Ranil and MR to form National Government

Ranil and MR have met to cement their impending electoral positions within a national government and they have indicated to the President their intention. MR and Ranil will share the office of Prime Minister in turn. The TNA and JVP have expressed their concern and so has the SLMC.

The National Government, a united front with a moratorium on wasted effort to checkmate political opponents. Of course, all cannot have the best seats in this political bus.  Celebrations!  Dancing on the street, free food, beating of drums!  The national program – better distributed development.  A mending of fences, a forgiving of sins, a promise to sin no more or at least try as hard as possible and also not to eat “all the cookies”  when the chance presents itself but leave some for others.

But..

Well, this has not happened and is unlikely to happen as the accommodation that did not happen between then President Chandrika and Prime Minister Ranil.

Ranil has expressed what seems to be the idea of a national government from the time that MS was elected and chose him as the Prime Minister. MS chose Ranil in a parliament that had not demonstrated that the ruling party was that of the Prime Minister. Not necessary but something that is part of good government where the majority has a greater role to rule.   What happened was all mirrors and smoke and more mirrors.

Everything is subject to change or doubt, and is it so that everything that matters to some will remain the same? And that this is the intention all along? Talk of change is for the purpose of window dressing. The Manikin is fine and the new suit looks great but still dissatisfied workers make it behind the curtain.

So, the national government, unlikely though it may be, to be a national government has to include the two major parties and at the same time ensure that minorities are well represented. Not simply for show, a few persons enticed to cross over, but formed with the full faith and resolve of the different representative groups as two distinct political entities, spanning the expectations of the electorate.

Is this the program? Or is it the search for the trumping card, game over, we win and we postpone the next deal! This has been the bane of our politics some might say. Others will point to the adjustments that have been made, crossovers, “can’t be without” parliamentarians and ministers. These are adjustments that cannot be ignored as being irrelevant. They have their place. But what is their importance in the evolving, changing political firmament of Sri Lanka. What status quo does it maintain? Senior Ministers, National Lists, bought and sold members, bidding and auctioning.

And we meet on the way an old friend or an enemy, depending on one’s worldview, money! Lots of it! Clumped in huge mounds some more fortunate than others, payments are performance based, obviously! That is how money moves, what the performance is, is another matter, whatever the market will bear. Animals, children, biological functions, impossible feats, organized activities, sports, all performances bring in money right up to death where the funeral can also be made into a performance and cost heaps of money.

So we have it, politics whatever the wagging tongues say is also performance, entertainment, relief of boredom, promise of a better life, help for the destitute, relief for the poor, food for the hungry, work for the able. This is the time for their performance, for our benefit but payment is for them, the performers.

I wonder why we won’t go the whole way and make people pay for elections? What, they do already! Yes! The people pay. Remember, no free lunch! Not even dinner and a song.

So for a national government who pays? Who pays for the entertainment around it, its formation, its working, management? Business and those with money pay. From the others it is taken as in taken for the public purpose, for cars, best wines, Cognac when on foreign trips, all paid by, who else us. We can borrow but we have to pay sometime, that will be another us, after us, us. Our progeny, one Big Genie out the bottle, that. Lots of rubbing and Aladdin and all that. Always us.

Of course us! Do you see anyone else? Actually we do, the suited ones from other countries, observing, confabbing, monitoring, helping. They are paying and paying us to do, say, look at. So they buy part of the performance? What do you think? In this globalized world those who want a performance pay for it. The location, the event can be pre-determined or the best of all, it can be manufactured. Be is a war, a election, a concert, it can be arranged. The will makes for the way.

So is there a will to make way for a national government by the smart money, by the more money? No. They are busy helping bomb Yemen and Syria among other places? No! The smart money watches, makes investments, looks for value and return. Return? Return to what? It can be a divine return or, a short walk to some special hell. There are places that have been encountered these seeming hells. We too did see some of it in the late 1980’s. For Tamils in the Vanni and those caught in the war it would have been hell warmed over in 2009.

The money does as money sees and those who get the money are sometimes blinded by it. Hence bribe giving.

So a national government is very unlikely, especially one that is not bought and assembled part by par for make-believe.

Short of MR and Ranil sitting together, like Ranil and Chandrika did to enable January 8^th, we will not make the best of the opportunity that seems to present itself.

The law is peculiar in some ways. To be lawful one has to obey, all have to obey. The end of the divine right of Kings, the acknowledgement that the Catholic and other Churches and religions are not above the law have been hard won. These are not book entries like the make believe financial derivatives that when mismanaged ruin nations and lives, but parts of some living belief, being lawful.

In our own way we seem to stray too far from the notions of law and what is enforceable and not. Gaming a system, shorting a market are things that some dream of.   Soros! Gates! Businessmen. Some of our politicians.

For our own sake, knowing that the Stupas stand the test of time, getting to the middle moving from the edges might be wiser than first appearance. No sharp turns, no sudden moves, that is a compassionate approach. Such action signals clearly and might be well understood and easily perceived by the citizenry.

So, no national government the cheap way! Cheap in some not monetary way. Why not pay full price, get the better national government, relax put on the hold, this “I won’t give” attitude when Anicca is intoned day in day out. Everything passes away.

So, why not consider giving those who want to serve an opportunity to prove again their changed, reformed or unchanged attitudes? Let the law and good sense prevail. When they stray from the middle stop them, penalize them.

Not here?

Why not, is there no money for that? Can’ t we got the best government that money can’t buy? But yet spend as much as we can afford? No!

Well, can’t we even try!