Editorial

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This is not to say that this is the first government to have this attitude in post-independent Sri Lanka. There have been many before, and this one follows the pattern, or even makes slight improvements on it. This government's resources compare favourably with those before it which have drawn on every imaginable method both orthodox, unorthodox, judicial and extra-judicial to cling to power.

Perhaps the fact that this behaviour comes from a government which made pious promises of good-governance has created a special sense of despondency. There is a special breach of faith here. People have felt that we have collectively hit the nadir, that there is no such thing as good-governance and a good politician anymore.

But, the facts are bald, and so blunt that the most purblind in government have been unable to ignore the objective reality. This is that the government now constitutes a minority in the parliament with a majority of Members putting their signatures to a motion saying effectively that they now constitute the Opposition. The Speaker technically at least is still a member of the Opposition, and therefore, the government has 109 Members in its ranks, which means that it is clearly relegated to the status of the parliamentary minority.

This situation gives way to a skewed state of affairs, in which a lame-duck government tries to maintain a façade of parliamentary legitimacy, at least for the interim until October, at which time it is hoped that Parliament can be dissolved and fresh elections held.

If the past experience is anything to go by, the country is bound to return a similarly grey verdict at the polls, considering the fact that the polls are poised to follow the similarly depressing bloody, bitter and corrupt fashion.

It may result in an inversion of the current scenario, with the UNP getting maybe a few more seats than the PA, placing the JVP and the Muslim Congress in the middle in which these parties will be able to decide the shape of the government.

The power equation is so liquid, so shaky, that the country for all intents and purposes seems to be sliding into a state of political anarchy. At least, it seems the country is fast becoming ungovernable. "Anarchy'' may be an overstatement at the current juncture, but even that description is not very far from being proximate to the imminent truth.

Panic buttons are being pressed in all political camps, and the country seems to be on the verge of a convulsive political face-off between the two major factions. All hell, in other words, is about to break loose in the already unsettled arena of national politics.

Political campaigns have already been launched, either directly or couched in sophistry, but the fact is that the schism of vituperative politics is tearing the social fabric apart.

The craving for office and the resultant almost karmic yearning to cling to the powers, privileges and perks of power, have resulted in a demonic process in which political leaders are focused in grabbing and retaining power and nothing else. To hell with governance, to hell with the economy and the war, it is the continued political existence of the legislators themselves it seems that matters.

The Political Column

Editorial/ Opinion Contents