The Chinese Curse on Lanka

The Island, Colombo
http://www.island.lk/
November 05, 2003

Editorial

The Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times’, appears to have been cast on the present generations of Sri Lankans. We have certainly been living in ‘interesting times’ for about two decades, particularly during the last decade—going on from crisis to crisis—and the nation sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. We have had war, peace, negotiations, boycott of negotiations, abductions, cold blooded murders, smuggling of arms, sinking of ships, presidential tirades, tirades against the president, impeachment motions and now prorogation of parliament, declaration of an emergency, probably followed by dissolution of parliament and even more interesting events to follow.

Perhaps very few nations have been as unfortunate as us to have gone through such ‘interesting times’. We appeared to have been recovering with the economy picking up, business looking good and tourists trickling in but now that Chinese Curse appears to be back.

A pall of gloom set upon Colombo yesterday. This was caused not only by the monsoonal clouds but by the appearance of armed police and servicemen on the streets. Emergency has been declared and parliament prorogued. There is speculation abound which we dare not put down on paper, lest we be accused of inciting unrest.

President Kumaratunga on Tuesday when proroguing parliament and sacking three ministers declared that she was doing so in the national interests, particularly in regard to the security of the nation. But this move could well result in further destabilising the nation and aggravating security threats.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, now in Washington, reacting angrily to the president’s moves, accused her of precipitating a national crisis in an attempt to subvert the mandate given to his government by the people at the parliamentary elections of December 2001 and the local government elections of March 2002. He vowed that he would not be deviated from achieving his objectives while appealing to the people to remain calm and vigilant.

Like the many other crises mentioned above, this crisis is once again the result of the continuing political struggle between these two leaders and their parties to a lesser extent. The people do not want this crisis to take this country into anarchy and will want them to settle their political squabbles in democratic ways which they are bound to follow.

President Kumaratunga, it will be recalled, was elected to power in 1996 on the main pledge of hers that she would abolish the executive presidency. But no sooner she assumed office she commenced using the much reviled powers of the executive presidency and is continuing to use them in the present crisis. She has used such powers to prorogue parliament and declare an emergency. Her excuse for retaining the executive presidency is that she lacks the required two-third parliamentary majority to change the constitution but all know that it could be overcome by simply co-operating with the UNP leader to abolish such powers. The problem appears to be that like previous executive presidents, the powers of this office are too tempting to be discarded.

On the other hand is Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe playing strictly according to the rules of the constitution? It does appear that he is attempting to undercut the powers of the executive president vis- a-vis on issuing orders to the armed forces. The attempted impeachment motion moved against the Chief Justice does appear to be a blatant move to interfere with the independence of the judiciary as claimed by the Bar Association and lawyers who went ‘on strike’ yesterday.

The constitution can be faulted to a very great extent for this present state of affairs but it is axiomatic that in making constitutions work, the ‘give and take’ between rival factions is essential. The tragedy of our times is that both party leaders and the two political parties are unable to overcome their rivalries and petty jealousies as well as their insatiable desire for power.

Great political leaders—statesmen—give up their office when they realise that they can no longer govern effectively. The people would indeed respect such an individual rather than those who cling onto power until they are thrown out by the scruff of their neck. We have had only one such leader in our post-Independence era—Dudley Senanayake who is still revered by those who lived in his time.

The way the present crisis is brewing bodes ill for this country.