Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Democratic Credentials? A Test, A Challenge!

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Ranil Wickremesinghe – the Positives?

Ranil Wickremesinghe is really an enigma to evaluate; he presents some not so nice antecedents. His unicle, Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe came to Maruthanamadam Ashram shortly after July 1983 and literally cried saying a close relation of his had had a hand in the carnage. Mr. Wickremesinghe reads a lot unlike many of us – especially in English and has therefore been exposed to many ideas from diverse sources. He believes in the free-market which will probably make our trade balances better even though the poor will not fare so well in our “want everything free” culture. He appears well-connected to the west and to businesses – these three factors seem to make him suitable to get a sympathetic ear for loans from the IMF. It is not surprising therefore that there are many rooting for him.

A careful search by me, however, revealed few indicators showing his commitment to democracy. The best I could see was from a fairly comprehensive profile by Al Jazeera that could at best say “Known as an economic reformer and ‘technocrat’ during his long political career.” He seems sailing on his free market credentials, and not any commitment to good governance or democracy.

Ranil Wickremesinghe – the Fears he Raises

Mr. Wickremesinghe’s presidency has raised certain fears in many. The World Socialist Website denounced him on 20 July 2022  upon his appointment as President saying  “Sri Lankan parliament elects rightwing, pro-US Ranil Wickremesinghe as president.”

Such fears were engendered not only from left sources. His own party’s, the UNP’s, General Secretary Palitha Range Bandara as reported in Thinakran on 22.08.2022 said that Ranil will be the president until 2030 and that there can be no confusion over that. That assertion was chilling, certainly to many.

There has been also a lot of untruth flowing from him and his government. Whilst Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardana admitted that the Sri Lankan government footed the bill to provide former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to fly to Thailand from Singapore in a chartered flight last week, the Information Department said government made no contribution for it. The Department said that the former President had spent his own private funds on his foreign visits. (DM 16 Aug. 2022). 

Even regarding the deportation of Kayleigh Fraser, the Scottish lady involved in the Aragalaya, there are different stories as to whether Mr. Wickremesinghe ordered her deportation or somebody else did. In a democracy when trust in the government is destroyed, democracy itself is done for.

There appear to be more untruths regarding the disbanding of the Aragalaya. Al Jazeera (22 July 2022) reports that “the military in Sri Lanka has taken control of the presidential secretariat in Colombo, after what members of the country’s months-long protest movement described as a ‘brutal assault’ and that soldiers overnight also destroyed tents at the adjacent GotaGoGama protest site, arrested several protest leaders and cordoned off the area together with about 100 protesters.” Many Sri Lankan newspapers however have reports that the protesters went away quietly and withdrew the court cases they had filed. Smells like foul fish to me.

The PTA

The Prevention of Terrorism Act, we were assured, would go away. But the Aragalaya Uprising participants (e.g., Wasantha Mudalige, the convener of IUSF, Galwewa Siridhamma Thero, the convener of Inter-University Bhikku Federation, and Hashantha Jawantha Gunathilake, member of the Kelaniya University Students’ Unio) have been detained under the PTA with 90-day detention orders signed off by the Ministry of Defence – a calamity for anyone, particularly peaceful protestors who were exercising their democratic right to protest. The Minister of Defence is none other than President Wickremesinghe. The Defence Secretary is Kamal Gunaratne against whom there are serious accusations of war crimes. Who the Defence Secretary is, instils little confidence in us, the ruled, and certainly calls Mr. Wickremesinghe’s commitment to the rule of law.

Chinthaka Rajapaksa

Shreen Saroor in a video has highlighted the sad lot of another Aragalaya activist Chinthaka Rajapaksa who too has been charged under the PTA. His travails under the PTA have not been picked up by the press.  

Those being charged include those who took selfies while seated on the President’s chair. The biggest bribe takers and murdering generals from Mullivaikal are given high office in Mr. Wickremesinghe’s government. The ordinary small fellow who was righteously angered by our gang of 226 rulers of whom most looted the country and rewarded our killers in uniform with high and lucrative office, is punished. They seem  clearly to be on the road back to power, facilitated by Mr. Wickremesinghe. 

