Past abuse and current

insolence of power
The

reformer is always right about

what is wrong. He is generally wrong
about what is right G.K. ChestertonTuesday, 9 June 2015

President Maithripala Sirisena miscalculated

when he conjectured that he could coax the SLFP to accept Ranil
Wickremesinghe the captain of the opposing team as not only coach but as
match referee as well.
Patrimonial politics has occupied centre stage in the 140 days of the UNPdominated interim Government. The question most asked in the makeshift
corridors of momentary power is who gets what and how fast?
The UNP is not on a pilgrimage. It is on a desperate quest for permanency
in power. Any altruistic claims to the contrary are mere malarkey. The
institutions it seeks to fashion will respond to the regime they wish to
install. Their State elites and societal organisations are busy building
bridges appropriate for the immediate political environment and beyond.
True. The reform focused President as Common Candidate promised to
make Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the UNP, the Prime Minister of
an all-party Government that promised 100 feats, exploits and
achievements in 100 days. Also true is that the reform agenda of the
President, has run in to a blind alley in a patently hostile Parliament.

Abrasive display of insolence of power

The Government of the day has 40 UNPers holding ministerial office while it
has only a total of 49 members in a 225-member House. Does it not imply
that most of them needed ministerial perks to be persuaded on good
governance?
Did he expect the new UNP Ministers to refrain from rewarding their party
loyalists and business allies with the spoils of their newly-acquired power?
Did he really expect the tenderpreneurs of the Rajapaksa regime to let go
of the opportunity to trap the UNP Leader in perpetual bondage in the
Central Bank public debt fiasco?
To the utter exasperation of a nation that was celebrating the end of a
regime that abused power, the first 100 days has treated them to the most
abrasive display of insolence of power.
Did he seriously expect his party, the SLFP to either reluctantly accept or
cuddle and clasp Ranil Wickremesinghe as both captain of the opposing
team as well as coach and referee in the inevitable match that was to
follow?
The SLFP and Maithripala
After 8 January the SLFP ranks were more than eager to reclaim their
affable General Secretary as the helmsman of the party. Within the first
week of his swearing-in, President Maithripala Sirisena retrieved the
chairmanship of the SLFP from the clutches of his shell-shocked rival. A
devastated Rajapaksa announced that he was bowing to the demand of
party members and would hand over the leadership of the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party to President Sirisena.

When he mutinied against the Mahinda monolith, President

Sirisena knew enough and more of the bitter disenchantment of a sizeable
segment of his SLFP colleagues. He and the less than a handful of fellow
defectors honestly believed that more would follow them before the ballot
on 8 January. However, that did not happen. That hoped for event did not
eventuate for a good reason.
It was not because the discontented were suddenly appeased by the
regime. The wrath of the President astounded by the challenge of his
General Secretary knew no bounds. The average SLFP Member of
Parliament who considered a cross over found himself in agreement with
Woody Allen. Im not afraid of death; I just dont want to be there when it
happens! They were petrified in their derrires. That too needs an
explanation.

Rajapaksa political apparatus

It did not take long for Mahinda Rajapaksa to gather his wits after the
humiliating surprise of his defeat. Just 41 days later, on 18 February, the
Nugegoda Rising occurred. The seasoned manipulators of the earlier order
restored their leader into a serious challenger. They cling on to the hope
that the change of 8 January is not a serious derailment of their gravy train.
The former President conducted periodic elections to fine-tune his political
machine. It belonged to him. The UPFA was his flagship showroom. The
SLFP was a defunct warehouse. Periodic elections served as the conduit for
the distribution of favours and spoils to loyal retainers in the provinces. The
exercise allowed him to create an elite cadre of operatives comprising of
businessman, clergy and activists who had independent access to the boss.
They were rewarded regularly after an assessment of their success in
limiting opposition activity by means foul or fair.

