To Vote or Not??, Unite or Perish !! A Voters Dilemma!!

Ground situation today

Sri Lanka is in the throes of a parliamentary election soon to be held on 5 August 2020 amidst challenges being faced like never before, an inherited weak economy worsened by a global COVID 19 pandemic, where foreign remittances from migrant labor, earnings from apparel exports, foreign tourism, traditional exports of tea, rubber and other agricultural produce, virtually coming to a standstill. A second wave of COVID 19 infections is now threatening to raise its head and the present government is hard pressed to find ways to stimulate the economy. To add to the woes, costs of living has spiraled with daily essentials of food items consumed by the general masses like rice, dhal, onions and salmon having gone way beyond the promised prices and distribution of fertilizers to farmers having gone haywire, the daily

wage earners have lost livelihoods and unlike the richer countries, the government is finding it difficult to provide social security hand outs to those who have lost their jobs or livelihoods. Certainly not an enviable situation!

By –J.M.P. Indunil Fernando

In the political front, the newly elected President who came into power over 8 months ago with a hugely popular wave due to bad governance by a so called good governance team who held power from 2015-2019, has managed to maintain somewhat of the new broom phenomena despite all that is not right in the country, thanks also to a weakened opposition brought about by splits and infighting with the new found breakaways holding sway. The incumbent caretaker government in the meantime is campaigning for a 2/3 majority in the parliament, on the pretext that such power is necessary to amend a Constitution which is being touted as not conducive to deliver the  people from all evil and to take the country towards prosperity. However, such absolute power, if we are to go by past experiences, viz; 1970 - 1977, 1978-1988 and from 2010-2014 have been catastrophic. So, what choices are left for the people today ???

Lost opportunities of the Rajapaksa government (2010-2014)

It is no secret that Mother Lanka had its best opportunities to lay the foundation for true peace and reconciliation and sustainable development soon after the end of the 30 years long civil war which cost the country dearly. That lost opportunity was from 2010 to 2014. Rather than consolidate the avenues for peace, the powers that were, dwelled on the war victory and  failed to unite all ethnic groups under a “One Sri Lanka” banner and allowed narrow minded political forces to further separate citizens by race and religion and to create power blocs. Whilst terrorism was defeated by our brave armed forces with the government of the day being well supported and placed to give leadership at the time and the tide turning against terrorism, particularly with the global fight against terrorism being declared by the worlds power houses, still yet, the post war government did not do enough to bring about the much needed peace and reconciliation needed to pave the way for the sustainable development of the country.

To the contrary, what took place was, following a convincing elections victory voted  by a grateful population,  the then government went on a spree of excesses, bringing in an 18th Amendment to the Constitution and doing away with the Independent Commissions, abolishing the time limits for the all-powerful Executive Presidency and bringing forth a  virtual family rule and a rule of Oligarchy, where massive development projects were undertaken out of borrowed capital and commissions there from,  shared with the oligarchs. Some of those investments out of borrowed capital have to date not shown any returns on investments, such as the Mattala Airport, the Sooriyawewa Cricket Stadium, the Hambantota Port, which has resulted in the Port  being given to the creditor country, namely, the Chinese on a 99 years lease. Prime Land in the Commercial Capital of Colombo, such as a portion of the land filled up from the sea at huge costs for the new Port City and a big chunk of land, which traditionally housed the defence services were sold outright to Chinese companies. The power plant in Norochcholai commissioned at huge costs from China, broke down 29 times in the first year of commissioning. Many questionable deals,  like the Petroleum Hedging, The Greek Bonds and the Central Bank Bonds that created the now notorious Perpetual Treasuries, the pump and dump investments in the Stock Market and other controversial deals such as the Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus deal, the, MIG Aircraft Deal, which is a carry over from the war period and many other instances of corruption and waste of  public expenditures on Tamashas, including the failed Commonwealth Games Bid which was shown mostly  on a Virtual Platform,  had all contributed to creating new rich  breeds of oligarchs and wealth extractors, including  from tenders bent. The real wealth creators who would contribute to sustainable development, could only have been deemed to be a handfull.

And to add to the waste and corruption were instances of assaults, murders and disappearances of journalists, burning of media houses, shooting of prisoners and protestors that all contributed to a general feeling of a lack of freedom during the period 2006 to 2014. The murder of a foreigner and gang rape of his fiance in broad daylight by a local councillor and his associates in Tangalle was kept under wrap, until much pressure was brought to bear by the government authorities of the murdered foreigner.

Furthermore, the lack of carefully formulated tight rope walking and  coherent and well thought of  policies and approaches when dealing with foreign powers, cost the country the advantages of the GSP plus for apparel exports and a ban on fisheries exports. The overall exports income also reduced vastly.   It was no wonder that at such a stage and in such a scenario that a so called "Yahapalanaya" regime got voted to power  by the people in the year 2015, who came to power on a platform of doing away with corruption and bringing to book all those who wielded power and robbed the public coffers. The net result of this period was that although high economic growth rates  were shown up mostly from the sudden spurt of foreign tourism post war, the migrant remittances and the spending sprees on infrastructure development out of borrowed capital at relatively high interest rates, the economy could not be deemed sustainable due to lack of internal production and innovations for exports, huge debts  and seepages due to high levels of corruption. 

