{"id":47448,"date":"2015-08-29T14:29:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T21:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=47448"},"modified":"2015-08-29T14:29:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T21:29:46","slug":"o-that-way-madness-lies-let-me-shun-that-king-lear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/29\/o-that-way-madness-lies-let-me-shun-that-king-lear\/","title":{"rendered":"“O that way madness lies; let me shun that;” -King Lear"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Gnana Moonesinghe\u00a0<\/em>Courtesy Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In the absence of justice what is sovereignty but organized robbery<\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0Saint Augustine<\/p>\n

Political concepts \u2013 national government, unity government, coalition government, constructive opposition so many of them are flying around! Confusion galore – genuine misunderstanding or misperception of the content of these concepts and or a deliberate infusion of mix up with intent to mislead is making the post parliamentary election scenario baffling. It is disheartening that the parliamentary election results did not give a convincing majority to any one party. The simple majority that the UNP secured could have been built upon but politics has become no longer the art of the possible; it has become the art of the contrived. The straight road is not possible to take; the road is deliberately strewn with a difficult terrain, hard to maneuver. But the road has to be traversed to reach the end, and in this political context to reach a decisive finality.<\/p>\n

A government has to be formed. The people voted for it. Whether they voted wisely or not is neither here nor there. The matter is closed. Those at the helm have to make do with what permutations and combinations are possible and get a government going to fulfill the task of serving the people. Therefore whether the attempt at government making is to form a national government, a unity government or a coalition remains in the hands of those elected. Their personal interests or political party agenda has to be of extraneous concern to the immediate task assigned to them by the electorate. People have pressing needs, concerns and aspirations. They are not timeless demands vested in their elected representatives; they are time bound marked \u2018URGENT\u2019.<\/p>\n

The call even prior to the elections was to install a government that could operate on a consensual foundation so that some of the pressing issues facing the nation can be resolved with a decisive finality, remiss in past agreements or understandings. Obviously the possible alliances cannot be with parties with homogenous viewpoints. If that was so, then there would have been no need for different party affiliations. It may be less complicated to call the hoped for alliance a get together within an agreed time frame rather than give it a conventional name such as unity government or national government etc. as it seems to give rise to such controversies and controversial positions.<\/p>\n

Usually this getting together of political parties happens during a time of war or other national emergency. Already within the two major parties attempting to coalesce there are other parties who have made common cause with the major party of their choice. Therefore the \u2018getting together\u2019 idea within a larger grouping cannot be an alien concept. It just requires a responsive mindset among the parties to think beyond themselves, their narrow personality and parochial interests and take a leap to view the national horizon. From this point it is a question of planning strategies to provide peace and security, law and order and economic development, all of which are features to provide an acceptable quality of life to the people.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka needs foreign direct investment to make this move forward. A bickering group of politicians will not be able to entice investments. Investors look not only towards feasibility and profitability of their investments but they also look to a peaceful environment to have their investments insured with the acceptance of all the stakeholders in the country. A \u2018got together\u2019 government will help to speed up progress of an agreed program of work which under other circumstances will get embroiled in discussions, arguments and counter arguments to score brownie points for narrow political advantage. National gain can and must only be measured from the point of the benefit that can accrue to the people and certainly not to their representatives.<\/p>\n

This is a time of crisis. An unconventional election was fought where an ex-president was fighting to become an MP in a government headed by a president who succeeded him from the same party. These are options only possible in Sri Lanka. It was also an election where the cry of divisive ethnic stance was taken up on political platform by the UPFA while the president remained unequivocal in challenging such anti national attempts by resonating his call for reconciliation and resolution of outstanding minority issues along with the need to look at parochial matters pertaining to the rural poor hitherto overlooked in the umbrella coverage of national development strategies – water problem in Polonnaruwa, land to the displaced in Sampur.<\/p>\n

While experienced senior politicians are quibbling with words and concepts in political terminology it is indeed timely to ask the question why any one of them opt to be in politics? It is also timely to remind the Hon. MPs that a government is put in place for the welfare of the people and not to jostle for positions for MPs or for their party! All governments by virtue of being institutionalized exercise its authority to initiate and guide its economic, social and administrative role and put into effect the responsibility that is attached to it. In the execution of the mandate on which the government rests, auxiliary bodies need to be institutionalized for the convenience of the people of this country so that their rights, needs and expectations find expression in government fiats.<\/p>\n

The repeal of the 18th Amendment and the passing of the 19thAmendment \u2013 even in its diluted form- proclaimed the legal restrictions placed on the authoritarian reach of the Executive. It is however necessary to be pre-warned that the use of constitutional prevarication to subvert the sovereignty of the people is to be deplored as much as the overt attempts in the past. Good governance should be open to transparent, accountable administration. The promise of Right to Information, free and fair access to judicial and administrative redress, dedicated awareness of the reality of Sri Lanka as a plural society and human rights as an inherent right of every individual are what Yahapalanya spells out to us citizens.<\/p>\n

The change anticipated since January 8 \u2013 some of which had been secured – together with the \u2018March 12 Declaration\u2019 for electing men and women of moral character untainted with charges of drug peddling, casino culture along with its baggage of drugs, alcoholism, prostitution and other criminal activities which nets in kidnappings, disappearances and killings opened up further an environment of hope for \u2018clean\u2019 living. Much to the disappointment of the many the March 12 call was largely ignored and the January 8 expectation for change remains diminished.<\/p>\n

To combat the adverse effect of the persistence of the ambitious parliamentarian fighting for the satisfaction of their personal ambitions, the leadership of the two parties that have signed the MOU should swiftly take steps to clinch the negotiations with the country\u2019s interest uppermost in their minds. There is no doubt that if the former president were to call his MPs from the UPFA to fall in line it will be obeyed pronto. That would end the prevailing shameless behavior among the individual MPs clamouring for positions. It is possible that by the time this gets to the press some patched up accommodation may have been hatched. It is time that the haggling for positions and schemes to obstruct progress is put aside and national interest given precedence. Differences must be thrashed out and policies and strategies based on the manifestos worked out for collaboration to work together in the interests of the people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gnana Moonesinghe\u00a0Courtesy Island In the absence of justice what is sovereignty but organized robbery.\u00a0Saint Augustine Political concepts \u2013 national government, unity government, coalition government, constructive opposition so many of them are flying around! Confusion galore – genuine misunderstanding or misperception of the content of these concepts and or a deliberate infusion of mix up […]<\/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-47448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47448","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=47448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}