“The JVP played a main role in the effort to bring in the 17th Amendment; the SLFP and the UNP voted for it in parliament. Therefore the 17th Amendment enjoys a multi-party consensus, a rare occurrence in this fractious land. Given this genesis, it can neither be decried as a Trojan Horse nor rejected as a foreign construct.”___________________________
by Tisaranee Gunasekara
- "If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a
heck of a lot easier, just so long as
I’m the dictator". - George W Bush (quoted in ‘The Sorrows
of the Empire – Chalmers Johnson)
(March 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was a portentous declaration. At his recent meeting with the Opposition Leader the President is said to have stated that he will not appoint the Constitutional Council. Given the absence of even a clarification, it is reasonable to assume that this story (reported in last Sunday’s English papers) is correct. The President has sworn an oath to protect and uphold the constitution. Whether his refusal to appoint the Constitutional Council as per the 17th Amendment amounts to a violation of his oath is a question that must be raised both in the public domain and with the judiciary.
The 17th Amendment is not something alien and inimical imposed on us by a ‘perfidious’ international community. It is the outcome of a Sri Lankan impulse towards the greater democratisation of the state. Its aim is to introduce some necessary balance into a system dangerously lopsided in favour of the executive. The JVP played a main role in the effort to bring in the 17th Amendment; the SLFP and the UNP voted for it in parliament. Therefore the 17th Amendment enjoys a multi-party consensus, a rare occurrence in this fractious land. Given this genesis, it can neither be decried as a Trojan Horse nor rejected as a foreign construct.
Mr. Rajapakse’s opposition to the Constitutional Council cannot be dismissed lightly as a mere Presidential whim. It is a serious matter, even if the President fails to realise its gravity. It is serious because in opposing the Constitutional Council the President risks going against the law of the land. If the First Citizen of the country violates the law of the land when it incommodes him, how can one expect the rest of the citizenry to be law abiding? With such a leader at the helm the danger of the country degenerating into a state of lawlessness is acute.
The President is correct when he says that the 17th Amendment will reduce his power. That, after all, is the very purpose for which it was introduced, its raison d être. And it is a goal that will not, in anyway, harm the country or the people; on the contrary it will introduce much needed checks and balances into the system, thereby reducing abuses which can cause irreparable damage on many fronts, from the economy to the war effort. The Presidential opposition demonstrates Mr. Rajapakse’s willingness to undermine the democratic system in order to protect his own power. From this to a policy of perpetuating that power at any cost is but a small step.
Provincial elections are due next year and in the following year, the parliamentary election. The Constitutional Council should be up and running and the Independent Elections Commission in place before these impending elections. If the regime decides on a strategy of victory at any cost, the UNP under the lacklustre leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe would be too weak and too demoralised to resist the resulting violence and malpractices. The only real guarantee of a reasonably free and fair election therefore is the existence of an Independent Elections Commission and an Independent Police Commission. Currently some of these commissions are in existence, filled with Presidential appointees. Once the Constitutional Council is in place this anomaly can be ended. Little wonder then, the President finds the idea of a functioning Constitutional Council such an anathema.
Family, Friends and the State
Last month the Carlton Motorcross was held in Hambantota, organised by Presidential offspring Namal Rajapakse’s outfit, Tharunyata Hetak. According to media reports around 1,800 policemen and 800 soldiers were deployed to provide security to this extravaganza (these, incidentally, are the troops not available for the protection of vulnerable villagers of Buttala and Kebithigollawa). "The highlight was the stalls that represented the military depicting their weaponry and achievement in the war against Tiger guerrillas. They were transported to the venue after being hurriedly dismantled from the Deyata Kirula exhibition" (The Sunday Times – 24.2.2008). These arrangements beg several questions. Is Tharunyata Hetak a state or a para-statal entity? If so is the parliament keeping its financial transactions under supervision? If Tharunyata Hetak is a purely private initiative, why did an event organised by it receive such state patronage?
Clearly the line of demarcation between the Rajapakse family and the state is being eroded; a private organisation headed by a Presidential offspring is getting the sort of state patronage only a state organisation is entitled to. It would be interesting to find out who footed the bill for the provision of security and for the military display at the Carlton Motorcross – was it Tharunyata Hetak or was it the state? If it is the latter, then it is up to the opposition to find out why, and how much. The rapid erasure of the line of demarcation between the state and the Ruling Family, the increasing tendency of the Ruling Family to treat the state as its private fief are worrying developments. If allowed free rein they can debase democracy and undermine systemic stability.
