Misplaced priorities

Monday 13th February, 2023

SLPP National Organiser and eminence grise, Basil Rajapaksa has categorically stated that his party made Ranil Wickremesinghe the President to restore the rule of law, ameliorate people’s suffering and straighten up the economy. These three tasks are far from accomplished, but President Wickremesinghe has undertaken to solve other problems so much so that one wonders whether he has already launched his presidential election campaign.

Tax increases have triggered a wave of protests, which are fraught with the danger of snowballing into a general strike. But the government does not seem keen to negotiate with the protesting professionals with a view to arriving at a settlement. It has resorted to strongarm tactics such as the deployment of the police and the military to crush protests. State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has said PAYE tax affects only a ‘miniscule minority’ of workers, the implication of his claim being that the government need not worry about the ongoing protests against the unconscionable tax increases. What matters is not the numerical strength of the protesters but the fact that the tax increases are not fair. The government had better factor in the protesting professionals’ ability to cripple the economy.

President Wickremesinghe has set the cat of devolution among the pigeons of nationalism, as it were. His pledge to ensure the full implementation of the 13th Amendment (13A) has ignited a storm of protests. The SLPP dissidents have got something to hold on to; they are in fact using the President’s promise as a bludgeon to beat the government with. Protests are bound to gather momentum with the passage of time, and the beleaguered government will have another problem—a mega one at that—to contend with.

Meanwhile, MP and former Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has sought to provoke the opponents of 13A by asking the protesting monks to stay at temples and mind their religious duties instead of getting involved in political issues; he has also told the media that the ongoing struggle for federalism will go on until it reaches fruition. It is said that he who pursues the stag regards not the hare. The opponents of devolution are using Wigneswaran’s rhetoric to bolster their argument that the Provincial Council system will pave the way for federalism; it should be made to wither on the vine, and police and land powers must not be devolved on any grounds. President Wickremesinghe will have his work cut out to carry out his undertaking to ensure the full implementation of 13A. Every ethnic community in this country has its share of enemies of reconciliation.

The only saving grace, if at all, of the President’s avowal to implement 13A fully is that the SLPP and the JVP stand exposed for their double standards. The President’s undertaking at issue could not have come at a worse time for the JVP, which is labouring under the delusion that the people are waiting to vote for it overwhelmingly at the upcoming mini polls and it will be able to bag the highest number of local councils. The devolution issue has upended the JVP’s election campaign to all intents and purposes.

The JVP finds itself in an unenviable position, unable to take a position on the 13A issue, which has revived people’s dreadful memories of its terror campaign in the late 1980s. The JVP destroyed many lives and public assets worth billions of rupees in a bid to abort the Provincial Council system, and its contention that 13A is now part of the Constitution and therefore one has to come to terms with it is tantamount to a betrayal of its cause, for which its leaders including Rohana Wijeweera, and thousands of its junior cadres sacrificed their lives, about three and a half decades ago.

Sadly, the government does not care to get its priorities right. The country’s debt default has helped pay for some essential imports, and the fuel rationing system, which should have been introduced early last year, and petroleum price hikes have halved the demand for fuel. Exponential tax and tariff increases, and unprecedented expenditure cuts have led to an increase in the state revenue. But the situation is not rosy. What we are experiencing at present is an interval in hell, as a local saying goes.

Instead of concentrating on how to resolve the economic crisis once and for all, and bring order out of chaos, the President and the government are busy addressing contentious issues, which are best left unaddressed until the economy is put back on an even keel. First things first!