By
C.A.Chandraprema
Immediately after the New Year holidays, events are once again moving faster than they can be written about. The Avurudu festivities would have shown the entire country which way the cookie is crumbling. The only public appearance that President Maithripala Sirisena made during the festivities was at the oil anointing ceremony. He was accompanied on that occasion by ministers, Rajitha Senaratne, Duminda Dissanayake and M.K.D.S.Gunawardene.
In contrast to this, 58 MPs and an unspecified number of provincial councilors and local government representatives had gone to greet former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The message would not have failed to register in the minds of the public. This may be interpreted as President Sirisena being somewhat isolated. Even the five individuals he had elevated to the SLFP central committee just days ago were not to be seen at the only public appearance he made during the New Year festivities.
The reason why Sirisena finds himself in this predicament is because he turned his back on those who elected him into power. Virtually all the Sinhala votes that Sirisena got were UNP, and of the overwhelming minority vote that he got a significant part belonged to outfits like the CWC, SLMC, Mano Ganesan’s Group, and P.Digambaram’s group which traditionally prefer to align themselves with the UNP.
If one calculates on that basis, 90% of the votes that Sirisena got were from the UNP and its traditional allies. Once elected on this largely UNP vote if he had acted like a UNP president, he would not be so isolated today. He would have had the backing of four million voters and his Avurudu appearance would have been graced by many ministers of the government.
By using the UNP as a stepping stone to take over the SLFP, Sirisena has now ended up with neither. On April 10, just as the country began to wind down for the holidays, the pro-UNP website lankaenews had a lead story screaming “Rise up all ye who voted for the Swan: Sirisena is trying to double cross us!” The article went on to say that it is Sirisena himself and no one else who is trying to prevent the abolition of the executive presidency and to retain all power in his hands while allowing only the reforms of the 17th Amendment to be passed through the 19th Amendment. Lankaenews drew reference to the decision that the SLFP had arrived at to not vote for the 19th Amendment unless it was accompanied by the electoral reforms and averred that this was Sirisena’s way of sabotaging the transfer of power from the president to the PM. Lankaenews had stated categorically that anybody who thinks that Sirisena was not behind these attempts to sabotage the transfer of power is a political moron.
Lankaenews is read by UNP voters and when this website says something like that, it sends alarm bells ringing throughout the party. Little wonder that not a single UNP minister or parliamentarian was present at Maithripala’s oil anointing ceremony. The UNP is now in the same position with Maithripala Sirisena as they were with the trishaw driver who became mayor of Colombo with the help of the UNP after the latter’s nomination list was rejected at the local government election held about a decade ago. The trishaw driver was made Mayor on the promise that once elected his entire list would resign from their posts and allow UNP members to take their place. But after getting elected, he refused to resign and took up residence at the Mayor’s residence and began enjoying the unexpected bonanza that had fallen onto his lap. The newspapers reported the trishaw driver’s mother as having said that his horoscope indicated that he would one day rise to great heights.
After a couple of years in office, the Western Provincial Council had to dissolve the CMC and place it under a competent authority due to the complete breakdown of the administration and charges of corruption. It looks to all the world as if the present regime too is heading in the same direction except that there is no power that can place Sri Lanka under a competent authority to extricate us from this mess. The 19th Amendment to the constitution to reduce the powers of the executive presidency was to be taken up for debate tomorrow but it appears that even that is in doubt now. Even if it is taken up for debate, the chances of it being passed are virtually non-existent. The pledge at the presidential election was the abolition of the executive presidency and the reversion to a prime ministerial form of government. The 19th Amendment as its stands tabled before parliament bears mute witness to the fact that Sirisena has done a trishaw-driver to the UNP.
Instead of being a clean reversion to a prime ministerial form of government, the 19th Amendment is a laboured piece of legislation which leaves the executive presidency virtually intact with just a restoration of the independent commissions that functioned under the 17th amendment. Now the fact that even that limited reduction of powers of the executive presidency is hanging in the balance means that we are about to witness the mother of all political betrayals in this country after independence. Tying the reduction in the powers of the executive presidency to electoral reform is the surest way to sidestep the main pledge given at the presidential election because there is no agreement among political parties about the reforms to the electoral system. If the 19th Amendment is not passed, Sirisena retains full executive powers for the rest of his term in office.
