Cricket, morale and Sirisena’s doosra

Cricket, morale and Sirisena’s doosra

Some stimulation for the hapless Sri Lankans’ sagging morale has come from an unexpected quarter—the much-maligned national cricket team. An occasional win means a lot for a nation in the depths of despair. The youth who supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the 2019 presidential race and painted outdoor murals following his victory to welcome what they thought was a new beginning––only to be disillusioned––are now painting themselves in support of the national cricketers. In ancient Rome, plebeians had bread and circuses. The present-day ordinary Sri Lankans have political circuses without bread. This is the price they have to pay for suffering failed politicians gladly, so to speak, and catapulting them to positions of power.Teachers who perform examination duties inform us that there are instances where some test-takers reproduce questions in spaces provided for answers because they come unprepared. The members of the present Cabinet are doing something similar. Having accepted ministerial positions, promising to sort out problems, they keep telling the public what the problems are, instead of providing solutions.

President summons numerous meetings and nothing seems to come of them. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe keeps making special statements on the current situation, which people are already au fait with. Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera warns of a food crisis, and in the same breath claims there are enough rice stocks in the country. Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has washed his hands of the fuel crisis to all intents and purposes; the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation only announces where small amounts of diesel, petrol and kerosene are available. At this rate, as cynics say, the day may not be far off when the CPC app mentions Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, etc., as the places where oil is available, and asks Sri Lankans to find dollars to import it. Wijesekera has the knack of getting Citizen Silva’s goat. He asks people not to queue up near filling stations in large numbers. He does not even care to introduce the odd-even rationing method, which will help shorten fuel queues considerably, and people will have a certain amount of fuel every other day. This method is easy to implement with random checks being conducted to ensure that racketeers do not use false number plates.

Meanwhile, SLFP leader and former President Maithripala Sirisena, MP, has bowled a political doosra of sorts. He has called for an all-party interim government. He says the current administration has failed and the President and the Prime Minister are not getting on well. The solution, according to him, is for all political parties to get together and form a government with a 15-member Cabinet pending a general election in six months, or so. That is the way, he says, Sri Lanka could win back the international community and enlist its support for its economic recovery. He may be accused of holding a grudge against the government, which has appointed some of its MPs to the Cabinet against his will, but what he says is not untrue. If all parties represented in Parliament speak with one voice and pull in one direction, other countries will be convinced that Sri Lanka is serious about helping itself, and may consider giving it a helping hand.

A prerequisite for forming a truly all-party interim administration is to persuade the SJB to be part of it. Sirisena is the best person to do so. He and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa are close friends. He offered the premiership to the latter when he was the President in 2018, and refused to back Rajapaksa at the last presidential election despite an electoral pact between the SLFP and the SLPP. If Sirisena could get around Premadasa, that will be half the battle in forming an all-party government. The other half of the battle will be making President Rajapaksa opt for an immediate course correction. The task of forming a unity government requires effecting a complete political reset and having Premadasa appointed the Prime Minister; does Sirisena consider himself equal to it? Mere words will not do.