{"id":85345,"date":"2025-01-12T02:22:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T06:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=85345"},"modified":"2025-01-12T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T02:05:08","slug":"85345","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=85345","title":{"rendered":"The \u201876 year old curse\u2019 that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his NPP vowed to put an end to, does not show any signs of abating. The political \u2018honeymoon\u2019 is now well and truly over. It is time that the Govt starts performing."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an intriguing question in the air. Is the creeping self-sabotage of Sri Lanka\u2019s National Peoples\u2019 Power (NPP) Government due to innate political clumsiness in power, the sycophantic antics of minions appointed to office who are characteristically unable to hold the chairs that they inhabit or a dangerous tendency to lean towards \u2018Orwellian\u2019 control?<\/p>\n

Gross incompetence and political servility continues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or it is perhaps an unpalatable mixture of all of this, I wonder? There is certainly a demonstrated inability on the part of the Government to select \u2018the proper person for the proper office\u2019 in the early months after being elected to rule on an \u2018unprecedented\u2019 mandate. This is seen very well in the unholy debacle over the NPP\u2019s first choice as Speaker of Parliament who resigned after failing to prove the veracity of his academic credentials after trying to bluff his way through public questioning.<\/p>\n

To stress the point, this is not a frivolous matter of having or not having an academic record. That is an irrelevancy. Needless to say, even legitimate academic brownie points do not necessarily translate into political ability or integrity with Sri Lanka\u2019s past Parliaments numbering doctors of law, economics and the like who were spectacular failures in public life to put it mildly. That is scarcely the issue here.<\/p>\n

What is relevant is the \u2018lies and deception\u2019 (to borrow a scathing phrase from a Supreme Court ruling on the integrity of our politicians in a different context, decades ago) of the former Speaker who still remains in the House, sitting in the NPP ranks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moreover, this unpleasant uproar ridicules the boast of the NPP that it is \u2018different from the rest.\u2019 Several months into office, the famed \u201876 year old curse\u2019 that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his NPP vowed to put an end to, does not show any signs of being abating. <\/p>\n

That is so whether we are talking of the inability to control the rice miller \u2018dons\u2019 or variously uncouth and unwashed trade unionists who boast that this is \u2018their Government\u2019 and that they will call the tune. Rather, the very same gross incompetence and political servility continues at various levels of the public service and in public institutions.<\/p>\n

Clownish and \u2018Orwellian\u2019 in one mix<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most troublingly, following in the trend of Rajapaksa-rule ironically enough, there is a clamping down of freedom of expression at various levels. These early signs should not be taken out of context but nonetheless, raise alarm signals when cumulatively taken. The warnings range across the board, from restrictions placed on academic freedoms to journalists not being able to interview Ministers without \u2018party\u2019 approval and diplomats being required to \u2018consult\u2019 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before meeting with ministries and government institutions.<\/p>\n

Thus the faintly \u2018Orwellian\u2019 touch to all of this, framed however by distinctly clownish undertones given the unfortunate tendency of NPP spokespersons including the Cabinet spokesman to frequently misspeak and embarrass both themselves and their Government. But when we proceed from clownishness to deliberate albeit clumsy state repression, there are consequential and grave concerns. <\/p>\n

A case in point is the forced cancellation by university administration of a lecture titled \u2018How to Fight Against the IMF\u2019s Austerity Programme\u2019 due to be held earlier in the month by the association of students of political science at the University of Peradeniya.<\/p>\n

The hapless student organisers have protested that the cancellation was due to a \u2018message\u2019 by the Acting Vice Chancellor to \u2018change the title or cancel the lecture immediately,\u2019 (see \u2018FUTA demands Govt. investigation into banning of anti-IMF seminar at UoP\u2019, the Financial Times, Monday 6th January 2025).<\/p>\n

This claim has not been contradicted by University officials. As other reports have elaborated, the change in the \u2018title\u2019 has been directed so as to not to \u2018appear that the meeting challenges the government policies.\u2019<\/p>\n

Counter-productive and reactive repression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apparently (and absurdly so) it was the \u2018title\u2019 that had caused the rumpus; the substance of what was potentially to be discussed had not given rise to any concerns. <\/p>\n

