Editorial
Curiouser and curiouser
The Diana Gamage defection from the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) becomes “curiouser and curiouser” by the day if we may borrow from Alice in Wonderland. Apart from murdering Shakespeare, the question of the good lady’s citizenship has also arisen in reports bruited around in the social media. These have alleged that she has been listed as a British citizen in the Company Registry in the UK and also that her British driving license recorded her as British citizen resident in the UK. Questioned on the subject, Gamage had offered an interviewer to show him her passport. This ended that particular line of questioning. A popular Youtube channel mentioned that her soldier grandfather was British adding some lunu ambul to an already spicy dish.
Gamage, whose husband Senaka de Silva, was a principal aide to General (now Field Marshal) Sarath Fonseka when he ran for President, was the general secretary of a little known political party called “Ape Jana Balavegaya” recognized in the books of the Election Commission. This was the party which Sajith Premadasa and his supporters acquired for the purposes of running at the parliamentary election last August after quittting the UNP. This was done by effecting a name change of the party by dropping the ‘Ape’in its title and substituting ‘Samagi’ in its place. Not only was the party name changed but also its general secretary, Diana Gamage, who was replaced by Premadasa loyalist Ranjith Madduma Bandara with Diana relegated to a slot of deputy general secretary of the rose that bore another name. That is why Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardene said in Parliament that this lady “owned” the Premadasa party. Her National List nomination to the legislature is widely believed to have been a consideration for transferring such “ownership.”
As far as we know, the Sri Lanka passports of persons holding dual citizenship do not specifically record that fact. They are issued a certificate of dual citizenship and invariably hold two passports, one from their other domicile (British, US, Canadian, Australian or whatever) and one from Sri Lanka. The question must obviously arise whether Gamage is a dual citizen or not. If she was, before 20A for which she voted was passed, she would not have been entitled to enter Parliament. It wasn’t that long ago that another “fair Member” as they are referred to in various legislatures in the British tradition, Geetha Kumarasinghe, lost her elected membership of the House after a protracted court battle over her Swiss citizenship. She had, like President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, subsequently renounced such citizenship and been re-elected to the incumbent Parliament having lost her seat in the previous one. Dual citizenship of Sri Lankans can be very easily ascertained and it is most unlikely that Diana Gamage entered Parliament under false pretenses. That is a matter that can be easily established but questions would remain on how and why she is described a British citizen in the official records of the government of the United Kingdom.
The SJB says it will expel the 20A defectors from their party. They have, as a first step, already asked the speaker to seat those eight lawmakers who defied the party whip, elsewhere in the parliamentary chamber. These arrangements will most likely be made in time for the next sitting. Although constitutional provisions were made to enable political parties to expel defectors, who risked losing their seats, when the proportional representation (PR) system of elections replaced the previous first-past-the-post Westminster model, no defector up to now has lost his/her parliamentary seat. The PR legislation, in the interest of checks and balances (of political parties acting unjustly) provided an appeal procedure enabling sacked MPs to either go to the Supreme Court or a Parliamentary Select Committee. A judgment of Chief Justice Sarath Silva made it very difficult for an MP to lose his seat although the door was not closed altogether. Obviously this lot of defectors, like those who changed sides earlier, would have done their homework on the risk of losing their seats before crossing the Rubicon. They well know that government’s can prolong Select Committee proceedings for ever and a day and their seats will not be endangered if they are on the right side of the fence.
Forgetting Diana Gamage’s ignorance of Shakespeare, which she amply demonstrated with her unforgettable howler on the floor of the House, declaring she loved her country more than she loved her party, there are obvious questions that arise. If she thought as highly of President Gotabaya Rajapaska then, as she says she now does, why did she give her party all wrapped up in ribbons – we won’t say gift because it was anything but that – to the Sajith-led group to run against the Rajapaksa-led SLPP at the August parliamentary election? Also, why did she accept an SJB National List seat which was surely not forced on her, to sit in opposition to the Rajapaksa government? Pardon us, fair lady, your slip is showing.
