Some minions are of the absurd view that President Ranil Wickremesinghe is serving a base contract executing a servile obligation to a third party whereas in reality what he has undertaken to perform is a sacred social contract which challenge no one else on the political scene presently was ready to take up, was able to meet or in fact never ever be entrusted with, in the unique adverse circumstances in which the country is placed.
This situation has come about solely due to the Opposition Leader shirking his duty and responsibility only calling himself the alternate leader of the nation in a pompous display of naked emptiness repeated obediently by only one of his palanquin bearers, in a clearly exhibited inherited ‘one man show’ but craftily opting to head Parliamentary Committees which posts according to an outspoken Member of Parliament on his own side said would accrue all the perks, privileges and benefits of a Cabinet Minister save for the insignificant difference in salary from that of an MP while also being free from running about to perform executive functions, the futility of which being very much evident when a vociferous only JVP MP heading one such committee of yesteryear, was exerting himself so much also grappling with the problems caused by the infamous so-called ‘foot note’ clique and all that, to no tangible result!
Unexpired period
The fact that the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka of 1978 that is currently in operation provides for in handling the situation arising from vacation of office by the President where he resigns his office by a writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker in terms of Article 38 (1) (b) of the Constitution and further provision in Article 40 (1) (a) that if the office of President shall become vacant prior to the expiration of his term of office Parliament shall elect as President one of its Members who is qualified to be elected to the office of President and any person who is so succeeding to the office of President shall hold office for the unexpired period of the term of office of the President vacating office is very much indicative of the paramount importance of maintaining continued and unbroken political stability which fact only an ignoramus treating the Constitution as a plaything will be unaware of.
Absolute majority
The election on June 20, 2022 of United National Party Leader President Ranil Wickremesinghe mandated by the Constitution as per Article 40 (1) (b) that “Such election shall be held as soon as possible after, and in no case later than one month from, the date of occurrence of the vacancy. Such election shall be by secret ballot and by an absolute majority of the votes cast in accordance with such procedure as Parliament may by law provide” and in terms of the above provisions therein being very unfortunately and laughably misinterpreted by these jokers as being in an unholy contract.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected by Parliament not only with an absolute majority of the votes cast being reminiscent of the victory of President J.R. Jayewardene in 1977 over a feudalistic regime that disgraced Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who broke away from the Feudalism of his family.
No one can prevent the legal operation of the Constitution unless acting extra-legally that will attach legality only if such is successful by operation of the principle that success denotes legality: the very impossibility in the present context both because those masquerading as such of the types of Rohana Wijeweera only bring shame upon the likes of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara who performed an onerous task even at a time when in 1956 revolution had been discouraged by Soviet Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev by specific declaration, as a means of bringing about mere social, economic and political transformation in favour of socialistic evolution, by liberating Cuba in 1959 from Fascist dictator Fulgencio Batista who died in exile in the United States of America in 1974.
The argument in favour of a system change does not hold water for the simple reason that systems fail solely due to bad management by those who man them rather than intrinsic faults, the fall of communism in the 1980s being the case in point and all that President Ranil Wickremesinghe need do in organising the affairs of his Government is to have the correct men in place as misappropriating State funds has been there from colonial days, ‘Governor McCarthy asking Road Engineer Skinner to extend the road from Pelmadulla to Balangoda, Skinner carrying out his work for half the estimated cost, and McCarthy allowing him to continue it another fifteen miles bringing it to the borders of Uva Province, as G.C. Mendis says in ‘Ceylon Under The British’!
What was going round the General Treasury of even Independent Ceylon was that when the State spends Rs. 100 only Rs. 10 worth of work is done and it must not be forgotten that it was doing the rounds that just because a girl is saved from drowning there is no right to rape her, a worse version of it being a ruffian fishing out a tsunami victim from the sea in Galle, relieving her of her jewellery and throwing her back into the water to die for which he very rightly being sent to the gallows.
Epilogue: Don’t, for a moment, think people of refinement have forgotten slum type robberies leading to valuable articles ending up at Sotheby Gallery in London and boiled manioc being served with fried papadam in very bad taste!
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