this the UNF agreed.

Friday’s business in the House was to do this, to prove beyond presidential wdoubt that Ranil’s party together with the TNA and JVP commanded the majority of the House. But perhaps knowing that it will meets its Waterloo, the JO storm troopers made certain that they not only occupied the Speaker’s chair with Pohottuwa  MP Arundika Fernando sitting on it and later took it away with them, not only prevented the police escorting the Speaker to take his rightful seat but also attacked the police and threw chili powder mixed with water on them and on the front benchers of the UNF ranks including the JVP.  But in the midst of it all, the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya managed with his police escort to make his presence in the chamber and with the parliamentary Mace behind him asked for a vote on the no confidence motion for the second time. And for the second time it was passed on a voice test.

But the president is still not satisfied. According to MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena., the president has called again for another acid test. For another vote to be taken.  And most probably this will be held tomorrow, when Parliament is scheduled to resume its sittings. Unless the mob rules again and the sittings are postponed for another day.

In his letter dated  November 14, addressed to the Speaker the President has stated that the Speaker should not forget that the leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as the Prime Minister by him, Sirisena, on January 9, 2015 even though Ranil’s UNP  commanded only 41 seats in the House. That’s correct. But isn’t it also correct that Sirisena had already entered into an agreement with Ranil to form a coalition government and as the budding leader of the SLFP under its own party constitution was confident enough to make up the deficit by the support of SLFP MPs to justify to the nation that Ranil did indeed command the confidence of the House. But can Sirisena say the same of Mahinda today? Especially when the majority in the House have proved him wrong?

But what was the root cause that,  in the Speaker’s words in his letter to the President on Thursday night which stated, inter alia,  ‘Your Excellency, The country has plunged into a serious disorder owing to the decision taken by you on the 26th of October. The economy of the country, living conditions of the people, arrival of tourists, the goodwill earned by Sri Lanka at the international arena and the reputation you earned during your long political career are in the process of rapidly diminishing at the moment. An unnecessary conflict between the executive and the legislature has been created as a result. It is with great respect that I urge you on behalf of all the citizens of the country and the future generations to come, that expeditious measures be taken to save the nation from this catastrophe by lending your ears to the majority view of Parliament without further delay.”

What was the root cause? Though it may now seem rather academic to many, isn’t it the failure to address the original sin that made the duly elected Ranil Wickremesinghe in August 2015 as the leader of the party commanding the largest majority  in Parliament and his appointment as Prime Minister on that basis alone, be now cast East of Eden by presidential dictate?

Under the 19th Amendment once the President has appointed a Prime Minster, he can only be sacked on certain grounds. Those grounds have not arisen to justify his removal. The question arises thus whether the President has violated the Constitution and acted ultra vires his constitutional powers when he arbitrarily appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister whilst the incumbent premier still held legal office, neither having died, nor resigned nor removed by a no confidence motion or by Parliament rejecting the appropriation bill or the Government’s statement of policy.

That too, like the dissolution of Parliament affair, would probably have to wait a Supreme Court judgment, not a G. L. Peiris ruling as a final say on the matter attendant with Executive blessings.

What this nation witnessed this week was the ultimate debasement of Parliament. Not done discreetly, not done secretly, but in the open, in the kind of transparency that the Yahapalana promise held to usher. At least, its one promise kept.

It’s an eye opener. For we can now realise how fragile the nature of parliamentary democracy is in this land. And to think that it costs us all Rs. 5 million bucks each sitting to make it a theatre of violence for rogues and thugs to strut about displaying their prowess and muscle and throw the book of the constitution in the face of their opponents when argument fails and recourse to brutish behaviour is the only means available to achieve their ends. And that the public pay billions every year to provide for their grand life style, their perks, their privileges  their duty free cars. No wonder some clamour for a new election to receive another duty free vehicle bonus.

We might as well have elected Welle Sudda, Gonawilla Sunil, Maradane Choope, Mariyakade Maggie Nona or a Gunasinghampura Savitra to the House as the People’s representatives. It wouldn’t have made the slightest difference. Nor would anyone have discerned the difference. And perhaps, they would have given the same performance, probably cheaper.

People power strikes blow for Democracy

CRY FREEDOM: Thousands gather at Colombo’s Lipton Circus on Wednesday to show solidarity and halt the havoc

They came in their numbers. Thousands of them. They came not for their bottle of arrack nor for their packet of rice. They came not in organised tour groups in busses paid for by their political sponsors and neither did they come for the cash. For there was none.

They came on their own two feet, at their own expense not for tot or bite or dough. They came to light a candle for democracy to ensure that its spirit will survive this generation. They came for the well being of this country’s present and its future. They came to cry freedom and to do so before the time was up and the hour too late.

This is the picture that tells it all. An inspiring picture of hope born of despair. A picture that reveals a people’s collective statement to their leaders – never mind on what side of the political divide those leaders maybe – that they would not look askance or wallow in apathy while their civil rights and their cherished liberties were being trampled unto the dust by political mobs and their democratic way of life lay in siege. And to give lip to the sonorous voice that sang in their hearts: Cry Freedom and let slip the Angels of Peace.
Instead of havoc and white ghouls on wheels.