SUNDAY PUNCH 2
The regular parade of Rajapaksa rebels to the FCID to give statement after statement without any meaningful follow ups; the wild antics of the joint opposition, the mayhems in Parliament, the coconut dashing frenzy displayed in public to curse the Government to kingdom come and last week’s Pada Yatra which fizzled out with hardly a whimper, have shown the nation that if the Government was providing the bread, the joint opposition was providing the circus.
But whilst the joint sport may have served to keep the public amused for a while, the vacillations, the procrastinations and the seeming lack of concerted will to pursue the promised crackdown and bring it to its logical conclusion must worry the Government; and the President, aware of the credibility crisis, has risen magnificently to the occasion -not to answer his critics and to shove some lame duck excuse -- to explain his predicament and to handle the situation in a pragmatic way, considering the dilemma he faces having to deal with two pledges that may be mutually exclusive when it comes to fulfilling both to the letter simultaneously.
Two weeks ago President Sirisena came out from his corner in a fighting mood and declared to his cabinet colleagues that “tough action would be taken against members of the Rajapaksa family for their alleged wrongdoings. The delays had been misconstrued. It was by no means due to any weakness. It was only for reasons of good governance since investigations had to be carried out according to proper procedures. But now action against them would have to be expedited”.
What he was saying -- to put it somewhat bluntly -- was that enough was enough; and that he intended to finish off the Rajapaksas once and for all with a knockout punch by expediting the legal process to bring them to the bar of justice.
On July 26, even as his arch rival Mahinda Rajapaksa was marshalling his troops to set them on a five-day foot march from Kandy to Colombo while he cruised in his luxury Merc behind as their leader, the President was already counting the damage inflicted by the failure of his Government to fulfill the election promise on which he had ridden to assume the purple as president.
He knew that the people had expected him to sting like a bee the moment he was installed in office. But instead he had been perforce constrained to dance like a butterfly. The much vaunted power of the executive presidency had remained impotent in his hands. But it was not due to any inherent weakness in the President as many tried to portray it to be. It was an illustration of his commitment to establish the Yahapalana principles he espoused. His reluctance to personally crack the whip and instead let the legal process follow its due course was an act that distinguished the true democrat in him from that of the devilish autocrat who believes nothing can happen except on his orders.