It looks as if the game of political acrobatics at which our honourable people’s representatives are much adept at has commenced in earnest once again. A sample of this was witnessed on Tuesday when four UPFA MPs crossed the great divide to take their seats among the ranks of the new Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in Parliament. More are expected to follow, according to media reports as the Government consolidates itself enabling it to obtain a working majority in Parliament.
In fact UNP front liner Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has asserted that the UNF has the required 113 seats to form its own Cabinet, according to our main story yesterday. He (Dr. Senaratne) added that there will be more crossovers to the UNF Government from the UPFA. This is if one considers past trends in the Lankan political scene. Nay, we don’t have to go very far. The post-October scenario saw the swearing-in of crossovers as ministers or deputies almost on a daily basis at the Presidential Secretariat, making a mockery of representative Government. Now it will be the other way round with the pole vaulters bound to trot out the usual yarns to justify their actions.
This naturally entails yet another bloated Cabinet, as witnessed under the Yahapalanaya and before that, which if eventuates would result in more burdens on the tax payer and blame on the new Government. MP Vijith Vijithamuni Soysa of Appachchi fame, one of the foursome who defected, stressed that they took the plunge out of the love of the people and not in expectation of any Cabinet portfolios. It is left though to be seen how long these good intentions would last. So far no crossover (almost always from the Opposition to the Government) has done so out of true altruism. It is rarely that we come across politicians of the calibre of Gamani Jayasuriya.
In the meantime President Maithripala Sirisena has thrown a spanner in the works for those among his party ranks planning to jump ship. According to another account in our front page of yesterday’s edition the Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party has unanimously approved President Sirisena’s decision not to grant ministerial portfolios to SLFP MPs joining the new Government. A senior party spokesman was also quoted in our report as having stated that a motion was presented to the Central Committee seeking disciplinary action against MPs who cross over, though a final decision in this regard would be taken at a future CC meeting.
Of course, this so called disciplinary action against crossovers is old hat to those who are acquainted with past instances involving such disciplinary action against MPs of one party ditching their party to make common cause with the enemy. One recalls the crossover of Nanda Mathew, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Susil Moonesinghe and Wijeyapala Mendis all of whom broke ranks with the UNP to throw in their lot with Chandrika Kumaratunga on the eve of the 1999 Presidential Election. The UNP went before the Supreme Court seeking expulsion of the renegades only to be overruled by a Bench presided over by Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, on the grounds that this as an infringement of their (MPs) basic rights. The UNP also failed in its exercise of expelling the 18 UNP MPs who decamped in 2008 to ‘strengthen the hands of Mahinda Rajapaksa’ and in the process provide him with the numbers to enact the 18th amendment to make him virtually “President for life”.
Thus, in the event of any contemplated disciplinary action against the would be SLFP crossovers, leading to expulsion, they are bound to seek the intervention of the judiciary by invoking the above precedents. There is also the fact that the SLFP and President Sirisena failed to take disciplinary action against the SLFP MPs, including Mahinda Rajapaksa, who bore membership of a party (Pohottuwa) that not only challenged the SLFP but also contested an election (Feb. 10 LG poll) as a rival to the Blue party pushing the latter to third place behind the UNP. It is not clear how the courts would view this whole process of selective penalizing.
Be that as it may, it is time that something is done to put a halt to this despicable act of changing sides. Apart from being morally objectionable is also a distortion of the people’s will. When one votes for a candidate of a political party it is on the understanding that he/she will be true to the party and stand up for its principles and protect the interests of the party. Ditching the party midway and joining a rival party is a clear act of treachery that should not be permitted. The recent saga demonstrated to what degree our so called honourable members had sold their souls, leaving the electors in the lurch. The agreement signed between the UNF and the UPFA/SLFP when establishing the Unity Government in September 2105 prohibited crossovers while the arrangement lasted. It looks as if it is party-time once again.
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