EDITORIAL

In Dire Straits

Few people have yet come to terms with the fact that Sri Lanka is in deep trouble. True, life goes on with every semblance of normality, but beneath this smooth veneer is hidden a crisis of governance that knows few parallels in our post-independence history.

We have a President desperate to cling to power; so much so that she has had herself secretly sworn in a second time so as to win a further year in office. Now, she seeks to pay virtually any price to buy over opposition MPs - blackmailing them if necessary - so as to amend the constitution and thereby retain power. We have a government that is fretful of governance because it lacks a parliamentary majority. Yet again, parliamentary sittings have been postponed for lack of government business, this time for more than a month, to July 20, by which time the government hopes with increasing futility that a few opposition Johnnies will accept the lucre on offer and cross the well of the House.

Obsessed with securing a majority, the government is fretful of bringing a single bill into parliament: even if the opposition were to support such a bill, the JVP-PA alliance clearly does not want to be seen to be living off opposition hand-outs. Now, in its desperation, the alliance is blundering, and big-time, too. Last Tuesday's events in parliament were, of course, a national disgrace. The futile attempt to prevent by force an MP nominated to parliament from taking his oaths did the government little good, for the government itself evidently failed to recognise that parliament is supreme. True, a district court had stayed the MP in question from taking oaths, but district courts cannot dictate to parliament - indeed, not even the Supreme Court can - except as clearly provided for in the constitution.

If indeed the government thinks that the MP in question, the Ven. Akmeemana Dayaratana Thero, was wrong to take his oaths, let's see them go back to the district court and ask that the MP, not to mention the Speaker be charged with contempt. We would dearly like to see the outcome of such a case. If the government has the courage of its convictions, go on, file for contempt. But they will not, because they know as well as anyone that parliament was well within its rights when swearing in the monk.

We at The Sunday Leader have never been in favour of religion being mixed up in politics and have made clear our expectation of a completely secular polity in Sri Lanka. Yet, we have nine monks in parliament, a fact that has greatly lowered the world's opinion of our nation, reducing us to the status of Ayatollah-driven clown 'democracies' like Iran. That however, is no excuse to assault anyone, especially a monk. Granted, the JVP is irked by the fact that eight of the nine monks have chosen to tread a different path to that of the alliance, but that is no excuse to manhandle and assault any human being. The UPFA MPs have certainly shown themselves the equal in every way of the sexually perverted US GIs in Abu Ghraib Prison, squeezing the monk's genitals and causing him to vomit no less than 14 times and be hospitalised for several days. If these are the sick minds in our legislature, God save democracy! Sadly, even a section of the private media has come to the miscreants' defence, saying that the monks suffered from blows aimed at other opposition MPs. How this could be anatomically possible baffles the imagination.

Now Kumaratunga has announced that she will take action against any MPs who were responsible for the violence in parliament. Well Madam, you do not have far to look. Just ask Sirasa Television for their footage of that memorable morning, and being the public-spirited citizens they are, we have no doubt they will let you have it. Be that as it may, no sane person can doubt that Kumaratunga will not lift a finger against a single Alliance MP. So tenuous is her minority government that offending a single member of parliament, be he ever so guilty, is something she will not seriously contemplate even in her sleep. Go on, Madam, put your money where your mouth is and show the nation that we are wrong. Action, forsooth!

At any rate, it is gratifying that the government's strong-arm tactics backfired miserably, for Tuesday's assault only served to unify an opposition that showed every sign of serious cracks. Now, 114 MPs have signed a petition of solidarity in opposition, with two more to subscribe upon taking their oaths giving lie to the Alliance's claim of a majority. So panicked by the defeat was President Kumaratunga that she immediately invited the ITAK MPs for talks last Thursday, and offered to negotiate without further ado, the LTTE's  Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) they want so badly. No talk of "core issues" now. In doing so, she was acting true to form: when the Alliance lost the Speaker's vote on April 22, she panicked into inviting the Norwegian peacemakers (whom her party had earlier derisorily alluded to as "salmon eating busybodies") back to Sri Lanka. Chandrika Kumaratunga has proved that nothing stimulates her thought process so much as a swift kick up the pants.

One wonders what the JVP now has to say about the President offering the LTTE self government without so much as mentioning it to them? Do they subscribe to her offer? If they do not, can they be part of her government? Or, are they just greedy for office and hungry for power? When the ISGA concept was first mooted to the UNF government, the JVP threatened to come onto the streets and indeed they did. Where is all their big talk now? Wimal Weerawansa and Tilvin Silva have hidden themselves in the ample pleats of Kumaratunga's saree.

It is time the Alliance dropped its claim to an overwhelming victory at the April 2 polls and came to terms with the fact that 54 per cent of the country voted against it, which reality is reflected in their having a minority in parliament. But the opposition, especially the UNF, cannot sit on those laurels indefinitely. It was ousted from government last April primarily because of its inability to communicate effectively with the rural electorate, something that needs a lot of imagination, work and patience. The opposition in general - and Ranil Wickremesinghe in particular - would do well to remember that they need to take a message out to the electorate. They have failed miserably to do so. The JVP is right when it says that the results of the coming provincial council elections will show where the public's sympathies lie. It is the opposition's job to inform the people of the peril in which the nation finds itself, and to seek a popular mandate to bring the Alliance's excesses to an end. It cannot do that by fighting shy of the media and hiding from the masses.

Let's hear it from the opposition, demanding that the Alliance keep its manifesto promises to give tens of thousands of jobs, subsidise everything that matters and reduce the cost of living. Let's hear it from them giving lie to the multitude of untruths being spread by the state media. Let's hear it from them as to what their alternatives are. Indeed, let's hear something, anything.

Last week the rupee crossed the Rubicon vis-…-vis the US dollar, passing the Rs. 100 mark. With international aid all but cut off, the government has now started borrowing money in the local market, driving interest rates up. Soon, we will see the state media telling the nation that these are great achievements of the Alliance government. After all, Middle East workers will now get more rupees for the dirham and pensioners will get more interest on their deposit accounts. This is precisely what they did when Kumaratunga succeeded in sending the rupee from Rs 48 to the dollar, up to Rs 96 between 1994 and 2001, to say nothing of interest rates from 7 to 18 per cent and more. But the fact is that we are in the economic doldrums once again, and rhetoric alone cannot get us out.

Sri Lanka is in dire straits, and headed on a path to disaster unless brave men and women come out to defend truth, justice and propriety. Inasmuch as we urge the government to get down to work and deliver on its multitude of promises, let's see the opposition do its bit to inform the masses of what is expected of them.