NMSJ Chairman Karu Jayasuriya in unequivocal that they consider the Police attack on the peaceful protest march organised by the Inter-University Student Federation (IUSF) on 18 August, as an attack on the fundamental rights of the people as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Shreen Saroor in her above referenced video is quite clear. While we seem to think that Mr. Wickremesinghe’s “reformist” credentials will get us the petrol, diesel and food we so desperately need, his suppression of the people, especially our righteously enraged youth who rose up against the government, will disturb the IMF, UNHRC, EU etc. sufficiently to make our lot worse, to deny us what some of us expect through Mr. Wickremesinghe’s technocratic qualifications, whatever they might be. If that denial of loans happens through totalitarian or fascist as somebody said failures of Wickremesignhe’s, it is in my view something to be welcomed as a temporary sacrifice and pain for long term gains through democratic rights and our return to civilization. Chinthana’s sacrifices and suffering must contribute to that, and we must all press for the release of all those detained – perhaps even a resuscitation of the Aragalaya.

Bad Signs for any Reform in Sight: Malaysian Parallels

As we go through these traumatic events and times, those far behind us in democracy-yardsticks have rapidly overtaken us. Malaysia provides us with two example for us to emulate.  

The first example is that in Malaysia ex-PM Dato’ Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak  has been jailed for 12 years for channelling about  US$700 million in state money into his personal bank accounts. The verdict confirmed now by higher courts means that Najib will be the first former Malaysian prime minister to be jailed.

In contrast in Sri Lanka, Japan accused Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva of soliciting a bribe of Rs. 100 from Japan’s Taise Corporation.  The allegation was made by the Japanese Ambassador Mizukoshi Hideaki to ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. Thereupon President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took over de Silva’s portfolio as Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation until a formal inquiry was over. However, he had to flee the country. 

Minister de Silva strongly denies that he sought a bribe of Rs 100 million from the Japanese firm Taise. He was quickly cleared by a Committee after Gotabaya Rajapakse fled, and allowed to resume as Minister, much to the chagrin of the Japanese for dismissing their accusations so casually using a committee. RTI Commissioner Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene in her weekly column has expressed some shock at such a casual clearing of a major accusation by a quick-acting Committee. If you were Japan, would you give $1 billion to a government like this? I never will!

Ranil Wickremesinghe seems to have learnt a trick or two from his friends, the Rajapakses, on how to clear his cabinet members through inquiries.

In the second parallel example for us from Malaysia, my friend Prof. Philip Koh Tong Ngee of Malaysia has proudly reported on a  new Malaysian law that he sent me from the Edge CEO Morning Brief (29 July 2022). The story also appears in the Malay Mail (26 May 2022). The law makes party-hopping illegal. This is exactly what Mr. Wickremesinghe is encouraging, as he asks MPs to cross over to his government in defiance of their party’s wishes.

I have always encouraged the TNA to work with the government to help the Tamil people. But I am indeed concerned that if they join the all-party national government that Mr. Wickremesinghe wants, the so-far clean TNA MPs will be hobnobbing with their co-cabinet members whom we all know to be thieves and even murderers.  It might be better to stay out of the government and cooperate like Mr. Sajith Premadasa says he intends doing. 

The Required Reforms

Mr. Wickremesinghe needs to reform himself if we are not to go from the frying pan in which are, into the fire. Some 121 individuals including myself and civil society organizations have put out a document demanding the urgent need for

1. A General Election within the next six months.

2. The urgency of abolishing the Executive Presidency.

3. Upholding fundamental rights of the People as the foundation for democratic governance.

If Mr. Wickremesinghe wants a more meaningful legacy than having been Prime Minister six times and President for a very short time before he too is chased away, he would do well to give fruition to these neglected urgent needs. There is no need to beg rogues to join his government if elections are held. The people’s mood is not to vote for rogues any more.

