Editorial

As the 2024 elected JVP-NPP appeared to be settling in after a year in the seat of government, their ‘Rendezvous with Destiny’ to change the political landscape was sent into a tailspin in just 24 hours by a natural disaster: a cyclone turned out to be their tormentor, not the political opposition they were hounding all year long.

In relief work, complaints are mounting that it is relying more on its party cadres and that they are dictating terms, overriding the grassroots niladharis (officials).

The governing party began losing its lustre, and mass support waned not long after assuming office. The local council election results last year showed the decline had started very early. The councils that were elected were completely distorted with no clear victors and losers, replete with jockeying by all contestants in prestige battles. The President, while campaigning, made it a point to urge people to vote for his party lest they be deprived of Central Government support.

Many councils under Opposition control were bereft of this support even for cyclone relief work. Those under the ruling party’s control couldn’t get their budgets passed. Either way, the end result is that many of the local councils are dysfunctional today. So much for the elections everyone wanted.

Is that what the Provincial Councils are going to produce in elections pledged for this year?

With those in the Opposition believing results favourable to them will further erode the Government’s standing in the country, yet with no guarantee that they are going to romp home clear winners given the continuing divisions within their ranks, it is very likely that Provincial Councils will also go the same way as the local councils. This will be the antithesis of devolution and decentralised power, with political dogfights the order of the day, elected councillors jumping like frogs from one side to another for various considerations, and the country heading for disastrous consequences.

The downside of not holding provincial elections and allowing a central government to hold all executive and parliamentary power is the tendency to concentrate all authority with the new elite in office. The Government is showcasing the drift towards authoritarian one-party rule—weaponising the police to take revenge against opposition politicians, selective prosecutorial decision-making, efforts at manipulating independent commissions and showing signs of increasing intolerance to criticism.

The Government will need to get over this newfound arrogance in office among some of its heavyweights and rethink how to avoid another election this year, which will be an utter waste of public funds, serving no purpose to man or beast, and only see the politicians in the news.

Very little is discussed of the effectiveness of these councils, which merely drain public funds in salaries and expenses.

If there is going to be a review of the electoral system for the Provincial Councils, it might be expanded to the more economically viable unit of devolution, like the District, and ways and means of marrying them with local councils—no doubt a gargantuan task, but better than merely parroting for elections for what ends up becoming nothing but ‘white elephants’.

Disasters and those bearing gifts

Sri Lanka’s recent calamities—the debt crisis and now, Cyclone Ditwah—have created an opportunity for India to step in with assistance within the framework of its Neighbourhood First and Mahasagar foreign policy.

Official statements outlining India’s role in the post-Ditwah landscape—both in the immediate humanitarian assistance and the package of long-term reconstruction—have insisted on their consensual and collaborative nature, syncing with India’s recent profiling as a ‘preferred security partner’ and ‘First Responder’ in the region, departing from its hegemonistic ‘big brother’ reputation of the past. This apparent official bonhomie, however, appears a little contrived and sits uncomfortably with recent public sentiments relating to aspects of Indian collaboration with Sri Lanka.

About this time a year ago, the Government had agreed to welcome 33 Indian projects in the country, soon to be followed by the signing of seven MoUs that remain state secrets, and announced that a Digital Identification project with Indian assistance was in the pipeline.

The creation of a National e-card for Sri Lankan citizens was heralded as coming under the rubric of ‘connectivity’, where the two countries were to collaborate in expediting ‘people-centric digitisation’, and equally critiqued as vesting the personal data of its citizens in foreign hands. A year later, few of these projects have really ‘taken off’. Over and above all of these projects came last week’s announcement of a Joint Committee which will be handling the disbursement of the USD 450 million package that has been offered by New Delhi to Colombo for relief and reconstruction work following the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

A Joint Committee? This will entail Sri Lankan—and Indian—officials entrusted with the task of handling the disaster reconstruction package. It would include the deployment of manpower from India in road and railway; health and education; housing; agriculture and the establishment of a disaster response team.

Too many undercurrents due to the undisclosed MoUs, not least the question of the emerging Indian pharmaceutical monopoly, have begun to surface in the public domain. With the Government continuing to keep these bilateral agreements close to its chest, there is growing anxiety among the discerning public if the Government itself is familiar with their content and ramifications.

Sri Lanka is confronted with a land and seascape of harsh geopolitical competition and geo-economic considerations. The South Asian neighbourhood is in economic and political turmoil from Pakistan to the Maldives and Nepal to Bangladesh. Where external powers are concerned, China’s powerful shadow looms over every strategic calculation. It is in the midst of this that Sri Lanka is poised to become dependent once again on an infusion of Indian assistance, as India asserts its presence in the region in a recalibrated benevolent neighbourly image.

The incumbents in office in Colombo must be more aware of these goings-on, as well as clear-eyed about their consequences and transparent with foreign dealings, not to be taken advantage of for their inexperience in public office, lest a Bangladesh- or Nepal-style mass implosion erupt due to a combination of economic and political reasons in which an overbearing foreign expansionist agenda will play a part.

With great power rivalry reigniting in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, our land and seas must not be turned into proxy conflict zones as an unintended outcome of our external reliance and partnerships.