{"id":125617,"date":"2022-05-23T14:55:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T21:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=125617"},"modified":"2022-05-23T14:55:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T21:55:15","slug":"who-has-had-the-last-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/05\/23\/who-has-had-the-last-laugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Has Had the Last Laugh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By N. Sathiya Moorthy <\/strong><\/em>Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Ironic but true. At the end of Act II, Scene II (if that is what it is), the villain has turned hero, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, against whom the whole world seemed to have turned, has proved that he has Parliament on his side. The 119-68 headcount on the combined Opposition motion to suspend the Standing Orders, for the House to take up their \u2018censure motion\u2019 against the President showed the Government had more than the 113 required for an absolute majority in the 225-member House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This outcome also bettered the earlier pro-Government vote to elect Ajith Rajapakse as Deputy Speaker, 109-78 with 23 invalid votes, or those who did not want to be caught \u2018abstaining.\u2019 Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and son Namal were absent for the entire day. Unlike the censure motion, the Deputy Speaker\u2019s election did not show an absolute majority for the Government, indicating that more members wanted Gota to continue as President than the Opposition might have assumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament\u2019s Standing Orders help fix the House\u2019s schedule. By seeking to have it suspended, the Opposition wanted the \u2018censure motion\u2019 against President Gotabaya taken up for debate and vote on an urgent basis. For all this, a censure motion is only to express the \u2018displeasure\u2019 of the House. It is different from an impeachment motion with two-thirds majority or 151 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition strategy was bald. With earlier Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa out of office, the pending No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Government \u2013 entitled to priority debate and vote \u2013 had become infructuous when the House met on Tuesday (17 May). As Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe explained with his years of experience as Parliament, now the ruling SLPP can take the \u2018suspension-motion\u2019 route to scuttle future debates on the censure motion, whenever scheduled for vote in the normal course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lone outsider<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Ranil had thought of upstaging Gota in his own way by making a public suggestion for a woman Deputy Speaker and thus avoid a contest, it was not to be. Taking him on his word, or to test his equations with President Gota, or to expose his limitations in this \u2018unholy alliance of unprecedented convenience,\u2019 the Opposition fielded a woman, Rohini Kavirathna. As if to tell the new Prime Minister on who called the political shots in this hybrid system in which Ranil is still the \u2018lone outsider,\u2019 the ruling SLPP fielded Ajith Rajapakse, and he won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil should have learnt his early lessons. Again unilaterally, or so it seems, he had appointed four of his UNP colleagues to take charge of the \u2018shortage-sectors,\u2019 including food, fuel, and medicine. This he did when new Cabinet Ministers were expected to take charge of each of these portfolios, leading to avoidable tension and confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe, the President did not react as sharply to dislodge Ranil\u2019s nominees. Instead, he appointed four new minsters, though not all of them would be taking back the powers of the four Ranil men. Of course, with Parliament\u2019s session set to commence on schedule and the Cabinet expansion expected to be delayed, it made sense for Gota to have more ministers to represent the Government in the House. Of them, Dinesh Gunawardena continues to be the Leader of the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it looks as if the Gota-Ranil camp did better to take the fizz out of the public protest of the people\u2019s movement at capital Colombo\u2019s Galle Face Green waterfront, rechristened as \u2018GotaGoGama,\u2019 or simply G-3. In the midst of the emergency and nation-wide curfew, the Gota Government allowed the protestors to return to the venue after the 9 May attacks on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protestors were still demanding the President\u2019s exit and his Administration was facilitating their return to protest, as if to establish the Government\u2019s democratic credentials for the whole world to see. PM Ranil took the cake \u2013 and also the wind out of the protestors\u2019 sail, even more \u2013 when he named yet another UNP leader to head a team of officials to ensure a regular supply of food and water and attend to other creature comforts of the protestors, as if they were protesting against some third-nation leader, if not were attending a carnival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, Gota\u2019s greatest tactical victory was in the way he forced his elder brother and political mentor Mahinda to quit as Prime Minister, making it look voluntary. The popular leader that he was\/is Mahinda lacked the strategic skills of Gota, which had gone a long way in helping his government annihilate the dreaded LTTE in its time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political historians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the dust settles, political historians, for years to come, would be analysing how Gota could do this to Mahinda, and still conclude that it\u2019s what politics is all about. In doing so, they would acknowledge how Gota also managed to turn the Nation\u2019s ire towards Mahinda when he alone was to be held accountable for misadministration on multiple fronts \u2013 tax concessions, Chinese organic fertiliser, etc, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By getting all other Rajapaksas, including Mahinda, out of the people\u2019s way, somewhere Gota seemed to have concluded that he would be spared or he could overwhelm popular sentiment through Parliament.  He may have a point, but it needs to be tested, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That way, after the 9 May \u2018Monday Mayhem,\u2019 especially the unprecedented arsonist attacks on the homes and other properties of 75 ruling party personalities, the Government has the Police and the Security Forces where they should be. As Minister Kanchana Wijesekera recalled for Parliament\u2019s benefit, the attacks on MPs\u2019 homes had commenced as far back as 4 April, and not as \u2018retaliatory hits\u2019 on 9 May, when alone ruling party goons targeted the peaceful protestors at Galle Face Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means, the mass protests could continue as long as the protestors wanted to vent their anger in whatever peaceful forms possible. But it should have to and would have to end there \u2013 whether or not Gota quits as President, whether or not Ranil continues as Prime Minister, early elections or not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the writer:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer is a Policy Analyst and Commentator, based in Chennai, India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By N. Sathiya Moorthy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By N. Sathiya Moorthy Courtesy Ceylon Today Ironic but true. At the end of Act II, Scene II (if that is what it is), the villain has turned hero, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, against whom the whole world seemed to have turned, has proved that he has Parliament on his side. The 119-68 headcount on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125617","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=125617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}