Columns

US President Donald Trump makes a statement at the White House about the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Reuters

It is not only in Sri Lanka that obnoxious politics operates just below the surface and even above it, especially when election time draws near. The world’s most powerful nation elected a president called Donald Trump. His antics, his use of his political office to further his political and business interests to the point that today there is an impeachment inquiry against him. Has he knowingly or in ignorance violated US laws, it is said.

That is not all. His use of vulgar and crude language against foe and friend alike, particularly on twitter, debases not only the office of president but the environment in which he functions.

Such crude conduct by the leader of the world’s only super-power is matched by much smaller countries too all of which have coarsened the political discourse and introduced a populist authoritarianism that threatens the decent, inclusive and democratic values that have been long cherished by more civilized politicians.

Consider one of the most recent developments on the darker side of politics. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera seems to be in an indecent hurry to push through the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement in case a change at the political top puts a stop to it.

Minister Samaraweera and other lobbyists for the US including those who were or possibly still are in the foreign ministry have been urging the government’s approval not just for the MCC but also for other US agreements with significant military/security implications.

On Friday, after this column had already been written Minister Samaraweera had released the text of the agreement to the public which we have not had a chance of scrutinizing but I’m aware of what was elicited earlier.

The MCC is said to bring Sri Lanka US$480 million. But what the Sri Lanka people would like to know is what will this cost in terms of national sovereignty and security and domestic land usage. Would there be a link between this MCC ‘gift’ and a US military presence in Sri Lanka under the Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement (ACSA) which was extended two years ago  and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

This newspaper’s political editor has provided enough details of the intended SOFA which was being confidentially negotiated between the US Embassy in Colombo and some pro-US elements in the foreign ministry who were keen to have the Sri Lanka government agree to it quickly.

Curiously Minister Samaraweera says that the agreement was drafted with the consent of the Attorney-General, the media reported. Surely the AG’s business is to make sure that the draft is legally correct and valid and is free of legal loopholes. It is not the AG’s responsibility to comment on the political implications and impact of a bill. Those are policy issues.

So if the AG’s consent or approval was granted it does not mean that he sees no danger to the country’s national interests.

Dragging the AG as prop to fulfill Samaraweera’a foreign policy interests is part of the obnoxious lackey politics that had permeated to the upper echelons of our foreign policy- making.

Some of the blame for this last minute efforts to have the MCC pushed through parliament is the vacillation of President Sirisena who first put his foot down on negotiations with the US on bilateral agreements including the MCC when he discovered he had been sold down the river on ACSA.

Then just the other day the Cabinet at whose meeting Sirisena was present, approved the MCC. When the opposition including its leader Mahinda Rajapaksa urged that it not be signed, Sirisena did a 90 degree turn. He then wanted it signed after the presidential election when a new president would be occupying his chair.

Those who recall British politics of about three decades ago when then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher solemnly declared that the “Lady is not for turning”, punning on the title of the Christopher Fry play. The same of course cannot be said of Sirisena who twists and turns like he is constantly using a revolving door.

The man who said the other day that as president he will remain neutral during the days of the presidential election is due to sign some agreement with the Opposition Leader Rajapaksa.

If this is neutrality Sri Lankans would doubtless wonder what partisanship means! A president who tried every manoeuver in the book to cling on to some party or the other to gain some concessions for his post-presidential days and failed probably because others were cautious and did not want to trust him farther than they can throw him finally decides with some flourish to announce his ‘neutrality’.

Now take the flip side of politics. The multiple violation of election laws, including by sections of the ‘mainstream’ and social media, is a sign of how ethics and respect for the law have deteriorated to the level that the rule of law is consciously trampled.

The other day one read of the dirty moves to sabotage Sajith Premadasa’s election meeting in Kurunegala by switching off the lights so that the helicopter carrying Premadasa could not land causing him to cancel the meeting. Soon after the helicopter left the lights were on again. That is politics in the country like no other!

If this is the kind of political conduct one can expect in the days to come then Sri Lanka’s future appears rather bleak.

One also read about the challenge for a television debate thrown by Premadasa at his main opponent Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Hardly a day had passed when opposition MP Bandula Gunawardena butts in to say that Premadasa is not qualified to debate for the former defence secretary.

Now what qualifications are necessary, pray? Gunawardena (some call him doctor as others called Mervyn Silva) did not mention except mutter something entirely irrelevant. Does one qualify only if one is a tuition master who is said to have turned out several students knowledgeable in economics.

That probably accounts for the mess the country’s economy has been in recent years.

Since Gunawardena did not mention what the qualifications are, one suspects he is referring to educational accomplishments. Well if that is so how come Wimal Weerawansa has become a one-man debating society? How come Donald Trump is engaging in calumnious tweets and speech in language that one would only expect from a junior student, and in crude diction.

After US troops killed IS leader Al Baghdadi Trump went on television not just gloating over somebody else’s achievement as though he had personally slain the enemy describing the last minutes of Baghdadi’s life in language that would only be appropriate for guests at the Trump Tower.

He said that Baghdadi “died like a dog”. I am not familiar with the way dog’s die and I wlll bow to Trump’s superior knowledge. Was it not his friend in Saudi Arabia who is well acquainted with sudden and gruesome deaths like that of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissent journalist who was butchered to death. Trump said Baghdadi “died like a coward… “whimpering and screaming”. In similar circumstances I wonder what Trump would have done- tweet for help?

And what of that Trump junior also known as Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister. He pompously claimed that if UK does not leave the European Union by 31 October, the deadline he set, he would “die in a ditch” and similar promises. But the next day I saw him on TV very much alive and apologizing for missing the date he set.

Sri Lanka has its own Trumps and Johnsons. The sooner they are trumped and eliminated from politics the sooner the country can return to civilized living.