Asking for big trouble

The recent big news was the government’s decision to allow the State of Emergency it had declared to lapse and thereafter revert to the much derided Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to deal with some Aragalaya frontliners belonging to the Inter University Students Federation. This organization is affiliated to Kumar Gunaratnam’s Front Line Socialist Party (FSLP) which broke away from the JVP but is now engaging in a fence mending exercise. We have said in this space before that the Aragalaya was widely labeled, both locally and internationally as a “peaceful protest.” That it initially was and there is no dispute whatever about that. But at the latter stages when barricades were stormed in the face of teargas and water cannons, it ceased to be peaceful. Unarmed yes, but peaceful no. Images beamed by both national and global television vividly captured the battering ram-style charges on barricades by young protesters including some yellow robed Buddhist monks. There was a sprinkling of women too present.

The attackers, confident in the knowledge that no live bullets would be fired, eventually succeeded in breaching the barriers and occupying President’s House, the Presidential Secretariat and Temple Trees. Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private home on Fifth Lane, Kollupitiya, was also torched burning down a property he had planned to bequeath to Royal College, his alma mater. His library and valued personal possessions were burnt to cinders. Nobody has accused the protesters of being responsible for that despicable act of arson. But whoever did it were able to gain entry under cover of the protest. A few arrests have been made but whether this will lead to a successful prosecution of those responsible remains to be seen. Undoubtedly there was a security failure in that the residence was tightly guarded. But the arsonists were able to gain entry, obviously carrying incendiary material. As elsewhere, they were confident that no live ammunition would be fired. They were right.

Why President Wickremesinghe chose to rely on the PTA at a time such as this is hard to understand. Any simpleton will know that the timing is all wrong. The UN Human Rights Commission where Sri Lanka is under fire is due to resume next month. Western countries whose support is vital have long been opposed to the use of laws such as this. Already the U.S. and the E.U. have recorded their protests. Opposition parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran is firmly on public record that then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, during the Yahapalana regime, had pledged in 2017 to repeal the PTA. In fact, we lost the GSP+ facility, of immense value to our garments and frozen fish export industries, as a result of the use of that law. GSP was restored on the promise that PTA will be repealed, but five years on it remains on the statute. The president knows better than most the risks of using that law at this particular point of time. Why then had three detention orders to keep IUSF leader locked-up for three months been signed? And such incarceration is extendable.

There are many educated guesses of why RW chose that path. Best among these is that with the universities due to reopen in December that it will be useful to send out a clear signal that participating in such activities such as those in July would mean long periods in the lockup. It is clear from past experience that universities are rallying points for agitation and much can happen within their precincts. This was a lesson from past JVP adventures, both in 1971 and thereafter in 1988-89. The IUSF was certainly the main force that ratcheted up the protest from what it was in the early days of candlelight vigils and similar events that drew support from non-militant groups who have never before participated in protests of this nature. There is still no clear knowledge of the sources of the funding that kept the Aragalaya wheels turning. But it is well known that there was support from abroad as well as some affluent sectors of society. All that is now water under the bridges and it is unlikely that such assistance would be forthcoming in the future. While it is being stridently claimed that the protest will continue until its objectives are achieved, it is obvious that it now lacks its previous vigour. It is also said that RW wants to project a tough guy image.

Prof. GL Pieris who has worn many hats in many governments, has with his photographic memory recounted that long time ago a lot of work has been done on the PTA with two cabinet-appointed committees producing what he called “an extremely valuable, insightful report which is in the hands of the government.” He has pertinently asked “Why reinvent the wheel?” adding the obvious course of action will be to draw upon the material already available. Government had, with GR’s approval, also given a categorical assurance to the international community that pending the comprehensive review of the entire statutory regime of the PTA and the introduction of fresh legislation, the PTA in its existing form will not be applied. Now we have reneged on that. Given the ongoing negotiations for international support to overcome the critical economic situation the country is neck deep in, do we need to open several new fronts on which we will be surely attacked?

There is an appropriate Sinhala idiom for what is happening now – illagena parippu kanawa. (roughly translated, minus the rich flavour – asking for big trouble.)