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Sri Lanka: To be or not to be an Et tu Brute

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The division among Tamil Politicians is not a strange phenomenon. Their keen intellect and selfish motivations keep them always divided. They air many varied views. For example, many think Ranil is a Fox and therefore Tamils must not trust him and go for discussions. That thought is erroneous. What comes by refusing to discuss or refusing to engage? Our points of view would be ignored or lost to the government and to its Leader. So polarisation is a fact. But it is not recent. It is endemic among Tamils. We have to proceed despite such organic inheritance if we are to find a solution for our affected people. Our problems are over seventy years old.

Refusing to participate in a discussion takes us nowhere. Some have asked why we did not stipulate a condition that unless the President is prepared to grant federalism we would not participate in any discussion. The discussion that took place on 13th instant was not with the leaders of Tamil Parties only. It was with all Party Leaders. It was a preliminary gathering to initiate discussions on the ethnic problem with the consent and concurrence of all Parties represented in Parliament. Majority of Party Leaders Sinhala, Muslim and Upcountry attended the meeting. Refusing to attend such a meeting would have only hardened the feelings and reactions of the leaders of other communities.Nothing would have prevented the Government from continuing with the Meeting with the available Tamil Speaking Party leaders including the Muslim Parties and Upcountry Tamil Parties. Have the Leaders of Tamil Parties from the North and East been elected only not to present their views to a Government in power, allowing only quislings from the North and East to air our People’s views? Are these critics hand in glove with the quislings?

Furthermore boycotting does not solve problems. Engaging does. There were many complicated problems such as the opening of the Bustand at Vavuniya and the problems of the Private Bus Owners and CTB which we were able to solve when I was Chief Minister, Northern Province, because the Parties were prepared to engage with each other under our facilitation. Each Party aired their views and their fears and we as facilitators were able to sort them out.

Some ask us even after publicly saying that India should be brought in to facilitate discussions why we went for discussions without stipulating that condition. The simple answer is that we have not reached that stage yet. We are still at the point of understanding our immediate needs and the manner of solving them. Stopping land grabbing in the North and East is an immediate need. Reviewing the numbers of the Military and the articulation of the need to keep a Military in such large numbers in the North and East are responsibilities of the government. We cannot get relief /answers to these questions if we boycott.

It would be premature to call in India at this stage. India’s role would be absolutely essential at the time when the existing Constitution is to be changed. Any attempt at changing the present Constitution must ensure that the role of India at the time of evolving the Thirteenth Amendment to the present Constitution is not lost sight of. At that time Sri Lanka needed the services of India very badly. The LTTE were in a commanding position then. India signed the Indo- Sri Lankan Agreement of 1987 by implication on behalf of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Any change in the existing Constitution must ensure a greater, independent status for the Tamils. At that stage of deliberations, we should no doubt ask for the facilitation of India. Indeed we would! There is no question of the Government of Sri Lanka trying to avoid India and grant us less than what has been granted under the Thirteenth Amendment under a Unitary Constitution. We have already stressed the need to have a Confederal Constitution for Sri Lanka.

In fact, there had been a draft Constitution prepared during the Yahapalanaya Government to which  TNA too was a Party. I have been asking Mr Sumanthiran to send me a copy of the same. But he had delayed sending it until the time of our deliberations on the 13th instant. We had a look at that draft.

  1. The proposed Yahapalanaya constitution we found is worse for us, the Tamils, than the current Constitution. 
  2. The draft given to me is not a federal constitution, but a unitary constitution with a seemingly powerless “Second Chamber” added (Art. 111). We could find no actual powers accorded to this Second Chamber. Ekiya under any interpretation implies unitary. Unless we have an eksath constitution giving equal rights to all communities we just cannot accept this so-called ekiya draft constitution. I can understand why Mr.Sumanthiran delayed sending a copy of same to me.
  3. Overall, this proposal is burdened with procedural specifics, and often simply repeats the current constitution’s provisions in more flowery words. There is little substance in the proposals.

Let me elaborate – Inter alia (a) Art. 14(3)(a)(para 2) of the proposed constitution openly allows for non-arbitrary discrimination against non-citizens. This is not good for the Tamil diaspora – but more to the point, it could be a rationale for treating foreign investors poorly, and could violate trade and investment treaties that contain non-discrimination provisions. (b) Unitary or Federal State? It is certainly Unitary. Article 1 says it would be undivided and indivisible. That would mean the continuance of the hegemony of the Sinhalese throughout the Island. (c) Article 4 gives powers to the Central Government to acquire territories and legalise illegal land grabs. The continued usage by outsiders after  2009 would give the Government the right to legalise their illegal usage. Furthermore, this Article repeats the Sixth Amendment shamefully.(d) Most land rights seem to be transferred to the Central Government.( Vide Article 295 et seq.)(e) Buddhism has a foremost place, with dignity to other religions, but not equality. At least the North and East could be allowed to be sane, sensible and secular (f) In the proposed Constitution:  “Where a statute is enacted by the Provincial Council, it shall be forthwith referred to the Governor for assent.”(Art. 245(1)). Governor means nominee of the President or the Central Government. Where is the power-sharing contemplated? By implication, all Laws by the Province would be under the scrutiny of the Central Government. Theoretically, the Central Government could sabotage the progress of the Provincial Administration. This happened to us when I was Chief Minister. An International Company called in, to grow vegetables and fruits for export was refused permission on non-existing or false grounds.

Therefore we must be careful that those among us who helped to bring out this draft would not compromise our rights and powers. At that time we need to call upon India to help.

Whether anything constructive would come out of this process would depend upon us. The Government cannot be allowed to bamboozle its way to inform the World that we have compromised on our essentials. We need a confederal constitution with the rights of the majority of Tamil-speaking people of the North and East confirmed and ensured. Of course, within the Tamil-speaking areas, there could be Tamil and Muslim divisions. As for the Upcountry Tamils, their rights as minorities in the Sinhala areas must be adequately ensured under a confederal constitution. Switzerland is confederal and has 20 cantons which function independently. Switzerland is smaller than Sri Lanka in its area. The confederal system ensures every community occupying defined areas in the majority would be responsible for their governance and administration with minimum interference from the Centre. Unlike the other minorities in Sri Lanka, the Tamils of the North and East are not minorities in their traditional areas of residence. They have been the majority in their homelands continuously for over 3000 years. Despite recent occupation by members of the majority community with State assistance within the Eastern Province and the stupendous population boom among the indigenous Muslims of the Eastern Province, still, the Tamils of the North and East are the majority community in the Northeast.

If the Government does not view our problems sympathetically or tries to cajole or coax us to accept a Unitary Constitution, or refuses the participation of India as a facilitator, we would at that stage have no alternative but to appeal to the International Community to hold a plebiscite in the North and East under their supervision. Of course, we would not make secession an option. It would be whether a confederal or unitary constitution that the North and East want. Under a confederal system, the Muslim interests in the East and the Upcountry Tamils’ interests in the Hill Country would no doubt be given recognition and ensurance.

We have therefore engaged ourselves with the Government in finding a solution to our problems which have lasted for over seventy years. How cunning and dubious the Government is, is of no consequence so long as we are firm in our desire to get the best for our People. I have confidence that something constructive will come out of this exercise.

Views expressed are personal

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Prof. Merlin Peiris: The last of the Mohicans leaves the stage

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The demise of Prof Merlin Peiris embodies the end of an epoch representing the humanities academia in Sri Lanka as he was obviously the last of those great doyens who lived when the country’s humanities education was prospering in those halcyon days at the edge of the British rule. Prof. Merlin was one of the first students of the maiden batch of Peradeniya University when it was shifted from Colombo in 1950 and began his flair for classics even before he entered the university under the wings of Noel Phoebus at St. Peter’s College in Bambalapitya. As the old adage goes “our beginnings never know our ends”, Merlin’s childhood fancy for Greeks and Romans made his fate sealed in the realm of classics till the moment he departed from the mundane world. Indeed, he was destined to be Sri Lanka’s foremost classist in its post-colonial context with lots of challenges that loomed before him. First, a subject like classics was purely an elite one in those bygone days which was essentially confined to a particular class with Oxbridge pedigree. In particular, those who excelled in Greek and Latin in colonial Ceylon mainly used the classics as a bridge to peruse either law or join the elite Ceylon civil service. There was no gusto among the young Ceylonese graduates to read for a doctorate in classics and in one instance famous Vice Chancellor of Peradeniya Sir Ivor Jennings University scorned the idea by saying “classics PhD is impossible for a Sri Lankan as it is toughly ploughed field”. Young Merlin made famous English colonialist’s remark a fallacy by obtaining his PhD in Classics within one and half years from London University and many Sri Lankans followed his steps later.

The second challenge that Prof Merlin confronted was the uncertain winds of politics that the whole country faced by the nationalist rhetoric of SWRD Bandaranaike in 1956. The influx of Swabasa to the university level simply vanquished the elite status held by classics in the humanities faculty in Peradeniya which resulted in the exodus of many finest scholars from Sri Lanka to foreign countries. Merlin took up the department of Western Classics in Peradeniya when the subject was at stake and audaciously spared it from a total eclipse. His biggest contribution to classical scholarship was the writings he left on Greek motifs in Jataka stories which remained to be an untouched zone till he unveiled it in one of his writings. In addition to that Prof Merlin was a zealous learner in Mahawamsa studies and compared Sri Lanka’s prime great chronicle with the other historical events in Greco-Roman antiquity. Comparative study of the Mahavamsa and classical Greece was a neglected field among the local historians as such an astute study requires a keen knowledge of both Sri Lankan history and Western Classics. During the colonial era, those who mastered classics showed less alacrity in examining the country’s historical relations with the Western civilization and those who gained their training in Sri Lankan history at the University of Ceylon possessed no sufficient knowledge of Greco-Roman studies. Under these circumstances, Merlin’s interest in connecting western classics to Sri Lanka’s ancient history was sui genris. The dozens of articles that he authored in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka unfold how this island was known to Greeks and Romans in the days of yore. Indeed, it was Prof. Merlin who inspired later-generation classists like D.P.M Weerakoody to inquire further into Sri Lanka’s historical connection with Greece and Rome. Yet his biggest forte was rooted in Greek philosophy, which was the field he mastered for his PhD at London University. The long conversation that I used to have with Prof. Merlin at his villa in Dangolla were often filled with lengthy arguments on the Grecian notion of rebirth. 

The greatest quality that would aggrandize Merlin’s name above the current mediocre scholars in Sri Lanka is his intellectual tolerance towards dissent. As a humane scholar, he was always patient in listening to the other person’s opinion. I recall how I approached him during my student days at Royal College as the only Sinhala medium student who sat for Greek and Roman Civilization for GCE Advanced Level and he walked the extra mile by providing me with study materials written in Sinhala. Even though I shifted away from studying classics at the university, my association with Prof Merlin remained unchanged till his demise. 

