OPTIMISM was in abundance in Sri Lanka following the surprise results of a presidential election at the beginning of the year. After the long civil war, after a decade of government by the self-aggrandising Rajapaksa family, opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena swept to power at the head of a coalition of Sri Lanka’s two main parties, with promises of freedom and prosperity for all and an end to corruption and nepotism.

It may have been the case that our new broom President had been a Minister under Rajapaksa. It could also have been true that Sirisena was only selected as candidate because veteran opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did not have the stomach for a campaign he knew he would lose, and instead struck a deal, backed by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, for his party’s support in return for the promise of the Premiership. And perhaps there might have been help from abroad to facilitate this curious deal which is worrying for national sovereignty when foreign judges are set to investigate alleged war crimes.

Alas, with promise of change, we have had also to live with certain continuity. What better candidate could there have been for Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom than our new leader’s brother? Sirisena is indeed a strong advocate of family values. His charming daughter has been using public resources for her personal campaigns while Sirisena’s deeply unqualified, loutish son accompanied the President to New York in September and sat in with Daddy on sessions of the UN General Assembly.

This commitment to the sacred bond of the family is shared by many in our new, anti-nepotism administration. When Arjuna Ranatunga, the Honourable Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation, needed a Ports Authority chief, he found he needed to look no further than his own brother. And only opponents of democracy would have wanted to probe a dodgy bond deal promoted by the new Central Bank Governor, from which, quite coincidentally, his son-in-law was able to profit. The UNP has long been known as the Uncle Nephew Party.

That’s why we had to be saved from the findings of a parliamentary committee into the affair, its chairman threatened with prosecution and the press gagged. Indeed, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who helped pick the Central Bank Governor, has a habit of abusing journalists who have the temerity to criticise him, while the President prefers to threaten to sue his critics for defamation.

Sirisena has re-introduced the Press Council, which will allow his appointees to jail journalists and publishers, but has been rather more lax about a campaign pledge to adopt a Right to Information Bill by 20th February. We are still waiting and there are indications that there will be severe limitations on individuals seeking information for the public good.

The Rajapaksa years were notorious for fuelling a self-service gravy train for politicians, many of whom received jobs in an ever expanding cabinet in return for their support for the former President’s penchant for new powers. It seems even in the brave world of our new democracy, a promise to have no more than 25 Ministers was far too difficult to implement: 40 percent of MPs have ministerial positions, while the postal service has been included in the Ministry of Muslim Religious Affairs. And while Sirisena did manage to use his authority as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to prevent some of his party’s crooks from getting back into parliament, at least 30 others, among them murderers and drug barons, did get in. It’s clean government, re-defined.

Everyone knows the real problem we face is the absence of constraints on a far too powerful Executive Presidency. It was another one of Sirisena’s campaign pledges, now also apparently forgotten in the pending file. Even his predecessors knew they at least had to pretend they backed plans for reform. Sirisena always looked like such a nice, humble chap, at least for a politician. But now, in power, it seems his priorities are dealing with his opponents and consolidating his own authority, with all that involves. As we are now beginning to realise, there may be different snouts, but the trough has not changed and even many of the old hogs have returned to ministerial jobs despite being given the heave-ho by the voters.

Courtesy:Private Eye