{"id":47008,"date":"2015-08-16T09:54:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T15:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=47008"},"modified":"2015-08-15T02:57:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T09:57:17","slug":"those-whom-the-gods-wish-to-destroy-they-first-make-them-mad-president-maithripala-sirisena-sacks-the-secretaries-of-the-slfp-and-the-unfpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/16\/those-whom-the-gods-wish-to-destroy-they-first-make-them-mad-president-maithripala-sirisena-sacks-the-secretaries-of-the-slfp-and-the-unfpa\/","title":{"rendered":"“Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make them mad? President Maithripala Sirisena sacks the Secretaries of the SLFP and the UNFPA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

“Madness” is a condition of emotional stress, short of insanity, caused by inability to handle mentation, t<\/em>he<\/em> process of reasoning and thinking\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad, said ancient Greeks. This is an ancient saying credited to Euripides, the Greek dramatist who lived in the fifth century BC. The background to this ancient saying was that people who become mad, become, to varying degrees, unthinking and unable to act in their own best interests, and that if an individual is driven mad by the powers that be, the authorities, then the collective would become complicit in their own destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no direct or indirect reference here to President Sirisena, and no doubt he is very much sane and knows what he is doing. But his recent action in sending former President Mahinda Rajapaksa a 5 page vitriolic letter accusing him without facts or justification, of misdemeanors one could imagine and even what is beyond the pale of one\u2019s imagination, leads one to think everything is not right with the course of action he has taken over the last 24 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, he waited till the eve of the general election to fire his first missile. This showed he was as bad a political opportunist as the ones he has been accusing of. Of course his methodology is nothing new as he has shown no one can rely on him for what he might do on a day to day basis. After all, he betrayed President Rajapaksa after his last supper with him!<\/span><\/p>\n

The timing of this action showed President Sirisena was abusing his powers to influence the outcome of the general election. This is unethical and probably unconstitutional as well. Again, he has done what he has accused others of doing in regard to abuse of power.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has now sacked the two Secretaries of the SLFP and UPFA, and plunged the SLFP and the UPFA into turmoil on the eve of the general election, leaving some to ask the question how a political party that cannot manage itself could manage the country as a government.<\/span><\/p>\n

In creating this havoc, President Sirisena has demonstrated he would go to any length to defeat his own party and the political combine, the UPFA at the general election, all to prevent one man from becoming the Prime Minister through the will of the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Sirisena has shown he does not care for mandates, except his own and he seems to have preferred to do the bidding of those opposed to the SLFP and the UPFA, rather than be loyal to his own party. So much for loyalty.<\/span><\/p>\n

If one is to examine a connection if any to what the Greek dramatist is supposed to have coined, President Sirisena is showing some signs that there is unthinking and an inability to act in his own best interests, if one were to assume his best interest is the same as that of his party and the country, and by acting in this strange manner, he is leading his party and his country to destruction as the damage he is doing to the democratic traditions and structure of the country could well be irrevocable.<\/span><\/p>\n

One cannot imagine how anyone could have confidence in Sri Lanka if its democracy is damaged by its own President. The economic and social consequences will be severe for the country. A country that was freed from 30 years of terrorism and war, and which was on an economic and social renaissance for the last 5 years and up until January 2015, will revert to economic hardships it experienced in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this because President Sirisena simply could not countenance the possibility of the return to power of the person he beat in January 2015. He could not stomach the possibility that the people could in fact give that mandate to Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maithripala Sirisena has shown that he loves himself more than the country. Surely, if people decided to vote Mahinda Rajapaksa back to power, why is it that he cannot accept the people\u2019s mandate? Mahinda Rajapaksa will have to face the consequence if a court of law finds him guilty of corrupt activity or any serious misdemeanors is has been accused of. But till that happens he is innocent of all the accusations, and he should have the freedom like any other citizen to stand for election and to hold any office that the constitution allows him to hold. President Sirisena cannot thwart a peoples mandate should Mahinda Rajapaksa get that on the 17th<\/sup> of August.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Sirisena is showing increasing signs that he may not be able to cope with the pressures of the Presidency and leadership of the country. One shudders to think what he would have done if he was the President when the final war was fought against the LTTE, and how he would have handled the pressures that Mahinda Rajapaksa had to face during those dark days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Sirisena will have to give serious thought about his ability to be the President of Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale “Madness” is a condition of emotional stress, short of insanity, caused by inability to handle mentation, the process of reasoning and thinking\u201d Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad, said ancient Greeks. This is an ancient saying credited to Euripides, the Greek dramatist who lived in the fifth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47008","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=47008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}