The Island Editorial

Assassinations and coups

21 November 2016

 

UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila stirred up a hornets’ nest in Parliament on Saturday. Venting his spleen on the government as is his wont, he gave President Maithripala Sirisena some gratuitous advice. The former urged the latter to be wary of ‘friends’ who acted like the proverbial monkey which killed its royal master by striking a fly on him with his own sword. This analogy raised Minister Vijithamuni Zoysa’s hackles, which are, anyway, waiting for the slighted provocation to rise. Zoysa claimed that such monkeys were responsible for the downfall of President Mahinda Rajapaksa last year.

Spicing up his speech with rhetoric, Zoysa went so far as to point out that the founder of the SLFP S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike had died at the hands of some of his close allies. Shedding copious tears for former President Rajapaksa, who, he said, had lost power due to a coterie of cronies, he, however, stopped short of mentioning the fact that the then SLFP General Secretary and Minister Sirisena had defected to contest as the Opposition’s presidential candidate and brought down the Rajapaksa government.

It is popularly said that one may be able to defend oneself against his enemies, but only God can save him from his friends. Politics is a web of intrigue and betrayal as is common knowledge. Man’s greed for power and wealth tends to get the better of him at times of his moral weakness. There is a Macbeth or a Brutus in every politician, especially in this country. Besides, Sri Lanka’s history is replete with numerous instances of parricide and fratricide in times of kings. Betrayal seems to be a genetic factor in Sri Lankans. Even the Indian epic Ramayana tells us that King of Lanka Ravana, who is said to have moved about in a flying machine, was betrayed by his brother Vibishana, who sided with Rama. (One may wonder whether the proponents of ETCA are descendants of Vibishana?)

Historians tell us that King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-1490) trusted his dogs more than his palace guards or even his family members. He always had a pack of his pet dogs around him. A philosopher himself, King Matthias must have been au fait with the common human frailties and ambitions which the canines are devoid of; dogs don’t seek to destroy their masters or take bribes or get involved in bond scams, do they?

Minister Zoysa, who knows which side his bread is buttered sought to curry favour with President Sirisena, to whom several political rejects of the SLFP are beholden for their appointment to Parliament and the Cabinet. Zoysa implied, with his reference to the Bandaranaike assassination, that the President, who was present in the House, had to be careful. There were barbs from the ranks of the Joint Opposition (JO) and MP Dinesh Gunawardena stressed that though the JO had political differences with President Sirisena never did it wish to see harm to befall anyone. He, however, went on to warn the government that unless it stopped suppressing the democratic rights of its opponents there might even be a military coup.

Politicians are notorious for seeing more devils than vast hell can hold. We hope and pray that what Gunawardena fears will not come to pass. However, the government leaders must be wary of trifling the military and meddling in its affairs. The recent removal of Head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence Brig. Suresh Salley has left a bad taste in many a mouth. Officers who have made an invaluable contribution to the elimination of terrorism must not be victimised according to the whims and fancies of politicians notorious for their pusillanimity and servility to terrorists. The recent police attack on a protest by disabled military personnel near the Presidential Secretariat has caused the government to incur public opprobirum. One disabled soldier has suffered serious eye injury in the attack.

A formidable Opposition is a prerequisite for democratic wellbeing of a country. A coming together of the major parties consisting of rogues of all sorts for political expediency on the pretext of promoting national unity is fraught with the danger of the public being left with no one to turn to in the case of corruption and abuse of power. Thankfully, the enmity between President Sirisena and his erstwhile boss has led to the emergence of an alternative Opposition. New thieves have undertaken to catch old larcenists and vice versa!

When a democratic Opposition is reduced to a mere appendage of the government or crushed with elections arbitrarily postponed indefinitely, conditions are created for extra-parliamentary forces to emerge powerful at the expense of democracy. What we witnessed in the 1980s is a case in point. Those who do not learn from the past are said to be doomed to repeat it. Absit omen!