{"id":134199,"date":"2014-12-03T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T18:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=134199"},"modified":"2014-12-07T00:02:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T18:32:05","slug":"mou-the-biggest-hoax-in-electoral-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mou-the-biggest-hoax-in-electoral-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"MOU: The Biggest Hoax In Electoral Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"H.<\/a>

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/p><\/div>\n

In the history of coalitions formed in the post-independent era the latest one signed at Vihara Maha Devi Park<\/span><\/a> yesterday is unique not for any distinguishing characteristics that give promise\u00a0 of better things to come but for the heap of bland platitudes that have been recycled time and time again at all previous elections without delivering the\u00a0 promises. As for\u00a0 the launch, the whole scene lacked the\u00a0 aura that was supposed to radiate from a reformist\u00a0 movement that was going to be beacon to the nation.<\/p>\n

Besides, the generalities promised in the MOU may sound glorious in the ears of those who have come\u00a0 together to grab power. But how relevant are they to the 11 million voters who have seen the same old tired faces repeating\u00a0 their same old promises which they can\u2019t deliver with the best will in the world.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, promise\u00a0 No. 4: \u201cThe oppressive burden of the cost of living of the people will be reduced\u2026..\u201d Which politician\u00a0 has not promised this when he\/she was in the opposition and\u00a0 which politician has fulfilled it when he\/she moved over to the\u00a0 government\u00a0 benches? The cost of living is like the poor. Neither of them will ever go away. So if Sirisena-CBK-Wickremesinghe trio can bring down the cost of living it would be possible to treat them with some respect, discarding\u00a0 their current image as incurable con artists.<\/p>\n

\"Ranil<\/a>That apart, the lackluster launch of the MOU, which every \u201cleader\u201d \u2013 so many! — hailed as a \u201chistoric\u00a0 event\u201d, was a damp squib. It\u00a0 failed\u00a0 to take\u00a0 off to make any sort of lasting impression. Everyone was trying to\u00a0 show\u00a0 off that he\/she is the leader who can make\u00a0 and\u00a0 break governments.\u00a0 The gloss that would have been there for a new candidate from the opposition too was erased by the presence of the two ghouls from the graveyards of the past — Ranil Wickremesinghe and Chandrika Bandaranaike \u2013 who flanked Maithripala Siripala on either side. Both positioned themselves next to Sirisena to make it clear to the public that they are the king-pins\u00a0 behind\u00a0 the throne. Sirisena, sitting in the\u00a0 middle, looked more like a prisoner of these manipulators who are fretting impatiently to get\u00a0 their hands on the levers of power.<\/p>\n

At the end\u00a0 of the day it was very clear that they had nothing substantial to offer the\u00a0 people. The whole scene was a pathetic drama enacted by the inmates of Angoda who\u00a0 had come to believe that they are Napoleon Boru-parts plotting\u00a0 to take on the whole world. All in all, the launch lacked the\u00a0 aura that was supposed to radiate from a reformist\u00a0 movement that was going to throw a bright light across the new path to\u00a0 the future.<\/p>\n

The hands\u00a0 of every leader were flailing somewhat like windmills gone\u00a0 haywire, each trying to make an impression on the crowd that\u00a0 he\/she is more important than the other. From time to time Wickremesinghe and CBK , from either side, were trying\u00a0 to grab the attention of Sirisena. Both looked like two \u201cdwarfs whispering obscenities in the emperor\u2019s ears\u201d (Churchill).<\/p>\n

Both were vying with each other to be center of attraction. They underplayed their inveterate rivalry which they couldn\u2019t hide fully with their shadow boxing. This foreshadows the shape of things to come. The actors outside the stage \u2013 JHU and JVP \u2013 too were playing their own scheming politics which questions the\u00a0 viability and the stability of the hath hawla.<\/p>\n

For instance, JVP, bent on eliminating CBK from\u00a0 the center stage, has indicated that they have no objections to Wickremesinghe becoming the prime minister as long as he\u00a0 is elected by the popular will of the\u00a0 people. But Sirisena wants to appoint him as prime minister on his arbitrary preference, and not on the popular\u00a0 will\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 people. So how would the public rate the political morality and the judgment of the JVP when Sirisena appoints a prime minister who has lost 29 elections in a row? On what\u00a0 grounds can the JVP endorse a prime minster handpicked by Sirisena and not by the popular will of the people?<\/p>\n

In the un\/written codes of parliamentary democracy, it is the people who elect a prime minister by voting for the\u00a0 largest number of candidates who will invariably form the government. Parliamentary precedents and traditions endorse the leader who commands a majority in parliament\u00a0 as\u00a0 the prime minister. The head\u00a0 of state merely endorses the\u00a0 will of\u00a0 the people and the parliamentarians. Contrary to established tradition,\u00a0 Sirisena has decided to\u00a0 appoint Wickremesinghe who has yet to win a majority in parliament. Sirisena will then have to face a parliament that may not back Wickremesinghe as the\u00a0 prime minister.<\/p>\n

