Ceylon Today Editorial

OF CHRISTMAS AND POLITICS

25 December 2016

How vastly different is the socio-political significance of tyranny from the socio-political significance of the birth of Jesus Christ. Radical Christians describe the correlation between life and the significance of Christ's birth as being 'born again' or entering into a new life. Its corresponding truth in Buddhism, the majority religion in this country would be death to self and the entry into mindfulness. That mindfulness would ideally encompass that state of being conscious of and sensitive to the rights and aspirations of others.

The Christ whose birth is celebrated today and with good reason one might add, said that unless man dies to self he cannot enter into life in all of its reality.

But what is life and what is reality? Furthermore, might we ask what is the meaning and value of life within any given socio-political reality such as that's obtaining in Sri Lanka today? It would seem to be an opportune day to reflect on this question. What is the reality in the lives of all people of all races and religions in the country? Undeniably, the Buddhist is perhaps the happiest and the least under any perceived 'siege' from those professing other religions in this country. It's also undeniable that powerful Buddhist political forces continue to stoke sentiments of religious and racial supremacy.

That this traduces the very spirit of Ahimsa that these political leaders and movements subscribe to seems to not matter to them in the least. But 'Ahimsa' one might ask? The simple, albeit simplistic answer is that any shadow of supremacy in itself tells others that they are inferior, of lower birth and religious belief, that 'theirs' is inferior and deserving of being reviled, ridiculed, ostracized and even physically attacked. Can what is enjoyed by the Buddhists be said in all honesty is also being enjoyed by the Hindus, Muslims and Christians? Obviously the short answer is 'NO'. But why? We all know the reason for that, as the Christ put it "out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh".

This is where there is immense socio-political relevance in not only the birth of Christ but in His teachings as well. His basic teaching in the political realm was "Put away your swords, turn them into ploughshares and pitchforks". In other words, convert your hatred and vengeance into something that produces life for everyone who eats the produce of your ploughshares and pitchforks.

The Roman conqueror, Pontius Pilate, the man who was imposing Roman supremacy, said he saw no "evil in it". It's interesting that it was not the foreign invader, the Roman, that crucified Christ, but his own people who rejected what might have been the first discourse on Yahapalanaya ever preached in a manner that still did not revile the invader but urged all concerned to turn the torch inwards.

And that brings us to the politicians in this country, to those who discuss, vituperatively, the law and governance and politics and the Constitution, reconciliation and regeneration and to ask ourselves whether, as Pilate said of Christ and his teachings, we "see any sin" in Yahapalanaya or whether the sin is in the opponents of Yahapalanaya. The answer to that is crucial and a deeper understanding of it will impact tellingly on future elections. The sword, again as Christ put it, is a symbol of the tongue too, the abuse of which in this country has necessitated the Hate Speech laws.

Christ said, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit". But he also said the tongue spreads a vast fire that destroys everything in its path. Christ says, "Consider ships. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot is inclined.

"In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest on fire. The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell".

This vividly describes the political rhetoric coming out of Opposition politicians' mouths ...rabidly intent on setting on fire the course of history, as we saw in just one small incident in Hambantota on Saturday and the previous week too and throughout this year.

The message of the Christ, a message of love and ahimsa, is there. Our politicians can take it or reject it. We send this message out to our readers today because we believe that we are all of one blood. Peace.

Weekend Nation Editorial

Are special laws needed to expedite development?

25 December 2016

The government’s effort to introduce a special piece of legislation—Development (Special Provisions) Act has been heavily criticized by Joint Opposition MPs as well as by some of the SLFP members in the government. Already the draft bill has been defeated by the Uva Provincial Council with the possibility of several more PCs following suit.

The main allegation has been that the proposed law will confer too much power to the Prime Minister and to another minister who is directly involved in management of the economy. Provincial Councils are opposing it on the basis it encroaches upon the powers already devolved to them.

