Qua Vadis Sri Lanka – where are we heading?

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake

Preamble

The Government seems to have now realised the winning of election based on attacking previous Governments of the past 76 years was easier than governing the State. They tactically leveraged the momentum of 2022 Aragalaya to their advantage, dropping a load of garbage, filling the ears of masses with anger and hatred, assuring to fulfil the immediate unthinkable promises, pledges, expectations of the public in short term with the change of Government. During the period lapsed since the swearing in of the President the mandate NPP talks about was depleting at a significant rate.  

Political campaign

The two political campaigns, both presidential and parliamentary were very intense and challenging, one party capitalised on addressing State corruption, political interferences, bribes and underhand deals to clean up a hitherto dysfunctional system. This political group very well communicated and inculcated this popular theme in the minds of the most vulnerable and marginalised especially in the peripheries of the society, the majority. 

Then Government and the Opposition miserably failed to understand the immediate needs of the people but focused on economy and economic revival in moving forward. The presentations of an economic revival model have not well pitched to the ordinary folks in the communities and was high-level. I quote my personal experience here, while I attempted to explain the haircut on debts and MLB (macro-link-bond) it was hard even to convince the learned people who were my close friends. In such situations none of the ordinary folks would have understood these modalities of revival process although they are basic mathematics. On the contrary, the party won the election vehemently opposing the IMF package taking forward and promised to provide abundance of relief irrespective of the terms and conditions therein. This was well received by the majority at the election and NPP received a thumping majority never seen in the recent political history. 

Pre-election commitments

Pre-election commitments of NPP were, in a nutshell, to build a “Rich country and beautiful life for the citizens”, meaning: having peace, security, equity and abundance of facilities fulfilling the needs of the public. 

The rest of the two main parties focused on building prosperity through economic revival based on stabilisation then followed by growth, furthermore provide relief to vulnerable people. 

The two main themes were strongly competed in their respective election platforms but were unsuccessful in addressing the opposite theme by two main contenders to make an impact especially at the ground level. As mentioned, the economic theme was less of an importance to majority of the communities. I quote; one of the current NPP members who contested and won from Colombo district had said he would not win if contested other than Colombo. This proves that NPP has rightly targeted the issues and well delivered to have a lasting effect during the election. It is now questionable that same sentiment prevails among those who supported.

Change of Government

The change of Government has given unprecedented power and momentum with great hope and belief among the people who voted and to the opposites too. However, the past three months have seen delayed actions and blame game by the elected Government to redress the growing public displeasure, quoting the inheritance of a bankrupt economy, corruption of bureaucrats and state inertia, resultant of lengthy processes, red tapes and passing from one table to another without decisions in attending to public grievances. 

The controversies around the qualifications of elected Government MPs have further fuelled community resentment and wasted parliamentary hours pointing fingers to opposites. 

Is it not unfair to question the Government what studies NPP had carried out to assess the deficiencies and inefficiencies of the State machinery since the formation of NPP coalition, many years ago? This is a part of negligence and incapability despite being advertised having a learned group of members in their camp competent to move forward to bring change and transform leading to prosperity. Is this Gota phase 2, appears to be an inexperienced team again?

It was sad to note what had been said and promised prior at election have been grossly neglected with no public compassion.

Post-election actions

Although the Government promised to accelerate recovery and restoration of the bankrupt economy, it is moving at snail-pace. To date no concessions in terms of cost of essentials have been given to the public contrary to price increases post-election, a sad situation is to wait patiently, eagerly until the Budget is presented January-February 2025. At the very early days, recovery of Government’s vehicle hit the headlines of most of the daily newspapers, also social media groups, praising the Government action. Upon inauguration of the 10th Parliament, questions arose of the validity of the qualifications particularly of the Speaker; this further exacerbated some of the MPs adding post nominals to decorate and exalt their status that has not been seen over the past 76 years of Sri Lanka Parliament culture.

Have these elected MPs taken office to promote personal credentials or to carry out their responsibilities?

