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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 474842" data-attributes="member: 212">The cutlery and crockery conspiracy The week before last, when Johnston Fernando suddenly appeared on TV and said that the government was planning to arrest some leading members of the UNP, the entire country was mystified as there was no conceivable reason for the government to arrest anyone in the UNP. But last week, when the police began investigating misuse of state property charges against Fernando, it became clear that the government had indeed begun persecuting the opposition.. All ministers and deputy ministers are given items such as good furniture, and high quality cutlery and crockery which they would need to entertain important guests either at the ministry or their official residence. It appears that some ministers of the UNP government of 2001-2004 had not yet returned some of these items to their respective ministries. In some cases, the missing property includes vehiclesJayalath was the first It appears that the relevant authorities had been trying to recover some of these missing items for some time. Many weeks ago, Dr Jayalath Jayawardene told the political affairs committee of the UNP that there was a move to reduce his security, and showed a letter to the committee. Lakshman Kiriella, had taken the letter from Jayawardene’s hand and read it and announced to the committee that this was not an order reducing the doctor’s security but a request for the return of one jeep and two motorcycles. The members of the committee had tittered in amusement and one had quipped, "The two motorcycles must have disappeared!" So apparently, the government is still trying to recover items that should have been returned in April 2004.  One cannot fault them in this and neither can we ask them to treat all politicians alike and ask them to go after the property misappropriated by government politicians as well, because the argument will be that they are still in power and therefore entitled to use this property, so long as the ministry concerned is willing to turn a blind eyeBut the government is setting the wrong precedent - one that they will rue in the future when they are no longer in power as they will be made to regurgitate forks and spoons and tea cups they may have misappropriated or lost over a period of 18 years in up to five or six ministries. When they are at the receiving end, that won’t be a pleasant experience. It is true that the government used this against Sripathy Sooriyarachchi as well, but that was different. The Sripathy-Mangala affair was an internal battle in the government. The provocation offered by this duo to President Mahinda Rajapakse through their newspapers and their pronouncements was quite extraordinary. It’s nothing short of a miracle that the President could tolerate it for so long before he sacked them from their ministerial portfolios.  When Sripathy went before the Bribery Commission against the government, that was the last straw and the government clapped charges of misappropriation of state property and put him behind barsDoing a Chandrika? In the spat between Mangala and the president, the president was seen as the victim, which is why their struggle did not elicit the support they would otherwise have got. Even when Sripathy was jailed, the Ravaya blandly observed, that before going before the Bribery Commission to complain of other people’s corruption, one must have one’s own hands clean. Even though the arrest of Sripathy was clearly a politically motivated act, still people did not see any danger in this for the country. But Johnston Fernando’s case is different. He is an opposition politician, and using the same tactics used to silence Sripathy,  to silence Johnston would be the act of a dictatorPresident Rajapakse has thus far, scored heavily by not being what Chandrika was. Chandrika came into power in 1994 with apparently no other aim but the persecution of the opposition. She wielded power with her saree hitched up high and did everything she could to persecute and vilify the oppositionThrough her own actions, she introduced an element of political instability to the country. The needless disturbances she created and the appalling shows she put on TV sent the message to the country that an unbalanced individual was in charge of things. Hence the country was in a state of economic slowdown during her first seven years in power. People were not happy or relaxed. It was only after Chandrika mellowed and changed her behaviour after April 2004 that things began to go well for her and the countryPresident Rajapakse has been scoring very heavily on this front because from the very beginning, he took no steps to persecute the opposition and has presented a very balanced face to the world. Hence from the beginning he has been very successful. He has not done anything to introduce political instability to the country. Even if the cost of living is high, the people are  happy and relaxed. The president does not pose a danger to the public.  It is because of the benign image of the president that Mangala and Sripahy did not get much sympathy in the country at large. If Mahinda had an image like that of Chandrika’s, Mangala’s rebellion would have attracted much more support. Those who seek to take action against Johnston Fernando may think it mighty clever of them to be able to file action against a loud mouthed adversary over missing forks and spoons and tea cups; and they may derive some kaalakanni joy from such acts, but the long term damage done to the president’s image will be too costly to make the exercise worthwhileIt is true that the president has been at the receiving end from the attacks launched by the opposition. The UNP’s astrological offensive had been so successful hat the president actually assembled all party leaders of the ruling coalition together and spoke to them about the astrological situation. The stress of living knowing fully well that hundreds of  your opponents were consulting astrologers and waiting for the president to die in an LTTE bomb blast, will tell on anyone after a while. Some people have probably even resorted to witchcraft with kodivina and hooniyam to hasten the president’s demise. In such circumstances, the temptation to hit back must be quite unbearable. But if one succumbs to that temptation and begins persecuting the opposition, the president’s image will change from that of a tolerant and benign man to that of an angry and vindictive dictator. The tolerant and benign image and his unrivalled PR skills are the Presidents biggest assets at the momentEven the impending rapprochement between the President and Mangala Samaraweera shows the president at his best. There is no political reason as to why Mahinda should patch up with Mangala. The JVP has abandoned him, and the SLFP is not with him either. The astrological forecasts may have kept up some support for  Mangala in the Matara district, but even this would have dissipated after a while. The only reason why the president would want to make up with him at this juncture is due to an innate forgiving nature.  At the present moment, the president is laying the ‘hita honda miniha’ part to the fullest. Compared to the damage done to him by Mangala, what the UNP has done is negligible. In such circumstances, to mar his mage by imprisoning loud mouthed UNPers on misappropriation of  cutlery and crockery, will unnecessarily sully the president’s imageThe best course of action would be to publish lists of all missing items over the state media, and the names of those responsible, with officials from the relevant ministry sent to the people involved to obtain the return of the missing property or payment in lieu of it. Or in the alternative, to file action in courts against both opposition and government politicians for the return of missing items. The most important  thing being, not to do anything that smacks of deliberate political victimizationThe formula suggested by Tissa Attanayake to the IGP is in this context very reasonable - which is that the IGP will refrain from  arresting any opposition MP over missing state property until all investigations have been completed, so as not to make missing state property a pretext to arrest opposition politicians and keep hem in jail until investigations are completed [Island (29-04-2007)]</blockquote>

Verification: Hathara warak wissa keeyada? (Hathara wadi karanna 20)

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