Unless there is a\u00a0 mass exodus from the SLFP after January 8, 2015 Wickremesinghe may not have a majority to get his appointment confirmed by parliament in the proposed interim parliament of 100 days. What is more, there is no\u00a0 guarantee that he can\u00a0 win a majority\u00a0 even in the proposed next general election. Like most other promises in the MOU the possibility of Wickremesinghe becoming a prime minister could be another pipe dream.<\/p>\n

The list of promises\u00a0 in the MOU was no better. It\u00a0 did not come anywhere near the expectations\/aspirations of the people. What\u00a0 the signatories to the MOU failed\u00a0 to understand\u00a0 was that their political agenda to grab power is not the priority of the voters. To them changing regimes is\u00a0 like changing pillows for a headache. They have lived through so many false promises that only the na\u00efve greenhorns would\u00a0 believe that yesterday\u2019s MOU has\u00a0 the capacity to deliver their promises. In fact, in all probability the proposed \u201cMy-three-pala-naya\u201d of CBK, Ranil and Sirisena, can come apart sooner or later \u2013 perhaps\u00a0 more sooner than later —\u00a0 and\u00a0 pave the\u00a0 way for chaos and instability. Neither Sirisena as President nor Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister will be able\u00a0 to hold together incompatible partners\u00a0 like the JHU, on one hand, and the TNA on the other.<\/p>\n

Before dealing with some\u00a0 of\u00a0 the other issues\u00a0 it is\u00a0 necessary to focus on the\u00a0 central theme that\u00a0 has\u00a0 brought the\u00a0 cows, the goats, the\u00a0 sheep and the pigs together in the latest Orwellian\u00a0 Animal Farm. All the rhetoric and\u00a0 the promises of the joint opposition boils down to a single theme : change the presidential system\u00a0 into the parliamentary system and hand over \u201cexecutive power\u201d of the president to Ranil Wickremesinghe, handpicked by the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena, then all the problems of the nation \u2013 Hey presto! Abracadabra! –will be solved within 100 days.<\/p>\n

First, this is a slick formula easily said than done. Whoever dreamed up this formula must get\u00a0 his\/her head examined. Only a military coup backed by the Security Forces can ram this insane formula down the throats of the people within 100 days. It is fraught with such complex legal, political and administrative snags that it might, in the end, prove to be unworkable, leaving the status quo untouched. The unpredictable consequences that will ensue in trying to rush an unprecedented\u00a0 constitutional change within 100 can\u00a0 only result\u00a0 in unmanageable chaos, particularly in an environment where political passions would be at intense and dangerous levels. It will be worse than the promises that\u00a0 preceded the \u201cArab Spring\u201d : seemed rosy and promising at the beginning but unravelled in unforeseen brutality and unmanageable political consequences.<\/p>\n

Right now Chandrika Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena (in that order of importance) are acting in an indecent hurry to get their hands on the levers of power, claiming that power in their hands will be better than power in the hands of the Rajapakses. But what is the known record of achievement when they had power?<\/p>\n

Before we consider the records of CBK and Wickremesinghe \u2013 the anti-national\u00a0 twins\u00a0 who sold the nation to Prabhakaran \u2013 let\u2019s consider the achievements of Sirisena who is marketing himself as an \u201cal-lay (channel), wel-lay (paddy field), pal-lay (hut)\u201d man of the soil. The story told by his brother his brother, Dudley, to the media\u00a0 is different. Dudley is on record saying that he has accumulated a fortune\u00a0 of three billion rupees mainly by selling, as\u00a0 the middle man, the paddy grown and harvested by the Polonnaruwa farmers. Sirisena in his\u00a0 media interview was shedding tears for the poor workers and farmers. That sounds good for marketing his image as a poor man\u2019s poor man. But what\u00a0 is the quantum of benefits that the poor\u00a0 farmers had derived\u00a0 from the billions amassed by Sirisena\u2019s brother? Shouldn\u2019t charity begin at Sirisena\u2019s home?<\/p>\n

Particularly as a man who had studied\u00a0 his Marxism in the Peking-wing Sirisena should know that his brother could accumulate multi-billions only by exploiting the poor farmers. Sirisena, if he has read his Marx correctly, would know that all excessive property is\u00a0 legalized robbery. Especially, if it\u00a0 adds up to billions. And according to Proudhon and Marx his brother, Dudley, could amass billions only by \u201cstealing\u201d from the poor farmers\u00a0 of Polonnaruwa. So how\u00a0 can he\u00a0 condone\/explain his brother Dudley sitting on a Himalayan pile of\u00a0 billions while the poor peasants of Polonnaruwa are still scraping\u00a0 the dry earth to collect a grain a rice for a one-meal-a-day existence?<\/p>\n

