A law unto himself

- ‘Don’t be so hard on the UPFA. Appreciate the good things done by Mahinda,’ a fan of his tells us pointing out that for the festive season we will be having ‘Suduru Samba and Bhasmati rice. Did Ranil feed you with these exotic varieties?’ he asks.
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By Gamini Weerakoon

(December 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Strange things are happening in this Resplendent Isle these days which departed political spirits or souls if they return would find hard to recognise or explain.

One such phenomenon is the copious flow of tears that is being shed by Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cheering squads over the failure of the UNP to produce a presidential candidate, sufficient even to drown a crocodile. The UNP, we were under the impression, in the opinion of Rajapaksa’s cohorts, has been the scourge of Mother Lanka since independence and its apparent demise should have had these anti-UNPers dancing on its grave. Instead they keep up lamentations pronouncing its death. Is it with the fear of the resurrection capacity of the Grand Old Party?

Another curious happening last month was the metamorphosis of General Sarath Fonseka in the eyes of the Rajapaksa cheer squads from the ‘saviour of the nation’, ‘the great patriot’, ‘the best soldier Sri Lanka ever had’ into the worst possible scoundrel, ‘traitor’, ‘betrayer of the nation’ etc, etc. The reason for this transformation from saint to sinner apparently is that he disagreed with their ‘Maharajano’, resigned from his post of chief of armed services, dared criticise the ‘Maharajano’, claimed that he won the war and presented himself as the common opposition candidate.

The King can do no wrong was the belief of the gullible British which is faithfully followed by our state radio, TV and the press. Disbelief in the ‘King’ is sacrilege and treason. To them Rajapaksa with his brothers won the war and are the saviours of the nation. Morning, noon and night this is drummed into our ears on state radio and TV and we are assailed by reams and reams of news print and that the King and his royal family can do no wrong.

Armies — Salvation and military

The other side of the coin is that those who described Fonseka as not being fit enough to lead the Salvation Army a few months ago are now hailing him as a great general and the saviour of the nation. The Salvation Army may object to them being dragged into this political charade whereas they are mainly confined to banging of drums and blowing trumpets on the streets while feeding the poor and making them pray for their salvation. Independent observers say that the country has to be salvaged by someone of whatever party or army and ‘winning the war’ is not enough.

These are tough problems for ordinary mortals to understand and confusion is worse confounded by statements of the two gentlemen now sparring in the ring. Recently we read President Mahinda Rajapaksa warning fellow Sri Lankans about Western influence.

Western influence

Dating back from our great grand fathers, taking pot shots at the West — the ‘Suddhas’ — has been a popular sport. But how come some of the great man’s brothers have with them the ultimate certificate of Westernisation — the American Green Card? In the US of A — as they say — there is not much of a chance of spreading Sinhala Only Buddhism and the Medamulana Mahinda Chinthanaya. Not only the Rajapaksa brothers but quite a few cabinet ministers possess this certificate of the epitome of Western civilisation.

Now the question is whether the ‘greatest of Sinhalese and Sri Lankans’ will be able to persuade his siblings and followers to throw away Uncle Sam’s Green Card.

‘Don’t be so hard on the UPFA. Appreciate the good things done by Mahinda,’ a fan of his tells us pointing out that for the festive season we will be having ‘Suduru Samba and Bhasmati rice. Did Ranil feed you with these exotic varieties?’ he asks.

Bloody good, we said pointing out that the rice would have gone down better with the stuff that cheers which is now beyond our reach. But the rice will have to be on our plate for Christmas, the test of good rice being in the eating, like that of a pudding, we claimed.

Premadasa style

The accomplished politician Mahinda Rajapaksa is, he does most of his politics with aplomb, like Ranasinghe Premadasa. Clad in flowing pure white with trays of flowers in hand and TV camera crews in accompaniment, he is seen regularly on TV as a devout and a pious politician who is sincere in what he says. Recently he ordered the police to tear down his election posters and cut-outs in streets that defied election laws — the first President to do it. How this order will be carried out can only be seen at the end of the presidential election campaign, the police at times may even fail to carry out the President’s orders!

It could well put out from business the ‘Kudu Gemunus’ now roaming the streets with buckets of paste at night. But it will also mean that any of Sarath Fonseka’s posters and cut-outs — if they are still there — will also be subjected to the same treatment by the police. That is fair enough. But Rajapaksa will be way ahead in exhibiting his cherubic face (with his jet black moustache) to the people than the shatter-proof looking Fonseka with his grey tinged upper-lip appendage because the state owned press under Rajapaksa’s command will no doubt print full page supplements of the ‘great man’, running into thousands of copies for just one edition of a single paper.

Each copy of a paper can have many pages of the celebrated man in full colour. Fonseka on the other hand will have to persuade state owned newspapers to publish his supplements (with cash paid upfront) and each such full page supplement will cost over Rs 100,000! Rajapaksa’s side it is reported is awash with cash and Fonseka’s sponsors are cash strapped. Apart from advertising supplements the news pages of state sponsored papers have nothing but Rajapaksa, Rajapaksa and Rajapaksa but very little of Fonseka and those too not very complimentary!

About radio and TV publicity, experience has shown the impotence of the orders issued by the Elections Commissioner on equal publicity and the way it is being implemented in the present campaign. We await the decision of the Supreme Court on the petition submitted by Gen Fonseka in this regard.

Judicial pronouncements

Finally, the comments made by the former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva at the opening of the blog by Mangala Samaraweera would even stupefy returning departed spirits who framed the constitutional law of this country. He said: The Executive (President) had acted throughout the tenure of his office in violation of Chapter 17 of the Constitution which required the appointment of a Constitutional Council. He had failed to act as required by the constitution to secure the independence of the public service and by a cabinet decision arrogated to Cabinet power and control of the public service denuding independence completely in the period of impending elections. The Executive had violated the constitutional requirement by failing to appoint an Elections Commission, the non appointment of a Judicial Service Commission and Police Commission were other violations cited.

The Executive had appointed the Chief Justice, some judges of the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General, Auditor General, the IGP and Secretary General of Parliament. Sarath N Silva has cited further violations and asked if the present Executive was re-elected, whether he would take the oath of office where he would solemnly declare that he would faithfully perform his duties in accordance with the Constitution and the law, and that he would uphold and defend the Constitution?

We wonder what the Professor of Law, G.L. Peiris (BCL Oxon) et al would have to say about his leader’s performance.

May be Sri Lanka should have a new Constitution wherein it is stated that whatever Mahinda Rajapaksa says or does is the law of the land.