Getting elected is the permanent interest

The Editorial

What Lord Palmerston (1784 – 1865) said some two centuries ago about nations neither having permanent friends nor permanent enemies, but only (permanent) interests applies very much to politics as the unfolding nomination drama which will close at noon tomorrow amply demonstrates. Yesterday’s newspapers reported that Minister Champika Ranawake may run on the UNP ticket and his stable-mate, Ven. Atureliye Ratana, is looking at a National List slot from the same quarter. Everybody knows what the JHU thought and said of the UNP but the need to get into Parliament override all other considerations. The SLMC which has previously run with the UNP and deserted the green party to take office under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime will run again under the elephant symbol. President Maithripala Sirisena who was quite vocal that he and his family would have been consigned six feet under the ground in the event he lost the election, has been compelled, albeit reluctantly, by his party to give Rajapaksa nomination to run from the Kurunegala district. The president, unfortunately, has been eating a lot of his words in the last few weeks and whether he will be able to resist the pressure that will mount on him to make Rajapaksa the prime minister should the UPFA finish with more seats than the UNP on August 17 remains to be seen. That is very much a part of the ‘Bring Back Mahinda’ agenda.

It is the unfortunate lot of this country that the 19th Amendment now in place which did not abolish the executive presidency as promised but at least reintroduced the two-term limit on the office and trammeled some of its powers did nothing about preventing legislators changing sides after elections without losing their seats. When the president was asked about this at one of his breakfast meetings with editors and publishers, he said that there were two views on the subject. Sadly, no yaha palanaya approach was adopted on this matter and even more sadly there was no serious pressure applied to do something about it. The result is that the status quo ante remains and if a hung Parliament emerges from the election, we will see the same old game being played. Too many of the leading figures seeking to prolong their tenure in office with the accompanying benefits and perks either by election or nomination (from the National List) at this election have supped well at the table at the taxpayers’ expense from both sides of the political divide. It is time they are replaced but that will not happen.

Some of the bad hats of the UPFA are going to run again on the argument that any accused is deemed innocent until proven guilty. The famous (or infamous) Mervyn Silva, it seems, will not be running this time; so also Duminda Silva, it was reported. But some last ditch efforts were under way to get the decision on Duminda changed. It shouldn’t, if only for the reason an illegal procession backing his candidature was persuaded to disperse on Saturday. Everybody knows that these demonstrations are not spontaneous and their sponsors must be held to account. Hirunika Premachandra who had gone to the Mahaweli Center to sign her nomination papers under the UPFA ticket had apparently turned back because she was in two minds. We do not know whether that had anything to do with the effort to `rescue’ Duminda. Many candidates and aspirants are only too willing to run from either side depending on who will give them the ticket. After an election they will without qualms jump into the winning camp, to hell with the ticket and electors by grace of whom they entered Parliament.

Despite the enormous powers he wielded when he sought his third term, the Commissioner of Elections did not permit Mahinda Rajapaksa who was widely perceived as invincible to do as he wished at the last presidential election. Unfortunately there was massive abuse of state resources, as has been the case during all elections under the former president’s watch, which the commissioner was unable to stop. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is reported to have said that he will pay for the use of government vehicles during the campaign. We hope this will apply to members of the caretaker cabinet too and that SLAF helicopters, if used by anybody for campaign purposes, are paid for. There have been reports of State sector recruitment in the run-up to the election. Tea plantation workers are also trying to get their pound of flesh seizing advantage on the value of their votes in this election season. What was bad for Tweedledum is equally bad for Tweedledee and hopefully those who pointed their fingers at the previous regime will apply the values they championed to themselves as well. Between Jan. 8 and today a lot of lollipops that the economy cannot afford in the best of circumstances have been handed out for blatant electoral purposes. We are told the 100-day dissolution did not happen because of the president’s anxiety to get 20A changing the election system enacted. The same forces that diluted 19A were responsible for attempting a repeat performance on 20A which eventually forced the president’s hand into dissolution.

It is too much to hope that we will have an election sans polluting posters and hoardings but there are indications that these will be less than before. Whether President Sirisena will distance himself from the campaign despite his leadership of the SLFP which leads the UPFA remains an open question. There is no doubt that both the president and the prime minister favour a national government at least for a period of two years from the election. It will be good for the country if the major players on the political scene, whoever emerges ahead on Aug. 17, agree on this course to do what needs to be done in the national interest. But there must not be deals on pulling back on corruption investigations. While no reasonable person can condone witch hunts, there is no escaping the reality that there was a great deal of corruption during the time of the previous regime. All those matters as well as the alleged Central Bank bond scam must be thoroughly investigated whatever the outcome on Aug. 17. The rulers owe this to the people.