Columns

• Speaker visits ACJU headquarters for talks with Muslim theologians;     non-representation of Muslims in cabinet cause for concern     among Govt’s Muslim supporters
• President to lead smaller delegation to India; several key bilateral issues, including mega projects on the agenda; Adani case complicates issues
• In NDF and SJB, national list crisis deepens; no signs of early resolution
• UNP plans major overhaul; new constitution spells out revised party structure

By Our Political Editor

A silver-grey Double Cab comes to park outside the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), a collective of Islamic theologians, at Maradana, last Tuesday. Alighting from the front seat was the Speaker of Parliament, Dr Ashoka Sapumal Ranwala, followed by two bodyguards in civvies from the rear seat.

He boarded a lift to an upper floor together with senior members of the ACJU to speak to them from a conference hall. A person holding a political office calling on public organisations is not unusual in Sri Lanka. However, this was one that was distinctly different. In terms of the country’s Constitution, the Speaker is the third highest citizen after the President and the Prime Minister. That is why it has been customary for delegations from different organisations to call on him. He holds an exalted office. What is the reason for this change in long followed protocol?

Speaker Ranwala told the ACJU that government leaders decided to reach out to various religious groups. This was after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s policy statement in Parliament calling for national unity and the warning of there being no room for racism. It came at a time when the dust raised by the non-inclusion of a member of the Muslim community in the cabinet of ministers has not yet settled. Despite bold assertions by NPP leaders that selections have been based purely on merit, protests from Muslim groups in different parts of the country have continued to reverberate. It has been causing concern at the highest levels.

The official reason given for non-inclusion has raised more questions than an answer. Is there not one Muslim who is qualified when there have been ministers since the days of the State Council years ago. More so, when for the first time, Muslims voted in large number for the NPP at both the presidential and much more at parliamentary elections. Photo coverage showed rows of Muslim women in headgear and men in skull caps during NPP rallies too. Until then, it was parties like the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) led by Rauff Hakeem and the All-Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) led by Rishad Bathiudeen that held sway.  Their claim to represent the Muslim community has fast shrunk to smaller numbers if one looks at the voting patterns during parliamentary elections. There is a strong message in this for the NPP leadership.

The need for a Muslim minister is no longer to satisfy the needs of one minority community. It is to acknowledge and encourage national integration for which Muslims have fearlessly voted in many parts of the country, perhaps except for some parts of the east. This is first time. This needs recognition and no number of opaque apologies would help. As if to offer a second hand for a clap, Tamil voters have done the same in the north, too. They voted for the NPP in large numbers. Should that not be considered as a double mandate? There are other areas where protocol is being cast aside. For example, now, the President’s Secretary, Dr.Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, is conducting one-on-one discussions with Colombo based foreign envoys at the Presidential Secretariat. This was a practice previously carried out only by Presidents when the envoys called on him. Now, both such events are receiving official media exposure. A western diplomat asked me what I thought of this “equal status.” I replied that the NPP government looked at matters differently. The President sat with his ministers for an official group photograph. His secretary sat with all secretaries to ministries for an official photograph. Both were disseminated by the official media units.

In Parliament, Speaker Ranwala also chaired the first party leaders’ meeting that lasted eighty minutes. He first read out a statement after which the Leader of the House, Bimal Ratnayake, spoke. He said the government would introduce a Vote on Account and draft legislation necessitated by new arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was pointed out by Ratnayake that the present government’s strength stood at 159 MPs, which constituted a ratio of 30 to 70. However, in the conduct of government business, to ensure the government’s commitment to democracy, they would wish to place the ratio at 60 to 40. An interesting moment came when independent Jaffna district parliamentarian, Arhchuna Ramanathan, who is already at the centre of many a controversy, hit out at all other Tamil political parties and their representatives present. He argued that they did not deserve the ratio agreed upon and urged that it be reverted to 70 to 30. A major task for the party leaders will come at their next meeting at 3 p.m. on December 3. They will have to pick 13 members, eight government and four Opposition, for the Selection Committee. It is this Committee that determines members for all other committees in Parliament.

The constituents of the party leaders’ caucus in Parliament are from the National People’s Power, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna,  New Democratic Front, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, All Ceylon Makkal Congress and the five candidates who have been elected from independent groups.

Heavy rains and gale force winds saw large trees falling making roads impassable. Here is an Army photograph of their troops clearing a road blocked by a fallen Mara tree.

