A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Uniformity in governance is important for development
In his speech inaugurating the first session of parliament after his
election, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa recommitted himself to the
development of the country. He said, "I, together with my government,
stand committed to honour the trust of the people and implement the
programme of developing a prosperous nation that we promised to them."
Along with the safeguarding of national security, the need for fast
tracking of the development process would be a primary concern of the
general population. Both national security and even development became
compromised during the last year of the previous government. The Easter
Sunday bomb attacks were a shocking indicator how national security had
become lax. The devastation of the bomb attacks which made headlines
throughout the world was a body blow to the country’s development as
tourists and investors alike began to keep away.
Although the first month of the new government has had many positive
features to it, these have been mostly at the symbolic level, such as
the surprise visits the President has been paying to government
institutions to exhort them to perform their duties. But on the ground
not much has changed. Prices of essential commodities such as basic
vegetable and pulses have been increasing significantly which has caused
problems to consumers with less income. The government has also
announced that major development projects will need to be put on hold
until the latter part of the year due to financial constraints. In view
of the governmental shortfall, the private sector which can make the
difference between having investments and no investments can pay an
important role to boost the development process. But they need to feel
confident that the government has a consistent legal and policy
framework in place before they sink in large investment funds.
Unfortunately some of the government’s recent actions will not inspire
confidence that the government is focused on implementing consistent
policies. Instead it is giving the impression that it is tailoring
policies to fit a political agenda, most likely the forthcoming general
elections that the President has stated can be held as early as April.
Indeed, to most politicians nothing would be more important than winning
their seats at the elections, and also ensuring that their side wins
the election with a maximum number of seats. They would therefore tend
to engage in actions that have short term gains in mind even at the cost
of the country’s long term future. This would be contrary to the vision
of President Rajapaksa who has already secured his election and now
seeks to transform Sri Lanka’s polity to take it to the next level of
development. e
DEVELOPMENT DISINCENTIVES
There are several negative actions currently taking place that could
potentially detract from the positive motivations of the government in
seeking to enhance national security and promote development. The first
is that when the government is seen to act by targeting its political
opponents, it creates an impression that the government is no different
from the governments that came before and also targeted their political
opponents by bending the laws. If the government is seen to be having a
cavalier disregard of the law this will create a disincentive to those
who might wish to invest their goodwill and economic resources in
promoting Sri Lanka’s development process. The president’s vision of
rapid economic development as the solution to the country’s problems,
including its ethnic conflict, will become more difficult to achieve
under these circumstances.
Although the recent arrests of leading members of the opposition UNP are
being justified as law and order measures, they come across as being
targeted measures to weaken the main opposition party in the run up to
the general elections. The common factor behind the arrests of former
Ministers Champika Ranawake, Rajitha Senaratne and Ranjan Ramanayake is
that they were in the front line of campaigning for the UNP at the
presidential election and are among the best public speakers that the
party has. The second common factor is that the charges levelled against
them, for which they have been arrested, are relatively small as
compared to the alleged crimes of others in both the government and
opposition against whom charges are not being pursued with the same
degree of interest.
The charge against former minister Ranawake concerns a matter that was
dealt with legally and in court over three years ago. It involved a
vehicle accident in which a racing motorbike hit his official vehicle
from behind on a regular road that such racing motorbikes are banned
from travelling on. The charge against former minister Senaratne is that
he organized a media conference where two persons testified that they
had driven vehicles that abducted and killed people and also engaged
illegally with the LTTE. The charge against former minister Ramanayake
is the most trivial of all, and is that he had not renewed the license
of the firearm provided to him by the government for his protection.
During the search of his house, the police had also discovered several
tapes of conversations with police officers in regard of corruption
issues members of the present government were allegedly involved in when
they formed the government prior to 2015.
PARTISAN POLITICS
In his speech at the inauguration of the new term of parliament, the
president said, "The success of a democracy rests upon the Constitution.
The 1978 Constitution, which has since been amended on 19 occasions,
has given rise to many problems at the present time because of its
inherent ambiguities and confusions…We can solve this problem through
constitutional reforms that will establish a strong executive,
legislature and an independent judiciary that can ensure the sovereignty
of the people." Unfortunately, the constitutional amendments that have
been proposed are only likely to achieve the reverse. One of them seeks
to replace the 19th Amendment of 2015 that was explicitly designed to
give more independence from political interference to the judiciary,
public service and police, among the state institutions.
The second constitutional amendment being proposed is to replace or
amend the 15th Amendment of 1988 which reduced the minimum cut-off point
for political parties to obtain representation in parliament from 12.5
percent to 5 percent in an electoral district. This reduction in the
threshold number of voters that a political party needed to obtain to
gain seats in parliament permitted a greater inclusiveness for ethnic,
religious and ideologically based minorities. One of the important
beneficiaries of this constitutional amendment has been the JVP, which
has a strong countrywide presence, but their vote base hovers between
5-10 percent at the district level.
On the other hand, increasing the cut-off point to 12.5 percent will
significantly reduce the numbers of ethnic, religious and ideological
minorities from gaining access to parliament. It might make the JVP not
get a single seat at all. Tamil and Muslim politicians outside of the
North and East, and especially the recent Indian-origin Tamil people,
might not be able to get seats either. It will increase the
representation of the big parties at the expense of the smaller ones.
Instead of making their arguments democratically and non-violently in
parliament, these minorities will be forced to go outside of parliament,
to the streets or underground, which is a recipe for violent
contestation.
On the occasion of his inauguration in Anuradhapura, where the earliest
battles to preserve the country’s unity were fought, President Rajapaksa
made a poignant speech. He said he had won the presidential election on
the votes of the Sinhalese majority. He expressed his disappointment
that the ethnic and religious minorities had not voted for him to the
extent he had hoped. But he promised to be the President of all Sri
Lankans, including those who had not voted for him. Due to his election
victory in November 2019, the president enjoys a significant moral and
political power. It ought to be his destiny to lead Sri Lanka on the
right path instead of permitting partisan politics to lead the country
astray, as it led his predecessors astray.