Daily Mirror Editorial

A collapsing world order

10 January 2017

In the developed Western countries, political differences between party political leaders were largely limited to the political field and hardly ever taken to personal levels. In times of crisis we often saw national leaders cast aside their ideological stances especially when national interests were at stake. One of the best examples of this was witnessed when Osama Bin Laden unleashed attacks on the US. The political leadership of the US cast aside their differences and united as one to combat the attacker. 

We did not see the leaders of the Democratic Party blaming the Republican President for the catastrophe which occurred on 9/11, rather party politics was cast aside and the country united behind then President George Bush to take on a common enemy. This unity for better or worse helped the West to maintain its dominance over the oil-rich Middle East and large swathes of Asia. Asia and the Middle East, despite being the crucible of the written word and cradle of learning, have been unable to recognize the crafty interventions of the West to divide its nations and exploit its resources.

Today perhaps, we are witness to the unravelling of this unity among the Western nations and the opening of a new era. In the West, nationalism and nationalist interests are beginning to break up this large, impersonal political, corporate and social structure long regarded as indivisible. The leadership of the US seems to be taking a leaf out of the political books of South Asia and appears bent on tearing apart the fabric of society which enabled their world domination. During the run-up to the last US Presidential Election, we saw the two principle candidates trade charges of corruption, fraud, lack of integrity at each other and one candidate even threaten to imprison his opponent. 

We are now watching a very public spat between the President-elect and the outgoing President of the US on a variety of issues. The outgoing President who has had a bad relationship with Russia appears to be creating as many stumbling blocks to prevent the incoming President from having any chance of improving this situation. The two were also exchanging very publicly, nasty barbs at each other. The President-elect has spoken of dumping US partnerships with NATO and partners in Asia who he claims drained US resources for too long. His strategy is to concentrate US resources in ‘Making America Great Again’ and to hell with old US partnerships. 

In a similar manner nationalist fervour in Europe is also breaking down what seemed to be the monolithic European Union. Britain’s exit from the EU signalled the cracks on the wall. The victory of the isolationist policies of President-elect Donald Trump in the US, the rise of the nationalist Martine le Penn’s party in France, the PEGIDA in Germany, all point to rising nationalism and isolationist policies which could lead to a breakup of the EU. At the same time, we are witnessing the rise to superpower status of China and its open challenge to US dominance in East Asia. Also we see a growing assertive role of Russia in international affairs under President Putin. 

Russia’s game-changing role in the Syrian conflict and the Middle East has led the Afghan government calling for Russian involvement to end its long-running conflict. Afghanistan is also wooing Chinese investment. The growing nationalist/isolationist tendencies in the West will force the countries of Asia and the Middle East to review their relationships with the Western bloc. This process has already begun taking place in Asia, as witnessed in changed relations between China and the Philippines, and China and Malaysia.

The recent warning of China to India regarding its missile programme and the threat to help Pakistan increase its defence capabilities will not be lost on our giant neighbour who recently aligned itself with the US. After cutting itself off from the Non-Aligned Movement, abandoning the cause of the Palestinians, dropping its special relationship with Russia, antagonizing China, taking a ‘big-brother’ attitude to its nearest neighbours in South Asia and putting all its eggs into the American basket, India has to now review its global relationships. There is every chance of President Trump dropping the basket with the Indian eggs in his effort to ‘Make America Great Again’.

Ceylon Today Editorial

Doom saying Development

10 January 2017

One could say that the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his devout followers in the Joint Opposition started the New Year with a bang by resolving to topple the current Sirisena- Wickremesinghe administration in order to secure a Sri Lanka Freedom Party-led Government in the country.

This was announced to foreign media in the previous week, when the former Commander-in-Chief Rajapaksa told foreign media that he intends to 'topple the government' and become Prime Minister. He was rather ambiguous in his statement, however, and didn't (obviously) reveal any crucial details of his 'Master Plan'. Be that as it may, to the laymen like ourselves, it seems like a farfetched idea – with all the controversies that surrounds him, we are not so sure if he's even able to topple an unbalanced chair, let alone his lackeys.

Comparatively, his goal borders on arrogant overachieving. When the rest of the country is resolved to adapt according to the harsh living system that has been manipulated by the current administration in order to address a cripplingly high national debt and a low national income, here we find one man and his ragtag band of 'Young Turks' resolving to create a new government.

The stupidity of this resolution cannot be told off enough. We believe that we caught a wee glimpse into the 'Master Plan' when the Joint Opposition led crowds descended upon the Sri Lanka-China Industrial Zone Development Project's inauguration ceremony last Saturday. This was a turning point for the government as well as the Joint Opposition where their true colours were shown.