SLFP in revolt
The most immediate item on Sirisena’s agenda is to prevent the reduction in presidential powers at all costs. The next is to bring the SLFP to heel. Achieving both these targets is necessary for Sirisena to run the country as its executive president for the next six years as he seems intent on doing. He has virtually succeeded in the first, but failed in the second. Sirisena has tried every trick in the book. He first bribed the former SLFP ministers by giving them two vehicles each from the ministries they held earlier. Then he appointed a few of his favourites as ministers in the government. When that too failed to quell the rebellion against him, he wielded the big stick by sacking five senior members of the central committee and appointing five of his favourites to replace them. But the turnout at Carlton House in Tangalle clearly showed that even this strategy had failed. Even after the sacking of the CC members, there were 58 to 62 members of parliament to see the former president. One SLFP cabinet minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene was also present showing how utterly Sirisena’s plans in regard to the SLFP have failed.
There is a mismatch between President Sirisena’s perception of himself and the perception that ordinary SLFPers have of him. Sirisena obviously thinks that he can lead the SLFP to victory against the UNP on his own. But the average SLFP member is simply unable to get his mind around to accepting Sirisena as a party leader. Quite apart from the question whether he has any leadership qualities or charisma is the fact that he imposed himself upon the SLFP from outside or SLFP seniors including Mahinda Rajapaksa did it for him without being asked! In fact the Maithripala Sirisena episode is a case study in how not to become the leader of a political party! Sirisena may be sitting in the SLFP chairman’s seat but the ordinary SLFPer does not see him as their leader.
After what happened at the Kurunegala district balamandalaya meeting, it will be interesting to see how the Maithripala faction of the SLFP holds their May Day rally at Hyde Park. As of now all district balamandalaya meetings of the SLFP have been called off due to the fear that Maithripala Sirisena too would be hooted at. In the meantime reports have been published mainly in various websites about President Sirisena being indisposed and in and out of the Army hospital. Nothing has however been reported in the mainline press about the president’s supposed indisposition. The News of Colombo website insists that these reports of MS being indisposed are bogus reports planted by the Sirisena faction of the SLFP to justify skipping the May Day rally where there is a distinct possibility of him being hooted at. Admittedly, these things can be organized and there are those who would be happy to do so. There are also reports that CBK the main victim of the earlier hooting incident was trying to go overseas to avoid a repetition of that at the May Day rally.
As fate would have it, the letter inviting Mahinda for the SLFP’s May Day rally was delivered on the very day of the Kurunegala incident. MR has not yet indicated whether he is going to attend the rally or not. If he does attend, Maithripala Sirisena, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Nimal Siripala Silva, Susil Premajayantha will all have to abandon the stage to Mahinda and disappear. It will be a typical case of the camel and the tent. Perhaps the MS camp can take some solace in the fact that the lankacnews, website has reported that MR may not attend the SLFP May Day rally in protest against the harassment of his supporters. That is probably the best news that Sirisena could have got since the Kurunegala incident.
The suspicion among most SLFPers is that MS is trying to get the SLFP defeated at the next parliamentary election so that the rump that remains could be turned into a tail of the UNP as it is present. As luck would have it, events keep occurring which confirms this view in the minds of angry and suspicious SLFPers. Take for instance the handing over of a no confidence motion against Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake by the UNP opposition leader just after the New Year. The purpose of this is to oust the incumbent chief minister and to replace him with a Maithripala-CBK acolyte. In the present situation, what does it look like when the UNP and MS loyalists join hands to topple an SLFP chief minister? After this Central Province escapade, no one will be able to convince the average SLFPer that Sirisena and CBK are not out to turn the SLFP into a tail of the UNP. Thus Sirisena has ended up antagonizing both the UNP and the SLFP at the same time.
Courtesy:Sunday Island