President Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he returned from his recent visit to New York to address the United Nations, apparently had a rude surprise awaiting him: some of his bags were defaced with remarks, in racy Sinhalese, saying in effect, ‘you are squandering the country’s money’..

The state media ignored the story which was picked up elsewhere, but to date, it has not been denied and we must therefore assume it is true. The incident may have been the work of someone with political affiliations but what was more important was the public reaction to the event.

There was no outcry at the breach of security or the obvious insult to the Head of State. Instead, what was heard were remarks to the effect that, ‘it was time someone told them the truth’, or even ‘serves them right’- so reminiscent of the response to the attack on Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by Sri Lankan Naval rating Wijitha Rohana Wijayamuni, when the former arrived in Colombo to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord.

What then, is this source of dissatisfaction with the Rajapaksa regime? Why are President Rajapaksa and his brothers being burnt in effigy, and why is the opposition, lackadaisical for so long, now gathering momentum?

Surely, it is not the President’s handling of the ethnic crisis or the war, even if the international community will have its own axe to grind in that regard. In fact, President Rajapaksa’s decisions vis-a-vis the war might well be his saving grace before the southern electorate.

There are two major issues on which this government falls flat on its collective face: its handling of the economy and the issue of wastage and corruption among government politicians. Moreover, there is no indication whatsoever that the country’s Chief Executive wants to do anything about these issues, opting instead to govern on day-to-day, ad-hoc basis.

Take some politically significant events of last week, for instance: there was the hullabaloo over flour prices being increased where the government made a rather desperate and futile bid to pass the buck to the previous regime, presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa was appointed to the Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and finally Arumugam Thondaman and his Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) colleagues rejoined the cabinet.

The fiasco over flour prices ended with the government getting a lot of egg on its face. Worse still, the Rajapaksa administration’s first line of defence against the rising cost of living, namely, tuition master turned economist turned parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardena, cut a sorry figure when he said that the flour price hike was due to someone from the previous United National Front (UNF) regime taking a bribe from a company. Gunawardena forgot that he himself was a member of the UNF government at that time, and there the government’s strategy floundered, earning a lot of public anger in the process.

Later on in the week, Minister Gunawardena was heard saying that milk powder is not healthy, and this must take the cake for excuses for a price hike. It is this sort of pathetic public utterance that earns for a government the wrath of the public, and it appears that for all his bungling, Bandula Gunawardena appears to be the best man the government can find to deal with the cost of living!

The significance of the appointment of Basil Rajapaksa to the COPE and the PAC was not lost on many either. Already in the midst of controversy, COPE took a different turn when it had its first meeting after the appointment of Rajapaksa (Jnr.) where the new MP had apparently made his presence felt in no uncertain terms.

The public will identify with opposition claims that Basil Rajapaksa’s appointment to COPE and the PAC was tantamount to intimidation of the watchdog bodies, and last week’s first meeting would have only fuelled such speculation. And the message being sent to a public suffering under insurmountable burdens from rising prices-rightly or wrongly- is that the top echelons in government are not doing enough to curb corruption.

Then, the reappointment of CWC ministers adds grist to the mill. No one-probably apart from the half a million persons of Indian origin whom they claim to represent-are probably fond of Arumugam Thondaman and his acolytes who change loyalties without absolutely any scruples, all for the sake of enjoying ministerial perks and privileges.

Though Thondaman and his brethren resigned in a huff over an alleged insult by Basil Rajapaksa, they seem to have returned to the fold unconditionally. So, the president is not averse to playing the numbers game in parliament and securing his majority-but again it will be at the tax payers cost-and at the cost of his own popularity.

Therefore, on the one hand the government does not appear to have a clear and cohesive strategy to deal with the economic crisis that has erupted. Hence it is reduced to trying to the pass the buck to the brief UNF period of rule which ended three years ago, forgetting that Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led governments have ruled the country for most of the past thirteen years.
On the other hand, perceived wastage and corruption, and the offering of perks and privileges in return for support in parliament, continues with gay abandon with callous disregard to the sufferings the general public have to undergo. And, even the President must be held responsible when he takes with him a mammoth delegation when touring the United Nations.

Very soon, all this will either have to come to an end or it could be the end of the government itself, even if the president himself is assured of executive power for the next four years. We must hope, for the sake of the country, that this regime will have the foresight to mend its ways instead of losing its way so early in its term of office.

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