Will Maithri contract ‘dragon disease’?

by Upul Joseph Fernando

( April 8, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Hobbit is a popular Hollywood film series. The third in that series was screened very recently. The script in that series is based on the ‘Thorin’ royal dynasty on how Prince Thorin battled to regain the lost Lonely Mountain belonging to the dynasty. Prince Thorin’s father lost the Lonely Mountain kingdom to a ‘dragon’ serving in the army of the devil’s tribe. All small kingdoms around this ‘Dragon’ feared the rule of this ‘Dragon’.

They were aware that if they challenged the ‘Dragon’, that would be their end. However, Prince Thorin decided to take on the ‘Dragon’ to allay fears in the minds of all in his bid to regain control of the lost Lonely Mountain kingdom.He mustered the support of all kingdoms which once opposed his father’s rule to take on the ‘Dragon’. Finally, he emerged victorious by chasing away the ‘Dragon’ from the Lone Mountain kingdom. However, neither he nor his army was able to kill the ‘Dragon’. When the ‘Dragon’ moves to a nearby village and starts destroying it, an angry youth kills the ‘Dragon’. Seeing the death of the ‘Dragon’, Prince Thorin happily enters the Lonely Mountain kingdom.

Dragon’s gems

Prince Thorin finds, the Dragon’s gems and gold coins mine where the ‘Dragon’ hid itself. The Prince is enticed by that location. The magicians who helped him to overthrow the ‘Dragon’ tells the Prince that the spirit of the ‘Dragon’ haunted the gems and gold coins mine and it was likely that anyone could contract the ‘Dragon’s Disease’ as the spirit was greedy for that location. The Prince ignores this advice and begins to excavate the mine. Those who extended support to the Prince propose to the latter to share the gold mine among all, to live in peace. But the Prince who had contracted the ‘Dragon’s Sickness’ due to greed rejects the proposal.

He orders his army to declare war on those leaders of smaller kingdoms who helped him to oust the ‘Dragon’ stating that the gems and gold mine belonged to him. But the army advises Prince Thorin that it is not advisable to declare war on them. The Prince firmly orders the army to declare war on the friendly kingdoms that helped him to oust the ‘Dragon’. Meanwhile, the devil’s army of the ‘Dragon’ which views the battle between Prince Thorin’s army and the smaller kingdoms embarks on a journey to destroy the Prince. It is only then that Prince Thorin realizes that that he had contracted the ‘Dragon’s Sickness’ and it was destroying him. But it’s too late.

There are similarities between Prince Thorin and Maithri. The ‘Dragon’ and the Executive Presidency are quite similar. Like Prince Thorin, Maithri also gathered the opposition to destroy the executive presidency that was to destroy him and the country.

When Maithri was seeking the cooperation of the opposition, Mahinda was on a journey to establish a kingdom through the executive presidency and was dressing up to be a king. The opposition which was suppressed by Mahinda at that time was battling each other to free themselves. While Maithri was inviting the opposition to rally round him to defeat the ‘Dragon’ turned Mahinda’s executive system, some in the opposition lamented about the price they would have to pay if Maithri could not destroy Mahinda’s dragon styled kingdom. Finally, everyone rallied round to destroy the ‘dragon’. Having destroyed the ‘dragon’ they have now put forward a constitutional draft to abolish the powers of the Executive Ppresidency to give more powers to the legislature. Unlike Prince Thorin, Maithri has agreed to that draft. However, some who have contracted the ‘Dragon’s Disease’ in the gold mine who know the taste of the Executive Presidency are pressurizing Maithri not to abolish the system in its entirety.

Dragon’s Disease

They are trying to spread the ‘Dragon’s Disease’ to Maithri. At present, Maithri is enjoying the taste of the ‘dark’ gold mine like Prince Thorin. That is located between the dark gold mine fortress of the SLFP and the friendly army of Ven. Sobhitha, Chandrika, Ranil, JVP, TNA and SLMC which have put up small camps in the centre of lightened valleys.

Will Maithri contract the ‘Dragon’s Disease’? Or will it be injected to him? Those were the questions asked by a ‘film maniac’, from his friend. It is too early to predict answers. The scenario is reminiscent of an interesting moment – Lalith Athulathmudali who quit the UNP, after bringing an impeachment motion against the then President Premadasa, with the Most Venerable Malwatte Mahanayaka Thera. Lalith quit the UNP promising to abolish the executive presidential system. However, he told the Mahanayaka Thera; “If I sit on the Executive President’s chair even for a day, I may not want to abolish it. Therefore, I must abolish it before I sit on that chair”. We do not know whether Maithri is aware of Lalith’s story.