Ceylon Today Editorial

OF POLITICS, MORALS AND CONSCIENCE

30 April 2017

We have consistently articulated the fact that an overwhelming percentage of the population in this country has, since the immediate post-independence period, been consistently inveigled by opportunistic politicians, as well as sections of the anti-establishment clergy, into apparently legitimate expressions of dissent, ostensibly in the exercise of democratic rights.

We have also warned that dissent of late has had overt features in them which in effect make a mockery of that democratic right. Subversion against legitimate and creditable national development initiatives can hardly be called legitimate dissent.

Egged on by politicians lacking even an iota of political morality and social concerns, we've been treated to a surfeit of near violent, disruptive and destructive forms of dissent from peasants, farmers, trade unions, student unions, professional organizations et al with all of them sans exception being used by politicians deranged by their loss of power. Back of all the destabilizing slew of strikes, walk-outs and sundry protest demonstrations has been the objective of overthrowing this government. The reasons given have been mere excuses of parochial political ploys resorted to by politicians who themselves plunged this nation into a decade of an unparalleled rape of all our democratic rights and privileges. Dissent, legitimate and morals-based, especially from the media, was met not with restraint but with gun and sword as the country's best journalists were done to bloody death as they drove to work or returned home. Politicians daring to cry out for justice were gunned down within minutes of leaving TV studios after chat shows or attending some religious festival with loved ones. Men of dignity were hounded by scum, flown out to the streets of London to humiliate our envoy there. Others, multiple scores in the BASL, were beaten up by thugs for demanding the removal of dirty hands from interference in and humiliation of the judiciary. The armed services were brought to the gutters with lackeys ever willing to sign up for motorcycle or white van duty, to kill with brutal efficiency, anyone who dared speak up for truth and morality.

All of that hellish era came to an end when the government now in power was favoured by an electorate that was sick in its soul of the hideous monstrosity that the government of that day had become.

Let's make no bones about it: It is to regain that lost altar of power at which those narcissists strutted that all these strikes, protest demonstrations and sundry acts of socio-economic and political destabilization are all about.

We editorially though out aloud less than a month ago whether the government had abdicated its authority and mandate to rule, to secure the peace , development and prosperity of the nation, to restore its lost sense of morality, to restore to the nation every vestige of self- respect that it had lost.

In the face of this unending stream of efforts to destabilize the entire nation and the government that's masquerading behind a mask of legitimate democratic dissent, the government has to date shown a far from impressive performance in stemming the rot.

Dissent is a right to which one only has a rightful claim if and when the cause is justifiable and reasonable and when the objective in bona fide. This is far from the truth of what has generated the past two years of political mayhem masquerading as legitimate dissent. All the players in this dissent have clearly demonstrated the fact that they operate under the same law: socio-economic-political destabilization before the slew of murder, bribery and corruption cases against their handlers are proved and they are marched off to jail permanently. A leading academic, a legal luminary of sorts though lacking in moral fibre, recently had the temerity to question the legal and moral validity of the Office of Missing Persons, raising objection to the possibility that service and political leaders could under Constitutional changes be dragged before an international court to answer for proven crime. The argument is that murder and pillage are 'patriotic' actions when such crimes were committed under State impunity. He seemed to forget that men of integrity and moral substance who fought for all things pertaining to human dignity, for truth and justice, were gunned down like dogs on the streets for committing no crime. Those were the years when the government in power, not truth, law and justice, deemed a man a criminal and a "Desha Dhrohi" if he called a crime by its name and had the integrity to call criminals to justice, instead of extending that impunity into today's socio-political mainstream also.

Will the government relinquish its mandate?

The Nation Editorial

May Day .. the political hijack

30 April 2017

In this day and age where life is a race, everyone has been compelled to work hard to survive. Almost everyone labours and hence a labourer.

But there are those who work day and night not only for their families, but also to keep the economy on the move.

Thousands of labourers work elsewhere in the country and do not see their families for months. Then there are those who have gone abroad as skilled workers to bring in foreign revenue. The problems and trials they face are known to everyone.

