Editorial
Doomed democracy

Tuesday 21st March, 2023
Sri Lanka finds itself in a distressingly unprecedented and unenviable situation. All three tiers of government—Parliament, the Provincial Councils and the local government institutions—are now under the Executive President indefinitely thanks to the postponement of the Provincial Council and local government elections. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is the head of government and therefore has Parliament under his direct control. The Provincial Governors appointed by the President exercise control over the Provincial Councils as well as the public officials under whom the local government (LG) institutions are to be placed.
The separation of powers has become a thing of the past to all intents and purposes. Although his party, the UNP, has only one parliamentary seat, President Wickremesinghe has the legislature under his thumb because he is now constitutionally empowered to dissolve Parliament at a time of his choosing. He can leverage this power, if he so desires, to enhance his bargaining power vis-à-vis the SLPP, upon which he is dependent for legislative support. He spends more time in Parliament than all his predecessors did while holding the presidency, and even tells the Opposition MPs to shut up and sit down when they express dissenting views! Thus, he imposes his will on the legislature!
The Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government, which bankrupted the economy, has turned the country’s economic woes to its advantage; it is all out to avoid a crushing electoral setback by refusing funds for the LG polls. President Wickremesinghe has rendered the Election Commission toothless by blocking funds for elections. His action has caused a severe erosion of public faith in the electoral process.
Worse, the government is now in overdrive to tame the judiciary! Some MPs are reportedly planning to question judges!
Having taken exception to a recent Supreme Court interim order that public officials refrain from blocking the release of budgetary allocations for the EC, the government claims that the judiciary has caused a breach of parliamentary privileges! There is no reason for the ruling party grandees to see red; the SC has only asked the Secretary to the Finance Ministry and others to carry out what the government has undertaken to do in Budget 2023, in respect of the EC. Having made an issue out of a non-issue, the government has decided to have it probed by a parliamentary committee. Will anyone in authority care to reveal the educational qualifications of the MPs who are to be tasked with questioning the judges and, more importantly, whether there are court cases against any of those worthies? Judges must not be insulted in this manner!
In 2017, the UNP put off the PC polls by amending the PC Elections Act in the most despicable manner with the help of the SLFP, the JVP, the SLMC and the TNA; it stuffed the amendment bill with a slew of sections sans judicial sanction at the committee stage, and secured its passage amidst protests from the then ‘Joint Opposition’ bigwigs, who have now thrown in their lot with President Wickremesinghe and are endorsing all his actions, including his refusal to make funds available for elections on some flimsy pretext.
What is unfolding on the political front reminds us of an Aesopian fable. A camel happens to move its bowels while walking along a babbling brook downstream, and sees its dung racing past it; puzzled, it wonders how on earth what should be behind it is going ahead of it. The learned judges facing the prospect of having to suffer indignities at the hands of a bunch of political dregs must be in a similar dilemma. But they can rest assured that all right-thinking people are on their side. One can only hope that the people’s struggle to exercise their franchise and knock the lowest of the low in politics off their perches will receive a judicial boost.
The police and the military are busy doing full-time political work. Senior police officers seeking promotions and political generals receiving gallantry medals in peacetime are hell-bent on cracking down on pro-democracy protests to humour the powers that be. Unidentified persons in military uniform, armed with assault rifles and iron rods, operate alongside the army and the police to crush anti-government protests. Both the army and the police have categorically said these characters are not their personnel? If so, who are they? Are they mercenaries? It is a non-bailable criminal offence for anyone to carry firearms without permission from the defence authorities. Why haven’t the police arrested those armed men? The Opposition must flog this issue aggressively in Parliament and elsewhere. But it is all at sea and too impotent to take on the government the way it should to safeguard the interests of the public. It floats like a bee and stings like a butterfly, so to speak! The country certainly can do without such a feckless Opposition, which however is an invaluable asset to any dictatorial regime.
How could it be denied that we are witnessing the rise of the Sri Lankan version of the Third Reich?
Editorial
Carnage, masterminds and political battles

Friday 11th July, 2025
Minister of Public Security Ananda Wijepala declared in Parliament on Wednesday that TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chanthirakanthan alias Pilleyan had had prior knowledge of the Easter Sunday terror strikes (2019). Pilleyan was in the Batticaloa prison at the time of the terror attacks.
