‘Kings’, The Prince, and Justitia

Wednesday 31st January, 2024

Sri Lanka is going through difficult times, which are interesting nonetheless. In a dramatic turn of events replete with irony, a political crisis that Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa created more than half a decade ago, has received media attention again. The Supreme Court has granted leave to proceed with a fundamental rights violation petition filed by a political activist named Osala Herath against the removal by President Sirisena of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister in October 2018.

Notice has reportedly been issued on Sirisena, who used his executive powers to sack Wickremesinghe, after falling out with the latter, in a bid to wrest control of Parliament with the help of the Rajapaksas; he hastily appointed Mahinda as Prime Minister, and sought to dissolve Parliament when they failed to muster a majority in the House. A Supreme Court ruling prevented the dissolution of Parliament, and the status quo ante had to be restored. Rajapaksa resigned, and Sirisena had to appoint Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister again.

Usually, petitions like the aforesaid one are withdrawn when the issues that give rise to them cease to be, but Herath has decided to stay the course and obtain a court ruling on the controversial executive action at issue, for the possibility of the Presidents emulating Sirisena in the future cannot be ruled out. So, his petition and the pending judicial determination will be of interest. The matter is best left to the learned judges of the apex court, and we do not intend to discuss the legal aspect thereof. Suffice it to say, the Constitution has some holes that need to be plugged.

It is said that nothing is so certain as the unexpected in politics, where expediency takes precedence over principle. Sirisena defeated Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential race and prevented him from securing the premiership. Having grabbed the SLFP leadership, queered the pitch for Rajapaksa at the 2015 general election, and done his best to have the members of the Rajapaksa family thrown behind bars, but in vain, Sirisena appointed Mahinda Prime Minister three years later. Wickremesinghe however succeeded in retaining the premiership by mustering a parliamentary majority, with even the JVP supporting him, but the people defeated him and his party, the UNP, at the 2020 general election. He entered Parliament via the National List, the following year.

Mahinda became Prime Minister by enabling his sibling, Gotabaya, to win the 2019 presidential election. Sirisena hitched his wagon to the Rajapaksa family, helped the SLFP win 14 seats, and opted to be an ordinary MP in the current Parliament. In 2022, the Rajapaksas appointed Wickremesinghe Prime Minister for want of a better alternative amidst political upheavals and had him elected President by Parliament after Gotabaya’s resignation. It was a case of double irony. One may recall that following Wickremesinghe’s defeat in the 2005 presidential race, the UNP accused Mahinda of having won the presidency by bribing the LTTE into preventing the Tamil people in the North and the East from voting for Wickremesinghe.

Today, the Rajapaksas, Wickremesinghe and Sirisena are savouring power together while the people are struggling to keep their heads above water, and those who have voted for the UNP, the SLPP and the SLFP, may consider it their comeuppance. An inquiry into the 2018 political crisis is bound to open a can of worms for them.

Perhaps, the Rajapaksas, Wickremesinghe and Sirisena may be able to co-author a much better seminal political treatise than Machiavelli’s The Prince on how to ditch ethics and principles and navigate the complexities of power to serve self-interest.