Vale Magnum Magister!

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Sri Lanka in 2023: Saffron, Kurahan, Red or Green?

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“Winds don’t blow as ships desire.” ~ Arabic proverb

Before Gotabaya Rajapaksa, there was SWRD Bandaranaike. Before Organic Only, there was Sinhala Only. And the related transformation of Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara from monastic colleges to secular universities. Like Sinhala Only, this was an election promise; like Sinhala Only, this was implemented with no forethought or planning.

The first signs of the coming malaise were evident by 1962 prompting the government to appoint a three-member Universities Commission, headed by DCR Gunwardane. In its report, made public in 1963, the Commission called the 1958 bill an ‘ill-considered and irresponsible’ piece of legislation pushed through by ‘political Bhikkus’ who “dictated policies, dominated public affairs, and incited actions which people in their normal senses would have considered even possible.” These political monks were also “responsible in large measure for inflaming the racial and religious passions that erupted in such sickening fashion in the early part of 1958,” the Report pointed out. The commissioners, all of them Buddhist civil servants, concluded that as “the higher education of Bhikku and higher education of the laity cannot be brought under one organisation, the two pirivena universities should cease to exist at the earliest possible moment.” The fusion, if continued, “would have a disastrous effect on the entire Sangha,” the Report warned.  (All quotes are from Prof. HL Seneviratne’s The Work of Kings).

The warning was ignored and the Report consigned to oblivion even though the Commission was appointed in response to widespread societal concerns about the effect of the two universities on ‘mahanakama’ (monkness) and the ‘Buddhist way of life’. Sixty years later, those fears have been fully realised. A new definition of ‘monkness’ and of ‘Buddhist way of life’ is now entrenched. The horrendous tales emerging from the Buddhist and Pali University are not anomalies but symbolic of these transformed notions of monkness and Buddhist way of life. Monks (with a few honourable exceptions) have become key engines of violence, intolerance, and ignorance in society.

In Buddhism Betrayed, SJ Tambaiah tried to understand and explain how a teaching based on compassion and loving kindness towards all beings became a religion of violent hatred. The monks of today are the rightful adherents not of what the Buddha taught but of this ‘betrayed Buddhism’, a creed devoid of all moral-ethical underpinnings and reduced to a body of mostly meaningless rituals.

During the initial idealistic phase of the Aragalaya, a young protestor in Kandy was pictured holding a hand-drawn poster depicting a rogues’ gallery of top pro-Rajapaksa monks, with a telling caption: Become Ordained at least now. In the same week, when a political monk tried to join a protest in Battaramulla, he was respectfully told to leave. In those early days, the Aragalaya was not only non-party; it was also secular. That promise would soon turn out to be a mirage. Saffron robes and cassocks became a common sight, with some even acting as the public face of the movement.

Political Bhikkus are a key component of the Lankan malaise. Yet, like politicians, they see themselves as The Solution. Walavahangunawave Dhammarathana thero, the chief incumbent of the Mihintale temple, is the latest monk to succumb to this delusion publicly. In June 2020, he was praising Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his ‘wise leadership’ and thanking him for ‘saving the country from Covid-19 and promoting indigenous production’. In August 2022, he was calling Ranil Wickremesinghe a leader with ‘foresight’. Now he is on the warpath against all politicians. He has given the authorities a month to relieve the poor of their economic miseries. If the government fails to do so by next poya day, he wants people to get out onto the streets and throw out, well basically everyone.

Whether this is another flash in the pan or the prelude to a serious upheaval remains to be seen. Equally unknown is the story behind this sudden emergence, as sudden as that of Galagoda-atte Gnanasara. Is this new saffron-robed rebel chief his own man or an unwitting pawn? Either way, this latest attempt to fuse religion and politics even more tightly, to uphold the myth of Saviour-monk, again, doesn’t augur well for 2023.

Last week, Iran publicly executed a second unarmed protestor, Majidreza Rahnavard. It is instructive to remember that the mullahs were once liberators, courageous resisters to the Shah’s authoritarianism. Religion and politics is a deadly combination. Bad for politics, worse for religion, worst for the people who fail to maintain an unbridgeable wall between salvation in this world and next.

A Worrying Vacuum

The latest results of the Institute of Health Policy’s opinion tracker survey paint a picture that is fascinating and disturbing in near equal measure. If the question is Who is the most popular of them all, the answer seems to be none (at least according to the data made public).  If the question is Who is the least unpopular of them all, then the answer is Ranil Wickremesinghe. His net unpopularity rating is the lowest at 45%. Sajith Premadasa is the most unpopular political leader with a net unpopularity rating of 57%. Gotabaya Rajapaksa has a net unpopularity rating of 51% and Anura Kumara Dissanayake a net unpopularity rating of 55%.

If that is the fascinating part, the worrying part is the remarkable decline of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s unpopularity. He is now less unpopular than either Sajith Premadasa or Anura Kumara Dissanayake and within touching distance of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Recently a group of Lankan boat people were rescued by a Japanese vessel in Vietnamese waters and handed over to Vietnamese authorities. The Lankans were headed to Canada, but didn’t mind being sent anywhere so long as it wasn’t Sri Lanka. That wasn’t the country the Rajapaksas inherited in 2019; that was country they were compelled to relinquish in 2022. Not that they consider themselves blameworthy in anyway. “If people were patient a little more, the economic crisis would have been resolved,” Basil Rajapaksa said in a recent TV interview.

“The Aragalaya is over, what is the difference?” Basil Rajapaksa asks in the same interview, opting not to see, for example, that there are no fuel or gas queues, because Aragalaya got rid of President Rajapaksa, PM Rajapaksa, and Finance Minister Rajapaksa. His answer to the SLPP being a family party is to tell us to look at North Korea, Kim Il-sung succeeded by his son and grandson. When questioned about the preponderance of Rajapaksas in the SLPP, he answers, “If that is what the people of this country hopes for…” When asked if he’s willing to give up US citizenship or angling for another constitutional change, he turns coy saying he is willing to act “according to need”.

The Rajapaksas still create their own facts, live in their parallel universe, believe themselves to be inerrant, and are committed to familial power and dynastic succession. And at least one of them has become way less unpopular, which turns a Rajapaksa comeback from a mere theoretical possibility into a very real one.

Commenting on Jair Bolsonaro, Yascha Mounk says, “Brazil is yet another indication that the threat from authoritarian populists is here to stay” (The Atlantic –4.11.2022). He calls this the new normal, something democracies must learn to manage. A truth applicable to Sri Lanka as well. The Brazilian case is instructive in another sense. Jair Bolsonaro was a deeply unpopular incumbent. Lula, the challenger, was probably Brazil’s most popular politician. Yet the presidential election went into a second round. Lula’s eventual margin of victory was disturbingly narrow. Populism’s obituary is ever premature. It’s more a vampire that rises from the dead when democracy undermines its own credibility and democrats are too busy with their childish squabbles to see the looming shadow.

As Basil Rajapaksa makes clear in his interview, the Family, like President Wickremesinghe, is playing a waiting game. If Mr. Wickremesinghe fails to maintain living standards at least at the current low levels, if there are huge hikes in the prices of essential goods or services or long power cuts, if the necessary privatisation of state enterprises is not handled carefully (as Mangala Samaraweera did with Telecom), the SLPP will move into the oppositional space. Given current economic trends, that day may not be far ahead.

Three examples suffice. Economic contraction worsened in third quarter. 193billion rupees worth of gold was pawned in the first 10 months of 2022, mostly by middle class people, mainly for educational and agricultural purposes, according to a study by Prof Wasantha Atukorale of the University of Peradeniya. 6.3million people are food insecure.

The breakup of the UNP in early 2020 was a key causative factor of the current disaster. Had the UNP faced the election as a single party, the Rajapaksas would not have gained a near two-thirds majority. Without that massive majority, and the validation conferred by it, the Rajapaksas may have steered clear of some of the more extreme measures, such as Organic Only and the 20th Amendment.

Correcting that seminal error might be a way to prevent a Rajapaksa comeback either as kingmakers or kings. The main differences between the UNP and the SJB are not political or ideological, but personal, a sense of pique, thwarted ambitions. If leaders on both sides can rise above their personal animosities and petty concerns (not an easy thing to do, as history demonstrates again and again), an understanding is possible. A reconstituted UNP can then build the same working relationship with the JVP that enabled the defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015 and the progressive reforms that stemmed from it, such as the 19th Amendment, the restoration of judicial independence, and the right to information act.

Healing the UNP-SJB breach might be the only way Sri Lanka can emerge from the economic morass with not-too-high a cost. If the breach continues, it could hasten a descent into social violence, a return of the Rajapaksas, or possibly, and sequentially, both.

The Extremist Gene  

“People began to feel that the Ceylon University catered more to the elite society, absorbing western ideas and ignoring all that was indigenous,” wrote Ms. NGD Sirimanne (Ratnapala) in her MA thesis, The Evolution of Higher Education in Sri Lanka. “The emergence of Mahajana Eksath Peramuna in 1956 was the result of this grievous Cultural Consciousness. Thus began the need to establish a University ‘much like ourselves’.”

A key impulse behind the changes of 1956 was the desire to level down instead of raise up. Those who stood in the way of that drive towards the lowest common denominator were condemned as traitors, reactionaries or both. Tribalism, racial, religious, and social, was made coterminous with patriotism. Insularity was enthroned as a moral good, forgetting the positives we received from across the seas, starting with the teachings of the Buddha.

Sixty years on, we have universities ‘much like ourselves’ where no difference is tolerated, ignorance is no bar to advancement, and violence is the first and preferred way of settling a dispute. The relationship between society and university is a two-way street, microcosm and macrocosm interacting with and on each other in an endless spiral. We are a less civilized and more barbaric country than we were before these changes were introduced.

During a ceremony to honour outgoing US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican congressman and former speaker John Boehner said they often disagreed with each other but were never disagreeable to each other. “You can disagree without being disagreeable,” he emphasised. If democracy is to survive, political and civil society must practice the art of disagreeing forcefully without resorting to force.

This is perhaps the tolerance we lost, when we turned universities into spaces of exclusion, racial, religious, and social. If this tolerance survived in our universities, ragging would not have become torture and last week’s mob attack on the house and person of a former vice chancellor of Peradeniya would not have happened (even if the former VC’s son was inebriated and verbally abusive, as student leaders claim, as in mitigation).

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s repression of unarmed demonstrates and the JVP’s inability to unequivocally condemn Peradeniya mob violence are but two sides of the same intolerant coin. Janaka Thissakuttiarachahi of the SLPP and Nalin Bandara of the SJB were being equally uncivilised when they hurled sexist remarks at female parliamentarians. Hirunika Premachandra’s recent remarks on Ranil Wickremesinghe demonstrate yet again how far we have moved away from common decency. Politeness is not a class virtue, it’s a human virtue.

