The Island Editorial

Waiting for Godot

04 January 2017

 

Hydrophobia turns friendly, playful canines into dreadful monsters. ‘Pollsphobia’ has a similar effect on politicians as we have seen during the last several decades.

Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faizer Mustapha acted like a real bull in a china shop on Monday, when Chairman of the Delimitation Review Committee Asoka Peiris tried to submit his outfit’s final report. Refusing to accept the document on the grounds that it had not been signed by two of the five review committee members, an irate minister locked horns with the media personnel who threw curve balls. There was no reason for him to throw such a hissy fit. The fault was his; he was trying to defend the indefensible!

However, it will be a mistake for anyone to lay the blame for Monday’s brouhaha solely at Mustapha’s doorstep. He has been acting in this manner at the behest of his political bosses.

President Maithripala Sirisena not only accepted but also praised the original report submitted by the Delimitation Committee headed by Jayalath Dissanayake. It was duly ratified by Parliament and signed by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. But, the government made a volte-face as it was looking for an excuse to postpone the local government polls which it was not ready to face. It appointed the Asoka Peiris committee to review the Jayalath committee report obviously in a bid to delay the mini polls in the hope that it would be able to get its act together in time for the next electoral contest. But, its plans have manifestly gone awry and it is scared of an election owing to several factors such as the ignominious defeats its constituents have suffered at the first round of co-operative society elections, ever rising cost of living, mega rackets like the Central Bank bond scandal, unfulfilled pre-election pledges, rampant corruption, the absence of a development drive and the not-so-cold war within the ruling coalition between the UNP and the SLFP.

The completion of the Asoka Peiris committee report could not have come at a worse time for the government troubled by the prospect of having to face an election. The committee was left with no alternative but to finish its task and prepare its report on account of heavy flak it had drawn for the inordinate delay in completing the delimitation review process.

The only way the government could think of further delaying the local government polls was to find fault with the Asoka Peiris committee report as well. Interestingly, the two delimitation review committee members who have not signed the report are from the SLFP and the UNP!

A possible electoral setback will further weaken President Sirisena’s position in the SLFP. His loss will be the Rajapaksas’ gain. It is being argued in some quarters that the UNP is ready for the mini polls. True, statistically, it will have the edge in an electoral contest where the SLFP vote is divided between its two factions led by President Sirisena and his bête noire, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But, it is not in a position to part company with the SLFP until 2020 as it lacks a working majority in Parliament. The political marriage of convenience between the SLFP and the UNP has not brought their members together at the grassroots level. The ruling coalition is like a pyramid with a crack going right down its middle; it is held together at the apex by the yahapalana leaders, who fear a possible Rajapaksa comeback, and the foreign governments and NGOs responsible for facilitating the 2015 regime change.

Local government elections will pit Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe against President Sirisena and a fierce competition at the grassroots level will further weaken the government’s unity; some SLFP members of the Cabinet are threatening a pullout; one has already left. This is a worrisome proposition for the UNP; it could not secure a majority of seats at the last general election in 2015, when its popularity had reached its zenith and the Rajapaksas’ chips were down as never before. It also stood to gain from President Sirisena’s all out efforts to queer the pitch for former President Rajapaksa in the parliamentary race. Thus, why the SLFP and UNP members of the Asoka Peiris committee have not signed the delimitation review report is not difficult to see.

Even if the SLFP and UNP members were to sign the Asoka Peiris committee report and Minister Mustapha had to accept it by any chance, the government would still come out with another ruse to delay the mini polls. It may get the report challenged legally or otherwise and the possibility of another committee being appointed to review the delimitation review committee report cannot be ruled out! The government knows more than one way to shoe a horse and will baulk at nothing to postpone the LG polls.

What’s up Minister Mustapha’s sleeve is not difficult to guess. He told Asoka Peiris on Monday that the review committee report should be prepared in all three languages and the latter said cynically that the task would take two more years. The government is sure to demand that the report be made available in Sinhala, English and Tamil so as to delay the mini polls further.