{"id":150259,"date":"2015-09-05T10:20:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T04:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=150259"},"modified":"2015-09-13T00:01:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T18:31:45","slug":"no-excuse-for-this-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/","title":{"rendered":"No Excuse For This Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=R.A.+Ratwatte&amp;x=15&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">R.A. Ratwatte<\/span><\/a> \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_137369\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-137369\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-137369\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"R.A. Ratwatte \" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-137369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">R.A. Ratwatte<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A rationalist may have been able to find reasons and excuses for all the machinations that have gone on, ever since the decision was taken to allow the former president to contest the general election.<\/p>\n<p>Give the new president a chance was the watchword and some of us tried and even backed these moves. The appointment of rejected politicians to parliament on the national list was the beginning of our worries.<\/p>\n<p>Now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/new-cabinet-appointed-president-sirisena-admits-fracas-over-portfolios\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">this jumbo cabinet<\/span><\/a> with minsters ranging from those with slightly doubtful reputations to confirmed rascals and thugs not to mention certified incompetents, leaves absolutely no room for doubt.<\/p>\n<p>There are too many skeletons in cupboards and too many backroom deals in effect among the \u201cestablished\u201d political parties in this Country for us, the general populace to expect any real movement towards identifying corrupted individuals and removing them from the system. It is now confirmed that the game is the same with only cosmetic changes and token compromises.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Maithripala-Cabinet-2015.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-150248\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Maithripala-Cabinet-2015.jpg\" alt=\"Maithripala Cabinet 2015\" width=\"640\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Maithripala-Cabinet-2015.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Maithripala-Cabinet-2015-300x101.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Maithripala-Cabinet-2015-800x269.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>The only faint hope that the drowning populace can cling on to is that there are plans to reduce the ministries and change some of the ridiculous appointees as the power base changes with time, but that will be a natural progression and not due to Yahapalanaya taking any proactive steps towards achieving it.<\/p>\n<p>This I fear, was the last chance that true democracy had to convince the voter that she was what they needed to build a truly vibrant and self respecting nation. A thinking voter base that could trust their judgement and identify the rogues and kick them out without resorting to blood shed. After this it will be proved that sticking to crony capitalism is the only way to live and thrive in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>The miracle will continue on the road to being a debacle.<\/p>\n<p>The only hope is for some \u201cnew\u201d political parties with no obligations and compromises owing to each other to contest and remove all the current players from the established parties. Is that possible, will an already conservative and mostly partisan vote base ever change?<\/p>\n<p>Enter left of stage, Sarath Fonseka and the JVP, meanwhile the clowns have centre stage!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":137369,"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-150259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>No Excuse For This Cabinet - 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\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Excuse For This Cabinet - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-05T04:50:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-12T18:31:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"244\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"314\" \/>\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=\"2 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\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/\",\"name\":\"No Excuse For This Cabinet - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-05T04:50:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-12T18:31:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/no-excuse-for-this-cabinet\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Rajitha-Ratwatte-1.jpg\",\"width\":244,\"height\":314,\"caption\":\"R.A. 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