The native Americans use smoke to coax the armadillo out of its burrows. The armour of this animal only unfurls itself when the hot breath of fire caresses and tickles it.
How does a nation get rid of, or “smoke out”, its ruler, like for example incumbent Executive President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who, per the majority of the people, protesting, or standing in queues in the streets, has exhausted his welcome? Is it the threat of mutiny or sedition that one uses as the gambit, or the lure of more power to ambush the Executive into making a fatal blunder?
Following months-long protests that are still going strong, which have led to both topographical and demographic changes to the country, with the former signified by the creation of the “GotaGoGama” and the “MynaGoGama”, named after their unwitting patrons, and the latter due to the personal-political schism experienced by the erstwhile voters of the ruling Rajapaksa duo, and those shuffling their mortal coil to the latest queue for the soon-to-be shibboleth of personal hygiene – soap – this week will see those among the protesting public who are steadfast and uncompromising in their demand for the present seat-warmers of the posts of the Executive President and the Prime Minister to vacate office get an opportunity to flex their legal muscles towards the realising of the expulsion of the said duumvirate – President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Parliamentary Opposition, specifically, the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, and the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) Spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran PC are scheduled to present no-confidence motions (NCMs) to Parliament, the former against the Government and the latter against the President.
This is in part due to the two siblings tenaciously refusing to budge an inch from their occupation of the people’s sovereignty in the bloated Executive and Legislative realms, citing the possession of both the people’s electoral mandate and the requisite Parliamentary numbers. While President Rajapaksa, who no longer inspires “oderint dum metuant” (let them hate, so long as they fear), has categorically stated that he will not step down, he has professed openness, sans any clarity on the specifics, to an interim Government with those who can show the Parliamentary majority, or an interim all-party Government. He has noted that the decision regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers of the said interim Government should be decided by a national assembly of party leaders.
For his part, the President’s elder brother, Prime Minister Rajapaksa, has stated that his younger brother, the President, has not asked him to resign and neither would he make such a request. As observed by a mafia don in The Godfather Part II, it is “between the brothers”.
The move of employing a no-confidence motion for the purpose as opposed to an impeachment resolution is unprecedented, but justified. The Constitution allows for the impeachment of the President, but the legal provisions in place for an impeachment are cosmetic and decorative, and as Sumanthiran puts it, inordinately time consuming (approximately two years, according to him).
Hence the no-confidence motions. These require only the simple majority of 113 MPs. According to the SJB and the newly “independent” Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government MPs, they have the numbers to pass the anti-Government no-confidence motion, also counting members of the Government’s cadre of underlings among them. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People’s Power and the United National Party too have expressed support for it. Concerning the anti-President no-confidence motion, according to its framer Sumanthiran, with the exception of certain Government “independents”, all the usual suspects are onboard.
It was not an act of thaumaturgy that installed “an ugly American”, as Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa described him, to oversee the nation’s financial affairs and set them on the path of economic ruin. It was entirely the doing of Gammanpila, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Weerawansa, and Maithripala Sirisena et al., all of whom gave their express assent to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution that paved the way for the said “American” to sully the Diyawanna with his unique snake oil-brand of fringe monetary theory.
Of course, Gammanpila and Weerawansa et al. claimed that their support was conditional on a Presidential promise to remove the clause permitting dual citizens’ entry into Parliament from a future amendment of the Constitution. So much for Weerawansa’s rabid American un-exceptionalism.
More to the point, none of them emitted as much as a whimper when it came to the ill-advised tax cuts that were introduced when Prime Minister Rajapaksa helmed the Finance Ministry, or the subsequent nursery crime of 100% organic agriculture, which was entirely the President’s problem child. Their opposition has been but a mere illusory spectacle of tarred dissent, and has amounted to nothing beneficial in the public interest.
The Government ‘independents’, a movement that started with the disenchantment of Gammanpila, Nanayakkara, and Weerawansa over the President allegedly being under the thumb of his brother Basil Rajapaksa, and which feeling was manifested by the trio opposing a questionable bilateral power deal, and has since led to other SLPPers’/SLFPers’ defection to the no-man’s land of “independents” within the Parliament, has, suffice to say, been up to more than its share of political mischief. They too have the blood of forex exsanguination and insolvency on their hands.
However, the grouping of “independents” has now been presented with an opportunity to right political wrongs, seek redemption and put to rest valid and persistent questions about their sincerity and dyed-in-the-wool patriotism. This concerns their vote on the two motions of no confidence.
