Assertive Wickremesinghe Ignores Protests

By proroguing Parliament, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has given the Parliamentarians, and the country at large, a reminder of the power of the presidency. There was no evident reason for the President to suddenly decide to prorogue Parliament. More than 40 Parliamentary committees, including important ones concerning public finances, enterprises and accounts have ceased to function.

The President’s office has said that when Parliament reconvenes on February 8, after the celebration of the country’s 75th Independence Day on February 4, the President will announce new policies and laws, which will be implemented until the centenary celebrations of Sri Lanka's independence in 2048. Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew transformed Singapore from a relatively underdeveloped and impoverished agrarian society into one of the world’s most developed countries in the same 25 years that the President has set for Sri Lanka.

President Wickremesinghe has been getting increasingly assertive regarding his position on issues. Recently he attended a large gathering of Muslim clerics, where he was firm in saying that society needs to modernise, and so do religious practices. He has also held fast to his positions on reviving the economy and resolving the economy.

There have been widespread protests against the tax hikes being implemented which have eroded the purchasing power of taxpayers. First they had to absorb the impact of inflation that rose to a rate of 80 percent at the time the country reneged on its foreign debt repayments and declared bankruptcy. Now they find their much diminished real incomes being further reduced by a tax rate that reaches 36 percent.

But the government is not relenting. President Wickremesinghe, who holds the finance minister’s portfolio, is going against popular sentiment in being unyielding on the matter of taxes. He appears determined to force the country away from decades of government policies that took the easy route of offering subsidies rather than imposing taxes to use for government expenses and development purposes.

In Sri Lanka, the government’s tax revenue is less than 8 percent, whereas in comparable countries the tax revenue is around 20 to 25 percent. The long term cost of living off foreign borrowings rather than generating resources domestically through taxation has been evident for a long while in the slow growth of the economy even prior to the economic collapse.

The problems of corruption and wealth acquired by political means such as the reduced taxes on sugar, import and export scams, hoarding foreign currency need to also be taken up.

Another area in which the President appears to have taken the decision to stand firm is the issue of finding a solution to the ethnic conflict. This problem has proven to be unresolvable by governments and political leaders who give deference to ethnic nationalism.

Being an ethnic nationalist in the context of Sri Lanka’s ethnic and religious divisions has been a sure way of gaining votes and securing election victories. No leader in Sri Lanka has to date been able to implement the compromise solutions that they periodically arrived at, the last being the 13th Amendment. Earlier ones included the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact of 1957 and the Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact of 1965 which could not even be started to be implemented.

At the All Party meeting that he summoned to discuss the ethnic conflict and national reconciliation, President Wickremesinghe took the bull by the horns. He exchanged words with ethnic nationalist Parliamentarians who sought to challenge his legitimacy to be making changes.

He said, “It is my responsibility as the Executive to carry out the current law. For approximately 37 years, the 13th Amendment has been a part of the constitution. I must implement or someone has to abolish it by way of a 22nd Amendment to the Constitution by moving a private member’s Bill. If the bill was voted against by the majority in the House, then the 13th amendment would have to be implemented. We can’t remain in a middle position saying that either we don’t implement the 13th amendment or abolish it.”

The 13th Amendment has not been fully implemented since it was passed by Parliament with a 2/3 majority in 1987. Successive governments, including ones the President has been a member of variously as a minister or Prime Minister, have failed to implement it in a significant manner, especially as regards the devolution of police and land powers.

When Parliament reconvenes on February 8 after prorogation, President Wickremesinghe will be provided the opportunity to address both the Parliament and the country on the way forward. Having demonstrated the power of the presidency to prorogue Parliament at his discretion, he will be able to set forth his vision of the solution to the ethnic conflict and the roadmap that needs to be followed to get to national reconciliation.

It is significant that on February 20, the President will also acquire the power to dissolve Parliament at his discretion. By proroguing Parliament, the President has sent a message to both Parliamentarians and the larger society that he will soon have the power to dissolve Parliament with the same suddenness that he prorogued Parliament.

On February 20, the Parliament would have been in existence for two and half years. The 21st Amendment empowers the President to dissolve Parliament after two and a half years. Most of the Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling party are no longer in a position to go to their electorates let alone canvass for votes among the people. Under these fraught circumstances, they would not wish to challenge the President or his commitment to implementing the 13th Amendment in full.

On the other hand, the taming of Parliament by the President does not guarantee the success of an accommodation on the ethnic conflict and a sustainable political solution. The ethnic conflict evokes the primordial sentiments of the different ethnic and religious communities.

Political parties and politicians are often portrayed as the villains who led the country to decades of ethnic conflict and to war. However, the conflict in the country predates the political parties. In 1928, in response to demands from community leaders in Ceylon as it was then known, the British colonial rulers sent a commission to the country to ascertain whether it was ready for self-rule.

The assessment was negative, the Donoughmore commission wrote that the representatives of the biggest community held to the position that their interest was the national interest. All the representatives of the smaller communities who were divided one against the other were united against the biggest.

Then as now these were the leaders who sought advantage for themselves, even while people at the community level coexisted. An important role therefore devolves upon civil society not to fall prey to the divisions that come down the years.

There is a need for enlightened leaders of civil society to work with commitment to explain to the people the coexistence that existed and continues to exist at the level of the grassroots and the need for a political solution and inter-ethnic power sharing at the higher levels that the 13th Amendment makes possible. There were signs of this during the height of the Aragalaya when the youth leading the protests called publicly for equal citizenship and non-discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion and caste.

They pledged not to be divided by ethnic nationalist politicians for their narrow electoral purposes. It is ironic that the government led by President Wickremesinghe has made these enlightened youth leaders the target of a campaign of persecution instead of making them a part of the solution by constructively engaging with them and issuing a general amnesty.