“We are a disaster.” This is a phrase Latin Americans use to refer to their contemporary condition, according to Ariel Dorfman in Other Septembers. If Sri Lanka’s economic disaster is not to turn it into a societal one, if this country is not to become an ungovernable, unliveable wasteland in 2023, restraint on the part of everyone would be necessary. Political, economic, social, and religious leaders should take the lead, but waiting for them to do so is no longer an affordable luxury. There is very little to choose between statal and anti-statal violence, if you are an ordinary citizen caught between those contending forces. We have lost much, but we could lose way more. 2023 may be the year we made the turn around, economically or socially, or the year we plummeted a depth too horrendous to contemplate, yet all too easy to imagine.

Correction

In my November column I said that the parliament would stand dissolved if the budget is defeated. I was wrong. It is the cabinet of ministers that would stand dissolved as per Article 48(2) of the Constitution. I apologise to the readers for this error. My thanks to Gamini Viyangoda for kindly bringing it to my notice.

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Sri Lanka: Recontextualizing cheeky ‘Manape’

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by Lakshman Dissanayake and Bernard Fernando on behalf of the LEADS Forum

1.      Background

A General election, if held under the current system in Sri Lanka without rectifying its covert critical system errors, will undoubtedly result in a Parliament that is not different from the current one. Therefore, these suggested necessary ‘system changes’ must be legalized before any election to ensure that we have a competent, trustworthy Parliament that can lead us to recover from the current political, economic and cultural crisis.

The First-Past-the-Post (FPP)System democracy is a thing of the past, primarily because many votes cast for the losing candidates are discarded, thereby distorting

 the final electoral representation. The Proportional Representation (PR)system is more democratic because almost all valid votes contribute to the election result.

Sri Lanka currently has a PR  system but its the primary objective of fair allocation of seats through equal value to valid votes has been distorted by the application of manipulative devices such as 22 Bonus seats, a minimum 5% District vote requirement and predetermined ‘District –wise’ allocation of seats leading to inaccuracies in the allocation of 196 seats. Besides, its value has been badly impaired by  Preference vote (manape – ‘මනාපේ’) and the  Mixed Member Voting (MMV) systems.

2.      The cheeky  ‘manape’  (මනාපේ) system

The original PR system (1978) had the ‘District Party candidate list in merit order’ as an integral adjunct. In 1981, it was replaced by the infamous ‘Preference Voting’ system (මනාපේ), a unique modification that erodes the value of the PR system. Further, the addition of the MMV system, which partially calculates a formula-based introduction of the FPP, also failed the ‘Litmus test ‘in the local government elections in 2018.

The ‘manape’ (මනාපේ) system should be scrapped because;

  1. The current ‘manape’ (මනාපේ) system allows the parachuting of candidates(Henchmen with ill-gotten money) to a District, based on the preferences of the ‘power hungry’ political party leaders to fatten their Vote Bank.
  2. It enables the party leaders to surreptitiously install and promote their own political and economic agendas that will benefit them contrary to the People’s wishes. 
  3. Honest, forthright and competent candidates lacking financial might and  those not loyal to the leader are likely to be excluded at this stage, making  a mockery of internal party ‘Democracy.’
  4. The ‘manape’ (මනාපේ) system also pushes the voters to be individual-centric for personal benefit without first heeding the policy manifestos of the contesting parties.
  5. It also promotes ‘party allegiance’ more than ‘voter allegiance’ among the elected politicians who raise their hands within the Parliament for their survival and to safeguard their candidacy in a future election instead of conforming to their manifestos or the public interest. This psyche is entrenched in the current political behaviour in the Country.
  6. It has also created internal rivalry among the same party candidates, leading to many corrupt activities and violent election campaigns, contributing to environmental degradation and violence.
  7. The laborious counting of preference votes has resulted  in re-count challenges,  enormous expenditure and wastage of time and resources of the Elections Dept
  8. It has contributed to undue delays in the release of Final results.

3.      The National list – not truly national

The appointment of defeated, non-elected and non-listed persons through the National list downgrades Democracy as it provides a backdoor to enter through corrupt deals for political expediency. Therefore, such provisions should be scrapped too, and the system should be changed to allow only relevant ‘Experts’ to be listed in the Party National list before the election and not to be changed after registration along with other nomination lists. Party National lists should be prepared transparently per unique criteria laid down by the National Election Commission (NEC) in the  Constitution, which needs to be amended accordingly to prevent sneaky changes post-election. NEC should be empowered and made accountable to implement the amended constitution’s provisions and spirit of the amended form. Please note the extreme example of a non-elected but appointed member of parliament(MP) becoming an Executive ‘Parliamentary’ President through a ‘covert’ method diluting the democratic power within the Parliament recently. This was an unprecedented loophole, installed within the constitution by the politicians themselves through the so-called 2/3rd majority.

4.      The Bonus seats, 5% minimum vote requirement, and computation of ‘others’ – for whom?

In the present Parliament, the provision for 22 Bonus Seats (10%) has proved undemocratic. It has allowed the winner to gain 17 bonus seats unsupported by votes and muster a dictatorial 2/3 voting majority in the Parliament.  

The provision for predetermined seats on a District basis has also deprived a major Party of winning their rightful number of seats in proportion to their aggregate National vote.

Similarly, the District-wise minimum 5% vote requirement has deprived another Major Party of winning their rightful number of seats, as those votes are discarded.

The inclusion of votes under the category ‘Others’ ( Not entitled to seats) for the computation of 196 seats, too, has affected the accuracy of clean proportion and logic. Thus, external devices have distorted the real PR system and weakened the proportionally elected candidates in carrying out their duties. We need to ensure the accuracy of seat computation by maintaining equality of vote and protecting the values of a fair and clean Proportional Representation System.

Towards such end, the following demerits have to be removed.

  1. In the present  Parliament,  the provision for 22 Bonus Seats (10%) has proved undemocratic as it has allowed the winner to gain 18 bonus seats unsupported by votes and muster a  dictatorial 2/3 voting majority in the Parliament.
  2. The provision for predetermined seats on a District basis has deprived a major Party of winning their rightful number of seats in proportion to their aggregate National vote.
  3. The district-wise minimum 5% vote requirement has deprived another Major Party of winning their rightful number of seats. This disregard for a substantial number of valid votes in the aggregate boosts chances for the winning candidates who also cunningly use Independent decoy groups to weaken their opponents and strengthen their position.
  4. The inclusion of votes under the category ‘Others’ ( Not entitled to seats) for the computation of 196 seats, too, has affected the accuracy of clean proportionate logic.

Those mentioned above, external devices have distorted the real PR system and weakened the proportionally elected candidates in carrying out their manifesto duties.

5.      Vetting the candidates – like for any publicly responsible job

Currently, there is no appropriate ‘vetting’ system for candidates. Even the existing requirement for the Declaration of assets is not adequately implemented and is almost defunct, with the propagating underhand provisions for ‘offshore’ deals avoiding the radar.

Those mentioned above, external devices have distorted the real PR system and weakened the proportionally elected candidates in carrying out their manifesto duties.

Vetting the candidates – like for any publicly responsible job

Currently, there is no appropriate ‘vetting’ system for candidates. Even the existing requirement for the Declaration of assets is not adequately implemented and is almost defunct, with the propagating underhand provisions for ‘offshore’ deals avoiding the radar.

The vetting process should be designed and legalized to select candidates with the qualities necessary to be good parliamentarians. As a result of not having a solid vetting system, the simple and innocent voters have inadvertently elected sentenced murderers, drug lords, illegal sand miners, fraudsters, bribe takers, village thugs, and communalists, including vandalizers of the sacred Parliament under the protection of party leaders favourites ‘umbrella’… Even famous actors/actresses and sportsmen are being used to increase votes. All such MPs cannot be expected to favour any ‘system’ changes to the electoral system that has been the pillar of their success over the years.

6.      What we need

Our system must promote ‘Country/voter allegiance’ more than ‘party allegiance’ among elected politicians to the Parliament. These fundamental system changes will make the MPs more concerned about the Country and the ‘voter’ unhappiness rather than ‘party leader’ unhappiness. Then, the elected candidates will be more inclined to resolve people’s real issues and difficulties. This will make MPs more accountable to the voters. This also promotes consensual governance, not as aggressive or contentious as we see now.

7.      What other electoral system changes will achieve the above objectives/goals?

  1. Make election manifestos legally binding subject to an appropriate ‘Force Majeure clause to allow for Acts of God such as Pandemics and unanticipated major Disasters such as Tsunami. The Parties and the MPs did what they wished for their benefit and aggrandizement. Most of the time, what was said in manifestos became history after capturing power. As a result, they have become fantasy documents of promises and ineffective plans for the future.
  2. As aforesaid, repeal of the infamous ‘Preference (මනාපේ) Voting mechanism’ will allow the selection and election of suitable candidates with a strong track record’ and credentials to occupy the allocated seats. This will minimize or eradicate candidate bias introduced by the ‘preferential vote’ system, where the party leader selects the candidates, applying ad hoc, personal criteria sans any public participation or knowledge.
  3. Abolish the ‘cross-over’ provision for MPs, as this has been the root cause of many corrupt political deals involving ‘buying’ or ‘selling’ the sovereign vote. As they have ‘betrayed’ the confidence placed on them by the voter, upon conviction, the ‘system’ should automatically evict such members from the Parliament and promote a by-lection held in their representing districts. This will indeed establish an ethical & consensual political culture sans corrupt deals.
  4. Application of ‘meritocracy’ in selecting Ministers to ensure they understood their subject area well. We have witnessed how a ‘peniya’ became a death trap for us during COVID.
  5. We need to re-establish a mechanism to install the voters’ “Right to Recall” elected politicians for specific reasons within a legal framework.
  6. Revise the candidate selection process to ensure women and youth representation within the Parliament by making it mandatory to include 20% each of women -and youth (<35 yrs.) in the party nominee lists.
  7. Abolish the ‘mixed-member voting’ (MMV) system. The ‘Mixed Voting’ System has painfully adopted ad hoc ratios to satisfy only FPP and PR proponents, culminating in delays, ‘over-hang’ problems and an uncontrolled increase in the number of members to approximately 9000 in the local government.
  8. Make the party election manifesto a legally binding document to become the primary determinant for a wise voter decision.
  9. Fix a ‘maximum expenditure limit’ for party campaign financing to ensure a ‘level playing field’ and create an opportunity for eligible applicants sans financial strength.
  10. National Election Commission (NEC) must mandate standardized minimum eligibility criteria and a structured interview system to ensure nominations of genuine, ‘country-first’ political candidates based on merit. The political parties should be regarded as registered corporate bodies with constitutions incorporating necessary provisions.
  11. Revert to the permanent secretary system that prevailed before the mid-1960s to have an independent civil administration and ensure the continuity of policy implementation. India provides a success story of a robust civil administration run by “technocrats”, justifying a politically independent civil administration system.

