The Biswal take-over and other politidbits of the week

Maithri's 'Miracle'

More than a week has passed since results were released. Parliament has not been convened.  There’s no Speaker.  No Leader of the Opposition.  No Cabinet.  Just three ministers have been appointed, all to satisfy the various ‘areas of concern’ of a visiting US civil servant.  Now that is the kind of ‘Miracle’ that Mahinda never could deliver.

Maithri-Circus

‘Maithri-Circus’ or the business of using mandate as toilet paper began the moment election results were released.  The people can sit back and watch.  Don’t be surprised if it is marketed as ‘Mandate’ or even a ‘Revolution’.  Here’s a prediction: all those who were blurting out terms such as good governance, democracy, civility, respecting the people’s verdict, sovereignty etc., will go silent.

Rajapaksization

It took Mahinda several decades to become a Rakapakshist.  Maithri took less than 8 months.

A New People

After appointing the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker and the janitors to clean up Parliamentary toilets, will Maithripala appoint a new people? 

Bless Dissolution

In hindsight it is a blessing that the 20th Amendment never saw the light of day.  Had it been passed the people would not have had the opportunity to witness the National List Kolama.  

JVP's Journey

The JVP’s ‘democratic’ journey since 1994 has been interesting: 1 seat in 1994, 10 in 2000, 17 in 2001, 41 in 2004 (courtesy SLFP votes), 3 in 2010 (courtesy Fonseka) and 6 in 2015.  That’s less 11 from the 17 returned the last time the JVP went solo.  A waste of 14 years due to flirting with the SLFP and UNP?

Sacking-Appointing Disease

Maithri is down with a terrible disease called Sacking-Appointing.  Don’t be surprised if he sacks the Elections Commissioner next.  If it gets worse, the good President might even sack himself!

Self-Appointments

This election was marked by a steady stream of posts in social media of official and unofficial results.  Thousands of cyber heroes turned themselves into temporary Elections Commissioners.  This democratization of the Department or rather its ‘peopleization’ to borrow a term from the Premadasa days, might in due course bleed into people appointing themselves as Commissioners of Examinations and positing official and unofficial O/L and A/L results.

Good Governance and the Good Governor

Political ‘experts’ in the media, universities, NGOs, members of the clergy and political parties/organizations who were on averaging uttering the term ‘good governance’ 279 times a day on average over the past 10 months have all declined to comment on the fascinating subject ‘The good governance of the good governor’.

Owners of the Majority

The issue that worried many was who would get the majority.  A related question is, ‘Who belongs to the majority’.  Well, the true majority are the voters.  Those who end up winners after post-election political games end up owning the majority.  It is always a minority that rules.  A section of the majority, lost in self-delusion, actually welcome this condition while others self-deluded for different reasons, lament. 

Lessons Learnt and to be Taught

The people of this country taught Mahinda Rajapaksa a lesson on January 8, 2015.  There’s a lesson that the Maithri-Ranil-Chandrika-Champika combine need to learn.  These anti-democratic, hatred-consumed individuals who do not know anything from the ‘g’ to the ‘e’ of ‘Good Governance’ will have to learn from the same teachers.  Sooner or later.

Mahinda, Fonseka and Parallel Lives

Friends once, foes later, Mahinda and Fonseka have suffered strikingly similar political fates.  Fonseka lost the Presidential Election in 2010, Mahinda lost in 2015.  In the General Election of 2010, Fonseka’s impoverished supporters used him to get into Parliament.  In the 2015 General Election, Mahinda’s all-but-out supporters used him.  Fonseka's backers duly abandoned him.  Abandonment is a real prospect for Mahinda as well.  Poetic justice, did someone say?