Tests for Mr. Wickremesinghe

Mr. Wickremesinghe’s rights record is so badly soiled that I  sincerely and honestly suggest that he do the following if he is to gain our trust.

Rajan Hoole and K. Sridharan have documented the criminal activity of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s cronies and appointees who now are Mr. Wickremesinhe’s props. I challenge him to dump the crooks and murderers from his inner circle and charge them. A part of that inner cleansing must be to bring back Shani Abeysekara the former Director the CID and accelerate inquiries into any charges he faces so that he can help in the prosecutions of those accused of theft and murder.

In particular Mr. Wickremesinghe can order inquiries into particular allegations by Hoole and Sridharan:

1. Chief Justice Sarath Silva and Vice Admiral Sarath Weerasekera whom they accuse of inaugurating Sri Lanka’s grim club of impunity in 2005 when they legitimised and then planted an illegal Buddha statue in Trincomalee, enraging communal tensions and spurring a series of atrocities with guaranteed impunity.

2. The 2006 ACF massacre of 17 mostly Tamil aid workers in Muttur for which the same club was responsible. It was covered up by Justice Udalagama and then Counsel Yasantha Kodagoda  who was assisting the Commission of Inquiry. They allegedly worked overtime to shred the good evidence. Kodagoda they allege performed  abysmally on the Commission of Inquiry and now as supreme court justice he is likely to become chief justice unless his performance is looked into now before it is too late for us, and he is CJ.

3. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry’s July 2009 verdict exonerating the armed forces in the ACF case while criticizing the role of organizations in the inquiry, and its silence on the killing of the five students in Trincomalee.

4. A series of Naval Commanders linked to the abduction for ransom and killing of at least eleven people (children and young adults) in 2008 and 2009, and efforts to cover up the truth about those atrocities. Commander Wijegunaratne, the last Naval officer named in the case, helped leading suspect naval intelligence officer Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi flee the country.  Wijegunaratne was released on bail and has not been tried.

5. The government of former President Sirisena and its defence advisors are also guilty of gross negligence in their handling of investigations into the series of bombings that targeted church goers and hotel guests on Easter Sunday 2019, killing hundreds, pointing strongly to their possible complicity. Removing the two effective police officers involved in investigating the bombings demonstrates their patent lack of seriousness in establishing the truth.

6. Lt. Commander Ranasinghe being brought into the initial stages of the planned ACF murders and given the licence for impunity, no doubt provided inspiration for the Navy’s abduction for ransom scandal that followed. Would Justice Kodagoda, as he is today, ever find the nerve to sentence Senior DIG Kapila Jayasekera, the evidence against whose grave misdeeds he helped to subvert?

If these allegations are proved by proper investigations, it would mean an importing cleansing of our supreme court now festering with justices of questionable integrity. 

The allegations of high crime have been openly made by Hoole and Sritharan. Will Mr. Wickfemesnghe act? If the allegations are false, will his friends charge Hoole and Sritharan for defamation? That would be an acceptable alternative to a criminal trial by the stat (except for the expenses Hoole and Sritharan need to bear if they are charged with libel) since it would be a golden opportunity to bring the evidence out in court and subject the criminally accused persons to a trial of sorts. I am sure there are many people and organizations who would fund their defence of Hoole and Sritharan if Mr. Wickremesinghe continues to protect and pamper the criminally accused persons.

In 2005 when I was in and out of the Supreme Court Complex, I heard responsible and credible senior lawyers talking of a justice who would expose himself to the maid cleaning toilets and of another who came with an empty toilet paper roll and exchanged it for the new roll which he would take home.

We all had a hearty laugh. But is that not the problem with Sri Lanka? We get a laugh from the copious muck around us, but do nothing to clean up. I would like Mr. Wickremesinghe to start, particularly with the war crimes investigations that he promised in Geneva. Then I would salute him; not before.

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