Tuesday 15th October, 2024

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the NPP candidates contesting the upcoming general election some home truths, at a meeting, over the weekend. Reminding them of the fate that had befallen the Rajapaksa regimes in 2015 and 2022, he said both President Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had mustered two-thirds majorities in Parliament after winning general elections in 2010 and 2020, respectively, but they had become hugely unpopular soon afterwards and failed to retain power. Therefore, a government had to be concerned not only about its numerical strength but also about the quality of its MPs, he said, stressing the need to cleanse the legislature, bring about a new political culture and restore public faith in the parliamentary process. One cannot but agree with him.

President Dissanayake also exhibited a touch of schadenfreude or perverse pleasure when he spoke of the plight of the contenders he had beaten in last month’s presidential contest. He said all that they could do now was to try to form a strong Opposition. He should not be so exultant at the plight of the Opposition; in this country, a strong Opposition is always good for the political health of a government in power, paradoxical as it may sound.

Sri Lankan political leaders have earned notoriety for letting power get the better of them when they do not see the Opposition in their rearview mirrors. All governments that obtained steamroller majorities abused them to their heart’s content and ruined the country as well as their electoral prospects. The SLFP-led United Front government extended the term of Parliament by two years, in 1975, with the help of its two-thirds majority, and suffered a crushing defeat in the general election that followed. The UNP, which obtained a five-sixths majority in Parliament in 1977, debilitated democracy as never before and plunged the country into a bloodbath. The SLFP-led UPFA government under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency abused its two-thirds majority in every conceivable manner from 2010 to 2015. The two-thirds majority of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government also became a curse for the country. Hence the need for a robust Opposition to act as an effective countervailing force against any government.

There is no guarantee that the NPP leaders will not take leave of their senses, like their predecessors, in case of being able to secure a huge parliamentary majority next month. It is popularly said in this country that when one has power, one has no brains and when one has brains one has no power—’bale thiyanakota mole ne, mole thiyankota bale ne’. Some NPP heavyweights are already exuding arrogance as evident from their rhetoric and bragging.

What propelled the JVP/NPP to power was a rogue wave of anti-politics, which rose owing to the people’s distrust in traditional politics and political institutions including Parliament. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2019, when pent-up public resentment found expression in a massive protest vote which benefited the SLPP.

There is a tide in the affairs of political parties as in people’s lives; when it is taken at the flood, it leads on to fortune, as Brutus says in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. ‘Taking the current when it serves’ is the name of the game in politics, but it could be a risky venture, and one should not lose sight of the fact that Brutus, who utters those memorable words, runs on his own sword. Gotabaya, who took the tide at the flood in 2019 had to hightail it to escape from a fearsome mob in close pursuit. As for the NPP, only its National List nominee Sugath Thilakaratne may be safe in case of an uprising, for he is a former champion runner.

The JVP/NPP let the genie of anti-politics out of the bottle in 2022, when it hijacked a people’s protest campaign and tried to march on Parliament. The police and the military succeeded in holding mobs at bay, and saving democracy. President Ranil Wickremesinghe managed to keep the situation under control thereafter although his modus operandi attracted much criticism. The genie is still at large. This is a cause for serious concern.

When the Gotabaya government failed, there was a formidable democratic alternative, and the country therefore did not descend into anarchy. Today, the mainstream Opposition is in disarray. If the JVP/NPP administration fails to fulfil its pledges, undertakes disastrous experiments on the economic front and makes the economy nosedive, causing unbearable hardships to the public, it will be hoist with its own petard; it will become a victim of the very forces it unleashed to capture state power.

If another popular uprising ever occurs—absit omen—it will be far worse than the first one, like the second wave of the Boxing Day tsunami. Would there be a democratic alternative to the NPP in such an eventuality?

Sri Lankan democracy has rocked and swayed on numerous occasions but retained its balance like a Logan Stone. However, whether it will be able to absorb the shock of another uprising is the question. There is a pressing need for the Sri Lankan political leaders as well as the public to act responsibly, learning from the experience of the countries such Pakistan and Bangladesh, where anti-political movements led to interruptions in the civilian rule.

Monday 14th October, 2024

The Ministry of Public Security has reportedly asked the police to pull their socks up. It has instructed Acting IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya to expedite some high-profile investigations that have been dragging on for years. Specific mention has been made of the delayed probes into the Easter Sunday terror attacks (2019), the Treasury bond scams (2015), the murder of journalist Dharmaratnam Sivaram or Taraki, which was his nom de plume coined by The Island (April 2005), the disappearance of Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan in Jaffna (2011), the killing of a police constable in Weligama (2023), the death of businessman Dinesh Schaffter (2022), and the disappearance of former Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Raveendranath (2006).

The Public Security Ministry’s order that the aforesaid probes be sped up is a step in the right direction although there are many other unsolved crimes in this country. Those who murdered Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and famous rugby player Wassim Thajudeen have not been made to pay for their crimes. It is hoped that the CID, which is known for its selective efficiency, will get cracking. Better late than never.

Investigations into the aforementioned crimes would perhaps have been in abeyance indefinitely but for last month’s regime change. Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake deserve praise for their intervention, which will hopefully jolt the police into action. However, we are afraid that they have been remiss in their duties; they should have ordered a high-level probe into the execution of JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera while he was in custody in 1989.

The JVP commemorates its slain leader on 13 November. His death anniversary will fall on the eve of the next general election (14 Nov.), which the JVP-led NPP is in overdrive to win in a bid to consolidate its victory in the presidential race. The JVP may not be able to hold its annual ‘November Heroes’ commemoration during the mandatory ‘quiet period’ prior to the upcoming general election. But the NPP, which is the JVP in all but name, can order an investigation into Wijeweera’s execution and ensure that it will be conducted to a conclusion expeditiously.