On May 1, the world appreciates the value of the labourers who toil hard for there organizations, countries and their families. It is a day dedicated for them, the workers who ensure that the country does not stop even for a second.

Sri Lanka has enough and more labourers. One only has to walk along the road in the mornings to see for themselves the amount of labour strength Sri Lanka has. They clean streets, they lay roads, they carry heavy loads and building materials along treacherous pathways. Yes, their lives are not that great. But they work or toil at desks to keep the country moving.

But are their efforts recognized the way they should be? Yes. We do commemorate May Day. But do we see the labourers coming to the fore?

Do we really felicitate them. Sadly, we don’t. We are living in a world where there is always someone who would look to make use of someone else’s plight for his or her own advantage.

Sadly, the May Day has also become a victim of such a mindset, thanks to politicians. Yes there are trade unions who campaign for the rights of the workers and labourers. But unfortunately, several of these trade unions are now affiliated to major political parties. Even political parties bring out the issues of workers during their rallies. But, do we see the labourers among the politicians?

Since of late, we have come across situations where political outfits opt for marches and processions to show their political strength and might. Today, May Day is also one of them.

Many of these May Day rallies are used by parties mainly to make a political statement instead of bringing out the concerns of the workers.

The processions are not identified by those who are in it, but by the colours displayed. The colours lead the way while the workers follow.

It is time that the workers come out on their own and voice their concerns. Even claims made by trade unions cannot be considered authentic because of their political affiliations. Why do the workers have to be used only to extend the procession? Why cannot they come to the fore? Why do they keep silent?

One could argue that some political rallies speak on behalf of the workers. But once the rally gets a political twist, the whole exercise becomes in vain.

The government too should use the May Day to address issues faced by labourers. Why wait till the budget?

The May Day is the best time for the government to make its pledges and fulfill the needs of the workers.

There is nothing wrong in political parties speaking on behalf of workers. But why hog the limelight on a day that is dedicated for the workers?

Let them come to the fore for a day. You have the rest of the year to care for them and to help them.

Sunday Times Editorial

May Day politics and worker issues

30 April 2017

With May Day – the day marking solidarity with the workers of the world approaching, one might think the most important issues would be the cost of living; the wages and safety of workers; or their trade union rights. Wrong. The main issue at the highest political levels in the country is – can the Joint Opposition fill up Galle Face Green for its May Day rally tomorrow.
That politics has overwhelmed so many aspects of life, not just in Sri Lanka but around the world too has become a fait accompli, so much so that traditional politics is being shown the door; the latest example being the run-up to the French presidency poll.

Like in the case of Provincial Councils – and Local Government elections which are primarily a test of the political strength of the competing parties, so too is tomorrow’s May Day celebrations. It has little to do with worker solidarity, in fact, it is a textbook case of “workers of the world – divide”, not unite. In Sri Lanka, May Day will be marked under a dark cloud. Just last Sunday, the very threat of a strike by the trade unions of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) caused typical panic among the citizenry. The workers were protesting the renting out of a mere 15 oil tanks in Trincomalee to an Indian company. Meanwhile, Government medical officers by day (and private practitioners by night) downed their stethoscopes and dragged out undergrads, disrupting already congested traffic on the city roads, protesting against private medical colleges – and trade agreements with India.

Not a day passes without a protest here or a protest there, from garbage disposal to police abuses to elephant-human conflicts, all without the issues being resolved by the Government. While some may see all of this drama unfolding as Vox Populi – the Voice of the People, and democracy at its best, others think it is governance at its worst.

Such is the situation that the Government has come to its wits’ end and in what seems a knee-jerk reaction suggested that the no-nonsense former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka take charge of the situation.
“To restore discipline in the country” is the explanation given by the Cabinet spokesman for the move to assign the Field Marshal to tackle the serial public protests and looming strikes that cripple the day-to-day life of the ordinary people. According to the annual Central Bank report released this week, the number of workers involved in strikes increased in 2016 and the number of man days lost due to strikes increased by 21 percent to 85,637 in the plantations and by as much as 61 percent to 18,690 in the other sectors.

