The Island Editorial

Will the govt. fall?

15 October 2016

 

The political marriage between the UNP and the SLFP is on the rocks. It is popularly said in this country that even the shadow of a doomed marriage is crooked. A few moons ago, it almost broke up owing to a dispute over the appointment of the Central Bank Governor, but the two parties had to sink their differences thanks to the intervention of several influential architects of the present regime. However, this time around, the situation has taken a turn for the worse with not-so-surreptitious efforts being made to undermine President Maithripala Sirisena’s position in the government as never before; not to be outdone he has struck back, publicly lashing out at the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), the controversial Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The JVP lost no time in doing what was expected of Sirikotha, the UNP headquarters; it called upon President Sirisena to elaborate on his statement that the aforesaid institutions must not work according to a political agenda. The Rathu Sahodarayas are now demanding to know whose political agenda the President has referred to. Some civil society outfits which threw in their lot with Sirisena in the presidential race last year have also taken exception to his swipe at the institutions probing the government’s political enemies. Before asking the President for a clarification or finding fault with him they ought to tell the public whether they think the outfits at issue are devoid of political agendas. If so, will they explain why no action has been taken against the UNP ministers, some of whom have even refused to appear before those institutions in spite of being summoned ?

The CIABOC and the CID worked according to the agenda of the Rajapaksa government for ten years and since the change of government in early 2015, they have been toeing the line of the present regime. The less said about the FCID of recent origin the better! Hitler may be long dead but the Gestapo tradition lives on!

The Rajapaksa government was corrupt to the core; most of its leaders abused power and were on the wrong side of the law with impunity. All of them must be probed and brought to justice if credible evidence can be found to arraign them on charges of corruption etc. But, the manner in which the present government has been interfering with police and judicial investigations has allowed the rogues of the previous regime to pretend to be victims of a political witch hunt and gain public sympathy.

The incumbent leaders have made a mockery of their commitment to good governance by being selective in bringing rogues to justice and shielding their favourites. Nobody has been arrested for the Central Bank bond heist, as it were, which has cost the state coffers billions of rupees, but several Opposition politicians have been and remanded indefinitely for abusing one or two state vehicles each.

Some Joint Opposition (JO) activists are cock-a-hoop about the trouble in the government camp. It was only the other day that former Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told the media that the JO would release a list of shame consisting of the ‘Top Ten corrupt members’ of the government. (Look who is talking!) The best way to catch a thief is to set a thief and, therefore, the JO has a vital role to play in exposing the corrupt within the government ranks. Similarly, let the JO be urged to prepare a list of the Top Ten corrupt persons in the previous government. The public has a right to know what may be called T-20 in corruption.

Will the JO’s dream of the ruling coalition disintegrating come true? Hope springs eternal, but the warring factions of the government will be compelled to stick together while fighting mainly because it will be MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) for them to part company vis-à-vis relentless efforts the JO is making to stage a comeback. They cannot survive separately. Their administration is like a blind man carrying a cripple on his back on a begging round. Moreover, they know the boot will be on the other foot if they lose power and the FCID will turn against them overnight with some courts remaining open till midnight to remand them. The international players who backed the 2015 regime change want the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration to continue so that they can further their geo-political interests.

Whether they like it or not, the UNP and the SLFP will have to cohabit like the proverbial cobra and mongoose, caught up in a flood, cooperating to maintain the balance of the log they cling on to for survival. So, all signs are that the-blind-man-and-the-cripple circus is likely to last longer than the JO leaders, salivating at the thought of savouring power again, may think.