The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), a JVP off-shoot, has revealed the identity of the army officer who shot Wijeweera and had him burnt while he was still alive. Having named the killer, the FSP claimed that he was backing the NPP, which vehemently denied the allegation. The JVP however has not disputed the FSP’s assertion that the officer concerned is Wijeweera’s killer.

Thus, it will not be difficult for the JVP to bring the killer of its beloved leader to justice, and trace others who were complicit in his execution. Similarly, the JVP, which is now in power, is duty to bound to order investigations into the torture chambers where thousands of its cadres and other youth were brutally murdered in the late 1980s. While it was in the Opposition, the JVP demanded probes into the Batalanda torture chamber, the K-Point in Matara, etc.

There are survivors of torture, and one of them, Rohitha Munasinghe, has authored a book, Eliyakanda Torture Camp: K-Point, which sheds lurid light on how suspects were made to go through hell before being executed. (A review of this book appeared in The Island, under the title, ‘Ghosts of Eliyakanda’ on 17 Nov., 2017.) Munasinghe has revealed the names of some of the torturers.

In Nov., 2017, JVP heavyweight Lal Kantha called for an investigation into a spate of savage attacks on protests against the Indo-Lanka Accord and the execution of JVP leader Wijeweera in the late 1980s. Why this call has not been renewed is the question.

Wijeweera’s prophetic words that one day a JVP member would rule Sri Lanka have gone viral on social media. At the time of his tragic end, the JVP leader must have wished that his party would not let his killers go unpunished.

Maybe the JVP does not want to open a can of worms by ordering probes into brutal counterterror operations in the late 1980s, but it can order a thorough investigation into its founder’s execution. Unless it does so, it will have a hard time trying to convince the public that it is serious about having justice served for others.

The fact that many politicians who have overstayed their welcome on the national scene will not be running for parliament at the November election was reported even before nominations closed at noon on Friday as this comment is being written. Obviously that was certainly not due to any altruism on their part. The results of the Sept. 21 presidential election made that crystal clear. For example, if Namal Rajapaksa’s pathetic tally island-wide at the presidential contest is duplicated by the pohottuwa at the forthcoming contest, he would barely be able to qualify for a national list seat. No wonder then why he has chosen a national list option when the alternative will be rejection by the voters even in the Rajapaksa’s Hambantota stronghold. Many other senior parliamentarians also saw the writing on the wall and are retiring on comfortable pensions by courtesy of the taxpayer. Others have taken refuge in national lists.

There is no escaping the reality that the NPP/JVP shook-up the country’s electoral scene like never before, opening the door for many new faces to enter the legislature. Who they will be, particularly in the malimawa side, will only become clear after nominations close. The AKD party has gone public on its target of winning a two thirds majority while Premadasa is aiming for a parliamentary majority and the prime ministry either in alliance or on his own. We have consistently argued in this space that tyrannies of absolute majorities are not good for ther. Mrs. Bandaranaike, with the two thirds majority of her old left-backed United Front in 1970 extended the life of that parliament by two years. JR Jayewardene, with his five sixths majority seven years later, “rolled up the electoral map” as he famously proclaimed, for one full parliamentary term.

History demonstrates that the powerful presidency held by one side and legislative power by another is inimical to political stability. This was clearly demonstrated in 2004 when CBK as president got rid of a Ranil Wickremesinghe government and dissolved parliament. In an interview at a critical juncture in Sri Lanka’s history, when the country was sliding into war, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said that she made a big mistake by sacking the pro-peace United National Party (UNP) government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2004. “It was wrong,” Kumaratunga told the editor of Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge “It was the JVP and those in my party who were keen to win the elections and take office who pushed me to dissolve (parliament),” she said.

Whether the NPP/JVP, capitalizing on the presidential election, can win comfortably on Nov. 14 will only be clear after the results are declared. But it will indubitably put up a strong performance as it did in September as it can attract those who did not vote last time round and others won over since the AKD victory. Also, groups that backed Premadasa and RW for the presidency are paddling their own canoes this time round and that will benefit the NPP/JVP ticket.

The many defections we saw in the run up to the presidential election had very little to do with the candidates running for office. It was all a matter of defectors placing themselves in what they hoped was the right side for the expected parliamentary elections now called. The NPP/JVP turned down those who knocked at their door – AKD went on record saying there were some of these though he named no names – so they had to seek refuge in either the SJB or the gas cylinder coalition RW cobbled together to run as an independent at the presidential election. He finished a poor third the and the pohottuwa was left with a pitiful rump of a once formidable majority. Most mainstream parties had appointed parliamentary aspirants as organizers for different electorates long before the last parliament was dissolved and elbowing them out to make room for newcomers was obviously no easy task as Patali Champika Ranawaka has found to his cost.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision not to run this time was widely expected. He has looked very frail in recent television appearances and it is clear that he is not in the best of health. He would undoubtedly campaign to the best of his ability for the SLPP and his son although he is ending a very long political career where he scaled the highest peaks. The announcement that Daham Sirisena, son of former President Maithripala Sirisena, was running under the banner of Dilith Jayaweera’s Mawbima Janatha Party was a clear signal that the former president intended bowing out of the parliamentary race. Many will be happy to see the last of him. Despite attaining the presidency, he chose to return to parliament under Rajapaksa colours after defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa in an acrimonious election in 2015. Questions on whether he will continue attempts to regain control of the SLFP have also emerged. The results of this election will influence that. While it was obvious RW would not run after his defeat last month, his party’s statement significantly said he did not expect to enter parliament through the national list. But that was exactly what he did in June 2021, ten months after August 2020. The rest of course is history.