Wednesday 25th January, 2023

The SLPP and the UNP are trying every trick in the book to postpone the local government (LG) elections for fear of losing them. Their leaders are ready to do everything in their power to derail the mini polls scheduled to be held on 09 March. It is against this backdrop that their alleged attempt to have the Election Commission (EC) reconstituted should be viewed. They are all out to get rid of the EC members, who have refused to pull political chestnuts out of the fire for them.

The SLPP-UNP administration has mastered the art of causing divisions among the members of independent institutions to advance its political agenda. It has already made the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka succumb to political pressure by making some of its members turn against its Chairman. Having tried to divide the EC without success, it is apparently trying to replace the current commissioners with some pliable characters who will do its bidding.

During the Yahapalana government, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had the Constitutional Council (CC) under his thumb. The less said about the Parliamentary Council that the Rajapaksas set up after abolishing the CC, the better. The CC became a rubber stamp for the UNP. Now that Wickremesinghe has become the President, it is feared that the same fate will befall the CC. One can only hope that the distinguished citizens who have been appointed to the CC will not sully their reputations by becoming putty in the hands of a bunch of failed politicians who are determined to cling on to power like limpets.

A government that fears elections is a danger to democracy, and all those who collaborate with it to delay the LG polls, deny the people an opportunity to vent their anger in a democratic manner and drive them to take to the streets will be held to account one day.

All those who cherish democracy must circle the wagons to frustrate the government’s sinister efforts to delay the LG elections on some pretext or another.

****

Sirisena’s plea

Politicians in this country seem to think that they and their family members have a divine right to live off the public. Former President Maithripala Sirisena has said he does not have money to pay Rs. 100 million as compensation to the Easter Sunday terror victims as per a recent Supreme Court order, and unless he receives public help to raise funds, he will have to go to jail.

It is difficult to believe that a politician who has spent billions of rupees on election campaigns over the past several decades and enriched his kith and kin, known for their opulent and sybaritic lifestyles, cannot raise Rs. 100 million. But if Sirisena was telling the truth, then the right-thinking people would not give him a single red cent so that they could have the pleasure of seeing a former President doing time in a state pen!

Basil Rajapaksa got it right when he said, at a media briefing, a few moons ago, that the blame for what President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the SLPP government had done should be apportioned to the people who voted for them. It is from those who voted for him at the 2015 presidential election and caused national security to be neglected that Sirisena should seek assistance to raise Rs. 100 million. Arguably, those who enabled him to achieve his presidential dream are responsible for his lapses. The UNP, the JVP, the TNA, the SLMC, etc., threw their weight behind Sirisena in the presidential race, and they are therefore duty bound to ensure that Sirisena pays compensation to the Easter Sunday tragedy victims by helping him raise the necessary funds. The same goes for the political leaders who campaigned hard to make Sirisena the President and benefited from his elevation to the highest position in the country. They include President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Opposition Leader Sajith Permadasa, Sarath Fonseka, TNA leader R. Sampanthan, and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem. Besides, countless civil society activists backed Sirisena’s presidential bid, and they, too, ought to help him pay compensation to the victims of the Easter Sunday terrorist bombings.