Thursday 1st May, 2025

The International Workers’ Day falls today, and Sri Lanka is ready to mark it on a grand scale. However, May Day celebrations in this country are like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark or Sinhabahu without the Lion’s son; workers do not play any important role in the main May Day events. Politicians grab the limelight and workers become mere spectators.

Today’s main May Day events are held by the government and the Opposition to further their own interests rather than those of workers or labour unions; they are all out to use their May Day rallies and processions to gain a boost for their election campaigns.

Sri Lankan political parties have hijacked May Day. Almost every International Labour Day rally is a cringeworthy display of workers’ servility to politicians, with trade unionists falling over themselves to please their political leaders by showering praise, and cutting pathetic figures in the process. Today, we will have politicians thundering at May Day rallies, laying out what they consider their achievements and making more promises to workers.

There are some genuine workers’ unions championing labour rights on May Day, but they are the exception that proves the rule. Most trade unions are affiliated to political parties, and they subjugate workers’ interests to political agendas. No wonder workers’ lot has not improved all these years.

Gone are the days when governments passed progressive labour laws and adopted other measures to protect workers’ rights. Today, governments stand accused of trying to curtail labour rights at the behest of some international lending institutions. But workers continue to offer their services as palanquin bearers to politicians.

The party in power usually puts on the biggest May Day show. This, we have seen under successive governments. The ruling NPP is scheduled to hold its May Day rally at Galle Face today to display its power and outshine its political rivals in the run-up to the upcoming local government (LG) polls. It finds itself in a position where it cannot afford to suffer even a minor electoral setback. The problem with electoral setbacks is that they often snowball, eventually bringing down governments.

Crowd participation is not a reliable indicator of a political party’s popularity or electoral strength, for most of the floating voters who determine the outcomes of elections do not take the trouble of attending political rallies. On the other hand, crowd boosting with hired attendees, and methods such as astroturfing have become the order of the day; public opinion is swayed in devious ways. Crowd filling has become a kind of industry in this country, as former Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said about six months ago. His claim went unchallenged.

It is high time Sri Lankan workers and their trade union leaders asserted their power and liberated May Day from the clutches of wily politicians who have been using them as a cat’s paw to pull political chestnuts out of the fire.

Meanwhile, trade unions ought to realise that they have a crucial role to play in helping the country come out of the current economic crisis. The goal of economic recovery will remain unattainable unless national productivity is increased substantially.

Besides serving workers by protecting their rights and supporting them in labour disputes, etc., trade unions can also make a huge contribution to economic development and national progress. They should shift their focus from demand-oriented struggles to promoting labour standards, and helping build a motivated and productive workforce to boost economic development. Among other tasks that trade unions are expected to perform is to help resolve labour disputes amicably, thereby preventing industrial unrest and disruptions to the ailing economy. Trade unions have adopted such measures in other countries, such as Japan, enabling those nations to achieve progress.

Wednesday 30th April, 2025

Two erstwhile strange bedfellows—the UNP and the JVP—are at each other’s jugular. Following the 2015 regime change, they embarked on the UNP-led Yahapalana government’s anti-corruption crusade. Their political honeymoon lasted for nearly five years.

Hardly a day passes without President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the JVP/NPP leader, taking a swipe at UNP leader and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and vice versa. After making a statement to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), on Monday, over what he had said in defence of former Chief Minister (CM) Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, who is being held on remand for alleged financial malpractices, Wickremesinghe tore into the JVP-led government for having targeted him unfairly. He went on to allege that the CIABOC had leaked information about its correspondence with him to President Dissanayake.

Wickremesinghe’s sharp rebuke of the CIABOC and the JVP/NPP can be considered as an instance of karmic forces in action. When Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister (from 2015 to 2019), he and his JVP chums including Anura Kumara ran the Yahapalana government’s Anti-Corruption Secretariat, and came under criticism for launching political witch-hunts against their political rivals.

Current Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala functioned as the head of the Anti-Corruption Secretariat. Hundreds of files on various individuals found their way into the hands of the JVP leaders, who displayed them subsequently, claiming that a future JVP government would probe all of them. They have not fulfilled that pledge. PM Wickremesinghe could not have been unaware of the unauthorised removal of files from the Anti-Corruption Secretariat. Now, he is berating the CIABOC for leaking information to the JVP/NPP!

Wickremesinghe has been critical of the CIABOC’s selective efficiency, which however is not of recent origin. The national anti-graft commission has always taken action against Opposition politicians very efficiently, as it did during the Yahapalana government. The boot is now on the other foot!

