Editorial
Situation will become worse before becoming better
As conditions in the country rapidly descend into mayhem with very little prospect of short term resolution, external developments such as what’s going on in Ukraine add to the gloom. Although we are notorious for our short memories, readers may remember (or deserve to be reminded) of the eerie similarity of the situation during our civil war period when India, out of compulsions similar to those of Russia today, brazenly interfered in the domestic affairs of our country. As a result, we were placed in a predicament similar to that which confront the people of Ukraine today. That country, of course, was once a part of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) that is today no more. We, or the whole of this island, was never in our history a part of a greater India although when Britain ruled both India and then Ceylon as Crown Colonies, London did look at us as part of the bigger Indian picture.
To return to today, most of us are being hit by power cuts that we till not very long ago were assured will not be our lot in the short term. The Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has eaten words confidently delivered very recently and now talks as though such assurances were never proffered. There are queues of vehicles outside filling stations although we are still being assured by Energy Minister Gammanpila that though the situation is tight, we’re not yet down the pallang. It must be said to his credit that he has been much more transparent about what’s going on than some of his other cabinet colleagues. But we can’t escape the reality that many of us add to the present situation by succumbing to our regular habit of rushing to filling stations to fill up at the first hint of a possible shortage. This means wasting what fuel we have staying in line with engines (and sometimes air-conditioners) running, topping-up long before necessary and thereby aggravated a near-critical supply situation.
Likewise, most of us don’t try to save electricity when the supply is on and continue normal consumption patterns keeping unnecessary lights on, opening and closing fridge doors when that raises temperatures inside the refrigerators, boiling water for innumerable cups of tea when hot water can be easily stored in a thermos flask and used when required plus much more. All this despite the fact that electricity is expensive and we must pay for what we use. The grumbles are mighty during the blackouts but there is very little civic sense prevailing about economizing on consumption. Despite various government circulars, we doubt if government departments and agencies will cut down on the use of air-conditioners etc. not only for reasons of personal comfort but also because newer buildings often do not provide for natural ventilation. An unexpected consequence of the power cut reported last week were elephant attacks on cultivations when electrified fences erected for crop protection become impotent. Hopefully some solution for this problem will be found in a manner similar to keeping essential services like hospitals supplied.
Despite the best efforts of both the government and the Central Bank, the dollar crisis is far from resolved. The black market is booming as it must given the current desperate situation. While the Central Bank is grimly holding on to an artificial dollar-rupee rate of just over Rs. 200, anybody with exchange can easily get close to Rs. 250 per dollar for whatever they hold. While the country is panting for the dollars once earned and remitted by our expatriate workers, trying to sugar the rate just for them by adding on ten rupees to the dollar for exchange through the banking system, has had little effect. Who will not take a better rate that is easily possible? Threats of fire and brimstone for ‘informal’ transactions have had little, if any, effect. The grey or kerb market has been very well entrenched over a long period of time and will not disappear. In a different day and age, it used to be said that we lived from “ship to mouth.” It is much more so today and applies not only to our staple food but also for many other essentials including fuel.
It is quite obvious that a critical situation is fast approaching and all efforts at finding palliatives are likely to be only temporary. Parliamentary theatrics such as those indulged in by the opposition SJB MPs last week by bringing flashlights into the chamber is laughable. So also Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardene’s angry comeback about “dangerous substances” endangering all Members being brought into the House. He, presumably, is talking about chemical components of batteries. Nobody will believe that the legislature is not equipped with stand-by generators and MP Harin Fernando will not be able to find his way to the men’s room minus the torch he stupidly waved in the chamber on Thursday. Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, one of the more civilized members of the political firmament, past and present, said a mouthful at Moneragala the other day when he declared the need to forget politics and save the country at this critical moment. The government continues to be ambivalent about going to the IMF. Minister Gammanpila is on record saying over half the cabinet favours going to the IMF at this juncture. But nothing tangible has been forthcoming from the ruling family with Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was due in New Delhi for the second time in two months looking for more badly needed credit but this trip has now been postponed. Whatever assistance is proffered, whether by India, China or any other, we must live with the reality that there will be no free lunch.
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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