Daily News Editorial

A loose canon

Tuesday 17th November 2015

The Local Government Elections may be in March next year but the campaign on behalf of the SLFP/UPFA is already on, going by the pronouncements of Transport Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva. Addressing a group of SLFP activists in Bandarawela, De Silva has gone onto to excoriate the Yahapalanaya administration of which he is a senior Minister and in the process appears to have shot himself in the foot.

Minister De Silva who even prior to this, gave a clean bill of health to the Mattala Airport and raised his voice in protest against the paddy storage at the airport warehouses, perhaps to score brownie points with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, went on to tell his party supporters that Yahapalanaya was today in smithereens and those advocates of Yahapalanaya had today duped the people. In the same breath De Silva says they decided to join the government strictly on the invitation of the President, forgetting that it was President Sirisena who is the fountainhead of Yahapalanaya which had become so repugnant to De Silva today.

He says that there are also individuals who led the people up the garden path under the guise of Yahapalanaya calling on the supporters to prepare for the installation of a UPFA Government, from this very moment. De Silva who was a very vocal campaigner for the victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa and was among those who took a pledge, hands on breasts, at the final pro-Rajapaksa General Election rally in Kurunegala never to betray the former President at any cost, said in Bandarawela; “although we joined a National Government we will not allow our party's identity to be destroyed. We must somehow win the upcoming LG election. Just because we joined a National Government you should not vote for the elephant. ...... People were duped by tales carried in FACEBOOK. There are those in this Government who hoodwinked the people under the guise of Yahapalanaya. What are those who spoke about corruption saying now?”.

De Silva may be anxious to raise the stocks of the SLFP/UPFA in the Badulla District where the Alliance suffered heavy defeats at both the Presidential and General Election (De Silva lost Badulla, the electorate he nursed, by a majority of over 7,500 at the last General Election). Hence he may want to shore up the spirits of his supporters in the hope a better showing this time around. But, in trying to lift the fortunes of his party, De Silva should be mindful not to overlook his responsibilities as a Cabinet Minister in a National Government.

To begin with, he is bound by Cabinet responsibility and cannot go on firing like a loose cannon to please party supporters. He cannot have the best of both worlds. Either he should conduct himself as a responsible Cabinet Minister or step down. De Silva himself admits that he joined the National Government at the invitation of the President. How could he then act in such a way as to embarrass the President by criticizing Yahapalanaya which is symbolized by President Sirisena. Strangely, the day after making this statement, De Silva was pictured prominently in the newspapers seated right next to the President at a function, a picture of loyalty and devotion.

The Minister only knows too well that President Sirisena was elected through UNP votes and by extension he (De Silva) is holding Ministerial office thanks to the election of the President through the UNP votes, although he may have still remained an Opposition member in Parliament, by virtue of his election from the Badulla District on the preference vote. Hence he has a duty, nay, is obliged to act in a manner that would not cast the UNP which is part of Yahapalanaya in poor light. The Cabinet of which De Silva is a member is headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and whether he likes it or not, his boss. Here we have a situation where a member of the Cabinet is not only casting aspersions on the President by talking ill of Yahapalanaya but also undermining the authority of the Prime Minister by talking out of turn to please a band of party supporters.

It is time De Silva is told where to draw the line. The Minister should be made to understand that UNP supporters who had remained in the Opposition, insulted and victimized, for twenty long years are still a disgruntled lot. Many UNP MPs who appear on TV talk shows lament that they are unable to do much for their supporters due to the National Government arrangement, with some of the key portfolios going to the UPFA entrants. This is mainly seen in the allocation of jobs, with UPFA Ministers preferring their own supporters.

Hence Minster De Silva who too is holding the key portfolio of Transport would do well to remember that the UNP had made a tremendous sacrifice by entering into the National Government arrangement and that he should not be so flippant in his choice of expression. Encouraging supporters of the SLFP should not be at the expense of casting aspersions on the National Government, of which he is a member, and headed by the leader of the SLFP.