Now that 20A, certified last week by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, is part of the country’s basic law, there is a vital question begging to be answered by those who today rule this island. If President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has solemnly assured the likes of Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Udaya Gammanpila that the 19A bar on dual citizen running for election will be included in the promised new constitution by November 2021, why then is a year-long window being kept open between now and then? Did those who obtained this assurance seek a guarantee that the provision will not be used in the interim? If not why? Basil Rajapaksa has clearly indicated that he does not wish to renounce his U.S. citizenship as his brother did. Does that mean that he is content to stay where he is now and will not enter Parliament before the new constitution is enacted?
Saturday 8th June, 2024
It was with shock and dismay that we received the news about death threats to COPF (Committee on Public Finance) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva over the ongoing parliamentary probe into the on-arrival visa scam. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament, that he was facing death threats and intimidation, and it was incumbent upon Parliament to ensure his safety. He stopped short of naming names, but revealed that some ruling party MPs were among those who had ganged up against him. The Speaker only said there had been no complaint, and he would look into the matter.
The SLPP-UNP government has been doing everything in its power to have all parliamentary committees under its thumb. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), which once helped restore public faith in the legislature by exposing state sector corruption, has now become a mere appendage of the incumbent regime, thanks to the appointment of SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as its Chairman. The SLPP-UNP combine also tried to oust COPF Chairman Dr. de Silva, but in vain. However, it knows more than one way to shoe a horse.
The COPF, under Dr. de Silva’s chairmanship, has been a thorn in the side of the government, which is struggling to cover up numerous corrupt deals. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Parliament that he found it extremely difficult to function as the COPF head due to severe resource constraints his committee was facing; he himself had to pay the salaries of some of his staff members besides burning the midnight oil.
The sheer workload he had to cope with as the COPF chief had taken its toll on his health, he said, informing the Speaker that he was at the end of his tether, and at times thought of resigning from the COPF. This is exactly what the government wants him to do; resource squeezes and threats are aimed at making him quit.
On 26 May, Dr. de Silva revealed, in an ‘X’ post, that the COPF had uncovered some vital information about the visa scam and it would reveal everything after its final meeting on the issue; the COPF was committed to exposing the truth behind the controversial tender, he added. In an editorial comment on 27 May, we warned him.
While thanking him for his bold stand, we pointed out that by making such a statement, he had thrown caution to the wind, and become a marked target, with the government making an all-out effort to delay the COPF investigation lest the truth should come out much to the detriment of its interests in this election year. Unfortunately, what was feared has come about; Dr. de Silva is complaining of death threats and government moves to strangulate the COPF financially to derail its investigations.
Dr. de Silva’s predicament exemplifies the fate that befalls the few good men and women in Parliament. It is hoped that all those who seek an end to the state sector corruption will rally behind Dr. de Silva, and bring pressure to bear on the government to ensure his safety. Let Dr. de Silva be urged to reveal the names of those who have issued threats, veiled or otherwise, to him and are trying to scuttle the COPF probes.
Friday 7th June, 2024
The SLPP-UNP government is going hell for leather to make bad laws as if there were no tomorrow. It is abusing its parliamentary majority, which has been retained with the help of some crossovers, for that purpose. The Opposition, the media and trade unions are up in arms, and understandably so. The incumbent regime is a dead man walking; it is so desperate that it is capable of anything. Hence the need for it to be restrained.
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill (EAB) plunged Parliament into turmoil yesterday, but the government secured its passage. The Supreme Court (SC) determined the entire EAB inconsistent with the Constitution and recommended changes thereto. After unveiling the Bill, sometime ago, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera hailed it as an excellent piece of legislation aimed at straightening up the power sector to serve the public interest better.
The SC determination left him with egg on his face. He reminded us of the proverbial curate who, while eating a stale egg, assured his host, a Bishop, that parts of it were excellent. Wijesekera’s egg, as it were, made Parliament stink yesterday, but he sought to please his masters by praising it as a silver bullet.
EAB should have been discarded and a new one drafted in consultation with all stakeholders. But the government is apparently driven by an ulterior motive; its aim is not to serve Sri Lanka’s interests but to look after those of some moneybags.
It is not uncommon for Bills to contain some flaws, which are rectified either before or during the committee stage. But there is something terribly wrong with draft Bills that are full of sections inconsistent with the Constitution. The drafters of EAB have demonstrated their sheer ignorance of the supreme law, and that they are not equal to the task of drafting Bills. If they had read the Constitution at least perfunctorily, they would not have drafted such a bad law.
