Friday 27th December, 2024

A cascade of tectonic shifts triggered by the 2022 uprising or Aragalaya during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government has reshaped Sri Lanka’s politics in such a way that more than 6,000 politicians have so far gone out of circulation, according to an election monitoring outfit. Executive Director of PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) Rohana Hettiarachchi has reportedly said those politicians were left with no alternative but to call it quits because they knew that they had absolutely no chance of re-election.

Among them are some prominent figures including political party leaders. This is not something the public bargained for. Those politicians were expected to remain active in politics until they went the way of all flesh. The news of their mass exit from politics must have gladdened many a heart, but the problem is that in this country the political flotsam and jetsam swept away by occasional giant waves like the one we witnessed last month are washed back ashore after drifting for years. There is also no guarantee that the newcomers to politics will be any better.

We have seen mountains in labour groan but deliver mice on several occasions during the past several decades. The current dispensation, which promised a revolutionary change in every sphere, has chosen to maintain the status quo; what we see on the economic front is a continuation of the policies and programmes of the previous regime to all intents and purposes. The JVP-led NPP made a solemn pledge to solve the problem of rice market manipulations, with a single stroke of the presidential pen.

But a cartel of millers continues to exploit farmers and consumers alike, and the government has opted for a shameful capitulation; it has restored to rice imports, which it vehemently condemned previous administrations for. The President’s pen has apparently run out of ink! There is hardly any difference between the new government’s foreign policy and that of the previous administration.

The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government was in the grip of a coterie of self-styled intellectuals, who banded together to form ‘Viyathmaga’, and grabbed key positions in the state sector following the SLPP’s electoral victories. They ruined that regime. The current administration is also swayed by a me-too version of ‘Viyathmaga’, and some of its members have been exposed for flaunting fake doctorates! Above all, it’s all hat and no cattle where the NPP’s promise ‘to catch thieves’ is concerned.

What has unfolded so far under the current administration is like a replay of the early stages of the Yahapalana and SLPP governments. It is hoped that the new leaders will care to bring about the revolutionary change they promised before the presidential and parliamentary polls so that their rule will not end up being something like a remake of an old movie or stage play with a new cast.

“Pity the land that needs a hero”, Brecht has famously said. Since Independence, Sri Lanka has been looking for heroes, fallen for the wiles of numerous bogus messiahs and seen many false dawns. Even a shaman succeeded in making a killing by selling an untested herby syrup, called Dhammika peniya, which was touted as a cure for Covid-19; he even duped some political leaders into swallowing it.

The news about the riddance of 6,000 politicians reminds us of an Aesopian fable, where a fox has one of its legs stuck in a rock crevice in a shallow stream. Having struggled to free itself but in vain, the poor creature is lying exhausted and covered with ticks when a small animal which happens to pass by offers to remove the ticks as it is not strong enough to do anything else.

The fox says the parasites had better be left untouched because they are already bloated and therefore cannot suck anymore blood, and if they are removed another colony of ticks will descend on it and bleed it dry.

Sri Lanka has been in the same predicament as the aforesaid fox all these years; successive governments have drained its Treasury dry with reckless spending and corruption. One can only hope that the new dispensation will be different. Hope is said to spring eternal.

Thursday 26th December, 2024

Power not only corrupts but also makes the wielders thereof cherish the delusion that popular mandates are cartes blanches for them to do as they please and be above the law. This fact has been borne out by the despicable manner in which the President’s Fund has been misused, if not abused, under successive governments.

Thankfully, the President’s Fund is now under the microscope, and numerous questionable fund allocations have already come to light. It has been revealed that the Executive Presidents during previous dispensations arbitrarily allocated money from the President’s Fund to their kith and kin at the expense of the needy on the waiting list.

The JVP-led NPP government has released a list of politicians who have obtained money from the President’s Fund over the years in violation of the terms and conditions governing the provision of relief therefrom. All of them have obtained huge sums of money by leveraging their political connections, and those shameless characters include a tainted politician who fell off an upper-floor balcony of a hotel down under, over a decade ago, while trying to enter an adjoining room a la Spider-Man; he eventually got entangled in a web of lies of his own making.

Embroiled in an academic credentials scandal and unable to make good on its election promises and solve burning issues such as the shortages of rice and coconut and the soaring prices of essentials, the NPP government is all out to divert attention from its failure by carrying out propaganda attacks on the Opposition, which is on the offensive. However, the release of the Swindlers List, as it were, and the police probe into the misuse of the President Fund are most welcome. This has been an unintended benefit of the ongoing propaganda battle between the government and the Opposition.

