Wednesday 19th February, 2025

Several MPs, representing both sides of the House, were at their oratorical best, defending media freedom and people’s franchise, during Monday’s parliamentary debate on the Local Government Elections (Special Provisions) Bill, which was passed. The government members lashed out at their Opposition counterparts for having postponed elections, and not to be outdone, the latter tore into the former. Prominent among the debaters were SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa and NPP MP and Leader of the House Bimal Ratnayake. Namal shed copious tears for the media, which, he said, was facing threats. Bimal accused the Opposition, especially the SLPP, of having postponed elections for political reasons.

A cursory look at the history of the self-proclaimed defenders of the media and democracy reveals glaring contradictions between their words and actions. What moral right does the SLPP have to flay others for threatening the media? The Rajapaksa rule was a nightmare for journalists; it earned notoriety for heinous crimes against the media, including arson attacks on newspaper presses and television stations and the assassination of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. A large number of journalists had to flee the country to escape death. The SLPP has no concern for the people’s franchise. It postponed the local government (LG) elections in 2022, and the following year, it helped the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe make the LG polls disappear.

The JVP seems to think all Sri Lankans have drunk from the Lethe. It has an ugly history of unleashing barbaric violence in a bid to scuttle elections. In the late 1980s, its spree of violence left dozens of voters dead, and enabled the then UNP government to make the most of the extremely low voter turnouts in elections and retain power by stuffing ballot boxes. In 2017, the JVP had no qualms about helping the UNP-led Yahapalana government postpone the Provincial Council (PC) polls by securing the passage of the controversial PC Elections (Amendment) Bill, which contained a large number of committee-stage amendments that made the proposed law materially different from the one that had been gazetted and examined by the Supreme Court. The SLPP leaders who were in the Joint Opposition during the Yahapalana government, the SLFP, the ITAK, the SLMC and all other parties represented in Parliament unflinchingly supported that Christmas Tree Bill and helped postpone the PC elections. Now, all of them are demanding that the PC polls be held!

The JVP, whose leaders launch into tirades against former President Wickremesinghe at the drop of a hat, backed him to the hilt during the Yahapalana government. They even helped him retain the premiership when President Maithripala Sirisena tried to sack him in 2018!

The SJB leaders who pontificate to others about the virtues of democracy were in the Yahapalana government, which put off the PC polls indefinitely. They will not be able to live down that black mark.

It behoves voters to assert themselves and give governments with steamroller majorities sobering knocks in the form of midterm electoral shocks to prevent the latter from succumbing to autocratic tendencies that absolute power usually breeds. Old habits die hard. A group of JVP/NPP activists resorted to strongarm tactics to disrupt a farmers’ meeting organised by the Frontline Socialist Party in Angunakolapelessa last week. A JVP activist visited a political rival and issued a veiled threat by warning the latter about the consequences of circulating anti-government posts via social media. A deputy minister tried to enter a meditation centre in Gampaha, with a group of his supporters, claiming that he had received complaints about the place. Such matters must be left to the police and the judiciary. Are we witnessing the signs of the NPP carrying out its promise to devolve judicial powers to the villages and the ruling party politicians beginning to emulate Mervyn Silva, who took the law into his own hands with impunity during the Rajapaksa rule?

It may be that there’s a sucker born every minute in this country, but not all Sri Lankans are suckers. Let the hypocrites of all political hues posing as great democrats be urged to remember that non-voters in last year’s general election numbered more than 5.3 million. There is a groundswell of anti-politics, which they must not lose sight of if they are to avert a situation where they might have to head for the hills, the way the Rajapaksas did in 2022—absit omen!

Tuesday 18th February, 2025

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies, yesterday presented his government’s maiden budget in Parliament. He said the goal of Budget 2025 was to fulfil the aspirations of the people who had voted the NPP into power, hoping for sustainable growth and development.

The NPP government’s efforts to present an election-oriented budget have partially succeeded and borne mixed results. However painful the IMF bailout conditions may be, they have made the new administration remain focused on the need to achieve economic recovery and act with some restraint, ensuring that, inter alia, its revenue will amount to at least 15% of GDP, and the primary account will have a surplus. The Economic Transformation Act (ETA) has also become a kind of straitjacket on the government. With the local government polls approaching, what the NPP administration would have done to garner favour with the public, if not for the IMF programme and the ETA constraints, is anybody’s guess. President Dissanayake has said his government intends to amend the ETA. If it is planning to lower the bar for itself, such politically-motivated action will entail adverse economic consequences.

There is no gainsaying that workers deserve better salaries. However, one wonders whether the NPP government, just like its predecessors, is labouring under the misconception that it can grant relief to the public by increasing the state sector salaries. In the late 1980s, the JVP coined a pithy slogan—kolombata kiri, gamata kekiri (‘milk for Colombo and melon for the village’)—to highlight the glaring urban bias in the allocation of state resources. Today, it looks like a case of kiri for state employees and kekiri for their private sector counterparts, who have to bear the burden of maintaining the ever-burgeoning public sector by paying high taxes. President Dissanayake lamented in Parliament that the state employees’ real income had decreased. The same holds true for the non-state workers, and other members of the public as well, but they have been left fending for themselves.

