Daily News Editorial

Enough is enough

Friday 20th November 2015

The current infighting within the Yahapalanaya Government has reached a climax and it would be a good thing if President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe take remedial action before things reach a crescendo. The Avant Garde issue which today has taken centre stage above all other pressing problems in the country should be resolved sooner rather than later, if the Government is to save face, in the eyes of the general public. Already the pro Rajapaksa camp is having a field day, with almost daily media briefings summoned to highlight the tug-of war between Government Ministers, centred on Avant Garde. Those Ministers in the eye of the storm are liberally providing the Opposition with ammunition with which to flay the Government.

What is worse, those involved in the slanging matches are the very ones who put their shoulder to the wheel to ensure the victory of the Common Candidate, on a plank of eradicating bribery and corruption. Fore them to now squander the gains thus achieved, to say the least, is committing political hara kiri of the worst kind. It is incomprehensible that a Government which is still only two months old, to have its Ministers wash each others' dirty linen in public. They (public) are already confused as to what is happening in the Government which at the moment is in a state of drift, with many players pulling in different directions. It was only the other day that Transport Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva, throwing caution to the wind, spoke ill of the Yahapalanaya Government of which he is a Cabinet Minister, saying the people now regretted their decision taken on January 8.

But what is worse is the UNP stalwarts going for each others' jugular, each trying to score debating points with the other, that is doing great harm to the Government. This, while the President has ordered a fresh probe into the Avant Garde issue with the Bribery Commission too brought into the scene. Why cannot these Ministers hold their fire until the Bribery Commission concludes its investigations, whereby any bribery, if taken, is bound to come out. Why hurl accusations against each other and prejudice the case before the Bribery Commission?

Matters that were simmering with regard to Avant Garde no doubt came to the surface with the resignation of Tilak Marapana from the Law and Order portfolio, on a question of conflict of interest. This opened the floodgates, with two other Ministers being accused by their colleagues in the Cabinet and also others, of benefiting from Avant Garde. Then came the counterclaims that the accusers themselves were not squeaky clean, culminating in Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake on Wednesday going before the Bribery Commission with a complaint against Avant Garde and also a prominent Minister, armed with a voice recording that Ramanayake claims showed the former too had benefited from the Maritime Company.

Sideshows in the drama continued to unfold, with the son of a prominent Minister, said to have invaded the Ministry of another young and prominent Minister, to spy on the latter, to ascertain if he too was a beneficiary of Avant Garde largesse.

While this drama is being enacted, the public are left nonplussed as to what goes on in the State of Denmark. True, accusations and counter-accusations of bribery are made between members of the Governing party and this could be seen by some as a healthy development where MPs are keeping close tabs on fellow MPs of the same party. This was the first occasion since the Premadasa regime that UNPers hurled accusations against each other. One recalls how, at the height of the impeachment, UNP MPs fired accusations in Parliament against Lalith and Gamini (Neu gilla), the chief architects of the impeachment.

In a strange way, the present developments could also be ascribed to transparency within the Government, where graft, assuming this took place, is brought out into the open and thrashed out in public. None of this was evident in the recent past, with Ministers and MPs under Rajapaksa having a field day, with none the wiser as to the shenanigans that went behind closed doors, nay, right in the open. No act of corruption or bribery was probed. On the contrary, that regime was in constant denial and the Bribery Commission muzzled.

But, by prolonging this drama, Rajitha, Wijeyadasa, Champika, Harin, Ranjan et al are only providing ammunition to the likes of Weerawansa, Gammanpila to flay the Government and thereby divert the attention of the public to the more serious acts of corruption of the Rajapaksas. Hence the warring parties within the Yahapalanaya Government should mull over their actions and either sue for peace, while allowing the matter to be probed without interference, or go the whole hog and open the can of worms, come what may, so that the wrong doers are exposed and the matter brought to a conclusion. This will be to the good of both, the Government and the country. At least, the Government will not be accused of sweeping things under the carpet, as was the case under the Rajapaksas.