All in a week: BJP at BMICH, a barber shop

Cabinet, Basils move on the SLFP, an new

rainbow allian!e to abolish presien!"
-July 26, 2014
The tittle should suggest what an agenda packed
political week in Colombo now looks like. Sadly, however, the political
agenda gets packed every week but political realities remain stubbornly
the same. Hopefully, the figurative rainbow that was publicly aspired last
Thursday at the Colombo Town Hall will turn out to be politically
consequential unlike the real one that tantalies and disappears. !oing by
the title"s order, #ndia"s $%& stalwart Subramanian Swamy had a captive
audience at the Colombo $'#CH last week. !ood for him. The
$andaranaike Centre for #nternational Studies ($C#S) has found a newer
*am Sethu in Swamy. The new $C#S +irector has found a new mission in
life after all previous incomplete achievements, the last one being the
achievement of practical trilingualism in ,anka now e-emplified by the
official singing of the .ational /nthem. Swamy came in the good company
of other $%& intellectuals (# don"t want to throw at our neighbourly visitors
the old ,SS& 0oke for an o-ymoron e-ample1 2.&3S,4& intellectual5), and
between them they cast a few pearls about Sri ,ankan politics and history1
#ndira !andhi created terrorism in Sri ,anka6 there is no ethnic problem in
Sri ,anka, only the 7uropean imagination of it. ,ike the philosophical cat
that never gets hungry e-cept in your imagination.
Someone should have shown Swamy, 8adri #smail"s recent imagination
and critique, post /luthgama, about the Serendib island in the #ndian
9cean populated by several groups of people including those named ,imat,
'ilsum and /lahnis. The same island, where a long war ended five years
ago, has since been given a pass by peace, while rape, murder, plunder
and arson still go on officially. /nd so on. 8adri #smail"s piece is a must
read at least for quondam ,SS& intellectuals now turned $$S (8adri calls it
for what it is) apologists, regardless of it being seen or not seen by Swamy
now back in #ndia. &ertinent for different reasons is the observation by
+ayan %ayatilleke that the $%& seminar at the $'#CH should be an eye
opener to both the *a0apaksa government and its Tamil diaspora
detractors. They should both :recalibrate" their options in light of the
government change in +elhi, and they should also learn to compare
distances in world geography1 the government should learn that #ndia is
much closer to Sri ,anka than China, and the Tamil diaspora should learn
that regardless of where they are ; #ndia is also closer to Sri ,anka than
any <estern country. /nd the closest <estern country, i.e. /ustralia,
seems to be getting closer to the Sri ,ankan government than China ever
will. There is also the matter of another relevant geographical pro-imity1
Tamil .adu is the closest 0urisdiction to Sri ,anka, and is #ndia"s :border
state" vis-=-vis Sri ,anka, like <est $engal is to $angladesh, and like
&un0ab, !u0arat and *a0asthan are to &akistan.
/ barber shop Cabinet>
'y allusion to the barber shop stems from newspaper minutes of
confidential cabinet meetings that recently noted the &resident"s use of a
folksy idiom, :saloon door", to describe the 2&4/ where people can come
and go as they please. The &resident used the term to berate past cabinet
ministers who have come and gone, and to tease those at the table now
(whom he doesn"t like) to leave if they want to. $ut the 'inisters have now
learnt the art of doing their bit and staying put. They don"t have to leave
and they will not be fired, that honour is reserved for 0udges with even an
iota of independence. <hen no one gets fired, or impeached, it should
mean that the *a0apaksa universe is unfolding as the $rotherhood wants it
to. The *a0apaksa universe is unfolding in myriads of ways on a weekly, if
not daily, basis. %ust look at the following sequence of events.
#t was saloon door for the $%& folks to arrive in Colombo a short while after
the South /frican ?ice &resident, Cyril *amaphosa, had come and gone.
9fficially, he came as a Special 7nvoy of South /frican &resident %acob
@uma to help the *a0apaksa government launch the much maligned
reconciliation process. $ut he was in the Serendib island as a tourist,
opined ,anka"s ever loquacious media minister. /nd he knows he will not
be fired for saying such silly things. .o one asked the minister whether
Subramanian Swamy and his fellow #ndians were in Colombo as tourists,
or opinion makers. 7ither way it doesn"t matter because defence
regulations muling .!9s may not apply to the $'#CH or $C#S.
#f *amaphosa"s visit was to facilitate reconciliation, his departure was
celebrated by the presidential reappointment of 'a0or !eneral !./.
Chandrasiri, the controversial current !overnor of the .orthern &rovince,
for another term as !overnor. 7ven the usual defenders of &resident
*a0apaksa could not find anything positive to say about this patently dumb
reappointment. 4or once, the +efence Secretary was spared and did not
become the scapegoat for an act of the &resident. $ut then the &resident
confounded everyone including his cabinet of ministers, who are confused
about their role as ministers anyway, by appointing an /dvisory &anel of
e-pert international advisers to assist the &residential Commission of
#nquiry into Complaints *egarding 'issing &ersons. 9stensibly, the
appointment of an /dvisory &anel is a positive move and goes against
everything the government has been saying all along against the 2.H*C
inquiry into war crimes in Sri ,anka. # say ostensibly because genuine
concerns have been raised that the manner of the appointment of the
/dvisory &anel and the widening of the scope of the ongoing Commission
of #nquiry into missing persons may prove to be unworkable in the end.
