By Rathindra Kuruwita

The government is bent on ensuring that people have no access to truthful information by the time of the presidential election next year, Freedom People’s Congress (FPC) MP, Prof. G.L. Peiris said, commenting on the proposed Online Safety Bill.

The Ranil Wickremesinghe administration knows that it can’t win elections and has postponed every election it can, he said. “However, the presidential election can’t be postponed. The government is curbing freedom of speech and the right to share information in a desperate bid to have a monopoly on information. There is no other reason to bring the Online Safety Bill.”

The Bill establishes an Online Safety Commission tasked with overseeing its implementation and addressing complaints related to online harm. Members of the commission are appointed by the President. “The commission will have five members. The President will appoint them the way he wants. The President can also get rid of them any time he wants. No one else has a say in whether the President’s decisions, with regard to the commission are fair. The power of appointing members should have been given to the Constitutional Council, which appoints members to all other independent commissions,” he said.

Prof. Peiris added that the digital space must be made safe and that there are a number of young people who have become victims of the unscrupulous activities of nefarious people. However, the proposed cure by the government is more dangerous than the disease.

Prof. Peiris said that Sri Lanka has been trying to attract foreign revenue into the country, mainly through tourism, trade and FDIs. Investments will not come into a country that passes draconian laws on a regular basis, he said.

“There are several sections that should scare anyone. There are sections that say people must obey the directives of the commission, established by the Online Safety Bill. If not, a person can be sent to jail for five years. This does not only apply to Sri Lankans, but also to global companies. For these companies, Sri Lanka is a small market. These companies will avoid Sri Lanka. We will just regress 30 years.”

If the Online Safety Bill and the Anti-Terrorism Act, which have been re-gazetted, pass, none of the democratic rights we have enjoyed will last, the MP said. “Social media has played a big role in the recent elections. When science and technology change, how people interact changes. We can’t avoid the digital space.”

Prof. Peiris said that he has been in Parliament for decades and that he has never seen a government this desperate to pass laws that restrict freedom of expression. “The Budget for 2024 will be presented mid-November. Nothing else can be done in Parliament for the next month following the Budget. The government is desperate to pass several draconian laws before the Budget.”

A team of Opposition MPs will meet the IMF representatives in Sri Lanka next week, he said.

“IMF money is to make the lives of people better. It’s not for the government. We want to tell the IMF that they have a duty to ensure that the money they provide is not pocketed by powerful people. We have to pay the loan, and people will have to pay. The IMF agreed that there is a lot of corruption here.”