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Editorial

Gota’s address to the nation

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The point has been made that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his address to the nation last Thursday had not only argued the case for his defence over the dire predicament now confronting the country, but had also left a great deal unsaid. We begin this comment complimenting the president on the tone and tenor of his delivery. As is usual with him, he made his pre-recorded address without oratorical flourishes or rhetoric, obviously reading from a teleprompter, and also not taking cheap jibes at his opponents as most politicians are wont to do. He clearly said that he is very well aware of the present suffering of the people but these problems were not of his making. As President Rajapaksa has eyes to see and ears to hear, he cannot be unaware of what people are going through today. Right now we at a juncture widely accepted as being among the worst periods in our post-independence history. These feelings are freely articulated at numerous protest rallies and queues for almost impossible-to-get essentials and are beamed to millions of homes countrywide in the evening television news bulletins.

What hit many viewers of this address was that not a word was said about the president’s fertilizer misadventure that created chaos in the agriculture sector. It disrupted production and created massive shortages of previously available essentials including home grown rice, vegetables and fruit. The president conveniently chose to ignore all this, a matter which is a major contributor to the present impasse rooted in the forex crisis the country is now fighting. There was also his remark that those who contributed to creating the problems are criticizing the government before the people today. This, perhaps was the only overt criticism of the opposition in his speech aimed at and those who served the previous Yahapalana administration. It could not be targeting the JVP which too is in the vanguard of the protests. Certainly Yahapalana’s acts of omission and commission during its tenure, notably the bond scam, did contribute to the present mess but the present lot has done worse

The president must not forget that his brother, Mahinda, who unsuccessfully sought a third term in 2015 after engineering defections for a two thirds majority to abolish the constitutionally mandated term limit on the presidency, brazenly colluded with Yahapalana leader Mathiripala Sirisena to unlawfully seize the prime ministry from Ranil Wickremesinghe. Sirisena and his SLFP were part of the winning coalition at the last parliamentary election although they are now distancing themselves from the ruling party which enabled most of them to win their seats.

Who blasted the country’s precious resources in vanity projects like the not yet commissioned Lotus Tower, the far from viable Mattala International Airport, and other projects at Hambantota like the stadium, the international convention centre, what was claimed to be the only dry zone botanical garden and much more? The Hambantota port is now under long lease to the Chinese to overcome debt servicing and repayment problems. Then there was the disaster of getting rid of the Emirates Airline profitably managing the national carrier under a joint venture over a matter of personal pique and the airline has returned to losses. Some of these vanity projects were shamelessly bestowed the name of a living Rajapaksa.

While there is no gainsaying that the highway construction initiated by the previous Rajapaksa regime vastly improved connectivity in the country, there are questions on whether many of them were rated high enough on the national priority list to rate turboprop implementation at great cost. Did we for instance need a six lane highway to Hambantota with the elaborate Siribopura intersection linking it to the local road network? We cannot overlook pervasive suspicion that road building entails massive kickbacks into political pockets.

Then there was Gota’s assertion that he entered politics at the invitation the people. That was what Winston Churchill once called a “terminological inexactitude.” He was undoubtedly invited by the Rajapaksa family to run for president to succeed his brother who wasn’t entitled to run for a third term thanks to the 19th Amendment. He gave up his U.S. citizenship with that objective. Although 6.9 million voted for him, grateful for the major role he played in the war victory, and trusting his promises of “vistas of prosperity and splendor”, they in no way invited him to seek the presidency. That was his own and his family’s choice. The majority were happy that he won comfortably but many of them are now publicly ruing how they voted and saying so without mincing their words. That has hitherto not happened on the present scale when people publicly express their feelings towards their rulers in the harshest terms. But that, of course, can be marked a plus for the regime not interfering with free speech.

Nobody would have expected a mea culpa address to the nation from an incumbent president and we did not get it. People remember that President J.R. Jayewardene in 1983 did not utter a word of apology to the Tamils who were set upon by savage Sinhala mobs while law enforcers idly stood by earning his regime a massive blackmark at home and abroad. President GR in his address last week called for the cooperation of all to overcome the massive problems besetting the country. The generally non-abrasive nature of his address has set the stage favorably for achieving a positive outcome from that effort. But for that much else must be done as Mr. Karu Jayasuriya said at Anuradhapura last week. But his proposal that 20A be repealed as a sign of good faith is too much to expect. So also the demand of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa’s that a presidential election be held and the government handed to a ‘can do’ SJB. Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema has forensically demonstrated that this is unattainable while columnist Rajan Philips has on this page branded it as “vacuous bluster.”



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Editorial

What’s up Basil’s sleeve?

