A lesson from Hong Kong SUNDAY PUNCH 2
With President Mahinda Rajapaksa invoking the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on Tuesday to submit an opinion as to his eligibility to contest the presidential election for a third time and the Government announcing on Wednesday that it will be issuing after the 19th of November, the proclamation to hold the next presidential election, how fares the political landscape this Sunday morn as parties gear up for the good fight?
At the favoured corner of the ring, flitting like a butterfly and prancing to sting like a bee is the Lankan President Mahinda the Invincible Rajapaksa, twice hands down winner of two consecutive heavy weight champion bouts, sparring for yet another repeat performance. On the form card, he is unbeatable, and the odds are heavily weighted in his favour as are the bets. With a string of second league wins in the provinces this year under his belt, the only question seems to be 'winner by how many rounds'?
Though none expects a win with a flooring knockout punch like he delivered in the last championship four years ago - some even question whether he will have to use every punch in the book and fight it out to the end with the match being won on points or even whether it will have to be restaged - the serious money seems to be on him, at least for the moment. Who cares even if he has to go the whole nine yards, says his cheerleaders, once won, the winner takes the crown; and that's all that matters and, like Miss World, will wear it for the rest of its tenure, which, in his case, will be for another six years.
Apart from the impressive results of the elections held this year in the Western, Southern, and Uva areas which showed over fifty percent of the populace were still with the Government party, the prestigious American billionaires' business magazine, Forbes last week' published an editorial predicting a sweeping win for the incumbent champion; and citing political stability as a good enough reason, promoted Lanka as a sure fire place for greater foreign investment.
Even the rigid Vatican regime has thought fit to make an exception to its own strictly observed rule of not allowing the Holy Father to be physically present in the flesh either during the build up to an national election or immediately after it lest the papacy be accused of extending a divine hand to either contestant to cast an all mighty knockout punch; and has agreed to permit His Holiness the Pope to visit Lanka during ,what will, undoubtedly, be tumultuous times to bless the people whose sad lot in purgatory, alas, will continue unabated, who ever emerges as winner.
But even a people's professed wishes, even a soothsaying Forbes' oracle prophecy and even a passing shower of papal bless- ings may come to naught if, by the greatest impish irony and a sardonic quirk of fate, the champion is condemned by the excess of his own successes and ruled out from the ring even before the fight has begun. That is if the tenth commandment proclaimed in Lanka's Constitutional Bible's, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's right to the kingdom's crown after wearing it twice', is still upheld in this day and age and not given an interpretational twist. This is the Achilles' heel of the otherwise immortal unbeatable champion and thus the need to dip again in the constitutional waters to cure the defect.
Though the Queensbury Rules applicable to election bouts were changed four years ago, nagging doubts have now sur-
As China still reels with the aftershocks of Hong Kong's recent pro- democracy protest and its media attempts to lay the blame at the door of foreign powers by labeling it as ' colour revolutions', a term used to describe internationally funded protests, a proChinese senior lawmaker in Hong Kong disputed the contention and said he did not believe foreigners were behind the uprising.
Jasper Tsang, the president and speaker of the city's de facto parliament said he did not believe foreigners were a driving force behind a month of rallies and roadblocks calling for full democracy in the faced whether the changes have done the trick well enough and whether the old saying ' nothing succeeds like success' will this time be turned on its head and proved wrong. Whether those who are wont to hit below the belt, will be able to plunge a spanner in the works and upset the UPFA ballot cart?
But rather than gain a pyrrhic victory and risk entertaining any calumnies which will rob the sheen of triumph and debase the resplendent metal of achievement, the current champion this week on Wednesday decided to consult his referee and place the disputed matter in the hands of the independent sovereign men and women he had appointed, for an opinion on his eligibility to contest again for the third time? semi-autonomous southern Chinese city which paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub.
In an interview with Cable TV, he declared, "I can't see it happening. Unless you treat foreign diplomats expressing concerns as an intervention by external forces. I think their concerns, raised objectively, were not intended to influence, dominate or instigate any side."
How refreshing to hear such thoughts from our Chinese friends. And what an enlightening lesson that will be, for some of our own ministers to learn from Mr. Tsang's candid words?
Perhaps, comrade Wimal Weerawansa, who sees international conspiracies behind every cough and sneeze expelled by any Lankan, will not say 'no' to a free flying visit to the Land of Suzy Wong to learn firsthand that the spirit of freedom in a suppressed people does not need the whiff of foreign money to spark and burn, that it does not require the commission of lucre to ignite, flare and fly free. And that the value of human rights is only known to those who languish under the jackboot of tyranny. Not to those who wear it.
Such has been the seriousness with which he has undoubtedly viewed the doubts of his eligibility to contest, that he has taken the unprecedented step of placing his future fate and career in the custody of a handful of eminent men and women entrusted with the task of impartial adjudication. The raising of doubts as to whether he can contest a third time, whether the repeal of Article 31 in the Constitution by the 18th Amendment to the Constitution has retrospective effect to remove the disqualification for a twice elected president to be elected again, has put him on his best mettle to clear the air once and for all and drown forever the bobbing buoys of irritating question marks.
That he has taken this extraordinary gamble, that he has staked all his winnings for one more term of office on one turn of judgment that may well rule him out of the contest and banish him to the political wilderness thereafter, speaks volumes of his inordinate belief in democracy and in the integrity of its hallowed institutions and in the moral rectitude of the people who dwell therein.
By placing his faith and trust in the wise and worldly sagacity of the eleven guardian judges who grace the indispensable judicial pillar to deliver divine judgment based on the high moral principles of justice and fairness grounded upon established legal principles, demonstrates not only the president's commitment to democracy but also reassures the nation that he himself believes in the workings of its institutions and seeks its enlightening counsel to clarify his position and thus ensure he is acting to the letter of the law.
He has gone before the bar of the court like any other citizen seeking a fair judgment for his cause. Headed by the Hon. Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, PC the present Supreme Court comprises Hon. Justice Saleem Marsoof, PC, Hon. Justice K.