By Chandani Kirinde
Sri Lanka is making international headlines once again. There are growing calls for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to appoint an interim government to address the urgent economic problems faced by the people, after protestors approaching his residence over a fuel crisis, power cuts, food shortage and mounting inflation clashed with police on Thursday. The President has responded by declaring a state of emergency, imposing a curfew and restricting social media access. Western diplomats in Colombo have been quick to raise concerns over the state of emergency and stifling of the people’s right to protest. India has remained silent over the protest so far except being quick to deny disinformation on social media that it was mulling sending Indian soldiers to Sri Lanka. A senior politician has warned against any military arrangement. Are there international best practices in interim governments for Sri Lanka to pursue?
A 11 party grouping of the ruling alliance including former President Maithripala Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and sections of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) say a multi-party interim government is the only feasible option available to the government that is under growing public pressure. Senior politician Vasudeva Nanayakkara who is part of ruling alliance said on Friday that unless an interim arrangement is put in place with members of the opposition as part of it, there was the danger of a power vacuum in the midst of growing public anger directed towards the president and government and call for them to step down. “We must not forget that in other countries the military has stepped in to fill the power vacuum and this is a dangerous situation and must be averted by going for an interim government to address the urgent needs of the people before going for an early parliamentary election,” he said.
Interim arrangements aren’t a panacea for all the country’s ills but have been put in place in several countries during times of turmoil to cool off rising public tempers and bring about political and economic stability to be followed up with elections. In most cases interim governments have been a result of post-military coup administrations, especially in the African region across Burkina Faso, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Gambia in the last three decades. In Asia, disputed interim arrangements were put in place in Maldives in 2012 after sitting President Mohamed Nasheed resigned as a result of a mutiny and his successor President Waheed held on to the post and expanded the cabinet according to his whims until elections were held a year after.
Sri Lanka, where the two-party system has been in place since independence , has not seen interim arrangements with snap polls held in times of trouble to give voters a chance to elect new representatives. A “probationary government” put together in 2001 by then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga ran into trouble in less than three years forcing fresh polls. That arrangement however was necessitated more for political survival than addressing public anger.
Sri Lanka has had more than its share of political turmoil in the past 74 years since its independence from British rule in 1948. One silver living amidst the insurrections and a civil war, assassination of political leaders and trying economic times has been the people’s enthusiasm for elections. They have used the ballot to rid the country of rulers they have grown fed up with and the replace with another lot, to soon be weary of them as well.
Sri Lanka’s eminent historian Professor K.M. de Silva in his book “A History of Sri Lanka’ writes that when the Sri Lankan voter is in one of its not very infrequent moods of disenchantment with the regime in power, it gives vent to its displeasure with an exuberance and vehemence which all but obliterates the governing party.
He wrote so in context of the outcome of the 1977 general election which reduced the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led coalition which ruled from 1970-1977 to eight parliamentary seats against the United National Party (UNP) which swept 140 of the 168 seats. This was the most comprehensive electoral victory on record till then. What sealed the fate of the SLFP was years of economic mismanagement which saw people struggle to get their basic needs met.
Fast-forward to 2022, the Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been in power for less than two and half years and people are once again experiencing the dreaded ‘’polin yugaya’’ or the era of the queues. The government has blamed Covid-19, which impacted most economies and particularly countries with import dependent economies such as Sri Lanka, for the current state of affairs. Most economists are of the view that the government’s mismanagement of Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves and bad fiscal policies is what has pushed the people to the brink.
Protests have erupted across the country which have now become a rallying call for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit. One man on Sunday took his own life on the road close to the President’s house calling a stop to power outages. Public anger too has been directed at members of the Rajapaksa family as a whole. So an interim arrangement in which any member of the Rajapaksa family plays a role is unlikely to appease the public, at least for now nor carry credibility.
The international community has been cautious in its response ensuring that it does not weigh in on the complex sensitivity around calls for a change in the current administration. U.S Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung tweeted that ‘’Sri Lankans have a right to protest peacefully. I am watching the situation closely’’ and called for restrain from all sides. The Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Trine Joranli Eskedal expressed ‘’Concern about the use of force against protestors and journalists’’ and the state emergency as she noted that the ‘’Rights of all, including freedom of speech and assembly must be safeguarded’’. The European Union office in Colombo too has expressed concern about the state of emergency and the necessity to safeguard the right to dissent.
Sri Lanka’s legal fraternity and judiciary has been unwavering in upholding fundamental rights at the height of crisis. Lawyers turned up in the hundreds to appear pro-bono to secure bail for protestors arrested opposite the President’s personal residence. They also did the same for young activist Thisara Bandara at 1am on Sunday morning who was taken in to police custody for allegedly setting up a Facebook page calling for public protests seeking President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. The Human Rights Commission mobilised at rapid pace to check on Bandara when it was alerted that the police earlier denied having him in custody. It also objected to the protestors being charged under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, which led the police to file charges under the Penal Code and the Public Property Act.
Sri Lankans have kept faith in the electoral system during the past seven and half decades since independence and periodically gone to the polls and elected the rulers of their choice. There are legitimate concerns the current unrest could embolden people to forcibly remove elected public representatives, which would auger badly for the country.
A state of emergency, curfews and restrictions on social media can temporarily stop people from publicly venting their anger, but they provide no long-term solutions. The social media restrictions have made the #GoHomeGota trend in multiple foreign countries including the United States, Germany, Singapore and the Netherlands and curfews have led to the Sri Lankan diaspora in multiple Western capitals from Melbourne to Europe protested on behalf fellow Sri Lankans.
It’s time for the President and his Cabinet to understand the seriousness of the situation at hand and consult with all political parties represented in Parliament to put an interim government in place. This will inevitably have to be followed by constitutional reforms to strengthen parliament and pave way for a general election. This could also pave way foreign investor confidence and ensure a stable country for tourism. Avoiding bloodshed must be the utmost priority in the minds of the President, the government, the Opposition and law enforcement authorities.
(The writer is senior political and history columnist and a long-serving parliamentary correspondent in Sri Lanka. She can be reached via chandani.kirinde2016@gmail.com)
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