Need for Bureau of Rehabilitation

Monday 3rd October, 2022

Political leaders in this country seldom look before they leap; they do it the other way around, reminding us of the proverbial tippler who plunged head first into a swimming pool, at night, only to realise that it had been emptied for repairs. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has revoked a controversial Gazette he issued recently, designating some areas in the Colombo city and its outskirts as high security zones (HSZs) and imposing restrictions on certain rights and freedoms of the public therein. If only he had cared to examine his order critically before having it implemented.

What possessed the government to invoke the Official Secrets Act No. 32 of 1955, of all archaic laws, to designate the ill-conceived HSZs? Did it seek legal advice before the issuance of the Gazette in question? If so, who vetted it? The lawyer/s who perused and approved it should be sent back to the law school!

One of the main reasons for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s abject failure was his rashness as well as cavalier attitude. He laboured under the delusion that his word had to take precedence over even government circulars. Cynics say the gazettes he issued as the President far outnumbered the audio cassettes released by popular singer H. R. Jothipala. He revoked most of them and cut a pathetic figure in the process. He acted whimsically in making vital decisions and ruined the economy as a result. President Wickremesinghe, a political veteran, was expected to make a difference, but he seems to be following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor.

President Wickremesinghe is now under pressure to withdraw the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill, which has drawn heavy flak from the Opposition, the media and human rights activists. The opponents of the Bill have warned that the SLPP will use it to harass its political rivals. The government has sought to allay their doubts and suspicions, but a regime that has used laws governing official secrets to designate HSZs is capable of anything.

The administration, management, and control of the affairs of the proposed Rehabilitation Bureau are to be vested in a governing council consisting of the Secretaries or Additional Secretaries of Defence, Health, Education, and Rehabilitation, the IGP or a DIG, and a representative of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board.

It is feared that the proposed law, if passed, will be used to send anti-government protesters to rehabilitation centres. The SLPP government has a history of using even quarantine laws to crush protests against it; it had Ceylon Teachers’ Union leader Joseph Stalin and several other key trade unionists bundled off to a faraway quarantine centre on the grounds that they had violated health regulations during the Covid-19 pandemic, last year. It made a mockery of its claim shortly afterwards by releasing all of them as pressure mounted on it to refrain from harassing them. In the late 1980s, we witnessed thousands of anti-government activists being rounded up and trucked to rehabilitation centres, most of which doubled as torture chambers. Thus, the Opposition’s fear that the rehabilitation bureau to be formed will be used as an instrument to suppress democratic dissent is not groundless.

We, however, do not join those who are calling for the withdrawal of the Rehabilitation Bureau Bill. Instead, we wish to suggest an amendment thereto. We believe that there is a pressing need for a rehabilitation bureau not for the members of the public but for the aggressive politicians who are a danger to society. What we beheld at the Galle Face Green on 09 May is a case in point. Hordes of SLPP politicians who set upon the anti-government protesters looked like zombies thirsting for blood. They were drunk and stoned, and hell-bent on destroying anything in their path. Such dangerous elements need to be rehabilitated while those who retaliated by killing an SLPP MP and burning government politicians’ properties must be arrested and prosecuted. Ugly scenes of violence we witnessed in Parliament during the 52-day government, in 2018, can also be adduced to bolster the argument that most politicians need rehabilitation. The SLPP MPs wreaked havoc in the Chamber of Parliament, and even tried to assault the then Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

So, let President Wickremesinghe be urged to amend the Bill at issue to provide for the establishment of a bureau to rehabilitate politicians, especially the SLPP MPs, local councillors and their goons. After all, no less a person than Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has said all MPs have to be tested for drugs because some of them are allegedly addicted to narcotics. Shouldn’t the government put its house in order first before trying to rehabilitate others?