IMF progress

Making reference to the debate on “A Decisive Forum on Sri Lanka’s Economic Future” facilitated by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in late August 2024, the NPP member vehemently opposed the IMF program and at multiple instances challenged other panellists. NPP stance was that to “tear-off” the basic premise of the IMF agreement which constitutes the DSA (Debt Sustainable Agreement) and present an alternative DSA prepared by their experts and academics targeting on preventing revenue leakages hitherto overlooked and neglected. However, as a safety measure NPP stated that if elected, it will not derail the IMF program. Barrage of questions were raised to NPP representative too, watching the facial expressions and body language(s) of the audience proved itself the validity, legitimacy and completeness of the answers provided. 

The current stance of the Government on IMF-DSA appears intact without any alteration despite hearing at various media they are tinkering around the periphery. The promises made during pre-election in terms of reduction in traffics, service charges of utilities, tax reduction of essentials and PAYE still remain as promises and not fulfilled despite governing the State over 100 days. Lately we’ve seen the growing public outcry in social media platforms on daily basis demonstrating the frustration. 

SOE restructure

The Government policy was to restructure none of the SOEs as opposed to privatisation leading to efficiency, productivity minimising losses, etc. Awaiting to see the modalities of the said transformation. Will CBSL also be influenced departing from independence? 

Geopolitics

Nevertheless, the NPP while in Opposition strongly criticised the influence of geopolitics globally and in particular in our own Asian region, the recent visit to India and scheduled visit to China were indicative of possible alignment to these giant economies – critics see as a compete U-turn in the light of not clearly articulating the Government position already agreed with and to be discussed. The Indian visit hallmarks the agreement to ECTA which endangers Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, challenges from non-aligned movement. China has always being a troublesome and hard negotiator, it is doubtful whether MoUs will be of favour or win-win for Sri Lanka. I hope the left aligned NPP Government will rethink its strategies not accepting what these countries have been offered but to ensure what is on the table are tradable commodities with a win-win situation. 

Political appointments

As usual several key appointments were made based on party affliction and friendship, the most notable one was Secretary to the President which was not filled from senior SLAS officers but against the traditional norms. This practice of political appointees was vehemently criticised and opposed when they were in Opposition and now has changed their stance. Retention of Secretary to the Treasury and Governor of CBSL, having criticised their alignment to previous Government was a standout realising the criticality of moving forward with the agreed IMF program which is strategically important to drive, achieve the interim benefits together with long-term outcomes. 

Conclusions

It has become a routine task finding and pinpointing each activity Government performs and make others laughable and cause humiliation. The recent one was hoisting the Sri Lanka flag by a deputy minister tying the tail of the lion to the flag hoisting pole. Should they be more careful in the climate of fault finding by critics due to total negligence by the individuals MPs, ministers and deputies? The grand opening of the “Clean Sri Lanka” program by the State should be acted swiftly and on ongoing basis thus preventing critique in the days to come in future. Do these initiatives need publicity? Haven’t seen other countries make such media attention when programs are launched. This is third world mentality. 

Since this Government came to power, it has progressively brought culprits to the law and order and was successful remanding them for questioning the accused. To date none of the cases have been concluded and still remain as accused. Expediting the court process is a must rather than exhibiting and making statements. In the Parliament one Opposition member, a firebrand, questioned about the “400 files” in possession of the Government and sometime lukewarm action on selected cases. 

The latest criticism directed to public sector staff by few Ministers and Deputies, reveals the inability to harmoniously and consensually work with them. This reads that the Government expects all the NPP-JVP politburo decisions to be carried out by the officials –will initiate tsunami followed by a clean-up? Likewise, it is also vital to clean up the ears of the public who had been loaded with garbage during the elections, convincing the ground realities Government is confronting with – a sort of damage control.

The withdrawal of gazette notice stopping class teachers to provide tuition/extra classes of his/her own students by charging fees. This is a humiliation and raises the question on the power of the Prime Minister. In many occasions during various TV programs the NPP members reiterated that despite having Ministers for subjects, the decisions are made collectively and not by individuals (collectively by whom, Cabinet or JVP-NPP politburo?), this decision making may be acceptable to issues affecting the country as a whole but not for basic subject matters, however, in this situation the gazette has rightly addressed the educational needs of the students. 

The writer too had experienced such issues more than five decades ago, the favouritism to classmates who attend the teachers’ after-hour tuition classes. 

Finally to end, an interesting quote which advocates freedom for success: “No one invented Capitalism unlike Communism, it is a common freedom where humans act, associate, cooperate, build and create without central direction” – Jeffrey Tucker, an American libertarian writer and publisher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2GfCBwMo38.