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Editorial

Gnats and sledgehammers

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Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama, now retired in Sri Lanka, wrote an article we published on this page last Sunday questioning why this country needed a “monstrosity of a Bill ostensibly to combat terrorism when the government for several decades already had at its disposal a law with sufficient flexibility to prevent and deal with all forms of threats to the security of our country and its peoples.” This law is the Public Security Ordinance enacted by the then State Council before Independence which has since been used by governments of all political complexions to deal with Emergency situations and ensure the maintenance of public security and the preservation of public order as well as supplies and services essential to the life of the community.

The controversial Anti-Terrorism Act, teeming with many obnoxious provisions, which has now been gazetted but not yet presented to Parliament is clearly an attempt to deal with a post-aragalaya situation that may in the future threaten the government’s existence. The regime is therefore seeking to arm itself with draconian laws to deal with protests, street demonstrations and agitations of the sort which last year compelled the resignations of both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Although the heat and tempo of the protests today is not what it was last year, thanks to the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration being able to address issues such as the petrol/diesel and cooking gas shortages, as well as the fertilizer issue that drove farmers to the streets, many matters yet remain unresolved. These can be a potential powder keg although a semblance of normalcy has now been restored. Government obviously seems to be wanting to arm itself against such an eventuality and by all accounts is using the proverbial sledgehammer to kill a gnat.

Whether the proposed Anti-Terrorism law, which some believe is a distillate of laws enacted in the UK and the U.S. following the London bombings and 9/11 is an overkill or not remains to be seen. Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the father of the gazetted Bill, has indicated a willingness to water down some of its harsher provisions during the process of its enactment. It is likely that it will also be challenged before the courts and a determination must be awaited. The government commands a comfortable SLPP majority in the legislature, and there is no risk whatever of laws it presents to Parliament being defeated. Given the attacks on the property of government MPs including their homes and political offices during the terminal stages of the aragalaya last year, a large number of government MPs affected will surely be staunch supporters of the proposed legislation.

A major problem besetting the government today is the lack of trust between itself and the people. The people believe that much of what the government does is for its own good rather than for the good of the people. It now looks certain that the local elections that were due and were aborted by the device of starving the Elections Commission of the wherewithal to hold that poll, is unlikely this year. The Wickremesinghe – Rajapaksa combine which went through the pantomime of handing in nominations was under no illusion about how it would perform. A countrywide defeat was very much on the cards for what its opponents call the Ranil – Rajapaksa government. Most analysts and commentators were of the view that such an election would have redounded best for the JVP-led NPP anxious to send a signal to the electorate that it was well placed to succeed in at a national election down the road.

It now appears that the President is likely to seek an elected term of office for himself once he serves out the balance Gotabaya term. He is constitutionally empowered to dissolve Parliament any time he now wishes and that is a gun that he holds against the SLPP’s head. He is unlikely to pull the trigger because his UNP, unless it mends fences with the SJB, will be unable to make a respectable showing at any parliamentary election in the near term. In any event he will be hard put to credibly explain to the country how a parliamentary election, the last thing most incumbent MPs want, will be affordable if local elections are not.

The government has been under pressure both internationally and locally to repeal the PTA. It has given undertakings in Geneva to do so but has, in fact, used its provisions to deal with even the post-aragalaya situations. It will become clear in the near term whether the government will press on with the ATA as gazetted or dilute some of its harsher provisions. The fact that the Public Security Ordinance is strong and flexible enough to deal with challenges down the road has been credibly urged by Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama in his already mentioned article last Sunday. He has pointed out that among critical challenges faced by different government in our contemporary history, the Hartal of 1953, the communal conflict of 1958, the Bandaranaike assassination of 1959, the abortive coup d’etat of 1962 and the JVP insurrection of 1971 among others were adequately addressed using the provisions of the Public Security Ordinance (PSO).

Among the more obnoxious features of the proposed ATA are provisions relating to powers granted to DIGs Police for detention of persons. Today there are over 30 DIGs in various parts of the country. Older readers would remember a time there were only four and a single SP headed the police in each of the nine provinces. The politicization of the police is a malady besetting the country today and strengthening their hand on matters such as detention would mean strengthening of political hands. It must also be remembered that the numbers of police and security forces today is streets ahead of what they were when national security problems were addressed using Emergency laws under the PSO in the past. This would mean that such laws can be more effectively enforced today than in the years gone by.



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Editorial

Ensure safety of COPF Chairman

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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.

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Editorial

Dead man walking!

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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.

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Editorial

Modi Magic on the wane

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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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