United we stand!

Saturday, 22 August 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The die has been cast. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn into his fourth term on Friday and a fresh Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the two main parties to chart Sri Lanka’s future for the next two years.

Such historic events have deep repercussions for other stakeholders of democracy as well. For the first time in over a decade Sri Lanka does not have a strong Opposition. Even though the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has chosen to take on the mantle of the Opposition it will find it harder to make itself heard with just six seats in parliament. However, the situation does have a silver lining as it provides the chance for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to engage on issues that matter to all members of the public and emerge from its pigeonhole as a ‘minority party’. Such a judicious move would go a long way in building confidence and trust with the majority community and assist in smoothing the path to reconciliation.

The State is made up of four estates because a balance of power is essential. Sri Lankans removed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa precisely because he sought to undermine this power by centralising power to his family. When the balance of power is disturbed it results in massive levels of corruption, nepotism and authoritarianism. To counter, a strong executive, parliament, independent judiciary and media must function in tandem. With a National Government in place more responsibility is devolved to the Executive, Media and Judiciary to ensure that Parliament stays the course it was appointed for.

The MoU signed between UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim and his counterpart has many crucial points including tightening anticorruption mechanisms, implementing right to information legislation and improving women’s rights including parliament representation. Yet the problem with the MoU is that it does not come with a timeline and therefore the onus of making sure it is carried out falls onto the public, media, Opposition, Judiciary and the independent commissions to be appointed under the 19th Amendment. An additional and very powerful tool for balance of power would be to give the public service commission the power to appoint civil servants to ministries and other institutions, thereby doing away with the current system of presidential appointments.

Some of the points in the MoU such as right to information legislation was initially mentioned in the 100-day plan but were simply sidelined as they did not have sufficient grassroots support. However, such impediments have to be removed so that watchdogs are empowered to do this crucial of tasks. Many elements of the MoU are challenging and will create divisions within the National Government itself, especially since power plays will inevitably emerge between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, President Sirisena and MP Mahinda Rajapaksa. Whether the MoU manages to penetrate beneath the cracks of ideological beliefs held by these parties and glues them together remains to be seen.

For now the first challenge will be to tackle reconciliation measures brought to the forefront by the release of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report. Sri Lanka will have to present a united front in Geneva and will need to stay the course together to finally heal itself.