Whether such a law would confer draconian powers to the said individuals or not is a matter that has to be decided by the two main political parties in the joint government. If one side proposes too much power, it is up to the other party to propose suitable amendments. This has been the normal style of the Yahapalana government, the best example being the recent budget.

The important issue here is whether the country needs a special legal arrangement which gives sufficient power to the ministers dealing with economic development and investment to take decisions that are needed for speedy development of the country.

It goes without saying that development process already delayed by the thirt-year-conflict has to be expedited if we are to get out of the current debt burdens and move forward along with other fast developing nations in the region. With pathetically slow process of approvals and obstacles placed by various agencies both at central and provincial level and possibility of law suits, it is difficult to have any rapid development without the backing of some special legislation.

These obstacles were minimized under the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration as he had almost dictatorial powers backed by two thirds majority in parliament which he had gathered later by getting people to crossover. Military victory over the LTTE also placed him in an unquestionable position and all that helped him to place economic development ministry under his brother Basil Rajapaksa and the system could work without any special legislative enactment to support the ministry.

However, now we have a different situation with people enjoying all sorts of democratic freedoms which often enable them to resort to protest campaigns or activate legal processes through the courts system that could delay large scale investment projects. As a democracy it is a healthy situation, but in practical terms such a situation makes it difficult for the government to implement large development projects expeditiously.

These reasons have necessitated the introduction of special legislation giving sufficient powers to those handling economic planning and development enabling them to achieve high economic growth within relatively a short period. Such a mechanism will minimize administrative delays and expedite the approval process of foreign direct investments into the country removing obstacles that have affected country’s economic development for long.

Despite disagreement on the proposed draft legislation both main political parties seem to agree on the need for some arrangement to expedite the development process.

Therefore, the best solution would be to work out some solution at the highest levels of the two parties and pass the legislation with suitable amendments in the interest of the country’s economy.

Sunday Times Editorial

2016 : Did the Govt. get it right — or wrong?

25 December 2016

With 2016 coming to a close, the National Unity Government is fraught with internal strife not uncommon in coalitions in office for two years. The latest disagreement comes in the form of the proposed Development (Special Provisions) Bill mooted by the UNP segment in the Government but opposed rather strenuously by its SLFP counterparts.

The UNP argues there is a need for a superstructure at the apex to streamline and accelerate economic development, especially the anticipated foreign investment. The SLFP (or the SLFP within the Government) says this will create a Super Minister not unlike the one who ran the Economic Development Ministry under the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration where other ministers were sidelined and relegated to being mere puppets at the time. The resentment lingers, even if they served as loyal servants at the time. They are fond of saying these days, that it was this unbearable treatment meted out to them that made them break the moorings from the dictatorial Rajapaksa regime and create a new Government. Now they fear that history is repeating itself.

For any political analyst it is clear that the SLFP’s opposition also stems from another factor; it believes this to be a move at taking away some of the powers not only vested with SLFP controlled Provincial Councils, but also those of the President and give them to UNP ministers, a claim which the UNP hotly contests.

The UNP sees it from a different perspective. It has, over the past two years in office, found the public sector not moving at the speed the UNP wants it to. The UNP, like the people it represents, is getting impatient with the turn of events, the inability to turbo boost a stagnant economy weighed down by foreign loans, and provide employment to the growing ranks of the unemployed.

The Government having to rely on Chinese loans — and therefore, on China which it once vehemently criticised for arm-twisting and turning Sri Lanka into one of its fiefdoms during the Rajapaksa years, has now unabashedly turned to China for deliverance. The Chinese are having the last laugh. Not that the canny Chinese have not done their part to cosy up and do ‘business’ with some of the UNP Ministers.

If the Chinese ambassador can offer the Prime Minister of this country no less, and the Foreign Minister a ‘donation’ to spend as they wished and the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also invited to Beijing as a guest of the Chinese companies doing business in Sri Lanka, it shows the extent to which China goes to soften up Sri Lanka’s political leaders. It is very difficult therefore for this country to escape the Dragon’s clutches.

