Editorial
Easing casino rules
There were reports last week that rules relating to the operation of casinos in Sri Lanka are being broadened in an effort to attract international players into the country. This is something that our beleaguered tourism industry will welcome. The availability of gaming opportunities is a visitor draw, as has been proved at many global destinations and even here during an earlier period. But governments have been ambivalent in their approach to the issue with moral and commercial dimensions opposing each other. As readers are very well aware, there are two established casino businesses already in operation in the country, one of them owned by the politically influential tycoon, Dhammika Perera who earlier this year was appointed to parliament on the SLPP National List replacing former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. He was soon thereafter appointed a cabinet minister.
Perera, amid the convulsions caused by the Aragalaya that led to both the departure of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, since resigned his portfolio of Investment Promotion. To accept first parliamentary membership and then cabinet office, he quit the chair and board positions in a string of quoted and unquoted companies, including the Hayleys conglomerate, he controls. Whether he will return to the cabinet where more vacancies are due to be filled in the short term is yet an open question. Given speculation at the time he quit the cabinet that he may also vacate his parliamentary seat and whether he would wish to continue the political journey he embarked on remains to be seen. Long considered a Rajapaksa afficionado he, while continuing his business interests, unusually held the position of Secretary to the Ministry of Transport during the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidential tenure.
Older readers would remember a time when horse racing was conducted in Colombo, Boossa (near Galle) and Nuwara Eliya on a scale far grander than what prevails today with only the Nuwara Eliya race course remaining. But following the election of the SWRD Bandaranaike government in 1956, a ban on the import of race horses and gambling was imposed. This was welcomed, particularly by housewives with gambling addicted husbands flocking to the Colombo racecourse on Saturday afternoons and gambling away their pay packets.
Although horse races were not run here thereafter, the bookies developed a lucrative business accepting bets on the English races. This business thrived despite a ban on the publication of racing news that the mainstream newspapers complied with. But illegal race sheets on British races were freely available and no serious effort made to control the industry that thrives to date. The once grand Colombo race course occupying a vast acreage of prime city land was allowed to run down until then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, wearing a second hat as Secretary Urban Development, beautified and commercialized the valuable resource.
Some Colombo five-star hotels were also permitted to run casinos some years ago in a short-lived experiment at a time when the hotel industry was gasping for survival during the war years. More recently the Australian gambling Moghul James Packer wanted to set up here and the ambivalence of the government’s attitude to gambling in the context of lobbies for and against was very visible. This was demonstrated by President Premadasa’s order to peremptorily deport Joe Sim, active in the then casino industry. Even the JKH-controlled Cinnamon Life project, probably the country’s biggest urban development investment ever, had space for gambling in its original design though the developer himself had no plans to enter the industry. It merely wished to let out space to an operator and it was whispered at the time that the pinnacle of government had expressed its preferences on who should get that space.
Now that a gazette has been issued to legalize and regulate casinos, opening the doors for the entry of global operators effective from Sept. 1, a reversal of the president’s previous outlook, it clearly seems that government has chartered a pragmatic course. Moral objections will obviously arise and there will be questions on how effective the regulatory mechanism will be. Political forces will inevitably mount the bandwagon and whether the administration will hold its ground remains an open question. At one point of time, Sri Lankans were supposed to be not permitted in casinos that ostensibly were exclusively reserved for foreigners. But that was not strictly enforced.
The availability of sexual services in and around casinos was widely rumoured and many ladies of allegedly easy virtue from Eastern Europe, former Soviet Republics and elsewhere were common sights in casino neighbourhoods. The new regulations have taken notice of this factor but how effectively it can be controlled remains to be seen. There is also the question of whether casino operators are paying proper taxes.
Macau, for example and more recently Singapore have done very well with casinos. Most Lankans will not wish this country to be a gambling dependent Macau but Singapore has for long been regarded here as an iconic model of development and good governance. It would be freely admitted that the way Singapore is run and how we run our affairs are chalk and cheese. Thus, even a shadow of the efficiency with which regulatory affairs are conducted there will not be possible here.
We cannot also forget that narcotic drugs first significantly entered this country with hippy tourists in the sixties and seventies. Links between organized crime and industries such as drugs, illicit liquor and gambling are easily developed. We already have serious drug and illicit liquor problems. But our tourism industry in which billions of rupees have been invested and a significant proportion of the work force depends on for a living needs all possible support; and so also the revenue-strapped treasury coffers.
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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