Harim Peiris

By Harim Peiris

(Published in Groundviews on 11th May 2022)

Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown requires urgent remedial measures and the political impasse created by a President and his administration, which both refuses to either take responsibility or credibly effect corrective policy measures, has placed Sri Lanka in the position of a terminally sick patient who isn’t being taken to hospital for the urgently required life-saving care.

Why President Gotabaya must go

Sri Lanka’s system of governance is not just an executive presidential system, we are the closest to an absolute presidency, like an absolute monarch, found anywhere in the world and especially after the SLPP brought in its signature 20th Amendment to the constitution, which further centralized power in the presidency. Sri Lanka under its 1978 constitution, as amended by the 20th Amendment has an executive presidency and a ceremonial prime minister, the very opposite of what we had from 1948-1978. Therefore, for any meaningful change of government power, it is the president who has to change. It is ironic that a president whose election pledge was “vistas of prosperity and splendor” has presided over the total destruction of Sri Lanka’s economy brought about by a combination of voodoo economics and the absolute refusal to consult, compromise and course correct. Even an A/L commerce student would be able to forecast that the combination of fiscal slippage and loose money, carried out in an absolutely unrestrained manner would have catastrophic consequences. The president needs to take responsibility for the havoc that has been wrought by his administration on Sri Lanka and transition himself out of power.

The fiasco of the Prime Minister’s resignation

Sri Lanka had a farcical resignation of members of the Cabinet as demonstrated by the fiasco of the resignation, re-appointment and re-resignation (the word created by our own recent experience) of Parliament’s deputy speaker. It is clear now that there is a deep division between the President and the Prime Minister, the former trying to put the responsibility for the economic meltdown on the ceremonial post of the Prime Minister, having failed to do so by getting the Cabinet to resign. It is equally clear, that the Prime Minister, is equally determined not to be the scape goat and fall guy for a situation, which he clearly believes was not solely of his making. The reality though is that the Sri Lankan public holds the Rajapakse’s as a ruling family collectively responsible for the sorry situation we find ourselves in today and is requiring a new future without them.

The other phenomena arising from the “aragalaya” is the discarding of the ideology of the SLPP, namely that of majoritarian ethno-religious nationalism. Just like the government of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike so discredited socialism that we are now socialist only in name, the downfall of the Rajapakses is also discrediting their ideology. The young people on the streets, want a new Sri Lanka to be inclusive, pluralistic and tolerant of diversity.

Violating the sovereignty of the people

The president some weeks ago, declared a state of emergency, with possibly the intent to prevent mass anti-government protests, which was resoundingly rejected by the people, who got on the streets anyway. The likelihood of the emergency being defeated in parliament saw the president withdrawing the measure two days later. Now, possibly egged on by hardliners running the ministry of defense, the president has again declared a state of emergency, even as the legal challenge to the prior declaration is still pending before the Supreme Court. As the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the resident diplomatic community noted in statements and social media, there is no justification at all for a state of emergency and using emergency regulations to stifle dissent is not what the emergency is designed for. We have a political and economic problem, not a military and security one. The LTTE and even the JVP insurrection posed an armed challenge to the State, the “aragalaya” poses a political challenge to the government. The people of Sri Lanka are sovereign and unleashing state violence on the people, engaged voicing their dissent is a violation of the sovereignty of the people. It will seriously and permanently diminish the military in the eyes of the citizenry.

Unleashing state security on the organized but non-partisan protest movement and seeking a sequel to the Rathupaswala shooting by the Army of unarmed civilians is a very unwise decision which the generals in the Defense ministry should seriously reconsider. The consequences are likely to be dire. India is bailing out Sri Lanka financially, much more than China, which is refusing to restructure their exorbitantly priced debt. The Indians are unlikely to want an escalation of the instability caused by state violence. The Sri Lankan Army still holds on to lucrative UN peacekeeping roles in Mali and elsewhere, even as there are growing calls for their use to be re-examined. A bloody crackdown on civilian protests will be the final nail in the coffin of Sri Lanka’s “peace keeping” operations. Sri Lanka’s Army commander is already a “sanctioned individual” under US law. It is not in the interests of Sri Lanka’s military to keep having a long list of officers as “sanctioned individuals”. Anything the military does now, will be in the center of our capital city, in the full glare of global publicity and recorded on countless smart phone videos.

Some in Sri Lanka, who should have known better wanted a Hitler type leader. It may be instructive to reflect on how that experience resulted in the destruction of Germany and the last days of the Berlin bunker. What we really need now is a Mandela, a unifier who brings us together, makes the difficult choices and navigates the uncharted waters ahead, as we seek the way back from the self-destruction, which was thrust upon us as a nation.