In fact, there are multiple issues with this incident apart from weighty issues such as restriction of the academic freedoms of students and staff as constitutionally secured within the right to freedom of speech, expression and information. <\/p>\n

First and to bring it down to the bare basics, the sheer stupidity of this act of \u2018banning\u2019 a student discussion boggles the proverbial senses.<\/p>\n

By what stretch of imagination did the university administration and\/or the Acting Vice Chancellor not realise that this would lead to a commotion exceeding by leaps and bounds, whatever public interest that the lecture would have attracted in the first instance? <\/p>\n

By all accounts, the lecture in question would have passed by entirely unremarked if not for the asinine act of \u2018banning\u2019 the same. Now the discussion has been shifted to a public venue in Kandy with the consequent furore being manna from heaven to the organisers reveling in the national level attention that it is attracting.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it is not enough that the Office of the Prime Minister which is coupled with the Education portfolio issues a vanilla denial of any \u2018pressure\u2019 exerted on the University to cancel the event. On the contrary, an inquiry must be held as to how this perversity happened. It does not suffice to parrot clich\u00e9s on the importance of academic freedom so on and so forth. <\/p>\n

Indeed, are there not senior dons of the University in question sitting on the decision making councils of the NPP? What are their (principled?) positions on this matter, we must ask?<\/p>\n

\u2018Academics\u2019 being educated about \u2018academic freedom\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entire controversy is as unedifying as it is patently nonsensical. Prior to Sri Lanka\u2019s parliamentary and presidential elections late last year, NPP speakers were the most vehement on the travails of the IMF\u2019s austerity measures. This was a major plank of President Dissanayake\u2019s election platform though post-election, he declared that this is not the time to discuss if the IMF programme is good or bad.<\/p>\n

But regardless, that political position of the Government and the Presidency cannot be compulsorily thrust on the Sri Lankan people. That is the very meaning of the right to freedom of speech, expression and information after all.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the NPP may acquaint itself with a 1999 ruling of the Supreme Court which peremptorily struck down as unconstitutional, an attempt to amend the Universities Act (1978) that would have irretrievably politicized the university systems. It is not as if our universities are not politicized anyway but this amendment would have institutionalized the same.<\/p>\n

As part of the legal team appearing for several senior academics challenging the Bill, this columnist recalls the principle of academic freedom as being pivotal to that effort, which argument was upheld by the Court, (SC (SD) No 6-12\/1999).<\/p>\n

That apart, NPP speakers typically resort to a string of excuses as to why the earlier \u2018bad\u2019 IMF deal has now become \u2018good\u2019 including claiming that this was unavoidable baggage left by the Wickremesinghe Government. <\/p>\n

But that explanation itself exhibits a fundamental paradox. The President praises \u2018immense efforts\u2019 of the Finance Ministry, the Central Bank and political leaders \u2018over the past year\u2019 (as he did when inaugurating the Clean Sri Lanka programme), for achieving economic stability and emerging from bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The end of the NPP\u2019s \u2018honeymoon\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

That said, his party parliamentarians cannot in the same breath, pejoratively talk of \u2018deals\u2019 of the previous regime. That is one of the many uneasy contradictions that pervade the NPP\u2019s public spaces. In sum, the Government needs to get its act together in no uncertain terms. It must enforce accountability for parliamentarians who brazenly violate the public trust and sternly deal with officials who abuse their statutory functions.<\/p>\n

The political \u2018honeymoon\u2019 is now well and truly over. It is time that the Government performs.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene There is an intriguing question in the air. Is the creeping self-sabotage of Sri Lanka\u2019s National Peoples\u2019 Power (NPP) Government due to innate political clumsiness in power, the sycophantic antics of minions appointed to office who are characteristically unable to hold the chairs that they inhabit or a dangerous tendency to lean …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The \u201876 year old curse\u2019 that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his NPP vowed to put an end to, does not show any signs of abating. The political \u2018honeymoon\u2019 is now well and truly over. It is time that the Govt starts performing.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85348,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85345\/revisions\/85348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}