The Joint Opposition-led protestors, opposing the government's plan to lease land and mega-development projects to foreign countries came down upon the inauguration ceremony like the hand of a vengeful god, everyone expected violence – and there was violence.

On one hand, we can't really blame the man and his followers, they are simply trying to retain and bring back a nuance of the power they once possessed. And regardless of Rajapaksa's saying the Premier should not hold irrational fears of leaving the country we know how he is capable of driving a wedge between two parties. And this is what he has said in his previous statements – that both the Sirisena faction and the Wickremesinghe faction of the government are struggling to keep peace between each other. Rajapaksa, in that way, is a shrewd political player who should not be underestimated.

But then again heckling the government's plans of development which intends to create more jobs – something the Rajapaksa administration rarely did – is rather small even for a character such as Rajapaksa. He's well known for hitting below the belt, but this might be his worst act ever.

According to the Prime Minister, the government has been able to create over 20,000 job opportunities in the local market in the first week of this month alone, from the development projects that were initiated. This is definitely a boom, if true and not a political statement, and Rajapaksa and his lackeys should be ashamed of themselves for opposing this development.

The government cannot be whitewashed in this matter either.

Alongside the incendiary incidents in Hambantota last week, we also observed the controversial exposure that was made with regard to the government's well boasted Volkswagen investment. The government's plan turned tails when it was revealed that it was not a Volkswagen assembly line that was established in Kuliyapitya earlier which obviously lead to many questions as to why it was advertised as such.

This alongside many other blunders, have led the current government to a dangerous precipice which has allowed individuals such as the Rajapaksa to take due advantage of it. The government's response to it is equally pathetic – "don't talk to us about our mistakes, look at what these people are doing to the country, let's all hate them and laugh at them!"

At the end of the day, it is not the politicians who suffer from the consequences of these events; it's the common citizen in this country that has to suffer through the turmoil. And this was worded almost perfectly by the President when he said that whoever hinders the development of the country is not going to hurt the President or the Prime Minister, but ultimately the country as a whole. And yet here we are, sitting on the white picket fence thinking, "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right and I'm stuck in the middle with you."

Daily News Editorial

The President settles it

10 January 2017

President Maithripala Sirisena’s firm assertion at the second year anniversary of his inauguration that the Unity Government will run its full course until 2020 and that those planning to topple the government before this was only day dreaming has driven the point home that the Joint Opposition project to claw back to power with Mahinda Rajapaksa at the helm is doomed from the very outset. The President’s observation that he is quite happy with the present government led by the UNP, and implying in the process that he can well do without a government led by the SLFP at this juncture, is also revealing .Garrulous SLFP MPs such as Dilan Perera has been clamouring for a SLFP led government, once the pact forged with the UNP for a Unity Government comes to an end this August, though how he proposes to do this has not been revealed.

Equally, JO stalwart Kumara Welgama who is still a Central Committee member of the SLFP has also advocated a SLFP led government by severing ties with the UNP as a condition for the Joint Opposition returning to the fold of the mainstream SLFP. Gampaha District UPFA and JO front runner Prasanna Ranatunga has gone a step further. He has asked President Sirisena to take Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by his ear and throw him out of the Unity Government and form a regime led by the SLFP, pledging their full support for such a move. President Sirisena, by rejecting all these calls and deciding to stick with the UNP led Unity Government, is sending a clear message to the JO that he is quite satisfied with the way things are proceeding under the current dispensation and is a declaration of the trust placed in the ability of the UNP to steer the ship of state out of the current economic storm into tranquil harbours.

The President in the process has read the riot act to those planning to topple the government by a head count in parliament. He said even for a headcount to triumph it has to have the concurrence of both himself as the President and also the Speaker. He showed how the impeachment motion against the President Premadasa came a cropper once both the President and the Speaker joined forces.

Now that President Sirisena has shown the impossibility of constitutionally toppling the government it is time that the present administration got down to business in earnest and redeem all its pledges made to the people before the end of its term. No doubt it will have herculean task getting the country out of the present debt trap and more hardships to the people cannot be ruled out. But the government has to draw the line somewhere. It cannot remain in perennial debt and be branded as a failed state. There is no reason to doubt Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s claim that he would leave a debt free country to the next generation by the end of the first term of the Yahapalanaya government. It is important that the UNP be given a free hand to run the economy of the country. The Grand Old Party, after all, is known to be well equipped to handle the macro economy. The SLFP, while holding firm to its core values, should not strive to rock the boat at this stage by making unreasonable demands or putting forward impractical proposals.