8.      The advantages of the above recommendations

  1. It will ensure primary ‘Equality of vote’ and make the electoral process rational, fairer, simple, cost–effective and productive.
  2. The election of ‘Country first’ politicians’ as People’s Representatives achieves the secondary objective of an Election.
  3. Elected representatives will be more accountable to the voters
  4. The electoral process will become more meaningful and non-violent.
  5. Expenditure, Time and Energy spent by Elections Dept. will decrease drastically.
  6. Election results can be announced before Midnight.
  7. The whole Election exercise will be peaceful and environmentally friendly.
  8. 5.0 Minimum Eligibility Criteria of candidates

9.      What qualities should we have in a parliamentarian?

This need to be answered first before imposing eligibility criteria. What is essential is that the minimum eligibility criteria of an election candidate should not erode into the democratic principle. There are no qualifications to assess honesty, empathy, respectfulness to others, understanding and working democratically, punctuality, ability to read, understand and respond in at least one national language, and no nepotism tendencies. Still, being helpful without favouriting, tolerance for other opinions, seeking and honour advice when necessary and happily vacating when people say to do so. Most important is to have a proven track record displaying the above qualities. Developing these eligibility criteria needs to balance against the erosion of democratic principles and hence requires more comprehensive consultation led by the NEC.

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System Change: an Aragalist touch-me-not?

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Such diversity! Such passion! Such innovation and creativity! Such courage and heroism! Such were and still are the encomiums floating around in mainstream and new media about the Aragalaya. Yes, there was diversity, passion, creativity, innovation and courage. These however do not necessarily constitute good, healthy, wholesome etc. For example, the LTTE, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban and other such outfits had little diversity as is the case in identity based ‘struggles,’  but that all have long histories marked by creativity, innovation, passion, courage and heroism.

There was diversity and there was division. There were LGBTQ collectives (who, if probed, probably had very divergent views on things like governance systems, capitalism, the so-called ‘national question,’ elitism etc) and there were people spouting homophobic rhetoric. There were nationalists and those who equate the term with Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. There were victims of the system and system-beneficiaries. There was the left and the right getting comfy with one another (of course the radical credentials of many self-styled leftists have long since been compromised). And there was Julie Chung playing Viceroy in the midst of a flag-waving multitude. But, clearly, they all got together.
For what? Well, even as they blared out their pet slogans, passed around leaflets and posted in social media nutshell version of particular ideologies and preferred outcomes, and ‘educated’ the ‘ill-educated’ at every turn in pitiful attempts to dislodge long-standing angst, they were in unison in the call for the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

If anyone truly believed that getting rid of Gota would sort the country’s many ills, that’s delusion of the highest order. Nevertheless, it could be argued (and it has) that ousting him is a necessary first step in the process of putting things right. This theory is full of holes.

Systems can be represented by a single person or a collective of a few individuals, a family in this case as is argued for example. A system however is not a person (or a collective). The removal of a representative will not alter it. In this instance there was no agreement among the diverse multitude unified by a person-focused slogan and nothing else about successor or succession. Neither was there any cogent idea or even discussion about what kind of system would be desirable and how to go about installing it.

This is not surprising when outfits such as the Inter University Student Federation (IUSF) and the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP, which by the way dominates the IUSF) who formed the agitational vanguard in the main and professed to be committed to system-change failed miserably in a) coming up with even a halfway decent set of proposals for system change, and b) did not attempt to mobilise the agitators around the idea of a system-change. The second is understandable given the ideological diversity and a marked tendency to back-burn system change, never going beyond what at best could be called a peripheral slogan/demand.

Not surprisingly neither was there much of a system-change discourse emanating from the Neddas (those individuals/groups directly or indirectly benefiting from funds channeled through the National Endowment for Democracy — NED — the US outfit that took over the CIA’s country-destabilising operation), Candlelight Ladies, Rent-a-Protest Agitators, Stink Tanks, Con-Artists, Bornagainazis and other Funded Voices and other Kolombians. Indeed, for most of them the system was coterminous with Rajapaksas which again demonstrates both naïveté and duplicity.

Not all of this is captured in a survey of the Aragalaya recently carried out by the Centre for Policy Alternatives, but even this suspect outfit has (perhaps inadvertently) come upon a few startling truths about public perception related to what for some, such as the Asia Foundation, was ‘revolutionary’.    

The CPA assures that the semi-structured questionnaire administered among 1100 respondents from the four main ethnic communities (one wonders whether these were weighted to reflect real percentages) covering all 25 districts yielded reliable data.

On the one hand, a vast majority of respondents were willing to compromise on travelling and transport as well as food consumption (76.3% and 69.5%), but more than half were reluctant to agree to more taxes and almost 75% were vehemently opposed to any move that might result in a family member losing a job. This is all understandable. What’s missing here is hat some of the proposals for ‘change’ include these kinds of measures, especially those conditions currently being insisted by the IMF.
More than 80% want ‘system change’ but are clearly wary of neoliberalism. They want welfare and they also want less government. They want foreign companies to invest in Sri Lanka and they don’t want limits on earning capacity but they are not happy about privatising state-owned enterprises. They vehemently oppose greater involvement of the private sector in health and education.

Many questions have not been asked and therefore the data is not available. Here’s a list of issues that the CPA could consider if/when it conducts a follow-up survey:

1. What are the perceptions of Julie Chung’s involvement in the Aragalaya? 2. Can the IMF help the cause of changing the system? 3. Has the system changed? 3a. If ‘yes,’ in what ways specifically? 3b. If not, why not? 4. Does the replacement of a leader amount to system-change? 5. Did the institutional arrangement and the system of state processes change at all thanks to the Aragalaya? If conditions have not improved (The CPA’s income-expenditure data from the survey indicates that the situation has got worse) what really are the positives vis-a-vis ‘change’ that the Aragalaya yielded?  

While at it, the CPA (or anyone else) can ask if people know anything about the global capitalist system, whether or not it is important to develop the country’s manufacturing sector, whether or not development banks are necessary, whether or not a comprehensive plan for food and energy sovereignty and the will to implement it has to be part of a changed-system, whether beneficiaries of the system so reviled (the rich and powerful) truly wanted the structures and processes altered, and why and how the idea of system-change fizzled out the moment Ranil Wickremesinghe took control.

They could also ask what happened to the energy, creativity and courage? What happened to the agitational heroes? Who really benefited from the Aragalaya? Does Galle Face Green look prettier now if more boring? Were they right, those who said that it was a circus, all things considered and that the well-intentioned who were without political affiliation but were determined to build a new Sri Lanka cheated?

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Sri Lanka: Mahindagamanaya 3

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“We have not abandoned our people, neither will we do so.” ~ Mahinda Rajapaksa (Budget 2023, second reading debate)

The seminal event of the 2023 Budget cycle was not Budget 2023. The Budget was more good than bad, but too tepid overall to be an inflection point. The real stunner was the speech by Mahinda Rajapaksa during the second reading. To call it the first salvo of his Third Coming is no exaggeration.

The morning after he lost the 2015 presidential election, Mr. Rajapaksa returned to Medamulana, clung to a window in his ancestral pile, and blamed traitors and conspirators for his electoral loss. “We must remember they got their majority vote from Eelam,” he told his supporters. Sinhala-Buddhists, the true owners of the Motherland, have lost power which can be regained only by bringing the Rajapaksas back to power. That anti-democratic and racist interpretation of the 2015 presidential election would form the basis of Rajapaksa political platform for the next five years, starting with the Mahinda Sulanga rally in Nugegoda and ending in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s historic victory.

Like that Count from Transylvania with nocturnal habits and strange appetites, the Rajapaksas won’t stay politically dead. And they can keep on returning so long as enough Sinhala-Buddhist voters wallow in minority phobia.

Traitors and Conspirators form a key thesis of Rajapaksa theory of politics. “It has been revealed who was behind the crisis,” Mahinda Rajapaksa said during the Budget debate. “The people will come to know more information in the near future. These elements are not letting this country rise. Instead they attempt to ensure the country’s downfall… It was their puppets who put on a show recently. The economic collapse was an organised act. They caused the destruction of the economy. As evidenced by past incidents, these groups have acted in the same manner every time the country was making progress.”

The corollary of the Traitors and Conspirators thesis is that the Rajapaksas never have to own their crimes, errors, and stupidities. It’s always someone else’s fault.

The debt crisis, and the resultant sovereign default, for instance, is the fault of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. That government took “the largest debt in the shortest period,” claimed Mr. Rajapaksa, prancing about on his moral high-horse.

The website factcheck.lk analysed the issue factually by comparing interest due to pre 2015 debt and  the increase in debt between 2015 to 2019. Accordingly, 117.6% of rupee debt and 59.3% of the dollar debt incurred under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration was to service pre-2015 debt. So 89.8% of the total debt incurred by the ‘Good Governance’ administration was to pay the interest on the debt outstanding by 2015 (https://factcheck.lk/factcheck/deputy-unp-leader-ruwan-wijewardene-does-no-disservice-to-past-debt-servicing-costs/).

A few days before the 2019 presidential election, then finance minister Mangala Samaraweera asked candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa how he was going to make good the revenues that’ll be lost from his tax cuts. Mr. Rajapaksa didn’t bother to answer because most of the electorate didn’t bother with facts. So the Family slashed and burned the country’s tax base. In one year, tax revenue fell from 11.6% of GDP in 2019 to 8.1% of the GDP in 2020. The money lost to the nation was pocketed by business and professional classes. The ordinary masses who bear the brunt of indirect taxes got nothing. Though VAT was slashed from 15% to 8%, inflation increased in January and February, proving that the benefit of VAT reduction accrued not to poor people but to business owners.

Having gutted national income, the Rajapaksas increased expenditure, burning the candle at both ends. President Gotabaya’s project of providing state employment to 50,000 unemployed graduates and 100,000 Samurdi recipients without OL was quintessential Rajapaksa economics. The military was involved in selecting candidates and training them. Today most of them waste their time and public money in various state institutions. In these already overstaffed entities, there’s no work for 150,000 new employees.

The SLPP’s Rise from the Ashes campaign had to be abandoned because enough Lankans still remember that the ashes are from the fires the Rajapaksas themselves lit and stoked. Meatier issues, more incendiary slogans are needed. Mr. Rajapaksa, in his budget debate speech, gave a hint about the way ahead. No selling of national assets, he proclaimed, not even loss-making ones. Selling national assets equals undermining national security equals betraying the nation. Rata, Jathiya, Agama, Ape Hamuduruwane, Rana Wiruwo, Janathava… Terrify the country into strangling itself with the Kurahan satakaya, again.

