Q uite apart from chuckling over quaintly outdated British titles of ‘Esquire’ suffixed to names of various individuals and officials appointed to a Task Force to ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in a gazette notification of December 19th 2024, several aspects of this exercise perturbingly echo Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s widely derided ‘rule by [...]

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‘Cleaning’ Sri Lanka; the NPP’s ghosts of the past

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Q uite apart from chuckling over quaintly outdated British titles of ‘Esquire’ suffixed to names of various individuals and officials appointed to a Task Force to ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in a gazette notification of December 19th 2024, several aspects of this exercise perturbingly echo Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s widely derided ‘rule by Task Force’ era (2019-2022).

Puzzling mandate of the NPP Task Force

Those who are veritably cursed to possess long memories among us may recall Rajapaksa’s ridiculously phrased extraordinary gazette on June 2, 2020, establishing a 13-member ‘Presidential Task Force to build a Secure Country, Disciplined, Virtuous and Lawful Society.’ Headed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, a retired major general whose record as Secretary was sinister to say the least, the Task Force comprised military, intelligence and police officials. The effort accomplished precisely nothing except the wastage of public funds similar to numerous other ‘Task Forces.’

In general, Sri Lankan Presidents seem to delight in appointing these useless bodies under the omnibus sub-section (f) of Section 33 of the Constitution. Such a stretch of constitutional powers probably may have been far from the contemplation of the framers of the apex document at the time. That aside, whether we are talking about enforcing citizens to be ‘disciplined, virtuous and lawful’ (whatever that may mean) or ‘cleaning Sri Lanka,’ there is a fundamental problem in creating another layer of authority over and above the functions of the public service and public servants whose tasks are anyway encompassed by the relevant mandates?

Where the NPP Task Force to ‘clean Sri Lanka’ is concerned, its mandate itself is something of a puzzle.  The bright sparks of the National People’s Power (NPP) who framed its clauses seem to have singularly omitted the concretization of what is sought to be achieved. Instead, what is identified (if that term can be used) in the gazette as the objective is the beautifully vague aim of ‘elevating society to a more advanced status through a social, environmental and ethical awakening,’ vide task (i) of the mandate. Exactly what does this mean, pray?

Identifying/enacting laws to do what?

This is as ludicrous as having a Task Force to enforce citizens to be ‘disciplined, virtuous and lawful.’ The rest of the mandate provides no further elucidation on this point, except repeating ad nauseam, taking the ‘Clean Sri Lanka programme’ further, engaging ‘experts, scholars  and stake holders’ etc and et al. Perhaps the NPP envisages searching for ‘experts and scholars’ on ‘social, environmental and ethical awakening’ across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka much like the Greek philosopher Diogenes famed for walking around in daylight with a lamp, searching for an ‘honest man’?

Even more troublingly, clause (vii) of this mandate gives the power to the Task Force to ‘identify and formulate legal provisions required to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes of this programme and establish an institutional framework to which the responsibility for enforcing such laws and rules in the long term is conferred upon.’ Let us leave this convoluted language aside, is the Task Force expected to recommend new laws and rules that will ‘socially, ethically and environmentally awaken’ the Sri Lankan public? What gibberish is this?

In introducing the ‘programme’ at the start of the New Year, the President elaborated that his Government’s ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ project goes ‘beyond merely cleaning up the environment…it aspires to restore the deeply eroded and deteriorated social and environmental fabric of Sri Lanka.’ Laudable sentiments no doubt but again, this begs the question as to why a Task Force of individuals of majority ethnicity was needed for this and why its composition had to include Commanders of the tri-services and the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP)? In what way are military aims and objectives pivotal to this ‘project’?

Presidential oratory vs performance

Sri Lanka’s perennial problem has been the non-implementation of existing laws as President Dissanayake has emphasised more than once in speaking to the reason why anti-corruption laws in Sri Lanka have failed so evidently. What is needed here is the proper implementation of existing environmental, urban and rural development laws though of course, ‘law’ will not be able to correct the ‘deeply eroded social fabric’ of this nation. The enigma is as to how the President believes that a Task Force can achieve that, to be blunt.

Meanwhile a key aim of the exercise is to establish a programme Fund. These ‘Funds’ are a notorious component of Task Forces with little public accountability. And even though the President may boast as he often does, that the ‘experts’ who work with him do so voluntarily, there is little doubt that this will not be a mere charitable exercise. State resources are inevitably expended on inaugural events, on publicity and so forth. In fact, this exercise sums up much that is concerning regarding the path of governance that the NPP hopes to tread, in view of its early performance so far.

If prizes were to be given for inspiring oratory, President Dissanayake may score quite high, unlike the rest of his Cabinet who are more prone to mundane platitudes. The President’s two major speeches at the close of 2024 comprised the ‘Clean Sri Lanka‘ address on the dawning of 2025 and weeks earlier, a scathing reminder of their statutory and constitutional duties delivered in fine form to a somewhat uneasy audience of anti-corruption officials, judges, state lawyers and others on International Anti-Corruption Day (19th December 2024).

Concrete results in governance still pending

This was Dissanayake, the seasoned political campaigner at his best when he observed that, ‘I am present as a political authority’ adding that other senior officials, Supreme Court Justices, the Acting IGP, the Chairman and Commissioners of the Bribery or Corruption Commission (CIABOC) are all here. This was as a precursor to asking, ‘so, who else is missing? Where, then, is the problem? If we observe this honestly, the issue lies here. How can a file in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) move up and down, or remain stuck for seven or eight years in a cupboard? Is this not where the problem lies?

It would be difficult to argue with the President’s argument that it is ‘implausible that the Attorney General’s Department has kept a file locked away for seven years…similarly, it is unacceptable that certain files remain untouched from the day they are filed until they are deteriorated.’ He went on to point out that, ‘investigations by the CID should not drag on until the evidence and documents deteriorate. These are not mere institutional issues but reflect the misuse of authority entrusted to these entities. Without addressing such abuse, meaningful progress cannot be achieved.’

In the same vein, the Sri Lankan public would certainly agree with the President asking as to why the CIABOC does not publicly record their reasons as to why a case is being withdrawn and why also, (if the withdrawal is on technical grounds), it is not being re-filed?  This is particularly so in view of the CIABOC’s ability only to catch government sprats and not political sharks as has been the uninspiring case for decades.

Indeed, the name lists of those whose cases have been withdrawn and not re-filed include some of our most notorious political crooks.But as appealing as these no-holds barred Presidential admonitions may be, the fact of the matter is that steering the ship of state is not platform theatrics.  Concrete results must be evidenced thereto.

As a New Year dawns with more than its fair share of uncertainties, Sri Lankans look to its Government and the Presidency with an ‘extraordinary mandate’ to carry out their ‘ordinary’ expectations of basic governance sooner rather than later.

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