Sunday Times 2
The Ides of March have come – and gone
View(s):
Whenever this time of the year rolls around, I am reminded of those famous lines in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar about the Ides of March. It was the time that Julius Caesar, the powerful ruler of the Roman Empire, was assassinated by his friends and allies.
This is the period in our country when the weather is hot, we wait expectantly for the rains — and the madness of Big Match cricket disrupts the peace of our March weekends. These Battles of the Saints, the Maroons, the Blues and even the Mangosteens provide some light relief and divert our attention from the pressing problems in our country.
Not being a fan of Big Match cricket (even though I was secretly pleased to see the school to which so many of our current cabinet members belonged being convincingly defeated last week by its traditional rivals from Saint Thomas’ College!), I have spent my time cynically observing the goings on around us.
The president I see has gone off again on one of his overseas jaunts — this time to Kenya. During his single term of office, he has enjoyed the hospitality of no less than THIRTY foreign governments, making state visits to nations such as South Korea, the Philippines, Kenya, India, Pakistan, China, Iran, Austria, the Maldives etc. No doubt he has taken members of his family on some of these freebie trips – a good example was the time he “unofficially” took his son into the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
How all these jaunts and junkets are of benefit to the people of our country remains a mystery to us voters. I mused, however, that it might explain why the man who so solemnly declared in January 2015 that he would limit himself to being a one-term president has conveniently changed his mind. After all, the perks of office (including all these fully funded foreign trips) must be a great incentive for him to continue being our Head of State!
I am also amused by the talks now going on between the SLFP and the SLPP. Basil Rajapaksa, the national organiser of the SLPP, together with its chairman G.L Peiris and others, appears to be in discussions with SLFP leaders with a view to the upcoming elections. What concessions would be extracted as they consult, concede and compromise remains to be seen. Will they agree on a common presidential candidate? After all, it is well known that one’s enemy’s enemy becomes one’s friend! I note that President Mahinda (which is what Basil malli continues to call ex-president Rajapaksa) has wisely kept himself out of these negotiations, leaving it to his malli Basil to consult and compromise.
It amuses me that this is the same Basil who, soon after his brother lost the presidential election in January 2015, hurriedly left the country with several kilograms of checked (or unchecked?) baggage on Emirates flight EK 349 for Dubai at 0255 in the early hours of the morning of January 11th. Since he had wielded a lot of power as Minister of Economic Development during his brother’s regime, it was postulated that Basil who is an American citizen was running away from corruption charges that he believed would be brought against him by the new government.
Now Basil is back — and not only have no corruption charges been brought against him, he has become the lead negotiator in attempts to ally the SLPP with the SLFP, the very party from which he fled after the last presidential election!
And I have been amused by Mangala Samaraweera having a huge tamasha to celebrate his 30 years in parliament. Beginning his political life as the SLFP’s chief organiser for Matara in 1983, Mangala entered parliament in 1989 as a big supporter of Chandrika. From Chandrika’s SLFP he then jumped to the SLFP Mahajana Wing, then to Sirisena’s camp and now he is in the UNP. How easy is it to be in parliament if one jumps from party to party — and then if one loses at the hustings to creep back on the “National” List?
But this should come as no surprise to those who knew Mangala’s father Mahanama Samaraweera. After all, Mangalaa’s father was one of those who, along with Minister CP de Silva, betrayed Mrs Bandaranaike in 1964 and crossed over from the SLFP when her government tried to nationalise Lake House. For those not as old as myself who were not around when these events occurred, Lake House then was this country’s premier privately owned newspaper group — whose managing director was none other than Ranil Wickremesinghe’s father Esmond.
Perhaps one of the few good things Mangala has done in politics recently was to prevent the Honest Ravi Karunanayake being brought in to the cabinet this year as Finance Minister. It is reliably rumoured that Mangala vehemently opposed Ravi’s re-installing as Finance Minister and even threatened to cross over to the opposition if Ranil put Ravi in charge of Finance in the recent cabinet re-organisation.
Better that we have the Design Consultant in charge of the nation’s finances than the man whose house rent was paid by Arjun Aloysius.
Sometimes, I wish for the old method of elections, when we voters had the opportunity of getting rid of MPs who failed to satisfy our requirements — like in the election of 1977 when even powerful ministers like N.M. Perera, Colvin R de Silva and Hector Kobbekaduwa lost their seats.
All we can do for the moment is look on politics in this country as a soap opera – sometimes comic but more often tragic.
Just like a Shakespeare play.