The Island Editorial

Daval Migels, Re Daniels

24 December 2016

 

Some of the most vociferous environmental groups campaigning against deforestation in South America are clandestinely funded by the logging industry itself to keep genuine environmentalists at bay. The tobacco industry is also notorious for using the same ruse to keep protests against its sordid operations under control. These big businesses seem to have learnt from pickpockets, who have their confederates at hand to catch them in case of a botched attempt and remove them to safety on the pretext of making a citizen’s arrest.

Many civil society groups, before the last two elections, promoted the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition as a collective of messiahs who alone were capable of ridding the country of bribery and corruption and ushering in good governance. They are now screaming blue murder about the prevalence of those social evils under the present administration as well. One of them has recently accused their government chums of planning to sell a terminal of the Colombo Port to India.

These NGO activists are preaching to the choir, so to speak. The general public is quite au fait with the mega scams under the present dispensation. People were so resentful and fed up with the previous regime owing to its corruption that they voted it out of power. It was, however, a case of Hobson’s choice for them; they elected the present administration with many rogues within its ranks for want of a better alternative.

Instead of trying to educate the public who are already aware of the rackets of the current administration, will the civil society activists reveal what they are planning to do to remedy the situation? Will they at least hold a protest march to Temple Trees or the Presidential Secretariat? It is no use ranting and raving against the government leaders for public consumption during daytime while wining and dining with the same politicians at night. These hypocrites are popularly known as daval Migels and re Daniels—‘Migels during daytime and Daniels at night’.

Our Rathu Sahodarayas have taken on the government for not taking any follow-up action on the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report which officially exposed the Central Bank (CB) bond scams. They have taken Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to task for undertaking to refer the report to the Attorney General; they think it is a task which should be left entirely to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. They seem to have taken the masses for asses. Will they explain why they have left out the Prime Minister’s name in the COPE report and blamed only the former Central Bank Governor for the bond thefts?

Interestingly, the JVPers laid the blame for corrupt deals which the big guns of the previous government were involved in at the doorstep of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa—and rightly so. They even campaigned for his ouster, claiming that there was no other way to put an end to rampant bribery and corruption on his watch. But, strangely, they are not out for the scalps of the beleaguered former CB chief’s political bosses! Their present campaign against the Prime Minister, whose name they have craftily left out, is akin to letting a cornered fox escape and chasing it with a tally-ho. It is public knowledge that the comrades would never have got the post of the Chief Opposition Whip if they had not been in the good books of the present government. Their battles with the government are like the fake wrestling matches one sees on cable TV ad nauseam.

The Joint Opposition (JO) is also full of daval Migels and re Daniels. Its cantankerous leaders have chosen to go slow on the billion-rupee bond scams and disastrous port deals. They are maniacally focused on flaying their bete noire, President Maithripala Sirisena while selectively flogging other issues mildly.

The JHU holds media briefings purportedly to expose corruption under the present administration. It has recently condemned the Hambantota port deal and asked the government tough questions, demanding answers about a vast extent of land leased out to the Chinese. It is represented in the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Cabinet and the question is why those queries cannot be posed to the President and the Prime Minister direct at ministerial and government group meetings. It has mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

People are left with no one to turn to when their interests are jeopardised. The Opposition is part of the government and vice versa. The outfit which calls itself the genuine Opposition or the JO also smooches with a section of the government on crucial issues. Ultra radical leftists, too, play footsie with government politicians under the table. Wheels within wheels and deals within deals!