Monday 9th March, 2026

The JVP-NPP government came to power, promising to play a messianic role and cleanse Sri Lankan politics, but a dirty coal procurement deal has blackened its reputation. Its leaders and propagandists are unashamedly trying to obfuscate the issue of procuring low-quality coal and causing huge losses to the ailing economy. They have made a fresh attempt to muddy the water by asking for further testing of the low-grade coal, which has already caused a loss of about Rs. 9 billion to the state coffers. It has now been proved beyond any doubt that the South African coal procured from an Indian supplier, Trident Chemphar Ltd., is substandard, and the government manipulated and delayed the tender process to enable Trident to secure the coal tender. But no heads have rolled.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption has recently indicted Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody before the Colombo High Court for corruption, accusing him of having caused a loss of over Rs 8.8 million to the state by allowing a private company to make undue financial profits, when he was in the Fertiliser Company. The Opposition has told Parliament that there are allegations of money laundering against a top official of the coal supplying company, and the local agent of the outfit is facing an International Cricket Council ban for malpractices. It has therefore blamed the coal racket on an unholy alliance.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), in a report on the Lakvijaya Power Plant (LVPP) performance and financial impact of the use of the newly procured coal, has revealed that the plant cannot produce power at its full generation capacity using the coal supplied by Trident. A graph in the PUCSL report shows that LVPP output rose to 300 MW when the Russian coal procured from the previous supplier was used, but it dropped significantly when the South African coal supplied by Trident was burnt. It is not possible to use more coal per hour to meet the generation shortfall as the limit set by the plant manufacturer is 110MT per hour, the PUCSL has said.

The PUCSL has confirmed excessive steam temperature levels, several times higher than the prescribed limits, due to the burning of coal procured from Trident. It has also revealed that the coal supplied by Trident has caused the fly ash discharge to increase by 102 percent. If the problem persists, it could damage the LVPP turbine besides resulting in excessive corrosive wear and overheating of the equipment in the boiler system, according to the PUCSL.

Warning of possible power cuts due to the use of inferior quality coal affecting generation capacity of LVPP, the PUCSL has said the risk to the continuous electricity supply was assessed based on the peak demand forecast submitted by the Ceylon Electricity Board for 2026. According to the PUCSL report, the analysis assumed that hydropower plants could contribute up to 1,300 MW to meet the night peak demand while LVPP could contribute only up to 690 MW due to a capacity shortfall, assuming about a 40 MW generation capacity reduction from each unit.

The SLPP-UNP government earned notoriety for bribery, corruption and waste. The JVP/NPP used that corrupt regime as a foil to market what it made out to be its commitment to upholding accountability and ushering in good governance to secure a popular mandate to rule the country. The least the JVP-NPP government can do to salvage its good governance credentials, if at all, is to remove Minister Jayakody from the Cabinet forthwith, cancel the coal tender, and institute legal action against the culprits. If it continues to defend him and keeps on trying to cover up the coal scandal, it will only bolster its critics’ claim that the JVP and the NPP have benefited from the mega coal racket, the way the UNP gained from the Treasury bond scams in 2015.

The SLPP-UNP government defended its Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella when he was exposed for a pharmaceutical scandal. But it allowed him to be arrested and remanded when it became too embarrassing for it to shield him. But the JVP-NPP government continues to defend Jayakody, making a mockery of its much-advertised commitment to good governance.

The Sri Lanka Navy, on Thursday night, brought ashore 204 crew members of the IRIS Bushehr, another Iranian naval vessel facing the danger of a possible US torpedo attack. They were rushed to the Navy’s Welisara camp, and the ship was taken to the Trincomalee Harbour. The crew of the ship consists of 53 officers, 54 cadet officers, 48 senior ratings, and 23 junior sailors. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake hurriedly summoned a media briefing, on Thursday night itself, to announce the successful completion of the rescue mission. He and his government deserve praise for their intervention to save the Iranian ship and its crew. Kudos to them.

However, it is being argued in some quarters that if the Sri Lankan government had stopped dilly-dallying and plucked up the courage to grasp the nettle on Wednesday, when the Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, sought refuge in Sri Lankan waters while being pursued by a US submarine, the distressed vessel and the lives of all its crew members could have been saved. The US attack killed more than 100 sailors; there were only about 35 survivors, who were rescued by the Sri Lanka Navy and Air Force. The Opposition told Parliament on Thursday that the ill-fated vessel had been kept waiting for 11 hours since it first asked for permission to enter Sri Lankan waters.

There are numerous claims and counterclaims about the sinking of the IRIS Dena, and a probe must be conducted into the incident and the allegations that its request for permission to reach the Galle Harbour had gone unheeded. Much is now known about the tragic incident as well as its aftermath, but the circumstances that led to it lack clarity. Hence, we repeat, the need for a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it.

