Ceylon Today Editorial

Then Nimal Siripala must quit!

Tuesday 17th November 2015

Minister of Tansport Nimal Siripala de Silva recently expressed that people have now realized that the so-called Yahapalana Government took them for a ride and they were regretting the mistake they made on January 08 after falling for the extensive social media campaigns.

The minister had stated that the people had made a wrong decision on 8 January because the Opposition activists had duped them with the assistance of social media including Facebook. Having fallen for false propaganda, they were now paying for their mistakes.

According to them, some United Peoples' Freedom Alliances' top politicians had joined the government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, with the intention of obtaining ministerial portfolios so that they could serve their party supporters better than by remaining in the Opposition as members of the Parliament. He had gone on to say that they did what they had to do for the sake of the party and not with the intention of propping up a United National Party Government of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

He had lamented that their intention to serve people after obtaining the ministerial posts had only been an illusion. As a minister he is privy to the collective Cabinet responsibilities and he simply cannot criticize the government that he represents. He audaciously continuing to do so is a clear violation of his responsibilities as a Cabinet Minister of the government.

What is surprising is that he has suddenly become a champion of the people and claims that people complain to him about the impasse of the current government. According to him, people have confessed how they have fallen for the pretty images put up by the government during the presidential election earlier this year. On the contrary to his observations albeit, the general populace are not making such open ended complaints at least not the majority of us. We sincerely don't know whether it was he who allowed himself to be taken on this Yahapalana ride or whether he volunteered himself to be a guinea pig of this Yahapalana exercise wheel.

Why he changed alliances from supporting the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to become the Transport Minister of the Yahapalana Government under magnanimous President Maithripala Sirisena is still an open question to the general public. The obvious answer, which is apparent to any laymen, is that Nimal Siripala went after the recognition and power which was promised by President Sirisena, when the fountains of power ran out at the other end. Yet, he has now fallen on low standards as he has become a critic of his own house.

If Nimal Siripla feels that there is no more Yahapalanaya in the Yahapalana Government, he should immediately quit his position of power, relieve his ministerial portfolio and join the Joint Opposition where he belongs to criticize and point fingers of blame. He should take his rightful place with his peers of yore; he once abandoned (not so long ago) to lavish his heavy self in riches and glory.

President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe should realize that there are miscreants on both sides of the Parliament that is bidding their time. Bidding their time for what ulterior motives we are not yet sure. As we all know however, even Brutus was a close friend of Caesar until he struck with his dagger of betrayal.

Furthermore, we cannot understand why he is complaining about the United National Party and the creation of a National Government when he had the opportunity to do so before he was given his ministerial portfolio. Was he suffering from spontaneous blindness that he was not aware of the individuals he will be working with him when he was given the ministerial post by the President, we do not know.

All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. And Nimal Siripala de Silva's observations are the perfect examples for that. All said and done, his mea culpa arrives a bit too late for comfort and only calls for his own extermination from his post.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Corruption creeping back

Tuesday 17th November 2015

Jathika Hela Urumaya General Secretary and Western Province Development and Megapolis Minister Champika Ranawaka was absolutely correct when he said there was no interest whatsoever among Parliamentarians about electoral reforms that were to be brought in through the proposed 20th Amendment to the Constitution during the tenure of the government for President Maithripala Sirisena’s 100-day programme. We remember as to how many politicians from either side of the main political parties had divided and fought for those reforms while some of them waxing eloquent on the subject.

The silence maintained now by the President as well as the United National Party (UNP) which was the main contributor to his elevation is incomprehensible given the priority they had given to the matter during the 100-day programme. Equally puzzling is the nonchalance on the part of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the party headed by the President who protested even against the dissolution of the Parliament without introducing the said reforms in May this year.They then even wanted the 19th and the 20th Amendments to be brought together.

President Sirisena’s 100-day programme included proposals for several important pieces of legislation among which were the 19th Amendment to the Constitution for the abolition of the Executive Presidency, 20th Amendment for the electoral reforms and a Right to Information Act. The 19th Amendment was adopted during the so-called 100-day programme, but with the Executive powers of the Presidency being trimmed instead of being abolished while the other two pieces of legislation - 20th Amendment and the RTI Act – have almost been forgotten.

The 20th Amendment with the main purpose of abolishing the preferential voting system was basically meant for the reduction - not eradication - of corruption by the politicians and bringing an end to the inter-party clashes. However, it has now become the proverbial monkey planning to build a house for it during each rainy season. Soon after each election during which each candidate spends hundreds of millions of rupees on his campaigns and inter-party clashes heighten, politicians call for the amendment of the electoral system, but soon forget it. It is after the next election that they revisit the matter. This has gone on for the past several decades.

There is no doubt; the preferential voting system must be abolished. Apart from the vast sums, candidates have to spend on their election campaigns and the in fights among members of the same party which sometimes claimed lives of politicians such as Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and their supporters, the preferential voting system is more prone to elect unqualified and lesser qualified candidates. It has to be remembered that a UPFA candidate in remand prison after being accused of murder had bagged the highest number of preferential votes from the Ratnapura District, beating even former senior ministers from the same party at the last General election. Actress Upeksha Swarnamali who contested for Gampaha District at her debut election in 2010 beat veteran Karu Jayasuriya of the same party.

The present government that came to power mainly with the slogan of eradication of corruption has now embroiled in corruption by its own leaders. Very soon there might be competition in corrupt practices among them, given the vast amount of money each of them had spent at the last general election.They would then further lose interest in electoral reforms. Therefore concerned people - politicians as well as the civil society - have to push for such electoral reforms forthwith.