A Cabinet of shadows getting longer each day

July 8, 2016, 7:38 pm 

The so-called Joint Opposition, which was never an elected Opposition, has taken a bigger stride to call itself the Shadow Cabinet. There is little doubt this gives them more feeling of being Cabinet Ministers, even in shadow, which was denied them through the machinations of electoral politics, with the failure of the MR team in the UPFA to win a majority in parliament.

They have scored a big victory at the outset – a victory in numbers. This Shadow Cabinet is larger than the real Cabinet of Ministers, with the Mahinda Rajapaksa Shadow Team having 51 members – all of its members in parliament – unlike the Sirisena Team with only 44 members. With Brexit and all those problems for British democracy, this may be one more way for the Rajapaksas to say go to hell to the democratic traditions of the Brits. Why limit the size of a Shadow Cabinet to that of the actual governing Cabinet?

Now you must not rush to the conclusion that this shows there are more shadowy members in the Joint Opposition. Of course, when it comes to wielding power, they do remain much less than a shadow of what they were, when Rajapaksa held the reins of power. But such is the stuff of electoral democracy when combined with political and electoral astrology.

With this Shadow Cabinet being a show of the infighting within the SLFP, there are proposals already made in government to make a generous offer of 51 super luxury cars to all members of the Shadow Cabinet; more luxurious than those already proposed for Cabinet Ministers, Deputies and Ministers of State, of government. Those who propose this believe it will help members of both the real and shadow cabinets to enjoy and display their common pride in luxury transport, and making it much more comfortable to carry out their politics of fooling the people all the way.

It is interesting to see that Mahinda Rajapaksa will have the shadow portfolios of Buddha Sasana and Defence. He is certainly no stranger to Defence, having held it for as long as he was Executive President. The new shadow of Buddha will certainly be in keeping with his new trend of using Buddhist temples and festivals to promote the politics of enmity, both political and communal, which is strongly backed by the his shadow fellows such as Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa, to name just two.

It must be the limitation of places with the shadow realm that has ensured that all three Rajapaksas in the Joint Opposition are in this team. In the days of huge Rajapaksa power we had just two of them in the Cabinet – the brothers Mahinda and Basil. In terms of parliament, brother Chamal was Speaker. But now it is a case of father, son and brother all in the same shadow – with Namal shadowing Foreign Affairs and Chamal keeping the shadow on Public Transport and Civil Aviation.

One does not yet know whether there will soon be a Shadow Cabinet Paper presented, which will seek official facilities for the members of the Shadow Cabinet to carry out their functions. This would mean that Namal will have plenty of foreign travel at State expense once again, and Chamal having plenty of helicopter rides within Sri Lanka, with no questions asked by PRECIFAC or any other of those snail probe bodies of "good governance".

One major problem with this Shadow Cabinet is that it is confined to the official titles in the real Cabinet, and not to the reality of activities taking place in government today. Surely, there could be a shadow minister on nepotism in government, knowing very well that it is very much the stuff of both politics and government today.

With the recent Thevarapperuma episode, there is certainly room for a shadow minister of political suicides, possibly combined with a shadow ministry of politically influenced admissions to government schools.

They have also missed out on appointing a shadow minister on apartment renting, seeing the huge sums spent on luxury abodes for ministries and other state institutions; the stuff of news and much criticism in recent months.

Of course one must understand that those who thought of this Shadow Cabinet would not have wanted a bigger shake up on issues such as corruption and fraud, the stuff of the past regime; which the current manipulators of yahapalana or good governance, keep mouthing for their own advantage. It is the stuff that makes Mahinda Rajapaksa threaten to slash his throat over a single missing dollar, and shadow Bandula Gunawardena to slash his abdomen about alleged frauds in state spending.

The Shadow Cabinet will take its place amidst the politics of confrontation. It may not be able to remove all the shadows from the past that keeps haunting those in the Joint Opposition, as well as within the Government. They will not be able to shake off the shadow of voting for the 18th Amendment, which hugely widened the powers o Rajapaksa, or the Parliamentary Select Committee that led to the removal of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. These are just two shadows that will keep growing longer each day.