{"id":196323,"date":"2018-11-26T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=196323"},"modified":"2018-11-30T14:46:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T09:16:41","slug":"impeach-the-first-toddler-of-our-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/impeach-the-first-toddler-of-our-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Impeach The First Toddler Of Our Republic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Grusha Andrews<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all mad here- I\u2019m mad, you\u2019re mad” ~\u00a0<\/i><\/b>The Cheshire Cat to Alice (Alice In Wonderland)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

There is a difference between Grusha Andrews being insane as opposed to President Sirisena<\/a><\/strong>. Insanity of the executive spells disaster for the republic. Mental infirmity is an accepted reason for impeaching the president of Sri Lanka. Article 38 (2) (a) of the constitution states that \u201cany Parliamentarian may give a notice of resolution to the Speaker on the grounds that the President is unable to execute his functions due to mental or physical infirmity, or if the President is found guilty of certain acts. These actions include intentional violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, misconduct or corruption involving abuse of power of the President, or any offence involving moral turpitude\u201d.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sauce For Trump Is Sauce For Sirisena?<\/b><\/p>\n

A 2017 book titled \u201cThe Dangerous Case of Donald Trump\u2019 was published. Edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist from the prestigious University of Yale in USA, it contained essays from 27 psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals on the “clear and present danger” that US President Donald Trump’s mental health poses to the “nation and individual wellbeing”. They argued that the president’s mental health was affecting the mental health of the people of the United States posing a grave risk to the USA and the world by undermining democracy due to Trump\u2019s pathological narcissism and sociopathy.<\/i><\/b> Trump’s presidency precipitated an emergency which refashioned American psychiatry, pushing professionals to deviate from the American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater rule, which holds that it is unethical for psychiatrists to give professional opinions about public figures without examining them in person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is It Ethical To Comment On the Mental Health Of Public Personalities?<\/b><\/p>\n

Dr Lee argues that a diagnosis is not needed to detect imminent danger. No one had to carry out a clinical examination on Hitler, Pol Pot or Idi Amin to objectively opine on their danger and the destruction impending under their rule. The comments made about Trump were based on objectively observed behaviors which led to warnings issued by 27 esteemed professionals in psychiatry.\u00a0<\/span>They were: impulsivity, recklessness, paranoid reaction, having a loose grip on reality, rage reaction and renouncing responsibility.<\/b> These same traits are increasingly manifesting in President Sirisena\u2019s behavior, accentuated more since the unethical and illegal constitutional coup he initiated exactly a month ago.<\/p>\n

Does Sirisena\u2019s Behavior Fall Within The Classification Of Mental Disorders?<\/b><\/p>\n

The World Health Organization classifies diseases in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 1<\/sup><\/strong>. The ICD classification of mental disorders identify 10 main groups of mental disorders. In the days that followed the infamous coup on 26th<\/sup> October, the general public, social media, political speeches were inundated with sentiments on the \u2018insanity of the President\u2019, \u2018Friday folly of Sirisena\u2019 etc. Some hilarious social media memes suggested that\u2019 only the timely intake of medication for mental disease can save the nation\u2019, \u2018Chathurika<\/a><\/strong>, you lot didn\u2019t give him the pill on time and put the nation on peril\u2019 etc. By social observation, the general public was making the same erudite, logic based judgement of Lee et al at Yale on Trump. They were making a collective community diagnosis of Sirisena\u2019s \u2018insanity\u2019 the same way the American public did with the most powerful man on earth. Sirisena\u2019s unstable, irresponsible and erratic behavior, speech, conduct, temperament provide objective, video-verified evidence that suggest his mental infirmity, even without a clinical examination.\u00a0<\/span>Let\u2019s consider them one by one, in relation to Sirisena2<\/sup><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Impulsivity: The Fly By Night Swearing Ins\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The President of our republic actually staged a fly by night swearing in of a fake Prime Minister without extending the incumbent PM the courtesy of sacking. The sacking letter came hours later, minuted in beautiful Sinhala hand writing of his alleged mistress. He went on a series of piece meal cabinet appointments, like an errant child, keeping portfolios vacant for expected crossers over, mocking the seriousness of his office. He expected, childishly, that the \u201cMahinda Magic\u201d will suppress opposition and the resistance will settle fast. Sirisena went on an impulsive rampage of appointments including Nalaka Godahewa, a suspected criminal of financial fraud and transferred the reputed inspector of police Nishantha Silva crucial to several top Rajapaksa related criminal investigations. Both decisions, he was forced to reverse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recklessness: The Meme Joker\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The strongest evidence of reckless behavior on the part of Sirisena is that he appointed his purported murderer Rajapaksa<\/a><\/strong> as his quasi PM on a 2020 Presidential whim. When a man puts his potential murderer to a position of great power it looks like he is a little reckless with his life! Sirisena has not shown restrain in his words either. In the immediate aftermath of the coup he made the infamous homophobic statement<\/a><\/strong> referring to Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/strong> and his cohorts as butterflies, igniting the pro-democracy fire, giving it a new life. His reckless words were condemned by all strata in society and debased the dignity of his office. He kept issuing \u201cFriday Gazettes\u201d with the senselessness of a child making him the butt end of merciless jokes. Essentially he trivialized the Presidency to a Facebook joke where he reigns as the meme- producing joker king to-date.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paranoid Reaction: The Curious Case Of Namal Kumara<\/b><\/p>\n

