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.

Tuesday 29th April, 2025

The government and the Opposition are engaged in a no-holds-barred battle to win the upcoming local government (LG) elections. Their election campaigns have turned down and dirty, and the polity is red in tooth and claw, with vilification campaigns being carried out against not only politicians but also their kith and kin.

If the ruling NPP fails to retain its votes at the current level next month, the Opposition will claim to have made a breakthrough in its battle against the government. This is something the NPP needs like a hole in the head. If the Opposition parties, especially the SJB, the SLPP and the UNP-led NDF, fail to recover lost ground and improve their electoral performance significantly, they will have to face a long haul in the political wilderness. So, it is only natural that both the NPP and the Opposition are doing everything in their power to shape and sway public opinion in their favour.

Some NPP MPs have put forth an absurd argument; they say that since their party has won both presidential and parliamentary elections, the local councils, too, should be placed under its control if the people are to benefit. If the public is convinced that the NPP is better than its predecessors and can be trusted with the administration of the local councils as well, they may vote for the NPP, but they must not do so simply because the NPP has won the executive presidency and is controlling Parliament.

A democracy worthy of the name should be able to function properly in situations where the three tiers of government are controlled by different political parties. The Colombo Municipal Council remained under UNP control for decades during SLFP/SLPP governments. The JVP bagged the Tissamaharama Pradeshiya Sabha in 2002 while Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who led the People’s Alliance (PA), was the President, and the UNP led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was controlling Parliament. It won six seats as opposed to the PA’s two and the UNP’s four. The JVP, which leads the NPP, is now using the exact opposite of the argument it touted in 2002 to persuade the people of Tissamaharama to vote for it!

There is an incomprehensible practice of handing over the reins of Parliament to the party that wins a presidential election, and this makes one wonder whether there is any point in holding separate parliamentary elections. A popular mandate given to the Executive President does not cancel that of the party controlling Parliament.

The SLPP, the SLFP and the UNP have set a very bad precedent. Last year, the SLPP government stepped down, allowing the NPP to secure control of Parliament after Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory in the presidential race. In 2015, the SLFP-led UPFA gave up control of Parliament, upon the election of Maithripala Sirisena as President, enabling the UNP-led UNF to form a government. The UNF government did likewise in 2019, when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President. The SLPP controlled Parliament, without a mandate, from Nov. 2019 to August 2020. In 2015, within a few weeks of forming a government without a popular mandate, the UNF facilitated the first Treasury bond scam.

The Executive Presidents do not resign when their parties lose general elections. Haven’t those who vehemently oppose the Executive’s interference in the legislature themselves subjugated the ‘independence of Parliament’ to the will of the President?

There is also another flawed argument that the people should strengthen the hands of President Dissanayake to govern the country better by bringing the LG authorities under NPP control and thereby enabling him to have his policies and programmes implemented effectively at the grassroots level. President Dissanayake has been controlling not only the LG bodies but also the Provincial Councils through the Governors appointed by him, the way Presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe did. The Special Commissioners who are currently in charge of the local councils report to the Governors and therefore they are at the beck and call of the President.

It is hoped that the public will not be swayed by preposterously specious arguments that are being touted by the government and the Opposition.