Opinion
Is Ranil doing a dance of sorcery?
It was interesting to read The Island editorial today (13); it says Ranil Wickremesinghe should consider having ‘Houdini’ as his middle name, given his adeptness at political escapology. He certainly has much more of an escapology than most of our politicians. But how good is the Houdini style for our democracy?
Is what we see today the reality of Houdini escapism, or the actuality of Gnanakka sorcery or wizardry? President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose government ensured Gnanakka’s safety with a huge Police force guard to her home and centre of witchery at Anuradhapura, would certainly have sought her wizardry to meet the challenge of the Galle Face Aragalaya and emerging issues in the parliamentary process – and Ranil was the answer.Let’s be honest. The selection of Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at this time is a sheer mockery of the democratic process, which has many shortcomings in this country. He led the UNP led by him to a humiliating defeat at the last general election, which also saw him lose his Colombo South seat, which he had won with a huge majority at the previous election. This result showed that he was certainly not a representative of the people. He did creep into the Parliament many months after that huge electoral failure through the National List, which too was organised in a crooked manner during a previous UNP government.
Although there is much criticism of the parliamentary process since Independence was gained in 1948, in the early decades of independent government we did have good, unelected, special list members of Parliament. It did decline in the years that followed, and was made worse later in the Sirimavo and then JRJ eras of governance.Let’s not forget that it is this same Ranil W, who for the first time in the parliamentary process, took the Central Bank under the functions of the Prime Minister, himself, and away from the Finance Minister, after the 2015 General Election. From then began that huge crooked activity involving Central Bank funds as well as the EPF and ETF, and many names and families involved warped and contorted activities using public funds.RW is certainly a political friend of the Rajapaksas. His role as PM in the Yahapalana government, thwarted attempts to bring many of the Rajapaksas and their allies to justice. Why was no action taken to bring the killers of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga and rugby player Wasim Thajudeen to justice, after the special post-mortem examinations under Yahapalana revealed how they had been actually killed, and not as initially said during the Mahinda Rajapaksa government?
Many Rajapaksas were questioned by the Police on various acts of injustice during Mahinda-Gotabaya governance. They were held in remand custody, but no cases were seriously pursued, and the mockery of justice under the present Rajapaksa governance has seen almost all of their cases being dropped or the procedure of justice twisted to serve them. All of this is a show of the powerful influence that RW had on the conduct of the legal process in the Yahapalana years.The Yahapalana government which came to office was in fact one major path for escape from justice for Rajapaksas and their allies, through a non-justice policy of both President Sirisena and PM Ranil W.
Gotabaya must be fully aware of the help the Rajapaksas received from RW to escape from justice under a government elected to bring lawbreakers of the Rajapaksa era to book. His choice of RW – with a five-time prime ministerial record, to the same office when governance is in a state of chaos, is a song of Self Benefit, amidst a rising cry against the Rajapaksas.RW may get a simple majority in what is a largely misdirected parliament, and from MPs of a government who have been part of bad governance, and many aspects of corruption that has prevailed in the last two plus years. The call of the current Aragalaya at Galle Face and near Temple Trees is for a major shift to good governance, moving away from the several decades of crooked and corrupt governance, where RW had his five-term record as PM. Whatever success he may show in the days and weeks ahead, will certainly be a continuance of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Governance with the cabbalistic play of Gnanakka.It is time the people began to move away from this belief in the supernatural and occult in matters of governance, and settle down to the genuine process of democracy, which brings in Good Governance!
Let Ranil do his dance with secret chants of a Gnanakka or any other related magical source, while swinging to the Gotabaya beat. He can be glad of his world record as a six-time Prime Minister. But this country will be looking for much better people and certainly better leaders to take us away from the tragedy of today. That is the real Aragalaya before us, that Gotabhaya, Gnanakka or Ranil will not bring to an end.
Draft Animal Welfare Bill
National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme
Draft Animal Welfare Bill
By 2023 when the Draft Animal Welfare Bill was taken up for its first reading in Parliament, it has been made into a legal mess, denying legal protection to animals from cruelties.