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Friday 29th March, 2024

The political marriage of convenience between the SLPP and the UNP, two erstwhile sworn enemies, has lasted longer than expected. They have made numerous compromises along the way to prevent their uneasy union from collapsing, but never the twain shall meet on the question of which election is to be held first—presidential or parliamentary. They are pulling in different directions, like a bullock and a water buffalo yoked together, as a local saying goes.

None of the Rajapaksa family members will dare run for President this year for obvious reasons, and the SLPP cannot find an outsider capable of winning the presidency. Fielding a non-family member in the presidential contest is something the Rajapaksas are wary of; such a move will be infra dig for them. If they support President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s candidature, most of the SLPP parliamentary group members and organisers are likely to defect to the UNP, making their chances of averting an ignominious defeat at the next parliamentary election even more unlikely. It is the party of the winner in the presidential race that will have a better chance of winning the next general election. Hence, the Rajapaksas’ efforts to have a general election held first and obtain as many seats as possible.

The UNP has not regained vitality although its leader, Wickermesinghe, has secured the executive presidency fortuitously. All its candidates including Wickremesinghe were defeated at the last parliamentary polls (2020) and therefore they are not ready to face a general election first. They are riding on the coattails of Wickremesinghe, who hopes to leverage his political leadership for the country’s economic recovery efforts, to win the presidency. If a parliamentary election is held first, their plans will go awry.

SLPP founder Basil Rajapaksa’s attempts to make President Wickremesinghe agree to hold a general election before the next presidential contest have been in vain. However, there is another avenue open for him to achieve his goal. President Wickremesinghe will be left with no alternative but to dissolve Parliament if a majority of the MPs sign a resolution to that effect.

The SLPP, which Basil keeps under his thumb, has a majority in Parliament. Mustering the support of 113 SLPP MPs for dissolving Parliament, however, will not be a walk in the park for him. Some SLPP MPs who are still in the government have switched their allegiances to President Wickremesinghe. Most of the SLPP MPs are not sure of their re-election and therefore do not want a snap general election.

The SLPP and the UNP are at daggers drawn on the election issue, but their differences are not likely to develop into an open clash, which will be detrimental to the interests of both of them. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship. They are like a visually-impaired beggar carrying on his shoulders a fellow mendicant with a severe mobility impairment. The SLPP lacks vision and the UNP is politically crippled. Will they be able to work out a compromise formula over the election-related dispute?

It is difficult to get inside elusive minds. Both Basil and Ranil are given to lateral thinking and never do they hesitate to cut the Gordian knot to safeguard their interests. In an interview with Hiru TV, last week, Basil said something that could be thought to give a clue as to an alternative way out he is contemplating.

When Basil was asked by a Hiru journalist whether he did not think an early general election would clash with the next presidential election, he answered in the negative and added that it was possible even to hold both elections simultaneously. He is au fait with election laws and electoral affairs, and he would not have come out with something like that without reason. So, the question is whether the SLPP is planning to orchestrate circumstances and engineer a situation, where both elections will have to be held at the same time so that it can field a dummy candidate to run for President, and face parliamentary polls before the outcome of the presidential contest is known.

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Editorial

Reform political parties and their leaders, too

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Thursday 28th March, 2024

The government is going hell for leather to bring forth electoral reforms as if there were no tomorrow. It would have the public believe that the current electoral systems are full of flaws, which need to be rectified as a national priority if the country is to be put right and progress ushered in.

System bashing, as it were, has become the vogue in this country. Everyone is calling for a system change these days. Even those who have ruined the economy and enriched themselves at the expense of the public are doing so obviously in a bid to deflect criticism directed at them. A country doubtlessly needs robust systems in all sectors, but what Sri Lanka needs more than anything else, at the present juncture, is the restoration of the rule of law.

Former Chairman of the Election Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, at a discussion on electoral reforms, the other day, rightly pointed out that unsavoury characters must not be nominated to contest elections. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, was also present at the event. In response to Minister Rajapakshe’s criticism of the current electoral system, Deshapriya said the problem of miscreants being elected to political institutions had to be tackled at source. He argued that the political parties had to refrain from nominating malefactors. One could not agree with him more.

All political parties conduct interviews to select candidates, and, therefore, it is the party leaders who have to take responsibility for nominating political dregs to contest elections. They must sift out miscreants at that point. This will be half the battle in cleansing politics and raising the standards of political institutions, especially Parliament.

Minister Rajapakshe argued that the rogues who were rich enough to throw money around obtained the highest preferential votes at elections. This argument is not without some merit, but there have been numerous instances where moneybags could not overtake other candidates in elections.

