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The Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive all rolled into one.

By Charles.S.Perera

It is only in Sri Lanka that you get a price controller, road block remover, remover of ministers, a politician and a Chief Justice rolled into one. After all those exploits Sarath Silva takes himself for a Prince Siddhartha, and says that he was saddened when being driven in his car, he saw the people queueing up in petrol sheds.

Sarath Silva is after all a human being. He has his inferiority or superiority complexes, ambitions, jealousies, attachments, aversions and delusions. When he has different roles to play at different times of the day his mind must be "awfully" busy. That way the mind is not empty for it to become the devils workshop.

In a country where political ambition has no limits, Sarath Siva may also have his political ambitions. Playing his different roles of the day he must be giving thought to how to become a successful politician once he retires from what he is now. Because being Chief Justice is not for ever.

One day he has to step down and become an ordinary man. But he will go down history as the one and only man who gave a new meaning to democracy. He put the legislature, the judiciary and the executive all into one. Why put them isolation ? There may be those who criticise him for that, but it has its advantages. The President is becoming too popular, and he is making a success of his determination to rid Sri Lanka of terrorism.

Therefore, Sarath Silva has to precipitate to make things difficult to the President and make him unpopular so that when the time comes for him to become a politician, there would be no obstacles on his path. He could have made things easy for the President by not stepping over the judicial limits, to jump into the executive to fix the price for a litre of petrol.

He could have for instance stopped after ordering the government to fix a reasonable price not exceeding say Rs.150 for a litre of petrol. But then the desire to show the President that he is more powerful, went beyond his desire to be modest, or reasonable. He is after all a human being.

To be a politician and to be at the top - a President, there are lessons to learn. He has to be popular. Because, though he could now make people pawns on his chequer board, if he were to be a politician, he has to learn to become the pawn on the chequer board of the people.

It is difficult to step down from his conspicuous high and mighty position now where he can even check mate the "President". His intoxicating power at the end of his "tongue", at the point of the nib of his pen, must be making him reel in his chair, and keep him awake on his bed, wandering how to channel that power to make himself the most popular man in the country, so that he could really put himself where he dreams to be- in the seat of the President.

He cannot be any body else, a Minister, or Opposition leader is below the supreme power he holds now. Already the people are acclaiming him a hero for reducing the petrol price from Rs.122, to Rs.100. He now regrets that he could not reduce it further to Rs.50. The people may have then carried him on their shoulders.

He cares less for impeachments one government tried it and failed and this government dares not suffer the same end. With their call for impeachments , they are only trying to make the tail wag the dog. It was a phrase he had used long time ago, it is out of date now.

The problem is, how to become the leader of a political party, that being a sine qua non to take the road to the Presidency. He cannot do that by making a judicial decision. Judicial decisions also have their limits. UNP with a not so clever leader, is a likely opening, if only its members could make a decision. JVP too being in doldrums after its breakup is not a bad choice. But the chances for either, UNP or the JVP to get a popular vote even with him at its helm is doubtful.

Therefore, he thinks that it is time that he takes a little rest until his mind settles down from the giddy atmosphere of being on the wave of the popularity among the petrol users.






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