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.

We do not apologize for running several articles in this week’s issue of our newspaper on the bus tragedy at Garandi Ella last week that took 23 lives and left many more injured. The survivors included a baby girl who early reports said had been protected by her mother, shielding her against the pre-dawn cold, with her own body before rescuers reached her. This was corrected with later reports clarifying that it was not the baby’s mother, but a fellow-passenger on the bus, who was responsible for this act of kindness despite suffering a dislocated shoulder herself. The scale of the latest tragedy obviously merits the most intensive coverage and, more importantly, preventive action to ensure that road fatalities that occur with frightening regularity on our roads are reduced to the barest minimum.

The articles we run today range from a deeply researched piece, replete with facts and figures over a period of many years, by an Irishman, Michael Patrick O’Leary, who has been living here with his Lankan wife since 2002. The couple, coincidentally, lived not far from the scene of a similar accident when a privately-owned bus crashed into a canyon near Passara on the Bandarawela-Poonagala Road killing 10 and injuring 18. The writer says the driver has been speeding without regard for the terrain and foggy weather, A 16-year old girl due to sit her ‘O’ Levels that December was one of the victims. The second, a letter to the editor by a regular contributor who began his working life in the then CTB, a third from an engineering don from the Peradeniya University and a final piece from a retired public servant who says he’s no engineer but has long experience driving and riding vehicles.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reacted quickly to the accident by ordering the payment of a million rupees each to the families of the victims. There is no need to labour the fact that the payment of any amount of monetary compensation will not recompense lives taken away. But given current challenges of living all citizen bear, they provide some relief. The CTB itself has some of its own methods of compensation which will be payable over and above the relief ordered by the president. We do not know if insurance cover for risks taken by passengers on SLTB and private buses exist. If not, some such compulsory arrangements like those covering third party risks that owners of motor vehicles must take before driving on the roads is required. But, of course, the bottom line is all such charges will eventually be included in the fares that passengers pay public transport providers.

We Lankans must live with the reality that there will be no quick fix to the present road safety problems that have been gaining momentum in recent years. Not a day passes without details of road accident being reported on evening television news bulletins and the print media the following day. Remedial action is promised, most so when a major disaster such as last week’s occur, and numerous investigative and other committees are appointed to examine ways and means of future prevention. Little results thereafter both for lack of political and bureaucratic will and resource constraints. How often do we hear promises of banishing unprotected road-rail crossing until the next accident occurs at such crossings?

The acting IGP has appointed five-member committee chaired by a Senior DIG to investigate the incident. This committee has already visited the scene of the disaster and begun what has been officially described as a “comprehensive inquiry” covering all aspects of the accident aimed at identifying key contributing factors with a view to enforcing preventive measures. We’ve already been on that route before after previous disasters without any noteworthy remedies resulting. Then comes the next accident with consequent pontification and the merry merry-go-round begins rolling all over again.

Although the driver of the death bus survived the accident itself, he had not lived long thereafter. Whether any useful information, including any possible mechanical defect on the vehicle had been obtained or not we do not know. Apparently the conductor is alive but whether he will be able to say more than surviving passengers is questionable. Yet it has long been alleged that policemen, including senior officers. run private buses. If this is in fact true, it would explain why police checks on such vehicles, many of them driving like bats out of hell to reach the next bus halt before their competitors, are not as stringent as desired.

The anecdotal evidence strongly point towards possible driver fatigue being a cause for the recent accident. Whether this factor is taken into account when drivers are assigned long distance routes is a matter requiring urgent attention. Experienced drivers with good track records are obviously not dime a dozen and depot administrators must contend with their scarcity. There is no doubt that the country is burdened with an aging public transport fleet. It is well known that many of our buses are mounted on lorry chassis. Whether this compromises their safety is a matter needing investigation.

Other factors requiring investigation is whether the physical demands of the job tend to make particularly long distance drivers dependent on intoxicants including betel chewing to handle their demanding jobs. Are they tempted by overtime and other incentives to accept responsibilities they may not be able to bear physically?

Saturday 17th May, 2025

Leaders of the Opposition political parties are scheduled to meet today to discuss how to secure control of the local councils where they have obtained more seats than the ruling NPP. Today’s meeting is to be chaired by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. Most Opposition parties have agreed in principle to form joint administrations in the hung councils, we are told. The NPP has been in overdrive to rally enough members to muster majorities in those councils. Horse-trading has become the order of the day.

Some NPP stalwarts have even approached the constituents of the SJB-led coalition in their efforts to form majorities in the hung councils, according to media reports. Leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance Mano Ganeshan has said the NPP sought his support to gain control of some of the hung councils, but he turned down its request as a matter of principle. This shows how hard the government and the Opposition are trying to control the non-majority local councils.

The hung councils will continue to be in chaos whichever side gains control of them. Even if the NPP succeeds in raising majorities in those councils by winning over Opposition members or independent councillors, they may not be stable; there is no guarantee that defectors will not vote with their feet again, leaving the NPP without working majorities. A similar situation is likely to occur in the event of the SJB and other Opposition parties closing ranks to control the hung councils. All political institutions have earned notoriety for mass crossovers. The SLFP-led People’s Alliance collapsed during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s presidency, in 2001, due to mass crossovers. It was also mass defections from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s UPFA government that led to the 2015 regime change.

The question is why President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the leader of the NPP, and Opposition and SJB leader Premadasa have not met to discuss ways and means of navigating the hung councils out of the current imbroglio and making them fully functional for the benefit of the public. There is no reason why these two leaders who wrap themselves in the flag cannot sink their political differences and find a solution for the sake of the country.

The outcome of the recent LG polls indicates a growing public disillusionment with the government and the Opposition, albeit to varying degrees. Both the NPP and the SJB declared before the mini polls that they would never opt for joint administrations in local councils, but they have made about-turns, making a mockery of their pledges to the public.

The President and the Opposition leader should be able to negotiate, make compromises and adopt a workable solution to prevent chaos in the hung councils. It is incumbent upon them to bring order out of chaos at the grassroots level and ensure that the people’s interests are served.