Joint Opposition’s Shadow Cabinet; A Malignancy Beyond Cure
By Vishwamithra1984 –July 20, 2016
“Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds — a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents. In 1953, excess is always a comfort, and sometimes a career.”~ Albert Camus
The Joint Opposition has knowingly thrown a challenge at the morality of all decent men and women in Sri Lanka. Announcing a ‘Shadow Cabinet’ that consists of those who once occupied the most rewarding portfolios of the defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa-regime and whose many dealings are being questioned at various commissions and committees today is simply preposterous and pathetic. The bare audacity to challenge the intelligence of the average voter is further proof of their appalling logic of judgment on the one hand a ridiculously impudent sense of cynicism on the other. The political bloodshed that they are attempting to draw at this crucial juncture of transition from a rogue government to a budding Yahapalanaya state is palpable and the consequences of their attempt could be profoundly damaging to the mindset of the nation. The consequences could be damaging because it would legitimize all the criminal activities alleged to have been committed by the bigwigs of the last regime. Making such criminal behavior and acts to look like regular and normal would be dangerous to the socio-political character of the nation.
It would be futile to analyze the individuals named in that so-called ‘Shadow Cabinet’ one by one. Thanks to the Proportional Representation (PR) system, these political ruffians managed to get into parliament. Yet their collective psyche that is intensely warped and inflated has driving them to a state of perpetual denial. In the interest of safeguarding their ill-gotten wealth and redeeming their lost glory, they continue to amaze the average mind of the people by engaging in campaigns claimed to be on behalf of the masses. When they could not deliver when they held the reins of unbridled power for almost twenty years, they now proclaim as if our people are either totally deficient in memory power or shockingly stupid. There again, the extent to which these politicians have underestimated the intelligence of the average Pathmasiri and Pathiraja by itself is worthy of a separate study on human behavior. Misreading the mind of the voter is the most irredeemable blunder a politician could commit. The closeness of the results in the 2015 Presidential Elections, they might argue, speaks of an electorate whose separation is remarkably thin. But in the absence of any maneuverings of a coup de grâce either in parliament or at a higher level of power, one cannot see a game-changing political intrigue in near future. For all obvious reasons, the Rajapaksas’ sole purpose seems to be an aversion of terribly embarrassing allegations of corruption and crimes of both white and black shades.