In the 2004 parliamentary polls, several members of the JVP, which contested as a constituent of the SLFP-led UPFA, came first in districts such as Colombo, Gampaha and Kurunegala. Obviously, they fared so well in spite of being outspent by many other candidates. Dullas Alahapperuma conducts very clean and inexpensive election campaigns, which are free from polythene, posters, cutouts, etc. He has disproved the argument that the Proportional Representation system has made election campaigns extremely costly. He wins handsomely in the Matara District. Why can’t others emulate him?

There is also a campaign against the preferential vote or manape, which is made out to be a source of evil. If it is scrapped, political party leaders will be able to nominate their favourites to contest elections and enable them to enter Parliament, etc., at the expense of the popular candidates who deliver votes to their parties. It was to prevent the party leaders from resorting to such arbitrary action that the preferential vote system was introduced.

At present, people can decide who should represent them by voting for political parties of their choice first and marking their preferences for candidates. If manape is done away with, the party leaders will have unbridled discretionary power to ensure that only their favourites are returned. Given the sordid manner in which they manipulate the National List by engineering vacancies to smuggle their loyalists into Parliament, how bad the situation will be in the event of the preferential vote being abolished is not difficult to imagine.

That the preferential vote leads to election violence, especially internecine intraparty disputes, is also a big lie propagated by violent characters in the garb of politicians. The JVP has been free from preferential vote battles because its candidates put their party before self. They are worthy of emulation.

The government ought to tread cautiously when introducing electoral reforms. The mixed-member electoral system under which the last local government elections were conducted in 2018 plunged the country into chaos with the number of local councillors doubling to more than 8,000. Now, efforts are being made to change the new system!

The need, in our book, is for the political parties and their leaders to be reformed more than the electoral systems.

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Editorial

Vulpine praise for a Trojan horse?

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Wednesday 27th March, 2024

The mere sight of a notorious pickpocket usually prompts people to check for the safety of their wallets or purses even if he is not looking for prey. The SLPP-UNP government has the same reputation as a cutpurse, and therefore the public tends to view everything it does with a jaundiced eye. Its recent undertaking to introduce electoral reforms has therefore triggered howls of protests from those who cherish franchise. The Opposition has accused the government of trying to put off national elections on the pretext of introducing electoral reforms.

Government politicians are full of praise for the proposed electoral reforms, which are widely seen as a Trojan horse. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has sought to dispel doubts and suspicions in the minds of the public about the proposed electoral reforms. He has said they will not cause elections to be postponed. He may be telling the truth, but Sri Lankans usually do not believe anything until it is officially denied. So, the government will have a hard time trying to convince the public that it is not trying to postpone elections again. It ought to explain why it announced its decision to reform the parliamentary electoral system ahead of the coming presidential election.

The blame for postponing elections should be apportioned to all self-righteous members of the current Parliament as well as President Ranil Wickremesinghe. They have suppressed the people’s franchise on several occasions.

In 1975, an SLFP-led government postponed a general election by two years. It abused its two-thirds majority in Parliament for that purpose, and dealt a severe blow to democracy; resentful electors voted overwhelmingly for the UNP at the 1977 general election. President J. R. Jayewardene abused his steamroller majority in Parliament to cause a general election to disappear in 1982 by conducting a heavily-rigged referendum. He did so because he feared that he would lose his five-sixths parliamentary majority if a general election was held. Wickremesinghe was a Cabinet minister in that repressive regime.

In 2017, the UNP, the SLFP, the TNA, the SLMC, etc., voted for the Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Bill, which helped postpone the PC polls indefinitely. UNP leader Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister and SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena the President at the time. The incumbent SLPP government postponed the Local Government (LG) polls, in 2021, on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s watch. The SLPP dissidents cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for that poll postponement, for they had not broken ranks with the SLPP administration by that time. The SLPP and the UNP postponed the LG polls last year by claiming that funds could not be allocated for an electoral contest owing to the country’s pecuniary woes.

In a previous editorial comment immediately after the announcement of the government’s decision to bring in new laws to elect 160 MPs under the first-past-the-post system and 65 MPs under the Proportional Representation, we pointed out that electoral reforms could entail long-drawn-out delimitation processes. Fear that it may not be possible for a general election to be held until the conclusion of the delimitation process pertaining to the proposed electoral reforms is therefore not unfounded.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has warned of the possibility of such a situation coming about. A government that fears elections will do everything in its power to postpone them. The SLPP-UNP regime is no respecter of public opinion and has no sense of shame; it therefore does not scruple to safeguard self-interest at any cost.

If the government is serious about allaying the people’s doubts and suspicions about the proposed electoral reforms, it will have to give a legal assurance that they will not lead to poll postponements. PAFFREL Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi has rightly called for the incorporation of a specific clause into the electoral reforms draft Bill, which is said to be on the anvil, to enable the Election Commission to conduct a general election under the existing PR system in the event of the delimitation process dragging on indefinitely. Nothing else will do.

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