Wednesday 16th October, 2024

The JVP/NPP government has made a mockery of its much-advertised commitment to upholding transparency by keeping two probe committee reports on the Easter Sunday terror attacks under wraps. While the JVP/NPP leaders were in the Opposition, they were among those who demanded that the findings of presidential commissions and committees that investigated the Easter Sunday carnage be made public and legal action taken expeditiously based on them in a transparent manner. That demand struck a responsive chord with the public. But the JVP/NPP bigwigs are now humming a different tune!

Sri Lankan Presidents earned notoriety for ‘swallowing’ commission/committee reports, as it were. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has failed to be different.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed two committees to probe issues pertaining to the Easter Sunday carnage. The committee, headed by former Justice S. A. Imam, was tasked with investigating some allegations Channel-4 (UK) made against Sri Lanka’s military intelligence, and the other, chaired by A. N. J. de Alwis, was assigned to probe the conduct of the State Intelligence Service, the Chief of National Intelligence, and other relevant authorities. The committees handed over their reports to President Wickremesinghe, but those documents have since been shelved.

On Monday, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader Udaya Gammanpila issued an ultimatum to Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath, asking the latter to make public the aforesaid committee reports fast; he undertook to ensure that they would be in the public domain unless the government released them before 21 Oct. Instead of releasing the reports, Minister Herath threw a counterchallenge to Gammanpila yesterday; he dared the latter to make the reports public in three days, and went on to claim that it was a transgression to be in possession of such documents. One can only hope that the government will not place a legal obstacle to Gammanpila’s move to release the vital documents.

As for Minister Herath’s counterchallenge to Gammanpila, the government is making an issue of a non-issue in a bid to muddy the water and distract the public. It is absurd that Herath has asked Gammanpila to release the reports at issue; that is something he himself should have done immediately after being sworn in as the Minister of Public Security in keeping with the NPP’s election promise to uphold transparency. The JVP/NPP seems to have taken a leaf out of the UNP’s book on how to shelve commission/committee reports.

One may recall that the UNP-led Yahapalana government, which the JVP backed to the hilt, did something similar in 2015. It prevented the presentation of the first COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the Treasury bond scams to Parliament. President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved Parliament before the report was tabled in the House. The JVP continued to honeymoon with the UNP-led administration despite that mega racket.

Minister Herath has said an investigation is underway to find out whether any pages in the two committee reports are missing. That is something even a schoolchild can figure out easily, and there is no need for an investigation. Besides, the chairpersons of the two probe committees, former Secretary to the President, and the Attorney General must be having copies of the reports. So, the inordinate delay in releasing those documents is unpardonable.

Now that Minister Herath has made it clear that the government will not make the two committee reports public, it is up to Gammanpila to release them online without further delay in keeping with his pledge.

Why is the NPP government wary of releasing the two committee reports at issue? Are we to conclude that the findings of the probe committees run counter to the NPP’s claims about the Easter Sunday terror attacks? Whatever the reason for the government’s hesitancy may be, the people’s right to information must be respected and transparency upheld.

Tuesday 15th October, 2024

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the NPP candidates contesting the upcoming general election some home truths, at a meeting, over the weekend. Reminding them of the fate that had befallen the Rajapaksa regimes in 2015 and 2022, he said both President Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had mustered two-thirds majorities in Parliament after winning general elections in 2010 and 2020, respectively, but they had become hugely unpopular soon afterwards and failed to retain power. Therefore, a government had to be concerned not only about its numerical strength but also about the quality of its MPs, he said, stressing the need to cleanse the legislature, bring about a new political culture and restore public faith in the parliamentary process. One cannot but agree with him.

President Dissanayake also exhibited a touch of schadenfreude or perverse pleasure when he spoke of the plight of the contenders he had beaten in last month’s presidential contest. He said all that they could do now was to try to form a strong Opposition. He should not be so exultant at the plight of the Opposition; in this country, a strong Opposition is always good for the political health of a government in power, paradoxical as it may sound.

Sri Lankan political leaders have earned notoriety for letting power get the better of them when they do not see the Opposition in their rearview mirrors. All governments that obtained steamroller majorities abused them to their heart’s content and ruined the country as well as their electoral prospects. The SLFP-led United Front government extended the term of Parliament by two years, in 1975, with the help of its two-thirds majority, and suffered a crushing defeat in the general election that followed. The UNP, which obtained a five-sixths majority in Parliament in 1977, debilitated democracy as never before and plunged the country into a bloodbath. The SLFP-led UPFA government under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency abused its two-thirds majority in every conceivable manner from 2010 to 2015. The two-thirds majority of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government also became a curse for the country. Hence the need for a robust Opposition to act as an effective countervailing force against any government.

There is no guarantee that the NPP leaders will not take leave of their senses, like their predecessors, in case of being able to secure a huge parliamentary majority next month. It is popularly said in this country that when one has power, one has no brains and when one has brains one has no power—’bale thiyanakota mole ne, mole thiyankota bale ne’. Some NPP heavyweights are already exuding arrogance as evident from their rhetoric and bragging.

What propelled the JVP/NPP to power was a rogue wave of anti-politics, which rose owing to the people’s distrust in traditional politics and political institutions including Parliament. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2019, when pent-up public resentment found expression in a massive protest vote which benefited the SLPP.

