Frogs In A Pot Of Water
Sunday, September 09, 2012
There is a facile truism about nations getting the politicians they deserve. We, in Sri Lanka certainly have the kind we deserve. Small-minded, cliquish, corrupt, self-serving, self-indulgent and deceitful. We should have booted them out a long time ago – but have not.
As we watch the conclusion of yet another election what is evident is not that the ballot rules but that parliamentarians have shown once again that they will stoop to any level in order to cling to power.
In the run up to each election the mantra is similar. Election monitors in Sri Lanka warn that violence is likely. Last Wednesday, monitors once again, warned that violence was likely to grip the Ampara District in the Eastern Province if the law enforcement authorities fail to uphold law and order during the Eastern Provincial Council election.
The Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) stated that Muslim-dominated Akkaraipattu in Amapara was likely to become another Kolonnawa with several Muslim parties contesting for power in the Council.
Kolonnawa turned violent last October during local government elections with a shooting incident that killed four persons including a Presidential advisor, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and severely injured a governing party parliamentarian and thug Duminda Silva.
CaFFE Executive Director Keerthi Tennakoon has said that law enforcement authorities had ignored warnings by election monitors during last year’s local government elections resulting in the violence in Kolonnawa. No surprises there.
He has explained that the situation in Akkaraipattu was similarly tense.
According to Tennakoon, the battle between Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader, Minister Rauf Hakeem and National Muslim Congress (NMC) Leader, Minister A. L. M. Athaullah is turning out into a full-blown conflict.
While all this is happening Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP have descended to a level similar to that of the Colombo municipal administration which may be considered a creation of Wickremesinghe.
Sri Lanka faces a serious crisis of governance. More so, when President Mahinda Rajapaksa boasts to acolytes that he is constantly bombarded with appeals from opposition party parliamentarians to cross to government ranks. Bi-partisanship once again fails in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is once more at a crossroad. Trapped, by narrow-minded, uneducated leaders. Leaders, who have spat on democracy, embraced corruption and trampled on development in the truer sense. If white elephants like the Hambantota port, airport and cricket stadium can be held as examples or parallel to development projects that will help lift this island to new heights then it is no small wonder that Sri Lanka is destined to remain stuck in a political time warp. And her people forever to be treated as asses.
Corruption and the abuse of power are so utterly universal in this country that the public has become cynical to the extent that it evokes no response from them. From the dingiest alleys through the middle corridors to the highest echelons of power, corruption holds sway.
As the COPE report details, public funds have been squandered by none other than many of those among the government parliamentarians. Some of who are today holding office as Cabinet Ministers. It does not matter one bit to either President Mahinda Rajapaksa or anyone of the other 225 MPs that neither a lasting peace nor development projects for the greater good of this country and its people are not even being considered at this moment in time as they jostle for perks and privileges of high office.
For this low breed of politicians what is required is for their mad projects to be cheap, popular stunts. Our continuous articles on the law banning polythene to the government’s flagrant disregard for the protection, rights, welfare and lives of civilians are good examples.
The government has failed to conduct credible investigations into alleged war crimes by security forces, dismissing the overwhelming body of evidence as LTTE propaganda. The government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), characterized as a national accountability mechanism, is deeply flawed, does not meet international standards for such commissions, and has failed to systematically inquire into alleged abuses. In August the government allowed emergency regulations in place for nearly three decades to lapse, but overbroad detention powers remained in place under other laws and new regulations. Several thousand detainees continue to be held without trial, in violation of international law.
Remember the Expropriation Bill? The rationale for this wave of nationalisation was to reform under-performing or under-utilized assets, but if that is the goal the government has no further to look than Mihin Airlines or the Ceylon Electricity Board, both perennial money losers.However, there are pet projects and those with less emotional attachment. Some of the companies being nationalized have had a history of mismanagement, including the Hilton Hotel holding company. Some have not. It is possible that the government (or their cronies could run them better), albeit unlikely. What is more troubling is the precedent this Bill set. The government said this is a one-time thing, but if you have to give that assurance, perhaps you should question why you are doing it even this one time. As the knock-on effect at the BOI shows, this is actually a change in policy, passed with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
While Mahinda Rajapaksa could perhaps be commended for going the legalistic route rather than simply ramming the changes through, (the Supreme Court ruled the Bill was constitutional) he should be condemned for warping the legal system by pushing such a dubious Bill through. It makes the Supreme Court seem nakedly partisan, completely circumvents the usual Bill drafting and gazetting procedure, and, most importantly, sets a precedent. While this circus is enacted before a weary nation, fed-up to the gills with such antics, both the government and opposition is yet to come up with any strategy to find a political solution that will move Sri Lanka away from the machinations of a select few with a perverted sense of patriotism.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is good at making the right noises and a past master at playing good cop while he allows his siblings and henchmen to play bad cop by giving them a free hand at the same time.
But it is a catch 22 situation. We desperately need leaders who are committed towards the betterment of the country. Men and women of integrity, principle and ethics.
The Myth Of The Rajapaksa-Supermen
“We were given a King; Come, Rally, All as One.”
(UPFA Propaganda Song)
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
Last week Sri Lanka won her first Paralympic Medal.
Sooner, or later, the credit for that triumph would be laid at some Rajapaksa-door, though Lankan Paralympic-entrants were left to fend for themselves even more than Lankan Olympic-entrants. As the winner of that lonely Bronze told the BBC, “I have to buy all the equipment, shoes and clothes, everything from my own salary. I did not get sponsorship for my training…” (Colombo Telegraph – 4.9.2012).
Sooner, or later, the credit for that triumph would be laid at some Rajapaksa-door, though Lankan Paralympic-entrants were left to fend for themselves even more than Lankan Olympic-entrants. As the winner of that lonely Bronze told the BBC, “I have to buy all the equipment, shoes and clothes, everything from my own salary. I did not get sponsorship for my training…” (Colombo Telegraph – 4.9.2012).
That unpalatable truth would be lost in a country where official propaganda labours with Herculean effort to credit the Ruling Siblings with every triumph; and to advance the counterfactual claim that the Rajapaksas (and the Rajapaksas alone) hold the wellbeing of the land and the happiness of the people in their mightily competent grip. Read More »
