By Sudat Pasqual -Courtesy The Nation

Fingaporean Hind Insertion is that uniquely Sri Lankan political art of inserting the rejected through the hind.

The 2015 general Election is mercifully over. Seriously, how much fibs can one nation endure? It is a miracle that Sri Lankans were not dropping like flies from fibbergasption.
WTF is fibbergasption?

Fibbergasption occurs when an individual cannot absorb any more political lies and half-truths and  just gives in to the inevitable bleakness that is about to envelop their existence.

 The election of Maithripala Sirisena as President was meant to bring about a new political order. An order based on fairness, transparency and decency. Sirisena promised the country that his cards will always be laid down face up

Let’s get to the crux of the matter; post-election perversion of democracy in Sri Lanka.
In a democracy, people get to choose who will represent their interests. Those who want to represent their fellow travellers will declare their intentions and seek support at an election. Those who get the most number of votes get to attend to matters of their constituents. Others figure out a way to keep themselves occupied till the next election. There are winners and there are losers. Democracy is definitive that way. Or, is it?
You see, in Sri Lanka there is this political monster called the National List. Actually, the original thinking behind the National List was quite honorable. The National List allowed a political party the means to include a person or persons from underrepresented sectors of the population or persons who were in possession of skills and knowledge that were of vital importance to the well-being of the nation. However, in actuality the National List is putty in the hands of party leaders and their parasitic groupies. Many a time, the National List has been used to sneak in unelectable losers who offered unquestioned support to the party hierarchy. This has been the way the cookie crumbled ever since the List was introduced back in the 1980’s.

The election of Maithripala Sirisena as President was meant to bring about a new political order. An order based on fairness, transparency and decency. Sirisena promised the country that his cards will always be laid down face up. Sirisena’s main groupies in the form of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) and the United National Party(UNP) said ditto. They said or implied that the National List will not be used to launder unpalatable politicians back into the system. The JVP was the most vociferous in their support of the idea. They harped on the importance of the political conscience.

Well, on August 18, 2015 the JVP found out that talk was cheap and very few had been listening to their spiel. The country voted in a mere 3 JVP candidates. All others were rejected. JVP did receive the right to nominate 2 more from the National List based on the % of votes they received. In spite of their promise to heed their political conscience and the will of the people, JVP nominated a person through their National List who was categorically rejected by the voter. Apparently the JVP conscience became unconscious during deliberations.

There is similar talk in the UNP circles as well. There is a concerted move by a group of people to exert pressure on the leadership to bring in individuals through the National List who were rejected by the voter. It must be acknowledged that this has not been confirmed since the UNP has not finalised their List, yet.

Even more despairing is what seems to be in the works in President Sirisena’s camp. Maithripala Sirisena, the champion of democracy, fairness and decency seems headed to appoint individuals who are willing to do the hatchet work for him through the National List. Sirisena’s sole intention, it seems, is to politically asphyxiate Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena showed his intentions just prior to the elections when he sacked the General Secretaries of his party and the Alliance he was heading and appointed two of his loyalists even though the legality of his actions were in doubt. That was not the actions of a man committed to decency and fair play. It was the action of a man under siege and who was willing to sacrifice his promise of good governance on the altar of political expediency.
Considering, all who have been entrusted with promoting the welfare of the people should step back from the precipice of political hypocrisy and expediency and just do the right thing.

Say no to Fingaporian Hind Insertion and let’s find a permanent cure for Fibbergasption.
Please.