Round The World
New Delhi, 13 January 2015
Dramatic Change in Sri Lanka
WILL IT FOSTER
BETTER TIES WITH INDIA
By Ashok B Sharma
Recent
political developments in Sri
Lanka have drawn the attention of South
Asian countries and the world at large. The credit goes to the people and the
political spectrum of the island country for dislodging a despotic and arrogant
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in what can be termed a bloodless coup, albeit
through the ballot box. Importantly, Rajapksa’s exit is expected to usher in a process
of further democratic reforms in Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister
Modi promptly congratulated new
President Maithripala Sirisena and not only assured to work with him but also invited
him to visit India.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj too called on her counterpart Mangala Samaraweera and invited him to visit India, which was
accepted. Samaraweera is expected to visit India on Sunday 18 January, his
first foreign tour. On its part New
Delhi wants Sirisena to settle down and fulfill the
people’s mandate.
Undeniably,
Rajapaksa had created concerns for India. Despite New Delhi asking him to devolve political and
financial powers to the Tamil-dominated northern and eastern provinces as per
the 13th Constitutional Amendment. But the former President arrogantly refused.
Worse,
after the brutal decimation of one of the world’s deadliest guerrilla group,
LTTE, and killing of thousands of innocent Tamils in the process, Rajapaksha was
slow and tardy in his rehabilitation plan. Notwithstanding, India extending
financial support for the rehabilitation of Tamils.
Further,
he also refused to allow an independent inquiry into the 2009 horrific
massacre, no matter the human rights violations invited global concern and was
debated in the UN Human Rights Council. Even as New Delhi
but India
hoped good sense would prevail upon Rajapaksa sooner than later.
Hopes
abound that Sirisena might take steps to address the concerns of the
international community. The UN Human Rights Council is likely to take up this
issue in its next session in March in Geneva.
Bluntly,
had Rajapaksa been allowed to remain in power and continue with his arrogant
attitude, he would have invited sanctions from Western powers, thereby further dwindling
the island country’s economy. Moreover, his despotic nature knew no bound. Just to annoy India, he planned closer links with China even at the cost of South
Asia.
Both
Sirisena and new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have criticized Rajapaksa
for inviting huge loans from China
for building roads, ports and other infrastructure. They have opposed the
building of another port in Colombo
with Chinese assistance as it would amount to huge ecological damage. Recall,
despite New Delhi’s protests, Rajapaksa allowed
Chinese submarines to dock at Colombo port twice
and threatened to turn Sri Lanka
into a strategic asset for China
at India’s
expense.
Remember,
after the 2009 massacre, Rajapaksa bounced back to power for the second
successive term in 2010, but he did not prove well for Sri Lankan
democracy. Add to this, post the Parliamentary elections in April 2010 which gave
his Party two-third majority he decided to amend the Constitution which stipulated
only two terms for a President.
Why did he
do this? Primarily, Rajapaksa felt that the Buddhist-majority population would
reward him for the 2009 massacre by bouncing him back to power many times. His
other interests was to protect himself and his coterie: brother and Defence
Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, army generals, officials and hosts of other
Rajapaksas from possible war crimes. But unfortunately for Rajapaksa, Sri
Lankans were not too happy to tolerate his game any longer.
The 18th
Constitutional Amendment gave sweeping powers to the President in the
appointment of heads and members of major institutions like Election
Commission, Public Service Commission and Anti-Bribery Commission.
Rajapaksa trampled upon the independence of judiciary and removed Chief Justice
Shirani Bandaranayake and appointed Attorney General Mohan Peiris in his place.
But
over-confident Rajapaksa met his fatal consequences when he declared his
decision to hold Presidential polls after completing four years of his six-year
term. His colleague Sirisena defected to become the joint opposition sponsored
Presidential candidate. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike of
Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) along with others came out to lend
support to Sirisena, who also got support from Wickremesinghe’s United National
Party (UNP) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
Besides, Sirisena
had the support of Muslims and some Sinhalese outfits who were fed up with the
dictatorial and corrupt Rajapaksa regime. This ensured Sirisena’s victory.
Significantly,
Sirisena has promised to abolish the executive powers of the President and
return to the Westminster
style of parliamentary democracy. This would amount to scraping the 18th
Amendment and bringing in further amendments to the Constitution. Towards this
end, he would have to mobilise numbers in Parliament and possibly have to rely
on Rajapaksa’s SLFP or depend upon further defection from the SLFP. Clearly, a
hard task.
As for the
devolution of powers to Tamil provinces, Sirisena is better equipped with the
13th Constitutional Amendment already in place. TNA while extending
support to Sirisena had demanded devolution of powers to Tamil provinces on the
lines of that enjoyed by State Governments in India.
But
Sirisena during his campaign, with a view to placate Sinhalese outfit, promised
not to withdraw the army from Tamil provinces. One should not forget that
Sirisena is also perceived as a Sinhalese hardliner.
Additionally,
Sirisena has won with the support of several forces who were opposed to
Rajapaksa’s style of functioning and his corrupt regime. His first priority
will be to introduce necessary democratic reforms and ensure a corruption free
regime.
Notably, India has always attempted to have better
relations with Sri Lanka.
Its economic engagements with its island neighbor, including the free trade
agreement between the two countries, could help Colombo to graduate to the status of a
developing country from a least developed one.
One hopes
Sirisena will better its relationship with India. Rajapaksa had obliged India by his
presence at Modi’s oath-taking ceremony in May. But his approach did not move
further from this gesture. It now depends upon how much Prime Minister Modi and
President Sirisena work out their relations to the mutual benefit of the two
neighbours, SAARC and BIMSTEC groups in which both are active
participants.----INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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