by : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

Faizer Mustapha is a blend of arrogance, bluffing, misleading, deception and cheating.  There has never been a parliamentarian possessing all these negative characteristics in Sri Lanka or may be anywhere in the world and I presume that this man, the son of a popular legal luminary of this country and a successful former Ambassador was compelled to display these negative qualities on the behest of Sirisena as a result of Sirisena’s extensive election phobia. It was obvious that he was playing the game of Sirisena’s election phobia as he has been severely slated by parliamentarians and politicians of every hue except Sirisena’s lap dogs and the Tamil politicians of the tamed opposition..

The island editorial writing on this subject on 22^nd November said that at the rate elections are being postponed on some pretext or the other people might forget how to vote and the much treasured ballot box might be a museum piece. It said that there is the danger of people’s franchise suffering from disuse atrophy, as it were, with democracy wasting rapidly. It asked who would have thought, when the Rajapaksa regime was ousted nearly three years ago, people would be deprived of their franchise in this manner. It said that the Court of Appeal order suspending the local government polls gazette till Dec. 04 came close on the heels of the resignation of Robert Mugabe as the President of Zimbabwe after sticking to power like a limpet for nearly four decades. It said that politicians the world over, especially the greedy ones in this country, should draw lessons from Mugabe’s fall and nobody can wield power forever. It further stated that it needs to be added that even in Mugabe’s land elections were held however rigged they may have been but our blessed land has been without elections for more than two years and, worse, there are no signs of an electoral contest in the foreseeable future.

(I will do anything for you Boss)

In this background, the Joint Opposition has urged the government to sack Faizer from his ministerial portfolio as he had failed to perform his duties. Addressing a media briefing at Dr, N.M.Perera Centre in Borella JO members have said that Minister Mustapha should take the full responsibility for postponing the LG polls for two and a half years and violating people’s franchise. JO MPs alleged that the country had been without elections for the last two and half years and Mustapha had to be blamed for the situation. Meanwhile, the JO MPs also tabled a no-confidence motion against Minister Mustapha in Parliament on Thursday (23^rd Nov,).

The motion was signed by 12 JO members and accuses the Minister of deliberately delaying the LG elections.The motion was signed by MPs Dinesh Gunawardena,  Ranjith Zoysa, Dilum Amunugama, Udaya Gammanpila, Piyal Nishantha, Janaka Wakkumbura, Sisira Jayakody, Bandula Gunawardena, Weerakumara Dissanayaka, Vijitha Berugoda,Wimalaweera Dissanayaka  and Padma Udayashantha Gunasekera.

JO Parliament leader Mr. Dinesh Gunawardene said that the allegations presented in the motion against Mustapha includes failure to take responsible action relating to hold elections as per the gazette notification issued on holding local government election, creating a situatiin conducive to make conflicts on delimitation matters, and failure to compy with the pledge given to parliament that LG elections will be held in January.

Earlier, Matara district JO MP Mr. Kanchana Wijesekera (son of former Minister Mr. Mahinda Wijesekera) disclosed in the Parliament that it was Sirisena loyalists who filed an appeal to postpone the elections.  He said that out of the 6 six petitioners one was from the Matara district who is the Coordinating Secretary of the Southern PC Member Pasanda Yapa, the son of State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene.  It was also revealed that the Lawyer appearing for these 6 petitioners was a junior lawyer working in the office of Minister Faizer’s father’s legal firm. It clearly showed that the despicable Minister too was behind the petition.

Faizer has also drawn flak from the UNP. UNP back bench parliamentarians have challenged Minister Faizer Musthapha to resign from his portfolio before the gazette on delimitation was proved incorrect. UNP’s Gampaha District MP Kavinda Jayawardhane has told a news conference held at the parliament complex that the minister should resign and sit at the back row as an ordinary MP. Several other UNP Parliamentarians also have expressed similar sentiments. The Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella has predicted that it will not be ale to hold election until at least April next year and he has cited as the Courts vacation from December 4^th reason for this.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake well known as deal Dissanayake of the deal opposition” has told the Parliament that the JVP as a party would take every possible legal action to expedite the elections. He has said certain things could not be achieved through the Judiciary and has stressed that they would take to the street to get the elections soon, and will join any force or movement despite their political differences in the struggle to win the elections. He has invited the Joint Opposition members and civil society groups to join in the struggle. He has also stated that the case filed in court to postpone the election was not done with good objectives but it was the use of court to fulfil petty political objectives.

