In Praise Of President Sirisena
By Sarath de Alwis –January 13, 2018
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” ~ George Orwell, 1984
Who made Maithripala Sirisena, President of our republic? Was it Ranil who claims that he made a great sacrifice by deciding not to contest as the UNP’s candidate? Is it the executive committee of the UNP that decided to endorse Maithripala Sirisena as the common candidate that the party should support? Or did the majority of people who voted for the common candidate make him our president?
Let us cut to the chase. Let’s avoid obfuscation. Let’s get to the point. This missive is in praise of Maithripala Sirisena’s handling of the Bond Commission report.
And further, more specifically it is in praise of his unhesitant referral to the Supreme Court for a precise ruling on his current tenure in office.
This writer is relieved to discover the new bold and decisive ‘Sirisena’, who has abandoned his ‘little Bo peep has lost her sheep’ demeanour. One hopes he will gradually shed his ‘Apey Hamuduruwane’-‘ upsaka’ mask and also his ‘Ranaviruwas have done no wrong’ disorder as well, in his remaining years in office.
The immediate purpose of this dispatch is to congratulate him on his discovery of the precise mandate he received on 8thJanuary 2015. The people did not vote for him to replace Mahinda Rajapaksa in office.
He was not elected to implement the agenda of the UNP. He was not tasked to reform the SLFP. He was tasked with halting corruption, punishing past offenders and deterring present offenders.
No one expects him to draft a new constitution all by himself. If he cannot persuade parliament to enact the required legislation, let the people decided the composition of the next parliament. He was not elected to name ‘flyovers’ after Sobitha thero. Had he lived he would today, urge him with all his might to fly away and not even fly over the cuckoo’s nest presided over by Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Those who saw the movie or read the novel by Ken Kesey would know the parallel between the three years of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s premiership and the psychiatric ward described as the Cuckoo’s nest. The story is about a psychiatric facility run by an obstinate matron. The narrator calls it a combine. The kind of combine that today runs our country. Ranil, Malik, Charitha, Pasky etc. The combine adopts a mechanistic attitude towards their charges. They manipulate the process and methods. Their system was to offer rewards to the pliant and shame the resisters. What was horrific about the story is that the victims failed to realise that they were being controlled at all. The novel that satirically mocks the consumer society damns the powers that be for emasculation of the defenceless.
The Bond Commission report should be made available to parliament, people and the Prime minister concurrently.
The manner in which the President has handled the report of the Bond Commission has made politics of our island something far more compelling than politics.
That the issue of the Bond Commission report coincides with the local government elections is not a matter of concern but a propitious eventuality for democratic discernment.
This writer is not surprised by the derisive comments and tasteless fun made of the Presidents referral to the Supreme Court.
Maithripala Sirisena does not belong in the elite crowd. We do not extend to him the kind of deference that Ranil or Mahinda claims as their due in status and power. In both camps – Mahinda’s and Ranil’s he is the outcast. How dare he consult the Supreme Court was an elite reaction. It was not a popular discussion and created no mass embroilment.
Maithripala Sirisena has finally decided to do what he was elected to be President of the Republic. Not a lame duck head of state bound by the advice of the Prime minster whose personal bonds of friendships are now subject to a public probe and for the curious – an exciting look see!
