Allow President to play his cards

Opinion from Somapala Gunadheera

The cacophony of protests against the President reportedly, allowing his predecessor to contest at the general election is becoming almost a public nuisance. Politicians on all sides, activists for good governance, supporters and rivals have joined the fray calling upon the President to explain himself. The situation is reminiscent of a village fight in which a man is prevented to deal with an intruder due to women of the household clinging on to him.

I myself faced such a predicament when I was in service. I was called upon to deal with a developing riot in Van Ela and I proceeded to the spot and found an armed crowd about to start a fight. My arrival restrained them a bit but I sensed that they were too agitated to listen to reason. All eyes were on me but I walked away from the crowd to a nearby paddy lot under cultivation. There I fell into a conversation with the cultivator about his problems. The DRO in charge of the division, who was himself thoroughly agitated, came running to me and said to me, "Sir, You can talk to this man later. Please come and settle the dispute". "I will come in due time", I replied and continued the conversation.

I could not explain to the DRO what that due time was, as much as the President might not be able to answer the many queries directed to him without upsetting his plans. Though it could not be a public announcement at the time, I can now say that the purpose of my deviation to the paddy lot was to deliberately diffuse the tension and it worked. I noticed the crowd settling down at the sight of my calmness and returned to the belligerents at that point and amicably settled the dispute. Incidentally this incident had been referred to at a press interview recently, by the present minister of lands, who was among those present at Van Ela.

To come back to the President’s predicament, he may not be in a position to answer the questions fired at him at this moment because the answers could prejudice his next move. Most probably he agreed to allow MR to contest, if at all, to avoid an inevitable breakdown of his party. If that happened, he would have become a refugee in the UNP camp. The President needs the strongest possible presence of his party in the next Parliament. In that context dissolution of the SLFP would be suicidal to his interests. His objective should be to retain the best among his Party men.

Having averted calamity by that apparent surrender, the President should be having other tricks up his sleeve, to optimize the aspirations of his backers. Again it could be counterproductive to reveal what they are at the present moment. However one may guess what they would be as we approach D-day. Already a dispute has arisen with nominations. While MR wants all Party members re-nominated, MS wants the corrupt and the compromised deleted. That is not a battle that MR can possibly win in the Public Arena. Such defeat would exclude his strongest supporters and place him in the predicament of King Lier in the storm. Hopefully at that stage, wisdom would dawn upon MR to realize that his best option would be to rest on his laurels and remain a respected Saviour of the Nation for all time.

In the meantime, the Presidents sponsors should have the trust in his integrity and capability to get over the crisis, without peeping over his shoulders.