He has pointed out that Provincial Councils Minister Faizer Mustapha was aware of the mistake in the Gazette and charged that Minister Mustapha purposely ignored it. He said that Minister Mustapha should resign from his portfolio as he has gone abroad when the case was taken up in court against him. He should have been in court and it was a planned conspiracy,

The JVP Leader has said that their members did not place their signatures on the No Confidence Motion submitted by JO as its content had not been drafted properly and they have submitted a separate motion against Minister Mustapha to the Speaker on Friday,  There is suspicion whether this separate motion by the JVP on this matter to the docile Speaker is the result of another episode of a clandestine deal to scuttle the JO NCM as they are well known for making moves only to protect and safeguard this foreign slavish government they laboured much to bring in to power with all sorts of lies and malicious slanders. There is valid reason for this suspicion as if they are genuinely interested in getting Mustapha, Sirisena’s lap dog, ousted they could have made all their criticisms in the debate of the JO NCM and also vote in support of the JO NCM.

It is pertinent to remind here that the former UNP Minister Dr. Wijedasa Rajapaksa has gone on record saying that the UNP gave Rs. 25 Lakhs to the leadership of the JVP during last elections and the JVP cannot be trusted. There were also many reports in the grapevine that the government sources gave Rs. 30 Million to Deal Kumara Dissanayake to make JVP MPs (6 MPs) vote for the Provincial Council Amendment Bill presented by Faizer Mustapha to override the Supreme Court objection to the 20^th Amendment.

The Speaker was to hold a Party Leaders’ meeting yesterday (Friday 24^th) to decide about holding the election and news about this meeting was not available at the time of writing this article.

Meanwhile the convenor of the Joint Opposition Parliamentarian Prasanna Ranatunga flaying the government has demanded to hold elections soon.  He has said that this government came to power by uttering all possible lies and promising to strengthen democracy in the country but people have been deprived of getting their representatives elected to local government institutions through which they can get their needs attended to.  He has pointed that there is no anti democratic act than snatching away the people’s right to franchise.

After the Court of Appeal issued an interim stay order, widespread speculation, contradictions and confusion along with questions as to who is trying to do what have arisen. The Court of Appeal interim order was granted on the gazette notification issued on February 17 this year. The notification related to the Delimitation Committee Report on the boundaries of local authorities, the number of members and the constituent parts of wards. The notification was issued by Minister Faizer Musthapha, an acolyte of Sirisena.

Among the political questions being raised is why the petitioners waited nine months to file this petition. Joint opposition leaders including former president Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa have alleged that President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP faction was responsible for the petition filed by electors from the Colombo city, Kandy, Panduwasnuwara, Hali-Ela, Matara  and Embilipitiya. The JO alleges the pro-Sirisena SLFP fears it might be defeated into the third or fourth place if Local Government elections are held in January next year, with JO front-liner Basil Rajapaksa claims that the new Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would win as many as 200 of the 340 councils. But the pro-Sirisena SLFP has denied these allegations and claimed it was confident of victory. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to be taking a strong stand as regards the Sirisena-faction and most political analysts believe a reconciliation is not possible. Sirisena has said he would not compromise on his principles for any reconciliation with the Rajapaksa faction but some SLFP ministers are reported to be keen on reconciliation mainly because they do not agree with the UNP’s socialist market economic policies. These include the handing over of the Hambantota Port area to a Chinese company, the Trincomalee oil farms to India, or Japan or both and the proposed free trade agreements with India, China and Singapore.

Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya was not named as a respondent in this petition. Critics point out that though there were contradictory reports, the stay order is not connected to the November 2 gazette notification issued by the Minister enabling the Elections Commission to hold local council polls sometime between January 25 and 31 next year. Therefore there are contradictory reports and confusion as to whether the local council election will be held in January or not. Reports indicated that the UNP, the SLFP, SLPP, the JVP and some election monitoring groups want to come in as intervenient petitioners asking that the stay order be suspended by the three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal. If that does not happen, the courts go on vacation on December 4^th and there are doubts whether the local council elections could be held in January.

This is the first time for the last nearly 3 years many members of th government and the Joint Opposition, except exclusively Tamil issues concerned tamed opposition have come to a consensus on a No Confidence Motion and the opportunity should not be missed to make this NCM a success.  People in the country too are dead against this haughty headed tyrant Minister for deliberately preventing them and denying them the opportunity to get their own representatives elected to look after the day to day affairs of their areas and to fulfil their needs.  Under these circumstances it is prudent for this despotic Minister to gracefully resign and go home before the people take up broomsticks against him wherever he goes.  This could definitely happen even if he overcomes the Parliament challenge through various political and pecuniary manipulations.