The disasters of the Yahapalanaya regime (2015-2019)

Although much promise was shown at the start of the Yahapalanaya reign, by having instituted the Independent Commissions and doing away with the unlimited term limits of the Executive Presidency as per the 19th Amendment, yet, as a regime that came to power to do away with corruption and bring about good governance, one of its first acts, even before 100 days had elapsed was to bring about the still infamous Central Bank Bonds Scam in March of 2015. The same scenario was repeated again in February 2016. One of the main culprits was the Governor appointed by the Prime Minister of the Yahapalanaya government, who was for all intents and purposes, a Singaporean National, having given up his Sri Lankan born citizenship,  who continued to serve as an advisor to the Prime Minister even after he was forced to resign as the Governor under pressure. Today, he is absconding in Singapore under a changed name and identity !

Then there were many instances where pending cases of corruption and misdoings by some from the previous regime were brought to light, but, were pushed under the carpet after some media shows. Many were the instances of the alleged culprits emerging from the prisons and showing the victory signs as if nothing ever happened, Some of those cases are still pending and claims of innocence are being pronounced on the basis that you are "Innocent until proven guilty " !. Also, there was the case where the then Inspector General of Police was shown on recorded  camera in public, agreeing to a demand from the Minister for Interior to not take action against an accused who was allied to  the previous regime.

In the last two consecutive years of the Yahapalanaya regime , viz; 2018 and  2019,  Sri Lanka's economy was gravely damaged and its citizens made to bear the brunt of its ill effects, due to the callous disrespect to the Rule of Law by its very rulers, purely and simply due to  the cravings for power.

Firstly, it was a gross  violation of the country's Sacred Constitution in October 2018, where an incumbent  Prime Minister and an existing government were sacked by the President without having ensured a parliamentary majority, which action was unanimously dismissed by a seven member bench of the Supreme Court, which brought the country and its economy to a stand still for nearly two months. This violation of the Constitution  was followed by the country having to face up to yet another huge disruption, mayhem and chaos on 21 April 2019, when again, those responsible for the defense and internal security of the country failed to take any action to prevent mass scale suicide bombings on that sad and eventful day, despite having being provided with intelligence by many sources, both foreign and local of the impending attacks. The resultant ill effects in both of the afore mentioned instances  have been devastating on the already fragile economy and also  brought  death and destruction to many innocent families and lives. This was the last straw that put the nail in the coffin of the Yahapalanaya government.

Yet, the irony of it all is that the then President and the Prime Minister of the Yahapalanaya government still  continue to remain as the leaders of  their  respective political parties and are vying for power at the forthcoming elections. And to cap it all, the former President who led the fight against corruption and the crusade for good governance in 2015, is also the President of an alliance of which the Party led by the former President whom he defeated in 2015 on grounds of corruption and family rule, plays the leading role in the alliance.

Given these opportunistic politics, one would not be surprised that the country has not progressed during 71 years of its existence since independence. No wonder also that there is a general feeling of discontent  amongst the thinking  public that all of the 225 Members of Parliament are just  good for nothing !!

The New President and the Caretaker Government since November 2019

One of the main promises of the new President was to ensure a secure country. Yet, this promise was sacrificed at the very beginning of the COVID 19 outbreak by not closing the country's borders well on time and delaying the closure until the 20 March 2020, in order to allow for the nominations for elections to go through on the 19 March, having dissolved parliament on 2 March when the pandemic was raging all over the world. Country's like Vietnam with more than four times Sri Lanka's population and being a neighboring country of the then epicenter of the COVID 19 pandemic, namely China, has only some 300 odd COVID cases as of date and zero deaths, because their borders were closed in end February 2020. The resultant loss to the country's economy could have been much softened, had the love for power and elections not taken over the love for health and security of the people of Sri Lanka.

Establishing One Law for all, was one of the cardinal promises by many elected governments including the current President. However, it is apparent that this promise has been relegated to the dustbin as evidenced by Presidential pardons and transfers of personnel involved in high profile investigations into corruption and murder cases. There is also, no hope or possibility of recovering large sums of public funds stolen by the politicians in the recent past. The government or the opposition will not follow up on these issues other than during the period of an election where it can be used to their advantage. The recovery of such looted funds and its re-investment in the country could be one major input to the greatly depleted states coffers and in overcoming the present financial crisis. But unfortunately, since they all have skeletons in their closets, eventually the politicians will only protect each other and not serve justice to the general public. Even the health guidelines strictly enforced on the people were not enforced on the politicians, when the funeral of a leading upcountry politician and the processions that followed, broke all the health protocols and guidelines issued by the health authorities.

