{"id":64314,"date":"2017-03-19T10:34:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T16:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=64314"},"modified":"2017-03-19T03:01:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T10:01:17","slug":"staying-in-power-and-staying-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/03\/19\/staying-in-power-and-staying-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying in power and staying power"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
It has become a tradition for Ranil Wickremesinghe to visit various signature tents at the Royal-Thomian and respond to questions put to him.\u00a0 It\u2019s all light-hearted.\u00a0 The questions are often tongue-in-cheek stuff and the responses are calculated to generate some laughter, one feels.<\/div>\n
It was no different this year.\u00a0 Two questions stood out because they were as serious as they were light.\u00a0 The responses, similarly, drew laughter and also provided food for thought.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One question was about prosecuting wrongdoers (of the previous regime).\u00a0 The Prime Minister was essentially asked when they would be brought to justice.\u00a0 The response was light:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
We are investigating, we are going to courts and we are allowing the lawyers to make money.\u201d\u00a0 He then added, as afterthought, lawyers have been big supporters of our party, so we can\u2019t let them down.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
[See the Big Match interview here<\/a>]<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He was obviously joking about helping lawyer loyalists, but he was correct in terms of the tangible outcomes of the process so far.\u00a0 What we do know and can appreciate is that such processes take time, perhaps longer than necessary but certainly better long than short for haste makes for error and perforce cannot service the cause of justice.\u00a0 What we do not appreciate is the selectivity that is so pronounced in the process.\u00a0 The focus is on allegations against the previous regime or rather key personalities in that regime.\u00a0 There have been serious violations, clearly, but some of them would fall into petty thievery compared to the daylight robbery associated with the Central Bank bond scam.\u00a0 If petty thieves deserve arrest, how come those accused of scheming to make billions are allowed to roam around free, is the question that many ask. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/a>Some trophies are hard to secure and even harder to keep<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But it was all light-hearted and we can leave it at that.\u00a0 As light-hearted was the question put to him earlier, \u2018Now that you are in power, what\u2019s your next step?\u2019\u00a0 Pat came the answer:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
The next step is to stay in power.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It was not an answer typical of politicians.\u00a0 It was, in contrast, an honest response.\u00a0 That\u2019s what politics and politicians are all about.\u00a0 Power.\u00a0 Striving to obtain it and thereafter fighting to keep it.\u00a0 Only, they don\u2019t say it.\u00a0 Kudos to the Prime Minister, even if it was said in jest and even though it was a slick way of spelling out things.\u00a0 Not the time nor the place, one might say in his defense.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The match is done and dusted or rather was rained out.\u00a0 We can return to the response with more sobriety now. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Power.\u00a0 Some say it is about longevity and out-living the competition.\u00a0 That might explain J.R. Jayewardena and to a certain degree Mahinda Rajapaksa and their respective ascents.\u00a0 It certainly holds for Ranil Wickremesinghe.\u00a0 Luck, they say, can also figure in the equation.\u00a0 In Wickremesinghe\u2019s case it was as much longevity as the lack of it among potential rivals within his party.\u00a0 Whether it is correct to call it luck is debatable, but he was lucky when part of the ruling coalition \u2018fell into his lap,\u2019 so to speak, in 2001.\u00a0 He was lucky when Maithripala Sirisena entered the fray in late 2014.\u00a0 On the other hand, perhaps luck is about being positioned well when events unfold in ways that opportunities are created.\u00a0 He was there at the right place and at the right time.\u00a0 That takes staying power. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Staying in power is a different kettle of fish.\u00a0 Today, for all his luck, if you want to call it, the most powerful individual in the country is Maithripala Sirisena.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Power, in this sense, is best ascertained by the answer to a simple question \u2014 who can alter the political equation or landscape most with the least effort? \u00a0 This is why \u2018staying in power\u2019 is a challenge.\u00a0 There\u2019s no light-heartedness here; certainly not in the sordid theatre called politics.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s a big challenge.\u00a0 Things have got so bad that those posing as \u2018left intellectuals\u2019 and \u2018liberals\u2019 (NGO personalities mostly in the latter category) are getting their respective knickers twisted in their plaintive cries of support for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe union.\u00a0 Left intellectuals who brutally criticised leftist parties for tying up with the previous regime, throwing in a lot of Marxist terms and drawing heavily from \u2018revolutionary\u2019 history, are keeping mum about these very parties supporting what would in their lingo be a \u2018rightist government\u2019. \u00a0 Those who mocked these parties for hanging on to the sari-pota<\/i> and thesaatakaya <\/i>don\u2019t seem to mind the current penchant for hanging on to the edges of the various jackets of the current regime. \u00a0 As for the \u2018liberals\u2019 who were horrified at the slightest infringement on liberties not too long ago, they are pretty quiet when this regime makes a mockery of its own doctrine ofyahapalanaya. \u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s either about unspoken love for the ruling coalition or rather the UNP segment of it, or else it is a matter of ignoring anything or everything that goes against things they\u2019ve claimed to hold sacrosanct including the principle \u2018ends do not justify the means,\u2019 in the belief that their not-so-veiled anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist outcome preferences are best served by this regime. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The staying-in-power business is not being served by that lot and Wickremesinghe ought to know this very well, considering what happened in 2004 and 2005.\u00a0 He has disappointed the business community (they do not see this as a Maithripala-Wickremesinghe government, but a UNP regime).\u00a0 Trade unions, academics and professionals don\u2019t make such distinctions, but they are not as gung-ho about yahapalanaya<\/i> as they were two years ago.\u00a0 It has become increasingly hard for the so-called moderate Tamils to support this regime.\u00a0 In short, things have changed much since the euphoria of January 8, 2015.\u00a0 Perhaps the best sign of all this is the fact that this government has had to argue that the yahapaalanists are actually Sri Lankan Bolsheviks of the 21st century.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
They weren\u2019t being light-hearted.\u00a0 They were serious.\u00a0 They were hilarious, but they didn\u2019t know it.\u00a0 What it demonstrated was a regime that\u2019s clinging to straws and trying to convince a doubting citizenry that it is revolutionary.\u00a0 The interesting thing is that the people are not exactly hungry for a revolution.\u00a0 Talk about being \u2018out of step\u2019! What more should one say about \u2018the next step\u2019 of \u2018staying in power\u2019?\u00a0 Well, there is one thing: if you have to say it, it demonstrates self-doubt. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yes, the Royal-Thomian is done and dusted or rather was rained out.\u00a0 Wickremesinghe\u2019s response speaks not just for the UNP but the entire regime.\u00a0 The next step is all that this regime seems to be worrying about right now.\u00a0 And, the seriousness of it all is best evidenced by the fact that they\u2019ve lost sight of theyahapalana<\/i> principles in their political day-to-day.\u00a0 The 19th and the RTI will not carry them at an election, Wickremesinghe probably knows this. \u00a0 \u2018Staying in power\u2019 is not just the next step, it\u2019s a trace that will mark each step and when it comes to this then one doesn\u2019t really know whether steps taken are in the right direction or not.\u00a0 \u2018Losing the plot\u2019 did someone say?\u00a0 \u2018Lost it already!\u2019 did someone quip?\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. \u00a0Email: malindasenevi@gmail.com. \u00a0Twitter: malindasene<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE It has become a tradition for Ranil Wickremesinghe to visit various signature tents at the Royal-Thomian and respond to questions put to him.\u00a0 It\u2019s all light-hearted.\u00a0 The questions are often tongue-in-cheek stuff and the responses are calculated to generate some laughter, one feels. It was no different this year.\u00a0 Two questions stood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64314","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=64314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}