Basil’s return and Gota’s book flavours political pot

Politics in Sri Lanka is becoming more and more interesting with a presidential election due between September and October this year. Although the constitutionally mandated presidential election is a certainty, speculation on the possibility of a parliamentary election coming first continues. As is well known, President Ranil Wickremesinghe is now empowered to dissolve parliament any time he chooses to do so. Alternatively, parliament itself can resolve that it be dissolved with more than half its number of members (113) calling for a dissolution. Beyond declaring that the presidential election would be held as required, Wickremesinghe has not indicated in any way that he favours a parliamentary election ahead of a presidential contest and how that particular papadam will crumble is anybody’s guess.

Basil Rajapaksa’s return to the country last week and the warm welcome he received from members of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) he founded has added to the speculation. Although he spent several months out of the country after he quit the finance ministry and parliament where he was a national list MP, he has retained his title of SLPP National Organizer. There is no doubt that he was in close touch with political developments here from the United States of America where he is a citizen. His vacancy in parliament was filled by billionaire businessman Dhammika Perera who has made no secret of his presidential ambitions. But in recent weeks and months Perera has been less visible as a contender for the SLPP ticket.

Although events around him suggest that Wickremesinghe is anxious to become the president of this country elected by the people, rather than a stopgap president elected by the SLPP to serve out Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s balance term, he has not yet declared himself as a candidate. Nor is he on record saying that he is not a candidate and will ride gracefully into the sunset no sooner his current term ends. Significantly, Basil Rajapaksa whose aficionados once called “a man with seven brains,” accompanied by brother Mahinda lost no time in meeting President Wickremesinghe shortly after BR’s return to the country. There was not much news on the substance of their discussions but one newspaper reported on Friday reported that talks between “Prez, MR and Basil end with no decision on alliance.”

That report also said that the SLPP had demanded clarity on power devolution and restructuring of state institutions. Saying that there was no “final decision on the formation of an alliance ahead of the pending national election,” it added that the party appeared to be sticking by its original ideology on restructuring state institutions. This is a clear indication that the SLPP does not support the divesting of both loss and profit making state owned enterprises. It is unlikely that any such divestment will be possible ahead of upcoming national elections later this year. Finding buyers at the right price will be difficult until the economy stabilizes further. In any event the two sides would have exploredeach other’s intentions.

On top of all this Gotabaya Rajapaksa has written two books in Sinhala and English on “The Conspiracy” to oust him from the presidency. Many will believe that this is a ghost written publication and educated guesses on who the ghost writer is will surely be made. The book accuses unnamed “conspiratorial forces” to be responsible for his ouster and whether these are local or foreign (or both) appear to have been unstated. The book probably took several months in the writing and there wasn’t even a shadow of a hint that it was a work in progress. Whether the timing of its release was carefully calculated to coincide with some political development is also an open question.

Parliament last week elected new chairmen for its various oversight committees that were dissolved on account of the recent prorogation. There had been some unconfirmed speculation that the prorogation itself was a device to have these committees dissolved to get rid of the ruling party’s chair of the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE). However that be this worthy who attracted national attention by making shushing gestures when a Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) functionary was being interrogated was replaced by a new chairman, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, with an already checkered reputation.

This included a nickname ‘Raththaran’ as he was allegedly, though without proof, accused of having been a chain snatcher on trains before his election to parliament. Though he has strenuously denied such allegations in parliament and told a television talk show that his grandmother had endearingly bestowed this pet name on him, jibes have continued to be made by his opponents enraging the Kalutara district MP.

Hours after his election as the new chairman of COPE got involved in an incident with opposition MP S. Rasamanickam. The latter, raising a motion of privilege on the floor of the House accused Abeygunawadena of attempting to assault him near the prime minister’s office in parliament. Rasamanickam had in a speech earlier in the day made a strong innuendo against the former and this is believed to have been the provocation. However that be, such incidents do nothing to improve the already poor reputation of our parliament and its members.