Ceylon Today Editorial

PRESIDENT’S PATIENCE EXHAUSTED?

19 February 2017

Less than a month ago former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga went on record as having said that members of the Joint Opposition are anxious to see a return to power by her successor Mahinda Rajapaksa so that they could return to the bribery and corruption that saturated the former government. A few months before that, too, she was quoted as having said that there was still more work to be done by way of purging the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the pro-Mahinda elements who obviously were being used to destabilize the party and thus weaken President Sirisena's hand, from within the Unity Government. The destabilization we know came by way of complaints that United National Party (UNP) Ministers were blocking Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Deputy and State Ministers from doing a fair job of work. Whether that was an orchestrated thing to drive a wedge between the Prime Minister and the President in a bid to break up the Unity Government is a moot point. One, however, cannot dismiss the possibility at least to some extent that the complaint could hold some water. That does not sound like such a big deal because all they had to do...and can even now do...is to settle separation of functions between a minister, his deputy and a State minister. That's an easily resolvable matter. It's done every hour of the day the whole world over in the State and private sectors between senior executives and junior executives. The problem would appear to be yet another straw to clutch onto in a bid to cause a rift in the government.

There also is the fact that all the SLFPers who are with the Joint Opposition have to date successfully held at bay most prosecutions on allegations of bribery and corruption and want the nightmare to end. They have made it a point to stage an unending stream of protest demonstrations using any lever at hand on any given day. Disgruntled elements who would have been with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Joint Opposition were, to put it bluntly, bought up with portfolios. But their loyalties have always been in doubt.

Back of all of this, however, has been the overriding fact that most of them feel that they are capable of being effective ministers themselves despite the fact that they have little or no track record to back up that position. Perhaps they feel they could get a better deal with ministerial portfolios in an SLFP government instead of having to 'play second fiddle to Ranil's men' as they privately complain. These are the moles in the Unity Government. But irrespective of all of the foregoing, at the end of the day as far as President Sirisena is concerned he knows he cannot count on them to back him to the hilt in the future should he want to continue with the Unity Government himself. That's the rub!

Does the President want to continue in harness with Ranil Wickremesinghe in a Unity Government when he cannot entirely depend on the loyalties of his own SLFP men in its fold? When it's patently clear that his populist policies don't gel with those of Wickremesinghe, does he feel it's time to get these things sorted out before aimlessly continuing with the Unity Government?

With the Local Government elections now possibly closer round the corner than ever before, can he depend on the SLFP's Deputy and State Ministers to truly campaign for nominees of the SLFP Central Committee at the LG elections? Or will they secretly work to ensure voters in their electorates vote for the JO candidates?

The President would of course not have been oblivious to the fact that Premier Wickremesinghe has been assiduously pursuing some tough medium and long-term economic development goals in a manner that's obviously focused on claiming total credit for it around the time that next general election is held. The Prime Minister has also been as thoroughly cultivating friends in key political and business events abroad with an air of certainty that his UNP will once again win a majority in Parliament.

The failure of the Police and legal system to bring to book criminals of the former regime, the suspended crisis of the CB Bond issue, the failure to deliver promises to civil society groups, the China factor, the overwhelming pressures from the Tamil community, the even greater pressure to continuously keep the UNHRC at bay on war crime charges, the mammoth debt crisis against a backdrop of a painfully slow growth... these are collectively a huge burden for him to bear while simultaneously dealing with an unending flow of social havoc created by the Joint Opposition.

Having come thus far, is President Sirisena contemplating some alternative? Like a snap general election? The UNP is as ready as it ever will be for it.