Bite reflex of dying regime

Thursday 20th July, 2023

Lessons learnt in times of adversity are said to be forgotten soon afterwards. Government politicians behaved for a while, after being shocked out of their wits, last year, when a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, but they have crawled out of the woodwork, and are reverting to their old ways. Some of them are even issuing threats to their rivals. They seem to think they are out of danger. They are mistaken.

The SLPP is politically dead to all intents and purposes so much so that even some of its stalwarts are jumping ship. As for its revival, it has the same chance as a snowball in hell. One may therefore wonder how on earth it is possible for a dying regime to be so aggressive and destructive. Politicians and reptiles have some similarities; we intend no insult to the latter. Certain venomous snakes retain their bite reflex, even hours after being decapitated; their severed heads can deliver deadly bites. The SLPP seems to be doing something similar.

Having presented to Parliament an ill-advised Bill seeking to reconvene the dissolved local councils without elections, the government is now trying to appoint a parliamentary select committee (PSC) to summon the Election Commission (EC) members purportedly to ascertain whether they have violated the privileges of the MPs. A motion that an SLPP MP moved in Parliament to that effect has run into stiff resistance from the Opposition, with the SJB and the JVP-led NPP condemning it as part of a strategy to intimidate the EC. One cannot but agree with the Opposition on this score.

The government’s desperation to consolidate its hold on power knows no bounds. A few months ago, angered by a Supreme Court interim order anent a fundamental rights petition against the postponement of the local government elections, the SLPP sought to summon three judges of the apex court before the Privileges Committee of Parliament by way of reprisal. It apparently got cold feet. Now, it has turned on the EC, which has refused to collaborate with it in depriving the people of their franchise.

The Opposition deserves praise for its efforts to scuttle the government’s bid to intimidate the EC members, but the fact remains that it is full of hypocrites, and one should not be so naïve as to believe its members are acting out of principle rather than expediency. They are no great lovers of the people’s right to vote; they unashamedly enabled the UNP-led Yahapalana government to postpone the Provincial Council (PC) elections, in 2017, by amending the Provincial Council Elections Act. The JVP, also, shamelessly sided with the UNP-SLFP combine and helped it put off the PC polls in the most reprehensible manner. The TNA did likewise; ironically, it is now demanding that the PC polls be held! Most of the SJB MPs, who are shedding copious tears for democracy, were members of the Yahapalana administration.

That said, it needs to be stressed that the Opposition’s arguments against the incumbent regime’s move to summon the EC members before a PSC are tenable; the government is all out to frighten the EC and the judiciary into submission. It may be recalled that the SLPP leaders even had a Chief Justice ‘impeached’ years ago; Shirani Bandaranayake is her name. They ensured that the PSC they appointed for that purpose humiliated her. The SLPP may be planning to do something similar to the EC members and the Supreme Court judges. The UNP did away with a general election in 1982 by holding a heavily-rigged referendum. It also sought to impeach a Chief Justice and launched numerous witch-hunts against those who refused to toe its line. How dangerous an alliance between the SLPP and the UNP is to democracy goes without saying.

Going by the way the government politicians are behaving, one wonders whether they are of sound minds. They have exemplified the truism that dictators do not go down without a fight. Dead man walking!