Incarcerating a whistleblower is strange. A scarcely heard of manipulation in any political dispensation, be it a despotic rule or otherwise. But in a backsliding democracy akin to Sri Lanka, it is fast becoming a given.
It is no secret that democratic norms in Sri Lanka have eroded over the decades. Just like the unprecedented crisis in governance and the economy, corruption, involving the public purse, has become a big stink.
Thushan Gunawardene, the former executive director of the Consumer Affairs Authority, is now in hot water and is being hunted down for whistleblowing. Gunawardene exposed the dealings of a few leading ministers in the administration by cracking open the lid of a major scam involving garlic imports to the country. In the developments that followed, the government did not hesitate to launch a high profile inquiry into the matter. Many traders who allegedly had links with the people concerned were questioned and arrested and cases were filed in the Welisara Magistrate’sCourt. However, it is yet to be establishedwhether the real culprits have evaded the Police net.
From the garlic scam and a revelation about unacceptable levels of arsenic in tins of salmon, Gunawardene moved to expose the Liquid Petroleum Gas scam. From as early as April last year he has been vocal about the composition of cooking gas undergoing a drastic change to accrue more profits. Gunwardene soon become a thorn in the side of the administration. His journey from a favourite to a villain took no time, proving without a doubt that persons with an iota of integrity are unable to go along with the present regime. The story of a person handpicked to perform an honest job has evaporated into thin air.
Last week Gunawardene was stopped at the Emigration and Immigration counter of the Bandaranaike International Airport when he was about to board a flight to the United States. The story which emerged is interesting but unsurprising in a country where voices of dissent are being cowed into submission for a culture of silence. On making inquiries about why he was stopped Gunawardene got to know that the Welisara Magistrate’s Court had slapped a travel ban on him on the 28th of September 2021 (case number B2909 /21) because he is a suspect in ongoing cases in the garlic scam. It was the first time Gunawardene was hearing about it. A perplexed Gunawardene is now looking at challenging the actions of the Police, instrumental in applying to the Court for the ban, through a Fundamental Rights petition tothe Supreme Court. Although the ban has now been lifted, almost as easily as it was granted by the Court, the damage to the person in terms of reputation and monetary loss will not be that easily recouped.
Gunawardene is a classic example where challenges to the misdemeanours of the government, be it corruption or otherwise, will not be tolerated and where the neutrality of democratic institutionsand the arms of the State such as the Police, are being increasingly compromised for political servility. It is a clear manifestation how the failure to toe the line with the so-called racketeers in the system can lead to disastrous consequences.
This phenomenon is quite evident with the number of resignations recorded so far from top-notch positions in the administration. The latest resignations come from two governing party sympathisers, the chairmen of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Agricultural Insurance Board. The CEB Chairman, who held many important government positions, was in Australia after leaving government service. He came back to Sri Lanka to take over the reins of the CEB as its Chairman. He came under heavy flak from the CEB engineers over the current power crisis which is plaguing the country which eventually prompted his early resignation. Such is the track record of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government which is now refusing to come to grips with the sentiments of the people for whom the promised Vistas of Splendour have disintegrated rapidly.
It is against this backdrop of a drastic deterioration in popularity that the administration is hell-bent on devising a formula to annex two more years to its term in office.
The move is on the pretext that President Gotabaya lost two years due to the current pandemic that has swept the globe. According to the President himself, a youth from Kandy has suggested that he extends his term through a referendum. The announcement, no doubt, is a well-orchestrated feeler of the peoples pulse. When the then Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike promulgated the 1972 constitution, the government in power extended the term by two more years under the provisions of the new republican constitution. Then Opposition and UNP leader J.R.Jayewardeneopposed the move vehemently and resigned his Colombo south seat. He was re-elected through a by-election with a thumping majority. The message was loud and clear.
The position taken by the Opposition at the time was that the move by the Sirima Bandaranaike government was unwarranted and undemocratic.
The people overwhelmingly responded to the Opposition’s call. Economic woes and undemocratic measures paved the way for the UNP to grab power.
In the 1977 parliamentary election, the UNP assumed office with a 5/6 majority, hitherto the highest ever electoral majority gained under the first past the post system of elections.
