The present government, chosen by the people with an overwhelming majority in 2019, has incessantly brought enormous hardships to them. It has been done under the cover of the pandemic.
After nearly two and half years in power, the government has fumbled its way and ended upwith a failed economy. There is no explainable reason, other than to categorically state that it is due to the government’s own folly.
The Corona pandemic brought misery to other countries in the region as well. In comparatively horrifying proportions, it hit them hard too. However, blessed with visionary leaders who practiced sound economic management with dedication and hard work have put those countries back on track. For instance, between December 2015 and December 2021 Sri Lanka has been continually downgraded five times, out of which three times have been between 2020 and 2021. Regional peers Philippines, Malaysia Singapore, Pakistan and Bangladesh have managed to maintain their credit ratings to a greater extent.
Sri Lanka’s political prognosis is that the entire government machinery is on the brink of collapse due to mismanagement and lack of proper judgement of governmental affairs and the economy. The people are queuing up for daily essentials and the transport systems have ground to a halt. The fuel situation is worsening by the day. Nevertheless, the top management in the higher echelons of government stays aloof to all the troubles that make life miserable.
Now, as usual, the blame game is on. The government is trying to apportion the blame of the present crisis to the previous regime, and the opposition is equally vocal about the government’s impotence in handling state affairs diligently.
Addressing a Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna(SLPP) propaganda rally recently in Embilipitiya, the southernmost tip of the Rathnapura district, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the current financial crisis is not his fault or that of his government. The President shifted the responsibility of the present financial crisis to the previous Yahapalana regime.
Without an iota of hesitation or confusion, he announced that up to 2015 the country’s debt portfolio was US$5 billion but that the Yahapalana regime added another 15 billion without accomplishing anything that was worth appreciating. ‘By shirking its responsibilities towards the people, the previous government has emptied the government coffers’, the President said in no uncertain terms.
He went on to say that the ’the present government is shouldering the burden of debt servicing and paying interest every month.”
Nevertheless, people are wondering whether this is the absolute truth since it is on record that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime was responsible for obtaining most of the loans from China and elsewhere and placed the country in a debt trap. That is the declared view of the opposition too, contrary to that of the President. The main driver of the increase in Sri Lanka’s debt over the years is the interest that has to be paid on past debt. According to an analysis done by local think tank Verite Research to demystify the increase, Sri Lanka’s total debt stock rose by 42. 8 percent during 2015-2019. At least 89. 8 percent of this increase was due to the interest on cost on accumulated past debt. Should it be the subject of a debate now when the people are on the threshold of a crisis is a question that we have to ask ourselves.
The undeniable fact of the matter is that currently it is President Gotabaya Rajapakse and his SLPP government that is in the driving seat and the onus is on the president and his team of ministers to steer Sri Lanka out of troubled waters
The responsibility of a prudent skipper is to spot brewing issues and proactively seek solutions without waiting to be hit by the issues in an act of kamikazi. The situation now is that the government must take a decision. Since it took over the reins of government two and a half years ago, it has proven over and over again that it is inept at governing and has lost the confidence of the people.
After all, the hacked slogan of the prime movers who brought this government to power was, ” the country is in crisis, hand it over to us. We will show the Yahapalanaya how to salvage the country from an economic downturn”.
The vociferous rhetoric of politicians such as Bandula Gunawardene and Johnston Fernando no longer hold people spellbound as in the past. The people have come to realise that they fall into the category of scruffy unscrupulous politicians. The present mess that the country is in was the subject of discussion in Parliament sometime back when former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe displayed his masterly knowledge and predicted what would be in store for Sri Lankans by March.
In late November, Wickremesinghe predicted the impending financial crisis and described it as a grave situation threatening to unfold by March next year.
He said the Central Bank had already forwarded the relevant data to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. Wickremesinghe asked for the report which was submitted to the IMF to discuss and debate it in parliament,stating that remedial measures could then be arrived at jointly. He said the ability to provide uninterrupted electricity depends on the financial capacity of the government and its ability to purchase necessary fuel stocks to run thermal power stations.
