Wednesday 3rd July, 2024

The SJB parliamentary group yesterday unanimously resolved that it would not join a national government under President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership. What prompted it to make such a resolution suddenly is not clear. Perhaps, it has only reiterated its response to an invitation President Wickremesinghe extended about two years ago.

One cannot but agree that there is absolutely no need for a national government, for such an arrangement does not benefit the public in a half-baked democracy like Sri Lanka, where politicians are driven by self-interest; they join forces to further their own interests and not for the sake of the country. The so-called national unity government formed by the UNP and the SLFP-led UPFA in 2015 is a case in point. That administration, which was a coming together of a bunch of strange bedfellows, was characterised by mega scams, other forms of corruption, the aggravation of the country’s indebtedness, inefficiency and the neglect of national security. It exemplified the popular saying that two dogs at the same bone seldom agree. Competing interests and personality clashes led to tensions among its leaders, and President Sirisena sought to dislodge it eventually, albeit in vain.

What Sri Lanka needs is a national-minded government as well as a national-minded Opposition. The ruling coalition is all out to retain power, and the Opposition parties are doing their darndest to capture power, and the national interest does not figure in their agendas. The country is grappling with its worst-ever economic crisis, which has adversely impacted every facet of life, but the government and the Opposition are pulling in different directions oblivious to the need for a concerted effort. Sri Lankan political leaders did not join forces even at the height of the Vanni war or in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe made a special statement in Parliament yesterday on the debt restructuring agreements. Much more information about those pacts remains to be disclosed. It is hoped that all agreements will be made available to the public after the restructuring of ISBs (International Sovereign Bonds). The Opposition claimed that Sri Lanka’s creditors had not been made to take haircuts.

The so-called people’s representatives in Sri Lanka are not prepared to forgo their duty-free vehicle permits and other such perks, much less share in the suffering of the public in any manner, but the Opposition politicians want the country’s creditors to take haircuts. They are of the same mindset as inveterate delinquent cardholders who inveigh against their banks after living beyond their means and finding themselves in dire financial straits. Loans have to be paid back. Let that be the bottom line.

Parliament should debate all vital agreements related to debt restructuring, but at the same time it ought to discuss ways and means of shoring up the country’s foreign exchange reserves, enhancing national productivity, boosting exports, combating corruption, curtailing waste and rationalising state expenditure. The government deserves the flak it is receiving, but the Opposition does not provide alternative solutions to the country’s burning issues; it only bellows rhetoric, mouths populist slogans, and advocates clientelism and welfarism. Instead of taking action to eliminate corruption in the Customs, Inland Revenue and the Exercise Department and cast the tax net wide, the government is bent on squeezing the public dry. The Opposition is promising tax cuts and freebies to the public in a bid to garner votes at the upcoming election. The SJB has undertaken to allocate more funds for education, healthcare, social welfare, etc., but it will not reveal how it is going to increase state revenue. The JVP/NPP has promised to grab power from the ‘corrupt political elites’ and hand it over to the youth! It tried to do so on two occasions—in 1971 and in the late 1980s—and left thousands of youth dead. Elites circulate, according to thinkers like Pareto, and one sees no difference between the traditional political elites and the JVP/NPP leaders.

Parliamentary debates on vital national problems such as debt restructuring must not be polluted with platform rhetoric and partisan politics. It is hoped that Parliament will have a proper debate on the debt issue, and adopt a consensual approach to economic recovery instead of giving a fillip to anti-politics, which is menacingly on the rise.

Tuesday 2nd July, 2024

Parliament is to have a debate on the recently-concluded external debt restructuring agreement between Sri Lanka and some of its foreign creditors. It is hoped that the focus of the House will remain undivided on the country’s debt crisis and the ways and means of overcoming it, and nothing else. Parliamentary debates usually descend into slanging matches.

Opinion is divided on the aforesaid agreement which the government has made out to be a huge success. The Opposition has dismissed it as a sellout, claiming that the government has agreed to conditions totally unfavourable to the country. The truth, we believe, is somewhere between these two extreme positions.

The debt structuring agreement has provided Sri Lanka with some respite, but by no stretch of the imagination can it be considered an achievement worthy of celebration. Sri Lanka’s International Sovereign Bonds have not yet been restructured; the government is hopeful that an agreement with the bondholders can be reached. There is a long way to go before we achieve debt sustainability, the be-all and end-all of breaking the back of the current crisis, and putting the economy back on an even keel. This is a gargantuan task that requires a substantial increase in the country’s export revenue and a drastic reduction in the outflow of foreign exchange, among other things.

The Opposition’s position on external debt restructuring smacks of a mindset that the foreign creditors must be penalised for Sri Lanka’s blunders which have brought about the current crisis. True, Sri Lanka would have gained hugely if its creditors had been made to agree to big haircuts and other such extreme measures, but the question is whether it would have been able to borrow again from external sources in such an eventuality.

How can the foreign creditors be expected to be so considerate as to take huge haircuts for the sake of Sri Lanka while some local trade unions are demanding their pound of flesh or even more, and the MPs are all out to secure duty-free vehicle permits, which will be a drain on the country’s foreign currency reserves? Worse, Sri Lankan exporters stand accused of parking their export proceeds overseas.

