The Island Editorial

Yahapalanaya sans polls

13 October 2016

State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena has let the cat out of the bag again, so to speak. There won’t be local government polls until next June, he has told the media. Facing an electoral contest in the near future is a worrisome proposition for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, which has pathetically failed to fulfil most of its pre-election pledges.

Those at the levers of power campaigned on an anti-corruption platform before the last two elections. They also undertook the Herculean task of ridding the country of nepotism and cronyism and putting an end to the culture of impunity besides strengthening the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the judiciary and other state institutions. But, today, those responsible for several mega Central Bank bond scams which cost the state coffers billions of rupees have not only gone scot free but also are seen in the exalted company of government leaders. The Customs trade unions are up in arms against an order to suspend a probe into the fraudulent release of hundreds of luxury vehicles. A questionable coal tender which has ‘shocked the conscience of the apex court’ has gone uninvestigated. Instances of the government making a mockery of its commitment to good governance abound.

Worse, the cost of living which affects the voting public direct continues to rise and the government is hell bent on heaping more tax burdens on people further aggravating their economic woes. Public resentment, which is evidently welling up, is likely to find expression in a protest vote at the next election.

LG polls are derisively referred to as kaanu-bokku (gutter-culvert) elections. But, this time around, they will assume national importance because the two main parties led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena will have to joust for dominance. The much-flaunted cohabitation between the UNP and the SLFP is conspicuous by its absence at the grassroots level and the mini polls are likely to be bitterly fought. The entry of a new political force led by the Rajapaksas into the fray will make the situation worse for the ruling coalition.

State Minister Abeywardena has also said President Sirisena will shortly decide what action should be taken in respect of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, on the basis of reports on the alleged bond scams. If he ever tries to get tough with Mahendran he will run the risk of alienating the UNP, which has thrown its weight behind the latter. It may be recalled that the marriage of convenience between the SLFP and the UNP almost broke up on the question of appointing Mahendran’s successor a few moons ago.

It is, therefore, doubtful whether the President will want to bring his party and the UNP on a collision course once again by taking on Mahendra. For, his position in the SLFP will be greatly weakened if the UNP breaks ranks with him. An executive president without control over Parliament finds himself or herself in an unenviable position. The SLFP rebels led by the Rajapaksas are likely to let Sirisena stew in his own juice in such an eventuality by allowing the UNP to form a minority government or engineer crossovers from the SLFP. Such an arrangement will stand the rogues of the previous government in good stead in that a weak administration, struggling for survival, won’t be able to remain maniacally focussed on the ongoing probes against the grandees of the previous regime.

We bet our bottom dollar that the government will postpone the mini polls indefinitely on the pretext of finalising electoral reforms. And, the SLFP will, for its own sake, cooperate with the UNP on the question of bond scams and shielding the fraudsters responsible for them.