One may recall that the Yahapalana era was characterised by show arrests, as it were, and some courts were kept open until midnight for the suspects who were taken there from the CID headquarters to be remanded. However, such measures did not help bring the corrupt to justice. Maithripala Sirisena, who won the presidency in 2015, with the help of the UNP, the JVP, etc., promising to throw the Rajapaksas behind bars for corruption, joined forces with them in late 2018 for expediency, and Wickremesinghe did likewise four years later.

Interestingly, the alleged financial malpractices for which ex-CM Dassanayake has been remanded occurred during the Yahapalana government, while the JVP was running the Anti-Corruption Secretariat for all practical purposes. There were complaints against Dassanayake. Why he was not arrested at that time is the question.

The JVP/NPP has condemned Wickremesinghe for defending the corrupt. Ironically, the JVP had no qualms about defending Wickremesinghe and his UNF government although he openly shielded the perpetrators of the Treasury bond scams. The JVP was also instrumental in defeating President Sirisena’s efforts to sack theYahapalana government and dissolve Parliament in late 2018; it enabled Wickremesinghe to retain the premiership. It did so in spite of serious allegations of corruption against the UNP and Wickremesinghe. The UNP-led dysfunctional government, propped up by the JVP in Parliament, neglected national security and failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks (2019).

What Wickremesinghe is experiencing at the hands of the JVP can be considered his comeuppance. After securing the presidency with the help of the SLPP in 2022, he unflinchingly threw his weight behind the then Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who was accused of procurement rackets in the Health Ministry. He also defended Sri Lanka Cricket officials despite damning allegations against them, and incurred much public opprobrium, which found expression in a massive protest vote, which benefited the JVP-led NPP in last year’s elections.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to know from President Dissanayake how his government intends to deal with corruption in the cricket administration, which is the Sri Lankan version of the Augean Stables.

Monday 28th April, 2025

The truth becomes the first casualty of any propaganda campaign, especially in Sri Lankan politics, which exemplifies the Macbethian paradox—fair is foul, and foul is fair; politicians of all hues have mastered the art of stretching the truth to the breaking point ahead of elections and duping the public.

The truth is distorted or exaggerated in such a way during election campaigns that it becomes hardly distinguishable from an outright lie in most cases, as evident from claims and counterclaims at the ongoing propaganda rallies, where mistruths, half-truths, lies and about-turns have become the order of the day. Interestingly, some self-righteous candidates and their leaders are accusing their political rivals of uttering lies, while they themselves are lying their way through, so much so that one is justified in saying, “Lies, damned lies, and campaign rhetoric.”

There has been a real hullabaloo over a statement made by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at an NPP election rally recently. He said something in Sinhala to the effect that the government would readily allocate state funds to the local councils to be won by the NPP, as he could vouch for the integrity of only the candidates of his own party, and where other councils were concerned, the government would have to exercise stringent oversight in reviewing requests for funds to guard against malpractices in a manner that might lead to delays.

The Opposition has amplified the subliminal message in the President’s statement, making a hue and cry over it. Its speakers thunder from political platforms, claiming that the President has threatened to stop state funds to the councils to be won by the parties other than the NPP. They have gone so far as to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission against the President and the NPP, and declared that they are capable of running local government authorities under their own steam without seeking funds from the government!

When the presidential statement at issue, which borders on a warning, is viewed under the microscope, a veiled threat becomes discernible in its subtext; however, the President and the government could have defended it effectively on the grounds of their accountability for ensuring financial probity in local councils. They should have quoted the President’s statement in question verbatim in support of their argument. But President Dissanayake has since changed his position in a bid to obfuscate the issue, claiming that he said he will not allow corrupt politicians to steal state funds and therefore local government bodies reeking of corruption will not get any tax money, which has to be frugally managed. He has, true to form, taken the moral high ground.

The Opposition has failed to point out that the government is relying on individual politicians and not systems as such to battle corruption in local councils, and the President’s statement at issue is tainted with petitio principii or circular reasoning; the President has assumed that only NPP candidates are honest and used that assumption to support his argument that the councils under their control will be free from corruption and therefore qualified to receive state funds.

There are already systems in place to tackle bribery and corruption in state institutions, and if they are used to deal with the people’s representatives and officials indulging in corruption, local councils will be free from corruption regardless of the political parties controlling them. There is a need for stronger legal and enforcement mechanisms, and it is up to the government to introduce them, as a national priority. Those who seek approval for building plans, etc., are at the mercy of local council heads and officials, who cause unnecessary delays so as to have their palms greased. The public should be able to report such instances to a higher authority and obtain relief reasonably fast.

Corruption is colourless, to begin with; it is neither green nor blue nor red nor maroon. It transcends party lines and ideological affiliations. Hence the need for Sri Lanka to battle the colourless evil by putting in place robust mechanisms and ensuring the strict enforcement of anti-corruption laws to achieve that noble end.