Meanwhile, the crisis we are facing is multi-factorial although our focus is only on the economic aspects thereof. Therefore, our efforts to solve it once and for all should not be limited to the economic front. The need for social and political reforms to prepare the country for doing what needs to be done to overcome the present crisis cannot be overemphasised. We are without a work ethic as such and our attitude to work, as a nation, is appalling, to say the least; it is only natural that our national productivity remains woefully low, and we continue to be dependent on foreign aid.

Ideally, the government and the Opposition should have got together to help resolve the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, and formulated a recovery strategy, instead of playing politics with the issue. In fact, all members of the current Parliament are duty bound to make a collective effort to hoist the country out of its debt crisis. The SLPP government on Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s watch precipitated the economic crisis, but successive governments have contributed to the country’s unsustainable debt, albeit to varying degrees. Those in the current Opposition were in the Yahapalana government or were supportive of that regime, which borrowed more than USD 10 billion between 2015 and 2019, according to SLPP Leader and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The SJB MPs were in the UNP at the time. The TNA, the JVP, etc., fully backed the Yahapalana administration, and even prevented its collapse in 2018 by helping it muster a parliamentary majority. Besides, the TNA backed the LTTE, which inflicted incalculable damage on the economy, and the JVP itself destroyed state assets worth billions of rupees in the late 1980s.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has expressed his willingness to consider alternative proposals outlining a viable strategy to overcome the debt crisis. He has invited the Opposition to submit such proposals, if any, and undertaken to facilitate a meeting between the proponents thereof and the IMF representatives. Will the Opposition take up the challenge and present an alternative plan when the debt deals are taken up for debate?

Monday 1st July, 2024

The law finally caught up with former MP Hirunika Premachandra on Friday. Having been found guilty of the abduction, wrongful detention and assault of a youth in December 2015, and sentenced to three-year RI, she is languishing behind bars. She is expected to appeal against her conviction. As a lawyer, Hirunika should have known better than to take the law into her own hands. What possessed her to commit the crime that has landed her in prison?

Hirunika and several others committed the aforesaid offences during the heyday of the UNP-led Yahapalana government. The UNP-led UNF was ensconced in power and President Maithripala Sirisena was going strong at the time. Hirunika, like the other young UNF MPs in the good books of the government leaders of the day may have thought she was above the law.

The problem with political power is that it goes to the heads of those who wield it, and have the same effect as intoxicants on them. Hence, the politicians of the party/coalition in power take leave of their senses and become oblivious to the consequences of their actions. One may recall how an otherwise amiable Ranjan Ramanayake behaved during the Yahapalana government, telephoning and instructing even high-ranking police officers until he was humbled by the judiciary; he was imprisoned for contempt of court. The sobering reality dawned on him while he was serving time.

Hirunika has been a storm petrel of sorts. She was instrumental in exposing the defectus or vulnerability of the Rajapaksa fortress, as it were, and instilling anti-government protesters with confidence that it could be brought down like the Walls of Jericho. On 05 March 2022, she held a women’s protest near the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Mirihana residence, and emboldened others to do likewise. She also staged a protest near the President’s House, Fort, on 06 July 2022, about three days before thousands of anti-government activists stormed the place, making President Rajapaksa head for the hills. She also incurred the wrath of the leaders of the incumbent dispensation by launching scathing verbal attacks on them and their close friends.

The killers of The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickremetunge, popular sportsman, Wasim Thajudeen, and several others have not been brought to justice. The tardiness of police investigations into those crimes reminds us of a popular Avurudu cycling contest, where the slowest rider is adjudged the winner, and the contestants do their darndest to move as slow as possible. New foreign exchange control laws were introduced in 2017, and about 30 fraudsters who would have faced incarceration got away with the criminal offences they had committed under the previous Act, which had more teeth. Politicians who make a vulgar display of their wealth, despite their humble beginnings, have the last laugh when legal action is taken against them after regime changes.

The taxman looks the other way, and the national anti-graft commission is not equal to the task of prosecuting them properly. Above all, those who plunged the country into a bloodbath in the late 1980s, snuffing out thousands of lives, destroying public property worth billions of rupees, robbing banks and the public, and the perpetrators of equally heinous crimes in the name of counterterror have got off scot-free. A man who trespassed on a former President’s estate, and stole a few coconuts was shot the other day, but the Presidents, who are accused of indulging in corrupt practices, abusing power, jeopardising national security and ruining the economy, are looked after the by the State until they go the way of all flesh.

There are many politicians who are ‘more equal than others’ before the law like the Pigs in Orwell’s dystopian novella, Animal Farm. If only the law applied equally to everyone in this country.

The judicial gavel blow that has shocked Hirunika into realising that she is not above the law is most welcome, and it is hoped that it will serve as a deterrent for others of her ilk. However, on witnessing the prevailing culture of impunity, the selective law enforcement, and the shameful impotence of the long arm of the law and the state prosecutors vis-à-vis powerful politicians and their kith and kin, we cannot but echo the words of Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist— ‘The law is an ass’.