Columns

Quietly navigating a course in between the perilous shoals of political opportunism in the South and the North, President Maithripala Sirisena appears to be slowly but surely correcting some of the most grievous wrongs in our society today.

Measured emphasis on reconciliation
This week, his decision to return Sampur lands to war displaced citizens was unfortunately lost in the press headlines on the more politically gripping stories of the day. Yet this decision has great significance in indicating a policy change which is to the positive.

In many respects, these are the decisions that matter. Sri Lanka is undergoing (hopefully) transitional times as the country heals itself from decades-long conflict as well as the evils of entrenched authoritarianism. Debating point to point on provincial autonomy in the North and East may excite interest in conference halls or in front of the fickle glare of television cameras. But there is a lesson to be learnt in the classical albeit oxymoronic adage that advises one to make haste slowly.

Particularly in the current whirlwind of political uncertainty with Rajapaksa radicals literally gnawing their teeth in frustration as they wait in the wings for a come-back, what Sri Lanka needs right now is a measured emphasis on reconciliation between communities rather than the cut and thrust of political advantage and counter-advantage on provincial land or police powers, as the case may be. This much is clear.

The desperation of the Sampur war affected
Indeed, the plight of the Sampur war-displaced is symptomatic of the Rule of Law being turned upside down in post-war Sri Lanka. The issue here was not simply the indifference of the Rajapaksa State to the desperate situation of internally displaced persons of Tamil and Muslim ethnicity. These were people who had been evicted from their traditional farming lands as a result of war time displacement and the establishing of military bases in the area. Living in refugee camps for well over six years, the fracturing of once tight-knit communities was inevitable with the attendant social and psychological problems.

As the war receded however, one would have expected that they would be given some measure of relief. What happened was the converse. Adding insult to injury, the Government declared through an extraordinary gazette notification that Sampur was a Licensed Zone within the Trincomalee Special Economic Zone under the Board of Investment Act No. 4 of 1978. It was also defined as a ‘Special Zone for Heavy Industries’ by a gazette extraordinary under this same law.

These declarations and demarcations went against the tradition that paddy lands cannot be used for any purposes other than agricultural purposes without the prior approval of the relevant competent authority, in this case, the Commissioner General of Agrarian Services. Yet this parceling of land was done in the most arbitrary way under the monarchical gaze of the Rajapaksa Presidency. Scarcely a whimper was heard in protest, including by the courts before which some challenges were lodged at the time out of sheer helplessness rather than through any expectation that the judiciary would actually intervene to prevent arbitrary state power.

The massive profiteering involved
Unsurprisingly, the point in all was the massive profiteering involved. Under the Strategic Development Projects Act, many of these proposed projects involved staggering expenditure with new companies floated for that purpose. Precise details relating to the Directorships of these companies remained shrouded in secrecy.

Privileges for the elite heading these initiatives and their cronies extended to tax breaks for twenty-five years including withholding taxes for foreign borrowings for the project and (alleged) exemption from value added taxes, nation building tax, CESS as well as customs taxes for all main and sub-contractors.
This pattern of unashamedly corrupt profiteering was not limited to Sampur. On the contrary, it was a persistent feature of the Rajapaksa Presidency. Under an ambitious National Physical Plan dreamt up by that administration, the entire country was carved up into different metro-regions with vastly unsustainable projects such as the Mattala airport and other silly extravagances.

Common problem of profound injustice
Needless to say, the pushing out of communities from their traditional lands was a mainstay of this Plan with profit at its centre. The most ridiculous aspect of this Plan was the identification of ‘fragile areas’ and a callous assumption that communities would voluntarily migrate to other parts of the country upon losing their lands.

The virtual obliteration and re-definition of Sri Lanka’s administrative districts was thus destructively accomplished by a casual wave of the Rajapaksa hand. This was evidenced in the South as well as in the North and East.

In that respect, it was a common problem of profound injustice whereby land was lost to residents purely through a single letter written by a government official, bypassing stipulated legal procedures. In umpteen cases, the compensation given to people who lost their lands was determined through political connections rather than through the proper application of the law. A systematic inquiry must be held as to who were involved in these illegal processes, what was the command responsibility in issue and the legal consequences ensuing thereby. This is the demand of the day.

State reform must reach deeper than the 19th Amendment
So, even as President Sirisena decides to return Sampur, (ironically enough, the translation thereof means ‘perfect living’ or ‘good life’), lands to their owners, much more must be done. Presidential abstinence from directing the path of investigations against Sri Lanka’s grossly corrupt one-time rulers may be justified on the basis that the law must take its course without political interference. That is eminently understandable. Yet public annoyance prevails regarding the Government’s inability in ensuring that investigative and prosecutorial agencies do their job in bringing those responsible to justice.

Absent this necessary element of accountability, a twisted system will continue, which upon a single wrong throw of the political dice, can effortlessly revert to its former subverted self. Expecting the 19th Amendment to cure all these ills would be the height of naivete. State intent to reform must reach deeper into the system.

And determined Presidential intent to bring about that systemic change remains imperative.