The ayes had it

The first budget proper of the Ranil Wickremesinghe presidency was concluded on Thursday with the third reading vote comfortably passed. So also the second reading. This was widely predicted and there were no surprises at voting time. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and some of the other northern MPs absented themselves during the vote as they had earlier assured they would while former Justice CV Wigneswaran abstained as he had done on the second reading. This reflected Tamil expectations of something tangible coming out of the president’s promised effort to take steps to finally resolve what has been called the Tamil National Question – a matter outstanding in the national agenda from 1956 if not earlier.

President Wickremesinghe, wearing the finance minister’s hat as two of his predecessors, Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa did before him, was a frequent presence in parliament during the budget debate, much more so than either CBK or MR had been when they were similarly placed. Wickremesinghe clearly is a parliamentary president who, given his history of an unbroken presence in the House from 1977 to August 2020 when he lost his seat, obviously enjoys its hurly burly. This was clearly demonstrated in the just concluded budget debate where he made it a point to be in the chamber or otherwise be physically present in his parliament office to exercise his constitutional right to participate or intervene in the proceedings of the legislature.

It has been widely speculated that Wickremesinghe, who was elected the ninth president of this country by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) on July 20 this year to serve out Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s balance term, has been under considerable pressure to expand his present 20-member cabinet. Such pressure is believed to have increased with the return to the country of Basil Rajapaksa credited to be the puppeteer pulling the SLPP strings. RW of course is very well aware of the public hatred of politicians, particularly those very visible during the Rajapaksa Raj demonstrating affluence beyond their known means. The Rajapaksas were kept out in the first round of cabinet making. But eldest brother Chamal’s son was one among the new state ministers. MR’s ambitions for Namal is a given. But will the president cave into a demand that Mahinda’s son returns to cabinet office? Is he strong enough to resist that if push comes to shove?

Many have beens have been knocking on the cabinet door anxious to remount their previous pedestals. Wickremesinghe who would have far preferred to have a lean and mean cabinet, particularly at this time when many sacrifices are demanded of the common man, braved unpopularity to appoint a clutch of non-cabinet state ministers last September after the cabinet appointments in July. This was under SLPP pressure but several seniors of that party and other claimants are still out in the cold. Following the final budget vote on Thursday, parliament watchers have been wondering whether there were signals from the voting that some cabinet and state ministry appointments are due shortly. It was noted that a Tamil Progressive Alliance MP abstained courting disciplinary action by his party. Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle and Duminda Dissanayake voted in favour provoking speculation that they may return to office.

The outcome of the voting obviously signals that there is no political instability in the country that the opposition wishfully hopes for. The steam generated by the aragalaya, as claimed by the government during the budget debate, has now died down to a large extent. There are no kilometers long petrol/diesel queues, cooking gas is freely available although the recent price reduction has been reversed, milk powder is available though at a largely unaffordable price that has depressed demand, and the power cuts are tolerable thanks to the rain gods. State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya did try to credit the present administration for these favourable developments during the closing stages of the budget debate. But as pointed out by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the fact that we have stopped repaying our foreign debt some months ago and are not servicing interest has eased pressure on the critical foreign exchange problem and enabled what appears to be some flexibility.

State Minister Diana Gamage, whose parliamentary seat is at risk if ongoing investigations establish that she is a British citizen made some waves during the concluding stages of the budget as our front page news story reports today. Gamage who wants to grow ganja commercially and is advocating a night economy in the interests of the tourism industry has threatened the SJB in Parliament saying “If I go down, you go down with me.” The state minister who claims that the Samagi Jana Balavegaya belongs to her is now on record in Hansard saying that this party would be ‘null and void’ if she is deemed to be a foreign citizen. There is no doubt that the hurriedly cobbled SJB took over a party already recognized and registered with the Elections Commission to run at the last general election in August 2020. Gamage was, of course, rewarded for this with an SJB national list seat in the incumbent parliament.

While she has now joined the government and taken office as a state minister for which she has been pilloried not so long ago, what direction the whole business will take remains to be seen. The SJB wants to kick her out of the party she says belongs to her. Such expulsion will cost her national list seat. She, like Geetha Kumarasinghe before her, will also lose her seat if it is determined that she held the citizenship of another country when nominations for the last parliamentary election was received. But these are still early days. A lot of ground will have to be covered in Hultsdorp before there’s finality. Given the laws delays, whether this will happen before the next election is anybody’s guess.