Author: TELO Admin

A fundamental rights petition was filed by the President of the Inter Company Employees Union and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) member Wasantha Samarasinghe and five others before the Supreme Court yesterday against the attempts by the Government to restructure domestic debt.

The petition filed against 46 respondents consisting of State officials requested the court to issue an order that would prevent the curtailment of loans obtained by the Government from the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) in the proposed local debt restructuring endeavours intended to be undertaken by the Government.

Among the 46 respondents named in the petition was the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Officials of the EPF and ETF. Attorney-at-Law Sunil Watagala appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

Speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court premises, Watagala said part of the funds obtained from the EPF and thereafter invested by the Government is now to be cut down under its plans to restructure domestic debt. “This will affect both government and private sector employees. This move violates the 14 (1) (g) provision in our constitution,” he claimed. The Counsel said therefore the petitioner is requesting the court to issue an order preventing the Government from cutting down its loans obtained from the funds.

Accountability remains the “fundamental gap” in Sri Lanka’s attempts to deal with the past, a senior U.N. official has said while warning that “as long as impunity prevails, Sri Lanka will achieve neither genuine reconciliation nor sustainable peace.”

Referring to the Sri Lankan government’s plans to set up a Truth Commission, to probe allegations of war crimes and grave human rights violations during the country’s civil war, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif noted that Sri Lanka has “witnessed too many ad hoc commissions” in the past that failed to ensure accountability.

“What is needed is a coherent plan that connects the different elements of truth, redress, memorialisation, accountability and creates the right enabling environment for a successful and sustainable transitional justice process,” she said, in an oral update to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.

While it is fundamentally the Sri Lankan authorities’ responsibility to directly acknowledge past violations and undertake credible investigations and prosecutions the international community can – and should – play complementary roles in the process until the “accountability deficit” remains, Ms. Al-Nashif said, amid known resistance within Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-majority to any international participation.

Further, pointing to recent arrests of a stand-up comedian and a Tamil legislator, the U.N. official said the past months witnessed “the old reflex of using draconian laws to curtail opposition and control civic space, with a heavy-handed approach to protests far too often”.

While “encouraging” President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s dialogue with Tamil political parties, and “welcoming” his promise to stop land acquisition for archaeological, forestry or security purposes, the U.N. official underscored the need for new laws, policies and practices that will “make good on these promises and bring about tangible changes”.

Commenting on the island’s persisting economic crisis, the Deputy Chief of Human Rights observed that it continues to severely impact the “rights and well-being of many Sri Lankans”. Terming the International Monetary Fund’s $ 2.9 billion-support an “important first step”, she called for “robust safety nets and social protection measures”, in order to ensure that “the burden of reforms does not further compound inequalities.”

Referring to last year’s historic people’s uprising [Janatha Aragalaya] in the island nation, that ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Ms. Al-Nashif noted that the “full potential for the historic transformation that would address long-standing challenges has yet to be realised.”

The Chief Government Whip has informed all Parliamentarians representing the ruling party not to leave Colombo within next week starting from today (June 26).

Accordingly, the MPs have been notified to remain in Colombo by cancelling all other visits outside Colombo including overseas travel, according to sources.

The notice has reportedly been made personally via phone calls, since a debt restructuring proposal is scheduled to be tabled in the Parliament for adoption this week, as per the political sources.

Furthermore, a special meeting of the representatives of the ruling party will take place on Wednesday (June 28) at the Presidential Secretariat, after President Ranil Wickremesinghe has returned to the island, following his ongoing foreign visit.

Political sources also stated that the Parliament is likely to be convened next Saturday (July 01) or Sunday (July 02), considering it as an urgent need to table the debt restructuring proposal in the Parliament.

The Committee on Parliamentary Affairs will meet on June 27, in order to arrive at a decision regarding the matter, according to the parliamentary source.

The private member’s Bill that has been presented by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran to amend the Provincial Council Elections Act is in a way an attempt to test President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s integrity. It would be interesting to note how the President would respond to it.
The Bill seeks to annul the highly controversial amendment that was introduced to the Provincial Councils Elections Act in 2017 in order to introduce mixed election system for the provincial councils and revert to the Proportional Representation (PR).

It is not that the TNA is against the mixed electoral system, but the 2017 amendment has become a stumbling block to provincial council elections and it has prevented the said elections for the past six years and apparently for the years to come. The significance of the Bill is that it seeks the elections for the provincial councils under a President who was instrumental to the disruption of the same elections.

In September, 2017 the United National Party (UNP)-led government was to adopt a Bill called 20th Amendment to the Constitution which provided for the elections for all nine provincial councils to be held on a same day, instead of holding them on a staggered basis. However, the Supreme Court said that the Bill would delay elections for some provincial councils which the court ruled illegal. Then the government abandoned the Bill in toto, indicating what the government really wanted was nothing but the
deferral of elections.

It is not that the TNA is against the mixed electoral system, but the 2017 amendment has become a stumbling block to provincial council elections and it has prevented the said elections for the past six years and apparently for the years to come

Then the government in the same month presented another Bill – Provincial Councils Elections Amendment Bill – in Parliament to make 30% of female representation mandatory. While the committee stage debate on the Bill was on, the government sneaked in an amendment to the Bill which provided for the mixed electoral system for the provincial councils. In a practical sense, the amendment needed postponement of provincial council elections for want of a delimitation process. Thus, the government achieved what it failed to achieve through the 20A.
A delimitation commission for provincial councils was then appointed under the chairmanship of K. Thavalingam, the former Surveyor General which handed over its report to Minister Faiszer Musthpha in August, 2018. However, since Parliament failed to ratify it with a two thirds majority vote, a review committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as per the law. But the committee never handed over its report to the President despite the law stipulating to present it in two months. Thus, the elections for the provincial councils are being dragged on. It is this amendment that Sumanthiran’s private members Bill is seeking to repeal.