Sirisena\u2019s Presidential narrative has been tainted by unfounded paranoid claims, a trait he appears to share with his equally, if not more, paranoid daughter who wrote the much ridiculed Janapadhipathi Thaththa<\/i>– a book glorifying Sirisena\u2019s ascent to presidency. From proclaiming the RAW Agency was plotting to assassinate him causing near shatter in diplomacy with India, to the curious case of Namal Kumara an ex-volunteer at the Presidential Secretariat who testified that there was an assassination plot on Sirisena and the allegation that takes the cake: Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s purported involvement in \u2018assassinating Sirisena\u2019, Sirisena is full of unsubstantiated claims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similar paranoia runs deep in numerous pages of Janadhipathi Thaththa <\/i>where Chathurika Sirisena, a wobbly \u2018writer\u2019 at best, fills pages upon pages in romanticized, sugary language of a cheap pot boiler, how she switched vehicles in thick jungles during the presidential election campaign fearing murder by the Rajapaksas. Sirisena famously proclaimed that had Rajapaksa won he and his family would be six feet under, post-election.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We know that is paranoia, because now Sirisena is the bedfellow of Rajapaksa. No rational man with mental faculties intact will appoint his purported murderer as PM. You see, it was all in his mind. He was just being paranoid and delusional. He was either delusional of Rajapaksa\u2019s intent to murder him then. Or he is delusional of lack of intent by Rajapaksa to murder him now. Either way, his reasoning is a deviation from sanity. \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Loose Grip On Reality: Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The unkind term \u2018losing it\u2019 with reference to those with mental disease, denotes a person losing his grip on reality. Losing grip on reality is a characteristic of an array of mental infirmities. Sirisena cannot come to term with the fact that his quasi PM Rajapaksa has no majority in parliament. When presented with damning evidence the first time, he requested an amendment to the motion. When that was done and the amended motion was passed constitutionally, he claimed that he didn\u2019t feel<\/i><\/b> that the voice vote quite cut it!\u00a0 <\/span>Then when the parliamentary select group vote was passed electronically, he claimed that it was an electronically manifest majority shown just for<\/i><\/b> select committee vote and not the motion against the quasi PM! So now the President of our republic is going around his own mulberry bush of denial not facing the constitutional reality staring at his face. In addition, he seems quite unaware that he is probably the most despised and disrespected living politician. That he will be immortalized for his uneducated, uncouth rape of our democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rage Reaction: Rabid Eruptions<\/b><\/p>\n

Sirisena has a track record of rabid rage and vocal flare ups that are inconsistent with reality. He famously threatened the media in street thug like language “Kole iragena ange halaa ganne epa\u201d (don\u2019t tear the packing and spill the gravy on your body) – threatening the lives of journalists. On TV!<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n