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The Trade Union Co-ordinating Centre (TUCC) and the Combined People’s Movement (CPM) staged a protest rally yesterday (27) backed by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) at the Hyde Park in Colombo, making several demands of the Government and President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The demands included providing adequate allowances to public, private, and estate-sector employees, stopping the Government’s suppressive programme, revoking the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (PTA), and ensuring the people’s right to free health and education.

The protest commenced at 3 p.m. and was attended by several political party representatives, trade union activists, civil activists, and religious leaders. Among them were Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe, Inter-Company Employees’ Union (ICEU) President Wasantha Samarasinghe, College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS) President Ravi Kumudesh, Attorney-at-Law Manoj Nanayakkara, and Catholic priest Jeewantha Peiris.

Activists who spoke during the rally said that yesterday’s rally was the best example of the fact that the “aragalaya” (the people’s struggle) at the Galle Face Green which began by demanding the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is not yet over. They mentioned that even though the Government under the leadership of Wickremesinghe is trying to suppress the people by using the Police and the security forces, the Government will not be allowed to fulfill their needs by scaring the people through those programmes.

“The people’s struggle is not dead yet. Wickremesinghe and other politicians should know that the people will not always tolerate suppression. They will not always tolerate the Police and the Army attacking them. The events that happened in the country on 9 May and 9 July made that very clear. They are not ready to behave like cowards in front of politicians. Therefore, politicians including Wickremesinghe and the officials who act according to their orders seeking various gains such as promotions should remember that,” they said.

They further stated that the Government led by Wickremesinghe does not care about the fact that the people are suffering without being able to meet their food and other basic needs. They said that instead of providing solutions to the people’s issues, the Government is working to suppress the people who take to the streets to demand solutions to their problems. They said that Wickremesinghe, who entered Parliament through the National List and then became President with the support of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) which has been rejected by the people, has no power or moral right to suppress the people.

“We must commit ourselves to establishing a regime that will reclaim everything from people such as Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, former President’s Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, former Finance Ministry and Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle, and former Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal who destroyed the country, by bringing them before a court. For that, a General Election must be held immediately. The people should be given the opportunity to appoint a Government that they need. We have no faith in this Legislature. No matter what we do, they do what they want inside Parliament. They try to pass suppressive Bills,” claimed the activists.

The main demands that were pointed out by the activists included the provision of an adequate allowance to all Government, private and estate-sector employees, stopping the repressive programme of the Government led by Wickremesinghe and the protection of the right to expression, revoking the PTA, ensuring the better management of institutions pertaining to the sectors of fuel, ports and electricity, ensuring the right of the people to free health and education, sufficiently providing for the universities and higher education sector, and holding a Parliamentary Election as soon as possible.

On what grounds the majority of Parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) voted in favour of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill on October 21, while the so-called “strategist” of the party, Basil Rajapksa had been campaigning against it is yet to be known.
It was Basil who had until then been planning and executing all affairs of the Party. He was also said to be the “brain” behind the scuttling of the 22nd Amendment being debated in Parliament as late as on October 6 and 7, despite it being in the order paper of the House.

Until this Amendment was passed with 174 votes, majority members of the SLPP was not expected to cross the line so soon to defy the dictates of its powerful National Organiser, despite two small groups of the party and around 10 small parties having defected the ruling coalition. Besides, the Amendment deprived the dual citizens like Basil of the right to contest election in Sri Lanka. Then why did they vote for the Amendment?

There cannot be any policy decision that prompted them to vote, despite SLPP General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam having stated that his party cannot support the 22nd Amendment that negates the gist of the 20th Amendment brought in by the party in October 2020. Principled politics is a far-flung issue in Sri Lanka. One of the best case in point in Sri Lankan political history is that many MPs of the SLPP had voted for the 17th, 18, 19th and 20th Amendments to the Constitution which alternately curtailed and strengthened the powers of the President. Hence, various theories are now being floated to explain as to why they voted for the 22nd Amendment.

President Ranil Wickremsinghe, even after taking over the top-most job has been serious about the Amendment which was meant to strengthen the Parliament, by way of curtailing the powers of the President. He has been pushing the MPs of all political parties to support it. Since he had instiled a sense of security among the MPs of the SLPP by cracking down the anti-government protesters, they have decided to support the Amendment. This is one view.