The numbers garnered for the side and the reduction of the opposition vote
was the measure of the loyalty to the leader. Their competence was
rewarded in the form of a free hand to bend or break the law and to enjoy
the perks of a peripheral potentate.
The Rajapaksa political apparatus was a market mechanism that permitted
everyone to compete for positions. It enabled all players to seek spoils of
power both legitimate and otherwise. It allowed some to boast openly that
they spent sums in the range of Rs. 800 million at one election.
Aura of institutional propriety and legitimacy
The most ingenious feature of the Rajapaksa governance style was its
cynical aura of institutional propriety and legitimacy. As was demonstrated
in the impeachment of the Chief Justice, meticulous attention was paid to
procedural niceties. The present General Secretary of the SLFP was
assigned the task of conducting the kangaroo court. Most probably the
dexterity he displayed earned him the trust of the Capo di tutti i capi which
may have prompted his choice as the successor to the rebel General
Secretary.
It is the cynical attachment to the integrity of process under the autocracy
that made Susil Premajayantha to threaten to reinstall Mohan Pieris as and
when they return to office. He also promised to dismantle the FCID and to
prosecute its officers.

" The Mahinda loyalists oppose the Ranil regime

with which it has a symbiotic link. That is
natural. Their Opposition conforms to the usual
patterns of political opposition. What is far
worse is the perspective of the genuine Sirisena
loyalists in the SLFP and other groups such as
the JHU and the JVP. They resent Ranils style
and that of his closest aides. They are incensed
by the politics of spoils that many UNP Ministers
practice with total disregard to the promised
benchmarks of good governance. The Sirisena
loyalists of the SLFP are found on both sides of
the aisle. It is the price of compulsory
cohabitation that has stretched far beyond its
promised term
There is yet another danger lurking. Some civil
society activists have been bankrolled by the
interim administration through assignments of
investigations and appointments to regulatory
and facilitating bodies. Some Ministers have
appointed employees of commercial
undertakings controlled, owned or linked to
them as directors of State-owned banks. The
cordial relations the Government enjoys with
civil society activists should not be the result of
economic dependence, either perceived or real.
It compromises the independence of civil society
which is the mainstay of the reform movement
headed by the movement for a just society"

Political opposition
The Mahinda loyalists oppose the Ranil regime with which it has a symbiotic
link. That is natural. Their Opposition conforms to the usual patterns of
political opposition.
What is far worse is the perspective of the genuine Sirisena loyalists in the
SLFP and other groups such as the JHU and the JVP. They resent Ranils style
and that of his closest aides. They are incensed by the politics of spoils that
many UNP Ministers practice with total disregard to the promised
benchmarks of good governance.
The Sirisena loyalists of the SLFP are found on both sides of the aisle. It is
the price of compulsory cohabitation that has stretched far beyond its
promised term.
It was interesting to watch the contortions in the demeanour of the
articulate and aggressive Deputy Minister of External Affairs Ajith Perera
and the UNP National Organiser Daya Gamage at a recent television
discussion with the JVPs Sunil Handunnetti. The JVP Parliamentarian was
educating the two UNPers of the politics of patronage as practiced by a
chosen confidante of the Prime Minister.
Go to Matara, he advised the two members. You will see how funds that
are denied to Parliamentarians under the decentralised budget are
disbursed by a politician who is not even a Member of Parliament, he said,
in mock indignation. He was referring to Sagala Ratnayake, former MP now
designated as Chief of Staff in the office of the Prime Minister.
Yet another danger lurking
There is yet another danger lurking. Some civil society activists have been
bankrolled by the interim administration through assignments of
investigations and appointments to regulatory and facilitating bodies. Some
Ministers have appointed employees of commercial undertakings
controlled, owned or linked to them as directors of State-owned banks.
The cordial relations the Government enjoys with civil society activists
should not be the result of economic dependence, either perceived or real.
It compromises the independence of civil society which is the mainstay of
the reform movement headed by the movement for a just society.
Already the fiercely-independent and outspoken activist Dambara Amila
Thero has announced on a recent television discussion that it is time to
launch a fresh civil society initiative to name and shame the politicians and
collaborators who obstruct the reforms either overtly or covertly.
Maithripalas choices increasing narrowing
The choices of President Maithripala Sirisena are increasing narrowing. It
has reached a point where he will soon run out of space to manoeuvre the

SLFP even into a simulated assignation with the UNP. The Opposition rightly
believes that the present swagger of the Prime Minister in Parliament is due
to BIRG [Basking In Reflected Glory]. The UNP that claims credit for the 19th
Amendment chose to boycott the proceedings of the 18th Amendment they
opine contemptuously.
An overwhelming majority in the present Parliament seem to share the
worldview of Ophelia in Hamlet: We know what we are but not what we
may be.

(Sarath De Alwis is a former journalist and a

retired professional in leisure and aviation
industries.)
Posted by Thavam