Factually-challenged Counts of Medamulana

In 2007 December, Mahinda Rajapaksa, with an entourage of 35, paid a private visit to the UK to watch the graduation of his second son from the Dartmouth Naval College. When the president demanded that not only he but his entourage be accommodated on the return Sri Lankan flight of his choice, the management said a polite no. It was the height of the holiday season. Acceding to the presidential request would have meant offloading 28 paid business class passengers. A furious president chartered a Mihin Lanka flight. Doubtless, like Basil Rajapaksa’s recent bill at the airport lounge, people paid the price. (Was Prof. GL Peiris, now reborn as anti-corruption crusader, a part of that entourage, one wonders).

Emirates-appointed Sri Lankan CEO, Peter Hill, would have thought he was making a sensible business decision. In fact, he was causing lèse majesté. When Mr. Hill’s work visa came up for renewal in January 2008, a petulant government said no, and demanded a greater say in the management of Sri Lankan. Emirates refused and opted not to renew its 10 year contract. (Incidentally Mr Hill returned in September 2022 to manage a local private airline).

Since the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga government sold a 44% stake of Sri Lankan to Emirates for 70million dollars, the airline’s fortunes had revived. By 2007/8 its accumulated profit was 9.29billion rupees. In 2007 alone, it made a net profit of 5billion rupees. Then Sri Lankan fell back into the patriotic Sri Lankan hands of the Rajapaksas. In the first year itself, the airline made a loss of around 9billion rupees. By the end of 2021, the accumulated loss was 372billion rupees.

Is Sri Lankan national asset or national liability?

In the year 2020-21, Sri Lankan loss was a staggering 45billion rupees. If that money had been spent on social welfare, the 56,000 children facing severe acute malnutrition and the 2.43million people who are on the verge of malnutrition (according to the WFP) could have been fed not just adequately but sumptuously. That then is the real choice.

At a Himalayan 860billion rupees, the losses of SOEs in the first four months of 2022 is higher than their total loss in 2021. So, do we pump more money into a host of SOEs or do we help the wretched of Sri Lanka to survive? And when the Rajapaksas wage the patriotic battle to save the nation by saving Sri Lankan, where would the Opposition be?

In his budget debate speech Mahinda Rajapaksa said, “There is no benefit to the people by merely presenting the budget or by inciting them.” That was a double swipe, at Ranil Wickremesinghe for just presenting the budget without giving relief to the people and at the opposition for inciting the people.

Mr. Rajapaksa’s claim that Budget 2023 does not provide relief is as specious as his other claims. True, defence costs should have been pruned and were not. Yet, the money allocated to education and health exceeds money allocated to defence (including police), possibly for the first time in a long time. Total defence allocation is 539billion rupees while the total allocation for health and education is 554billion rupees. The allocation for social welfare is 852billion rupees amounting to 10.08% of the total budget. These are positive developments, despite the Budget’s pie-in-the-sky estimates and silly contradictions.

That the Rajapaksas should ignore these positives is understandable. In their eyes, only they can be praised since We did the best work (Api thamai hondatama kale). Unfortunately instead of adopting a nuanced approach, the Opposition too has opted to be blind to these positives. Ranil Wickremesinghe should be criticised for trying to clamp down on constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful protest. But do his many political wrongs justify voting against the budget wholesale, relief measures and all?

            Has the Opposition decided to oppose anything Ranil Wickremesinghe does, simply because he does it? How else can they accuse him of being right wing/reactionary and then slam him for embracing progressive taxation? It is one thing to question how the tax money would be spent, as the Supreme Court did, when it gave its nod to the Inland Revenue Amendment Bill, stating that “corruption and wastage of public finance must be addressed and violators dealt according to law irrespective of standing.” But it is another thing to scream that people are being taxed. People were always taxed indirectly, with the lower income groups bearing the brunt. The new tax policies tries to right that wrong, a little.

            As world slips into recession, the issue of fair taxation has assumed a global importance. The General Assembly recently mandated the UN to play a global tax leadership role. The IMF has come out in favour of Latin American nations’ adoption of progressive taxation. As Nigel Chalk, a top IMF official said, in backing Chile’s ambitious tax reforms (including a capital income tax), “A tax reform that generates more revenue, and puts more money in social systems, in supporting lower income families, supporting middle class, that’s definitely a more progressive system…” (Reuter – 2.11.22). It’s one thing to savagely criticise increasing Cess on paper (thus school books), quite another thing to oppose re-imposition PAYE taxes. If Ranil Wickremesinghe actually brings in a wealth tax, will the Opposition oppose that too? Where will this irrationality end? In an alliance led by the Rajapaksas to save the Motherland by saving the SOEs?

When the bough breaks

There was no danger of Budget 2023 being defeated. Had that happened, the parliament would have stood dissolved. And the SLPP is not ready to face elections, not yet. It is for that, and no other reason, did the Rajapaksa-led SLPP support the budget.

The alliance between Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Rajapaksas is an opportune one, like most political deals. Both sides have something to gain from it. Each side is using the other. The Rajapaksas do not enjoy playing second fiddle to anyone and would cut the ground under Ranil Wickremesinghe as soon as they feel strong enough. Mr. Wickremesinghe would do the same to the Rajapaksas when he can.

So once the use value diminishes, the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa alliance will fall apart. That is a political inevitability. The only question is who cuts whose throat first.

The Rajapaksas are the greatest threat to Sri Lanka’s democratic health, economic sanity, and public well being. As was amply proven in the last two plus years, they are structurally blind when it comes to anything other than familial interests, in the narrowest possible sense. Just one example would suffice. Had the preferential vote contest between Nipuna Ranawaka and Dulles Alahapperuma (not to mention Kanchana Wijesekara) been better managed, the Rajapaksas could have ensured their nephew’s victory without antagonising two faithful acolytes who had served them well for decades. But such restraint is alien to them. Like Vellupillai Pirapaharan, extremist responses are in their political blood.

So the Rajapaksas in power or in a position of serious influence would retard the task of getting Sri Lanka out of this abyss of Rajapaksa creation. Currently, they have no control over economic policy even though they can win some concessions, like the appointment of state ministers. Even that influence will diminish when President Wickremesinghe becomes constitutionally able to dissolve the parliament at will.

Which is why the Rajapaksas will look for an issue that can set the country on fire. It could be the restructuring of the SOEs. It could be a wealth tax. Or a proposal to solve the ethnic problem, or even a prelude to such a solution, such as the full implementation of the 13th Amendment or returning military-occupied North Eastern lands their owners. If none of these happen, there will be the suffering of the masses which is not likely to abate for a while.

The Rajapaksas probably know that any attempt to dress as economic saviours will not carry conviction. But if the Motherland is in danger, if international conspiracies are afoot, if traitors are at work, then the patriotic banner can be unfurled. Mahindagamanaya 3 will not be different to Mahindagamanaya 1 or 2. The Family will divide everyone else, appeal to the worst in Sinhala-Buddhists, and encourage reactive extremism in minorities.

The Rajapaksas are focused on regaining power. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake are preoccupied with hurts and resentment, pique and chagrin. By the time they see the common danger, the Kurahan satakaya might be close to throttling the nation, again.

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Sri Lanka: Formula for Lasting Peace and Prosperity

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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – Albert Einstein

The momentum for resolving the ethnic issue that has bedevilled the country since independence has taken a fresh urgency with the President calling on all parties to convene to discuss the issue and resolve it before the 75th year of independence in 2023.

Underpinning such a resolution will be the imperative of sharing power and in this context, an end to the dominant Sinhala Buddhist polity perspective that has stood in the way of a resolution. In attempting to find a resolution, one hopes that all political parties of all persuasions call a halt to which came first, the chicken or the egg simile when it comes to the ethnic issue. Rather than a debate on who came first and who lived where, a solution based on contemporary realities would be more beneficial for the current and future generations.

If political parties accept equality of all citizens irrespective of their numerical strengths and/or the length of their history and ancestry, all closely knit in the political mess that has been created, and that diversity within such equality is what is unique, and also importantly, move away from ancient geographical boundaries that have been used to create divisions rather than unify people, a resolution will be possible.

Sinhala culture, Tamil culture, Muslim culture have been fashioned over many hundreds if not thousands of years, not just within Sri Lanka but outside it, especially when it comes to Tamil and Muslim cultures. However, the founders of the major religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam may frown and express their disappointment over the way ritualistic cultural practices have deviated their current followers from their original teachings, overshadowing the fundamentals of their teachings with such cultural practices.

Unfortunately, politicians, and many contemporary religious leaders, especially within the Sinhala Buddhist community, have institutionalized religion using ritualistic cultural practices that have no place in what Buddha taught.

In terms of political governance though, the reality is that a fundamental requisite for resolution of the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka is the recognition of cultural diversity and everything associated with that diversity and a mechanism for each group to be able to make decisions through a process of discussion, debate, compromise with other groups. In such a model, a group with a numerical majority cannot be more equal than others as it is against the very principle of recognizing equality within cultural diversity.

The challenge before politicians is whether they are willing to accept this premise, as without an acceptance, and then acting on a mechanism to operationalize such an acceptance, the ethnic issue will continue to be used by all shades of political opinion for their own political ends as they have been doing since independence.

Having said this, even if the premise is accepted, it will not be easy to operationalize it due to various politically important forces preventing the premise being implemented. Despite 74 years of prevarication, political battles, even a war, Sri Lanka has not been able to resolve the ethnic issue and it continues to be an issue that divides the country. It will not be overcome during a few meetings of the political parties represented in Parliament today. Mutual suspicion harboured by different ethnic groups will not disappear overnight after a bon homie in Parliament.

The entire governance system and the caliber of politicians who enter Parliament has to change if a lasting solution to the ethnic issue is to be reached. While the power of interest groups cannot be removed all together from the political arena, their influence can be reduced by strong legislation. These are long-term, time-consuming activities and possible only through progressive steps.

An interim political solution

In the interim, a solution has to be found which will assist in moving the political pendulum in the right direction. The suggestion to introduce a second chamber with powers to veto and/or amend bills presented in Parliament that impinge on the equal rights of ethnic groups has been made as an interim measure until a more progressive new Constitution is introduced to reflect the equality of all belonging to different races and religions, and a degree of self-determination within a unitary, sovereign country.

It is suggested that the second chamber consists of 100 members, with political parties represented in Parliament nominating, by consensus, an equal number of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, and one person as the chairperson of the second chamber. None of the nominees should be members of the Parliament, and they should be persons of eminence and proven capabilities, especially in the arena of human rights and social policy development and implementation. In a sense such a body would act like a political watchdog over any basic human rights indiscretions that may be attempted by any government.