Ignorant and incompetent, they do not deserve to be paid with public funds and must be sent back to law school. They must be summoned before Parliament and questioned on their serious lapses, which have caused public faith in the national legislature to diminish.
Curiously, the MPs who demand that judges, doctors, Central Bankers, and other public officials be summoned before Parliament have taken badly drafted Bills for granted. The power sector trade unions yesterday alleged that EAB was of Indian origin and geared towards furthering the interests of Adani Group at the expense of Sri Lanka.
Most critics of EAB are agreeable in principle to the need for power sector reforms; the Ceylon Electricity Board should be given a radical shake-up, and transformed into a modern organisation capable of providing a better service at a lower cost. They only asked the government to tread cautiously, consulting all stakeholders and taking action to ensure that the country’s interests prevailed over everything else. But the government was in a mighty hurry to steamroller the Bill through Parliament, making the Opposition ask whether it was doing so at the behest of some external forces involved in controversial power generation deals here.
What is passed by the current Parliament can be either amended or abolished by a future parliament in a constitutionally prescribed manner. But that does not mean that a government is free to pass bad laws, making the country enter into long-term agreements with powerful nations and their investors. It looks as if the SLPP-UNP regime did not care two hoots about the consequences of its actions.
Thursday 6th June, 2024
The outcome of India’s parliamentary election (2024) has led to a ‘perspective ambiguity’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in declaring victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance, which secured 293 seats in the 543-member Parliament, but he must be a worried man. The BJP is short of 32 seats to form a government under its own steam; it has lost 63 seats or about 20% of its parliamentary strength. It had 303 seats in the previous Parliament, and that number has dropped to 240.
Modi has become the second Indian Prime Minister to win a third term. The first PM to do so was Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru won an outright majority in Parliament in 1962; Modi has had to depend on smaller parties in his alliance to retain his hold on power. Modi must be reeling from a sharp drop in his victory margin in his own constituency, Varanasi; it has decreased to 152,000 from 480,000 in 2019 whereas Modi’s bete noire, Rahul Gandhi, won Raebareli by a staggering 390,000 votes.
Modi, who reigned supreme with 303 seats in the previous Parliament, is now dependent on parties such as Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to form a government. He has had to lead an alliance of strange bedfellows. Both Kumar and Naidu were bitter critics of Modi. Kumar helped form the oppositional alliance, the INDIA bloc, before switching his allegiance to PM Modi. Naidu also closed ranks with the BJP in the run-up to the election. These politicians have been described as extremely ambitious and highly unpredictable, and whether Modi will be able to manage them and consolidate his grip on the NDA alliance remains to be seen. They will demand plum ministerial posts in return for their support. The TDP is said to be eyeing Transport and Health portfolios! That is the name of the game in coalition politics, where it is not uncommon for the tail to wag the dog, so to speak. These two political leaders are however not the only problem Modi will have to contend with. The next five years will feel like an eternity for PM Modi.
Nothing would have been more shocking for the BJP than its defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir has been built. Modi may have thought he would be able to win the Lok Sabha election hands down after the consecration of that temple, which became a centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign. The BJP lost that seat to the Samajwadi Party! Modi must be disappointed that the Ram Mandir hype failed to trigger a massive wave of support for his party. This particular defeat signifies a massive setback for the BJP’s ethno-religious agenda.
Modi’s divisive election campaign failed to yield the desired result. The BJP’s failure to secure an outright majority could be attributed to a host of factors, some of them being the suppression of the Opposition, the arrogance of power, chronic unemployment, and the rising cost of living. The BJP also did not care to reimage itself in a positive light to attract the youth.
Modi will hereafter see the Congress-led INDIA bloc with 223 seats, in his rearview mirror. The Congress (99 seats) and its allies have eaten into the BJP support base considerably, but they have a long way to go before being able to capture power.
The bumpy ride ahead for the BJP-led coalition government to be formed may improve the INDIA bloc’s chances of bettering their electoral performance and turning the tables on the BJP and its allies in time to come. Modi will have a lot to worry about in his third term.
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