Hobbled President and jumbo administration

Thursday’s swearing of 37 new State Ministers was a major step back from the “system change” that the majority of the people of this country yearn for. The Aragalaya succeeded in compelling then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to demand and secure his brother Mahinda’s resignation as prime minister. That mean the entire MR cabinet went out of office. Thereafter GR himself was made to Go, not home as thousands of protesters demanded but out of the country temporarily. He left like a thief in the night or “fled” as commonly described thereafter, first by naval craft out of Colombo and then by air force plane to the Maldives; thence to Singapore and Thailand. He is now back, not at his Pangiriwatte Mawatha home where he lived during most of his presidential tenure, but in a palatial government bungalow that has been made ready for him. Whether he’s already drawing the fat presidential pension he is entitled to, we do not know. But he’s certainly enjoying the other perks retired president’s are generously bestowed by the taxpayer. These include housing, security, vehicles and possibly staff.

We believe that President Ranil Wickremesinghe would have preferred not to have been lumbered with the load of the new state ministers who are now part of his administration. But even though he’s not a president elected by the people, but by a Pohottuwa electorate in the legislature, despite the presidential power he commands, he’s at the mercy of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the Rajapaksa party and its puppeteer, Basil Rajapaksa. In the first round of the changes compelled on a beleaguered President GR, there were no Rajapaksas, other than himself, in office. Now one of them, Sashindra Rajapaksa, son of former Speaker and Minister Chamal, is back in the saddle. Will there be more to follow either in the cabinet or by additions to the second eleven? There have already been whispers, rightly or wrongly, of some Rajapaksa aficionados looking at GR being prime minister. Ever since the Aragalaya ran out of its original steam, Rajapaksas have been crawling out of the woodwork and having their presence seen if not felt. How things will work out remain to be seen.

There were claims in parliament that the new state ministers will draw no salaries outside their emoluments as MPs. This may be so. For too long however political grandees have lived lavishly at the expense of the taxpayer. Many undesirables were attracted to politics by these perquisites, as well as the various money making opportunities in political office that has now reached obscene levels. A Sunday paper reported recently that “The Basil Rajapaksa faction … were demanding positions as state ministers … with perks and privileges (including) one private secretary, one media secretary and three coordinating secretaries. All are entitled to separate vehicles….State ministers are also entitled to five office staff members, three vehicles and other perks and privileges enjoyed by the ministers.” Phew, who needs emoluments over and above these given that parliamentary pay and perks are intact? If this is true, and it has not been contradicted though published in a newspaper at the end of August and repeated last week by a widely read columnist, ordinary people can assume that what has been reported is nearly if not all correct.

Those who thought that the Rajapaksa were past tense after Mahinda Rajapaksa was stunningly defeated in 2015 while seeking a third term after engineering a two thirds majority he failed to win in 2010. That made possible the constitutional change that abolished the previous two term limit on the presidency. Following what was called the 1956 people’s revolution of SWRD Bandaranaike, it was claimed that “the last nail had been driven into the UNP’s coffin.” But that proved otherwise and a short-lived minority UNP government was elected in March 1960. Mrs. Bandaranaike carried an SLFP-led coalition in the election that followed in July that year. This was attributed by many to what was called her “weeping widow” campaign following her husband’s assassination in September 1959. But an analysis of the July 1960 election results will clearly show that the victory was the result of the no-contest agreement reached between the forces aligned to Mrs. Bandaranaike and the then formidable old left of the LSSP and the Communist Party.

The greatest failure of Yahapalana was its abject failure to nail the Rajapaksas once they were removed from office. As Ranjan Ramanayake, now out of prison with a conditional presidential pardon is fond of saying, okkoma yaluwo malli (all are friends brother). Many of those who created the Mahinda Sulanga that brought the Rajapaksas back to office are now outside the fold. Very little of the systemic change sought by those responsible for toppling the last regime has been achieved except the ejection of the Rajapaksas from office. But they remain very close to the corridors of power with Basil Rajapaksa, no doubt in cahoots with his siblings, calling many of the shots. Until he is constitutionally enabled to dissolve parliament early next year, President Wickremesinghe will remain hobbled. Even then, would he want to dissolve, secure in the knowledge that he can serve out the balance of the GR presidency? He cannot within these few months hope to revive the UNP to become an election winning outfit.