While a second chamber of this nature could bring all communities together via their political representatives as far as facilitation of legislation that do not impinge on equal rights of all races and religions, the political system and structures need to change if the people of the country are to be better served by those who the public chooses as their representatives.

A revamped Local government to be bedrock of a new constitution

In this regard, readers are referred to an article written by this columnist under the heading “An opportunity for a reformist Constitution to take Sri Lanka forward

The main thrust of that article was that local government should form the bedrock of a governance structure and that provincial councils should only be forums for local government members in each province to meet annually or biannually to discuss, debate and agree on the governance trajectory in each province. The task of a national Parliament comprising of 150 members elected by the people was proposed only to be engaged in policy development.

This to be done in discussion with local government members in each province, and of course the general public, business organisations, academics, unions, female organisations and civil society organisations.

National Planning & Monitoring Council (NPMC) mechanism and Regional Planning & Monitoring Councils (RPMC)

Finally, in respect of a political system change, this columnist also wrote an article titled “Contours for a new constitution with a difference, for the future, not the past http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2021/09/contours-for-anew-constitution-with.html) where three key features underpinning the suggested contour proposal was presented

The first one being a much-needed stakeholder participation outside of party politics through a National Planning & Monitoring Council (NPMC) mechanism and Regional Planning & Monitoring Councils (RPMC) responsible for developing a high level 10-year (minimum) National Governance Plan. The NPMC and RPMC mechanism and its influence were considered as a means of drawing more and more people from the private sector, universities, and other special interest groups into economic activity, and lessen the involvement of any government entity in activities they should not be engaged in and not competent to do anyway. It was proposed that the private sector should lead and be the engine of economic growth in the country if the future is to be different to the failures of the past.

The second, a devolved political administration via Regional Councils, that provides greater inclusiveness and participatory governance, by the people, for the people. The pivotal role of local government entities within each regional council was stressed as an important prerequisite. The central government’s role was noted as one of coordinating the implementation of the National Governance Plan developed by the NPMC and the RPMCs, once it was approved by the National Parliament.

Thirdly, the coordination of implementation to be led by a 10 to15 member central cabinet of ministers drawn from outside Parliament and appointed by the President, who will work with the relevant ministers in Regional Councils and with the local government entities for effective implementation of the National Governance Plan. This, along with the role to be played by the NPMC and the RPMCs were proposed as a means of bringing in the talent that is there in the country to move the country forward economically, socially and environmentally, more effectively and efficiently, for the benefit of future generations.

The need to change the political system is fundamental to ushering in a new Sri Lanka. It will be insanity if this is not done and if the same system and the same or similar people, some just simply Chameleons changing their political colours from time to time, are given the task of building a new Sri Lanka.

The second chamber that has been proposed as an interim measure could well be a permanent feature in a new reformist constitution, and its representatives selected by Regional Councils rather than the national parliament. Such a chamber would add to the fundamental requisite of power devolution that essentially has to be the foundation of a new Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka: Ramifications of Constitutionalism

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The Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East have been urging for the recognition of their traditional homelands from almost the time of Independence. During the grant of Independence, the Tamils though occupying their traditional homelands in the North and East were also resident in all parts of the Country for Government jobs,  trade, commerce and what not.

The Tamils felt safe and secure under British rule. Often the Sinhalese leaders would say the Britishers showed partiality to the Tamils and they adopted a policy of divide and rule. That concept was wrong. The British had good opinion of the Tamils, not because the British wanted to divide and rule (in fact they had no reason to divide and rule since most Sinhalese leaders aped the Britishers, converted to their religion and supported the British except the Left Leaders) but because the Ceylon Tamils were hard working, duty conscious, conscientious workers and they preferred them in many of their colonies. After all the Bhagavad Gita had preached disinterested devotion to duty several centuries ago and the idea was implanted among the Hindus, whether Vaishnavites or Saivites. It was the duty consciousness of the Upcountry Tamils that made Ceylon (Sri Lanka) prosper under the British and even thereafter.

The Federal Party was formed in 1949. If we had requested the British to grant us Federalism in the first instance it would have been granted because the Kandyan Sinhalese also wanted Federalism. Maybe because most of his clients were from the South, without disturbing the demography pattern of the time, Mr. G.G.Ponnambalam, the then leader of the Tamils put forward the 50:50 request, where the majority Sinhalese were to hold half the seats in Parliament and all the Opposition Parties together were to hold the balance 50%. This request was rejected by the British.

Mr.SJVChelvanayagam left Mr.Ponnambalam’s Tamil Congress Party and formed the Federal Party in 1949. The reason for asking a federal dispensation was because power was soon going to pass on to the hands of the Sinhala majority in the Country. Since the Britishers had unified the Country’s administration in 1833, and they were leaving now, the Tamils justifiably felt unsafe among the Sinhalese majority. They had to preserve their traditional homelands and the best way to preserve their areas was by asking for self-rule in their own areas without dividing the Country.

Federalism is not dividing a Country. On the contrary, it is a way by which unity could be maintained among disparate communities. The Tamils of the North and East of Sri Lanka are the most qualified people for federalism. They have occupied continuously for over 3000 years their traditional homelands in the North and East, have had a language of their own, culture of their own and in fact kingdoms of their own before the British unified the Country for administrative reasons. Even though Eastern Province had several sub-kingdoms they were all governed by Tamils. They paid tithes sometimes to the Kandyan King. The last King of Kandy was not a Sinhalese. He signed the peace treaty with the British in 1815, in Tamil. Tamil was the language of Royalty.

The reservations among the Tamil leaders, especially Mr. SJV Chelvanayagam, was to soon prove true. First the Upcountry Tamils were disenfranchised. Then by the Sinhala Only Act, the Tamil Government servants were driven away from  State Services.Then through pogroms and riots the Tamils who lived in the Provinces outside the North and East were driven away. Ultimately by standardisation, the studious Tamil students found it extremely difficult to enter higher echelons of the Educational ladder. Meanwhile lands falling within the boundaries of the traditional Tamil homelands were soon being expropriated and Sinhalese from the South were made to colonise those areas.Many of them were Island’s Reconvicted Criminals.

In 1956 Mr.SWRD Bandaranaike when he brought the Sinhala Only Act, did not foresee what he was going to do to the Country. He knew he was being unreasonable to the Tamils who occupied a distinct area, had a language of their own, culture of their own and belonged to religions other than that of the majority. For political reasons, to defeat the UNP, he formulated his policy of Sinhala in 24 hours. But he thought he could bring in the Reasonable Use of Tamil Act and assuage the Tamils. But he had released forces by his political short-sightedness which he just could not control. The Buddhist Priests stormed his residence at Rosmead Place and had him tear up the Reasonable Use of Tamil document. The same unleashed forces ultimately murdered him.

Lee Kwan Yew when he met SWRD, the Prime Minister, the latter had boasted, puffing at his pipe, that he had made the language of the majority the State language of Ceylon! Lee had warned him that it was wrong. In fact, he had made four languages, Chinese, Tamil, Malay and English, the State languages of Singapore and Singapore today prospers while Sri Lanka is bankrupt! 

Political, Social and Economic mistakes have been made in this Country. Costly mistakes! Mistakes devoid of common sense.Mistakes merely to get the votes of People at the next election. But the wise would not cry over spilt milk.They would ask how best could we change the situation and improve our lot.

Let me come to your question now. Yes!  I did say that unless the President consents to a Constitution other than a Unitary Constitution for Sri Lanka it would be purposeless having talks with Leaders of Tamil Parties. Under a Unitary Constitution, the majority community rules the roost. They predominate in everything. They decide what is good for minorities. They had the power to obstruct the progress of communities other than theirs, as we have seen in the case of the Northern Provincial Council. Projects beneficial to the People of the North had been sabotaged. We were not allowed to have the Chief Minister’s Fund when other Provinces had. All Provinces have seen modernisation in this Country except the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Only those who would go and cringe and beg the members of the majority community were found worthy of condescension by the powers that be.

We have not been allowed to run our own schools. Our fishermen are unable to fish in their traditional fishing areas. The Military controls everything from land to sea and may be air too! The Military are stationed in the North and East from the time of the end of war continuously. Expropriation of our resources by the South takes place daily. Appropriation of our lands by various Departments and most notably by the Mahaweli Authority takes place continuously. Buddhist places of worship are coming up illegally in places where there are no Buddhists living. Chinese influence is maintained in Tamil areas with ulterior motives. I once heard a Government Official tell some Chinese officials that they were close to the Chinese because of the closeness of their religion and that the Tamils are Hindus, meaning the Tamils are close to India.

I could go on enumerating the woes of the Tamil speaking of the North and East.

But the fact remains that talking reconciliation and making ad hoc changes to the existing Constitution as it is today being a Unitary one, would take us nowhere. The Tamils need to be freed from the yoke of Sinhala dominance. Even though the LTTE had asked for a separate State, our Voters have brought us into Parliament on the basis that we agitate for a Federal / Confederal Constitution so that we could live within our traditional homelands in amity with other communities, still continuing to be Sri Lankans. My Party alone asks for a Confederation because we want to minimise interference by the Central Government in the areas of our residence.

Unless we divide Power amicably among the different communities in consonance with the areas of their residence we cannot live in Peace and Unity. Always the majority Community would want to interfere and sabotage the activities of others if they feel unequal to the others. The Sinhalese though the majority in this Island suffer from an inferiority complex. The fact that a large contingent of Tamils live close by in South India might be one cause. The fact that Tamils are more hardworking and industrious is another reason. After all the Tamils who were driven out from Sri Lanka have proved their mettle in far-off lands. It took over twenty countries to coalesce to destroy Prabhakaran. He kept the North and East under his control for almost thirty years against a Sinhala Government all-powerful!

You would realise why a constitution other than a Unitary Constitution is necessary. We could discuss the difficulties that we may face in bringing about a federal constitution but certainly to continue with a Unitary Constitution will only bring misery to all.

Views expressed are personal

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Sri Lanka: Restructuring of Public Debt and Fiscal Policy – Field Note 1

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This series is based on the excerpts of the first report of the Sub-Committee in identifying short and medium term programmes related Economic Stabilization of the National Council tabled in the Parliament by Patali Champika Ranawaka as the Chair.  Composition of the Sub-Committee in identifying short and medium-term programmes related Economic Stabilization of the National Council,  Patali Champika Ranawaka (Chair), Naseer Ahamed, Tiran Alles, Sisira Jayakody, Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan, Wajira Abeywardana, A. L. M. Athaullah, Rishad Bathiudeen, Palani Thigambaram,Mano Ganesan, M. Rameshwaran; all are members of the house representing various political parties – editors

It is a well-known fact that our country is currently facing an unprecedented economic crisis. The public debt is no longer sustainable owing to the absence of public financial discipline over a prolonged period and reliance on highly risky foreign commercial loans. The payment of loan installments without taking necessary steps to restructure the debt in spite of the understanding that the debt is not sustainable anymore had emptied the official reserves and the net foreign assets in the banking system. Due to the lack of foreign exchange reserves, the essential imports such as fuel, food, and medicine and import of raw materials required for the manufacturing process have to be restricted. The burden of cost of living has risen to an unprecedented level and real income and food security of people have deteriorated. According to the official data, total inflation in September 2022 stood at 69.8% whilst food inflation was recorded at 94.9%. The transport inflation was 150.4%. Furthermore, the World Bank has predicted that poverty, which was 13.1% in year 2021, will increase up to 25.6% by the end of year 2022. It has also been predicted that the economy, which contracted by 4.8% in the first half of 2022, will further be contracted by 9.2% in year 2022 and 4.2% in the year 2023.

