Sunday Times 2
Jumping frogs aims at self-preservation
View(s):I was interested to read recently that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has rejected a request made by former President Maithripala Sirisena to support him at next month’s presidential election.
I was surprised—but at the same time I was also not really surprised by this bit of news.
I must admit that I was surprised because during this past month, we have seen various sundry politicians making haste to jump on to Ranil’s side and pledge to support him and work for him in the lead up to the election. We have even seen one MP perform a “double pole vault”—when SLPP member Prasanna Jayasekera pledged to support Ranil and then a couple of weeks later changed his mind and jumped back to the SLPP to support Namal Rajapakse!
Quite oblivious to the party from which they were elected to parliament at the last elections in 2020, these “honourable” members have over the past four years (some as far back as two years ago when post-Aragalaya portfolios were being distributed and others as recently as over the past two months in anticipation of post-election portfolios) have deserted their original party and jumped ship to pledge support to Ranil. I am sure this is not because of any St. Paul-like conversion or principled change in their convictions but entirely out of self-interest. I have seen and studied politicians—not only in our country but all over the world—for long enough to understand that the basic principle that governs most politicians is self-preservation.
Just consider the huge number of MPs who in 2020 were elected to Parliament representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) but have now pledged their support and aligned themselves with the incumbent President.
People (in alphabetical order of their names if not in order of their importance) such as Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Tharaka Balasuriya, S.M. Chandrasena, S.B. Dissanayake, Bandula Gunawardana, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Nimal Lanza, Piyal Nishantha, Susil Premajayantha, Ali Sabry Rahim, Prasanna Ranatunga, Ali Sabry, Shehan Semasinghe, Rajitha Senaratne, Jeevan Thondaman, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Kanchana Wijesekera and Anura Priyadharshana Yapa—these are all politicians who on many occasions in the past fiercely criticised Ranil and had nothing to do with him.
Today, they are firmly in Ranil’s camp and appear to be doing their best to get him elected president—not, I am sure, for the good it will do for the country but in the hope that Ranil will look after them in the future.
With all these unprincipled characters rushing to join the President—and Ranil accepting them with open arms, why did he reject his former comrade Maithripala Sirisena? After all, Maithripala is a former president, former chairman of the SLFP and a man who still thinks he has a lot of influence and support in the North Central Province.
But I was not surprised at Ranil’s rejection of Maithripala’s offer. Knowing Ranil’s record and having studied his personality over the past decade or so, I am sure that his decision was not based on the claim that Maithripala is an unprincipled person. It was not based on judging whether accepting Maithripala would benefit the country or not.
It was simply based on the fact that Maithripala double crossed Ranil once—and in Ranil’s eyes that is a cardinal sin that he will never forgive.
You may be a convicted felon serving a suspended sentence, you may be a man who was unequivocally found guilty of attempting to smuggle gold bars and mobile phones into the country, you may be a person accused of (but not proven to have been) snatching gold chains from passengers in railway carriages—but if you have not double crossed Ranil in the past, you will be welcomed into his fold.
If you have been supportive of Ranil in the recent past, even if no less an institution than the Supreme Court strips you of your seat in parliament and your ministerial portfolio, Ranil will look after you and make you an adviser to the very ministry from which the Supreme Court removed you.
Now the question I have been musing about this past month is whether Ranil will benefit from having all these new supporters who have flocked under his banner.
Admittedly, Ranil is the best of a bad lot contesting this election. He is the man who, when nobody else wanted the task, accepted the poisoned chalice of resurrecting this country after the Rajapaksa clan bled it dry and brought it to its knees. Even though he has not brought the robbers to justice, he has at least got us back to an economically functioning, stable level. He is a person who has a better understanding of economics, how the world functions, how the country needs to be managed and the Art of the Possible—compared to the Mill Hill School cricket captain, the Physical Science graduate from Kelaniya University and the baby-faced young man wearing a maroon satakaya.
In a TV interview in January this year, one of the ‘jumpers’ Anura Priyadarshana Yapa brazenly stated “We have now learned from our mistakes”.
I can only hope that we the people have learned from OUR mistakes and will not be bamboozled by politicians who make populist promises they cannot keep.