Opposition groups in Sri Lanka held discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation, currently in the country to conduct the first review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement for Sri Lanka. The meeting took place at the office of the Opposition Leader in Colombo and was led by Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, representing the IMF.
During the discussions, the agreements previously established between the government and the IMF were thoroughly examined. Opposition groups conveyed their concerns to the IMF regarding the potential impacts of the domestic debt restructuring program on the employees’ provident fund.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa informed the IMF delegation that, under their government, the existing agreement would be subject to review, with the aim of formulating a more people-friendly agreement that prioritizes strategies for the nation’s development.
Sri Lanka is facing multiple crises – economic, political and cultural. How the government deals with these is crucial to the future of the country. The failed unitary form of government, in particular, the excessive powers of the executive presidency need to be curtailed. Devolution of power and a more equal balance between the executive, judiciary, parliament, bureaucracy and regions need to be renegotiated if we are to come out of the crises.
It is in this macro light that this paper should be viewed. However, this paper will not focus on the class based issues underpinning the national question, except to note that under neo-liberalism, differences in plural societies are utilised to prop up authoritarian capitalist governance systems that are beset with crises.
Nation-Building
Nation building is an evolutionary and long-term course of action, rather than a revolutionary and overnight process. It needs to develop and grow through an internal process, not via an external intervention or by an imposed agenda. It also needs economic, social, and political development as well as institutions that protect the fundamental rights of the people and communities. In addition, the nation-building effort needs to ensure equal access to jobs, education, and health for all among other things.
For long-term democratic nation-building to be successful, we need to recognise the importance of democratic values, within the civic sphere that will develop and sustain them; rather than just emphasising economic development or state-building. Currently we have only received rhetorical banalities from the political elite shorn of any real meaning of this crucial issue.
Political decentralization can empower citizens or their representatives engaging in decision-making processes. Greater participation is assumed to lead to better informed decision making that are more relevant to the plural societies like Sri Lanka. With political decentralisation, citizens will come to better know their representatives and in turn they will be more cognisant of the needs and desires of their electorates. For decentralisation transfers responsibility for planning, financing and managing certain public duties from the centre and its agencies to regional ones, thus making it more local and accountable. This can be achieved by de-concentration, delegation, and devolution of authority with each of these having their own characteristics.
It should be noted that centralization and decentralization do not need to be an “either-or” scenario. Practical examples around the globe have demonstrated that an appropriate balance of centralization and decentralization can ensure effective and efficient government service delivery. Centres can play a crucial role in promoting and sustaining decentralization efforts. This can be done by developing proper and effective national policies and regulations needed for decentralization, thus creating or maintaining the necessary enabling environments that allow regional, provincial, and local units to take on more responsibilities for undertaking new functions.
The two uprisings in the south and the three decade long armed conflict in the north are examples that reflect the fact that if people are excluded from sharing any political power, they are more likely to challenge the legitimacy of the existing system. Federalism or devolution is a means of sharing power among diverse political entities irrespective of their ethnic or regional ties. Democracy will survive better if successes and burdens are shared fairly and equitably.
The current political system is based on ‘winner-take-all’ system, where one political party or group monopolise all the privileges and economic benefits. Devolution in contrast allows different ethnic and regional groups an ability to determine their own affairs, thus making them feel more secure. They may gain more confidence in and commitment to the existing system, and a general sense that the system is fair and inclusive.
In the UK devolution became a major political issue in the early 1970s, as Scotland and Wales demanded greater control over their own affairs. A referendum was held in 1979, to determine the people’s will for devolution. The electorate was needed to approve it with a two-fifths majority, but voters in Wales and Scotland rejected it. However, in 1999 under Tony Blair’s regime, power was devolved, Scotland had a parliament and later, Wales a Welsh Assembly. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 provided Northern Ireland with its own parliament.[ii]
In Sri Lanka, proponents of devolution have been demanding clearly defined powers the Provinces can wield. During the Constitutional reform process under the previous regime led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Chief Ministers of the seven ‘southern’ provinces asked for proper devolution as envisaged under the 13th Amendment. However, nothing came to fruition.
[i] Reiter R, Grohs S, Ebinger F, Kuhlmann S and Bogumil J 2010, Impacts of decentralization: The French experience in a comparative perspective, Ruhr-Universität; Published in French Politics 8(2010), 2, 166-189, Available at: https://d-nb.info/1078649812/34
US Under Secretary Victoria Nuland meets Foreign Minister Ali Sabry: reportedly raises concerns about the upcoming visit of Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6: Minister Sabry reportedly says Sri Lanka can’t exclude China from docking in a Sri Lankan Port according to the SPO in place for foreign vessels.
