Critically assessing that 'stunner' of a presidential speech

Those who constantly complain (with good reason) that the Southern political dynamic disregards the sentiments of minority voters may take heart from President Maithripala Sirisena's advice during this Tuesday's special statement to the media.

Excellent reprimand to the deluded

Breaking his hitherto stoic silence and dispersing the bone-chilling suspense surrounding the internal party wrangle within the UPFA, his refusal to name former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Ministerial (PM) candidate of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was unequivocal.

Several reasons were named, the foremost being his firm belief that Rajapaksa is someone who cannot win the minority vote. This pointed reference is an excellent reprimand to the deluded who think that a Sri Lankan political leader should strive purely to woo the majority community. The former President was also deemed as unworthy given that he would not attract the youth vote or passionate adherents of the global movement against corruption in governance.

President Sirisena's choice of addressing the media was a canny decision, allowing him to engage in an endearingly casual conversational style. This was a straight from the shoulder hitting of the target, notable for what it expressly depicted as much as for what was implied. Its calm good sense contrasted abruptly with the familiarly inflammatory bluster of the former President and his party faithful at their inaugural rally in Anuradhapura days later.

Those wishing to see reform of some sorts would undoubtedly have been disappointed. Evidently this was nothing new but the same dangerously toxic Rajapaksa brand. Both UNP and UPFA responsible

On its own part however, the UNP's pious promises to take the 'good governance' bandwagon forward need to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. President Sirisena's speech castigated both the UNP and the UPFA in lesser or greater measure as this may be. In effect, both parties are responsible for the grievous predicament that the President finds himself in today. The Right to Information (RT) law was brought back to centre stage. The President said that he had left the drafting of laws to the government and their party lawyers, only agreeing in principle to their contents but observed quite deliberately that he remained unclear as to what actually happened to the 20th Amendment, the RTI Bill and the Audit Bill.

This explains much of the puzzlement of this columnist as well in regard to the inexplicable secrecy surrounding the finalizing of the 19th and 20th constitutional amendments in particular. There was an evident political motive underlying this process with the President being kept out of it for the most part, except when something particular was brought to his attention. Thus, the characteristic mischievous chuckle with which he reminded that he had removed a reprehensible clause in the 19th Amendment muzzling the media during election times after newspaper proprietors and owners of television stations strongly protested.

But the most damning was his observation that he had requested the Prime Minister to call upon the Central Bank governor to resign after the alleged bond scandal. That said, this is the Executive President, after all. One is at a loss to understand why sterner Presidential action was not evidenced. And as the UNP now goes to court to prevent discussion of the draft report of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the Central Bank issue, its credentials to bring the RTI law in the future can only be severely compromised.

Presidential hand wringing should now cease

Meanwhile, the President's thrust that Sri Lanka's democratic breakdown was not due to a single man (not even Mahinda Rajapaksa) or a single political regime is crucial. His pinpointing of systemic failures underscores a fact often pointed to in these column spaces. Apparently if he had been allowed to have his way, Parliament would have been dissolved immediately after the Presidential election. Dissolution of Parliament would certainly have been commonsensical instead of this months-long agony being dragged out to the intense confusion of the electorate. The President's explanation was however that he had yielded to the consensus of the forces backing him to adhere to the 100-day program.

The logic of much of these arguments apart, Presidential hand wringing should now cease. This acute sense of obligation to those who brought him into power needs to be laid to rest. As ironic as this may be, the one saving grace is that the 19th Amendment had not clipped the powers of the Presidency to the extent as originally contemplated. If that original scheme had been proceeded with, one may only imagine the devastating consequences that would ensue, regardless of whichever way the electorate may lean to in the August vote.

For while the re-entry of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his bunch of cronies would undoubtedly be disastrous, the transitional UNP government has not inspired much confidence either. President Sirisena's Tuesday address indicated as much. As much as the Rajapaksa leadership appears not to have learnt its lessons, so is the UNP equally culpable. The President's injunction to the voters not to focus on bringing a particular party into power but to elect parliamentarians who are clean, competent and capable of fulfilling his January mandate therefore makes enormous sense. This response should, at least in part, answer the dilemma faced by deeply demoralised grassroots party members of the SLFP.

Taking decisive control of his Office

But as far as the President himself is concerned, he cannot gingerly stay above the fray, complain that his recommendations are not being acted upon and piously visit temples. The nation looks to him to take decisive control of his Office as per his mandate (at least) now. Only this will be the effective measure of his leadership.

Indeed, his claim was that he carried the transitional government like the Titanic without letting it sink. As colorful as this analogy may be, the whole point about the Titanic was that the ship did in fact, sink even as violins played and children screamed.

For the sake of Sri Lanka, one can only devoutly hope that this would not be the same dolorous fate visiting the Sirisena Presidency.