Nevertheless, since the phenomenon of staying in power through autocratic moves was common among politicians, J.R Jayewardene who became the first executive President of Sri Lanka, resorted to a similar stratagem in 1982. President Jayewardene extended the term of Parliament by yet another period through a referendum after he won the first-ever presidential election in 1982. It was a blatant act that replaced elections with a referendum. Although the citizenry was consulted, such moves are unacceptable in a democratic society.
The end result was the Black July in 1983, where the country image came under heavy strain and was tarnished.
Smear campaigns were carried out in Europe and elsewhere of Sri Lanka being a countrywhich resorts to barbarism and violence instead of respecting human rights and upholdingdemocratic norms.
If President Jayewardene had the wisdom to hold elections according to the law, the northern and eastern provinces would have returned parliamentarians who would have truly embodied the sentiments of the youth in these two provinces who are mainly from the Tamil minority.
The implications were consequential with accumulated vexatious issues that plagued them from the day the Sinhala only rule came into being. Thus the government blocked the one legitimate avenue where this population could have let off steam by extending the term of Parliament and by preventing the people from electing representatives of their choice. The unwarranted shortsighted decision inevitably reached boiling point among youth as problems aggravated. Political analysts point out this may have caused the youth unrest and the subsequent insurrection that continued for nearly three decades in the northern and eastern provinces. The idea is not to say that the Jayewardene regime was solely responsible for the youth uprising in the north and east. There were other contributing factors. In the final analysis, it is patently clear that decades of suppression and discrimination is the root cause for Tamil youth to take to arms to achieve economic emancipation and democratic freedoms. However much we apportion blame to J.R Jayewardene, what stands tall in his favour is that eventually, he brought in a plausible solution for the ethnic question through the 13th amendment to the constitution. But if the present regime tries to sabotage this arrangement through the new draft constitution, it would not augur well for their existence. Nevertheless, since the government is forging closer to India, it may very well end up being a stillbirth since such a move by Colombo will not serve the interests of India.
Learning bitter lessons from mistakes and taking the country on a trajectory that benefits the people at large rather than their cronies has to be the prime objective of the present regime.
If the leaders are interested, there are enough and more examples since 1947 which can helpto steer the country towards achieving its economic targets.
Last week news broke that Sri Lanka has drafted a country strategy to integrate eight sectors of its economy with that of India. The areas include refineries, electricity grid, ports, real estate, tourism, information and communication technology. Political observers point out that this is nothing new but a plan which has been in gestation since the time when Ranil Wickremesinghe was prime minister in 2002. Despite the unilateral proclamations to keep India happy amidst Sri Lanka’s deep suspicionsabout India’s designs on her, Sri Lanka believes that it will be a win-win situation for both countries.
The proposal, if it is to meet the light of day, will need broad discussion to iron out residual issues that could arise locally to avoid theeventuality which befell the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA)which was devised in 2015 to take the Free Trade Agreement with India to the next level.
The ETCA agreement saw no future amidst vehement opposition by Lankan entrepreneurs. Hence it is of strategic importance to have a free and fair discussion on the same before devising a formal agreement.
Besides, all these economic perils of the country is a matter of concern for every citizen. It is patently clear now that there is no way out without seeking the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, interviewed by the Financial Times of London, has spelt out the precarious situation Sri Lanka is facing economically.
He has suggested the importance of exploring ways and means to seek the assistance of the International Monetary Fund.
” Sri Lanka is negotiating with bondholders and is contemplating a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’, he told the Financial Times based in London.
“ We have [international sovereign bonds] which we have to repay, so we are negotiating with them. Then we have creditors, and we have to service their debt, so we can have an adjustment or some type of thing,” Rajapaksa was quoted as saying.
When FT.com asked if he was negotiating a restructuring with bondholders, Rajapaksa replied, “something like that”.
“You can understand what we want and you can understand what the bondholders would like to have,” Rajapaksa was quoted as saying.
However, Rajapaksa’s comments weren’t in alignment with those of Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal who on several occasions had ruled out the need to go to the IMF.
Cabraal, as recently as last week, stressed the needlessness of going to the IMF to seek assistance to restructure the country’s debt as they are already doing the same under a home-grown fix.
Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating now remains deeper in the junk territory after being downgraded by the big-three rating agencies several times on heightened default risks.
In these circumstances, Sri Lanka may go before the IMF for a bailout package since Indian assistance is also invariably linked to the IMF.