The general consensus is that it was India’s responsibility to ensure the safety of the IRIS Dena, which had taken part in a naval exercise, as one of its guests. Instead, the vessel found itself in a situation where it was left with no alternative but to set sail, endangering itself and its crew. There is reason to believe that India could have leveraged its influence over Washington, as a Quad member, to prevent a submarine attack in the Indian Ocean, and that Colombo should have actively sought India’s intervention to save the ship and its crew.

The US torpedo attack has left India red-faced as a self-appointed guardian of the Indian Ocean. The thinking in regional defence circles is that the US nuclear sub that carried out Wednesday’s attack, blindsided India, which takes pride in being a strategic partner of Washington. India, which jealously guards its maritime backyard and even pressures Sri Lanka to deny permission for Chinese research vessels to operate there, could not save its Iranian guest in the same zone. Nothing could be more ironic than the fact that, according to media reports, anti-submarine warfare drills were part of the recent naval exercise hosted by India with Iran, the US and others as guests.

It is possible that the diplomatic fallout from Wednesday’s cowardly torpedo attack, international opprobrium over the massacre at sea, India’s humiliation as one of the strategic allies of the US, etc., compelled the Pentagon to spare the second Iranian vessel in its crosshairs in India’s backyard and let Sri Lanka carry out Thursday night’s rescue operation, which the NPP government is crowing about.

It is incumbent upon India and other nations in the region to join forces to preserve peace in the Indian Ocean vis-à-vis emerging threats. Sri Lanka’s policy ought to be that all vessels, including naval ships on non-combat missions, which are either in distress or seeking port calls for other reasons, can enter its territorial waters with permission. The need for competent political leaders and diplomats, capable of helping the country navigate sensitive issues, avoiding torpedoes, cannot be overstated.

Saturday 7th March, 2026

Parliament yesterday voted to extend the State of Emergency, with 108 ayes and eight nays. Most of the Opposition MPs were not present in the House, as usual. Such is their dedication to the discharge of their legislative duties. The same goes for the government MPs who were absent. The government and the Opposition are making a strong case, albeit unwittingly, for doing away with the MPs’ attendance allowance.

The Opposition has rightly decried the extension of the State of Emergency, calling it a threat to democracy and the people’s rights and freedoms. The government has sought to rubbish this argument. Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya has asked the Opposition to back its claim with facts, daring it to furnish information about any individuals who may have been unfairly arrested or subjected to repression under the emergency regulations during the past three months. The President and other ruling party leaders continue to face strong criticism from the media, yet the government has taken no action to suppress press freedom, she has said. What guarantee is there that the government will not abuse the Emergency regulations if push comes to shove? After all, Deputy Minister of Public Security Sunil Watagala once directed the police to use the Emergency regulations to deal with those responsible for propaganda attacks on government politicians. Perhaps, what prevented the police from carrying out his order was the political backlash that sent the government reeling. JVP/NPP politicians are being exposed for corrupt deals, much to the detriment of the interests of the JVP/NPP, and therefore the possibility of the emergency regulations being abused to suppress the media institutions that the government has no control over cannot be ruled out.

There are compelling arguments against Emergency regulations. Even laymen are aware that they undermine fundamental rights and freedoms, weaken the rule of law, reduce parliamentary oversight, help silence dissent, create a climate of fear, lend themselves to abuse due to vague provisions, lead to human rights violations, and normalise suppression. In a country like Sri Lanka, which has witnessed the abuse of even ordinary laws and regulations under successive governments, a state of Emergency is as dangerous as a straight razor in the hands of a mad monkey, as a local saying goes.

Power not only corrupts but also has the ability to transform Jekylls into Hydes. When politicians savour it, their love for democracy, justice and fair play flies out of the window. Hence the most vociferous campaigners for democracy in the Opposition demonstrate their dictatorial tendencies upon being voted into power. This, we have seen during the last several decades. The UNP leaders who came to power in 1977, promising to uphold democracy and create a righteous society, suppressed democracy in every conceivable manner and institutionalised election malpractices, political violence and corruption. The SLFP-led People’s Alliance, which sought a mandate to govern the country, pledged to eliminate corruption and state terror, but ended up being a metaphor for corruption and political violence, after being ensconced in power. Mahinda Rajapaksa was an internationally known campaigner for democracy and human rights when he was an Opposition MP, but after his elevation to the presidency, his government practised the very antithesis of what he had preached during his Opposition days. Now, we have the JVP/NPP leaders extending Emergency regulations on some flimsy pretext, unashamedly defending their decision to do so.

There is no justifiable reason for the government to keep on extending the State of Emergency, which was declared in the aftermath of the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah about three months ago. The fact that the Opposition asked the government to do so is no reason why the country should be kept under a state of emergency rule indefinitely.

By extending the state of emergency, the JVP-NPP government has laid bare its true face. So much for its solemn pledge to ensure a radical departure from the rotten political culture, and strengthen democracy.