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Sri Lanka: Final call
GOD,
give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
By Dharisha Bastians
At the risk of sounding repetitive, the words of this poem by Josiah
Gilbert Holland have never rung quite so true. The first eight days
of 2008 have, if anything, underscored how bankrupt Sri Lanka is
of exactly this kind of leadership and guidance.
In the few short days of the New Year, there have been unprecedented
amounts of blood spilled. Maheswaran’s slaughter on the first
of the year was quickly followed by the blast in Slave Island that
killed five, including two young schoolboys. And then yesterday,
the claymore blast at Ja-ela which killed a government minister
who was most likely en route to Parliament.
The
LTTE has adopted the practice of taking out soft targets and given
the propensity of the blasts, it now looks like all the Tigers want
is to create an explosion anywhere, to intensify the feeling of
insecurity and instability that is already widely prevalent in Colombo
and its outskirts.
If the country being placed resolutely on a war footing, following
the abrogation of the CFA, and the larger than ever cost of living
bills the general public will be forced to foot as a result of the
escalating war expenses was not bad enough, the Rajapaksa administration
is also messing up right royally on the economic front.
The unceremonious sacking of Emirates appointed SriLankan Airlines
CEO Peter Hill, and the revoking of his work permit by the Board
of Investment, has sent panic signals through the business community,
to say nothing of how badly it would have hampered investor confidence.
The
shoddy treatment meted out to aviation giant Emirates at the tail
end of its decade long strategic partnership with SriLankan, has
prompted the Dubai based carrier to opt out of the agreement when
it expires on March 31, 2008, putting the national carrier in limbo
in terms of its future management and business plan. Add to the
mix the government’s decision to shield its pet monster Mervyn
Silva despite his recent onslaught on the staff of the Rupavahini
Corporation and Sri Lanka, is pretty much screaming ‘Banana
Republic’ to the international community.
In fact, when the SLFP Central Committee met on Monday night, General
Secretary Maithripala Sirisena called for the sternest possible
disciplinary action against Silva following his antics at Rupavahini.
However, quick to rise to the defence of the errant Silva was Amarasiri
Dodangoda, the ancient and incapacitated Galle District MP who arrived
at the meeting in a wheelchair. Rising stoically to defend Mervyn
Silva’s honour, Dodangoda charged that the incidents at Rupavahini
had ‘nothing to do with the party.’ Also rising to defend
Silva was MP Jagath Pushpakumara. Not surprisingly, not a single
MP at the central committee sided with Sirisena, to agree that it
was time Silva’s wings were clipped. And so, once again, Silva
is likely to go without admonishment or penalty, free to attack
other innocent victims the very next time his fancy takes him.
Mob Justice
While none can condone mob justice, it must also be observed that
the staff at Rupavahini read the situation right when they took
the law into its own hands on December 27; they knew that the state
could not be depended upon to do justice by them.
There’s a school of thought that the events at the Central
Committee were stage managed by none other than President Mahinda
Rajapaksa himself, who for some strange reason has chosen to throw
his weight behind Mervyn, despite the overwhelming public opinion
against the maverick politician. Perhaps it is the ties of Beliatta,
perhaps it is something more sinister. Oddly enough, the day Mervyn
stormed Rupavahini, there was a member of the Presidential Security
Division amongst the goons that accompanied him into the premises.
One way or the other, Mervyn Silva is untouchable. He is beyond
reproach and beyond justice.
Stage managing seems to be the prerogative of party leaders in Sri
Lanka these days. At the UNP Group Meeting held on Monday, a similar
pattern emerged when Wickremesinghe acolyte Sagala Rathnayake, rose
to say that it was time all UNP MPs began to speak in just one voice.
Rathnayake, who was soon joined by Lakshman Seneviratne charged
that Dayasiri Jayasekera had deviated from the party line when he
claimed that reforms were necessary in the UNP, during an interview
with a newspaper. Seneviratne piped into the allude that all those
who could not fall in line with the party, should be shown the door,
saying that whatever the party’s ‘minor’ internal
problems were, the people’s power lay with the UNP.
UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe listened carefully to all this,
before promising to take the matter up further when Jayasekera was
present. Anyone who knows anything about the inner workings of the
UNP however, would be well aware that Rathnayake would not risk
his neck in that fashion except with the blessings of the UNP Leader.
Theory
There is a theory among Wickremesinghe loyalists at the moment that
there is a powerful nexus building within the party, between S.B.
Dissanayake, Sajith Premadasa and the likes of Dayasiri Jayasekera,
all of whom have significant grassroots support. This group, Wickremesinghe’s
coterie believes, are agitating for reforms and may in the future
pose a formidable challenge to the UNP Leader. It is likely therefore
that by firing that first salvo at Jayasekera at the group meeting
this week, the Wickremesinghe inner circle took the first steps
towards edging another group of reformists out of the party, despite
its dwindling numbers in the House.
Ironically, far from alienating more members of his party, Wickremesinghe
ought to be focusing all his energy on winning back the 17 reformists
into the fold if possible. Rather than count on the support of the
JVP – which will never be his to claim – Wickremesinghe
would stand a far greater chance of toppling this regime, if he
were to swallow his pride and allow the Karu Jayasuriya faction
back into the fold, even if it means he has to compromise facets
of his leadership in the process. Further polarization within the
party will only spell doom for its efforts to discredit the incumbent
regime.
If Wickremesinghe needed any more proof of the weakness of his leadership,
he ought to read the mood of the people.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that while this current regime
is one of the most unpopular in recent history, a majority of people
still believe that if there were an election called tomorrow, the
Rajapaksa government would be returned to power. And whose fault
is that? It is a damning indictment on none other than the Wickremesinghe
led UNP, which has missed opportunity after opportunity because
pride or short term thinking has gotten in the way.
The only hope for this nation is a fresh-faced, forward thinking
opposition that is deeply in tune with the pulse of the people-
if only to keep this government in check, to ensure it does not
exploit the war to the detriment of the people, and the future of
this country is not totally sacrificed at the altar of short sighted
politicians and their ‘yes men.’
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