There is much that Sri Lanka’s newest party in government, the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) party needs to learn in terms of political realities, not the least of which is to be self-deprecating in victory.
Blinking first over ‘doctoral’ claims
That is crucial if it is to avoid treading the path of predecessors who were ingloriously thrown out by the Sri Lankan people when the glittering gold that they promised turned to drab dross after being catapulted into power on ‘extraordinary mandates’ (ie; G Rajapaksa, 2019-2022). This warning arises in the wake of a fiery fracas concerning the NPP’s Speaker who resigned a few days ago over public questioning of his doctorate as well as if he had a basic degree, both of which had been touted by his party.
Even if I am to be a tad unkind, it must be remarked that the NPP’s nomination of the Speaker was a misadventure from the outset. Cruel ridicule followed over wrongly donning the wig and a deplorable lack of knowledge of parliamentary procedure as he attempted to govern the House. Crowning this unedifying spectacle, he blinked first in the face of a hullabaloo over his academic credentials, still insisting that he needed time to obtain the necessary documentation to prove his claim.
Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene.
The episode constitutes an early reality check on the NPP’s ill-advised pomposity on its election win and the crowing over an ‘irrelevant’ opposition. It puts to shame self-important boasting that its members constitute ‘the best, the most educated, etc and et al in the political firmament. NPP front-rankers including the Cabinet spokesman and Media Minister scoffed at media questioning over the controversy regarding the Speaker, pointing to a ‘bankrupt opposition.
Fault lies in the NPP’s own boasts
Did the NPP not understand that, apart from chairing the CC, the role of the Speaker is determinative in many other respects, including the rolling out an impeachment process against the President? If the Prime Minister is unable to act or the post is vacant, the Speaker is constitutionally validated to act as the President upon the apex court determining that the election of the President was interalia void. This is not to say that predecessors in this Office have been distinguished beacons of light.
But the NPP came into power promising ‘system change.’ Did it underestimate the possibility that this unseemly controversy would spiral out of control? The President’s assurance in the wake of the Speaker’s resignation that action would be taken against a party member behaving wrongly, however exalted the position, hardly proves the point. This is an absurdity that should not have arisen in the first instance. The dispute would have been entirely redundant if the claims had not been made at all.
But this stems from the NPP’s boast of putting forward the ‘best, brightest…’ new faces, some of whom may also be caught up in the scandal regarding their own qualifications.
This is a shameful reflection on Sri Lanka itself. Once, highly competitive entry to this country’s universities, whether in law, medicine, engineering or arts had no peer. ‘Studying abroad’ was scornfully reserved for those who failed to make the grade. Citation of ‘shady’ doctorates was the exception. Now this is an epidemic with the use of academic prefixes at the drop of the proverbial hat.
To what disgraceful depths has this country fallen?
Excerpts from a longer column “ A much needed political reality check” in the Sunday Times.