The Government, however, had a terrible sense of timing in coming out with the Fonseka antidote for strikes and demos. The announcement, which some ministers said was only made in jest, came on the eve of the European Union Parliament taking a vote on a resolution to scuttle Sri Lanka receiving the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) duty concessions for exports to the bloc. An EU delegation that was in the country earlier this month had expressed concern over growing limitations on workers’ rights towards collective bargaining, and the right to strike. While they concentrated on labour rights in the Free Trade Zone, they also referred to allegations of torture, the rights of minorities and of gays and lesbians and recommended that GSP+ not be renewed to Sri Lanka.

And yet, not all protests and demonstrations need have negative effects. While strikes must be the ‘last resort’ – not the first, and it often seems unreasonable that one group having control of a particularly sensitive handle on the life of the community – like doctors or petroleum workers or Electricity Board workers or bus operators, the case of the demonstrations by the workers at the Hambantota port – even if they were engineered by political elements, had the desired effect of the Government taking a fresh look at a hurriedly done agreement with the Chinese and came up with a better deal for this country.

It was unfortunate that such had to be the case. And it was all because the Government, or at least a section of it, was perceived –not only by the public, but by another section of the very Government, to have struck an agreement ‘hatched in secrecy and incubated in darkness’ to the overall detriment of the country.

Whether the Government is serious in asking Field Marshal Fonseka to ‘take charge of situation’ vis-a-vis strikes and protests, or it was said in jest at the Cabinet meeting by no less a persona than the President, it betrays the Government’s insecurity with the working class — an insecurity it showed earlier with the independent Media, and how to handle growing tensions with trade unions and others. Blaming opposition parties is another sign of weakness, as it is the duty of the Opposition to protest – and strike. It is the duty of the Government to ensure circumstances do not arise to provoke protests and demonstrations.

Each year, as we mark International Workers Day, we remind ourselves of two categories of people who tend to get sidelined, almost forgotten on this day. They are the near one million Sri Lankan workers toiling in harsh, inhospitable climes overseas and the unemployed.

A large contingent of workers in West Asia, Japan, South Korea etc., remit nearly US$ seven billion annually to the country and that money helps keep this country’s nose above the water. The Central Bank confirms that the number who went abroad for employment last year dipped as an economic slow-down following an oil price slump hit most of West Asia.

The number of officially registered unemployed, according to the same Central Bank report stands at 360,000, a figure marginally lower than the previous year (a drop from 7.6 per cent to 7.0 per cent); yet, the real figures can be much higher. There is a high rate of GCE A/Level jobless in the country as youth look for white collar jobs in the public sector.

There is also a high proportion of youth in the category known as ‘Not in Employment, Education or Training’ (NEET) which is a burden to society and which results in skills deterioration of the labour force. Their place is being taken by foreign workers, mostly from India and China – guest workers by the hundreds taking the place of absentee Sri Lankans; a new labour force in Sri Lanka. (Please see story on page 1).
But this is all by the way. May Day will be the day for politicians to parade in the limelight, and the workers to follow in the shadow.

Sunday Observer Editorial

GSP+: economy + social gains

30 April 2017

Economic development is the biggest gain being celebrated after the European Parliament last Thursday voted overwhelmingly to endorse the renewal of the GSP+ concessions facility for Sri Lanka’s vital trade with the lucrative European market. But, while government and business celebrate, the ordinary citizen would be forgiven if she or he also celebrates the social and political gains built into the GSP linkage with Sri Lanka that is now set to resume after a lapse of six years.

In economic terms, the GSP+ facility will, once again, provide Sri Lanka with special concessional rates of import duties and special facilitation of Sri Lankan imports into the European Union’s giant ‘Common Market’. The GSP+ trade facility is offered by the EU to developing countries to support development of trade that will contribute to economic growth as well as social upliftment. It is offered in a graded manner depending on the country's need, with the poorest countries receiving the most concessions.

