Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by Tisaranee Gunasekara
But to get the 19th Amendment through, the government needs the support of the
opposition.
The government does not command even a simple majority in parliament. And the
19thAmendment cannot be passed without a two-thirds majority. Therefore, in the
interests of creating the basic institutional and legal framework of good governance,
the government must maintain a non-antagonistic relationship with the opposition.
This would require a certain degree of give-and-take. And this give-and-take may well
include not proceeding too fast on bringing many a corrupt member of the former
regime to justice.
The choice is unpalatable but unavoidable. To pass the 19 th Amendment without
which good governance will remain a mere slogan the government needs the support
of around 40 to 50 members of the opposition. And several opposition members have
indicated that a slow approach to justice is the price for their continued corporation in
parliament. Therefore, if the 19th Amendment is to become a reality during the 100
Days, justice for past crimes may have to be de-prioritised or deferred, at least for a
while. Or else justice for past crimes can be prioritised and expedited, but only at the
risk of the 19thAmendment.
Given the current composition of the parliament, there is no happier way out of the
conundrum.
Far less explicable is the new governments decision to continue with some of the more
repressive policies of the Rajapaksas. Why renew the order giving police powers to the
military? Why extend by two years a Rajapaksa law which allows the police to detain
suspects for murder and other serious crimes sans a warrant for 48 hours? If the
government has some valid reason for these decisions, they must be explained to the
public.
The Rajapaksas treated voters like juveniles. They did not think they owed the public
the truth. The new government does.
The Right to Information Act, even if it is passed, will remain a dead letter if the new
government too believes in withholding necessary information from the public. The
weekly press conference must not go back to being exercises in lies, half-truths and
obfuscations. It is wrong; and it does not work.
It will help none but the Rajapaksas.
The consent of the people cannot be fossilised; it cannot be taken for granted. As VS
Naipul warned, Power came from the people. As high a man could be taken up, so
low when he lost power, he could be cast down[ii].
Port City and Future Economics
The controversy surrounding the real status of the Port City is illustrative of how
controversial matters should not be handled.
The UNP was strongly critical of the project, citing very valid financial, environmental
and political reasons. Ranil Wickremesinghe publicly pledged to scrap the project.
Early this month Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that the project will go ahead and
that the Environment Assessment was properly done. Then the PM announced that a
final decision is yet to be taken. Minister Kiriella told the media that the work on the
project has come to a halt automatically. Anyone who goes past the Galle Face knows
this is a lie, and a very inane one at that.
In the meantime the Vice President of China Construction Communication Company
(CCCC) Zhang Baozhong said that he had nothing to worry about the Port City and
that it will go ahead for sure[iii]. Is he aware of some truth unknown to the Lankan
public? Is that why despite the governments assertion that the work has come to a
halt, the work very obviously continues?
Is China already sovereign in the Port City?
There are so many unanswered questions about the Port City. Is it our version of the
Guantanamo Bay? What is the nature of the Agreement between the Rajapaksas and
the Chinese party? Which law will prevail in the piece of land leased to the CCCC for 99
years? Will it be Lankan law or Chinese law? If it is the latter, how is Colombo to
prevent Beijing from using the land for military purposes? What will be the Indian
reaction? Are we going to be the turf on which the two regional mammoths battle it
out?
What is the truth about the project? Is it environmentally sound or not? If the Port City
is not bad enough to be scrapped, wouldnt, shouldnt some credit for this not-reallybad project accrue to ex-President Rajapaksa? If the project has major flaws, and the
government is unable to cancel it, the people must be told why. If the government fails
to tell the truth to the people, it will do itself considerable discredit.
Another potential danger is the proposed IMF bailout, probably an unavoidable
measure, given the Rajapaksas financial depredations and their effect on the national
economy. But this must not mean a return to the policies of austerity. Austerity, in a
neo-liberal context, means nothing more than burdening the already overburdened
bottom layers of society. The result is a slow but steady evaporation of the popular
consensus necessary for democratic transformation and a re-legitimisation of antidemocratic and racist ideas.
Public opinion is not a monolith but a pendulum. And the Jam-tomorrow economics
of austerity can give the discredited cause of ethno-religious racism a new lease of life.
The danger is particularly acute in Sri Lanka, where a National Socialist variety of anticapitalism has had a strong historical presence. If the new government embraces
austerity at the IMFs urging, if it asks the poor and the middle classes to tighten their
belts, again, the brand of anti-capitalism which blames all Sinhala woes on avaricious
Tamil, Muslim and Christian capitalists would make a triumphant comeback.
At its head we may see the familiar figure of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
[i] http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/09/revealed-wealth-gap-oecdreport
http://www.oecd.org/inclusive-growth/All-on-Board-Making-Inclusive-GrowthHappen.pdf
[ii] India: A Million Mutinies Now
[iii] http://colombogazette.com/2015/02/11/china-sure-port-city-will-continue/
Posted by Thavam