Editorial
Asking for big trouble
The recent big news was the government’s decision to allow the State of Emergency it had declared to lapse and thereafter revert to the much derided Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to deal with some Aragalaya frontliners belonging to the Inter University Students Federation. This organization is affiliated to Kumar Gunaratnam’s Front Line Socialist Party (FSLP) which broke away from the JVP but is now engaging in a fence mending exercise. We have said in this space before that the Aragalaya was widely labeled, both locally and internationally as a “peaceful protest.” That it initially was and there is no dispute whatever about that. But at the latter stages when barricades were stormed in the face of teargas and water cannons, it ceased to be peaceful. Unarmed yes, but peaceful no. Images beamed by both national and global television vividly captured the battering ram-style charges on barricades by young protesters including some yellow robed Buddhist monks. There was a sprinkling of women too present.
The attackers, confident in the knowledge that no live bullets would be fired, eventually succeeded in breaching the barriers and occupying President’s House, the Presidential Secretariat and Temple Trees. Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private home on Fifth Lane, Kollupitiya, was also torched burning down a property he had planned to bequeath to Royal College, his alma mater. His library and valued personal possessions were burnt to cinders. Nobody has accused the protesters of being responsible for that despicable act of arson. But whoever did it were able to gain entry under cover of the protest. A few arrests have been made but whether this will lead to a successful prosecution of those responsible remains to be seen. Undoubtedly there was a security failure in that the residence was tightly guarded. But the arsonists were able to gain entry, obviously carrying incendiary material. As elsewhere, they were confident that no live ammunition would be fired. They were right.
Why President Wickremesinghe chose to rely on the PTA at a time such as this is hard to understand. Any simpleton will know that the timing is all wrong. The UN Human Rights Commission where Sri Lanka is under fire is due to resume next month. Western countries whose support is vital have long been opposed to the use of laws such as this. Already the U.S. and the E.U. have recorded their protests. Opposition parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran is firmly on public record that then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, during the Yahapalana regime, had pledged in 2017 to repeal the PTA. In fact, we lost the GSP+ facility, of immense value to our garments and frozen fish export industries, as a result of the use of that law. GSP was restored on the promise that PTA will be repealed, but five years on it remains on the statute. The president knows better than most the risks of using that law at this particular point of time. Why then had three detention orders to keep IUSF leader locked-up for three months been signed? And such incarceration is extendable.
There are many educated guesses of why RW chose that path. Best among these is that with the universities due to reopen in December that it will be useful to send out a clear signal that participating in such activities such as those in July would mean long periods in the lockup. It is clear from past experience that universities are rallying points for agitation and much can happen within their precincts. This was a lesson from past JVP adventures, both in 1971 and thereafter in 1988-89. The IUSF was certainly the main force that ratcheted up the protest from what it was in the early days of candlelight vigils and similar events that drew support from non-militant groups who have never before participated in protests of this nature. There is still no clear knowledge of the sources of the funding that kept the Aragalaya wheels turning. But it is well known that there was support from abroad as well as some affluent sectors of society. All that is now water under the bridges and it is unlikely that such assistance would be forthcoming in the future. While it is being stridently claimed that the protest will continue until its objectives are achieved, it is obvious that it now lacks its previous vigour. It is also said that RW wants to project a tough guy image.
Prof. GL Pieris who has worn many hats in many governments, has with his photographic memory recounted that long time ago a lot of work has been done on the PTA with two cabinet-appointed committees producing what he called “an extremely valuable, insightful report which is in the hands of the government.” He has pertinently asked “Why reinvent the wheel?” adding the obvious course of action will be to draw upon the material already available. Government had, with GR’s approval, also given a categorical assurance to the international community that pending the comprehensive review of the entire statutory regime of the PTA and the introduction of fresh legislation, the PTA in its existing form will not be applied. Now we have reneged on that. Given the ongoing negotiations for international support to overcome the critical economic situation the country is neck deep in, do we need to open several new fronts on which we will be surely attacked?
There is an appropriate Sinhala idiom for what is happening now – illagena parippu kanawa. (roughly translated, minus the rich flavour – asking for big trouble.)
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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