Friday 3rd July, 2026

The JVP-NPP government has decided to allow the Emergency regulations to lapse, according to media reports. This is something welcome, but it should have been done months ago. Better late than never. The government has apparently made a virtue of necessity. It incurred public opprobrium and came under heavy pressure to end the protracted state of Emergency, which was declared in the aftermath of the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah towards the end of last year to facilitate disaster management and relief operations.

It is said that Sri Lanka has been under emergency rule for more than three decades since Independence, with the longest, uninterrupted periods occurring during the two JVP uprisings and the Ealam war. There is no political party that did not misuse Emergency regulations to further its interests while in power. Politicians realise the need to protect civil liberties and protest only when they lose power and become victims of the Emergency regulations, which grant governments sweeping powers of arrest and detention.

The JVP-NPP government ought to carry out its promise to abolish the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), which has been abused by successive governments to suppress democratic dissent. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has recently pledged to do so before the end of this year. It is obvious that the government is planning to replace the PTA with the proposed PSTA (Protection of the State from Terrorism Act), which is as draconian as the PTA.

The PTA and the proposed PSTA are Tweedledum and Tweedledee for all intents and purposes. Various human rights groups, civil society organisations, political activists, the UN and the media have pointed out that the PSTA cannot be accepted as an alternative to the PTA. They have echoed the view of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that the PSTA has not defined terrorism properly, and this fact runs counter to international law. An overly broad definition allows the PSTA to be misused. The PSTA seeks to empower senior police officers to issue detention orders and authorise pre-charge detention for renewable periods of up to two months for a total of up to one year. It has been pointed out by international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, that the PSTA seeks to retain untrammelled executive powers; the presidential powers are so extensive that the sole avenue for appeal against Proscription Orders lies with the Executive itself so much so that they undermine the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The government ought to discard the proposed PSTA and introduce an anti-terror law that conforms to international best practices.

Similarly, it behoves the government to fulfill its solemn pledge to discontinue the culture of performative arrests, politically determined detentions, and vilification campaigns against suspects. The police arrest suspects even before conducting investigations, much less ascertaining credible evidence, and have the latter detained or remanded for long periods. Thereafter, the police and the Attorney General’s Department slow-walk the legal process. The current practice of looking for evidence after making arrests must end, as it is antithetical to democracy. A stay in overcrowded, squalid Sri Lankan remand prisons is tantamount to punishment in itself. The condition of detention cells in the CID headquarters is even worse, we are told. Hence, no person should be detained or remanded without credible evidence.

Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa recently sought to justify the detention of former State Intelligence Service Director Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Suresh Sallay in one of the filthy, tiny cells at the CID headquarters. He stated that those cells had been used to detain suspects for a long time, and Sallay could not be given preferential treatment. However, the JVP/NPP came to power, promising to break the so-called 76-year curse, didn’t it?

Previous governments did nothing about the hellholes that prisons and the CID detention cells are, and some of them and their supporters are now languishing in those places. It will be in the present-day leaders’ own interests to do away with the existing draconian laws and improve the conditions of remand prisons and detention facilities, for the boot will be on the other foot after the next regime change.

Thursday 2nd July, 2026

President Donald Trump is full of himself as he enjoys unified Republican control of the US federal government. He exercises control over the White House and both chambers of the Congress. The composition of the current US Supreme Court (SC) with its conservative majority is also considered favourable to Trump; the apex court is widely viewed as being receptive to his constitutional arguments. Nevertheless, executive powers are far from untrammelled thanks to the robust US Constitution, which helps keep Trump reminded that the US democracy is stronger than he, and he has to be mindful of the separation of powers and act within constitutionally stipulated limits.

Trump’s immigration agenda suffered a huge setback yesterday. In a split decision, the SC has ruled that babies born in the US have a constitutional right to citizenship. This ruling has effectively put paid to Trump’s effort to end a 150-year-old citizenship policy amidst protests. The SC has upheld some of the current crucial immigration policies and helped strengthen Trump’s executive power, but in the present instance, it has stated categorically that all children born in the US “to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment”. Trump and his team took great pains to convince the SC that children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary visitors were not subjected to the jurisdiction of the aforesaid amendment and therefore were not eligible for birthright citizenship. But the court was convinced otherwise.

The birthright citizenship ruling has come close on the heels of an SC judgement that sent the Trump administration reeling. Three days ago, in a ruling seen as affirming the Federal Reserve’s independence, the US SC foiled President Trump’s attempt to sack Lisa Cook, a governor of the US central bank. In a majority decision, the SC held that the Trump administration had not followed due process, which would have allowed Cook to contest her removal. The case will be sent back to lower courts, and the burden is now on the Trump administration to prove its allegation that Cook committed a mortgage fraud. She has vehemently denied the allegation. Trump has drawn heavy criticism for trying to exert greater control over the US central bank.