No Tamil party in the north and the east, except for the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) believes that the provincial council system can solve their problems. They demand a more comprehensive power sharing mechanism. Yet, in the light of their demand not seeming to be met in the foreseeable future, they have been since lately demanding to hold the provincial council elections, as a short-term transitional solution. When President Wickremesinghe told in November last year that he would solve the ethnic problem before the 75th Independence Day which fell on February 4 this year, the Tamil parties told him to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in full including holding provincial council elections before January 31. Sumanthiran’s Bill seems to have emanated from that demand.
Two issues apparently stand in this Bill’s way. One is the lack of integrity and political will on the part of the government in respect of resolving the ethnic problem and the other being its fear of facing the people at an election.

President Wickremesinghe called on all political parties in Parliament during the budget debate in November last year to get together to resolve the ethnic problem by the 75th anniversary of the Independence of Sri Lanka. When Tamil parties demanded the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution including holding provincial council elections prior to it, he agreed to it during a discussion with them on December 13 last year. He even expressed his willingness to discuss the implementation of 13th Amendment immediately. However, while the talks with the Tamil parties on the matter were still going on, he forgot what he agreed to and told a gathering in Jaffna on the National Thai Pongal Day (January 15) that the 13A would be implemented fully within the next two years.

Ruling parties presented two Bills seeking changes in LG elections laws while the Election Commission had announced the elections for those councils. President Wickremesinghe even after his party had tendered nominations for the elections said the elections are not legally announced

Forgetting that statement as well he, during this year’s May Day rally of his party, the UNP, at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium said that an agreement would be reached on finding a lasting solution to the ethnic problem within the course of this year, while stressing the fact that resolving the matter is a prerequisite to the economic development of the country. This lack of consistency in his statements seems to have discouraged the Tamil parties.

On the other hand, the number of hurdles put up by the government against the local government elections which were to be held on March 9 indicates the ruling parties’ fear of any election. They attempted to put off LG elections in the guise of reducing the number of members of the LG bodies from 8000 to 4000. Then, in last December they wanted to appoint a Parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reforms, despite a PSC on the same matter having handed over its report six months ago. A retired army official who is believed to be a supporter of one of the two ruling parties – the UNP and the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP) – filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking the postponement of local council elections. Ruling parties presented two Bills seeking changes in LG elections laws while the Election Commission had announced the elections for those councils. President Wickremesinghe even after his party had tendered nominations for the elections said the elections are not
legally announced.

Finally, they succeeded in postponing the elections by not providing funds for the polls using executive powers. Hence, it is clear that the two ruling parties are hell bent on preventing any election being held at this juncture where the popularity of both parties is at its lowest ebb, due to the economic crisis. For that very reason it is also clear that they would not allow the PC elections too being held, no matter they are vital in terms of power devolution or reconciliation that the UNP has been bragging to be committed to. Even the passage of MP Sumanthiran’s Bill, for these very reasons is, in the balance.

Police and Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Minister Jeevan Thondaman have traded accusations over the latter’s intervention with the Bogawanthalawa Police, following the arrest of a 28-year-old person involved in a dispute with the manager of a state bank in the area. The police arrested the suspect in Bogawantalawa town on 22 June, hours after the bank manager lodged a complaint.

Police said Minister Thondaman and a group of supporters had arrived at Bogawantalawa on 24 June in the late afternoon and berated police officers for taking the suspect, named Kalaichelvam, into custody. Hatton District Judge and Magistrate M Farookdeen has remanded the suspect till 27 June, pending investigations.

When The Island raised the issue with Minister Thondaman’s Office, a spokesperson said that the Minister had called for an impartial inquiry as the police had allegedly assaulted the suspect when he was taken into custody. The Minister had taken up the issue because the police had allegedly committed an excess, he said.

Jeevan Thondaman successfully contested the Nuwara Eliya District at the last general election on the SLPP ticket. The CWC MP was accommodated in the Cabinet in January this year by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sources said that Minister Thondaman had summoned the OIC of the Bogawanthalawa Police Station Chief Inspector Sampath Bandara and three police officers who carried out the arrest.

The Minister has demanded the immediate transfer of the three policemen out of the Bogawantalawa Police Station and to assign one of them to the CWC main office at Kotagala.

Minister Thondaman has threatened to discontinue water supply to the Bogawantalawa Police Station, unless his demands are met.Hatton SP H.N. M. Dehigama, who arrived at the scene, had told Minister Thondaman that the officers couldn’t be transferred until the conclusion of an internal investigation. The senior officer said that the investigation was based on video footage of the arrest now on social media platforms.

Sources said that the suspect had inquired about the bank balance of another person and an argument had erupted when bank workers declined to grant his request, pointing out that it was illegal to release such information to a third party.

The government has decided to commence discussions regarding the proposal to cancel the nominations submitted for the 2023 Local Government election.

State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, Janaka Wakkumbura stated that he expects to take up the matter into discussion with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Prime Minister within the next few weeks.

A proposal has been submitted to the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and of Local Government to cancel the nominations which were submitted for the 2023 LG election.

Discussions have reportedly been scheduled with political parties and the MPs representing the Parliament regarding the relevant proposal.

Meanwhile, due to the continuous postponement of the LG election, various issues have arisen regarding the public employees who have submitted nominations, and as a result, several individuals have requested to cancel the relevant nominations.

However, State Minister Wakkumbura further mentioned that a special proposal should be passed in the Parliament for this purpose, adding that the government hopes to seek legal advice regarding the matter.