A narrative is apparently being created to support former aide to Pilleyan, Azad Moulana’s claim that Pilleyan and the military intelligence had links to Zahran Hashim and other NTJ terrorists. No one may have been more au fait with the workings of the NTJ terror network than Mohamed Ibrahim, father of two NTJ suicide bombers, Mohamed Ilham and Mohamed Insaf. This fact has been borne out by a leaked recording of a telephone conversation between CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera and Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayaka during the Yahapalana government.
Following the so-called money trail is one of the most effective methods of identifying the masterminds behind a terror attack. It was Ibrahim’s sons who funded the NTJ terror project. Ibrahim was a National List candidate of the JVP in the 2015 general election. The Opposition has sought to use this fact to discredit the JVP. It is absurd to claim that the blame for the 2019 terror attacks should be apportioned to the JVP simply because Ibrahim was on its National List. However, the question is why the incumbent JVP-led NPP administration, which inveighs against its political rivals, including the Rajapaksas and Pilleyan, has not taken any action against Ibrahim.
In a leaked audio clip of a telephone conversation between Ramanayake and SSP Abeysekera, about the Easter Sunday terror attacks, the latter is heard telling the former something in Sinhala to the effect that Ibrahim cannot be so stupid as not to have known what his two sons had been doing. If this audio recording is not fake, the CID should go by Abeysekera’s contention, and interrogate Ibrahim again as part of their efforts to identify the terror masterminds. As we argued in a previous editorial comment, when Ishara Sewwandi, a female accomplice of the gunman who killed underworld leader Ganemulle Sanjeewa in a courtroom at Hulftsdorp, went into hiding, the police arrested and grilled her mother and brother. The question is whether the NPP will allow its former National List candidate to be arrested and interrogated again.
Meanwhile, SLPP MP D. V. Chanaka lashed out at the NPP government in Parliament on Wednesday, for having sunk to a new low in politicising the police. He said Abeysekera, who campaigned for the NPP and even addressed the media at the JVP headquarters, Colombo, in support of the NPP prior to last year’s presidential election, had been pulled out of retirement and appointed the Director of the CID to target the Opposition politicians. Can a retired senior police officer who campaigned for the ruling party, and was brought in as the Director of the CID, be expected to act independently and impartially, without furthering the political interests of his political leaders?
The Opposition has accused Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne of abusing his authority to have two serious charges including drunk driving dropped in a case against him for causing a road accident while driving under the influence of liquor in Colombo. So, what guarantee is there that Seneviratne will not do likewise to save his own skin and safeguard and/or promote the interests of his political leaders anent the probe into the Easter Sunday terror attacks? One is reminded of the despicable manner in which the Rajapaksa government opened an escape route for Mervyn Silva, charged with cheque fraud, a criminal offence. That serious charge was dropped and Silva walked free! Those who expected the 2024 regime change to bring about a radical break from the rotten political culture that flourished under previous governments must be really disappointed and disillusioned.
When—or whether—the government and the Opposition will stop clashing over the masterminds behind the Easter Sunday carnage and make a joint effort to ensure justice for the victims is anybody’s guess.
Editorial
A cuppa sans cheers

Thursday 10th July, 2025
Parliamentary proceedings in this country are characterised by references to political rejects or riff-raff or dregs. On Tuesday, the attention of the legislature was drawn to a different kind of waste—refuse tea, which has led to serious problems that successive governments have failed to solve, and evolved into a kind of shadow industry, thriving outside regulatory oversight, feeding illegal supply chains and ruining Sri Lanka’s reputation as a quality tea producer.
An MP asked Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure Samantha Vidyarathna what action the government was planning to take to tackle the well-entrenched, lucrative refuse tea racket; he also wanted to know, among other things, whether any action would be taken to regulate the illegal tea waste trade so that the state would gain financially, as there was a market, both here and overseas, for discarded sweepings from factory floors, or whether the racket which adversely affected tea smallholders would be brought to an end.
Admitting that refuse tea continued to enter the market, Minister Vidyarathna said there were laws to deal with that racket, and action had been taken to tackle it. He claimed the government was working towards optimising the production of quality tea and reducing the refuse tea generation to a bare minimum. His response was not much different from those of his predecessors who also made similar pledges in Parliament but did precious little to fulfil them.
Refuse tea, which enters the market, masquerading as pure Ceylon tea, tarnishes Sri Lanka’s reputation internationally and poses health risks to consumers here and overseas. The most effective way to tackle all these problems is to eliminate their root cause—refuse tea, which must be destroyed at the source, under official supervision, like other edibles and drinkables unfit for human consumption.
