Parliament is making a fresh attempt to revive Sri Lanka’s ‘Open Government Partnership’ (OGP) against the backdrop of the OGP Steering Committee declaring the country as an inactive member. The OGP Steering Committee announced the designation in a resolution passed on May 10, 2024.

Sri Lanka joined the OGP in 2015 at the onset of the turbulent Yahapalana administration. Political sources said that Sri Lanka’s participation in the OGP process was in limbo as a result of successive governments’ failure to submit a National Action Plan for three consecutive years (2021 to 2023).

The 10th Parliament in early January announced the appointment of Prof. Chrishantha Abeysena (NPP) and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam (ITAK) as co-chairs of the Parliamentary Caucus for Open Parliament meant to revive Sri Lanka’s OGP.

Other members named to this Caucus were Jagath Manuwarna, Chamindrani Kiriella, Chandana Sooriyarachchi, S.M. Marrikar and Thushari Jayasinghe.

So far Sri Lanka has submitted two such action plans but weren’t able to properly implement them. Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, too, made an attempt to reach consensus on a third action plan in early last year, sources said. That bid collapsed due to the failure on the part of the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government to reach consensus with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) also working on the proposed third action plan.

Civil society organisations, including Transparency International and Sarvodaya, quit the process in February 2024 over growing differences regarding the enactment of the Online Safety Act and the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill. The CSOs informed President Wickremesinghe, in writing, of their decision to withdraw from the process.

Sources said that the whole process collapsed after the government decided that it couldn’t adhere to the conditions laid down by the OGP process. The new government, too, would face the same dilemma, sources said, pointing out that one of the key issues at hand was the move to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with new anti-terrorism law.

Justice and National Integration Minister Attorney-at-Law Harshana Nanayakkara recently declared that the new anti-terrorism law was a necessity though the government accepted the need to do away with the PTA.

The Parliamentary Caucus for Open Parliament recently decided to seek the expertise of Transparency International and Sarvodaya, co-conveners of the CSOs in the OGP process in Sri Lanka, in a bid to get an overall idea of the initiative.

The OGP is an international initiative dedicated to enhancing government transparency, facilitating citizen participation in public affairs, and reinforcing mechanisms for public accountability. With over 70-member countries, an increasing number of local governments, and thousands of civil society organisations participating, the OGP operates as a multi-stakeholder platform.

Political sources said that the NPP was very much unlikely to repeal the Online Safety Act, enacted during Wickremesinghe’s presidency.