IMF agreement

Even if the weather gods were unkind to the government, with floods and heavy rains stretching from north to south-eastwards causing floods, there was good news too. Detailed reports of the damage caused appear elsewhere. The dialogue initiated by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has paid dividends. The move lays to rest claims by New Democratic Front (NDF) leaders during the parliamentary election campaign that the NPP (or any other party voted to power) would not be able to secure further commitments from the IMF. A two-member delegation that was in Colombo this week declared that Sri Lanka would have access to about $ 330 million financial support. This would total one billion dollars of IMF assistance so far.

The delegation was led by Peter Breuer, Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, and included Katsiaryna Svirydzendra, Deputy Chief for Sri Lanka. They were in Colombo for the second review of the four year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) supported programme and the 2024 “Article IV consultation.” After completing their evaluation, IMF staff present a report to the Executive Board for discussion. The Board’s views on the report are provided to the country’s authorities, concluding a process known as an Article IV Consultation.  Breuer told a news conference “the completion of the review by the IMF Executive Board requires (1) the implementation by the authorities of prior actions, and (2), the completion of financing assurances, confirming multilateral partners financing contributions, and assessing adequate progress with the debt restructuring.” He commended the authorities for “making good progress in implementing the ambitious reform agenda under the EFF with commendable outcomes, including rapid disinflation, robust reserve accumulation, and initial signs of economic growth while preserving the stability of the financial system.”

The goals spelt out by the IMF are to be reflected in the government’s first budget which President Dissanayake will introduce on February 17 next year. He is also the finance minister. A government minister familiar with the IMF dialogue said they would observe “how actions spelt out by the IMF are reflected in the February 17 budget.” He did not wish to be identified. He said the IMF is not concerned about the outcome but are focused on how its guidelines are incorporated. A week or more thereafter, he said, the IMF Executive Board will meet for the final approval of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), he added. “Some claimed that successful talks with the IMF was the exclusive preserve of the previous government. They claimed we were incompetent to deal with them. We have disproved that myth in undoing an economic catastrophe caused by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” claimed the minister.

Another area where economic co-operation will be the hallmark is President Dissanayake’s visit to India likely to begin on Sunday, December 15. He will have a day full of engagements in New Delhi the next day (Monday) including talks with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and possibly two or three others. President Dissanayake wants to keep the composition of his delegation smaller. From New Delhi, Minister Herath is due to fly to Kazakhstan.

President Dissanayake’s state visit to New Delhi assumes greater significance for many reasons. Months ahead of the presidential election campaign, the first country he visited on an official invitation from a foreign government was India. There he met External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, among others. Immediately after the presidential election results were announced, India’s High Commissioner Santosh Ja, turned up at the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) office in Battaramulla with a bouquet of red flowers. On that occasion, President Dissanayake, in a brief conversation with the Indian envoy, had recalled his visit to India and declared that too was a contributory factor to his victory. Later, when Dissanayake was sworn in as elected president, envoy Jha was the first foreign diplomat to meet him. These developments, government leaders believed, was greater interest shown in establishing close ties with President Dissanayake and his government. This was followed by the visit of External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar to Colombo with an invitation from Premier Modi, inviting President Disssanayake to visit New Delhi. The parliamentary elections made it difficult. He was also unable to attend three international events—the UN General Assembly sessions in New York, the BRICS conference in Kazan (Russia) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa located near Australia.

An All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema (ACJU) photograph of Speaker Asoka Ranawala addressing their members

In marked contrast, circumstances were quite different during the previous administration. After Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned following pressure from his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, it was Ranil Wickremesinghe who was sworn in as Prime Minister on May 12, 2022. The Foreign Ministry then made several attempts to seek a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister. He had a chance brief meeting with Premier Modi when he attended the funeral of assassinated Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo in September 2022. A more formal meeting came after over a year when he was invited to visit New Delhi. According to highly placed government sources, President Dissanayake’s visit will see a Joint Statement being issued when he departs New Delhi.

Several areas will be covered during Dissanayake-Modi talks. This will include grant assistance projects from India, debt restructuring, people-centric digitisation (identity cards, for instance), finality of the Economic and Technological Co-operation Agreement (ECTA), housing projects from India, solar electrification of religious places, agricultural development, defence cooperation, infrastructure development in the north and collaboration in human resources development. President Dissanayake is expected to raise with Premier Modi the issue of Indian fishermen fishing in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. President Dissanayake will also visit China in January, next year, as earlier reported in these columns.