According to the World Bank Report issued in October 2022, it has been emphasized that the cause of the economic crisis is not Covid-19. There had been shortcomings in the economic structure and economic management policies for a long time. It has been reported that the weaknesses in the competitiveness of the export market, Central Bank Monetary Policies that have been maintained without discipline from time to time and the exchange rates that have been forcefully maintained were fatal blows to the economy of the country. The decline of the government revenue is the main reason for the fiscal instability and the increasing indebtedness of the country. Owing to all these factors and the unnecessary tax concessions given in year 2019, the amount of public debt and government-guaranteed debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Production which was 89% at the end of year 2019 has risen up to 110% at the end of year 2021.

The amount of public debt stood at 122% of the Gross National Production by the end of June 2022.

Debt Restructuring

  • The International Monetary Fund has declared that Sri Lanka’s debt is not sustainable. The fact that the International Monetary Fund has declared in March 2020 that the debt is unsustainable and urgent action is needed has now been revealed.
  • The Rating Agencies have declared that Sri Lanka is still in bankrupt state. (Downgrade from Selective Default (SD) to Restricted Default (RD))
  • After the Ministry of Finance declared the interim loan repayment arrangement (suspension of loan repayments) on 12th April 2022, assistance has been obtained from the International Monetary Fund.
  • Lazard Freres STS and Clifford Chance LLP have been appointed as financial advisor and contract law consultant respectively in order to have negotiations with creditors.
  • The negotiations were commenced in March 2022 with the International Monetary Fund and a staff-level understanding has been reached in September 2022. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Finance have expressed confidence that the approval to the understanding concerned will receive the approval of the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund in December 2022. If it is proved successful, the assistance of the International Monetary Fund will be available for the next four years (2023–2027) and funding amounting to US $ 2.9 billion is to be received in tranches based on progress.
  • During the final quarter of 2022, basic information is shared with all creditors (Under non-disclosure agreements) and discussions will be held with the International Monetary Fund with regard to obtaining their technical assistance (DSA – Debt Sustainability Analysis).
  • It is expected to conclude the negotiations and implement the agreements officially during the second quarter of year 2023.
  • The principles accepted during the negotiations with the creditors are Transparency, Good faith for a Collaborative Process, Fair and Comparable Treatment to all Creditors.
  • Furthermore, most of the Economic Analysts point out that the restructuring of domestic debt is mandatory to confirm the debt sustainability.
  • At the first glance this seems like a difficult task and, in light of the stance taken by the government not to restructure domestic debt, the target is more difficult to achieve.

New Economic Equilibrium

  • At present, the government has achieved a difficult, unstable, temporary and unsustainable financial equilibrium through strategies such as the imposing of strict restrictions on importation, foreign exchange conditions and controlled exchange rates.
  • The financial equilibrium has been achieved on the basis of the decision taken for non-repayment of debt and the debt concessionary package amounting to US $ 3.8 billion granted by India. This cannot be done in the long term. The importation of investment and intermediate goods including the fuel has also been restricted. (The fuel consumption has been decreased by 40 %.) This affects adversely to the industries and the services in mid-term, and, as a consequence, to the employment and economic growth. The restrictions have been imposed on imports in the western world and in Europe as a result of the economic recession, which affects the remittances in turn. On the other hand, higher fuel prices can be expected in short term in time to come (especially in the winter).
  • The policy on shrinking the foreign trade by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank could adversely affect the domestic trade, domestic job market and particularly the income level of the low-income earners in the mid and long term and also the period spent for the recovery of the economy would be prolonged.

Budget (as per Appropriation Act 2023)

  • The new taxes (direct and indirect) have been introduced with a view to increasing government revenue. However, no proper process has been introduced for the control of recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure of the Government. The purpose of increasing revenue is the meeting of expenses. As a result, in addition to the social strata already affected during the first round, the middle income earners are also subjected to tremendous pressure. This will lead to short-term social apprehension and loss of trust, accompanied by the risk of disruption of large-scale industries and services (due to increase in financial expenditure, tax expenditure, fuel expenditure and other expenses) in addition to the medium scale industries and services as well as a trend of poverty, unemployment and emigration. Therefore as to whether the expected incomes from them will be accrued is something which must be taken into consideration.
  • According to the proposed Appropriation Act (presented on 5th October 2022) the revenue is estimated at 3456 billion (11.4% of Gross Domestic production (GDP). Out of the expenditure of Rs. 5860 billion (19.4% of Gross Domestic Production), Rs. 2441 billion is for interest on loans while Rs. 1220 billion is for capital expenditure of the government. Similarly, the overall loan installment is Rs. 2025 billion, which brings the total expenditure to Rs. 7885 billion. When the revenue of the government for the preceding years, the new taxes and the present GDP contraction is taken into consideration, it is doubtful as to whether the expected revenue target can be met and unless a saving of 10% can be exerted on the recurrent expenditure of Rs. 2441 billion exclusive of interest payment together with a cut down of 60% on the capital expenditure of Rs. 1,220 billion the year 2023 will not see an approach leading to government fiscal stability even in a backdrop where debt repayments have been suspended.

Control of inflation, interest rates and businesses

  • A record inflation is reported to have resulted due to a rapid increase in the new money supply into the market (nearly three trillion in 2020 – 2022) and the slowdown in the production of goods and services. The interest rates have been increased by the Central bank to control the inflation and the treasury bills are sold in the primary market at increased rates over 30%. The high interest rates, new taxes (Value Added Tax (VAT) –, Social Security Levy and high personal and corporate taxes along with the inflation have almost destroyed the local businesses. As a result, there has been a situation of non-payment of loan installments, non-payment of lease installments, dismissal of employees, closure of companies and institutions. The high interest rates for deposits, non-issuance of new loans and the inability to recover loan installments have endangered the banking sector. The risk of defaulting of public debt is another threat faced by the banking sector.

Solutions and proposals

A change in the existing system

The need has arisen to change the legal and undeveloped systems, radically in every sector. It is a necessary condition for economic growth and a prime condition for building public confidence. Although financial stability is essential at this time, there is a danger of collapsing the economy in an attempt to establish strict financial stability. Therefore, a balance must be struck between financial and economic stability.

  • A collaboration of both the diplomats and the officials to accelerate the process of debt restructuring is essential.
  • The changing of the maturity periods of loans, the loan interest and the initial loan payments by paying attention to the factors such as the total debt amount compared to the GDP, the Gross Financial Need (GFN) rate to the GDP, foreign debt repayment to the GDP in keeping with the international standards on the debt and debt repayment ability of Sri Lanka at least during the next three years and the next decade is necessary in restructuring the debt.
  • The income and expenditure, foreign exchange earnings, control of balance of payments and a full financial and managerial restructuring of the public sector is mandatory to Sri Lanka in order to fulfill the difficult task of obtaining the concurrence of the creditors for the debt restructuring.
  • It has been reported that the government had taken a decision to restructure domestic debts. The liquidity of domestic debt had been contracted by over 60% due to the inflation. If the debt restructuring is continued in spite of the above situation, it is emphasized to reach a collective agreement among the depositors of the local banks and of the Employees’ Provident Fund and the

local investors after having formal negotiations whereby the trust will be built up among the foreign creditors on the restructuring of the foreign debt.

  • It is necessary to amend existing laws and bring new laws to establish responsibility and accountability in the financial sector to prevent the recurrence of the economic bankruptcy that occurred.
  • A new Public Finance Management Law must be adopted immediately, which binds the responsibility and accountability of the Ministry of Finance and its authorities for the stability of income, expenditure and debt, and the provision for debt management and Fiscal Management (Responsibility) Act (2003)) should be updated. .
  • A new Financial Regulation Act (Monetary Law Act 1950) which ensures accountability of inflation and financial supply should be prepared in line with the old Act and thus the independence of the Central Bank should be assured.

The Monetary Board and the Governor of the Central Bank and the top management should be made responsible and accountable for the financial situation.

  • A new independent agency should be set up for public debt management. The Central Bank and the Treasury can work together in its front office and back office functions and the debt management strategy should be managed by the middle office.
  • A new strong Act should be introduced to prevent corruption and it should ensure:
  • Professionalism for investigations.
  • The confidentiality of the complainant.
  • Efficiency and impartiality of investigations and litigation.
  • Independence, impartiality, and non- partisanship in litigation.
  • Active relationships with international parallel organizations.
  • The assets and liabilities of politicians and higher-ranking officials in Ministries should be declared to the public.
  • An independent, impartial, and efficient National Procurement Commission should be appointed for regulation and appeal with regard to procurement. It should consist of professionals who have experience in every field.
  • The Department of Census and Statistics should conduct a formal census on the social impact of economic reforms (closure of industries and services, foreclosure of property, losing employment, losing income, poverty, malnutrition) in every three months and economic reforms should be changed as necessary based on that data.
  • There should be an independent Bureau to identify civil groups, families and persons subject to social pressure, based on census data, and to direct local and international donors to projects aimed at them.
  • The prices of all food items, essential services, medicine and health care should be brought to a digital platform and any service supplier and consumer should be given the facility to access it. The consumer will receive the best service for the lowest cost and market competition.
  • The public entities should be restructured to gain the public’s confidence.
  • 2200 number of public entities audited by the Auditor General should be subjected to a proper management audit.
  • The nominal institutions should be closed.
  • The public entities should be amalgamated and separated under the theme
  • “one institution for one task.” Separate institutions should be amalgamated. (Eg:- Research institutions to universities)
  • To conduct a Work Audit in the institutions, and non-essential workers should be allowed to go abroad, self-retire, take no-pay leave or resign from the service after obtaining an allowance.
  • The public sector recruitment should be done only for the essential service category and should be done only on a competitive basis.
  • The professionals with proven capabilities should be appointed to the Chairmanship and the Board of Directors of strategically important public institutions after an open call.
  • Every state institution should be given annual, monthly, technical, and financial targets in the supply of their services. The work efficiency and financial efficiency of the public sector (recurrent expenditure savings) can be improved through that.
  • The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be introduced to all public entities including Ministries.
  • The promotions and salary increments for the higher- ranking officials should be based on their performance evaluations as well as seniority.
  • Those who violate procurement procedures and are connected to corruption should be deprived of their right to hold a post again.
  • A new system should be introduced to pay dividends for commercially successful enterprises.
  • After a proper Assessment of Needs and Finances:
  • Public enterprises that should be alienated;
  • Public enterprises that should be made into joint ventures with the private sector;
  • Public enterprises that should be subject to private sector management with the state owning the enterprise;
  • Public enterprises in which public management should be restructured

Such Public Enterprises should be identified, and the necessary strategies should be implemented after an open discussion with the employees.

