Facing Geneva with the good, bad and horribly ugly
So President Ranil Wickremesinghe made his pitch. It was his first formal effort as president to set forth his vision for the future. It relates to economic policy and his intended ‘system changes’.
He is no doubt hoping that this package will win over MPs from the multiplicity of political parties and rather loosely-tied groups in parliament to join him in a major rescue mission to save the nation, now and in the long term. That would tie most of them to follow the Wickremesinghe path.
The President’s intentions seem clear enough. By inviting those in the 225- member parliament to unite in pushing through his plans to resuscitate a nation that had been dragged to the lowest depths, as Maxim Gorky might have said, he is trying to enthuse them enough to feel they were helping in stabilising the country and contributing to its future and lending an ear to the generations calling for a new order.
If the President was trying to whip up the patriotic ardour of the people’s representatives, then it might leave some of them rather confused, presuming, of course, they are moved by a patriotic zeal usually displayed in words than in deeds.
It was not so long ago that the previous incumbent of the President’s seat tried to arouse the nation with promises of “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour”. Instead of satisfying the great expectations raised in the hearts and minds of the people, he later admitted to failed policies that drove the nation to unprecedented economic and social chaos.
So rather than the nation being led to enjoy the vistas of prosperity and splendour, the nation drove him out of the presidential seat for turning their dreams into nightmares. And, in the interim, some poor chap who sat for a few minutes in the vacated seat has been dragged to court for doing so instead of holding accountable the person who many people now believe desecrated that seat.
Now many of the 225 members who virtually venerated the previous incumbent who had promised to save the nation and who raised their hands in unison in parliament in the hope of saving the nation and themselves in the process, are asked to unite again for a different set of propositions, policies and rules to save the nation again from further catastrophe.
As Ranil Wickremesinghe said in his speech at the opening of parliament the other day he is not like other politicians. He believes in long-term planning. That is true. If he could not claim the presidency through one route he got there by another, this time by grasping the nettle that others hesitated to touch.
He and his advisers are preparing a National Economic Policy for the next 25 years. He hopes to bring down the public debt, among others, which is currently 140% of GDP to less than 100% by 2032.
That is a long time to wait to taste the fruits of his labours. If some of those glorious 225 feel that it is far more profitable to act to save themselves and let the nation save itself, they will go along and look after themselves.
After all, that is what some are there in this august assembly for in the first place, though now and then they might throw a few chairs around and empty a few packets of chilli powder (when it was much cheaper that is) in somebody else’s face, and engage in various shenanigans that have disgraced the House. And they are still in place if ever there is a future need for their assistance.
After all, as they say, charity begins at home and that includes extended families who are not averse to raking in a million or two when occasions and circumstances permit. So why not support the new president with a new set of ideas for who knows, come 2025 and the hustings, where they will be?
One can understand their thinking. Even if President Wickremesinghe’s grand plans fail like his predecessors, they will not be around when the next set of dedicated Aragalists demand the whole 225 and their acolytes be thrown into the Diyawanna Oya instead of the Beira Lake. They would have collected their pensions and what not from wherever they could and faded into the sunset to enjoy their accumulated riches.
Right n ow President Wickremesinghe might be able to gather a new flock and push through his plans through parliament even if some of those Pohottuwa- types are turning into Wickremesinghe proteges just as a saving grace.
But clearing the domestic hurdles might seem easy enough if one has the forces of aggression ready to drag some dissidents before the courts and intimidate still others in the hope of defanging critics, it still leaves another area of vital interest to Sri Lanka critically exposed to the slings and arrows of critics.
President Wickremesinghe said that one of the immediate needs is to solve the problem of fuel. That obviously requires foreign currency to pay for its import just as the country needs more foreign currency in hand for other vital imports.
As one could see over the last several months both international lending institutions and donor countries have fought shy of coming to the country’s assistance until, at least the IMF gives the ‘all clear’ to start the process without waving a “red card” in our face.
That okay signal will not come without a demand for their pound of flesh. Not all the pretentious Portias or their male kind we might parade, are not going to convince those who have the funds to part with them if we do not meet the criteria and requirements they insist on.
Those criteria include a respect for and adherence to human rights as set out in international conventions and law, adherence to the rule of law, freedom of speech, association and assembly and internationally recognised workers’ rights.
Some of the President’s ideas as adumbrated in his speech might win the approval of some of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council that meets next month when we will once again have to deal with an updated report on Sri Lanka presented by the High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Moreover, this report might well form the basis for a new resolution on Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has in the past committed enough diplomatic faux pas before the Geneva sessions that instead of winning friends to support us the Rajapaksa government and some of its ministers had cultivated the habit of anatomical gymnastics by putting both their feet in the mouth.
It might be recalled that before the March 2021 session then Public Security Minister S a r at h Weerasekara proposed that the country’s Muslim women be banned from wearing a scarf masking the face. That was preceded by a government decision to prohibit Muslims from burying their Covid dead as tradition demanded. The result was that we lost the support of some Muslim countries at the voting on the resolution.
Now with less than two months ahead of another critical Geneva meeting the Wickremesinghe administration has let loose the police and military on peaceful civilian protesters on Galle Face in the middle of the night injuring many including lawyers and journalists.
Not only has this action earned the opprobrium of local civil rights organisations, the Bar Association, the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and civil society in general but more importantly some of those very organisations and nations that we should be wooing for financial assistance and humanitarian help instead of losing their support just when we need it most.
That is not all. The emergency laws promulgated with more stringent regulations than those under the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government have certainly not won the Wickremesinghe presidency any encomiums from the international community as statements and comments show.
There is another issue that we might have forgotten or ignored but critics of Sri Lanka are unlikely to forget as they prepare for the Geneva meeting. At the September 2015 sessions of the UNHRC, Sri Lanka along with the US co-sponsored a resolution. This co- sponsorship was urged by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. That resolution, among other things, accepted the setting up a judicial mechanism for accountability trials that could include foreign and Commonwealth judges and prosecutors and much more.
When Geneva comes up next month critics of Sri Lanka will not permit Wickremesinghe to forget that happening seven years ago though the Rajapaksa government later withdrew the co- sponsorship. After all one of the main authors of it is now at the helm.