Daily News Editorial

Dullas in a dither

05 September 2016

Joint Opposition firebrand and ardent Rajapaksa loyalist Dullas Alahapperuma has taken up cudgels with President Maithripala Sirisena for failing to form an SLFP led government when the latter was elected President on January 8 last year. On that grounds alone the MP said President Sirisena has no right to claim leadership to the SLFP and is not qualified to call for disciplinary action against members of the JO for acting contrary to the dictates of the present party leadership.

Alahapperuma says that by making Ranil Wickremesinghe Prime Minister (after the January 8 victory), when the UNP had only 46 MPs as against 126 UPFA parliamentarians, instead of giving the premiership to an SLFPer, President Sirisena has no moral right to remain as the leader of the SLFP and demand allegiance of the JO.

Alahapperuma, in making this allegation, has lost sight of a key element that made President Sirisena act the way he did. To begin with, President Sirisena was elected with an overwhelming UNP vote. UNPers had to undergo many hardships and sacrifices in their quest of making Sirisena the President with at least two party men losing their lives. It was the UNP machinery that went full throttle to facilitate the Common Candidate's election campaign while the SLFP machinery plus state resources were used, nay abused, on behalf of Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the state media falling to the gutter in this respect.

Does Alahapperuma expect President Sirisena to overlook all the insults,vilification, slander and calumny unleashed against him and forget that it was the SLFP machinery that went all out to ensure his doom and without so much as a by your leave invite an SLFPer to be the Prime Minister under his Presidency? Besides, Alahapperuma cannot be unaware of the public agreement entered into by the Common Candidate with the UNP leader, after the former walked out of the government, to pick up gauntlet. Alahapperuma also cannot be unaware that it was a hostile parliament filled with Rajapaksa loyalists that the new President would have had to contend with, with then Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne himself having campaigned vigorously towards the victory of MR. The General Election was months away and President Sirisena rightly believed that parliament packed with Pro Rajapaksa elements would have done everything possible to undermine his position. It was due to the change of guard in the Prime Minister position that parliament was able to pass the 19th Amendment, with even MP Dullas Alahapperuma “aye” ing, to limit Presidential powers. It was difficult to assume, given the sate of play at the time, if parliament would have been able to muster the required two thirds majority, given Rajapaksa's still undiminished Presidential ambitions .

Alahapperuma also claims that the only thing preventing the JO extending its cooperation to the President was the tie up with the UNP and its policies which are alien to the SLFP. However Alahapperuma in a different avatar was not averse to remaining in a government which embraced UNP policies in toto. Nay even going one better. One recalls former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's famous words in this regard. Said CBK in the first flush of her victory in 1994. “I was once a good socialist and now I will be a good capitalist”. One also recalls Alahapperuma who was then a Deputy Minister, in a speech made in Parliament, whining that the government who signaled to the Left was now turning Right vamata signal dala dakunata yanawa. However, this ardent socialist, who now accuses this government of following the much despised UNP right wing capitalist policies and cites this as the main reason for opposing the Unity Government, did not think of quitting parliament at the time nor make a strong statement registering his protest to the CBK government, besides that one feeble effort in parliament.

Alahapperuma, in his blind loyalty to Mahinda Rajapaksa, has also hit on the bizaire. Referring to the protest by some Tamils in Malaysia at Rajapaksa's presence in that country and the alleged threats in social media by the same group, calling for Rajapaksa's head for liquidating Prabhakaran, the Matara District MP has likened this to a fatwa issued against Rajapaksa and castigated the government for exposing MR to the LTTE by “downgrading” the latter's security that comprise only a few ralahamy's (Police Constables), instead of the military security.

Alahapperuma, as well as the general public, is well aware that Rajapaksa’s security detail comprise handpicked STF commandos trained in VIP security, far from the ralahamys he refers to, for public consumption. Besides, the LTTE is done and dusted, according to the former President, and one can only assume that the Tiger threat is a thing of the past. In that context, the so called threat by the Tamils in Malaysia is just that, a threat, like any other threat issued by politicians, doctors, Trade Unions in this country. The former President is offered the best protection in this country. If people like Dullas Alahapperuma thinks his leader is exposed to the LTTE threat while abroad the best advise is to stay put.