Wednesday 21st May, 2025

The battle raging over local councils has taken a nasty turn. The government and the Opposition are pulling out all the stops to seize control of the hung councils. They are apparently operating under the belief that the end justifies the means, and offering various inducements to the swing councillors holding the balance of power in a bid to secure their support. Their much-flaunted scruples and principles have fallen by the wayside.

The government is seeking to mitigate the political fallout of its electoral setback by attempting to secure control of the local councils where it fell short of absolute majorities due to a sharp drop in its vote share. The Opposition is making an all-out attempt to engineer majorities in the hung councils and use them as a springboard to winning future elections. Given the desperation of the government and its rivals, the swing councillors have become kingmakers.

The government has adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to secure the support of the swing councillors and some members of the Opposition parties in the hung councils. It has warned that it will not hesitate to dissolve the councils that it fails to secure control of and place them under special commissioners. This warning is intended to scare the non-NPP councillors into supporting the NPP. The government has made a mockery of its much-advertised commitment to good governance.

The JVP-led NPP is now critical of the mixed proportional system, under which the local council elections are held. It would have the public believe that it has not been able to win absolute majorities in many councils due to flaws in the electoral system. This argument is not wholly tenable. The Proportional Representation (PR) system has also been blamed for bringing about weak governments, but that did not prevent the NPP from obtaining a two-thirds majority in last year’s general election. If the government had been able to retain its popularity at the same level, it would have been able to sweep the 06 May LG polls as well and win a vast majority of the local councils outright. So, it has to blame itself rather than the electoral system for its failure to obtain working majorities in many of the councils it won.

However, the mixed proportional system, which requires 60% of local councillors to be elected on the ward basis and the remaining 40% under the PR system, has some deficiencies, which need to be addressed. There has been a steep rise in the number of LG members and most councils are hung and unstable. But the JVP endorsed the new electoral system, etc., by voting for the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Bill No. 16 of 2017, which became law. Minister Vijitha Herath has, in a recent television interview, claimed that the JVP did not oppose that Bill because it did not want the LG polls delayed. But it proved that it was not concerned about poll postponements by supporting another controversial Bill, which was obviously aimed at delaying the Provincial Council (PC) elections indefinitely. One may recall that in 2017, all political parties including the JVP voted for the Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Bill, which the UNP-led Yahapalana government used to postpone the PC polls. Among the ardent supporters of that Bill was the TNA, which is now demanding that the PC polls be held!

Chief Government Whip and Minister Bimal Ratnayake has repeated President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s threat to restrict fund allocations for the local councils to be controlled by the Opposition parties purportedly because the government does not want the corrupt to help themselves to people’s money; thus, he has sought to intimidate the non-NPP councillors. In combating bribery and corruption, governments must rely on robust systems rather than fallible individuals, such as politicians and public officials. If the NPP government is confident that it has devised a system to tackle bribery and corruption effectively, then it need not worry about funds allocated to any local council whether it is controlled by the NPP or its rivals.

Minister Ratnayake’s threat at issue runs counter to the NPP’s solemn pledge to usher in a new political culture and will set a very bad precedent, which future governments might follow.

The government and the Opposition ought to read the popular verdict carefully, put an end to horse-trading, and engage in a meaningful dialogue on sharing power in the hung councils and running them efficiently for the public good.

Tuesday 20th May, 2025

May is the month when Sri Lanka’s ruling party politicians and their rivals fall over themselves to extol the military as the saviour of the nation, and gain political mileage in the process. We have government leaders and their political opponents wrapping themselves in the flag and accusing each other of having betrayed the military.

The NPP government buckled under pressure from the Opposition and made another about-turn. It announced last week that the National War Heroes Day commemoration would be held on 19 May with the participation of a former military officer-turned deputy minister as the Chief Guest. But as the Opposition intensified its propaganda assault on the government for belittling the importance of the event, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake attended it.

A separate commemorative event to honour war heroes is scheduled to be held today under the aegis of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who provided political leadership for defeating the LTTE 16 years ago. Why can’t these leaders sink their political differences and unite to honour the fallen warriors together?

The Rajapaksas politicised the sacrifices made by the military in defeating LTTE terrorism in 2009 and won elections in 2010. The then Opposition including the UNP and the JVP did likewise. It fielded former war-winning Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka as the common presidential candidate of the Opposition in 2010. Ironically, the TNA also backed Gen. Fonseka to the hilt while levelling allegations of war crimes against the army he had led!

General Shavendra Silva, one of the decorated combat officers who led the war against the LTTE from the front, has told the ‘patriotic politicians’ some home truths; he has, in an interview with Derana 24/7, expressed regret that successive governments have let down the Sri Lankan military. They have done precious little to counter adverse international propaganda and hostile actions against the Sri Lankan military.

Several former military officers are facing travel bans imposed by some western countries. Sadly, these nations and their leaders support terror backers and allow their territories to be abused for fundraising for terrorism and advancing terrorist agendas. They have failed to realise that they are making the same mistake as the young lady of Niger, who smiled as she rode on a Tiger and returned inside the animal. All the countries that created and/or backed terror groups to further their geostrategic interests have been hoist with their own petard. The US is a case in point.