In June 2023 our Coalition intervened and by March 2024 we got Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) to approve amendments that would make this bill exemplary, offering legal protection to all animals from cruelties, coupled with fines increased from Rs. 100,000 to 250,000- 500,000 to Rs. 5 million for animal abuse, with the fines doubling for abuse of pregnant animals.
But even after that Constitutional intervention and clear instructions to the relevant Ministry by the SOC to include the approved amendments, the Bill was prepared by that Ministry for the Second Reading in Parliament, dropping many crucial PARLIAMENTARY SOC-APPROVED AMENDMENTS.
Fortunately for the Animals of Sri Lanka, the Draft Bill was not taken up for the Second Reading.
The Parliament stands dissolved.
Attention President, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Justice: This draft Bill must be presented in Parliament again ONLY after including the SOC-APPROVED AMENDMENTS.
Anyone trying to scuttle the process to pass a Bill that comprehensively provides legal protection to animals citing ANY reason, cannot have animal welfare in their hearts and minds.
2) The National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme
All one has to do is to travel round Sri Lanka to witness the enormous numbers of ownerless dogs, some in shocking conditions, to judge how “efficient and sustainable result-oriented” the National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme has been, after functioning under the Health Ministry with contract veterinarians for 15 years since 2008 till now, at a budgetary allocation ranging from Rs.100 million to Rs. 280 million annually.
Right now Rs. 200 million has been allocated to this fruitless, unmonitored, unevaluated activity, to SUSTAIN A BUSSINESS and not an accountable programme.
The move to have this programme executed by the ONLY State Entity that is responsible for handling and eradicating zoonotic diseases, the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH), having recruited 500 additional veterinarians, was scuttled in 2019, and the Programme was taken back to the Ministry of Health, a State entity responsible for diseases that afflict humans and not animals and hence has no Veterinarians, for BUSINESS AS USUAL.
Attention President, Minister of Health, and Minister of Livestock: This programme must be immediately vested in the DAPH so it can be made into a scientifically executed, accountable, sustainable-results-generating programme that can be monitored and evaluated regularly.
Such a scientific, professional, and systematic DAPH-executed accountable programme, coupled with Owned Dog Registration will see significant results in two years towards zero dog population growth and dog rabies control towards eradication.
CPAPA – SL (The Coalition for a Pro-Animal Protection Act – Sri Lanka)
by Chula Goonasekera
Nagananda Kodithuwakku
President AKD and the NPP deserve applause and heartfelt congratulations for their organisation, information gathering, and dissemination of a vision that resonates with the people. They have successfully created an enormous wave of funding and support, culminating in a decisive victory over the corrupt factions that have contributed to the destruction of our nation and motherland. The NPP’s anti-corruption message resonated deeply with voters who have suffered across many sectors of society, including the economy, education, healthcare, and nutrition. The public trust generated by this movement has led to an exemplary landslide victory for the NPP in this general election.
However, as voters, we must remain mindful that Sri Lanka has witnessed landslide election results in 1970, 1977, 2010, and 2020—all of which ultimately resulted in a landslide toward the nation’s ill-being, leaving the country burdened with massive debts, corruption, indiscipline, brain drain, and economic collapse.
What is ironic in 2024 is that this landslide victory may be one of the most significant of the century. However, it also calls for critical reflection. For the first time, even Jaffna voted in favour of the NPP. This could indicate the beginning of the end of the divisive politics that have historically exploited racial and religious divisions. Perhaps this marks the dawn of a new, more unified political landscape—one that promotes a united Sri Lanka as one nation working toward an equal society across every corner of our motherland.
Despite the landslide, we must be fully aware of the potential for disinformation if proper actions and preventive measures are not taken. The constitutional gates of covert and overt political corruption remain open while, as a nation, we lack the compensatory capacity to face another political or financial crisis. Therefore, we must remain vigilant and ensure the continuity of national oversight to keep our new parliament and president on track despite the many distractions that could hinder their efforts for national freedom and development. One key strategy is to remain non-aligned but work with external forces through clear, transparent, and fair agreements that prioritise national benefit.