Former CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal says SJB MP Harsha Silva’s attacks on his testimony before the “PSC on Causes for SL declaring Bankruptcy” is an attempt to browbeat him from giving an accurate account of the events surrounding the bankruptcy announcement: also says the announcement was a part of a conspiracy: asserts he would expose those who engineered the organised bankruptcy.
State Defence Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennekoon says SL risks facing more Easter Sunday style attacks: urges the legislature not to undermine intelligence services as their services were required to prevent the next attack.
Ratnapura High Court sentences former Senior DIG of the Sabaragamuwa Province Lalith Jayasinghe to 5 years imprisonment for influencing the Kahawatte Police OIC to refrain from arresting MP Premalal Jayasekera in connection with a shooting incident in the lead-up to the 2015 Presidential Election.
Education Minister Susil Premajayantha says arrangements have been made to ensure that school textbooks for next year will be distributed among the students, before the commencement of the 2024 school year.
Police say there have been 77 incidents of shooting so far this year whereby 46 persons, including a 6-year-old, were killed and 35 persons were injured.
A group of Tamil asylum seekers on a tiny British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean win their fight against being forcibly returned to SL.
Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella says only 13% of the Pfizer vaccines imported to the country to immunize against Corona virus had been used and the rest destroyed after their expiry dates.
Kandy Diocese Bishop and Chilaw Apostolic Administrator Bishop Valence Mendis says it is ludicrous that the Govt has chosen to appoint more Committees to probe the Easter Sunday terror attacks, instead of implementing the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which probed the carnage.
Sri Lanka wins the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Silver Medal: lose to India by 19 runs in the Final: India – 116/7 (20 overs), Udeshika Prabodhani – 16/2: SL – 97/8 (20 overs), Hasini Perera – 25.
A minor tremor measuring 2.4 on the Richter Scale was reported in the Buttala area, as confirmed by the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau. The tremor was recorded at approximately 11:20 p.m. yesterday (25).
All four seismic stations in the country detected the minor tremor, which originated from a depth of approximately one kilometer beneath the earth’s surface.
The ICJ considers that revisions made to the draft of proposed anti-terrorism legislation, while positive, fail to sufficiently correct the deficiencies of the earlier draft and, if adopted, would risk serious human rights violations.
The revised bill, in its clause 3 continues to define acts of terrorism in a vague and overbroad matter and undercuts the inherent authority of the judiciary, as people may be detained for two months solely on order of the secretary of the Defence Ministry.
“The overbroad definition coupled with the restriction on the authority of magistrates to review initial Detention Orders is in contravention of fundamental rule of law principles and must be further revised if Sri Lanka is to deliver on its promise to protect the human rights of all of its inhabitants,” said Ian Seiderman, ICJ’s Legal and Policy Director.
The ICJ stresses that these provisions contravene article 13 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution, as well as article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, to which Sri Lanka is a party.
On 15 September 2023, the Ministry of Justice of Sri Lanka published the revised version of the Anti- Terrorism Bill (ATA), which would repeal and replace the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No.48 of 1979 (PTA). A first draft of the Bill was published in March 2023 and according to government ministers the current revision was aimed at removing certain problematic provisions from the earlier draft. The ICJ had previously expressed concerns about that draft.
“Sri Lanka should dispense with special regimes like the ATA and instead address terrorism offences through criminal procedures that comply with the rule of law,” said Ian Seiderman. “At the very least, the Ministry of Justice must revise the present draft in line with international human rights law and standards before parliament takes action on it.”
Among the vague and overbroad provisions of the draft bill are the “encouragement of terrorism” (clause 10) and “dissemination of terrorist publications” (clause 11), under which persons can be detained for sharing or causing to be published statements which are interpreted by the authorities to be in support of terrorism or terrorism activities. The burden of proof for such offences would be unacceptably reversed under the bill, as the accused would be required to prove before the high court that they had not consented to or approved the utterance or publication of such statements.
The prescribed punishment for these offences is imprisonment up to 15 years and/or a fine up to one million rupees. Property owned by the accused may also be forfeited to the State.
