Towards collective suicide?

Monday 31st October, 2022

Some dissident SLPP MPs have warned that the government will fail to secure the passage of the upcoming budget and collapse as a result if the latter seeks to bulldoze its way through without heeding the views of the Opposition and the interests of the public. The SLPP-UNP administration has only a wafer-thin majority in Parliament, and therefore it is likely to fail to muster enough votes for the ratification of Budget 2023, the SLPP rebels have said. This could be considered a veiled threat rather than a warning. Has the anti-Basil faction of the SLPP let the cat out of the bag?

If a finance Bill is defeated, the government will have to resign. But this option is best left uncontemplated, for it will amount to collective suicide. The need for dislodging the incumbent dispensation cannot be overstated. Its leaders have not mended their ways; they are doing more of what they did prior to the mass uprisings that caused the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Corruption is rampant, and ministers continue to cut shady deals and line their pockets. What they are doing to the country is like stripping a disaster victim of his or her valuables. A clean break with the current misrule is a prerequisite for a course correction to restore political and social order and bring about economic stability. But the defeat of Budget 2023 will plunge the country into utter chaos, which might even cost it the much-needed IMF assistance. Hence the need for all political parties represented in Parliament to desist from engaging in political battles over the national budget, adopt a consensual approach and ensure its smooth passage, thus sending a clear message to the rest of the world that Sri Lanka is serious about resolving its economic crisis and paying back its loans.

Both the government and the Opposition must act responsibly. The former must take on board the views of the Opposition and other stakeholders on Budget 2023; similarly, the latter had better act with restraint without trying to torpedo the budget to compass its political ends at the expense of the country. Both warring parties ought to have extensive discussions on the budget, make compromises and reach middle ground so that it will not be a casualty of their political battles.

The government has to come to terms with the fact that it is now like Miracle Mike, the chicken that lived 18 months after being beheaded, in the US, about seven decades ago. Its end is only a matter of time despite its leaders’ rodomontade. Speculation is rife that it is about to suffer another split soon with some of its MPs joining the UNP.

There is a school of thought that thinks the SLPP MPs who have chosen to remain in the government will vote for the budget en bloc because the collapse of the government as well as an early general election is a worrisome proposition for them. But governments have fallen due to mass crossovers in this country. Most of those who defected from the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga government in 2001, causing its collapse, are in the current Parliament; S. B. Dissanayake, who was the General Secretary of the SLFP, together with more than a dozen other People’s Alliance MPs crossed over to the UNP!

Attempts to scuttle budgets in Parliament are not of recent origin. In 2007, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Opposition Leader, the UNP-led Opposition tried to defeat Budget 2008 in a bid to bring down the Mahinda Rajapaksa government at the height of war. It failed in its endeavour. Dullas Alahapperuma, who was a minister at the time, disclosed at a media briefing subsequently that some government MPs had been bribed to vote against the budget, as part of a conspiracy to derail the war; they had been found in posh hotels in the company of foreign prostitutes, he said, claiming that the government had fought quite a battle to prevent those corrupt, randy elements from doing what they had taken bribes for. The government managed to win the budget vote. Alahapperuma stopped short of revealing how it had frustrated the Opposition’s efforts, but there is reason to believe that the Rajapaksas outbribed their opponents, as we argued in a previous comment.

If the UNP, the JVP, the TNA, etc., had succeeded in shooting down the national budget in 2007, the war would not have been over in 2009, and people would have continued to live in fear of bombs and massacres. If the incumbent government fails to have Budget 2023 ratified, the economic crisis will take a turn for the worse, aggravating people’s suffering. One can only hope that sanity will prevail and the government as well as the Opposition will act wisely. Nothing must be done that will further weaken the ailing economy.