President must walk the talk on equal law

For a Government led by a President who often claims that the law is being applied equally to all, when it comes to allegations against those in the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), the equal status seems to be all but forgotten.

Take the case of the crisis in the power sector. There was a major island-wide blackout on Saturday, and the country is back to power cuts for now. The blackout has been attributed to the breakdown of all three units at the Norochcholai Lakvijaya coal power plant. The breakdown of the Lakvijaya plant naturally raises the question of whether this is due to the use of substandard coal, which has left the plant unable to operate at full capacity and has led to frequent breakdowns. This is not the case, Cabinet Spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said on Tuesday, explaining that the breakdown is due to a technical failure.

Along with the power cuts comes the news that a loss of over Rs. 18.3 million has been incurred due to emergency coal purchases as a result of the import of the substandard coal. This was revealed in an investigation conducted by the parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on Infrastructure and Strategic Development.

The import of substandard coal was exposed by the media, forcing the then Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody to resign in April, but he remains a free man while those from other political parties facing allegations less serious in nature are behind bars, being repeatedly denied bail.

As the issue of the coal imports gained more traction, in June the President appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged irregularities in coal imports from 2009 to the present. The Commission was given three months to submit a report, but this week it was announced that the term of the CoI had been extended by two months, until 16 December 2026.

Coal is not the only case where the Government thinks it’s good to drag its feet because the searchlight is on those on its side.

A Parliamentary Select Committee was appointed to look into the release of 323 containers from the Port of Colombo amidst allegations they escaped Customs scrutiny due to political interference. The term of this PSC has also been extended several times, and it now runs until December 2026.

There are also a number of allegations against Speaker Jagath Wickremaratne, who is facing a No-Confidence Motion containing serious charges, while others in the NPP too are facing similar allegations.

In this country, commissions and committees have always been used as a delaying tactic so as to circumvent the judicial process and delay any court action. Other governments have done this too, and the NPP is fast falling into the same pattern.

Leader of the House Minister Bimal Rathnayake recently tabled a 10-page document in Parliament detailing 50 corruption, fraud and criminal cases involving former ministers, politicians, and senior State officials. He said the cases originated from complaints, investigations and legal proceedings dating back to 2015–2019 and were not initiated by the present Government.

The point was to deny allegations that this Government is on a witch-hunt against its political opponents, but what the list does is expose that the claims by the NPP that the previous Government did not take action against corruption and bribery were falsehoods propagated during the elections by those in the ruling party.

The litmus test for the President, if he is to prove his claim of the law being applied equally to all, is to ensure that those facing corruption charges in his Government are prosecuted without any further delay. Otherwise, they will be just empty words which will soon come undone.