{"id":147633,"date":"2015-07-19T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T18:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=147633"},"modified":"2015-07-26T02:01:44","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T20:31:44","slug":"maithripalas-true-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/maithripalas-true-colors\/","title":{"rendered":"Maithripala\u2019s True Colors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

So finally the President has spoken<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s good. He was correct when he said that he had been vilified no end during the past few weeks. He added for good measure \u2018as no other president before me had been vilified\u2019. That of course is not true. What\u2019s true is that he was vilified. He has no one to blame but himself though. He was silent. He was wishy-washy. He kept people guessing and on their toes. He may have done this deliberately, we don\u2019t know. But that\u2019s not important. He brought it all on himself.<\/p>\n

Last week the \u2018Ravaya<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u2019 claimed in its lead that \u2018Maithripala had betrayed his mandate\u2019. That\u2019s because it was reported that President Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a> had given the green light for his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa to contest on the United People\u2019s Freedom Party (UPFA) ticket. Well, now Sirisena claims that he had nothing to do with it. Indeed, he had opposed this, he claimed. The \u2018Ravaya\u2019 for its part has been silent on other mandate-betrayals such as the scuttling of the 20th Amendment, the effective nullification of the COPE report on the Central Bank Bond Scam<\/span><\/a> courtesy dissolution, the non-mention of the Right to Information Act. The \u2018Ravaya\u2019 didn\u2019t blame the President and uttered not a word against the UNP. By these acts of commission and omission, the \u2018Ravaya\u2019 showed its hand. It\u2019s Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a>\u2019s hand, so to speak.<\/p>\n

One wonders what the \u2018Ravaya\u2019 would have to say now, after the President\u2019s \u2018statement of purpose\u2019 on Tuesday. \u2018Maithripala had us fooled!\u2019 would be a nice headline, under the circumstances, but it would take some humility and courage to come up with something like that.<\/p>\n

\"Maithripala\"<\/a>So what did Sirisena say? He said a lot of things. He said that he is not concerned about who wins as long as those who subscribed to his yahapaalana plan came out on top never mind the fact that there was little or no \u2018yaha\u2019 (good) in the paalanaya (governance) of the last six months. He said that there\u2019s no love lost between himself and his predecessor. No surprises there.<\/p>\n

He said that even if Rajapaksa won, he won\u2019t appoint him as Prime Minister. That\u2019s interesting. He was essentially conferring by default (by abdication and by naming Rajapaksa) the leadership of the UPFA to the former president. There\u2019s more on this, but we\u2019ll come to it later.<\/p>\n

There are things he did not say. He didn\u2019t say \u2018I want the UNP to win\u2019. He did say it, but not in so many words. He vilified all those who are now against his friends. So everyone in the UPFA without exception are \u2018bad\u2019 in Sirisena\u2019s book. He didn\u2019t say \u2018I will do the honorable thing and resign as leader of the SLFP\u2019. He kept the leadership, vowed not to lead and salaamed the (by now tired and hollow) rhetoric of the \u2018other party\u2019, yes, the UNP.<\/p>\n

So when someone salutes him on Facebook it\u2019s not about championing good governance but seeing benefit for the party of choice. Consider the following post, for example, \u2018President Sirisena plays his next gambit – and a master stroke it is! “There are enough seniors to be made prime minister if UPFA wins the election – it won’t be Mahinda Rajapakse – I won’t turn back on the January 08 revolution.\u201d So he led MR to the altar and left him standing there all alone after the marriage vows were read and the rings exchanged. My trust is not misplaced.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just about Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>. And of course the (Maithripala\u2019s intended) beneficiary, the UNP. That\u2019s the \u2018trust\u2019 here. Fair enough.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there would be those who would say that what Maithripala did essentially was to lift his sarong and show off his underwear and that it was all green, with little black elephants decorating it. That\u2019s what the Mahinda camp, the kepuwath-nil types and others who for whatever reason feel the SLFP and not the UNP should give leadership to the people. Such people are as disinterested in \u2018good governance\u2019 as those others singing hosannas to Sirisena from the green camp. Almost ten years of Rajapaksa rule, preceded by 10 from that arch enemy of democracy, Chandrika Kumaratunga (sure, with a few years of cohabitation with dictatorial twin, Ranil Wickremesinghe) should teach us not to take the SLFP\u2019s democratic claims seriously.<\/p>\n

And yet, the \u2018true colors\u2019 were not the underwear-greens or those about good-governance-love, but downright sneering at the basic tenets of decency and democracy. \u2018Indecent\u2019 is used here because it is uncivilized (to put it mildly) to attempt to flush the party down the tube which refusing to give up the leader-post. \u2018Undemocratic\u2019 because of the assertion that even if Mahinda were to win (we have to read that as \u2018even if Mahinda commands the support of a Parliamentary majority\u2019) Sirisena would not want him, Rajapaksa, to be Prime Minister (not that he has a choice of course, and this shows how little he knows about the Constitution).<\/p>\n

The track record of an individual is irrelevant if he or she is deemed most fit to be Prime Minister by the people, through the will of their representatives. What Sirisena is saying, essentially, is \u2018Screw the will of the people!\u2019<\/p>\n

One is reminded of the first words he spoke when announcing that he would take on Mahinda Rajapaksa. He quoted the Dhammapada<\/p>\n

Nahi Verena Verani\u2014Sammanti dha Kudacancam<\/em>
\nAverenacca Sammanti\u2014esa dhammo Sanantano<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHatred never ceases through hatred, but through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two other verses he may be well advised to (re?)visit:
\nAkkocchi mam avadhi mam \u2014 ajini mam ah\u0101si me<\/em>
\nYe tam upanayhant\u012b \u2014 veram tesam na sammati<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me\u201d \u2014 in those who harbor such thoughts, hatred is not appeased.<\/p>\n

Akkocchi mam avadhi mam \u2014 ajini mam ah\u0101si me<\/em>
\nYe tam na upanayhant\u012b \u2014 veram tes\u016bpasammati<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me\u201d \u2014 in those who do not harbor such thoughts, hatred is appeased.<\/p>\n

Yes, Sirisena has shown his true colors. Some will see \u2018green\u2019. Some will see \u2018statesmanship\u2019. Some will see \u2018grey\u2019. Whatever it is, it is certainly not white! But take your pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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