Regardless of their lack of animus with Premier Rajapaksa, and for that matter with President Rajapaksa, with their spleen reserved thus far for former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, and regardless of whether the Rajapaksas’ have dirt on each and every one of the “independents”, which could be potentially politically ruinous, it is time for them to do their duty by the electorate by stepping up to the plate in this time of grave national crises. They are the swing vote.
Removing the Premier alone, and leaving the President be – even if one leaves the unlikely scenario of the cutting of the umbilical noose to the siblings themselves – would only ensure that the status quo festers. It is time to sever ties with the family. This is no time for political skullduggery.
Therefore, anything short of a yes for both the motions, with abstentions, a very likely possibility from this group of “independents”, is completely unacceptable, unless they seek to affirm the affixing of the “pseudo” tag before “independents”. Their litmus test is the nation’s D-Day.
Then there is the fallacious logic behind the argument that the absence of the Head of the Executive, the President, not to mention also the absence of the Premier (as stated by the man himself) and the Government, would plunge the country, double-quick time, into instability and precipitate a descent into anarchy.
This erroneous reasoning has to be repudiated. What those who argue so fail to comprehend is that Sri Lanka is already an anarchic State. Anarchy is not the absence of leadership. Anarchy is the leadership of absence. By this working definition, it is the incumbent Rajapaksa rule that is anarchic. The senile cannot rule, period. Plus, the argument falls flat, as the Constitution is unambiguous on the processes that would be set in motion in the event the President, the Premier, and the Government are no more in office.
Can Sri Lankans, whose civic-mindedness towards democracy jarringly mimics the conditioning of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, be foolhardy enough to have confidence in the motions of no confidence that seek only to propagate the messianic cult of the Executive President and the proposed Executive Prime Minister (under the two submitted 21st Amendments to the Constitution) through a process of legal sublimation in this paint-by-numbers democracy, instead of the defenestration or at the very least, straitjacketing of such high and malodorous offices?
The answer is a resounding aye. As a prescription for “making it impossible for anyone to oppress his fellow man”, the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, suggested ensuring “that no one shall possess power”. Under the present structure of governance, it is required for the purpose of functioning, to vest controlled authority, under a system of checks and balances, within and between the branches of Government. Yet, it is possession by power, that oldest of flaws, that the country must safeguard against. ‘Independents’ in name only?
01 May 2022
‘Independents’ in name only?
01 May 2022
The native Americans use smoke to coax the armadillo out of its burrows. The armour of this animal only unfurls itself when the hot breath of fire caresses and tickles it.
How does a nation get rid of, or “smoke out”, its ruler, like for example incumbent Executive President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who, per the majority of the people, protesting, or standing in queues in the streets, has exhausted his welcome? Is it the threat of mutiny or sedition that one uses as the gambit, or the lure of more power to ambush the Executive into making a fatal blunder?
Following months-long protests that are still going strong, which have led to both topographical and demographic changes to the country, with the former signified by the creation of the “GotaGoGama” and the “MynaGoGama”, named after their unwitting patrons, and the latter due to the personal-political schism experienced by the erstwhile voters of the ruling Rajapaksa duo, and those shuffling their mortal coil to the latest queue for the soon-to-be shibboleth of personal hygiene – soap – this week will see those among the protesting public who are steadfast and uncompromising in their demand for the present seat-warmers of the posts of the Executive President and the Prime Minister to vacate office get an opportunity to flex their legal muscles towards the realising of the expulsion of the said duumvirate – President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Parliamentary Opposition, specifically, the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, and the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) Spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran PC are scheduled to present no-confidence motions (NCMs) to Parliament, the former against the Government and the latter against the President.
This is in part due to the two siblings tenaciously refusing to budge an inch from their occupation of the people’s sovereignty in the bloated Executive and Legislative realms, citing the possession of both the people’s electoral mandate and the requisite Parliamentary numbers. While President Rajapaksa, who no longer inspires “oderint dum metuant” (let them hate, so long as they fear), has categorically stated that he will not step down, he has professed openness, sans any clarity on the specifics, to an interim Government with those who can show the Parliamentary majority, or an interim all-party Government. He has noted that the decision regarding the appointment of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers of the said interim Government should be decided by a national assembly of party leaders.
For his part, the President’s elder brother, Prime Minister Rajapaksa, has stated that his younger brother, the President, has not asked him to resign and neither would he make such a request. As observed by a mafia don in The Godfather Part II, it is “between the brothers”.
The move of employing a no-confidence motion for the purpose as opposed to an impeachment resolution is unprecedented, but justified. The Constitution allows for the impeachment of the President, but the legal provisions in place for an impeachment are cosmetic and decorative, and as Sumanthiran puts it, inordinately time consuming (approximately two years, according to him).