The West has dropped the ball and let the side down; its support largely limited to homilies on human rights and reconciliation when the domestic priorities are for economic development –and jobs at a fast pace. The saying goes that while the Chinese are offering unsolicited economic development projects, the West is offering unsolicited platitudes about good governance.

There is another side to this saga, though. Western donor agencies complain that investment bottle-necks are aplenty in Sri Lanka and even when projects are small however people-oriented with no-strings-attached aid components, they run into a corrupt political system coupled with a corrupt bureaucracy from those in public authorities, including Provincial Councils wanting their share of kickbacks to get things moving. That is probably why the Government’s UNP segment wants to short circuit the process. Whether existing laws are insufficient is not the issue, it seems. Corruption has spread far and wide and alas, its own credibility has been tested and is now at stake. The public has a wary eye on it after the Central Bank bond scandal and the recent doings of some high-profile Ministers and their business partners. These have not escaped public scrutiny.

The PM’s position cannot be envied in the circumstances. He is caught between a rock and a hard place, as the saying goes. He has to lead the team he has. And then again, he must sit back and reflect as a year comes to an end, whether he’s got the right person for the right job in his team – and if, he is a captive of a small but influential coterie.

It’s Christmas time in troubled times

Today is Christmas Day and it is not just Christians the world over who celebrate the day Jesus Christ was born, it is also a festive time for non-Christians who would respect the occasion.

One can see how religious fanaticism has enveloped the Western world and the widely debated ‘Crisis of Civilization’ has gripped global attention, and how age-old ‘holy wars’ that marked European history are repeating themselves.

In some Islamic nations, radical elements have declared Jihad (holy war) against the Christian West partly due to the bloody wars that have been inflicted upon themselves by the West exploiting sectarian differences and indulging in power struggles between oil rich West Asian states, one supporting the West, the other anti-West.

Fortunately, Sri Lanka has been insulated from such intra-religious and inter-religious violence to a great extent, even though some Western Governments and NGOs that do not see the beam in their own eyes are all too eager to preach about racial and religious persecution in this country.

This is not to say that external — and internal — elements are not already at work to light a fire in Sri Lanka. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Unfortunately, an artificial tree is diverting people from what is truly relevant about this holy day. The universal message of the Christ Child, the Son of God born in a lowly stable is one of love and peace to all people. The Bible in Luke’s Gospel tells of the angels who appeared to the humble shepherds to give them the good news that will bring great joy to all. “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord”.

Even as Christians worship in churches this Christmas morn and families and friends gather at home, they are asked to share and care for the less fortunate: the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, the weak and the homeless. That is the true spirit of Christmas.

Sunday Observer Editorial

Building togetherness, raising hopes

25 December 2016

What a contrast from Christmas festivals just a few years ago! Togetherness and determination to progress shines forth this Christmas Day as perhaps never before in Sri Lanka, symbolised by the record-making ‘Christmas Tree’ in central Colombo, standing amid the even taller and yet rising commercial towers.

Last Christmas, too, there was festivity, but for most Sri Lankans, 2015 was barely 12 months since the end of decades of numbing social fear that continued after the traumatically brutal conclusion of the internal war. That social fear, nurtured by a regime that thrived on war even in the act of ending it, continued after the war, actually worsening the relations between ethnic and religious communities. Majority ethno-religious triumphalism and arrogance espoused by that regime caused not just fear but also destruction and violence meted out to the ethno-religious minorities.

If some sections of the majority community were misguided to view the Tamils as a ‘defeated’ community, that same unscrupulous manipulation of ethnic attitudes misguided sections of the Sinhalese to turn on the other ethnic and religious minorities. Triumphal speech was spiced with hate speech. Mob violence masqueraded as ‘civil’ and clerical action, robes and all.

Entire Muslim neighbourhoods – Moor and Malay – were subject to public intimidation, acts of shaming, and large scale mob rioting. Shop burning became a regular feature of the last regime, as did acts of discrimination against Muslim women and men in various institutions and places.

