The Empire strikes back with a vengeance
Perhaps triggered by Mahinda Rajapaksa throwing down the gauntlet two weeks ago and threatening to topple the government this year, the Sirisena faithful drew ranks last week and proceeded to lay the groundwork for The Empire to strike back with a vengeance.
The first was a line of defense. It was to erect a parapet wall round the SLFP fort and hang a ‘No Vacancies till 2025” board on it and thus bar the arrival of a usurper at the palace gates with a power itch to cross the moat presumptuously and claim title to the castle.
The party’s secretary, the Rajarata knight Duminda Dissanayake took it upon himself to forestall such an eventuality by springing the proposal at the SLFP’s committee meeting last week that called for the appointment of President Sirisena as the party’s presidential candidate at the 2020 presidential election. This was put forward by Mr. Dissanayake irrespective of whether, as he said to his colleagues, Maithripala Sirisena liked it or not, and the committee endorsed it unanimously.
This proposal for Maithripala Sirisena would have been like crossing the Rubicon in reverse. He would have well remembered how he had on January 9th two years ago declared his intention to be only a one term president. He would have recalled also how on November 16th 2015, he had solemnly declared at Ven Sobitha’s funeral, before the coffin was consigned to the flames, how he would act to turn the monk’s vision to reality.
In his funeral oration he declared, “I pledge before the hallowed mortal remains of this venerable and esteemed monk, to establish a just Yahapalana government in this country, to found a democratic society in this country, and, in order to create a just and equitable social system in the country, to take all the steps I can take and should take to abolish the executive presidency as desired by the Ven Sobith Thera.”
But the best laid plans of monks and men can be displaced by fortuitous circumstances.
It would indeed have been galling for him to now make a U turn but he would have realised that the political tide had overtaken his own inclina- to sit in judgment and pass decree on the innocence or guilt of the person so arraigned and to pass sentence, short of the death penalty, which the Supreme Court would have done had the matter come up before them And that verdict to be final and conclusive and be unchallengeable in any court of law in the land. And if need be, for parliament by a two third majority to deny that person his or her civic rights for a maximum period of seven years. That is generally the present form of the proposed bill; and, though it was accepted unanimously last Tuesday by the ministers, it was also wisely decided to seek the opinion of the Attorney General as to whether it will be in conflict with the Constitution.
But the question is whether it will be in conflict with public opinion. Will it gain the air of legitimacy in the public eye? True, the president’s predicament is understandable, even to be pitied. And the majority will appreciate his efforts to see jailed those guilty of the mega corruption the president and Ranil’s UNP accused the previous regime of before they were elected to power. Though they waxed eloquent and tarred the whole Rajapaksa regime as corrupt beyond redemption, no single high profile conviction has still been wrought to redeem them from the allegations they made then. And that must worry them.
But recourse to extra judicial mechanisms to expedite justice has had a history of backfiring. Those found guilty by bodies appointed outside the normal judicial system, have demonstrated a tendency to emerge as martyrs. Often the process serves to cleanse them of their sins and elevate them to national heroes, as happened to Mrs. Bandaranaike when J. R. Jayewardene brought his commission and, upon its findings, stripped her of her civic rights, thus ruling her out of the equation when he re- contested in 1982. And President Sirisena will do well to bear the past in mind before he assents to give his blessings to such a piece of legislation that will enable him to raise a two edged sword. He will either triumph using it or fall on it.