Kings, kingmakers, puppets and dangers

Monday 18th July, 2022

The so-called people’s representatives in Parliament have proved that they have neither any sense of shame nor any concern for the hapless public. Instead of sinking their differences and uniting for the sake of the country during its worst-ever crisis, they are jousting for power and positions. The number of presidential hopefuls is increasing ahead of the mini presidential election in Parliament. What these politicians are doing could be likened to a fight among the children of a mother, who is fighting for her life in an ICU, over her jewellery. Shame on them!

The country, however, needs a President, and, therefore, according to the Constitution, an MP will have to be elected to that post soon. There are no dream presidential candidates, and the onus is on Parliament to elect the least undesirable member among the contestants as the President if the country’s slide into anarchy is to be arrested.

One of the main reasons why the UNP was rejected by the people at the 2020 general election was its involvement in the Treasury bond scams. The main culprit, Arjuna Mahendran, who was the Central Bank (CB) Governor at the time, fled the country with the help of the UNP-led yahapalana government, and is a wanted man in Sri Lanka. He must be brought back to stand trial here, and anyone who is a friend of Mahendran and/or facilitated the bond scams and/or Mahendran’s escape must not be elected by Parliament as the next President, for attempts being made to have the former CB Governor on the run extradited will go pear-shaped in such an eventuality. It may be recalled that the young protesters out there in the streets are demanding an end to corruption.

Another reason why the UNP-led yahapalana government fell apart, and the UNP was left without a single elected MP at the last general election was the Easter Sunday terror strikes. So, the next President must not be a person whom the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Easter Sunday attacks, has held responsible for a host of serious lapses that led to the carnage. The final PCoI report clearly states (on page 471), “The Government including President Sirisena and Prime Minister is accountable for the tragedy.” Needless to say, the ‘Government’ also means the members of the yahapalana Cabinet. The Catholics and all concerned people, both there and abroad, are keen to have the PCoI recommendations fully implemented. Parliament must not disappoint them.

The next President must not be a conceited pundit given to micromanagement and arbitrariness. As many as 6.9 million people mistakenly looked up to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the self-styled technocrat, as a maven and voted for him overwhelmingly only to be disillusioned. The country needs an intelligent, moderate President, who is capable of teamwork and is humble enough to heed expert advice and do what needs to be done to save the economy with international assistance, grant relief to the public, and bring order out of chaos.

The people fought hard to get rid of the Rajapaksas, and no room should therefore be left for the disgraced family to keep the next President and the government on a string. The former rulers are desperate to cover their tracks and ensure the safety of their ill-gotten wealth. Therefore, anyone who has the backing of the Basil Rajapaksa faction of the SLPP must not be elected President, for he will be a puppet dependent on the SLPP for his political survival. There has to be a clean break with the last regime, and the next President will have to be someone who was not a member of the Rajapaksa inner circle as well as the post-09 May Cabinet. The Rajapaksas acted like Kings, and now that they have had to make a tactical retreat, they are trying to be kingmakers with a view to making a comeback by installing a puppet President, who will do their bidding and act as a placeholder for a young member of the parasitic family.

The Sri Lankan military excelled in war, defeated terrorism, and has behaved in an exemplary manner amidst the current crisis. But its high-ranking officers in civvy street have blundered by taking up key government positions. Behind almost every failure in this country, since 2019, on the politico-economic front, there has been an ex-military officer, and therefore, a former swordsman should not be elected President.

Above all, the safety of the country’s youth, who are fighting for their legitimate rights and those of others, must figure high on the agenda of Parliament. The next President will have to be a person against whom there are no allegations of human rights violations, corruption, abuse of power, cronyism, dictatorial tendencies, etc. The unfolding events on the political front are unnerving. One has a feeling of déjà vu; the abortive attempt by a JVP-led mob to take over Parliament on 13 July could be considered a foretaste of what is to come; two assault rifles were grabbed from soldiers during the protest. A President acceptable to the public has to be elected by Parliament to defuse tensions and keep anarchists at bay. We also witnessed something frightening on 13 July, when an Air Force chopper flew menacingly low over the Galle Face protesters obviously by way of a warning. There was absolutely no need for such an intimidating manoeuvre. We were reminded of a military crackdown on a JVP-led protest march against the Ranasinghe Premadasa government at Tissamaharama in the late 1980s; attack helicopters strafed the procession, killing a large number of protesters, and a nearby temple was strewn with corpses. Hence, Parliament is duty-bound to ensure that no one who either represents the outfit that misled the youth twice and caused the destruction of thousands of young lives or stands accused of having unleashed barbaric violence in the name of counterterrorism is elected the next President.