It is said that in times war laws fall silent. In Sri Lanka, this much-quoted Ciceronian aphorism seems to hold true even in peacetime when politicians in power, their family members and supporters happen to be on the wrong side of the law.

It was widely thought that last year’s regime change would bring about a radical change, and that unlike during past governments, the law would apply equally to everyone, but traffic laws apparently fell silent on the Southern Expressway on Thursday (01).

Some viral videos doing the rounds in the digital space show a large number of private buses transporting people to the NPP May Day rally in Colombo, unlawfully parked on the Southern Expressway, with the government supporters having lunch or strolling on a paved shoulder of the road.

It is a punishable offence for vehicles to stop in undesignated sections of expressways in non-emergency situations. Instances have been reported where people were fined or even prosecuted for doing so. The aforementioned videos show a highway patrol vehicle among the unlawfully parked buses, with the police personnel looking the other way. The culture of impunity seems to persist. No legal action had been taken against the errant drivers at the time of going to press. The police would have promptly ticketed them if they had been transporting Opposition supporters to a political rally. So much for the incumbent government’s pledge to restore the rule of law!

Some NPP politicians have sought to deny that the individuals seen in the videos are their supporters; if so, they should have the incident probed urgently. The registration numbers of the buses are clearly visible in the videos, or the vehicles and their drivers can be easily identified with the help of traffic camera footage. It is not difficult for the police to trace the errant drivers and passengers and take legal action against them if they care to do so.

Ordinary motorists who happen to violate traffic laws on an expressway invariably face heavy fines. The police must be made to explain why they did not take prompt action against the drivers of the buses and the political activists for the transgression at issue.

One of the main election promises of the ruling NPP was to ensure that everybody would be equal before the law in keeping with the cherished legal maxim—nemo est supra leges or no one is above the law. The NPP leaders, during their Opposition days, would flay their predecessors for violating traffic laws, among other things. They would condemn the VIP convoy security procedures, claiming that such measures worsened traffic congestion in urban areas and caused much inconvenience to the public. They promised a system change. But the status quo remains to all intents and purposes. The aforesaid video footage in circulation exemplifies a famous Orwellian paradox; are we to conclude that under the new dispensation all people are equal, but some people are ‘more equal’ than others?

Meanwhile, one may recall that the JVP leaders vehemently opposed the construction of the Southern Expressway, claiming that it was being built to transport malu ambulthiyal or the traditional ‘sour fish curry’ to the then ruling family all the way from Tangalle! Today, some NPP supporters stand accused of having eaten rice perhaps with malu ambulthiyal on the Southern Expressway in violation of traffic laws!

Unless stern action is taken against the bus drivers and the political activists who violated traffic laws on the Southern Expressway, others are likely to follow suit, making the highways as chaotic as other roads, some of which are partially closed for New Year festivals and bicycle races to be held much to the inconvenience of the public.

It will be interesting to see if the NPP government will practise what it preached to its predecessors about the rule of law, and direct the police to probe the expressway incident, which has tarnished its image, and taken the gloss off its successful May Day rally to some extent.

Saturday 3rd May, 2025

The JVP-led NPP government is quite upbeat about its massive May Day rally, which was intended to give a mega boost to its local government election campaign. Governments in power usually hold mammoth rallies to demonstrate their power. They are capable of doing so as they have the entire state machinery at their disposal and are never short of funds, which flow from various sources.

They hire thousands of buses and bring their supporters from all parts of the country to their rallies, especially the ones on May Day, the way the JVP/NPP did on Thursday. Political parties also bus hired attendees to their events, as is public knowledge. This is the name of the game in Sri Lankan politics.

Huge crowds at political rallies can be thought to reflect a surge in popular support, if at all, only when they are held by Opposition parties, like the show of strength put on by the SLPP at Galle Face in 2017, one year after its formation, during the Yahapalana government. The JVP, which was supporting the UNP-led Yahapalana administration at that time, claimed that the SLPP had bused its supporters as well as crowd fillers to Galle Face Green in their thousands.

It may be recalled that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election rallies were much bigger than those of his rival, Maithripala Sirisena, in the run-up to the 2015 presidential polls, but he suffered an ignominious defeat. Sirisena came from behind to beat Rajapaksa in the race. The JVP posted an interesting cartoon on social media to belittle the crowd sizes at Rajapaksa’s election rallies, claiming that the UPFA transported people from Mahinda’s home district, Hambantota, to his meetings across the country.