As for financial assistance from the President’s Fund for patients, one of the conditions stipulated by law is that the family of the patient seeking relief is without adequate financial resources to meet the cost of surgery/treatment. It has also been specified that the monthly income of the family including the patient, spouse and unmarried children should not exceed Rs. 200,000, and a Divisional Secretary should recommend that the person concerned is eligible for financial assistance.

The President’s Fund relief scheme for patients was launched to provide financial assistance to low-income individuals who lack the means to bear the costs of medical treatment or surgery. It is therefore wrong for the President and/or the governing board of the Presidential Fund to grant funds to those who have the wherewithal to afford treatment or surgery either in this country or overseas.

Obviously, politicians who spend colossal amounts of money on their election campaigns and live the high life, residing in palatial houses, moving about in super-luxury vehicles, and travelling the world, are not eligible for financial assistance from the President’s Fund.

The CID is reported to have been called in to investigate the misuse/abuse of the President’s Fund. One cannot but agree with the incumbent government on this score although it is driven by an ulterior motive. One can only hope that the ongoing investigation will reach a successful conclusion, and legal action will be instituted against all those who are responsible for the misappropriation of state funds.

The Swindlers List submitted by the NPP government to Parliament is incomplete; it contains only the names of Opposition politicians. The public has a right to know how all Presidents have misused/abused the President’s Fund since 1978. Are there any individuals connected to the JVP or the NPP among those who have received financial assistance from the President Fund fraudulently, as claimed by Opposition MP Dayasiri Jayasekera, one of those exposed by the government?

Let Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa be urged to make public a complete list of beneficiaries of assistance from the President’s Fund instead of releasing names selectively to settle political scores. The NPP government, which is full of self-righteous members, should be able to do so if it has nothing to hide. It is hoped that the Opposition MPs who have not abused their political connections to obtain assistance from the President’s Fund will crank up pressure on the government to do so.

Wednesday 25th December, 2024

The CID has once again proved its selective efficiency and adeptness at doing political work. No sooner had it received a complaint from Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara that someone had sought to discredit him by having the title, ‘Dr’, placed before his name on the parliamentary website than it launched an investigation, interrogated the parliament staff and recorded statements, but its probe has apparently come up against a brick wall.

Parliament workers have reportedly informed the CID that the titles given to the NPP MPs on the House website are based on information contained in a letter sent by the office of the Leader of the House, Bimal Ratnayake. What is described as an image of the letter in question is doing the rounds in the digital realm. The government has chosen to remain silent on the letter and the progress in the CID probe, which is bound to open a can of worms for it.

What will the CID do now? Will it grill the staff of the Leader of the House as well? It will be interesting to see what the government’s reaction is. Will the Justice Minister, who thinks there has been a sinister campaign against him, urge the CID to go the whole hog and get to the bottom of it?

Strangely, an official of the Parliament Communication Department apologised to Minister Nanayakkara for what he called an inadvertent data entry error which had led to the placement of ‘Dr’ before Nanayakkara’s name. He issued a statement to that effect when the Opposition raised questions about the academic credentials of the NPP MPs. He owes an explanation to the public.

Minister Nanayakkara, after lodging his complaint with the CID, told the media that he suspected that there was a conspiracy to tarnish his image. Implying the involvement of his political opponents in ‘the conspiracy’, he went on to claim that ‘the dog’ (read the previous dispensation) had been got rid of but there were some ‘fleas’ left, and they too would be dealt with appropriately. He also expressed concern about what he called a counterrevolution.

The Justice Minister has caused a great injustice to man’s best friend. The NPP won elections by condemning the members of the previous government as a bunch of crooks who deserved to be behind bars for their many crimes; they included a politician who lined his pockets at the expense of cancer patients. Now, the Justice Minister likens those characters to canines!

The mention of ‘counterrevolution’ must have sent a chill down the spines of those who are au fait with world history, especially the brutal manner in which some self-proclaimed socialist regimes dealt with ‘counterrevolutionaries’; they resorted to witch-hunts and kangaroo trials which led to the elimination of dissenters. This country is no stranger to savage political violence.

Going by the aforesaid leaked letter, a wag asks whether the office of the Leader of the House has become the cradle of the ‘counterrevolution’ and home to the ‘fleas’ that have left the ‘dog’ in flight.

It defies comprehension why Minister Nanayakkara made a beeline for the CID over the doctorate issue. He should have taken it up with the Speaker and the Secretary General of Parliament and asked for remedial action. That is the proper procedure. Unfortunately, aspersions are now being cast on certain parliament officials.

The NPP parliamentary group has some members who served in previous parliaments and therefore are familiar with parliamentary affairs, and it is incumbent upon them to guide their junior colleagues.