Ceylon Today Editorial

‘Iron fist in a velvet glove’

12 January 2017

Sri Lanka needs to grow at a healthy rate if it's to rid or lessen the impact of poverty among its people.

Not only should poverty be eradicated or brought down to a minimum, but the island must also ensure that its citizens live decently. Decent living entails good housing and schooling for the children, not just schools, but a good education, good health facilities, good food, good jobs, good transportation, good clothes and good care for the disabled, sick, elderly and children and infants, and peace and security.

Those are the rights and entitlements of every citizen, to live well, to live comfortably, enjoying a life free from want, from the womb to the tomb. Nonetheless, when a government moves, or tries to move in that direction, it comes against roadblocks and obstacles, some political, some economic.

Political stumbling blocks, more often than not, spring from within and, in certain instances, fanned by a foreign hand. Economic roadblocks are led by the lack of funds to ensure a better life, by the government, to its peoples. These may be addressed, by making the necessary policy changes.

Policy changes may entail a whole gamut. Those may comprise inclusions and exclusions in the way a country has been operating. More often than not, the economics of a country cannot be separated from its politics. More so in a democracy and Sri Lanka is such a one.

And, in a democracy, such changes may take time. And those changes, for better or for worse, may hinge round one man or woman. A classic case is that the island had to wait for nearly 30 years to open up its economy after independence.

The delay was due to the democratic system, coupled with internal politics. The economic system introduced in 1977, changed the country from an inward looking, socialist style economy, to an open, capitalist and a democratic style of an economy due to the efforts of one man.

Similarly, the path to economic progress and prosperity that one man wanted Sri Lanka to traverse was obstructed by one woman, governing the world's largest democracy, just 22 miles across the Palk Straits, separating the island from its giant and closest neighbour, India.

The culmination of these acts of omission and commission by Premier Indira Gandhi, aided and abetted by her stooge, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran and the Opposition TULF was the July 1983 riots that virtually destroyed the forward march of Sri Lanka's economy, by giving birth to full blown Tamil terrorism, nourished and nurtured by Sri Lanka's powerful neighbour.

Four years later, India's military might prevented tiny Sri Lanka from destroying this cancer. But this move ricocheted on India, when the same terrorist group which India wanted to save from Colombo's wrath, blew up its crown prince, Premier Rajiv Gandhi. And, 19 long years from that year, with India now neutralized, despite making more blunders than one in the battlefield, Sri Lanka at last overcame Tamil terrorism in 2009. That was the golden opportunity for Sri Lanka to restart from where it was prematurely stopped by India 26 years ago.

But that was not to be. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, basking on the war victory thought that he was indispensable, allegedly allowing himself and his family to run amok at public expense, disregarding the international community, save, first, China and then Russia, to the detriment of Sri Lanka. But after he was kicked out of power six years later on 8 January 2015, that opened up yet another opportunity for the island to rebuild itself, primarily, economically.

However, with Colombo starved of funds to take the country forward, made worse by a heavy debt burden, bequeathed to it to a large extent by Rajapaksa, one of the two pronged efforts taken by the present regime is to pare debt with real estate equity, coupled with investments and therewith job creation.

The creditor in this instance is China, responsible for funding Rajapaksa's white elephant projects such as the Hambantota Port and the real estate to be traded off, is a piece of Hambantota. And, as, politically expected, the biggest protester in this Chinese commercial venture is Rajapaksa himself.

Rajapaksa, politically, is like a drowning man clutching on to every blade of grass to keep his head-up from the sea of political waters that is threatening to submerge him. Such protests shouldn't deter the government's efforts from taking the economy forward by adopting this strategy.

Unlike in 1983, this time, the whole world, including India is behind it. It should not allow a few bankrupt politicians like Rajapaksa to dictate terms to it. 'One step forward, two steps backward,' Mao Zedong may have had said, but that may be more apt as a military strategy and not as a political strategy. That was said when Mao was fighting the Japanese on one hand and Chiang Kai-shek on the other.

Sometimes for reforms to succeed in a democratic setting 'an iron fist in a velvet glove' may be more apt to deal with such situations, not least Rajapaksa and his minions and those may also include his family.

Daily News Editorial

End this disorder

12 January 2017

Law and order is pivotal for a nation's health. Lawlessness in a country spells disintegration, and disorder leading to anarchy. Recent events in this country points to such a trend. University students, trade unions etc. have routinely taken to the streets and engaged the police in running battles. Not only that, there have been invasions into state institutions by unruly mobs causing damage to state property, as was seen recently at the Department of Immigration and Emigration. Hardly a day passes without a mob trying to break through police barriers, leading to the Presidential Secretariat or Temple Trees. The outstations too have seen many such unruly scenes in recent times.

Hambantota witnessed a new low, with mobs even trying to storm a venue occupied by foreign dignitaries and diplomats, in the presence of the Prime Minister and other government VIPs. Even the country's courts were not spared such indignities, if one recalls instances in the recent past, where our halls of justice were desecrated with the invasion of mobs, some in saffron robes. The day would not be far away when even our police stations would be invaded by gangs to challenge the authority of the law. Nay, it had already happened. The last thing a country needs is a challenge mounted on the fountainhead of the law and order establishment- the police.