Hence the no-confidence motions. These require only the simple majority of 113 MPs. According to the SJB and the newly “independent” Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Government MPs, they have the numbers to pass the anti-Government no-confidence motion, also counting members of the Government’s cadre of underlings among them. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People’s Power and the United National Party too have expressed support for it. Concerning the anti-President no-confidence motion, according to its framer Sumanthiran, with the exception of certain Government “independents”, all the usual suspects are onboard.
It was not an act of thaumaturgy that installed “an ugly American”, as Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa described him, to oversee the nation’s financial affairs and set them on the path of economic ruin. It was entirely the doing of Gammanpila, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Weerawansa, and Maithripala Sirisena et al., all of whom gave their express assent to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution that paved the way for the said “American” to sully the Diyawanna with his unique snake oil-brand of fringe monetary theory.
Of course, Gammanpila and Weerawansa et al. claimed that their support was conditional on a Presidential promise to remove the clause permitting dual citizens’ entry into Parliament from a future amendment of the Constitution. So much for Weerawansa’s rabid American un-exceptionalism.
More to the point, none of them emitted as much as a whimper when it came to the ill-advised tax cuts that were introduced when Prime Minister Rajapaksa helmed the Finance Ministry, or the subsequent nursery crime of 100% organic agriculture, which was entirely the President’s problem child. Their opposition has been but a mere illusory spectacle of tarred dissent, and has amounted to nothing beneficial in the public interest.
The Government ‘independents’, a movement that started with the disenchantment of Gammanpila, Nanayakkara, and Weerawansa over the President allegedly being under the thumb of his brother Basil Rajapaksa, and which feeling was manifested by the trio opposing a questionable bilateral power deal, and has since led to other SLPPers’/SLFPers’ defection to the no-man’s land of “independents” within the Parliament, has, suffice to say, been up to more than its share of political mischief. They too have the blood of forex exsanguination and insolvency on their hands.
However, the grouping of “independents” has now been presented with an opportunity to right political wrongs, seek redemption and put to rest valid and persistent questions about their sincerity and dyed-in-the-wool patriotism. This concerns their vote on the two motions of no confidence.
Regardless of their lack of animus with Premier Rajapaksa, and for that matter with President Rajapaksa, with their spleen reserved thus far for former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, and regardless of whether the Rajapaksas’ have dirt on each and every one of the “independents”, which could be potentially politically ruinous, it is time for them to do their duty by the electorate by stepping up to the plate in this time of grave national crises. They are the swing vote.
Removing the Premier alone, and leaving the President be – even if one leaves the unlikely scenario of the cutting of the umbilical noose to the siblings themselves – would only ensure that the status quo festers. It is time to sever ties with the family. This is no time for political skullduggery.
Therefore, anything short of a yes for both the motions, with abstentions, a very likely possibility from this group of “independents”, is completely unacceptable, unless they seek to affirm the affixing of the “pseudo” tag before “independents”. Their litmus test is the nation’s D-Day.
Then there is the fallacious logic behind the argument that the absence of the Head of the Executive, the President, not to mention also the absence of the Premier (as stated by the man himself) and the Government, would plunge the country, double-quick time, into instability and precipitate a descent into anarchy.
This erroneous reasoning has to be repudiated. What those who argue so fail to comprehend is that Sri Lanka is already an anarchic State. Anarchy is not the absence of leadership. Anarchy is the leadership of absence. By this working definition, it is the incumbent Rajapaksa rule that is anarchic. The senile cannot rule, period. Plus, the argument falls flat, as the Constitution is unambiguous on the processes that would be set in motion in the event the President, the Premier, and the Government are no more in office.
Can Sri Lankans, whose civic-mindedness towards democracy jarringly mimics the conditioning of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, be foolhardy enough to have confidence in the motions of no confidence that seek only to propagate the messianic cult of the Executive President and the proposed Executive Prime Minister (under the two submitted 21st Amendments to the Constitution) through a process of legal sublimation in this paint-by-numbers democracy, instead of the defenestration or at the very least, straitjacketing of such high and malodorous offices?
The answer is a resounding aye. As a prescription for “making it impossible for anyone to oppress his fellow man”, the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, suggested ensuring “that no one shall possess power”. Under the present structure of governance, it is required for the purpose of functioning, to vest controlled authority, under a system of checks and balances, within and between the branches of Government. Yet, it is possession by power, that oldest of flaws, that the country must safeguard against. Kapruka
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Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!