Among the budget highlights flaunted by the government is what it calls the highest-ever fund allocations for the health and education sectors. The government has undertaken to allocate Rs. 604 billion for health. The cost of social welfare (Aswesuma) will be Rs. 232.5 billion. Capital expenditure will amount to 4% of GDP. Such spending will benefit the public, but much more needs to be done to mitigate the economic hardships they are facing.

Bridging a 6.7% budget deficit will be a gargantuan task. President Dissanayake is hopeful that a 5% economic growth will be attainable in 2025. He says growth will be facilitated by a strong export sector, where the government expects the exports of goods and services to reach an all-time high of close to USD 19 billion in the current year; this growth in non-debt creating inflows along with robust economic growth and a primary account surplus of 2.3 percent of GDP will ensure that Sri Lanka will be well placed to make debt service payments from 2028 onwards.

President Dissanayake has said he expects the relaxation of restrictions on vehicle imports to deliver a bulk of the country’s revenue gains for 2025. It is fervently hoped that he is not being as optimistic as the proverbial poor man who ordered oysters for dinner hoping to settle the bill with pearls he expected to find on his plate. Some economic analysts have argued that there is the possibility of extremely high taxes, which are sure to drive automobile prices up, causing a drop in the sales of imported vehicles and preventing the government from achieving its revenue targets. How does the NPP administration propose to handle such an eventuality?

The Supreme Court determination on the Local Authorities (Special Provisions) Bill read out in Parliament on Friday makes clear that these elections, last held in 2018, due in 2022 and postponed thereafter on various pretexts must be held in the coming weeks. But the question is when? The opposition urges that they be held after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year holidays are over. They argue that with the president, as finance minister, due to present his first budget which is expected to be voter friendly on Monday and the budget debate will take much of March.

The majority judgment held that the Bill must be passed by a two thirds majority which the present regime holds and has not required a referendum so there will be no legislative challenge. The matter of fixing the election dates is for the Independent Elections Commission and the government should have no say in the matter. Nominations for these elections were called and a polling date fixed in 2023 post aragalaya after President Ranil Wickremesinghe had assumed office. Deposits were paid and nominations received. But the elections were not held on the grounds that the government had no money to fund them. The courts ordered that they be held “as soon as possible.”

Some candidates for that election had entered parliament. Others have emigrated and some have died. There is an obvious need for the refund of deposits and call fresh nominations before polling which the Bill provides for. The question therefore will be in the timing of the election. Certainly it cannot be held before the budget. The present regime is very well aware that the election will be an acid test after its heady election victory and will be intent on demonstrating that it remains popular. The opposition will be determined to regain lost ground. How will events pan out? That is the million dollar question.

Gifting sight to the sightless

At the World Governance Summit hosted by the United Arab Emirates a few days ago, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made a reference to a subject generally taken for granted by most Lankans and no longer accorded the importance or merit it deserves. This relates to the fact that Sri Lanka is the world leader for eye donations – the gifting of human corneas from those no longer living to the sightless or persons with reduced vision. The president said in his speech that anybody using a smart phone could instantly verify this fact for him or herself. The latest figure at 94,959 corneas sent abroad exceeds the 80,000 stated in the Internet. These eyes have been sent to as many as 114 cities in 57 countries since the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Eye Donation Society was founded in 1961 by the late Deshabandu Dr. Hudson Silva. This vast endeavor of gifting sight to the sightless has benefited over 58,000 people locally and also enabled 40,000 plus corneas being made available for research.

In his speech, the president said that the fact that this country is the world leader in overseas eye donations is ample demonstration that we are a warmhearted people, a quality that can win us friends globally. No doubt the Buddhist ethic that permeates this dharmadweepa is surely a factor that has influenced the gifting of eyes by those who no longer have use of them; and corneal grafting is now commonplace in ophthalmology. Dr. Hudson Silva’s was a household name from the 1960s onward when he enthused the nation to participate in this meritorious practice and set up the infrastructure to do so so. But, sadly, he is no longer remembered as well as he should. However, the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society which later extended its work by setting up a human tissue bank in addition to its original eye bank remains a lasting monument to a truly remarkable man.

As a medical student in 1957, Hudson Silva was inspired by the vision of transplanting corneas from the eyes of those no longer alive to those in need of them. He told his mother to donate his eyes when he was no more. She responded that she was likely to die before him and to make sure that her eyes are donated. From this tiny acorn a mighty oak grew and today the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society performs a tremendous service free of charge. It attracted support from the Government of Sri Lanka and various other benefactors at home and abroad and today owns an impressive headquarters building at a prime location in Colombo. At the beginning the society collected the corneas of people without custodians in government hospitals, homes for the aged and executed prisoners. It carries in its books the names and addresses of over 22 million people who wishes their eyes to give sight to another after their deaths.

It should be known that a human cornea should be removed within four hours of a death to be of future use. The eyeball can be preserved in ice for 24 hours and thereafter for 14 days after the cornea is separated from the eyeball and preserved in a special fluid. The society has over 250 branches with trained technicians to remove eyeballs so that its coverage is almost island-wide. The late Dr. Hudson Silva who captured national headlines calling the government health department “a sick giant” when he was in government service had brilliant public relations skills and media savvy for his time so that the story of what little Sri Lanka was doing in this field was carried the world-over by the international press. Thus it is gratifying that a short excerpt of a speech that the president made at a global summit has once again attracted attention both nationally and intentionally to what Sri Lanka is doing in the area of giving sight to the sightless.