A tale from the past

Wasantha Priya Ramanayake (Translated by A A M Nizam)

It is prudent to take a page from the past. It is important for the politicians as well as for the country. Ample examples could be found from the 17 year United National Party rule on the arrogant and abnormal behaviour of governments in power. It is good for everyone if these examples were utilized appropriately when it becomes necessary.

During that period when the Opposition raised questions, they responded in a “don’t care” manner. They were under the impression that they are the masters. Once, Minister Ranjan Wijeratne said that “I am not going to respond to that question. Do whatever you can”.

There were some who even had underhand ‘deals’ with President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Some UNPers who used the debate on media personnel Richard de Soyza as a platform to sling mud on him ultimately turned back only after making a personal attack on him. The Opposition of that period remained silent on the weak script presented to the media on the assassination of Rohana Wijeweera and they at least did not make any attempt to get a script written by a good scriptwriter.

Ministerial portfolios

Although the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was holding ministerial portfolios in a government, they did not even ask for a Commission to enquire into the murder of their leader or to enquire about several thousands who went missing.

Vijaya Kumaranatunga

Richard de Soyza

They were not even enthusiastic in getting a mechanism floated to enquire into these matters. Now they are enquiring into those purported to have gone missing in the North. This is the funny phenomenon of politics in this country. Since the LTTE were forcibly abducting youth, the list of missing persons in the North got expanded.

There is no record of people who were born and who died in the North during the last 30 years. It is known only to the LTTE personnel. But if such things are happening in peace time, the Opposition has a right to enquire into it. Due to the responses given by governments of the past to the Opposition and country about certain happenings and murders, the credit of such things became their own responsibility. It is well known that President Ranasinghe Premadasa was not aware of the murder of JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera.

It is being said that what he wanted was to have an amicable deliberation with Wijeweera. Other than political matters, Wijeweera had a profuse and wonderful knowledge about development of the country, environmental conservation, and cultivation in the hill country. It is being said that President Ranasinghe Premadasa who listened to a cassette containing speeches of Wijeweera delivered at the Dodangaslanda house of former Deputy Minister J. W. Alawatuwalage, by an unknown cyclist, was surprised about Wijeweera’s knowledge about matters other than politics. The murder of Wijeweera occurred a few days after this incident. But he could not do anything about that murder. This is how it is being said. It is also being said that he was not aware about the murder of Richard de Soysa. But since his failure to look into these matters in an appropriate manner, the responsibility of these actions falls on him.

Executive powers

There are ample examples like this to show that at certain times the Executive Presidents become unable to do anything with their executive powers and they became powerless because of the acts perpetrated by their lackeys. Former President J.R. Jayewardene had to waste his time at the residence of a Head of a Newspaper Institution until the arrival of the leader of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party Vijaya Kumaranatunga, who had been taken into custody with his knowledge. The responses being given by some of those in authority about allegations being made against it are done in a haphazard manner. Now the problem of the University Lecturers was resolved by the intervention of the President himself.

The government was in a quandary because of this recently. We do not know why the authorities in the financial sphere could not create a mechanism about this. Responding to questions raised by the media in this regard some presented responses in a manner that question papers could even be prepared through carpenters, masons and technicians. When the media questioned, “who will prepare the questions papers, and who will mark the answer scripts?” they just responded saying “not to get agitated by such things and everything will be okay”. This is how they faced the questions.

Fertilizer subsidy

The relevant authorities are yet unable to tell the people in simple language what policies govern the use of pesticides and fertilizer. It seems that there are no such policies. Instead they are speaking about an outdated Act on pesticides. The relevant authorities are purposely avoiding responding to these questions. Now anyone can say anything about a thing like arsenic.

The relevant authorities are even not prepared to face a direct deliberation with those who present the allegations. They consider it as a time wasting exercise. Instead we get concrete responses such as “No, it is not correct, we checked about it etc.”. They expect the people to accept these concrete responses. It seems that even after this the authorities are not prepared to formulate a policy about pesticides.

The soil conditions in some districts are reportedly being contaminated with certain chemicals due to the excessive use of fertilizer being received at cheap prices for several years. Therefore, it has become necessary to restrict the use of fertilizer on these soils.

The Opposition views this as a cut in the fertilizer subsidy. When in the Opposition, it becomes easy to instigate the people and attack the government without making a proper analysis and understanding the factual situation. There are no relevant authorities to respond to these things. Recently, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa had to fill this void. But the responsible agricultural authorities still maintain a silence.

Fuel-water story

Those who formulated the Hedging Agreement for the government remain scot-free. Those who made the proposal seem to be in a ‘Hora-Police’ (Thief and the Police) game. It is the government that has to face this matter also politically. Hedging is a game. In the fuel-water problem the minister is innocent.

The whole country has accepted the fact that he is an honest politician. But it is also not possible to evade the responsibility on behalf of the people. It is not clear what will be done to the officials who gave wrong information to the minister saying it happened because the rainwater has seeped into the oil tanks. The whole country is impatiently waiting for the punishment of those responsible for the fuel-water story. Those responsible for things like this should not be allowed to go scot-free. There is no point in blaming the Opposition about these things. If things were allowed to go on this manner, it would reflect badly on the authorities. When a leader who liberated the country is making attempts to lead the country on a new path, it is the responsibility of all his supporters to support him. It is a heinous crime to fatten themselves or earn something for themselves.