A matter that has engaged the attention of the government, ahead of the New Delhi state visit by President Dissanayake, is a report of a five-count criminal indictment unsealed in a Federal Court in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City in the USA. Prosecutors are charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vineet S. Jain, executives of an Indian Renewable Energy Company, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions based on false and misleading statements. The Indian entrepreneur’s company in New Delhi, has, however, denied the allegations claiming they are “baseless” and declared they were seeking “legal recourse.”

Health and Media Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told Thursday’s post-cabinet news briefing, his first, that both the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry were studying the implications of the reports on Sri Lanka. Of particular concern to Sri Lanka is a feared delay of a commitment of $ 530 million by the International Development Finance Corporation for the development of a deepwater shipping container terminal at the Colombo Port. This was in collaboration with John Keells, one of Sri Lanka’s leading corporate firms. A deal for the project was signed in November, last year, in Colombo by DFC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Scott Nathan to finance the project to be undertaken by the Colombo West Terminal Private Ltd. No disbursements from the funds committed have arrived so far. The DFC is a US government institution and is not expected to release moneys until the US Justice Department’s case in the Brooklyn Federal Court is concluded.

Besides the development of the West Container terminal in the Colombo Port, another Adani investment is a wind power project in Mannar. This has faced legal challenges. The Attorney General’s Department informed the Supreme Court, which is hearing five fundamental rights cases against this project for environmental reasons, that the cabinet of ministers had decided to reconsider the project. Deputy Solicitor General Avanthi Perera sought an extended date since a decision would have to be finalised by the new cabinet of ministers after the parliamentary elections were held. The decision to review the matter had been made by the ministers on November 7. In addition to this 280 MW renewable energy project, there is also a 234 MW venture in which the Adani group has invested in Pooneryn. This onetime battleground between troops and Tiger guerrillas is located west of the Jaffna peninsula and is separated by the shallow seas.

National list disputes

With just 17 days in office after the parliamentary elections, the government’s machinery has begun to move smoothly in many areas. However, the issue of how to fill national list slots appear to be pre-occupying the two major opposition political parties, the New Democratic Front (NDF) and the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB).

For the NDF, which is headed by the United National Party (UNP) leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, filling a single national list slot has become a tricky issue. The NDF in which candidates backing him contested both the presidential and parliamentary elections under the cylinder symbol are now in a dilemma. After NDF General Secretary Shyamila Perera, Attorney-at-law, named onetime minister Ravi Karunanayake to one of two slots, only one slot remains vacant. She has bluntly refused to revoke her decision claiming that in terms of a memorandum of understanding, provision had been made for one slot to be filled by the NDF. This is being hotly contested.

Former President Wickremesinghe, who returned from a visit to India on Friday, will now review the report of a three-member committee that examined the issue. His choices, however, appear limited. The strongest punishment he could mete out is to expel Karunanayake from the United National Party. An expulsion from the NDF would be not possible since the General Secretary is backing Karunanayake.  That may not resolve the issue since the onetime Colombo North parliamentarian and former minister is representing the NDF in Parliament. Of course, the next step would be to end the episode by naming a member for the remaining slot. As is always the case, there is more than one claimant.

Besides this, UNP Chairman Vajira Abeywardena has declared that at future elections, all candidates under Wickremesinghe’s leadership would be on the elephant symbol and on the United National Party (UNP) ticket. In this regard, it is relevant to note that leader Wickremesinghe obtained the approval for a new constitution for the party at the party convention on October 21, 2013.

Content of UNP constitution

Fuller details of it, however, were not made available then except an endorsement by those present over the new document. The Sunday Times has now seen a full copy of the 54-page constitution incorporating some provisions from the previous one that existed when J.R. Jayewardene was the leader. Though January 1, 2024, was set as the date from which this new constitution came into effect, not all the provisions in them have been strictly enforced.

One of the main highlights of the new constitution, translated to English from its original in Sinhala version, is about the party leader. The person holding the position of party leader, the day before this constitution is adopted, it says, will be the leader for a further six years. It adds that he also qualifies to seek another term, also six years. When the office of the party leader is vacant, a new leader should be selected by the National Executive Council. Those listed as office bearers of the UNP are: (a) Party Leader, (b) Chairman, (c) Two Deputy Chairmen, (d) General Secretary, (e) Deputy General Secretary, (f) Treasurer, (g) Deputy Treasurer, and (h) Legal Secretary.