That the whole e-ercise may blow up in the government"s face should not
be a source for political satisfaction because what is at stake is the
continuing frustration of tens of thousands of people who are desperate for
answers about their missing family members. /lready, the Commission
headed by *etired High Court %udge 'a-well &aranagama, is said to have
received AB,CCC complaints, but has so far completed interviews of only
about DEC people. The mechanisms and the resources are inadequate to
handle the volume of complaints received. #t is an altogether different
matter if outreaching mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that all
surviving victims are made aware of the opportunity to complain about
their missing persons. #n this situation the latest gaette notification
announcing the appointment of the advisory panel of international e-perts,
also e-pands the scope of the already overburdened Commission. The
modalities for the working together of the Commission and the /dvisory
&anel have also not been thought through. #n the end, for all the bother,
another botched e-ercise appears to be in the offing. 9nce again, left high
and dry, with no one to turn, will be the victims of the war.
.ot surprisingly, the appointment of the /dvisory &anel has drawn
criticisms from within the ranks of the government. The %H2 and the .44
who did not like the government inviting and receiving the South /frican
?ice &resident are even more incensed by the &resident"s appointment of
the /dvisory &anel. The .ational 4reedom 4ront of <imal <eerawansa,
whose eloquence in parliament while sponsoring the government
resolution against 2.H*C inquiry was admirably noted by editorial writers,
has issued the gauntlet that if the government does not amend the %uly AF
!aette notification, the .44 will have no alternative but to quit the 2&4/.
Some threat5 <ith so many tails wagging the 2&4/ dog, it is no wonder
that the government"s actions show more confusion and knee-0erk
reactions than clarity or any sense of purpose ; other than when it comes
to protecting the power base.
$asil"s move and the *ainbow potential
<hat is the real power base of the *a0apaksa government> #s it the Gold
S,4&G that the $rotherhood has been systematically neglecting and
marginaliing, or the e-tremist upstarts, the %H2, the .44, the $$S and so
on, that the $rotherhood has been assiduously cultivating. / frustrated
government insider (*a0iva <i0esinha) has written that Gthe unhappiness of
the vast ma0ority of the senior S,4& leadership, and their willingness to
engage in political reform that promotes pluralism, are ignored in the belief
that victory at elections can only be secured if what is perceived as a
fundamentalist and fundamental Sinhala $uddhist base is appeased.G
There is nothing new in this observation, but what is often overlooked is
that the so called Sinhala $uddhist base, outside the two mainstream
political parties of the Sinhalese, the 2.& and the S,4&, has always been
the creation of individual leaders. This is a phenomenon that arose mostly
under the presidential system and the operation of proportional voting in
parliamentary elections. The %?& before HCCB, the .44 that came after, the
%H2, and the more recent $$S and its kin groups have all been
beneficiaries of presidential sponsorship from %* %ayewardene to 'ahinda
*a0apaksa. They would not have survived, let alone grown, without the
high-level support they have been receiving.
The system of mainstream marginaliing and e-tremist fostering has been
working thanks to periodical presidential successions and the perception of
political change. $ut doubts, questions and even challenges arise when
someone tries to be &resident interminably, and restrict succession to sons
and brothers. +oubts and questions multiply when the regime consistently
into difficulties with the outside world and they begin to affect the
country"s economy and people"s lives. .ational security alarms and
patriotic appeals can only go so far as they can. $ut the *a0apaksas are a
clever bunch and their response to the apparently e-panding calls for the
abolishment of the e-ecutive presidency is to take control of the S,4&
instead of neglecting it. $asil *a0apaksa could not have timed his move
better ;in telling the 'awbima newspaper that there should be a
distinction between party officials and elected officials. .o one will question
whether this principle should also apply to a person who is both the
&resident of the &arty as well that of the country. $ut the move is
ultimately to enable a *a0apaksa to be &rime 'inister. <ho else better
than $asil> <hat harm, the &resident will ask as he has done before, if it is
in the national interest 0ust like &resident %ohn 4. Iennedy appointing and
relying on his brother *obert Iennedy as /ttorney !eneral. 7-cept, the
e-ample has already been used too many times and it no longer has
credibility.
$esides $asil"s move, the *a0apaksa leadership also announced the
preparation to launch Gone of the strongest &residential campaignsG by the
S,4&. 7very electorate outside the .orth and 7ast will be activated, the
&ancha 'aha $ala?egaya will be enegied, and special efforts for
mobiliing women and the youth will be spearheaded respectively by
&avithra <anniyarachi and .amal *a0apaksa. The campaign announcement
coincided with news reports that the 2&4/"s miniscule Socialist /lliance (of
the ,SS&, the C&S, and the +,4) were to meet with the convener of the
.ational 'ovement for Social %ustice (.'S%) and the much touted common
presidential candidate, ?en. SobithaThera, to discuss efforts to achieve
their common ob0ective of abolishing the 7-ecutive &residential system.
The Socialist /lliance leaders are still waiting to hear from the &resident on
their own proposal to have the system abolished. #t might turn out to be a
long wait.
9thers are not for waiting. ,ast Thursday, in the rarefied space of the .ew
Town Hall, rather than at a more customary mass rally, the conveners of
the abolitionist movement laid out their road map for removing the
presidency through the electoral and constitutional process. !racing the
occasion were the leaders and representative of all the opposition parties,
as well as former &resident Chandrika Iumaratunga, who is still a 'ember
of the S,4&. The inauguration of the abolitionist movement went well by all
accounts, but it will need to develop to give it credibility and traction
beyond Colombo. The two developments are interconnected ; one is the
mobiliation of the people, and the second is support from a substantial
section of the S,4&. &resident Iumaratunga is too tarnished to be a
candidate again, and doing so will be contrary to the principles of
opposition to the AJth /mendment. $ut she is more qualified than anyone
else for one more political battle, namely, the battle for the S,4& and of
the S,4&. This should not be a long wait.
Posted by Thavam