“Let us all discuss the looming crisis and find solutions. Power cuts depend on the government’s power to purchase the required quantity of fuel,“ he said at the time.
However, the Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardene while admitting that the government was facing a financial crisis said that no power cuts had been planned for. Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila also asserted that the water levels in the reservoirs could meet the demand and said that 76,000 tons of furnace oil, sufficient for fifty days, are in stock.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said that according to theinformation he has foreign exchange reserves have dipped to US$1.5 billion and gold reserves had dwindled to US $300 million.
Be that as it may, any political leader that takes over the reins does not waste time finding opponents to apportion blame for their incapabilities. A good leader always thrives in grueling situations by soliciting correct advice and leading the country to achieve its targets.The president must take a leaf out of the book of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who was propelled from a domestic set up to run a country and something she did very well with the support of her advisors who she listened to.
The present unpredictable situation the country is bogged down in has a direct association with flagrant violations of financial discipline coupled with issues relating to significant mismanagement. Financial indiscipline has been a characteristic from day one of the present government. It was encouraged by a coterie of political cohorts. The present power crisis is also a direct upshot of the prevailing forex crisis.
When a host of government ministers said that the Yahapalana regime failed to build a single power plant to add power to the national grid, the Chairman of the Public UtilitiesCommission of Sri Lanka Janaka Ratnayake contradicted the position. Addressing a press conference, he said the problems lie not with power stations or inadequate power generation but with the severe scarcity of foreign exchange to pay for the fuel stocks that arrive at the Colombo Port. Ratnayake spoke the truth though he is a close associate of the SLPP regime. His assertions contradicted the announcement made by Minister Pavithra Wanniarchchi that the Rajapaksa regime in 2014 planned a 900MW power station that did not receive the due consideration of the Yahapalanaregime. The answer is that the existing power plants, including renewable energy, thermal power and hydropower, contribute 4888 Mw per day to the national grid. The daily consumption is less than 3000 Mw. It shows that Minister Wanniarchchi, like the top leaders of the SLPPwho apportion blame to others for the follies of the present government, was also misleading the people. The other peculiar phenomenon of the current administration is that under no circumstance they are ready to admit their blunders and redress them.
Going back to the president’s political discourse at Embilipitiya, many people have noted that his reference to the past had some substance. The president referred to the Jayewardene era and the Premadasa era, indicating several misdemeanors of the UNP administration. The president was factually correct, and we witnessed the killing of reputed journalist Richard De Soysa during the Premadasa presidency. It shook the country, especially Colombo’s elites who felt that state terrorism had come to their doorstep. During the Jayewardene presidency, Professor EdiriweeraSarathchandra came under attack by some hooligans and stones pelted at the judges’ bungalows.
The president was precise with his assertions. Nevertheless, he failed to mention the brutal assassination involving Lasantha Wickramatunge, Dharmaratnam Sivaram who was popularly known as Taraki, and Nimalarajan from Jaffna.
In addition, journalists were also abducted and assaulted. They included Keith Noyahr, UpaliTennekoon and Poddalal Jayantha. Meanwhile, several youth from Colombo were kidnapped and subsequently killed in Trincomalee. Their parents are still searching for them and asking for justice from the authorities. The least forgotten is Pradeep Ekeneligoda, who disappeared without a trace.
The preceding is a part of the litany of complaints by the people who are eager to know what happened to their loved ones and the violation of their human rights.
The right to life is an inherent right. Freedom of expression and movement is also associated with the right to life. No government can give liberty to its citizenry because it is an innate and intrinsic right of any human being. Governments can never bestow these freedoms upon the people but suppress them when charged with autocratic aberrations.
President Rajapaksa’s immediate concern now is to restore the interrupted power supply even though the underlying cause is not his government’s incapability or fault as claimed by him.
There was a special cabinet meeting to discuss the power issue and the continuous supply of fuel (diesel, Naphtha and furnace oil) to the power plants run by the Ceylon Electricity Board. At the meeting, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa pledged to supply uninterrupted power from the 5th of March. Energy Minister Gamini Lokuge also confirmed this and said plans are underway to make it happen. Central Banka of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Nivard Cabraal was also present at the cabinet meeting. His suggestions and proposals to overcome the persisting crisis did not see the light of day as Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa rejected them all. The main recommendation of the CBSL governor was to increase the fuel prices in line with those of the Indian Oil Company to reduce fuel sales and thereby incur a lesser amount of foreign currency for fuel purchases.
