Editorial
Enormity of greed
Wednesday 13th July, 2022
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency became a huge problem, and his resignation is also likely to be problematic, for it has led to a dogfight for the post of Acting President. It is said that two dogs at the same bone seldom agree. Ambitious bipeds thirsting for power could become far more ferocious than the canines fighting over bones. There are said to be several presidential contenders, and a fiercely-contested election is expected in Parliament come 20 July. A divisive election is something the country needs like a hole in the head amidst the ever-worsening politico-economic crisis, the resolution of which requires a concerted effort.
What is most desirable at this juncture is for the party leaders to get themselves around the table and select the next President unanimously and thereby obviate an election, which will only fuel the crisis with some political leaders refusing to join the caretaker government to be formed. The JVP has already sounded a warning; it says it will not be party to any interim administration headed by either Sajith Premadasa or Dullas Alahapperuma. It wants Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene to become the Acting President. The JVP has to be roped in for the proposed collective effort to overcome the crisis.
Ironically, the politicians who are vying for the presidency were at the forefront of the campaign that forced Gotabaya to agree to step down. Given their enormous greed for power, which has now become obvious, one wonders whether any of them would have quit in view of protests if he had been the President.
Speculation is rife in political circles that the SLPP has been instructed to leverage its parliamentary majority to determine the outcome of the election expected in the House next week. It will be a huge mistake for the SLPP to try to manipulate Parliament in a bid to have a person of its choice elected the Acting President. Such a move is bound to trigger another wave of protests. The SLPP MPs must not lose sight of the fact that the Rajapaksas, who used them unflinchingly, are running away, and there will be hell to pay if they continue to do as Basil says. At least now, they must act sensibly and follow the dictates of their conscience and do what is good for the people, and future generations.
The party leaders must shed their political differences, overcome their insatiable greed for power and reach a consensus on the appointment of the next President, for the sake of the country.
Ideals vs individuals
The political parties with parliamentary representation have invited a group of representatives of the Galle Face protest campaign, which has come to be dubbed Aragalaya, to talks. What is the basis on which they have selected the representatives of the protesters? There is no cohesive entity that represents the resentful people who readily respond to calls to arms from time to time, and the movement they have cobbled together via social media is eminently fissiparous and chaotic; there are several political groups claiming to represent their interests but they obviously lack control over the protesters, as evident from the acts of rowdyism, which is so uncharacteristic of an organised mass movement calling for a change for the better. Yesterday, two groups of Aragalaya activists clashed at Temple Trees, which they are currently occupying, and some of them were rushed to hospital.
So, let it be asked again how the party leaders have identified the ‘representatives’ of the Galle Face protesters. However, the common objectives of the protesters are clear—a system overhaul, a progressive political culture, the institutionalisation of good governance, the dethronement of the political class, as it were, the provision of relief to the public, the confiscation of stolen public funds, etc. Some of these objectives may seem utopian ideals, but they provide an insight into the thinking of the youth who have a different worldview. The political party leaders should uphold the ideals that Aragalaya represents instead of inviting its self-appointed ‘representatives’ with camouflaged political agendas.
The party leaders’ invitation at issue is likely to lead to the formation of a vertically-nested organisational architecture in the Aragalaya movement, with self-proclaimed leaders emerging from the fluid yet strong and effective social movement, which derives its unity and strength from the absence of a unified leadership. Hierarchisation is known to have a corrosive effect on the unity of any organisation consisting of ambitious members with competing interests, and conflicting ideologies and agendas.
It will be either the JVP or its off-shoot, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), which will come forward, claiming to represent the Aragalaya activists although most protesters do not subscribe to their ideologies and policies and are averse to the politicisation and monopolisation of the protest movement; they are the silent majority.
Aragalaya is best left as it is—a non-hierarchical entity appealing to citizens across the political spectrum. Are the political party leaders trying to create a schism therein by inviting its representatives and thereby causing its stratification, which will chip away at its unity? Or, in other words, are they trying to give Aragalaya the kiss of death on the pretext of recognising its representatives?
Meanwhile, former President Maithripala Sirisena has spoken very highly of the Aragalaya activists. He has stressed that they should take part in discussions on the interim government to be formed. But he has appointed a former strongman of the Rajapaksa regime, Mervyn Silva, as an SLFP organiser.Silva earned notoriety for attacks on the media and suppressing democratic dissent during the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
Sirisena must be ashamed of himself for stooping so low as to handpick the likes of Silva as organisers of his party. How can he reconcile his much-advertised affinity for the Aragalaya activists who demand clean politics, with the appointment of Silva? This duality is coterminous with duplicity.
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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