Similarly, Christian institutions large and small came under attack, with accusations addressed to religious leaderships and mob violence against hundreds of small churches throughout the country.

If recent decades are memories of minority community fear and suffering, they are also a period of corresponding hatred and fear among the majority community. The hatred and fear of minority communities arose from suspicions fanned by extremist groups protected by the last regime. Fear of these minority communities also arose within the majority community as a result of their attacks on the minorities – this culture of social violence predicating the possibility of retaliatory violence.

The political change at the beginning of 2015 heralded the easing of these intense social antagonisms. Extremist groups that were protected by the previous government became dis-empowered when their political patrons lost their own positions of power. The whole tenor of the campaign for political change emphasized reconciliation, friendship and justice for all, and this, today, has resulted in the change of social ambience.

It has taken over a year of sustained and painstaking efforts – if uneven – for social attitudes to shift away from bitter memories and toward hopes for the future. At the end of its second year, the Sirisena Presidency can look back at a range of initiatives that have gradually brought this country on to a new plane of social endeavour that looks away from the past and into the future. The Wickremesinghe Government can look back at nearly two years of slow struggles to repair the immense destruction to State and economy while putting the country on to a new modernization track.

True, these initiatives – even if some were flawed – were often belittled or misrepresented by the remnants of the previous regime and their extremist cohorts. On the one hand, there is resistance to digging up the dirty and bloody past. On the other, these same sections, for their very civil and political survival, have endeavoured to mislead the public and use every opportunity to whip up old fears and hatred.

The spate of urban development today is not merely the result of opportunistic corruption during the previous regime. That was no more than ‘beautification’ at the whims of bigwigs benefiting from the spin-off from inflated contracts and deals – such as ‘port cities’ and ‘deep sea ports’ which are not essential or a priority.

The new government has managed to re-orient urban progress towards actual development as opposed to wasteful beautification. While wasteful projects are being re-configured to do the least financial and environmental damage, new and profoundly systematic planning is yet under way for a serious building of a middle-income economy and society.

Cities are being planned where they are most needed, as are roads, bridges and other economic infrastructure. And the spate of glittering towers now rising above the landscape are a result of this improved planning, ambitious goal-setting and, above all, investor confidence. True, the global slowdown and uncertainty has not brought much foreign direct investment. But, that is a long term goal after decades of war and social chaos.

More importantly, the last two years of de-emphasis of community antagonism and emphasis on collective and collaborative efforts toward prosperity has helped everyone feel togetherness, more than antagonism. Fear and suspicion is being replaced with confidence between communities and hope arising from the glimpse of the advantages and possibilities of social peace. Pride is replacing humiliation as citizens combine to deliberate on a new constitution to facilitate a wholly new political system that recognizes and cherishes all Sri Lankans in accordance with their diverse interests and common destiny.

Hence, while in past years, Buddhists were exhorted by extremists to suspect the intentions of other religions, this Christmas Day, the most visible sign of festivities, that record-making Christmas Tree on Galle Face Green, is the creation of a collective of Sri Lankans most of whom are Buddhist! Even more significantly, the festive Tree is not the work of big business or just political panjandrums, but that of a workers’ union supported by donations of medium and small business friends – all quite irrespective of religion and ethnicity. Most significantly, it is the hard work of all the artisans, construction workers, planners and organizers coming together in a determined endeavour for the happiness, not of themselves but, of others.

Hence, Christmas Day today, while brimming with the peace and love it annually celebrates, symbolizes the new Sri Lanka of unity and determination.