Cabraal and the finance minister were not in agreement. Cabraal lamented that his proposals and the road map to economic recovery were not taken seriously by the finance ministry.
Rumblings within the government were quite evident, but it came to the fore after eleven parties led by former President Maithripala Sirisena who leads the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) presented a document to the government, visualising the path to economic recovery. The official launch of the policy document in printed format took place at the Imperial Monarch Hotel in the proximity of the Jayewardenepura hospital. Minister WimalWeerawansa was harshly critical of the government and the finance minister in particular and woke them up to a stark reality the following morning prompting action.
The role played by Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila while being in the government sparked off a wave of criticism by several inner circle SLPP ministers and parliamentarians who met with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The president eventually moved to remove the two thorns in the cabinet in hurriedly typed out short letters which were delivered to them. Weerawansa reacted immediately, saying thank you to the president. The eleven political parties that tried to bring a derailed government back on track were shocked by the president’s move. They are to discuss the next step. They may withdraw their support for the government and be on the opposition benches as a pressure group. The SLFP discussed this matter separately, and they too wanted to resign their portfolios showing solidarity with Weerawansa and Gammanpila. However, Nimal Siripla de Silva expressed his opposition and was eager to cling to his ministerial portfolio. Maybe Siripalais aware that his political prospects are bleakafter the current term of Parliament as he sees no future for either the SLFP or SLPP among the electorate. So, his thinking is rather appropriate which is to reap the benefits now and go into hibernation at the end of the current term. The removal of the two rebel ministers necessitated a mini-Cabinet reshuffle, which the President did in no time.
During the President’s Cabinet reshuffle, heelevated two others to cabinet rank to replace Weerawansa and Gammanpila. DilumAmungama and S.B Dissanayake were his preferred choices. Minister C.B Ratnayake appears to be up in arms over Dissanayake’s appointment. Ratnayake was lamenting about shoving him aside to a ministry where he cannotwork. He knows that Dissanayake, known as election machine Dissanayake, will be a direct competitor and is most likely to create a fiefdom of his own in the Nuwara –Eliya district. Only a few people know that Dissanayake has lost his clout and teeth as a politician and is no more effective. By Thursday evening Ratnayake was given more responsibility, having shifted Wimalaweera Dissanayake to handle the Disaster Management portfolio. It was a move that would have brought relief to wildlife officials who had an unrelenting battle with him and his cohorts on alleged misdemeanors by politically orchestrated operations.
Now that Wimal Weerawansa and Gammanpila are out on the streets wondering about the next step, they must be regretting organising the “Mahinda Sulanga”(the Mahinda breeze) which provided a springboard for the political reincarnation of Mahinda Rajapaksa and the clan.
Wimal Weerawansa, Gammanpila, and Vasudeva Nanayakkara hoodwinked the massesthrough political maneuvering and using their cunning ways. They referred to Mahinda Rajapaksa as Mahathir Mohammed and Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Lee Kwan Yu or Vladimir Putin.
“Can you imagine how prosperous we will be under the leadership of these two skilled leaders?” Weerawansa once asked the people while addressing a series of SLPP propaganda rallies.
On Friday, the political mavericks had their sayafter their removal lambasting Basil Rajapaksaat a hurriedly convened press briefing hosted at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.
Nevertheless, the politically cunning Weerawansa made it a point to shower accolades on Prime Minister MahindaRajapakse, describing him as a mature and astute politician who understands politics. In the same evening, they met with the prime minister to discuss the current political trends.
Will the prime minister be able to reverse the decision of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president and younger sibling, vis a vis the cabinet reshuffle? If at all, it would be at the cost of losing a finance minister who apparently had orchestrated the cabinet reshuffle for havingcensured and denounced the regime for its misdeeds . BY ALAKESWARA
