Thursday 28th May, 2026

The JVP-NPP government would have the public believe that the economy is resilient enough to absorb external shocks, and the rupee is stabilising. True, the rupee has staged a countertrend rally recently, but the situation is far from rosy. Anything is possible in this topsy-turvy world, with US President Donald Trump acting whimsically. Much more therefore needs to be done to strengthen the rupee. This requires a truly national effort. Sadly, the government and the Opposition are at daggers drawn, and do not see eye to eye even on crucial economic issues.

Opposition politicians parade their supposed knowledge of economic affairs in Parliament, which is full of backseat drivers who claim to know the way but cannot drive. They keep on telling the public what they think is wrong with the economy. There is absolutely no need for them to do so, for the country’s economic problems and their root causes are all too well known. What the public wants to know is how the Opposition proposes to solve them.

Interestingly, the SLPP, which mismanaged the economy and bankrupted the country, is also critical of the incumbent government’s economic performance. Its leaders are lecturing the government on how to run the economy. What it is doing is like a bankrupt businessman conducting lectures on business management.

While out of power, the JVP/NPP also lectured previous governments on how to manage the economy. Its leaders would even brag that raising funds to settle the country’s external debt was child’s play, but now they are struggling to increase the forex inflow and navigate a host of other economic issues. Some of them even claimed they would be able to build the country’s foreign currency reserves by asking their supporters residing overseas to send in dollars. Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is said to be worn out.

The JVP was prominent among the political parties that resisted President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s modus operandi to put the economy back on an even keel during the previous government. It also berated the IMF and pledged to renegotiate the ongoing bailout programme if voted into power. It opposed tax and tariff increases and demanded that relief be granted to the public even at the expense of the economic recovery measures. It insulted Wickremesinghe, claiming that he was too old to rule the country and derisively called him Seeya (grandpa). Today, in a strange twist of fate, the JVP-led NPP government has chosen to pursue Wickremesinghe’s economic policies (‘Seeyanomics’?). It is jacking up taxes and tariffs and curtailing state expenditure in a desperate bid to boost revenue.

President Wickremesinghe got his act together on the economic front, and made tough decisions, regardless of their political consequences, and straightened up the economy, but he could not win the last presidential election because he succumbed to the arrogance of power and blundered on the political front, shielding as he did crooks of all sorts. Other political leaders, especially President Anura Kumara Dissanayake should learn from Wickremesinghe’s experience.

The Opposition’s right to criticise the government and its policies, economic or otherwise, cannot be questioned. It must act as a countervailing force against the party in power, but it should stop playing politics with the economy and allow the government to do what needs to be done to shore up the country’s foreign currency reserves and strengthen the rupee.

A strategy to mitigate the adverse impact of external pressures on the country’s foreign currency reserves consists in curtailing the foreign exchange outflow. The need for import restrictions, etc., cannot be overstated. Governments usually fight shy of adopting such drastic yet essential measures, fearing political consequences and protests by their political rivals. Procrastination worsens crises. This is why a consensual approach is needed to resolve existential issues facing the nation.

Wednesday 27th May, 2026

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Reviewing Election Laws, which recently had its first meeting under the chairmanship of the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, Prof. A. H. M. H. Abayarathna, has reportedly decided to seek public views on the election law review process. Reviewing election laws as well as modernising them to reflect present-day needs is a long-felt need. The PSC deserves the fullest public cooperation.

The PSC has been tasked with reviewing election laws, including the Registration of Electors Act, the Local Authorities Elections Ordinance, the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Presidential Elections Act, as well as amendments to those laws over the years and special legislative provisions relevant to their implementation. It will also evaluate the need to revise, amend and consolidate the laws and to recommend necessary reforms and amendments to the current legal framework governing elections. It has the authority to summon any individual, order the submission of any document or report and obtain evidence either in writing or orally.

Much is being spoken these days about law’s delays and ongoing efforts to clear a massive backlog of court cases. Of equal concern are the flaws in laws, and complaints abound that they even stand in the way of effective enforcement. There is a need for a wider public discussion on these issues. However, the focus of this comment is on some glaring deficiencies in election laws and how they have adversely impacted people’s franchise, a fundamental component of representative democracy.

An unauthorised change effected to election laws has had a corrosive effect on the Constitution itself. It has enabled the political parties and their leaders to circumvent the Constitution and abuse the National List (NL) mechanism to catapult persons of their choice to Parliament. There is hardly any political party that has not benefited from it.

Article 99A of the Constitution allows the persons whose names are included in the lists submitted to the Commissioner of Elections or in any nomination paper submitted in respect of any electoral district by political parties or independent groups at elections to be appointed to Parliament via the NL. This provision led to the sordid practice of many defeated candidates entering Parliament. One may recall that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who failed to secure enough votes at the 2020 general election to represent the people of Colombo, entered Parliament via the NL, became President and exercised control over all three tiers of government, Parliament, the provincial councils and the local government authorities. True, he was instrumental in managing the worst-ever economic crisis, and the country gained from his NL appointment, which however is the exception that proves the rule. Even incompetent persons can enter Parliament via the NL.