Anytime is a good time to get a country back on the right track after it has been driven backwards for many long years by self-serving politicians. But, when a calamity such as today’s COVID 19 hits, we get a boost in motivation, which can be used as the foundation for building something great and to bring long lasting stability to the country. However, we only see politics over personal gain by many current politicos. A regular feature in the media today is the publicization of the findings of the Presidential Commission on the Easter Bombings carried out by an extremist Islamist Terror group, as also, references to the War Victory and the heroics of our brave soldiers during the war, which ended over a decade or more ago. Regular mediatized visits are being made to the main temples by the leading politicians, although cravings for power and corruption and waste goes unchecked, whilst reconciliation efforts have been put on a back burner. These are some of the reasons why we are stagnant with the same old rhetoric, particularly during election times and are still carrying the tag of a “developing country” which we have been carrying for ever so long.

The country went in to shut down in mid-March 2020 and we all knew that a hard time will come for our already fragile economy. We believed financial experts and the government took steps to reduce the impact. But we hardly find business owners who have received low interest business loans and other benefits announced by the government. The VAT charges, the PAYE and withholding taxes which were abolished as soon as the President assumed office have been brought back, fuel prices have not been reduced although the world market prices had hit rock bottom and yet, benefits have not been passed on to the consumers. The costs of living has skyrocketed, the prices of popular food items such as rice, dhal, onions and salmon have gone way beyond expected. Further, the government ran a campaign called ” Restart Sri Lanka” and yet  it was merely a campaign with no proper strategy across key  industries to bounce back or restart. Many job losses and or salary reductions have been reported in the private sector as of date.

On the other hand, It has been recently reported that the transitional government is hurriedly preparing to rescind or amend Government circular No: 05 of 2001 which placed Other State Forests  under the Conservator General of Forests and to be now placed under the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Affairs and Local Governance, which could make it easier for persons to acquire forest land for cultivation and mining etc.. which is contrary to international accords and also, against the promise made by the President in 2020 to increase the forest cover to 30%. It is also hoped that in the quest of the government to build roads and highways, including elevated highways, that these initiatives will not destroy the sacred wetlands that contribute to biodiversity, water retention and flood mitigation and some of which are also gazetted as reservations and the destruction of which would mean the loss of such environment for ever and which limited resource can never be replaced. Furthermore, new initiatives are being taken to negotiate loans to build highways, more imports of coal than even necessary are being made, (probably since these expenditures provide opportunities to earn commissions), although moving towards renewable energy initiatives are ideally suited for a country like Sri Lanka which has an abundance of sun and wind as an island surrounded by the oceans. 

Therefore, in the light of the experiences of the periods 2010-2014 and of 2015-2019 and also taking cues from the  experiences of the past, such as in 1970, 1978 and 2010 when over 2/3rd majorities in parliament were being enjoyed by the respective governments of the times contributed to disastrous situations for the country. 

What Voters must do:

Therefore, the voters must think twice when exercising their votes in these crucial times where the country has no other way out but to unite to address the humongous challenges that lie ahead in the midst of a continuing global pandemic. It will be too risky for any one party to have unbridled power, particularly in these present circumstances where the same old faces that have contributed to the messes created in the country, are still vying for power. As such, the voters must make it a point to not  cast their votes to the leaders of the parties that have held power before as leaders, but to make it a point to cast their votes at this crucial juncture to new leaders and new parties, to bring in a new culture of governance. They must also make sure to not vote for individuals who have pending cases of corruption or have been shown to have misused their powers.

Unite or Perish

This is a time for national unity and not a time for political power struggles. Sadly, we still do not see such a strategy by the transitional government. Therefore, National Reconciliation must be pursued with vigor, the tri-lingual policy must be implemented as a matter of priority and social justice ensured for all communities alike. Law enforcing authorities and the Judiciary should be strongly encouraged and supported to discharge their duties strictly according to the rule of law, irrespective of political affiliations and influences and without any fear or fervor and education for peace and sustainable development should be brought to the forefront.

The way forward

A responsible government must invite economic experts, educationists, environmentalists and disaster risk reduction and risk management experts, as also, experts from all industry segments to form distinguished panels to make up a holistic and integrated way forward towards sustainable development in Sri Lanka. Such panels comprising patriotic minded persons, devoid of politics could help develop come back strategies based on our new strengths and prepare plans to face new challenges we will surely experience post COVID 19. 

The most important strategy post COVID 19 is to avoid a spike of new cases and prevent community spreads of the virus. The testing, tracing and treatments and strict adherences to the health guidelines needs to be ensured. 

It is high time to restart all industries, but, in a more strategic way. Concentration should be to make best use of our available resources. Agriculture needs to be encouraged and enhanced through value additions to target exports and food security, thus creating job opportunities. It will also be an ideal time to create a mix of economic and structural and pro poor, green economic policies and also explore possibilities such as health infrastructure and production for export markets, enhancement of local tourism, well secured and carefully screened health tourism into the country and given the debt crisis, loans should not be resorted to in the immediate short term and consider development initiatives using the available resources, whilst controlling avenues of corruption to the full. Digitizing of governance, education and promotion of e-trade and e-money would also be most beneficial in dealing with the post lockdown strategies.

Finally,In concluding we appealto all politicians alike and say in one voice, the time has now come to unite our mother land under one unique Sri Lankan identity and to work towards peace and sustainable development, where we feel that we all are one and to be able to say that we have the good fortune to have been born into a country that is good to live in and good to invest in !!