{"id":132312,"date":"2014-10-31T12:09:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T06:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=132312"},"modified":"2014-11-07T18:36:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T13:06:06","slug":"the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phenomenon That Is Mahinda"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

It is four years since the 18<\/span><\/a><\/span>th<\/sup><\/span><\/a> Amendment<\/span><\/a> to the Constitution came into effect.\u00a0 It was dismissed at the time and occasionally since then as a subversion of the democratic spirit and further entrenchment of dictatorial provisions in the J R Jayewardene<\/span><\/a> Constitution of 1978.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, four years later, the 18th<\/sup> Amendment is in the news ago. There\u2019s little or no talk of democracy or dictatorship. The focus is one individual, Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>. The question that is being addressed is whether or not he can run for a third term.<\/p>\n

What is strange is that all the self-proclaimed constitutional pundits appear to have been in deep slumber for 4 years.\u00a0 That, or else, they were waiting for the right moment to spring this \u2018objection\u2019, aiming clearly to catch the President and his backers off guard.<\/p>\n

\"Mahinda<\/a>It was the former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva<\/span><\/a> who raised the issue first.\u00a0 Sections of the Opposition as well as prominent NGOs with dubious track records such as the Centre for Policy Alternatives (recently accused of widespread fraud<\/span><\/a>) have got on the bandwagon.\u00a0 It smacks of regime-hatred more than democracy-love.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s objection and objection to objection. Silva\u2019s argument, notwithstanding the problematic nature of his position given his role in current political processes, has excited the Opposition to the point of distraction. The focus is not on promoting a candidate capable of winning it all (the Opposition seems hard pressed to find such a candidate, in fact), but on stopping the president from contesting.\u00a0 Silva\u2019s argument however is just one interpretation and an interpretation that has too many holes as has been pointed out by commentators who are not exactly regime-lovers.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if Silva\u2019s objection will be upheld by the relevant authorities. Right now it seems that when the Opposition says \u2018Mahinda Cannot\u2019 it is really saying \u2018Mahinda cannot be defeated\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sophomoric way of conceding that the President is too strong a candidate to contend with.\u00a0\u00a0 In other words, the Opposition (either in parts of together) cannot come up with a candidate that can go head-to-head with the President on charisma, accomplishment and the promise of all-important political stability, even if such a candidate could come up with a plus in a compare-contrast of respective negatives (of Rajapaksa and the Government on one side and on the other the candidate and his\/her backers).\u00a0\u00a0 The best bet, then, is to get the man off the ballot!<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this lack of human resources is not the preserve of the Opposition. Even the UPFA cannot come up with a name that has the kind of overall appeal the President enjoys. If he were to back down, for example, the Opposition might think, \u2018we have an outside chance against an alternative candidate,\u2019 while the ruling coalition would be less cock-sure than it is now.<\/p>\n

It would be simplistic to attribute this state of affairs to the fact of incumbency. Incumbency helps no doubt, given constitutional provisions and a scandalous culture of abuse by whoever is in power. An alternative candidate has less edge than incumbent but edge there will certainly be. In this case, the seeming \u2018invincibility\u2019 derives from multiple factors.\u00a0 These include the defeat of the LTTE, a growing economy, a \u2018doer\u2019 image which is felt in concrete terms, a general deference of the voter to a person of proven strength and a general perception among a significant section of the population that whatever the faults (his and his government) Mahinda is \u2018one of us\u2019.<\/p>\n

The voter might not like the Government, might be appalled by the strong arm tactics of ministers, MPs and members in other elected bodies, disgusted by the flaunting of wealth by the president\u2019s \u2018near and dear\u2019 and yet might find no one half as suitable to lead the country.\u00a0 Not in the ranks of the government and not among the Opposition.\u00a0 This is why, perhaps, that the Opposition is clinging to the Sarath N Silva \u2018point\u2019 while those in the ruling party are so keen to dismiss the same.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mahinda\u2019, then, is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon, whether anyone likes it or not and whether it is good or bad for democracy.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cGovernment by Mahinda, with Mahinda and for Mahinda and his \u2018near and dear\u2019 over and above the rest of the people never mind budgetary tidbits tossed with election in mind\u201d is, in a democratic sense, clearly second best to \u201cGovernment by the people, with the people and for the people\u201d.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Phenomenon That Is Mahinda - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Phenomenon That Is Mahinda - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-31T06:39:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-07T13:06:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-phenomenon-that-is-mahinda\/\",\"name\":\"The Phenomenon That Is Mahinda - 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