There is a tide in the affairs of political parties as in people’s lives; when it is taken at the flood, it leads on to fortune, as Brutus says in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. ‘Taking the current when it serves’ is the name of the game in politics, but it could be a risky venture, and one should not lose sight of the fact that Brutus, who utters those memorable words, runs on his own sword. Gotabaya, who took the tide at the flood in 2019 had to hightail it to escape from a fearsome mob in close pursuit. As for the NPP, only its National List nominee Sugath Thilakaratne may be safe in case of an uprising, for he is a former champion runner.

The JVP/NPP let the genie of anti-politics out of the bottle in 2022, when it hijacked a people’s protest campaign and tried to march on Parliament. The police and the military succeeded in holding mobs at bay, and saving democracy. President Ranil Wickremesinghe managed to keep the situation under control thereafter although his modus operandi attracted much criticism. The genie is still at large. This is a cause for serious concern.

When the Gotabaya government failed, there was a formidable democratic alternative, and the country therefore did not descend into anarchy. Today, the mainstream Opposition is in disarray. If the JVP/NPP administration fails to fulfil its pledges, undertakes disastrous experiments on the economic front and makes the economy nosedive, causing unbearable hardships to the public, it will be hoist with its own petard; it will become a victim of the very forces it unleashed to capture state power.

If another popular uprising ever occurs—absit omen—it will be far worse than the first one, like the second wave of the Boxing Day tsunami. Would there be a democratic alternative to the NPP in such an eventuality?

Sri Lankan democracy has rocked and swayed on numerous occasions but retained its balance like a Logan Stone. However, whether it will be able to absorb the shock of another uprising is the question. There is a pressing need for the Sri Lankan political leaders as well as the public to act responsibly, learning from the experience of the countries such Pakistan and Bangladesh, where anti-political movements led to interruptions in the civilian rule.

Monday 14th October, 2024

The Ministry of Public Security has reportedly asked the police to pull their socks up. It has instructed Acting IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya to expedite some high-profile investigations that have been dragging on for years. Specific mention has been made of the delayed probes into the Easter Sunday terror attacks (2019), the Treasury bond scams (2015), the murder of journalist Dharmaratnam Sivaram or Taraki, which was his nom de plume coined by The Island (April 2005), the disappearance of Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan in Jaffna (2011), the killing of a police constable in Weligama (2023), the death of businessman Dinesh Schaffter (2022), and the disappearance of former Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Raveendranath (2006).

The Public Security Ministry’s order that the aforesaid probes be sped up is a step in the right direction although there are many other unsolved crimes in this country. Those who murdered Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and famous rugby player Wassim Thajudeen have not been made to pay for their crimes. It is hoped that the CID, which is known for its selective efficiency, will get cracking. Better late than never.

Investigations into the aforementioned crimes would perhaps have been in abeyance indefinitely but for last month’s regime change. Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake deserve praise for their intervention, which will hopefully jolt the police into action. However, we are afraid that they have been remiss in their duties; they should have ordered a high-level probe into the execution of JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera while he was in custody in 1989.

The JVP commemorates its slain leader on 13 November. His death anniversary will fall on the eve of the next general election (14 Nov.), which the JVP-led NPP is in overdrive to win in a bid to consolidate its victory in the presidential race. The JVP may not be able to hold its annual ‘November Heroes’ commemoration during the mandatory ‘quiet period’ prior to the upcoming general election. But the NPP, which is the JVP in all but name, can order an investigation into Wijeweera’s execution and ensure that it will be conducted to a conclusion expeditiously.

The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), a JVP off-shoot, has revealed the identity of the army officer who shot Wijeweera and had him burnt while he was still alive. Having named the killer, the FSP claimed that he was backing the NPP, which vehemently denied the allegation. The JVP however has not disputed the FSP’s assertion that the officer concerned is Wijeweera’s killer.

Thus, it will not be difficult for the JVP to bring the killer of its beloved leader to justice, and trace others who were complicit in his execution. Similarly, the JVP, which is now in power, is duty to bound to order investigations into the torture chambers where thousands of its cadres and other youth were brutally murdered in the late 1980s. While it was in the Opposition, the JVP demanded probes into the Batalanda torture chamber, the K-Point in Matara, etc.

There are survivors of torture, and one of them, Rohitha Munasinghe, has authored a book, Eliyakanda Torture Camp: K-Point, which sheds lurid light on how suspects were made to go through hell before being executed. (A review of this book appeared in The Island, under the title, ‘Ghosts of Eliyakanda’ on 17 Nov., 2017.) Munasinghe has revealed the names of some of the torturers.

In Nov., 2017, JVP heavyweight Lal Kantha called for an investigation into a spate of savage attacks on protests against the Indo-Lanka Accord and the execution of JVP leader Wijeweera in the late 1980s. Why this call has not been renewed is the question.

Wijeweera’s prophetic words that one day a JVP member would rule Sri Lanka have gone viral on social media. At the time of his tragic end, the JVP leader must have wished that his party would not let his killers go unpunished.

Maybe the JVP does not want to open a can of worms by ordering probes into brutal counterterror operations in the late 1980s, but it can order a thorough investigation into its founder’s execution. Unless it does so, it will have a hard time trying to convince the public that it is serious about having justice served for others.