When Gen. Fonseka failed in 2010, another candidate had to be selected for the 2015 Presidential election. That quest was outsourced to CBK who cherry-picked the most least-expected choice as President. To get rid of the Presidency, Maithripala Sirisena shook Sri Lanka with a well-funded Dharmic projection of the perfect leader for the nation and won. Every word said, every statement made was music to 6,217,162 voters. That was a year ago. Abolishing of the Presidency got only so far as reducing the Presidential term from 6 years to 5 and now he’s faced with the likelihood of being jobless at the end of his term. Is President Sirisena ready to retire to Polonnaruwa?
Ranil’’s fear of elections having lost over 29 elections, forced the need to pick Sarath Fonseka as his 2010 choice. A united front was created and even the Tamils had no qualms about casting their vote for the former army commander whom they had previously accused of war crimes. Nevertheless despite a well-funded campaign he lost. The UNP bloc vote that praised Fonseka had no second thoughts of dumping their 2010 choice and transferring their allegiance to a man who had been their virtual opposition in the SLFP. This displayed the ugly side of the UNP voter base not caring which puppet was selected so long as the greens could return to power. Maithripala however was all the colors of the rainbow having signed a pact with a host of individuals and parties. Frogs and kangaroos from Rajapakse’s camp jumped as expected to join the good governance government currently being showered praises from the UN and hosting visitors from anglo-american war criminals and war mongers.
With the coterie of external-internal vultures linked to the current government very much in action, the new government does not know whether it is coming or going and is now facing unprecedented hurdles most of which have been of its own making.
Let us also remind ourselves the current UNP are all past the age of prime and needless to say are occupied not wanting to step into the other world rather than think of ways to develop and protect the nation. The best of portfolios are in their hands while nothing great can be expected from the Sirisena-picked lot having being the one’s responsible for the former leader’s downfall.
So we find ourselves pushed into having our constitution changed and the ripples that have been created by the change-agents are taking the upper hand.
Today, Sirisena finds himself in a soup. He has neither the UNP support nor does he have SLFP support and he certainly does not have the minority support. He has been strategically cornered into irrelevance unless he makes himself relevant. Omitting him from the constitution by far would be the best option since he serves no purpose. But if you ask any of the former Presidents all of whom were going to abolish the presidency but changed their minds after becoming President, would also advise Sirisena to do the same. Nevertheless, Sirisena is finding he is getting cornered by the day. President is in a real achcharu
If everyone has been sharp enough to notice, all the pro-UNP websites and newspapers are so ‘unbiased’ that they are highlighting all of the President’s wrongs and nepotism. Their ‘unbias’ however forgets to include the UNP miscreants except for a handful of UNPers who are a threat to the UNP-family planning agenda.
So what is the predicament that the President finds himself? He no doubt will remain the President for the next 5 years but he has removed provision to dissolve parliament, a tool which would have been quite handy. Now he finds himself likely not to have a job in 5 years when the new constitution plans to remove his current powers and pass on to the present an Executive PM and the present PM hopefully looking forward to enjoying supreme powers – a Waiting for Godot type situation.
Obviously 40 years of politics must have taught the President something and probably why he has suddenly decided not to have international inquiries, not to allow international judges and to dismiss reports claiming to be linked closely to LTTE. Elections can do wonders to boost the decision making of leaders! The next question is what type of googly the President will play to ensure he is not jobless in 5 years. However, at the rate things are going all our politicians may find themselves jobless and the Indian political establishment taking over. If the Indians can take over our jobs, our industries, our farming, our salons who says they cannot take over as our politicians!!!
If the current parliament had half the brains they should start to worry. A weekend newspaper predicted the current PM is likely to live overseas from 2019 – of course anyone who sells the nation would find it better to enjoy piña coladas overseas rather than face the wrath of the Sri Lanka people. How many others are likely to flee the nation?
The scenarios are bleak. We have the current government agreeing to sign anything and everything which would end up with Sri Lanka being invaded by Indians and Sri Lankans losing their jobs to Indians. So far even the professionals, trade unions or service sector have realized the dangers to their lives at hand. Then the division of the country would end up with future calamities and incursions all of which would be early Christmas for the players plotting to use a divided nation for their trade and geopolitical manoeuvring’s.
While all these dangers are lurking we need to also wonder if the President’s advisors have spoken to the President about his retirement plans?
So let’s see all those likely to get affected pulling out some rabbits from their hat!
Shenali D Waduge
srilankaopinion 