{"id":120592,"date":"2021-11-23T18:39:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T01:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120592"},"modified":"2021-11-23T18:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T01:39:22","slug":"gotabayas-soliloquy-before-mare-crisium-some-home-truths-and-simple-hints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/23\/gotabayas-soliloquy-before-mare-crisium-some-home-truths-and-simple-hints\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotabaya\u2019s soliloquy before Mare Crisium: Some home truths and simple hints"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether \u2018tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?\u00a0
Hamlet in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial two year period of Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s\npresidential term has been largely wasted through no fault of his. The general\npublic know this truth. At the beginning, the MPs of the overwhelmingly\nrejected yahapalanaya, instead of assisting the then minority SLPP government\nformed after his election in November 2019, threw a spanner in the works by\nrefusing to pass the ad hoc appropriation bill for securing the funds needed\nfor conducting normal civil administration until a new parliament was elected.\nI for one don\u2019t think that the voting public have forgotten how the failed\nyahapalanites spurned the clearly expressed public will on that occasion and\ntried to scuttle the progress of the fledgeling government in order to get the\nparliamentary elections indefinitely postponed so that their own electoral\nprospects would brighten as the government\u2019s would proportionately darken due\nto its inability to function freely. When the unexpected global corona pandemic\nhit Sri Lanka soon after his inauguration, president Gotabaya was able to\ncontain it with the assistance of the dedicated health and security personnel.\nBut now, the government is floundering in a sea of troubles, principally due to\ndecisions made for him by advisors who are after goals contrary to his Vision\nof Prosperity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was reported as\nhaving said the following at a ceremony to mark the Sri Lanka National Science\nDay and Science Week in parallel with the World Science Day held at Temple\nTrees on November 10, 2021. To me, it appeared that, while making these\nremarks, he was not addressing them to the people sitting in front of him on\nthat occasion; but rather, he was soliloquizing in the imagined hearing of the\npeople who elected him as president:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas because of the failure of five years of (Yahapalanaya) that I was elected\nto this post. But they (the Opposition) speak as if nothing happened during the\npast two years under my rule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To change this\nsystem, people ought not to bring back into power the old group if they fail to\ndeliver what you expect of them, be it me, ministers of my government, or MPs.\nLook for new ones. I don\u2019t know how to do that, though. If we do something\ngood, it is necessary for everyone to cooperate for the sake of the country.\nThat is the duty of the Opposition. We don\u2019t have enough funds to invest in\ndevelopment. We need to bring in foreign investment. A country like ours cannot\ndo without foreign direct investment. We don\u2019t have enough resources. We cannot\nachieve any progress unless we do these investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nhad to adjust to a new normal as a result of the Covid pandemic. It\u2019s shameful\nthat when a new normal is announced, they go on demonstrations or hold\nmeetings. Is this what is needed under a new normal? This will lead to a new\noutbreak of the pandemic. Then we\u2019ll have to close the schools again, and the\ncountry, too. Even the Opposition should think about these things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The\nabove is my free translation of the president\u2019s words.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nsee this as an obviously unintended dramatic soliloquy in which the president\nreiterates by implication his sincere commitment to the pledges he has given to\nthe public. What  he almost literally says is that he won\u2019t try to get\nelected to power again, if rejected in case he fails to deliver the promised\nresults like the previous unsuccessful yahapalana government. Detractors read\nthe president\u2019s words as a confession of guilt for having (allegedly) misled\nthe public by offering false promises or as an admission of failure. In my\nopinion, both interpretations are baseless, considering the constitutional\nroadblocks placed on the path to recovery by the yahapalana dominated\nparliament just before its dissolution by the newly elected president, and the\nseverity of the economic issues resulting from the global corona pandemic.\nWhatever is happening now, the country owes the brightening prospects of the\narrival of a younger, less self centered generation of rulers to the\nachievements as well as the defects of the shared leadership of the two\nbrothers Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa. The ouster of the latter in 2015 in\nspite of his successful performance during his two terms was facilitated by his\nown lapses as a politician and a person which, being so well known by now, need\nno elaboration. Those deficiencies are even more brazenly in evidence than ever\nbefore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nGotabaya\u2019s problem is not a straightforward existential dilemma of \u2018to be, or\nnot to be\u2019 that racked young prince Hamlet\u2019s brain. It is definitely less life\nthreatening or less fateful than the latter\u2019s uncertainty. Gotabaya\u2019s concern,\ninstead, seems to be more mundane: it is about whether to maintain the illusion\nof the macho image of himself that the success of his performance as defense\nsecretary during his brother Mahinda\u2019s presidency (2005-15) persuaded his\nadmirers to conjure up in their minds; or whether to betray his feet of clay by\nreversing the earlier, apparently ironclad, policy decisions that he committed\nhimself to under different circumstances. Relaxing, where necessary, his\npersonally preferred military rigidness, in my opinion, is the need of the\nhour. Real or perceived lack of flexibility in the current situation (barring\ninstances where leniency is not possible such as drug busting operations) is\nlikely to wrack the boat that circumstances have made it his lot to\nskipper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nan earlier occasion (opening of the new Kelani Bridge, November 6, 2021),\npresident Goyabaya expressed his determination to fulfill the pledges stated in\nthe Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour manifesto. He described in some detail\nwhat the government had achieved amidst numerous odds stacked against it\nespecially due to the unprecedented and unrecognized corona pandemic that dealt\na severe blow on the country\u2019s economy. These achievements were deliberately\nignored by the opposition, whose policies when in power led to a critical\ndownturn in the economy. He stressed that he worked according to a plan, from\nwhich would not deviate, come what may. He also said he was capable of forcing\nthe cultivators to use organic fertilizer as through military coercion, though\nthat is something he would never apply; he would never violate the country\u2019s\ndemocracy for any reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually,\nthere never could be any resistance to the ban on chemical fertilizer on the\npart of the poor farmers who are vulnerable to kidney disease due to drinking\nwater contamination caused by chemicals, provided that an effective organic\nsubstitute is made available. (Incidentally, why not establish potable water\nproduction plants at state expense in the most severely affected areas for\nproviding safe drinking water for the mostly impoverished rice cultivators at a\nnominal charge or completely free?) However, this is not the time to introduce\na total ban, in view of the looming food scarcity predicted by experts. A drop\nin crop productivity during the switchover is inevitable. It will affect not\nonly rice production, but vegetables, tea, coconut etc. I for one feel that, at\nleast a large enough proportion of fertilizer provided should be of the\naccustomed chemical origin. Or the chemical fertilizer use could be subjected\nto a scientifically calculated phasing out period of gradual elimination involving\nthe application of more and more organic with  less and less chemical\nfertilizer, particularly for food crops. Priority must be given to production\nof food for domestic consumption, though producing organically grown food for\nexport could be more profitable in terms of foreign exchange earnings. In any\ncase, the organic food production industry must be rescued from the reigning\nrice and fertilizer mafiosi. People will not blame the president if he turned\nhis hawk\u2019s eye on them and the emerging criminals who trade in soil and rubble\nmixed with chemicals, pretending it to be organic fertilizer, and hang one or\ntwo as a warning to others who may be thinking of following their\nexample. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether \u2018tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them?\u00a0Hamlet in Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet The initial two year period of Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s presidential term has been largely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}