In the first panel of that cartoon, while addressing a rally at Ruwanwella, President Rajapaksa asks what the people in that area need most, and someone in the audience shouts, “A fisheries harbour”; the next panel of the cartoon shows a visibly embarrassed Mahinda grimace with a think bubble above his head reading: “Darn it! They have brought these idiots from Tangalle, again!” (To the uninitiated, Ruwanwella is a landlocked electorate while Tangalle is a coastal township.)

The UNP held a series of well-attended political events following President Sirisena’s abortive attempt to sack its government in October 2018, but it was reduced to a single National List slot in the 2020 general election.

It seems that in this country, huge parliamentary majorities are jinxed. All previous governments that secured two-thirds majorities became hugely unpopular and could not win second terms, the only exception being the J. R. Jayawardene regime which resorted to election malpractices and political violence to retain its hold on power. The SLFP-led United Front government, elected in 1970 with a two-thirds majority, lost the 1977 general election, where the UNP obtained a five-sixths majority.

The SLFP-led UPFA, which won a two-thirds majority, under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency in 2010, collapsed in 2015 owing to mass crossovers. The SLPP obtained a two-thirds majority in 2020, but its Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had to resign, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned amidst a popular uprising in 2022.

The JVP-led NPP government also has a two-thirds majority in Parliament, but it has had to campaign extremely hard in a bid to win the upcoming local government elections. It should have been in a position to defeat the twice-beaten Opposition hands down. Whether it will be able to score an impressive win again on 06 May remains to be seen.

The only way the NPP government can retain its popularity is to live up to people’s expectations and refrain from compromising on its policies and principles, which it marketed to the electorate to win elections. Having talked the talk, it now has to walk the walk. More talking will not do.

Friday 2nd May, 2025

Another May Day is over. Sri Lankan workers were treated to a mega political circus yesterday. They may have been thoroughly entertained, but serious issues affecting them remain unresolved. Their trade unions are all at sea. These outfits are anything but modern; they are only adept at making demands, staging protests, and doing political work either for the government or for the Opposition. They have failed to keep pace with a fast-paced, futuristic world, where work is caught in a whirlpool of change, which throws up new challenges.

Thankfully, the US tariff hikes, which would have wiped out tens of thousands of jobs in this country, have been put on hold for three months, but this moratorium could be considered an interval in hell, as it were. The NPP government says its talks with Washington to have the US tariffs lowered were fruitful, but President Donald Trump possesses an elusive mind, and it is not possible to guess his erratic moves. So, Sri Lanka had better devise ways and means of facing the worst-case scenario. The government has to engage exporters, trade unions and other stakeholders in discussions and formulate a strategy to prepare the country for any eventuality.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some positive developments. The EU is likely to extend the GSP Plus concession, according to media reports. That will stand Sri Lanka, especially exporters and workers, in good stead. But prudence demands that the developing countries work hard towards weaning themselves off the largesse of big powers, which are not driven by altruism, as evident from the unprecedented US tariff hikes. World trade is driven by the predatory instincts of major powers that do not hesitate to protect their interests at the expense of the Global South.

Modern technology has turned the world of work on its head. Workers are losing their jobs the world over owing to automation. Some categories of labour are becoming redundant, and certain trades will be extinct sooner than expected. The world is becoming increasingly overdependent on invasive AI technologies, which have made the once unthinkable possible. Whoever would have thought a decade or so ago that 3D-printed food would be in the realm of possibility? Even houses are 3D printed, and the demand for this technology is reportedly increasing around the world as it has made construction work faster, cheaper and less labour intensive. Possibilities unlocked by unforeseen technological advancement are enormous and mind-boggling. The NPP government, the Opposition and trade unions must take cognisance of these developments and proactively devise strategies to prepare the country for an uncharted future, where the nature of work will be radically different from what it is today.

Some Sri Lankan trade unions are behaving in such a way that we are reminded of the mindset of the Luddites in 19th-century England, in a manner of speaking. Postal workers have been protesting against a new scheme introduced by the government for paying traffic fines via the GovPay online platform. That will adversely impact the revenue of the Postal Department, they say. The whole world is moving towards cashless transactions, and the postal trade unions will have to come to terms with reality. The day may not be far off when Sri Lanka has to adopt automation in the state service to improve public administration and reduce costs. It is the duty of trade unions to study new trends in the world of work and educate their members thereon, and find ways and means of safeguarding their interests. Instead of facing such challenges, they are issuing threats, bellowing rhetoric and holding protests!

Some countries have shortened the traditional work week to promote work-life balance and, most of all, support employees, affected by new technologies, by enabling them to pursue other gainful activities to supplement their income. Sri Lanka is also moving in that direction, albeit slowly, but neither its rulers nor its trade unionists seem to be concerned. They have apparently adopted a fatalistic attitude.