So, it defies comprehension why there should be any discussion, in Parliament or elsewhere, on exploring ways and means of regulating the illegal refuse tea trade or adopting band-aid remedies. An illegal practice must not be given any legitimacy through regulation; instead, it must be brought to an end. Refuse tea, by definition, is waste and it must be treated as such. It must not be allowed to leave the factories where it is generated. Let that be the bottom line.
The illegal refuse tea trade is reportedly dominated by some underworld gangs that use threats and bribes to further their interests. Underworld leader Makandure Madush, described as Sri Lanka’s Napoleon of Crime, operated from Dubai and facilitated tea waste smuggling operations. He even issued death threats to high-ranking state officials who tried to stop it. He is long dead, but in the netherworld of crime, narcotics, etc., when a gang leader dies, other criminals move in to fill the vacuum. The connivance of some state officials and politicians has made the task of eliminating the refuse tea trade even more difficult. Not even the Special Task Force has been able to neutralise the organised gangs involved in the racket. Not that the elite tactical force lacks the capability to accomplish that task. It has not been given a free hand; the racketeers have political connections and the wherewithal to prevent the law enforcement officers from going all out to put an end to their illegal operations. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake recently vowed to eliminate what he described as ‘mini governments’ in the country; one of them is apparently controlling the refuse tea trade.
Meanwhile, there is a pressing need to conduct regular tests on tea consumed by ordinary Sri Lankans to ensure that it is fit for human consumption. Much of it looks more like black dust than tea, and its impact on health is anybody’s guess. It is high time random samples of unhygienic tea freely available across the country were obtained and tested scientifically.
Editorial
Transparency and hypocrisy

Wednesday 9th July, 2025
The Opposition has been asking the NPP government to release the report of a special committee appointed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to probe an alleged racket where 323 red-flagged freight containers were green-channelled at the Colombo Port in January 2025. Its efforts have been in vain. The government has sought to deflect criticism by saying that the committee report will be presented to Parliament ‘in due course’.
The President’s Office, during previous governments, drew criticism for its reluctance to disclose information about matters of national importance. It was expected to uphold transparency and promptly respond to requests for information after last year’s regime change, but sadly the status quo remains.
President Dissanayake should be able to release the committee report at issue immediately if his government has nothing to hide. Minister of Ports, etc., Bimal Rathnayake, whom the Opposition has blamed for the questionable release of containers, has claimed that the probe committee has rubbished his rivals’ allegation. If so, he, as the Leader of the House, should have the committee report presented to Parliament forthwith.
However, one should not be so naïve as to expect a committee appointed by a President to hold those in his inner circle accountable for a serious transgression and trigger a political storm. One may recall that in 2015, a committee consisting of three lawyers, appointed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, to probe the Treasury bond scams, cleared Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran of wrongdoing while recommending further investigation.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that some MPs who shielded the bond scammers are likely to face a probe. Dozens of MPs benefited from the largesse of the Treasury bond racketeers and got off scot-free. Legal action should have been taken against them then. Interestingly, the JVP had no qualms about defending the UNP-led Yahapalana government even after the release of the damning report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which probed the bond scams. It threw a political lifeline to PM Wickremesinghe in 2018 vis-a-vis the then President Maithripala Sirisena’s efforts to sack him. It helped him muster a parliamentary majority and fought a legal battle, enabling him to stay in power.
President Dissanayake’s predecessors demonstrated a remarkable ability to swallow committee/commission reports, as it were. Those who expected President Dissanayake to make a difference and handle such documents in a transparent manner must be really disappointed.
Time was when Dissanayake, as an Opposition MP, would aggressively call upon the previous governments to present agreements and commission/committee reports to Parliament, and thereby respect the people’s right to information. His calls struck a responsive chord with the public. Today, he is under pressure from the Opposition to release the report of a committee he himself appointed to probe an alleged racket!
The NPP came to power, promising to practise good governance, which the UNDP has defined as “the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences”. Transparency is one of the cornerstones of good governance, others being participation, the rule of law, responsiveness, consensus orientation, effectiveness, efficiency and accountability. Good governance without transparency is a contradiction in terms. Lack of transparency creates an ideal breeding ground for corruption, misinformation and arbitrary decision-making—all of which are antithetical to good governance.
It is a supreme irony that the SJB MPs who, as members of the Yahapalana government, prevented the presentation of the first COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the Treasury bond scams to Parliament, went so far as to dilute the second COPE report on the scandal, with a slew of footnotes, and unashamedly defended that corrupt administration with the help of the JVP are now campaigning for transparency and the people’s right to information.
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