The bill would provide the President with excessive powers to restrict the exercise of human rights, including to impose restriction orders on individual persons, proclaim curfews, designate prohibited places, and make regulations to implement “rehabilitation programmes” for persons regarding whom the Attorney-General has recommended a deferment or suspension of criminal action. Rehabilitation programmes in the past have served a punitive function, as accused persons have often been effectively coerced into accepting rehabilitation particularly in cases where the prosecutor has lacked evidence of criminal conduct.
The ICJ notes the several positive changes in the revised draft, including the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment and removal of the power of the Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) of Police to issue Detention Orders (DO). The new draft would also allow the Magistrate to discharge suspects, in the absence of a DO, where the Magistrate determines that there is no justification for the arrest. DOs, which may only be issued by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence would now allow for detention of two months without charge, as opposed to three months contemplated by the earlier draft of the bill. Finally, the revised bill removes mention of the Board of Review, which would have been empowered to hear appeals against DOs in the previous draft, and provides time limits for declarations of prohibited places by the President.
The revised draft also retains the improvements made to the PTA in the first draft including the removal of a provision which accepts “confessions” made before a police officer while in detention as evidence in courts; the issuance of a document by the arresting officer notifying arrest to a family member of the arrested person; employing women police to question or conduct searches of women detainees; access to translations in a language of the accused’s choice; and production before a magistrate every 14 days when a person is detained under a Detention Order (DO).
However, among its many flaws, the draft law is silent on compensation and redress mechanisms for those affected by abuse and misuse of the law. This is a significant shortcoming, as detainees have languished in custody for years under the PTA and have had the cases against them dismissed decades later.
Background
Past experience with the PTA has shown that provisions relating to ‘encouragement of terrorism’ or ‘dissemination of terrorist publications’ are open to abuse particularly against persons from minority communities including journalists. For instance, Ahnaf Jazeem ,whose book of poetry was spuriously identified as promoting “extremism”, was subjected to human rights violations, including arbitrary detention under the PTA. In May 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that Sri Lanka had violated international human rights law by detaining Ahnaf Jazeem.
The ICJ has repeatedly called for the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been used to arbitrarily detain suspects for months and often years without charge or trial, facilitating torture and other abuse. United Nations human rights bodies have also called on Sri Lanka to enforce a moratorium on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and to repeal the Act.
23 September 2023: I met comrade H A Seneviratne during the main trial of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) held in 1972. He was one of the junior attorneys who worked alongside comrade Bala Tampoe, the principal lawyer. Tampoe was a well-known veteran leftist, the founder of the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union (CMU) and a brilliant criminal lawyer. His team appeared on behalf of some of us who were still committed to exposing the state’s hypocrisy, and its pre-1971 suppression and terror. This repressive process against the JVP ultimately culminated in the insurrection of April 1971. Comrades Tampoe, Seneviratne and others dedicated their lives to protecting and upholding the democratic rights of working people, particularly trade union members.
A group of progressive activists including Bala and his team pioneered the protection of the human and democratic rights of JVP activists, who were held in detention at the time. Bala and his team were also members of the Fourth International holding Trotskyite political positions. They originated from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (the LSSP). They ultimately joined together to form the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) and were active in the CMU. What I found in all of them was a shared concern for humanity. As bright legal professionals they could have joined the ruling elite, and enjoyed all the interests, rewards, and privileges that it would entail.
Instead, they all became political activists, first and foremost due to their overriding concern for the oppressed. Among the trade union leaders, it was rare to find people like them, who earned respect both locally and internationally. They dedicated their lives to working people without personal or political gain. It is a pity that Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly devoid of people who work in such a self-less manner. Seneviratne and his fellow comrades believed in collective prosperity and fundamental freedoms. As humanists we have a lot to learn from their life experiences, particularly at a time when the world is driven in the opposite direction forcing society to forget humanity, but to put self-preservation first and foremost.
We all approached life as humanists, but with shades of sectarianism dominating in our political outlooks and activities. This was dependent on which political tendencies we belonged to, irrespective of the outcomes we realised as a result of our political activities. I remember Bala and H A teasing us during the trial and afterwards saying we were ‘Little Lenins’. When Comrade Rohana Wijeweera and I visited the CMU Head office in Kollupitiya, Colombo, we only met Bala and the CMU staff. We thanked Bala, his legal team and the CMU for consistently supporting us while in prison.
Comrade Seneviratne was calm and gentlemanly, despite his learned background. Unfortunately, comrades Bala and H A parted their ways later, after we were sentenced for waging war against the Queen’s Government in Ceylon. From what we heard from Bala, they had differences in prioritising trade union work. The last time I met him was in 2017, where we spoke about his literary and pro-feminist political activities.