In this context, the priority for the NPP should be to make the Judiciary and the Bribery Commission independent, supported by a robust quality assurance system and a clear definition of ‘contempt of court’ to embed accountability. No national institution—especially the judiciary—can thrive without accountability and transparency. A recent example from the UK, the Post Office Scandal, underscores this point: a national service organisation made wrongful decisions that destroyed the lives of many innocent people, wrongly labelling them as criminals. A documentary exposing this injustice was widely circulated in the media, leading to justice for many victims, some of whom were no longer alive to witness it. In Sri Lanka’s current legal environment, such exposure could easily be misconstrued as contempt of court, with all involved potentially facing jail time.
An independent Judiciary and Bribery Commission, free from political interference, can be achieved through a parliamentary act requiring a two-thirds majority. This is paramount and should be implemented at the earliest opportunity to prevent politics from undermining legitimate processes. Such reforms will help resolve the deadlock that has stifled progress—particularly in addressing political corruption, including linked severe offences such as rape and murder. Furthermore, these reforms will clarify the constitutional changes necessary to prevent the legitimisation of political corruption, enabling the cleanup of a constitution that has been manipulated countless times to allow corrupt politicians to act with impunity despite blatant violations of good governance.
Historical ties between Sri Lanka and India date back to the Ramayana era and the visionary missions of the Great Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. The emperor tasked his own son, Arahant Mahinda, and daughter, Bhikkhuni Sangamitta, with spreading the teachings of Gautama Buddha (dhamma), laying the foundation in the island nation of Lanka, probably visualising its potential in cultivating a unique culture.
In 1977, Sri Lanka opened its economy while our great neighbour India had a closed economy. The Indian Bank, a wholly owned entity of the Government of India, decided to set up the bank’s first offshore banking unit in Sri Lanka. The unit became the first Foreign Currency Banking Unit (FCBU) owned by a foreign bank in Sri Lanka and started operations in 1979.
The bank appointed the young banker V Srinivasan to head the FCBU unit in Colombo, which led to many transformational changes in banking and entrepreneurial relationships between the two countries. Late V Srinivasan had the rare opportunity to leave his footprint, being the only officer serving as the CEO of Indian Bank’s two overseas branches in Sri Lanka and Singapore.
The Indian Bank’s FCBU unit raised foreign currencies and arranged investments in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone and several other BOI-approved projects. Under Mr. V Srinivasan’s leadership, many projects were financed, including the first multi-purpose apartment and shopping complex in Kollupitiya, and value-added rubber and textile manufacturing projects in the Free Trade Zone in Katunayake. These projects enabled industrial technological know-how to flow into Sri Lanka. The Indian Bank recognised V Srinivasan’s leadership and promoted him to the bank’s CEO in the Colombo branch in 1985, thus managing the bank’s decades-old domestic operations specialising in international trade. During this period, he identified the true potentials in the Sri Lankan economy, such as financing value addition and branding of Ceylon Tea, and financing the construction of a glass-bottomed multipurpose boat as a tourist attraction.
Unfortunately, all the innovative projects came to a grinding halt with the July 1983 riots in Sri Lanka. Although the bank’s assets were subject to many risks impacting viable operations, V Srinivasan demonstrated his kindness by saving the bank’s vital intellectual capital, the human resource, from destitution and distress because of the ruthless communal riots in Sri Lanka. His passion for spotting talent and his caring attitude towards the well-being of staff probably made him the bank’s youngest General Manager, leading Human Resources prior to his retirement from the bank in 2011.
This writer was fortunate enough to sense and learn the social orientation of the business of banking as a budding banker under his stewardship. During his tenure, I had the opportunity to engage in negotiations as a young trade unionist. Our friendship continued even after both of us left the services of the Indian Bank for many decades. The last time I met Mr. V Srinivasan, his wife Kalpana, and his son Prasanna and family was while he was holidaying in Sri Lanka in 2010, catching up with beautiful memories. Mr. Srinivasan passed away at the age of 73 on 9th November 2024 in Chennai. May his departed soul rest in peace. Om Shanti.
Jayasri Priyalal
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