Another theory is that the MPs had been in fear that the President might dissolve the Parliament once he is constitutionally empowered to do so, when the current Parliament completes two and a half year of its tenure, in February, next year. And they wanted an assurance from him not to do so. They even wanted a clause in the 22nd Amendment extending that duration from the existing two and a half years to four and a half years. And media quoted the President days ago as assuring that he would not heed anyone’s request to dissolve the Parliament next year, even the latter worships him traditionally offering a wad of betel.

The statement indicates a threat that he would dissolve the Parliament if they defeated the 22nd Amendment. Hence, they supported it. This is a stronger view than the former. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake also ridiculed the SLPP MPs after the passage of the Amendment claiming that they supported an amendment to the basic law of the country keeping their Parliamentary pension in mind, instead of the interests of the country. Besides, this is a good opportunity for the MPs of the SLPP to get into the good books of the President which might shower them later with powers, portfolios and perks.

A crack in the Rajapaksa family also seems to have contributed this development. It must be noted that Chamal, Namal and Sashindra of that family had voted in favour of the Amendment, meaning against Basil. And former President and the Leader of the SLPP Mahinda Rajapaksa was absent at the time of the voting. He might have been of the view that if Basil succeeded Wickremesinghe as President, Namal’s chances would be pushed decades away.

The MPs of the SLPP had voted in favour of the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Parliamentary vote for the election of the President on July 20, at the instance of Basil, but interestingly, exactly in three months they voted the 22nd Amendment ousting Basil from Parliament for good, at the instance of Wickremesinghe who so took over as President.

However, in fairness to the President it has to be pointed out that the President did not seem to be interested in the dual citizenship issue. He wanted to pass the provisions that empowered Parliament, the gist of the Amendment. He even requested the SLPP on October 19, two days prior to the adoption of the Amendment to vote for it inserting any provisions during the committee stage of the debate on it.

Hence, if the SLPP members were serious about the issues they seem to be worried about, they could sometimes have allowed the provisions on dual citizenship to continue and prevent the President from dissolving Parliament in two and half years. Though he is said to be a pro-Parliament politician and the 19th Amendment brought in under his premiership contained that four and half-year limit, the President also did not subscribe to their view to go for that same provision.

The main purpose of the 22nd Amendment which later became the 21st Amendment was overshadowed by the residual issues in the Amendment such as the dual citizen’s right to contest elections, throughout the social discourse on it. The Amendment which was initiated first by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in April in response to the people’s agitations for a “system change” was meant to bring back the provisions of the 19th Amendment. However, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) on Thursday said that the Amendment failed to revive the situation that prevailed prior to the 20th Amendment. Yet, the Opposition parties, SJB and the JVP voted for it considering the essence of it, claiming that it was somewhat better than the 20th Amendment.

Cracks seem to have emerged all over the SLPP and the Rajapaksa family which might be a windfall for the President. Using powers, portfolios, and perks he would now be able to attract MPs from SLPP and also from the SJB to his party’s fold.

In practical sense, whatever the laws that a government passes will serve their professed purposes only if commitment is evident on the part of the relevant officials and the leaders have the political will to achieve those purposes. It has to be recalled that the head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Shani Abeysekara was made a subordinate to a high ranking police officer in the South soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa took over as the President. It was clear then that it was not the independent decision of the independent Police Commission. And a member of the National Election Commission (NEC) openly called on the people on the eve of the 2020 general election not to vote for a particular political party. These are instances where the so-called independent commissions under the 19th Amendment were in fact not independent.

So long as people are not principled in achieving their rights, politicians will play politics with anything sacred to the masses. Hence, even Basil Rajapaksa might come again and roll back the effects of the 21st Amendment. Those who voted for the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and the 21st Amendments would not hesitate at all then to vote for another Amendment that would negate the 21st Amendment as well. He turned tables last time by forming the SLPP while his right to contest elections had been deprived of.