The US apex court has given several judgements against the Trump administration during the past several months. It has held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise the President to impose sweeping tariffs unilaterally. The ruling has invalidated numerous tariffs imposed by Trump, much to the resentment of the White House. The SC has also upheld a Mississippi law that provides for counting ballots that arrive after election day if they are posted on time. Trump and his fellow Republicans did their best to have that grace period removed, but in vain. In another bold decision, the SC ordered the Trump administration to ensure the return of a man who had been mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard despite objections raised by local and state officials were also foiled by the SC by upholding a lower court’s ruling.

President Trump has also failed to keep the Congress under his thumb. The House of Representatives and the Senate have passed a vital war powers resolution, directing Trump to withdraw US armed forces from hostilities in or against Iran. They have effectively curbed Trump’s military authority and made it mandatory for him to obtain congressional approval for such military campaigns.

Not that all decisions by the US judiciary and the Congress are flawless and welcome. According to legal experts, there have been several key SC decisions that enabled Trump to expand his executive power. The SC has loosened campaign finance restrictions, and this will benefit Republicans, whose election war chest is bulging while Democrats are reportedly in debt. US midterm elections are due in November 2026.

However, the US judiciary and the Congress assert their power and strengthen checks and balances to ensure that the Constitution takes precedence over politics, and the Executive acts with restraint. This is worthy of emulation for countries where executive power is virtually unrestrained, and the Heads of States act in a way that reduces legislators, including senior university professors, to the level of kindergarten children while making accurate predictions about judgements in high-profile cases and keeping key judicial positions vacant for political reasons, with impunity.

Wednesday 1st July, 2026

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has reduced the prices of petrol 92 Octane and auto diesel marginally by Rs. 20 per litre and Rs. 25 per litre, respectively, though global oil prices are hovering near USD 70 (WTI) to USD 73 (Brent) per barrel almost at the pre-Iran war level. Regular petrol and auto diesel are now priced at Rs. 414 per litre and Rs 382 per litre, respectively. Sri Lanka’s oil pricing follows a rockets-and-feathers pattern rather than reflecting actual costs. The JVP-NPP government is accused of behaving like some Pettah wholesalers notorious for price gouging.

Former Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka has urged the government to make public the fuel pricing formula and explain how fuel prices are worked out. Other Opposition politicians ought to join Ranawaka in pressuring the government to ensure transparency in the fuel pricing process. Ranawaka has said that according to his calculations, petrol and diesel now cost the government Rs. 220 per litre and Rs. 235-240 per litre, respectively. He has accused the government of maintaining very high mark-ups and exploiting the public.

Sticky petroleum prices are not the only problem troubling fuel consumers. Fuel quality issues also cause serious concerns to them. They wonder whether fuel is clean and stable and whether they get their money’s worth at the pump. Most of them complain of a drop in fuel efficiency, rough idling, jerking and poor acceleration. Their concerns cannot be dismissed as baseless. There have been numerous instances of fuel contamination due to factors such as water ingress, sediment in underground tanks, improper handling at filling stations and even adulteration of fuel. In a country where shiploads of substandard coal have been imported with impunity, and costly diesel is burnt to meet a generation shortfall at the coal-fired power plant, with additional costs being passed on to the public, anything is possible. Most of all, the CPC has a history of selling low-quality fuel.

One may recall that a special audit, conducted by the Auditor General’s Department, on the procurement of petroleum products by the CPC from 01 June 2011 to 30 June 2012, revealed that gasoline 90 Octane had been purchased at the 92 Octane price, without bargaining or negotiating with suppliers at the bid evaluation stage of the procurement process, to obtain a recommendation on the premium of that product; low quality gasoline (lower than 90 Octane) produced at the refinery of the CPC had been mixed with imported gasoline 92 Octane and that blended product had been distributed all over the country during 2011. The then Petroleum Minister Susil Premjayantha claimed that petrol may have been mixed with rainwater. But the country was experiencing a drought at that time! The present-day ministers also have earned notoriety for making such absurd claims and insulting the intelligence of the public.

In 2019, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection alleged that the fuel sold as petrol 92 Octane actually had an octane rating of about 90.5. Subsequent laboratory analyses supported that claim. Last week, we quoted SJB trade unionist and former CPC employee, Palitha Ananda, as having claimed that the CPC refinery was unable to produce petrol with 92 Octane rating by using American crude WTI, and an experiment to produce petrol 92 Octane by using UAE’s Murban crude and WTI had been in vain.

Fuel consumers are in a dilemma. They cannot rely on forecourt brands; it is not advisable to assume that one brand is inherently superior, for fuel is said to pass through the same common-user storage and quality-control system. Petroleum sector experts inform us that fuel is not meaningfully traceable by brand at the pump. It is not possible for ordinary people to have fuel tested, as is obvious, and they have to rely solely on quality assurances given by the CPC, which has tarnished its reputation. It is like asking a suspect to investigate himself.