As the decades pass, I cannot recall everything Comrade H A contributed to and accomplished during his life time. However, I can say that he was an incredibly charming person with a simple lifestyle. I have heard that his talents and interests extended beyond politics and human rights. I can recall trying to visit him at his home in Nawinna, Maharagama, but was unable to see him. Comrade Seneviratne was said to suffer from memory loss and did not wish to see anyone. Since then, I haven’t been able to get in touch with him.
Comrade H A Seneviratne’s passing will leave a gap that others will find difficult to fill in. I take this opportunity to pay my fraternal respect to him and politically honour him. My deepest sympathies are with his family, relatives, friends and comrades.
Tamara Kunanayakam, former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva, highlighted that the United States views China as an increasingly significant challenge, and this perception is not solely due to China’s status as the world’s second-largest economy. The primary reason, she explained to China Daily, is that China offers an alternative development model that diverges from the one advocated by the US and its Western allies.
Kunanayakam noted that the US has been actively promoting the neoliberal model, aiming to centralize decision-making power in their hands, which has contributed to growing inequality and conflicts. However, this approach is now facing scrutiny and questioning from various quarters.
Many nations, including Sri Lanka, are exploring alternatives to the US-led model, drawn by China’s unique path, especially its success in eradicating extreme poverty despite being a developing nation. China’s emphasis on cooperation and sharing, rather than confrontation and war, stands out as a model that prioritizes the well-being of its people.
Kunanayakam concluded that China’s achievements serve as a compelling example of what can be accomplished, and this represents a perceived challenge to the United States.
Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Galle and Matara districts.
A few showers may occur in Jaffna and Anuradhapura districts.
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in Central, Uva and Eastern provinces and in Polonnaruwa and Mullaitivu districts during the evening or night.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Colombo (LNW): The National IT and BPM Week is all set to kick off in October to drive Sri Lanka into the digital economy era.
The central event is scheduled for 11, 12 and 13 October at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Hall in Colombo.
This dynamic initiative, propelled by President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s vision, aims to raise awareness of emerging technologies, facilitate skill development, provide career guidance, and nurture IT entrepreneurship.
The three-day event is designed to cater to a diverse audience, including students from both public and private universities, vocational education institutes, job seekers, and entrepreneurs within the Western Province.
It promises a platform for industry insights, career counselling, and workshops on IT and business processes conducted by esteemed technical educational institutions. Internships and job opportunities will also be made accessible.
Technology Ministry Director Development Janaka Sampath Geekianage, National Future Talent Initiatives Institute (NFTI) Chairman Madhu Ratnayake, Sri Lanka Society for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) Chairman Jehan Perinpanayagam, DIGIECON 2023-2030 Project Director Prasad Samarawickrama addressed the media on this significant endeavour at the Presidential Media Centre last Friday.
Sri Lanka’s IT and Business Process Management industry have been on an impressive growth trajectory, providing employment to over 144,000 professionals. This sector, with its pivotal role in the Sri Lankan economy, significantly contributes to the country’s GDP.
In 2022, it generated around $ 1.7 billion, with ambitious Government plans to elevate this figure to $ 5 billion. Globally, the adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as digitization, automation, and artificial intelligence is witnessing a rapid surge. Prioritizing skill development is essential to align with these trends and achieve our desired objectives.
Furthermore, there is a vision to expand the workforce in this sector to 200,000 individuals, creating fresh employment opportunities for the youth. Anticipated to contribute 15% to the country’s GDP, this industry’s growth will position Sri Lanka at the forefront of the economic landscape, fostering a more prosperous nation.
Under the directives of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the leadership of State Minister for Technology Kanaka Herath, the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with key stakeholders, are orchestrating this program.
These include the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB), the SLASSCOM, the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL), the Information Technology Industry Federation (FITIS), the Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and other technical education institutes.
Considering the shortage of teachers in the Eastern Province, the Governor of the Eastern Province Senthil Thondaman has given permission to the Provincial Public Service Commission to appoint 700 graduate teachers to the Eastern Province.
Thondaman recently issued 633 teacher appointments in the Eastern Province and another 700 teacher appointments are to be issued for graduate teachers.
It is special that these appointments have been made with the aim of remedying the shortage of teachers in the Eastern Province and further improving the education sector.
