CONTINUUM OF CONCERN IN A COMMONWEALTH

Wijith DeChickera writes that national debt should contribute more to citizen angst while anxiety about laws of the land bothers civil society

Last month, ‘March madness’ brought a brief relief from the hurly burly of corporate and political life for much of the city – i.e. members of the urban bourgeoisie and their cohorts – as school cricket saw Colombo take a breather from the fires of a burning sociopolitical cauldron that is the milieu of middle class Sri Lanka today.

The short respite being over, the city and town return to the grinding daily slog to work amid a taxing milieu where the honest are hamstrung to no discernible benefit – suburban infrastructure save a few salutary expressways (with or without lights) remains abysmally inadequate and public transport is a shambles in which commuters risk their lives daily – and defaulters alone thrive

There’s also the bloated public sector where the hotlines ring but no one picks up.

Many mandarins in corporate Sri Lanka on the conservative end of the political and economic spectrum feel the end of their country’s erstwhile depredations redound to the administrative prowess of the man at the head of government.

Others of a more social democratic ethic argue that a team with equal economic savvy could have fared as well to extricate the nation from post-bankruptcy blues.

An election will prove where the majority sentiment lies… or the poll that is seven months away could show them both up for being wrong although the arguable popularity of a ‘third force’ – a customarily revolutionary contender whom the electorate flirts with election after election only to jilt them on the wedding day of casting the ballot – rightly perhaps has those with long memories, nightmares and other concerns feeling queasy.

Please the pundits as it may to essay early days speculation about electoral outcomes, it behoves stakeholders in the national interest all round the crease to pay greater attention than ever before to the bigger picture than to mere political partisanship or the passing flair of star batters.

For whatever one may think of the root causes or subsequent motivations of the largely peaceful mass movement driven by popular sovereignty known as the aragalaya (people’s struggle), no politician in power or opposition today (or aspiring politico or party, or newbie desirous of donning the mantle of governance) can afford to take the electorate’s concerns lightly again…

Lest we all come to a more desperate pass than our present circumstances.

Whether one subscribes to conventional wisdom or conspiracy theories, the ousting of a former president must serve as an object lesson to whoever desires to wear it purple. Even such language, which redounds to the ‘presidentialism’ and ‘pseudo-Caesarism’ that prevailed in the early 2000s, should caution governments and administrations-in-waiting about taking their mandates lightly.

In the run-up to citizens exercising their franchise in due course, stakeholders in the national interest would do well to heed the cautions and concerns of civil society groups that interpret recent governmental initiatives as being inimical to citizen welfare.

First, the draconian Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB) to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) must send shivers down the spine of any law-abiding citizen able to recall the horrors of Sri Lanka’s reigns of terror under governments fighting terrorists or insurgents, or whatever other name we call separatists or insurrectionists these days, rather than turn a blind eye on this drastic piece of proposed legislation and be compelled to relive those terrors.

Second, the insidious Online Safety Act (OSA) No. 9 of 2024 could well be used by state or other actors as a tool of oppression or suppression of dissent in an election year, by unscrupulous elements out to deceive voters about the nature of realities in the political battlefield or inveigle critics of especially the government but even the opposition into making a false move in cyberspace that would have real-life rather than virtual repercussions..

Third, the state of policing in our nation state in the recent past has raised the spectre that has troubled republicans from the time of the Greeks and Romans: namely, ‘who will guard the guards’?

That the speaker had a vote of no confidence brought against him following an imbroglio involving the appointment of a controversial Inspector General of Police (IGP) smacks of political games being played to the detriment of the public interest and citizen safety; and it is incumbent on the president and the Constitutional Council to ensure in future such instances that not even allegations of botched procedure or suspect appointments are bandied about to shame good governance.

The genteel householder may sleep better at night knowing that ‘Operation Yukthiya’ (‘Justice’) has cleansed their neighbourhoods of undesirables by fair means or foul… but a good night’s rest may well be had in a greater cause if we can address our energies to the fallout from debt restructuring.

It is clear economic experts think we’re nowhere near being ‘out of the woods’ yet and Sri Lanka needs political leaders savvy with a post-Bretton Woods world to clear the path ahead.

After we’re out of the doldrums, it may well be open season for sundry contenders.