Editorial
Some thoughts on Independence
When we saw an incoming email from a regular correspondent to the newspapers titled “Why not sing the National Anthem in the Thai language” in our inbox a couple of days ago, we naturally thought the writer had his tongue in his cheek. He was reacting to a news story in this paper last Sunday that the president had directed his Media Division to prepare the Independence Commemoration Souvenir in the Thai language in addition to Sinhala, Tamil and English to honour the visiting Thai premier. This was not actually the case. The letter writer was advocating a digital souvenir as an economy measure. He had incidentally suggested – seriously and not sarcastically – singing the anthem in Thai.
Be that as it may, given the country’s current travail with everything possible going wrong everywhere, many older people are heard to say “we might have been better off had we remained a British colony.” In that context it would be useful to reflect today, our 76th anniversary of Independence from British rule, some of the pros and cons of having been under the imperial yoke.
It would be foolish to regard the totality of British colonial rule over this island to have been of absolutely no benefit to us. Negatives undoubtedly abound, notably the notorious Waste Lands Ordinance No. 1 of 1897 declaring all uncultivated lands as state lands under this law. This resulted in the unjust deprivation of the country’s peasantry of commonly held grazing and forest land serving as rainwater catchments.
The sale for a song of such land to British investors to open first coffee and then tea plantations impoverished the Kandyan peasantry and deprived the whole country of the natural catchment of the forested hill country that fed our rivers, regulated the climate and much more. Then there was the brutal suppression of the Uva-Wellassa rebellion of 1817-18 and the scorched earth policy that followed and events that occurred in 1915 etc. There was also the administration of the country in a language most of its people did not understand and the ultimate horror of people being tried for their lives in such a language.
But on the plus side of the ledger was, as in India, uniting the whole country previously divided into several kingdoms, the legacy of the English language and the modernization of the economy with roads, railways, ports, hydro-power and urban infrastructure not forgetting the enforcement of law and order. Colonialism, as everywhere, was exploitative but not without at least some fringe benefits for colonized territories. This was more true of the British than the other colonial powers.
The period between 1931 and 1947 leading up to Independence when the country was governed by two State Councils under British overlordhip saw the opening of the dry zone which arguably was bigger than the Mahaweli Development project that came later. We had universal franchise in 1931 with women getting the right to vote only three years after females had won that right in the United Kingdom.
At the time of Independence, then Ceylon was a jewel in the crown of the British Empire and ours was arguably one of the strongest economies, other than Japan’s, in Asia. It is very well known that Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew once held then Ceylon as a model for his country to emulate. That was then, but where are we now after 76 years of self-rule?
The blame for much of our failures must be squarely laid at the feet of the various post-Independence governments who have ruled us since we were freed of the colonial yoke. The Soulbury Constitution the British left us served us well for 26 years. But our political class with their lack of wisdom threw out the baby with the bathwater. The clause protecting minority rights ended with the 1972 constitution which accorded primacy to Buddhism, the religion of the majority. Sinhala Only was Mr. Bandaranaike’s battle cry but as Tarzie Vitachchi, one of our best known newspapermen so pungently put it, the prime minister later tried to add “but Tamil also” to that slogan!
As Prof. KM de Silva, one of our best known contemporary historians has noted, the 1972 constitution ought to have been a proper manifestation of the people’s sovereignty. But it was written with minimum public participation. As he pointed out, by promulgating the new constitution, the then ruling coalition elected by a landslide in 1970 gave itself a term up to 1977, two years beyond the five years to which it was elected in 1977.
But the J.R. Jayewardene government, elected in 1977 with an unprecedented five sixths parliamentary majority did better, doing away with the next election “with the consent of the people” obtained via what was widely regarded as a heavily rigged referendum. This enabled the then incumbent parliament to remain in office for a further term without an election. But as KM de Silva has said, the system we have been left with “may be described as a centralized democracy in which the most dominant element is the political executive which in comparison with the former constitution has fewer built-in checks on the abuse of political power.”
The various missteps since Independence led to a near 30-year civil war, a bankrupt country with an obscenely bloated public service and a military that is the world’s 14th largest. Jobs for the boys (and girls) of politicians has resulted in our public service being over five times as big as it needs be. Our youth is quitting the country in their thousands as they see no future here as we prepare for yet another election with little prospect of the widely desired system change.
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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