Terrorism is no means to an end; it is the end and the means both. Hence the need for the scourge to be wiped out in all its forms and manifestations for democracy to thrive. The Sri Lankan military has done just that. If terrorism—both northern and southern—had not been defeated in this country, the voice of the public would not have been heard, and the people would still have been living in fear of bullets and bombs. Both the LTTE and the JVP ordered poll boycotts, murdered civilians and political leaders for defying their illegal orders, committed robberies and suppressed democratic dissent in the most brutal manner while destroying public assets worth billions of dollars. The JVP would not have re-entered democratic politics if its terrorism had not been eliminated. The defeat of the LTTE paved the way for the revival of democracy in the North and the East.

It was the military that saved Sri Lanka’s democracy by defending Parliament against a violent mob at the height of Aragalaya in 2022. But for its decisive action, the anarchical forces on the rampage would have marched on Parliament and torched it; the JVP has admitted that it was instrumental in inciting what would have been an event horizon for Sri Lanka’s democracy.

The biggest disservice politicians who are wearing patriotism on their sleeve have done to the military is that they have not made use of the armed forces’ sacrifices and achievements to develop the country. The Rajapaksas were busy enriching themselves and building their dynasty after the defeat of terrorism in 2009; the Sirisenas did likewise so much so that paddy farmers and rice consumers are at the mercy of a cartel of millers led by them. The UNP leaders indulged in cronyism and corruption, and the JVP engaged disruptive activities in universities and workplaces while shoring up its war chest and, above all, seeking shortcuts to power.

The best way the vociferous ‘patriots’ of all political hues can honour the military is to shed their differences and work together to achieve national progress and build a better future for all Sri Lankans.

Monday 19th May, 2025

The police are investigating an incident where Thusitha Halloluwa, a top aide to former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, was attacked by two unidentified gunmen on Saturday night in Colombo. The attackers shot at his vehicle and assaulted him and a lawyer travelling with him before making off with a file containing some vital documents, the victim has said. No breakthrough had been made in the police probe at the time of going to press.

Saturday’s incident has assumed immense political significance because Halloluwa is a bitter critic of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and has accused the latter of a questionable investment in Greece. He possesses irrefutable evidence to prove his claim, Halloluwa has said. The CID has launched a probe into his allegation which the government has denounced as a sinister attempt to smear President Dissanayake’s reputation. The shooting incident on Saturday night has led to a propaganda war between the government and the Opposition.

The attack on Halloluwa and his lawyer came less than a month after the killing of Dan Priyasad, an Opposition activist and SLPP candidate in the recent local government polls; Priyasad was shot at close range while he was attending a family function. There have been about 45 incidents of gun violence so far this year, and they have claimed 30 lives.

The incumbent government came to power, promising to neutralise the underworld in just two months, but there seems to be no end in sight to gun violence. It is only natural that in Sri Lanka the government in power becomes the immediate suspect when Opposition politicians and activists who are critical of the powers that be come under attack. This may not be fair, but that is the way the cookie crumbles in this country, where political power breeds impunity. Whenever a critic of the ruling party is threatened, assaulted or killed, the knee-jerk reaction of the Opposition is to blame the government. Once one gets a bad reputation, it sticks.

It may be recalled that all attacks on Opposition politicians and their supporters were readily blamed on previous governments, which had earned notoriety for political violence. The JVP itself lashed out at Presidents J. R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe whenever their political rivals were attacked. It was truly a case of ‘give a dog a bad name and hang him’.

Those governments also failed to clear their names in most cases because the crimes at issue were not properly investigated and their official responses were marked by silence, denial and delayed action. Now, the boot is on the other foot. The NPP government finds itself in the dock.

Prudence requires that one keep an open mind regarding allegations of political violence in Sri Lanka, which is no stranger to orchestrated assassination bids and abductions. In 2014, the abduction of a controversial Buddhist monk in Panadura received wide media coverage both nationally and internationally. The victim claimed that a group of radical Buddhist monks had abducted him and injured his genitals because he opposed their extremist ideology.

But subsequently, he confessed that his injuries were self-inflicted and he had got a relative of his to drop him somewhere in Bandaragama as he wanted to discredit his rivals and gain public sympathy. In 2019, a female employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo claimed that she had been abducted by the military intelligence, but later it was revealed that she had fabricated her claim, which made international headlines. In 2023, an actor-turned-MP (SLPP) complained that his car had come under gunfire near his residence, but police investigations revealed the incident had been stage-managed. However, some crimes committed during several governments, such as high-profile political killings and disappearances, remain unsolved as politicians were involved in them.

If the NPP government has nothing to hide about Saturday’s incident, it must ensure that the police conduct a thorough, independent, transparent investigation into the attack and get to the bottom of it expeditiously. That is the only way it can clear its name.