IMPEACHMENTS AND CONSPIRACIES
An impeachment motion was tabled in the House
yesterday seeking to remove the Chief Justice of the country.
This may be seen as unfortunate, but necessary. This certainly
is not unprecedented as a similar motion was tabled seeking the
ouster of a Chief Justice prior to this, even though what was
sought was not accomplished on that occasion.
Clearly, the legislature the judiciary and the executive
being the three arms of state have to work in tandem, and nobody
should sabotage the delicate coexistence of these power centres.
It appears latterly that things have gone against this
reasonable expectation. Conspiracies against progressive
governments have been legion in this country, reminded the
President speaking at the Insurance Corporation on Wednesday.
The words are rather pertinent in the current backdrop of
events. The cynical who love to scoff at what they call
'conspiracy theories' would probably not care to remember that
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was shot dead --- in what was after all a
locally hatched conspiracy, even though there are always those
who have surmised that there was a foreign hand behind it.
Be that as it may, campaigns to destabilize governments are
very real - and they have been real in this country as in many
others, both in Asia and away. The late and lamented Mr.
Bandaranaike was assassinated. There was an insurrection that
almost derailed the Sirimavo Bandaranaike coalition of the 70s.
A government that the current President was a Cabinet minister
in, the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration, was dislodged
midstream in the 1990s and led to the first cohabitation
experiment under the Executive Presidency, which turned out to
be a disaster for both the Premier and the President who figured
in that protracted political pantomime.
Scoffing at 'conspiracy theories' therefore - particularly
against progressive governments as cited above - can be seen as
an elite pastime to blur the reality that conspiracies are most
of the time hatched in the elite upper echelons of society,
against what are deemed to be people's regimes, or proletarian
governments representing the plebes.
It's the same folks who say conspiracy theories are imagined,
who also snigger at the thought of any ruling 'progressives.'
Progressive essentially means left of centre in the general
parlance, and relative to the ultra-right UNP governments, all
SLFP-left coalitions have been progressive, even though
'progressive' is also a relative term as there would be quite a
bit of argument as to whether the Chandrika regime can be deemed
progressive by any yardstick.
This is the problem. Conspirators and assorted saboteurs can
topple a not so progressive government such as the Kumaratunga
government as well, and if so, the conspiratorial forces that
could be arraigned against a far more progressive force such as
the current regime cannot be underestimated. Many of the present
efforts to undermine this government are also connected to the
issue of poverty alleviation for instance (we shall say
Divineguma and no more on that subject ...) and who is to
question that poverty alleviation is NOT a progressive issue?
There are also the almost visible and barely concealed
connections that can be seen in all of the current
destabilization efforts that are aimed against the elected
regime that represents the people's choice. It seems there was a
carefully calibrated effort to insidiously create a crisis
between the separate arms of state -- judiciary executive and
legislature. The less said about this aspect the better, but it
is sufficient to refer the reader to Minister Prof. G.L.
Peiris's analysis on this page surrounding the appointment of
the secretary to the Judicial Services Commission.
A sitting administration can be weakened in various insidious
ways. In that respect suffice to say that the 13th amendment is
seen by many as a Damocles sword that hangs over the fate of the
governing administration at the centre.
Already, there are the think-tank eggheads who have jumped
the gun on the issue of giving the nod to any piece of
legislation that is referred to these Councils in a situation in
which the Northern Provincial Council is non existent. This is
mischievous, and smacks of a concerted effort to puncture a
vulnerable Achilles heal, and bring down the edifice of
government.
Not that any sane person would say that anything including
governments can or should go on forever. But if they are to be
brought down, it has to be by legitimate means and via the
assent of the people, and not through insidious maneuvering. |