On Tuesday, the FCID, an arm which comes under the Police, was virtually stampeded by supporters of MP Wimal Weerawansa, who was brought there for questioning, over misuse of public property, when he was serving as a Minister under Mahinda Rajapaksa. The police officers had to fight their way through the chanting crowd to get the MP out of the venue to the courts. Weerawansa was also seen breathing fire, ripping the government and the law enforcement to shreds, while the police remained mere spectators. Slogans were being liberally chanted, with one particular TV camera deliberately focused on a protester belting out a slogan against the Prime Minister with regard to the alleged Central Bank bond scam. This particular TV channel devotes its entire news segment to attack and vilify the country's Prime Minister, with the government reduced to a mere onlooker. How can a media institution act in this manner and still retain its broadcasting license must be baffling to many. The Davasa group was sealed by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike for much less.

There is also another TV channel whose Morning News reader gives his own interpretation to news items in the press, putting the government in poor light. This channel went onto give lengthy coverage to the Hambantota incident, with selected footage to portray the government as the chief offender. It is also promoting communal tensions, by innuendo, in its coverage of news and interpretations of events. But the government has left it to its own devises.

Be that as it may, a strong view should be taken by the law enforcement authorities with regard to demonstrations carried out in front of police stations, or any other arm of the police, such as the FCID. If allowed to continue, the authority wielded by the country's law enforcement is bound to diminish in the eyes of the public. This would lead to the dangerous situation where unruly elements will become emboldened to act with impunity, leading to the complete breakdown of law and order. There is still a whole host of stalwarts of the former regime billed to be questioned by the FCID where arrests are imminent. Is the government going to permit demonstrations by mobs opposite the FCID every time such an arrest is made?

This begs the question as to who leaked the news of the arrest of Weerawansa beforehand, which enabled the MP to mobilise his supporters? Are there moles among the SLFP segment of the Unity Government, still loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa, giving out the details? How did Mahidna Rajapaksa happen to divine the arrest of Weerawansa two days ahead?

The Government must probe who in the FCID or the Attorney General’s Department and other arms of the law enforcement, who were privy to the arrest, gave out this information that enabled Rajapaksa to predict the arrest well before hand. Who is the mole (moles) in places of authority trying to undermine the government's efforts to bring to book the crooks of the former regime? Is this the reason why some important cases pertaining to corruption are being dragged on?

The Yahapalanaya regime should ferret out those, who, as the saying goes, are playing a ‘double game’ while remaining in the fold. It (the government) is already taking heavy flak from the public who voted it into office expecting speedy justice to the corrupt, for its foot dragging. Little wonder that those in the Joint Opposition has thrown the government's anti corruption drive in its face, daring it to arrest even a single of its members accused of corruption. If the government fails to act, and act decisively, even the public will begin to wonder about the allegations made in this regard.

The Island Editorial

RTI, RIP

12 January 2017

The self-proclaimed champions of good governance or yahapalana have laid bare their true faces once again. It was only the other day that President Maithripala Sirisena waxed eloquent, at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of his assumption of office, on what he called benefits that had accrued to the public from the change of government in 2015. He stressed that media freedom was one of them. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other government leaders, also, never miss an opportunity to preen themselves on the newly introduced right to information law; they claim media freedom has flourished on their watch. But, they themselves belied their own claim in Hambantota last Saturday.

It has now been revealed that the Prime Ministerial Security Division (PMSD), which seized a drone belonging to Hiru TV, has disabled its memory chip so that no aerial pictures stored therein can be retrieved. When the PMSD grabbed the drone a la Mervyn Silva last Saturday, Director General of Government Information Ranga Kalansuriya promptly claimed it had been in the air without an owner. But, the fact remains that it was launched at least two kilometres away from the place where the VVIPs were present and caused no security concerns. It was seized for political reasons.

The very fact that the drone was returned to its rightful owner is proof that there had been no infraction on the part of the Hiru television crew; else they would have been hauled up before courts and even remanded. There would have been no need for the PM’s guards to disable the chip if it had not contained visuals which could have been used against their political masters. So much for the government’s commitment to right to information!

The despicable manner in which police acted in Hambantota on Saturday reminded us of the Mulkirigala by-election in 1985. The then UNP government bussed many of its Colombo-based thugs to the Hambantota District for ‘election work’; they were led by Gonawala Sunil, a convicted rapist pardoned by President J. R. Jayewardene while he was serving a jail term for raping a teenage girl. The irate people of Mulkirigala took on the criminals, who ran for their dear lives. A police curfew was declared in the area and the cornered rapist and his confederates were removed to Colombo with a police escort! On Saturday, many persons described as pro-government thugs from Colombo were seen operating alongside the riot police in Hambantota.

One’s gorge rises when the Joint Opposition (JO) bigwigs pontificate on the virtues of democracy and the rule of law. While in power they strove to defend the indefensible and dupe the masses. The then UPFA Mayor of Hambantota Eraj Fernando was shown on television, brandishing a small firearm and chasing a group of UNP MPs in full view of a large crowd under the Rajapaksa government, in April 2014. Those who are shedding copious tears for democracy now had no qualms about claiming that he had been carrying a toy pistol of all things! (Eraj has since switched his allegiance to President Sirisena, who appointed him the Beliatte SLFP organiser!)

IGP Pujith Jayasundera has done it again! We thought he would refrain from courting public criticism after making a spectacle of himself in Ratnapura, where he was caught on camera, obsequiously assuring a minister over the phone that a suspect would not be arrested. But, he chose to make a public display of his servility again last Saturday in Hambantota. He was seen barking orders and directing police action obviously in a bid to curry favour with the powers that be. He can now rest assured that the government will return his favour. What made him go all the way to Hambantota on that day? Did he think that unless he was physically present there his men would handle protesters gently?

Where are the civil society outfits which raked the Rajapaksa government over the coals—and rightly so—for attacks on protests and media freedom? Their silence is deafening. Has the cat got their tongues?