A recent incident involving a ‘war hero’ can perhaps be regarded as an illustration of how crime and punishment can work out in a system with too few checks and balances, where the Ruling Family and its loyalists enjoy growing power. The Supreme Court issued an interim order allowing General Parakrama Pannipitiya to use his staff quarters and retain vehicles and escorts he was entitled to as Commander of the Security Forces (East). General Pannipitiya commanded the forces which cleared the East of the LTTE with the much vaunted victory of Thoppigala. Yet he was forced to seek the intervention of the courts to ensure his own protection: "Justice Nimal Gamini Amaratunga said once the work was done he was considered useless and the treatment meted out to the petitioner by the army is not acceptable. ‘Over the media Api Wenuwen Api is aired every half an hour but people like the petitioner don’t even have themselves’ Justice Amaratunaga said" (Daily Mirror – 1.3.2008).
General Pannipitiya is the first Army officer to seek court intervention to ensure his security. However it is a plight that is becoming increasingly familiar to the political opponents of Rajapakse rule. Many parliamentarians have had their protection drastically reduced as punitive measures. This particular malady was almost unknown until Mahinda Rajapakse became the President and made his younger brother the Secretary of Defence. The first victim was Minister Thondaman, before he became a minister. Since then the malady has become rife. Several anti-government parliamentarians have had to go to courts to regain withdrawn security; parliamentarian T Maheswaran was shot dead in a kovil a few weeks after his security was drastically reduced. The questions cannot but obtrude. Who is ‘api’ (us) according to the Rajapakse worldview? What kind of Sri Lanka will be created if the Rajapakses have their own way? Quo Vadis?
The President at last Sunday’s SLFP rally in Ratnapura declared that he will not go with a begging bowl to the international community no matter what situation arises in the country. When a leader who imposes unbearable burdens on the masses with perfect insouciance makes such a declaration notice must be taken. The President’s proud pronouncement may be an indirect warning to the populace that even harder times are ahead. The SLFP led governments have a record of imposing untold hardships on the masses in the pursuit of some promised land. During the tenure of the United Front government Sri Lanka’s death rate increased (in 1974 and 75) for the first time since Independence. A rash of short sighted policies caused a severe food crisis characterised by persistent shortages and exorbitant prices. Other signs too pointed to a general decline in societal health and wellbeing: school dropout rates increased; school enrolment rates declined; morbidity levels went up. A regime that promised to usher in an economic paradise achieved the opposite because it was too enamoured of its own vision either to see or care about the antithetical reality.
If present trends continue, before President Rajapakse’s first term is over, Sri Lanka will enter that same dangerous socio-economic territory. Inflation has skyrocketed in the month of February. March will not be any better; gas prices went up exponentially and a massive hike in electricity rate is expected, both of which will have many secondary effects, inclusive of a reduction in the competitiveness of our exports. Sky rocketing inflation can also cause severe under-nutrition: "Endemic undernutrition is a less obvious – less ‘loud’ – phenomenon than famine……. But even in terms of sheer mortality, many times more people are killed slowly by regular undernourishment and deprivation than by the rarer and more confined occurrence of famine" (Hunger and Public Action – Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen). At this rate the Rajapakse economic policies may become a greater threat to the future of Sri Lanka than the LTTE.
The regime is planning to raise another syndicated loan. The previous loan, though supposedly raised for the purpose of infrastructure development, especially in the newly cleared East, has been used largely to service existing debt, according to the media. Clearly the new loan too will be used in the same manner. So we tumble towards that ultimate horror, a debt crisis of the sort that Sri Lanka never had to experience. The effect of such an outcome not just on the economy and living standards of the masses but also on the war effort and the country’s realistic ability to resist foreign pressure would be nothing short of catastrophic.
The latest fiasco at the APRC is symptomatic of the Rajapakse way; the JHU and the MEP walked out of the APRC protesting the non-inclusion of the Pilliyan Group in the deliberations. Even if one assumes that the JHU acted of its own volition no such thoughts can be entertained about the MEP. The MEP would not have engaged in this preposterous act without an order from the President. Obviously the President wants to sabotage the APRC while keeping his hands clean, while maintaining the façade of the moderate leader under extremist pressure. Do the JVP’s anti-devolution rallies and virulent rhetoric serve a similar purpose? Are these also intended at helping the President to sustain the façade of moderate leader engaged in a battle for survival with Southern extremists? The JVP, the JHU and the MEP are opposed to devolution for ideological reasons while the Rajapakses look askance at sharing power with anyone. Are we witnessing a ‘good cop, bad cop’ act aimed at stymieing a political solution to the ethnic problem based on power sharing?
The fate of the 17th Amendment is likely to have a significant bearing on the fate of the GSP facility granted to our exports by the EU. Since we are in hot water over human rights issues (the latest being the death of eight civilians in an air raid on Kranchi, Poonakari) it makes sense for the government to implement a measure even its xenophobic allies would not be able to decry as alien or anti-national. The 17th Amendment is not a panacea but it can bring many benefits. The government can regain some international support by implementing it. For the opposition it is an achievable goal (unlike the one of sending the government home after March) which can be pursued without being accused of treachery. And for the country it may be the only way to restrain the regime and the opposition from endangering our common future. A strengthened democracy and greater accountability is a need of the hour and the 17th Amendment is the best path we have to that goal. . .
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