Has JO lost its mojo?
Joint Opposition’s long crawl on the road to nowhere
By the time the Joint Opposition make their five-day downhill crawl from Kandy to reach the capital tomorrow, they will find that instead of their declared aim to topple the Government succeeding, they have lost their mojo somewhere on the road to Colombo.
Their amulet lies bereft of its charm. Its power to cast a spell on the masses, gone with the wind. It has been used so often these last 18 months with hardly any success; and any little power it may have possessed has long since worn off but faith in its miracles has for long lingered. Like drowning men clutching at the reeds of hope, the joint opposition have clung to it in despair without realising that the time is out of joint.
The bizarre plan to overthrow a popularly elected government only a year old next month, by staging a 72 mile voyage on foot – and in luxury cars for many of its leaders -- from Kandy to Colombo was one created out of utter desperation by hallucinating minds to ward of their day of earthly judgment.
The Joint Opposition say the Pada Yatra is to protest over the delay in holding local government elections, the proposed constitutional amendment, the proposed ECTA agreement with India, the cut down on subsidies to farmers, the VAT increase and the political witch-hunt waged by the Government against Joint Opposition members.
While the first four that affect the masses may be valid grounds of protest, it is clear that they are but a façade to conceal the true purpose of this much hyped trek which is contained in the fifth ground that of ‘political witch-hunt’.
The underlying intention is to create the impression of mass public protest against the arrest and remanding of members of the former regime on grounds of corruption in the hope that it will force the Government to call a halt to criminal proceedings presently being brought against those facing charges of corruption, even of murder.
Of course this is nothing new. The fear of being arrested and jailed for the plunder of the public wealth and abuse of public trust has driven many members of the previous corrupt regime to a state of neurosis. This may perhaps account for their obsessive behaviour to stage protests after protests from day one of President Sirisena’s election victory to bring back their lord and protector Mahinda Rajapaksa back to power.
For the Rajapaksa coterie, never can take no for answer. They know their only hope to defer their rendezvous with Nemesis is to continue with their protests and camouflage their guilt. Now with the FCID and the Bribery Commission having made progress with their investigations into alleged acts of corruption against many Joint Opposition members; and with the Attorney General sanctioning arrests, many have begun to feel the heat; and, like crabs in a boiling pan, have started to claw and cackle.
These last three months have not been the best of times for the Rajapaksa fraternity who call themselves the Joint Opposition of the country.
The novelty of having a movement to topple a government within five weeks of being democratically elected by the people as happened after Maithripala Sirisena had ridden on the crest of a tidal wave of public opinion last year now seems to have worn out, its shine fast losing its luster.
The many antics, the wild cat protests, the midnight feasts in parliament together with bouts of fisticuffs have ceased to entertain, have become dowdy and dated. The shelf life seems to have expired even as the momentum of its initial opposition to the Government has ground to a halt. That’s the price the Joint Opposition have had to pay for trying to topple a democratic government before the right time for opposition had dawned.
For the protest was not people-surged like the campaign to oust Mahinda Rajapaksa was in the year 2014. It had always been and still is solely to protect the leaders of the previous regime from prosecution for corruption, squander of the public wealth and abuse of power.
If the public are feeling the cost of living heat, the Joint Opposition is offering no umbrella. They appear to be far to engrossed in finding their own fig leaves to weather the rains pouring down on them to offer the public any shelter. Even in Parliament, their protests have become vociferous only when the issue centered on the Rajapaksas. People’s problem could wait loitering in the corridors of the people’s forum until the ongoing Rajapaksa saga was first staged in the well of the House.
JO’s morale also had plunged. The frequent guest appearances made by its members to the FCID headquarters in Fort or visits to the Presidential Commission at BMICH seem to have taken its toll. When Gotabaya Rajapaksa was first summoned to the Commission, thousands gathered outside in protest. Today it has become so humdrum that it raises not an iota of interest.
To crown it all, even the morale of Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead the assault from the front seems to have flagged. He hardly attends Parliament after losing his bid to become at least the prime minister under the Sirisena presidency. His speeches are limited to jabs at the Yahapalana government, the stock phase seems to be either ‘this is political revenge,’ or ‘is this Yahapalanaya?’
Worse he seems to be bitten by the travel bug. This year alone he has visited Thailand, then Uganda, then Japan and now reports say he is planning to visit South Korea shortly. Not the ideal inspiration for ground troops, is it, to carry on the battle while the general is sojourning in foreign climes as the honoured guest of a few Lankan expats abroad or the odd African dictator?
Take also their present much hyped walk. When their appeal to the lesser gods with coconuts and curses brought them no succor, they have now resorted to the Foot Voyage used by UNP’s J.R. Jayewardene with stunning results to bring about the downfall of Mrs. Bandaranaike’s SLFP Government in the seventies. But JR used this means not even at the tail end of the SLFP government but after it had extended its five-year term using emergency laws; at a time when there was genuine ground swell uproar for a change in government. But the Joint Opposition have jumped the gun again as they did last year and are deploying this tactic even before the present Government elected in August last year has completed its first year in office.
But to the desperate nothing is impossible. To former Rajapaksa Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage the aim of the present Pada Yatra is to topple this Government.
“A people’s uprising happened in Brazil recently,” he said, “If it can happen in Brazil, it can happen here.” If Aluthgamage is expecting a Kandy Spring in the style of the Arab Spring, he will be greatly disappointed. The Arab Spring sprung from the ground. It did not rain from above.
As for MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena more than one million people will storm Colombo on August 1st when the Pada Yatra finally makes it to the capital. To achieve this figure it would mean that over ten thousand people would have to join the march at every milepost in the 72 mile journey. According to the itinerary announced there were to be four sectors, namely, Kandy to Mawanella, then Nittambuwe, then Kiribathgoda to Colombo.
Is it to be the case where, for instance, ten thousand or so walk the first sector
comprising 16 miles from Kandy to Mawanella on July 28 and then go home to be replaced by another 10,000 to walk the second sector consisting 30 miles from Mawanella to Nittambuwe on July 29; then another ten thousand or so to do the third sector comprising 19 miles from Nittambuwe to Kiribathgoda on July 30; and there, with Sunday the 31st declared rest day in the five day test, to be joined by the balance 900,000 and more who will bus it there from down south and other parts to do the final stretch of 7 miles to Colombo on August 1st?
How unlike Mao’s long march which covered more than 4,000 miles and crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges to topple the regime of Chiang Kai-shek or Fidel Castro’s march on Havana to overthrow the hated Batista? Compared to these concerted marches which had genuine grassroots’ support, doesn’t the Rajapaksa Pada Yatra seem more like a shallow melodrama shown on local TV in the afternoons interspersed with commercial breaks, with its sole purpose being to make heroes out of its main actors?
The crowds of course may be there. Large crowds have been the hall mark of Rajapaksas organised rallies even whilst in power. But no longer are the masses taken in by such shows of strength. Constant use has worn out the novelty and, though the millions spent on staging them may make good entertainment for a bored audience, it has done naught to raise the political fortunes of its ringmasters.
When the circus comes to town tomorrow, crippling Colombo with its crowds, and holds its rally at a yet to be decided venue, it will say its malarkey and disappear to their holes again. That much can be tolerated. What cannot be stomached is that their actions threaten the stability of this nation upon which rests its economic prosperity. Let the JO wander where they will on the road to nowhere, but let them not take the nation as their travelling companion.