Sri Lanka, now a lower-middle income country, still enjoyed a level of concessions until the GSP+ facility was withdrawn by the EU when Sri Lanka’s then Government failed to meet certain standards of labour and human rights, good governance and, social equity that the GSP+ facility requires the beneficiary country to maintain. Worsening social and political conditions arising out of the ethnic conflict, but also the violations of basic human rights and labour rights under an increasingly repressive regime at the time, had been noted by the EU in its regular appraisals of GSP+ progress.

The EU repeatedly advised the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime that with failure to meet social and governance standards, Sri Lanka could not qualify to remain as a GSP+ beneficiary.

When Sri Lanka re-applied to the EU for a resumption of GSP+ with the onset of the National Unity coalition government in January 2015, Brussels agreed to consider renewal of GSP+ if Colombo worked to improve social and human rights conditions and governance in a manner that would enable Sri Lanka to match those basic requirements of the GSP+ facility.

What are these country conditions that needed improvement? They are nothing more or, less, than the very same issues that we, Sri Lankans – if in differing ways – have been raising over recent decades as conditions worsened around us. Both, blue and white collar labour has seen its rights eroded and its organizational strength reduced, ethnic minorities have experienced continued marginalization and communal hostilities, women remained subject to gender discrimination, while the general socio-political degradation had seen a rise in child abuse. Of course, there are a myriad other issues of socio-political injustice and ecological degradation, but the GSP+ social standards bottom-line only focussed on some.

The few points of human and labour rights, ethnic justice and reconciliation that required addressing under GSP+ standards are only the very salient problems currently being addressed by the Government. It has also had to manage continued post-war communal suspicions and tensions even as it also had to focus on other parts of the world, as the country strove to escape the geo-political straitjacket of Rajapaksa dependence on a single great power in foreign relations.

What the resumption of the GSP+ requires is that the Government adheres to its program of repair of the corruption-ridden and authoritarian political system to ensure more democracy and good governance on the one hand, and, on the other, a reform of repressive laws, redressing of human rights and ethnic rights violations and, continued protection of labour rights, especially those of women.

The EU now waits to see evidence of progress in the above as it prepares to induct Sri Lanka back into the GSP+ circle. On the one hand, the Government has already begun the reform and repeal of laws that had been enacted, under the guise of combating ‘terrorism’, to weaken the citizens’ rights and capacities to monitor and resist corrupt, authoritarian governance and oligarchic family rule. Thus, even aspects of the criminal justice system are being re-designed to ensure the fair treatment of all citizens and prevent future abuse of power to target people, especially, to silence critics.

The working conditions of women as well as the access of women to political and social power are also being addressed by the Government in its effort to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of social development and, at the same time, meet the requirements of GSP+.

Workers will appreciate the renewed commitment of the Government to protecting labour rights and, more, to ensure that the new profits gained from GSP+ export concessions are shared with the labour force. Already, Government ministers have called on business to take heed of the EU’s requirements to ensure that the benefits Europe offers to poorer countries genuinely reach the masses.

Ethnic chauvinists and unscrupulous political opportunists are raising the communal bogey over the aspect of inter-ethnic peace-building that is inherent in the ‘democracy building’ dimension of GSP+ requirements. However, there is no specific policy or concrete task imposed by the EU in this regard. All that is required is that inter-ethnic relations are brought in line with other standards of democracy and good governance. Thus, if equality and harmony between all communities requires a consolidation of the devolved democratic system, then it is up to Sri Lankans, under the leadership of their Government, to work to ensure that that aspect, too, is addressed.

The renewal of GSP+ will be an opportunity to renew our country’s role as a player in the global market even as we enjoy the social gains of citizenship to which our Government is committed to achieving under that same GSP+.

Sunday Island Editorial

May Days then and now

30 April 2017

 

Time was when reporters covering the various May Day demonstrations and meetings in Colombo used to time how long it took a particular demonstration to pass a fixed point to get at least a rough idea of whose was longest. Admittedly this was not an accurate method of measurement; the JVP demonstration, for example, was more militarized than the others in those days and there were sections, separated from each other by a fair distance. Then there was the various stopping and starting, all of which took time. But the slogans were catchy and memorable, sometimes tilting towards the bawdy. They also made statements on the politics of the day. Who can forget the May Day after Mr. Dudley Senanayake formed a government that included the Federal Party of Mr. Chelvanayakam. The SLFP-led United Front had a joint demonstration with its leftist partners and one of the slogans there was Dudley-ge badey, Masala vadai. Believe it or not, parties like the LSSP and CP who boasted of their non-racist politics marched in that demonstration!

