Lajja!

Tuesday 6th October, 2020

It is not only adversity that makes strange bedfellows; political expediency also does. What is happening on the political front is a case in point. Whoever would have thought that the SLPP leaders and Rishad Bathiudeen would kiss and make up; the latter declared, before the last presidential election, that he would go all out to keep the Rajapaksas out of power at least for the next 10 years? He also caused the collapse of the 52-day government, in 2018, by refusing to throw a lifeline to the Rajapaksas struggling to muster a simple majority in Parliament. The SLPP leaders levelled various allegations against Bathiudeen.

When Bathiudeen’s brother was arrested in April for his alleged links to the Easter Sunday bombers, government supporters danced in the streets, claiming that justice would be served expeditiously. They have been left red-faced. The police have suddenly found that there is no evidence to press charges against Bathiudeen’s sibling, and Bathiudeen has promised to support the 20th Amendment (20A) to the Constitution!

Quite a few rogues of the Rajapaksa administration (2005-2015) got away with their crimes by joining the yahapalana government in January 2015 and/or backing the 19th Amendment (19A) to the Constitution. Now, the racketeers of the yahapalana government responsible for destroying forests, grabbing state land, supporting terrorism and amassing ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the public have got an opportunity to go scot-free; all they have to do is to join the SLPP government and/or back 20A.

The government is engaged in political kerb-crawling, as it were, and some Opposition MPs of easy virtue have spruced themselves up and are waiting to be picked up. If the government succeeds in steamrollering 20A through Parliament and expanding the Cabinet, the Opposition MPs in the political flesh trade will be rewarded.

The SLPP grandees have said Bathiudeen will not be accommodated in the government. They may not do so, but they know more than one way to shoe a horse. Bathiudeen will vote with the government in Parliament, and the SLPP will ensure that his interests are taken care of. This kind of arrangement, the government seems to think, will help it advance its agenda without striking a formal deal, which will alienate its supporters. But it is mistaken. Such cohabitation will have on its support base the same adverse impact as a political marriage with Bathiudeen.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said, in a Facebook post, that there will be no deal with Bathiudeen. But one of the SLPP MPs is now the Speaker, and the government needs Bathiudeen’s support in Parliament to rest assured that it has 150 MPs on its side unless help comes from an unexpected quarter. The SLPP has chosen to perform a high-wire act and cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Instead of tweaking 19A with the help of the Opposition to enable the President to hold the defence portfolio and attend to urgent matters which are legion, the SLPP, in its wisdom, opted for a show of strength and bit off more than it could chew.

Immediately after the arrest of Bathiudeen’s brother, Police Spokesman SP Jaliya Senaratne, on 15 April 2020, held a media briefing, where he declared that the suspect had had direct links to one of the Easter Sunday bombers and held talks with the terrorist in a hotel. Justifying the arrest, he said the suspect had also held positions in some associations where some National Thowheed Jamaath terrorists had been office-bearers. Lo and behold, on 02 October he made a very dramatic volte-face; he told the media that there was no evidence to press charges against Bathiudeen’s brother! He sounded just like a ventriloquist’s dummy, and his nose grew. He cut a very pathetic figure, trying hard as he did to defend the indefensible.

The police spokesman’s U-turn almost coincided with Bathiudeen’s pledge to support 20A, preceded by his brother’s release. When the government says it has struck no deal with Bathiudeen it seems to think that the masses are asses. Perhaps, it is justified in having such a low opinion of the gullible public who fell for its election pledges and voted for it overwhelmingly with a view to having the confederates of the Easter Sunday terrorists brought to justice and the destruction of the Wilpattu forest stopped.