Breaking the ice

Dr. Harsha de Silva’s call for a dialogue between the president and the opposition about the foreign exchange crisis that the country is now mired in should resonate among both friend and foe alike. We quote him in our front page today rejecting claims that the situation is not as bad as it seems and calling for the dialogue “to better understand the problem and find a solution together as we are all in this together.” The people are very well aware of how bad the situation is; all that’s needed to find out is a visit to a grocery shop. Mr. Everyman and his wife find it very difficult to find milk powder and other essentials. Most vegetables are beyond reach of the common man. Cooking gas was a major problem until very recently. For how long uninterrupted power supplies will be possible because of the country’s inability to find the wherewithal to pay for the fuel necessary for thermal generation is anybody’s guess.

There was breaking news while this commentary was being written, that a dialogue had commenced on the initiative of TNA frontbencher MA Sumanthiran on how best the emerging situation can be met. Although no government heavy weights were present, three ruling party MPs heading parliamentary watchdog committees were there. It had been intensively speculated that the recent prorogation of parliament was a ruse to get rid of these independent chairmen, Professors Charitha Herath and Tissa Vitarana and Mr. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. But this was belied by their reappointment last week. Happily former speaker, Karu Jayasuriya, now heading late Ven. Sobhitha’s National Movement for Social Justice, had also been invited for the meeting. It had been attended by TNA MPs Sampanthan, Sumanthiran and Rasamanikam, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Dr. Harsha de Silva, Eran Wickremaratne, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Messers Rauf Hakeem and Mano Ganesan.

Although this was no dialogue between the president and opposition as called for by Dr. Harsha de Silva, this is undoubtedly a great leap forward. The ice has been broken and it is to be hoped that senior members of the government would also join the discussion down the road. The participants are educated and senior and not tub thumpers like too many in the political spectrum. A degree of consensus seem to have been reached on doing the needful without compromising the poor. Hopefully there will be early forward movement on what has been achieved with all parties acting in the national interest rather than on a petty political basis. This is what the country desperately needs at the present time.

Regular columnist Uditha Devapriya says today that a checklist presented by Minister Udaya Gammanpila, leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya which is a constituent of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), “seems to make sense”. This calls for accepting that there is an issue, identifying it, understanding it, revealing the truth to the people and leading by example by making sacrifices. There have been some differences within the government on whether the issue is as serious as made out though the scarcity of foreign exchange to pay for the country’s essential imports has been identified as the crux of the problem. Whether all shades of opinion within the government (and perhaps the opposition) have totally understood what the issue is all about may be doubtful. As for revealing the (whole) truth to the people, that has certainly not being forthcoming. And leading by example and making sacrifices, our politicians of all complexions are not famous for that.

Whether the government and opposition can arrive at a consensus on how the foreign exchange crisis can be met head on, particularly with a moratorium on the two sides not reaching for each other’s jugulars over obviously unpopular decisions that must necessarily be taken, is yet doubtful. The opposition extracting optimum mileage from the woes of the people has always been how the political game has been played in this country. But it must be admitted that what we are facing today is probably the worst economic crisis, compounded by Covid-19, in our contemporary history. The only fix, and not just the quick fix, that can address the forex crisis is setting the right price for the dollar through the interplay of market forces as lucidly explained by economist Romesh Dias Bandaranaike in this page last week. But whether that will be done and whether the opposition will let the government pour bitter medicine down the country’s throat is yet an open question.

In the midst of the existentialist woes of the people, particularly the poor, election talk has now entered the political space. It is not talk about provincial council elections as before because those elections cannot be held under the existing legal regime. The focus is now on local elections with terms of local bodies already extended by an year. Is a moratorium on elections going to be part of the big picture if there is bipartisan progress on doing the needful with regard to the critical economic front?