The late Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party used to relate a story of a May Day when the late Vijaya Kumaranatunga was alive. He was standing on the platform with Vijaya and as each section of a massive demonstration entered the rally ground. He said that Kumaranatunga made brief eye contact with the sectional leader, and that activist who had striven might and main to put up a good show, knew that the boss knew what he’d done. "It was truly amazing," Muttetuwegama would say. Those glory days are now history and the memorable leaders of another era have gone beyond the sunset. Perhaps the most recent memory of a vintage leader was that of the late Bala Tampoe, then all of 90-years old, riding to the CMU May Day rally – decidedly smaller than what it used to be in earlier times – on the pillion of a motor cycle. Comrade Bala did not live to see another May Day.

Thanks to television, the average citizen can treat himself to the sights and sounds of May Day in Colombo and elsewhere from the comfort of his home instead of roasting in the April heat. Recent weeks have shows the scramble among political parties to put up as big a show as possible. It will not be possible to compare the performance of the Maithripala Sirisena-led SLFP rallying at Getambe and the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Joint Opposition massing at Galle Face. Both sides are scrambling to present themselves as the more credible. Guesstimates will surely be the name of the game with media partisan to either side projecting the best possible pictures. Boastful claims will follow for sure. Cynics have been wondering aloud whether granting Galle Face green to the JO to hold their show was a gesture of goodwill, unlikely in the present political context, or a backhander from those in power confident that it will be not possible for anybody to fill that venue. The UNP has chosen the more fill-able Campbell Park. The various political chieftains of the different political parties will as usual try to marshal their troops to show the bosses that they can deliver, no doubt with an eye on patronage gravy.

Many ordinary people, who don’t owe politicians of whatever side, will surely wonder what all the May Day fuss and bother in this country is all about. It is obviously far removed from the European spring festival it was once or from the events in 1886 when over 300,000 workers walked off their jobs in 13,000 businesses in the USA to demand an eight-hour working day. The Haymarket massacre in Chicago and the violence that followed a peaceful worker demonstration in that city helped internationalize May Day which was made a public holiday in this country in 1956 although rallies have been held from 1933 according to reports. It was traditionally a left affair and when the UNP decided to join the May Day frolics at a time it was in office, the reds jeered, Chee Dudley lajja nadda, Kola patata May dinayak koi ratey the pavathvanney?

Here is Sri Lanka it has long been an exercise of demonstrating how popular (or unpopular) a government or opposition is. Incumbents have commonly abused state resources to boost their performances, particularly transport services to bring in the crowds. A buth packet and a bottle of arrack has commonly been an inducement to participate and caps, tee shirts and sometimes saris in party colours distributed. We’ve seen some television advertising of the different rallies in addition to the hoardings that have mushroomed over the city. The assurance that that the TV ads were paid for carried by some the advertisers is some consolation in the context of the vast unpaid bills from the 2015 election campaign. Hopefully, the state TV stations have managers with the gumption to demand upfront payment for these ads given the sorry experiences of the past.

Given the organizational effort, the massive expenditure and everything else thrown into May Day, some important political statements are to be expected. We will not hazard a guess on what these would be but draw readers’ attention to a letter from Father J.C. Pieris of Galle published in yesterday’s issue of The Island. In essence the good father lays the blame for the Meetotamulla disaster on Presidents Rajapaksa and Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and all MPs of their different groups and asks how they got the gumption to hold a May Day rally at all. He says that they all boast they’ll get the best attendance adding that anybody attending any of these rallies will be a traitor to the martyrs of Meetotamulla, Rathupaswela and Chilaw. No doubt his words will resonate among thoughtful citizen – particularly those who owe nothing to any politician.