A UNP government did something even worse in 1988, when a general election was held under the Proportional Representation (PR) system for the first time in this country. It introduced Section 64(5) of the Parliament Elections Act, inter alia, as an urgent Bill, severely eroding the essence of the constitutional provisions pertaining to the NL and people’s franchise. Parliament Elections Act, No 1 of 1981, as amended in 1988, allows ‘any member’ of a political party to be appointed to fill an NL vacancy. This section has enabled political parties to make NL appointments, as stipulated by the Constitution, and then engineer vacancies and bring in persons of their choice as NL MPs. It is now a fait accompli because there is no legal provision for post-enactment judicial review of legislation. Worse, it has been alleged that the words, “any person” were inserted after the ratification of the amendment Bill.

It is hoped that the PSC, tasked with reviewing election laws, will care to ensure that the Parliamentary Elections Act is rid of the questionable section that adversely impacts franchise and even undermines the Constitution.

There is also a need to overhaul the Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Act, which was stuffed with unauthorised sections at the committee stage in 2017 to pave the way for the indefinite postponement of the Provincial Council elections. What Parliament passed was a textbook Christmas Tree Bill.

Tuesday 26th May, 2026

The Opposition derived perverse pleasure from the rupee’s tumble, which they apparently thought signalled the beginning of the end of the JVP-NPP rule. Its leaders gave ball-by-ball commentaries of the rupee depreciation in Parliament, apparently expecting the US dollar to rally to 370 rupees, the level associated with the peak of the currency crisis that preceded the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR). These politicians have been labouring under the misconception that if the rupee weakens to 370 against the dollar, the incumbent government will collapse, and they will be able to return to power. They should check their math.

Exchange rate cannot be considered the sole economic health indicator. Foreign currency reserves dropped to USD 50 million during the GR government, which also faced a crippling rupee crisis. The situation is vastly different today although it is not as rosy as the government makes it out to be.

JVP/NPP politicians are on cloud nine as the battered rupee has recently staged a countertrend rally. Why they are over the moon is understandable, but it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, as they say. It is too early for the government to jubilate. If US President Donald Trump gets out of bed on the wrong side tomorrow, pulls out of peace negotiations and orders fresh military attacks on Iran—perish the thought—the whole world will be plunged into chaos again; the rupee will tumble, much to the glee of the Opposition politicians who are desperate to make a comeback and savour power.

There are some daunting challenges the JVP-NPP government has to overcome to keep the economy on track amidst external shocks. Foreign currency reserves must be shored up urgently, and the way to boost them in a sustainable manner is to curtail the forex outflow and increase the forex inflow, as is obvious. What needs to be done immediately is to reduce the national import bill. Fuel and vehicle imports have been draining foreign currency reserves, and huge increases in the global oil prices due to the West Asia conflict have worsened the situation. Operating oil-fired power plants to compensate for the generation loss at Norochcholai, caused by fraudulently procured low-grade coal has also caused a huge increase in the national oil bill.

The government has imposed a 50% customs duty surcharge on vehicle imports, and the Central Bank has limited Loan-to-Value ratios for motor vehicles. Necessary as these measures may be, much more needs to be done to curtail the forex outflow caused by vehicle imports. When the government lifted the ban on vehicle imports, we stressed the need to strike a balance between increasing tax revenue and the forex outflow lest there should be a lot of new vehicles but not enough dollars to buy fuel.

Fiscal consolidation measures are necessary to overcome economic difficulties. Even India has opted for them despite its economic resilience. It has learnt from the crippling economic crisis it faced in 1991, when it was on the verge of defaulting on its external debt. Its foreign exchange reserves fell so low that they could barely cover about two weeks of imports. What enabled it to survive the crisis was IMF support among other things, and far-reaching economic reforms helped reshape its economy structurally to regain vitality.

Measures that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted to overcome the current crisis are worthy of emulation. They include curbing fuel imports through conservation, efficiency improvements, pricing adjustments, diversification of energy sources, reducing official travel and shifting more meetings online. He has also taken steps to reduce non-essential imports, discourage spending on gold and overseas travel, tighten capital outflows and promote import substitution and domestic production.

It is imperative that Sri Lankan political parties and their leaders stop playing politics with the economy. The Opposition is amplifying domestic economic issues in a way that could lead investors to consider this country an extremely high-risk investment destination. The investors who are already here might consider voting with their feet, and others will be wary of setting foot here. The JVP/NPP did likewise during the previous governments, with their leaders gloating over economic setbacks the country faced. It went so far as to aggravate the economic crisis by urging expatriate Sri Lankans to stop sending remittances.

It behoves both the government and the Opposition to keep the economy out of their political battles.