POLITICS WITHOUT Principle, ONE OF THE SEVEN deadly SINS - EDITORIAL

14 July 2015 06:31 pm Views - 3377

Last week we editorially predicted that political alliances with unexpected make-ups are to emerge not based on principles but with the sole intention of facing the Parliamentary election scheduled to be held on August 17. The prediction has materialized not only with unexpected political alliances but also with bizarre groupings of parties and individuals emerging. 

It is vividly clear as we predicted that these alliances and groupings are not based on policies or principles, rather they are a manifestation of the political, economic and social cravings of individuals. Sometimes these line-ups are an indication of the greed of groups for power. Interestingly these groups and individuals are so smart in justifying anything they do today in spite of many of their expressed views and actions being a far cry from what they had done yesterday.

For instance, President Maithripala Sirisena has gone on record by saying that he had come forward to contest the last Presidential election in order to end what he called the roguish administration of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that was shrouded with unprecedented corruption. President Sirisena had gone on to observe by implication that the presidency would be Rajapaksa’s next target once he becomes the Prime Minister of the country. However, whatever the circumstances had been, the President himself has paved the way for Rajapaksa to climb the ladder that might take him to the helm again, if the UPFA won the election. 

On the other hand Sirisena’s Presidential candidacy was a foreign conspiracy in the eyes of the UPFA led by Rajapaksa. The UPFA leaders even presented purported secret pacts signed by Sirisena and the then Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe meant for the bifurcation of the country. To the bewilderment of the ordinary people the same Rajapaksa and the UPFA have vowed to defend Sirisena from the allegation of betrayal by the UNP and the 49 organizations that voted the latter to power. 

On the other side of the political divide, the UNP has accommodated into a broad alliance called United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) a group of SLFP politicians and the JHU among others. The SLFP politicians might have in the fray against the very UNP in case Mahinda Rajapaksa had not been given nominations by the President and the UNP, especially its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had been an anathema to the JHU until it joined hands with the former. Interestingly, the JHU, a nationalistic party which had originally been named Sihala Urumaya had last week been re-baptized as United National Good Governance Front (UNGGF), shedding its nationalistic tags for good.

The attitude of the JHU and that of its public face Minister Champika Ranawaka towards the minorities is well known. Also SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem was on record as saying by implication that Ranawaka was almost gagging him at the Cabinet meetings with a view to suppress the minority views. However, the SLMC and the newly formed Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) led by Mano Ganesan have teamed up with the UNP and the JHU to form the UNFGG and Ranawaka and Hakeem had been pictured shaking hands when they signed the MoU on the formation of the UNFGG.

Politicians may reason all such actions in the perspective of political strategy. But their supporters are in the dark in respect of their so-called strategies and the poor voters are humiliated by each other every time political parties make unexpected and bizarre alliances. And sometimes the situation would lead even to violent strives claiming precious lives.

President Sirisena has been citing Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as his political mentors since he was named the Common Opposition Presidential Candidate last November. However, neither the President nor any other party leader in the country would be agreeable with Mahatma Gandhi who had listed politics without principle as one of the seven deadly sins.