Here are some of the other highlights:

Party objectives:

To operate as a political party and gain power at the Presidential, Parliamentary,

Provincial Council and Local Government elections.

Party membership:

Any person above the age of 15 can receive party membership by paying annual membership fees and membership needs to be renewed every 12 months.

Members should accept party principles, policies and decisions.

Members should follow Working Committee decisions. Without the approval of the Working Committee any member cannot accept nominations for a Presidential, Parliamentary, Provincial Council and Local election from another party or independent group. An elected member cannot take a different stance or vote contrary to party decisions in Parliament, Provincial Council or in a Local Government institution.

Party structure:

Regional, District, Divisional, Youth, Women’s, Trade Union, Professionals, Foreign, Online, etc organisations.

Party convention:

An annual report should be submitted to the convention. Additions or amendments to the Party Constitution or Standing Orders could be made at the convention .

The number of participants at the convention should be less than 5,000 members and should be presided over by the party leader.

National Executive Council

The National Executive Council comprises the Party leader, Party officials described in 8.1 of the Constitution (i.e. Party leader, Chairman, Two Deputy Chairmen, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer and Legal Secretary), Working Committee members, Parliamentary group, Working Committee of Youth organisation and women’s organisation, leaders of the provincial councils etc.

Party Working Committee

The Working Committee will comprise following members not exceeding 50 members. Party Leader, Chairman, two Deputy Chairmen, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer and Legal Secretary, Chairpersons of the women and youth organisations, leaders of Provincial councils, Chief Organiser of the Parliamentary group, nine selected Members of Parliament, 20 members from the National Council and the rest of the members to be appointed by the Party Leader not exceeding 50 members.

However, the Working Committee can recommend to the party leader to exceed the number of 50 members. The quorum should be one fourth of the members.

The Working Committee is empowered to implement party policies and manage party activities. The Committee is also empowered to hold discussions with the Parliamentary group, submit proposals for the Party convention and raise funds for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Party officials

The leader will appoint all office bearers of the party annually. Party Leader, Chairman, two Deputy Chairmen, General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer and Legal Secretary. They should be appointed annually. In addition to above positions, the party leader could make five more appointments. The Party General Secretary or Treasurer should not contest Parliamentary or any other election.

Unless the leader is not elected for another term, the leader will hold the position for another six years. If the party leader’s position falls vacant, the National Executive Council should meet to elect the new leader. The Working Committee can extend the term of office bearers by three months. The party Leader can appoint nine members from the Working committee to a Supreme Council to formulate political strategy. The Council should supervise the implementation of the strategy. The Party Leader should preside over the meetings.

Presidential, Parliamentary
and other elections

Naming of a presidential candidate should be done by the Nomination Board appointed by the Working Committee. However, the party can decide to support a candidate not named by the party. In the event if the presidential post falling vacant before the term ends, a secret vote should be held among the Parliamentary group and the Working Committee members to select a suitable candidate. The party may decide to support another candidate.

UNP Parliamentary Group and objectives

The Parliamentary group is bound by the directives and advice of the Party Leaders. The members should take an oath that they are loyal to the party.

If the Party Leader is in Parliament, he should be the Parliamentary group leader.

If the leader is not in Parliament, the Leader should appoint the group leader. The Party Leader is empowered to summon a Parliamentary group meeting.

Assets

Emergency Situations: In the event certain provisions in the Constitution are not clear, the Working Committee or the party leader’s decision is final. The Working Committee has powers to give an interpretation to the constitution or decide on provisions not included in the constitution.

Palitha Range Bandara, who was the General Secretary of the UNP has been removed by leader Wickremesinghe. Krishan Theodore is acting in this office until a successor is named.

SJB crisis

The Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) leader is also in a quandary over filling the four national list slots that remain. One was assigned to General Secretary Ranjit Madduma Bandara. With a delay in a decision, more claimants are demanding that they too be considered for positions in the national list. That would be no easy task for party leader Sajith Premadasa with the limited number available.

Thus, when Parliament meets on Tuesday, it will still not have its full complement of 225 MPs. Yet, the presence of 159 NPP parliamentarians appear to have largely met the demand of the 2022 protestors (aragalaya) that those earlier parliamentarians be sent home. It has come about mostly.