Old wine in a new bottle
Editorial-September 10, 2015,
The yahapalana government’s anti-corruption campaign against its political opponents before the August 17 polls was like an apaya show in which frightful scenes of hell are enacted during the Vesak season. In a dimly lit cadjan hut people watch, in horror, sinners being tortured. Soldiers of Yama or King of Hell, bludgeon, cut and chop humans. When the show is over, the torturers and their victims get tanked up on rotgut behind the makeshift theatre and share the day’s collection among themselves!
The curtain has been brought down on the apaya show on the political front. The corrupt and the anti-corruption campaigners who pursued them relentlessly are now Cabinet colleagues! Court cases they filed against each other are being withdrawn one by one. The state prosecutor has drawn heavy flak for letting crooks off the hook. Ironically, brickbats are now coming from his erstwhile admirers who hailed him a hero a few moons ago for having refused to be party to what they called a coup attempt on Jan. 09
Maithripala Sirisena, upon being elected President, sacked the Rajapaksa government and appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe Prime Minister thus paving the way for the formation of a UNP-led administration. He said the people had given him a mandate to usher in good governance and the ouster of the UPFA dispensation was a prerequisite for implementing his manifesto. The winning Swan Party-led coalition and its allies like Rathu Sahodarayas claimed the people had, at the Jan. 08 presidential election, rejected not only President Mahinda Rajapaksa but also all those connected to his ‘corrupt, dictatorial regime’. When Rajapaksa made a bid to stage a comeback as PM, they put forth the same argument and asked the people to reject his alliance again. And, it was defeated.
Thus, the UPFA has been twice rejected by the people in January and August. But, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have had no qualms about appointing the bigwigs of the rejected coalition, or enemies of good governance, Cabinet, State and Deputy Ministers!
President Sirisena has gone a step further and appointed rejected UPFA candidates to Parliament via the National List and made them ministers. Thus, he has distorted the verdict of the electorate. That his predecessors did so cannot be claimed in extenuation of this despicable action. A wrong cannot be righted by being repeated. He promised to change the existing political culture, didn’t he?
President Sirisena has declared that his government is strong enough to complete its full term and efforts being made in some quarters to dislodge it are bound to come a cropper. He has achieved a feat that many thought was unattainable—defeating President Rajapaksa in the last presidential race. He also succeeded in queering Rajapaksa’s pitch at last month’s general election. So, he may be confident that he can hold his political enemies at bay till 2020.
President Rajapaksa also thought his administration was rock solid and his defences were impregnable. But, in the end, his administration was destroyed from within.
Most of the ministerial crooks blamed for having helped themselves to public funds, abused power and brought about Rajapaksa’s downfall are now in the new government. One’s gorge rose when one saw those rogues being sworn in as ministers the other day. Among them are some politicians accused of having links to the nether world of crime and drugs. With such elements as ministers, the government needs no enemies! Curiously, the champions of good governance who condemned the members of the Rajapaksa government as fraudsters, thieves, drug barons, rapists and killers are acting like the proverbial monkeys, hearing no evil, seeing no evil and speaking no evil.
We have old, contaminated wine in a new bottle with an attractive label.