Sunday Island Editorial

We deserve our rulers

25 December 2016

 

It does not take rocket science to gauge public opinion on heaping goodies on the plates of MPs. Both government and opposition, as this yahapalana government has been doing during its tenure. Both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe cannot be unaware of what the vast majority of the people of this country feel about what can only be called the "purchasing" of the goodwill of the MPs by conferring a plethora of benefits on both the elected and unelected representatives of the people (aka National List MPs) in an obvious attempt to keep them in line. The late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was able to withstand an impeachment effort led by Messrs. Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali whom he sacked from the UNP, learned to his cost that antagonizing MPs can be expensive business. Many signatures on the impeachment resolution were those of disgruntled parliamentarians furious about the then president’s methods of checking whether they had sold their duty free vehicles under the ‘open’ papers system common then. Those who had were obviously not happy about a special unit set up by Premadasa stopping these vehicles on the road and checking their chassis numbers and what not.

Yesterday’s news that the government has put its announced plan of providing 58 MPs an additional perk of high-end vehicles procured on an operational lease costing the exchequer a whopping Rs. 2.4 billion on hold is an indication that the heat of public opinion is being felt where it matters. But it must be noted that the proposal has not been scuttled – it is only being held over perhaps for more propitious times. Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardene, a vociferous Joint Opposition spokesman, spoke for all his fellow MPs both in the government and opposition when he said a few days ago that the duty free vehicles for MPs that had been a long standing practice going back 25 years must not be interfered with. Given that dozens of MPs have sold their vehicles no sooner they took possession, Gunawardene’s eloquence on the subject is unsurprising. Gadfly Nagananada Kodituwakku, a former customs official who is an attorney at law and a public interest activist, has been eliciting useful information under provisions of the new Right to Information law and has moved the courts on massive revenue losses to government as a result of its vehicle permit benevolence. We shall have to wait and see what results his labors will bring forth.

The commonly adduced justification for giving MPs, including those entering Parliament through the National Lists of various parties who do not incur election expenditure – unless they are defeated candidates appointed under the National List as has been done by the present administration – and such expenses must be recouped. The duty free vehicle permit is one way of recovering such expenditure. As we have said in this space before, the taxpayers do not owe their MPs a living. But the MPs are very well looked after on the people’s tax money and improving their lot appears to be a continuing project judging by the recent benefits conferred including an additional monthly ‘office’ allowance of Rs. 100,000 and the proposal to increase the daily sitting allowance from Rs. 500 to Rs. 2,500. Older readers will remember the oft-quoted remark of Sir. John Kotelawela "henda athey thiyanakam bedaganilla" (as long as the spoon is in your hand, serve yourself) - an art which Members of succeeding Parliaments have perfected. It is true that those with private means of an earlier era spent their personal wealth to get elected to Parliament, sometimes pauperizing themselves in that endeavor, and did not push for benefits from the national exchequer. But even so, there were people of modest means who were elected as must be the case in any democracy. We, after all, are along past the means tested method of franchise.

Undoubtedly MPs must be adequately remunerated so that they can do a proper job of representing their electors in the legislature. But such remuneration must reflect conditions prevailing in the country. We must not lose sight of why the duty free car permits were issued to MPs in the first instance. That was because their duties involved a lot of official traveling. But once the perk was conferred the process of improving it began to gather momentum, first slowly and then more rapidly until it began to gallop in recent years. We have reached the stage where the benefits have progressed way beyond all reasonable proportions. We have got a Parliament of ministers with the jumbo cabinets growing in succeeding Parliaments. The promise or restricting the cabinet ministries to 30 promised before the regime change on Jan. 8, 2015, has been circumvented on the basis that we now have a unity government of the UNP and the SLFP. Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha who played the leading role in harnessing the forces that was able to do the unthinkable must be turning in his grave (in we are permitted to borrow the common metaphor although the thero was cremated) at how the ideals that powered that campaign have been corrupted.

Satirical writers have in recent days excelled in proclaiming the Christmas came early for Members of Parliament. It seems to us that every day is Christmas for these worthies. The tragedy is perquisites heaped on parliamentarians do not succeed in attracting enough better quality people to the legislature. The reverse unfortunately seems true. The voters have failed the country in electing some dregs of society to represent them in Parliament. So who can contest the saying that people get the rulers they deserve?