The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has outlined a $100 million fund for crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

The AIIB is also expected to announce a major support package for Pakistan at the upcoming COP summit following the country’s devastating floods.

AIIB President Jin Liqun said “In our uncertain era, one of the lingering pandemic disruptions and rising geopolitical tensions, we remain prepared to respond swiftly to help members who may fall prey to the volatile global economic conditions ahead”.

The AIIB has warned governments against building new fossil fuel power stations out of panic during the current global energy crisis, saying such moves could result in decades of environmental harm.

There is now a real risk that worried governments rush to open or reopen coal and other heavily polluting power stations to bolster their energy supplies, Jang Ping Thia, one of the AIIB’s lead economists, warned.

“We should avoid making serious mistakes in this panic,” he said. “Don’t let a one-year crisis lock you in for the next 25-30 years.”

Beijing-headquartered AIIB’s annual infrastructure finance report, published on Thursday, lays out its stance for what is shaping up to be a difficult United Nations Climate Change COP 27 summit in Egypt next month.

It called for heavily-polluting state-owned firms to be rapidly turned into green energy “leaders”, putting special focus on China, India and Indonesia, noting that a global net-zero transition would not succeed without their cooperation.

AIIB President Jin Liqun also gave a clear nod to what is likely to be the key point of tension in Egypt – that while richer countries have produced most of the CO2 and other greenhouse gases, it will be the world’s poorest countries that bear the brunt of climate change.

“Emerging and developing economies deserve more than just access to necessary financial and technical support to address the legacies of environmental injustice. They also deserve more attention,” Jin said.

China, which accounts for around 30% of global CO2 emissions, is the largest shareholder in the AIIB holding 26.5% of its voting power.

The report called for pollution-cutting technologies to be shared globally and for countries to stop subsidising fossil fuels – something many have done this year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring – so that a “meaningful carbon price” can emerge and make investing in fossil fuels more costly.

The bank also pledged support for countries now facing serious debt problems.

Election watchdog People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections has written to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena over the proposed amendments to the Local Authorities Election Act.

Executive Director of PAFFEREL Rohana Hettiarachchi in his letter has requested Prime Minister Gunawardena not to take any steps that will delay the conduct of the Local Authorities election.

Rohana Hettiarachchi said the Prime Minister led a Parliament Select Committee on Electoral Reforms which deliberated a number of issues and table recommendations.

The Executive Director of PAFFEREL said he also presented documentations to the Committee in order to amend the electoral system.

Rohana Hettiarachchi said the report of the committee was tabled only recently and now proposals have been made to appoint another committee.

He said this will undermine the committee and the observations of the Parliament Select Committee which was headed by the Prime Minister itself.

Executive Director of PAFFEREL Rohana Hettiarachchi noted that they do not oppose the move to amend the electoral system or the decision to reduce the number of councilors in local government bodies.

He said however under the pretext of reforms, delaying elections further is unacceptable. Rohana Hettiarachchi also noted that the Provincial Councils have been functioning without elected representatives for nearly five years while the Local Authorities election has been postponed for one year.

Executive Director of PAFFEREL Rohana Hettiarachchi therefore urged the Prime Minister not to take any steps that will prevent the conduct of Local Authorities election before the 19th of March 2023.

The Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, has instructed banks in the country to refrain from transactions with Sri Lanka through the ACU system, foreign media reported.

The central bank’s Foreign Exchange Policy Department issued a circular yesterday and sent it to top executives of banks, reports The Business Standard.

The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) is an arrangement through which participating countries settle import payments for intra-regional transactions.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are members of the ACU, which has headquarters in Tehran. The central banks of the countries have to make payments every two months.

If any Bangladeshi bank wants to settle a transaction with a Sri Lankan commercial bank, it can do that by ignoring the ACU system, the report further said.

–Agencies

Another batch of essential medicines will arrive in Sri Lanka from China today (27).

The Chinese Embassy in Colombo said the move come in a bid to support Sri Lanka in overcoming the medicine shortage.

Accordingly, two chartered flights of essential medicines worth Rs.1.8 billion gifted by China will arrive in Colombo today.

The Embassy noted that in June and September this year China donated medicines amounting to Rs.1.2 billion.