  • The Department of Inland Revenue, Excise Department and the Sri Lanka Customs which are the main institutions of collection of public revenue, should be digitalized and restructured.
  • All professionals who provide their services on cash basis should conduct their transactions on an open internet platform and they should be open for public revenue institutions of the government.
  • No large-scale project should be commenced outside of the National Physical Plan. Moreover, no capital expenditure should be made without the approval of the National Planning Department.
  • As there is no war situation in the country, the following things should be done by a Special Public Security Management Committee;
  • Preparation of strategies on public security
  • Preparation of basic criteria on the number of soldiers, equipment and training,
  • Introduction of new economic activities for the soldiers, who are not essential for the service,
  • Preparation of an expeditious Programme for manufacturing military equipment and accessories locally and for finding foreign markets for trained soldiers and equipment.

Source: Sri Lanka Parliament

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Sri Lanka: Repeal the PTA and Release Prisoners Held Under It

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Voices for democracy are reverberating in many countries, where people’s rights and freedoms are being usurped by fundamentalist and autocratic regimes around the world. They are openly and covertly resorting to desperate attempts at repressing and destroying democratic movements. In some countries people have succeeded in thwarting them. In others the autocrats have prospered. In a few instances, people themselves have brought autocrats to power. Some recent examples were in the United States and Brazil. Sri Lanka and Iran are currently engaged in increasingly repressive measures against the democratic wishes of their respective populaces in order to prop up their increasingly untenable regimes.

Repressing dissent is not new in the history of Sri Lanka. The repressive dragnet has not only entrapped innocent peaceful protestors on the flimsiest of judicial excuses, but also those who have nothing to do with protests. Currently, protest leaders like the convenor of the Inter University Students’ Federation, Comrade Wasantha Mudalige; the convenor of the Inter University Bhikkhus’ Federation, Venerable Galwewa Siridhamma Thero are still being held under the all-encompassing undemocratic and opaque Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). They have been held for close to three months so far.

Human Rights Organizations both local and overseas, Trade Unions and Civil Society Organisations have been asking for their release, but so far to no avail. Already many in the international community including the United Nations have condemned such attacks. When the European Union raised concerns about the regime’s use of the PTA, Sri Lanka assured them that only in extremely necessary cases that the PTA had been evoked, though many cases have shown that it isnot true. In Australia, the Victorian Trades Hall Council has expressed its solidarity with the victims of repression. Even the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has said so. The arrest, detention and continued incarceration of both the convenors from August 18 onwards under the PTA is described by the Commissioners as: “unreasonable and without justification.”

The draconian PTA in its embryonic stage came into the scene in 1972[1] under the coalition regime led by Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike, with the enactment of the Criminal Justice Commissions Act, which reversed the important tenets of the principles of natural justice – the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. With it commenced the degradation of the country’s criminal justice system. Following this, the UNP regime led by President J R Jayawardene first adopted the PTA in 1979 as a ‘temporary’ measure and included various provisions that contravened international legal standards.

It was made a permanent legal tool in 1982 and was used in 1988/89 period against the JVP and the LTTE, in 2019 following the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and now against the “Aragalaya” protest movement. This enabled arbitrary detention and torture repeatedly targeting political opponents of the regime, personal opponents of some of their leaders. and specifically, against the many in the non-majoritarian communities.

Due mainly to the international pressure, amending or repealing the PTA has been in political agenda for several years. In March 2022 it was amended via the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) Amendment Bill, but without touching the provisions that led to its arbitrary use of psychological and physical torture. The regime declared a de facto moratorium of using the PTA in March. This moratoriumcame to a griding stop inAugust this year with President Ranil Wickremesinghe using it to detain three student leaders of the protest movement.

People are demanding the government acts with transparency, accountability, and respects their rights. They also demand opportunities to define their identities, set precedents for inclusive political processes, and create a constitution that represent their aspirations. After Mr Wickremesinghe was selected and installed as President by a discredited parliamentary majority, the regime launched an all-out terror campaign to root out the protest movement. The sites that were used for peacefully assemble, express and protest were destroyed using political thugs and special forces. Almost every protest was attacked with tear gas, batons and clubs. In doing so, the regime also used the PTA and the Police Ordinance to hold those who have not committed any violence.

The recent protest wave, unlike earlier ones, was able to force the resignations of the Prime Minister, several Ministers and ultimately the President. The protestors like much of the country were demanding the government of Sri Lanka address the issues that gave rise to the current economic and political crisis, a crisis created by the political and business elite. This elite does not want to change their corrupt and incompetent behaviour and institutions; hence they need to find scapegoats to hide their lack of accountability and transparency. While holding protest leaders behind bars unjustifiably and under inhumane conditions, the ruling elite carries on with their authoritarian and corrupt practices. They are trying to force the burden of alleviating the debt (without reform) on those who can least afford to carry the burden, the people. This needs to be vigorously exposed and resisted.

Mr Wickremasinghe has wantonly and wilfully used the dictatorial powers vested in the executive presidency, buttressed by the emergency powers and the PTA, to supress dissent and arrest peaceful protestors in an attempt to root out their leaderships. In doing so, he is erroneously and cynically branding them, terrorists. These tactics have been used many times in the past, so as to direct people’s attention away from their incompetence and misdeeds. The regime is now trying to employ new tools of repression such as the Rehabilitation Bill, which can be arbitrarily used to arrest and hold any individual who has the potential to become a political adversary.

Individuals are imprisoned without judicial orders, under the ruthless PTA. They have been held sometimes for years. many without any legal basis to do so. So far, the regime has arrested and detained about 4000 people. Most of them were released on bail, but there are no justifiable reasons for their arrests in the first place as they have not violated any law of the country. Under the current unaccountable system that is in place, they are unable to challenge the use the PTA to prevent legitimate opposition tocurrent discredited government’s arbitrary and corrupt rule. They have done so, for the last 44 years and will continue to do so, unlessthese repressive legislative mechanisms and institutions are repealed and abolished.

The universally accepted basis for anti-terror legislation istoprevent terrorism. Terrorism is said to be about using threat, force and/or violence targeting civilians or a community of people for the purpose of spreading fear in pursuing political, ideological or religious causes. An apt description of what the current regime and the regimes in the past have done to their critics and some sections of the population. Like repressive regimes the world over they have illustrated that when the legitimacy of a regime is questioned on their unlawful, corrupt and unaccountable behaviour, they resort to scapegoating and repressive actions to prop up their increasingly illegal regimes. Sadly, Sri Lanka is not an exception.

Those held under such legislation like the current protestors, undergo huge losses in terms of family and resources for obtaining assistance including legal advice and advocacy. The PTA legalises torture, and judicial recognition of admissions made under torture. Any protections said to be available do not prevent torture or violation of an individual’s right for due processes.

Contrary to the expectations of the rulers and the bureaucracy such incarcerations could make some prisoners more popular. If these cruel and unaccountable processes and conditions help create a Sri Lankan Nelson Mandela, people will come to know that the regime who tried to demean, degrade and denigrate are genuine individuals who are fighting on behalf of the people; that they are trying to protect the fundamental right to express their views on how they are governed and hold their rulers accountable for their actions.

How can the actions, that led to pardoning individuals like those who abducted school children in Trincomalee for ransom and murder, particularly, doing so after being charged in a court of law? If there is no evidence to charge them in a court of law, the only assumption one could make is that they are been held as ransom for legitimising and maintaining or extending duration of the regime and power of the ruling elite.

Use of such legislation has misguided and brutalised society. It has not helped to heal divisions, ensuring dignity of and respect for people, or restoring a humane society. Some of those recently “pardoned” prisoners had been behind bars longer than the sentences they had been convicted for. For example, two prisoners sentenced to five years by the courts had served 14 years, and they were given “presidential pardons”! Rather they should have been set free, at the end of their periods of conviction.

How can the regime justify its so-called pardoning, after holding them illegally for a period more than they had been convicted for? This is nothing but abuse of power and a violation of human rights. A government that can appoint committees and commissions whenever and whatever happens in the country, has so far done nothing to look into what happened or why this happened. Are there any more to be given the so-called presidential pardon?

For example, A graduate engineer Sivalingam Arooran was pursuing his postgraduate studies at University of Peradeniya, when he was kidnapped in 2008. After subjecting to beatings, he was indicted five years later. He was recently bestowed the award for best Tamil literary novel “Athura-salai” (Hospital) and has been held for 16 years under the PTA. How he has been detained should be an open and wide discussion in society, as no human being deserves such treatment. How can any regime justify such illegal and undemocratic behaviour? About 120 Tamils are still being held in detention under the PTA. After the 2019 serial bombings, more than 200 Muslims were detained. What has happened to them?

We cannot say that pardoning and releasing those who have been held under the ignominious PTA will help Reconciliation. Such measures have caused irreversible harm to society. Releasing those who are being held under the PTA without any evidence orbeing charged in a court of law, is essential. It should not be done in a piecemeal and unaccountable way like Presidential pardons or amnesties, but with apologies and compensation. If they were held for questioning the legitimacy of a system, that has bought the country to economic ruin as amply evident today. It is ruling elites who should be brought under the ambit of scrutiny for their actions in causing this social and economic collapse.

In reality, the president and government are presiding over a powder keg of economic deprivation and sense of injustice experienced by the masses. Those in the protest movement are well aware that many of their fellow protestors have been arrested and are in prison. Their sense of injustice rankles when they see government-affiliated hoodlums who instigated and took part in attacks against peaceful protestors continue to enjoy their freedom and engage in their corrupt practices. The double standards being practiced continues to erode the credibility of the government and its leadership and can act as a lightning rod to mobilise future protests.

It is high time that the government take urgent measures to release all those held under the PTA, against whom thereare no evidence found and no charges laid. Also, not to use the unaccountable power of the presidency and an increasing suite of repressive measures and legalisation to further their increasingly illegitimate, corrupt and incompetent rule. All those held in detention under the PTA without being charged at a court of law should be released unconditionally,at least now!

[1]This was drafted using the South African Apartheid legislation and the British anti- Irish laws at the time, and repealed under the Criminal Justice Commissions (Repeal) Law, No. 12 of 1977.

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