Besides, Sirisena, like the JVP, has carved out a\u00a0 career by blaming the iniquities in the capitalist system. He has blamed the capitalist policies\u00a0 of the UNP throughout his political career (37 years) until he went on the UNP platform the other day. JVP too has come out with half-in-half-out politics of\u00a0 giving tacit approval to capitalist Wickremesinghe as prime minister. Does\u00a0 this mean that Comrade Dissanayake has postponed his social revolution for another day when Wickremesinghe limps home for good from Siri Kotha? His half-in-half-out politics, which gives him space to have it both ways, obviously make him comfortable about the JVP going to bed with billionaires while excoriating the social injustices of evil capitalism.\u00a0 How can he ensure social justice for the\u00a0 poor farmers when he\u00a0 is happy to give a nudge-and-a-wink for Sirisena to carry on with capitalist UNPers and SLFP billionaires? Is this the\u00a0 kind\u00a0 of\u00a0 social revolution that the JVP plans to promote for\u00a0 the welfare of the farmers?<\/p>\n

How does Comrade Dissanayake propose to bring equity to the\u00a0 poor farmers when he turns a blind eye to their exploiters? Will he raise his\u00a0 voice in the name of social justice, or continue to spin yarns about his never-never land\u00a0 of creating a just society where some, with billions in their bank accounts, are more equal than the others? Sharing the same TV panel with Sirisena the JVP guru, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, waxed eloquent about\u00a0 the social changes and economic reforms that he would introduce to lift the\u00a0 people into JVP\u2019s paradise. But he did not mention one word about how he would reform the system which, according to his guru Marx, elevates \u201crobber barons\u201d into billionaires, exploiting the poor farmers of Polonnaruwa.<\/p>\n

Also if with the assistance of JVP,\u00a0 Sirisena\u2019s brother accumulates some\u00a0 more billions whom\u00a0 will the JVP blame for the suffering of the farmers and workers? Will he continue to blame the Rajapakses or will he go along with Sirisena shedding crocodile tears for\u00a0 the\u00a0 poor farmers? With his tongue-twisting verbal gymnastics Comrade\u00a0 Dissanayake has convinced himself to believe in\u00a0 his own propaganda of creating a society with distributive justice where everyone will live happily ever afterwards. He has yet to learn that his utopian fantasies collapsed many decades ago with the Berlin Wall. So reluctantly, slyly, without facing\u00a0 the socio-political realities, he settles down to accept CBK-Ranil-Sirisena combination where\u00a0 billionaires thrive with the blessings of Marxists like him.<\/p>\n

One TV interviewer told him quite bluntly that\u00a0 the coalitions that the JVP signed in the past had not\u00a0 brought the promised social changes nor served the interests of the poor as promised by the JVP. Dissanayake was asked how he would make their support to Sirisena work for the poor. There was no reply. May be it is because the anchorman took the discussion in another direction just at\u00a0 that time.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0 should also be noted, since it comes from the admission of Sirisena, that he had benefited from the deals he put through \u2013 part of which would have been for\u00a0 his\u00a0 billionaire brother Dudley — with\u00a0 the\u00a0 backing\u00a0 of Gamini Dissanayake and also through Gamini Atukorale. So the image\u00a0 he tries to\u00a0 portray of being a poor humble man who\u00a0 came through \u201cal-lay, pal-lay and well-lay\u201d established by D. S. Senanayake does not sit well with billions stacked up in his brother\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n

The main silver lining seen so far in his political career of 37 years is his discovery of the greatness of pioneers like D. S. Senanayake who opened up paths for the rise of billionaires like his brother, Dudley. For all practical purposes Sirisena has finally ended up in the bosom of the right-wing UNP. He\u00a0 has followed\u00a0 in the\u00a0 footsteps of the founding\u00a0 fathers of\u00a0 Marxism \u2013 from Phillip Gunawardena to Dr. Tissa Vitarana \u2013 and gone home\u00a0 to spend their last days either\u00a0 in the bosom of capitalists in the UNP or the billionaires in the SLFP, which Dr. Colvin R. de Silva once categorized as \u201cthe last remnants of feudalism\u201d. Sirisens, however, has placed himself now in\u00a0 the comfortable zone of industrial and city-bred capitalists and farming multi-billionaires.<\/p>\n

So when Sirisena moves\u00a0 upwards\u00a0 from\u00a0 \u201cal-lay, wel-lay and\u00a0 pal-lay\u201d into the affluent zones\u00a0 of billionaires in his own backyard should we be surprised that he has followed his natural\u00a0 acquisitive instincts and moved incrementally from (1)\u00a0 Shanmugathasan\u2019s Peking-wing to (2) SLFP and (3) finally to\u00a0 the UNP? After all, Sirisena seems to have discovered his natural habitat.\u00a0 Sirisena has at last found his final resting place. No wonder Wickremesinghe leaps from his seat, each time Sirisena appears\u00a0 on the stage.<\/p>\n

The way both acted on the Vihara Maha Devi stage it was quite apparent\u00a0 that the jadiya has, at last, found\u00a0 its moodiya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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