It is holding on to power with the help of the UNP while claiming to be on the side of the public. The SLPP is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Thus, no political party, represented in Parliament, can absolve itself of the blame for what has reportedly gone wrong with the Aswesuma scheme. The Opposition did not call for a division, and the Bill was passed without a vote as a result.

It was the SLPP that enabled the passage of the Aswesuma Bill in Parliament. It has been reported that Samurdhi officials and trade unionists are scheduled to meet former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, seeking his intervention to have their problems sorted out. The past few days have seen these politicians beating their chests and ranting and raving about the exclusion of so many Samurdhi recipients from the Aswesuma programme, and bashing the public officials to humour the protesters.

The ongoing protests against the Aswesuma programme have provided the SLPP MPs with an opportunity to go among the public again by craftily pledging solidarity with the latter. It was their inability to face the public that drove them to go so far as to have the local government elections postponed indefinitely. The SLPP politicians had to stop visiting their electorates for fear of being set upon by the irate people who are struggling to dull the pangs of hunger. They are sure to milk this issue dry and gain some political traction in the process. They have taken up the cudgels for the Samurdhi beneficiaries who have been left out of the recently-introduced social protection scheme called Aswesuma. This time around, they are masquerading as a company of knights on a mission to help commoners in distress. Having ruined the economy, inflicted untold suffering on the people and gone into hiding thereafter to all intents and purposes, the SLPP politicians are crawling out of the woodwork. They are all out to dupe the public again, and they might even succeed in their endeavour. They can dissolve into tears at will and pull the wool over the eyes of the public this ability has stood them in good stead, and helped them make an early comeback after a crushing defeat in 2015. No one, we believe, can match the SLPP grandees’ adeptness at wearing their hearts on their sleeves. One wonders whether, in this country, it could be thought to mean the art of thriving on human misery, for Sri Lankan politicians are adept at weaponising people’s suffering and the resultant resentment to further self-interest. There is no general consensus as such on the term, politics, which is variously defined.

Age of wonders 3 how many heroes