There is no indication yet if the SLFP will fight the upcoming LG elections in coalition with the UNP or go it alone. It is reasonable to expect it to make some noises in favour of populist measures, in the case of the latter. But with the President now firmly indicating he is happy to continue with the present government (led by the UNP), the SLFP members in the government should temper their demands and work as a unit to take the country in one direction.

Gota must spill the beans

Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in a newspaper interview says that the government has got the wrong end of the stick with regard to the murder of Sunday Leader founder editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and that it is questioning the wrong persons on purpose. This clearly shows that Rajapaksa is privy to certain information. Hence it behoves the former Defence Secretary to come out in the open and provide whatever secret knowledge he possess pertaining to the assassination. By doing this he would not only win the kudos of the journalistic fraternity, particularly, those who were close to Lasantha but ease the anguish, at least to some degree, of the family members of Wickrematunge, who have been crying out for justice for the last eight years. Wickrematunge was assassinated in a high security zone under constant surveillance when Gota was Defence Secretary and there is no doubt he must be privy to some knowledge as to who the assassins were or under whose directions it was carried out, to make such a statement of the interviewer.

The Island Editorial

Mahinda sets cat among pigeons

10 January 2017

 

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set the cat among the pigeons. On the eve of 2017 he said his New Year resolution was to topple the government. The yahapalana leaders are doing their damnedest to convince the public that their bête noire is only daydreaming.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has sought to make light of Rajapaksa’s threat and President Maithripala Sirisena has seen red. He insists that so long as the Speaker is on his side, there is no way anyone could dislodge the government, which he says, will go on till 2020. The late President Premadasa succeeded in defeating a move to impeach him by securing the backing of the then Speaker, President Sirisena has said.

Can a change of government be engineered in the present Parliament?

The government consists of a collective of strange bedfellows who are all out to prevent the Rajapaksas from making a comeback. They know it is plain political hara-kiri for them to break ranks at this juncture. So, they will do their best to stick together in spite of their differences. They are also under pressure from certain forces, both internal and external, which helped facilitate the 2015 regime change, to continue their cohabitation. Hence, the argument being peddled in some quarters that the government will go on till 2020!

But, one may recall that in 2001, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who was firmly in the saddle, could not prevent mass crossovers which brought down her government. There was no threat of impeachment at that time and, therefore, she was not dependent on the then Speaker, who was her brother Anura Bandaranaike, representing the UNP. The JVP’s efforts to remote-control her government by shoring it up came a cropper.

There was no 19th Amendment at that time and President Kumaratunga sacked Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government in 2004. Although we have a presidential system, the executive President becomes virtually powerless unless he or she is in control of Parliament through his or her party or a coalition of which it is a constituent. The 19th Amendment has rendered the incumbent President’s position vulnerable; he cannot dissolve Parliament arbitrarily even if his rivals capture power therein by engineering defections from the ruling coalition.

It may be recalled that towards the end of 2014, many UPFA politicians including very senior ministers went to Singapore, returned richer and pole-vaulted to the Opposition. They did so at a time the Rajapaksa government was considered rock solid and leaving it was thought to be political suicide for anyone. Therefore, the possibility of some of the current ministers and MPs visiting a place like, say, Hong Kong and decamping upon their return with enhanced bank balances in their offshore accounts cannot be ruled out. There have been instances where even the General Secretaries of the two main parties crossed over—S. B. Dissanayake (SLFP) in 2001, Maithripala Sirisena (SLFP) in 2014 and Tissa Attanayake (UNP) in 2014. Anything is possible in Sri Lankan politics. Whoever would have thought President Rajapaksa would suffer a grand pratfall two years before the end of his second term and his government with a two-thirds majority would crash overnight?

The UNP could not secure a working majority at the last general election even though the SLFP-led UPFA was in disarray with the Rajapaksas’ chips down. Today, its popularity is obviously on the wane owing to several factors such as unfulfilled election pledges, lack of development assistance, abuse of power, eye-watering cost of living, rampant corruption and the arrogance of power. Worse, it will have to contend with the adverse impact of having to carry out its Geneva commitments.

The outcome of the next local government polls will indicate what the future holds for the government. Yahapalana leaders shamelessly keep postponing them as they do not want to face a test of strength lest an unfavourable outcome should pave the way of defections. But, they cannot prevent public resentment from welling up by postponing polls.

Whether former President Rajapaksa is equal to the task of carrying out his threat to topple his rivals remains to be seen. But, the challenge before the ruling coalition in 2017 will be to prevent itself from disintegrating.