The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is facing numerous challenges, one after the other, with no viable solution in the offing for those issues concerning the people.
All essentials are in short supply and every citizen has to be lucky and live by their wits.
Every day and every other day people come across tragic and horrific stories of how children and youngsters go through gruesome realities owing to the shortage of essential life-saving medicines and drugs or fuel to get somebody to the nearest hospital.
The tolerance limits of the people have reached the point of no return. It crystallizes with what they do and what they seem to say while languishing in long winding queues to fetch essentials.
In that sense, the people are now beginning to question the morality of the government to continue in office. In short, they say that the government has lost legitimacy and no longer enjoys the trust placed by the people.
In this political backdrop, what would be the best option for the government is the guess of anybody.
The new Prime Minister in the meantime, is working round the clock to lobby support for the 21st amendment which envisages restricting presidential powers to some 88extent. A host of unhindered powers availed by the President are likely to be vested with the Cabinet of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet of Ministers on the other hand, is responsible to the House of Parliament and correspondingly to the People.
The dispensation of the finances is exclusively vested with the House of Parliament.
Without essential constitutional reforms, it willbe difficult for the country to forge ahead with power arrogated to one person who presumably is facing public wrath for the callous disregard shown to the people and mismanagement of the state affairs.
In 2015 the Yahapalana government took some concrete steps to bridle unlimited power enjoyed by the executive under the 1978 constitution which was later enhanced under the 18th amendment to the constitution. Hence the 19th amendment to the constitution was presented and approved. It clipped the presidential wings. However, this piece of legislation came in for virulent criticism by the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP) , which in no time drafted the 20th amendment which replaced the progressive legislation that guaranteed and enriched democratic values. The SLPP administration hurriedly cooked up a two-thirds majority with manipulation and political manoeuvring to scrap the 19th amendment and bring in the 20th to give more teeth to the executive. This amendment has now become a mill around the country’s neck.
The youth struggle at the Galle Face Green which was attacked by a group of hooliganswho emerged from Temple Trees forced Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down and the government to propose constitutional reforms short of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepping down. Hence the 19th amendment is likely to be introduced in the garbs of the 21st amendment.
The modified version of the 19th amendment, known as the 21st amendment, is now under scrutiny by the party leaders of parliament to submit their views. The party leaders may have an opportunity to make recommendations and propose amendments to the 21st amendment. There is also space available for any interested party to challenge the constitutional provisions in the apex courts so that the Supreme Court will peruse the same for its constitutionality.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has made known their exceptions to the 21st amendment. They complained that the salient points found in the 19th amendment had been conveniently omitted or deleted from the draft of the 21st amendment. The Bar Association expressed its unequivocal displeasure over the omissions by the Wijedasa Rajapaksa committee.
Among them is the provision for dissolution of Parliament and the presidential power to annex any subject or function of any ministry remains intact.
Be that as it may, the SLPP is now chartering a different course in a visibly confused political landscape. Hoisting their invincible position in the political arena they have already started dictating terms to the new administration. The SLPP opines that the government should delve into the economic needs of the people on a priority basis before concentrating on constitutional amendments. However, many others think otherwise and are prevailing upon the government to take up constitutional reforms on a priority basis as pledged while attending to the other needs with the same importance attached to it.
They opine that procrastination on the part of the government would lead to further confusion since the 21st amendment is considered a gateway towards abolishing the executive presidency. It also tends to address the problems faced by the people to a certain extent.
However, it is patently clear that former Minister Basil Rajapaksa is flexing his muscles again from behind the scenes, with a high degree of bargaining power armed with vigourand energy over the SLPP membership in Parliament backing him.
Basil Rajapaksa’s mouthpiece SagaraKariyawasam has criticized Ranil Wickremesinghe for showing interest in constitutional reforms. The SLPP feels the Prime Minister has mixed up his priorities. However, many others realize that providing essentials to the people and constitutional reforms should go hand in hand.
The SLPP has, so far, for the last two and a half years dragged the country down the economic precipice and never produced a single person who could revive the economy, despite launching their campaign with a band of intellectuals under the banner of Viyathmaga.
It is difficult for intellectuals to fathom the practical aspects of a political project since they lack the necessary agility to indulge in politics. The Viyathmaga members of the SLPP could not make a meaningful contribution to pull the country out of an economic and political mess other than just being onlookers.
The dimensions of the economic mess that the country is in are weighty.
The Governor of the Central Bank revealed them all when he elaborated that the House of Parliament was at the receiving end when responsible bureaucrats forwarded fake and bloated figures deliberately when in reality, the actual picture was quite appalling. However, these bureaucrats had political patronage to micromanage those claims.
The government has thus misled not only parliament but the entire country by painting a rosy picture that otherwise would have been a dismal and bleak one.
In its latest announcement, the World Bank rejected media reports that it was planning support for Sri Lanka in the form of a bridgingloan. It stressed that until a comprehensive macroeconomic policy framework is in place, itcannot help Sri Lanka but urged the government to negotiate with the IMF for relief. However, the World Bank said it will repurpose the loans already granted for poverty alleviation and other projects.
In this precarious economic situation, the SLPP should not meddle with the administration but keep away from doing politics for the time being for the sake of the country.
Since the country is heading for one of its severest economic perils, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the President he should handle the finances to take it out of the financial morass. Although it was contrary to what the President had in mind, he had to give in since Ranil Wickremesinghe is the messiah who delivered him out of doom.
The idea of the President was to heap the finance ministry on Ali Sabry, but the drawback was whether he is strong enough to face challenges. His recent speeches in parliament proved beyond doubt that though capable, Sabryis a reluctant and timid man who will run away at the slightest political tremor.
On the other hand, Ranil took a tough stand that he wanted to run the country his way.
The next step was his swearing-in as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stability and National policy.
Ranil, the loner in a political sense, proved that he is above petty politics and rubbished the capabilities of SLPP political icon Basil Rajapaksa. To say the least he messed up the economy in style while working as the prodigious Finance Minister of the SLPP.
The worse times of economic hardships are yet to come. Hence all political parties have a responsibility to the people to make it a livable country.
They must shed differences to come together to push the country out of this mess while helping to maintain its position as a vibrant democracy.
So it is time for the SLPP manipulators to stop political manoeuvring until the country gains much needed economic stability in the face of a dangerous future looming over the country.
The whole country knows who messed up the finances by presenting fake and concocted figures to parliament.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, interviewed by Fox News recently, said that the “books are cooked”. When asked to be more specific, he said that many figures are missing and had given a wrong budgetary projection as far as the country’s income and recurrent expenditure are concerned to obtain erroneous but attractive financial indicators. He proposes a parliamentary select committee to probe these misdemeanours.
Sri Lanka now has to seek the help of India for every little thing, and the Indian government has gone out of its way to help Sri Lanka, including the supply of 65,000 tons of urea.
India has taken our issue to the Quad meeting in Tokyo, where the quadrilateral security dialogue for the Indo-Pacific region took place with the participation of the US, India, Japan and Australia.
India is likely to take up our issues with Japan and other countries of the Quad to mitigate the debt burden and restructure the economy.
Sri Lanka, known as the little miracle of Asia under Mahinda Rajapaksa, is fighting to hold on to that accolade which is fast slipping away.
