The Importance of Positivity for Sri Lanka

When it comes to Sri Lanka, I’ve noticed that it’s common for many of us Sri Lankans to be very

negative about the state of affairs in the country. I understand that it stems from legitimate issues

and grievances, but I personally don’t agree with this very negative attitude. In this article, I will give

my thoughts on why I think positivity is important for Sri Lanka.

Unfortunate Quick Dismissals

When a new project has come to the country, some people say that it isn’t good, that it’s making no

difference or making it worse. Other comments along those lines said are “we don’t need this”. There

are of course some projects that will not be of value or make the situation worse. It’s my perception

that we often jump to these conclusions at the start. I think it’s best to think it through before jumping

to a conclusion.

Sometimes, a certain project may not be an ideal solution, a necessity or live up to what’s promised,

but it does bring about an improvement thus it’s good that it has been brought forward. It’s also worth

noting that a project’s value often won’t be seen immediately, as people have to get used to the

change. In those cases, the success and value of a project can be best judged after several months

of operation.

Legal Flaws Shouldn’t Diminish Achievements

One negative comment often said is “what a joke”. It’s often used when someone is prosecuted for a

crime, to point out the fact that someone who committed a lighter crime got a heavy sentence

compared with a lighter sentence given to an offender of a more serious crime. In instances like

these, the allegation is most probably true and is unfortunate, but I don’t think it diminishes the

achievement of the prosecution. Sometimes, though it may not be a very serious offence, it might be

a new trend to see someone prosecuted for it or the frequency of such a prosecution. I don’t think

achievements like that should go unrecognised.

People Getting Written off Too Easily

There is a trend to write off a person because of something questionable that they did, even if they

were individuals who were viewed very highly prior to that incident. I do think that some individual’s

actions can have gone too far to the point that being critical of them makes sense. However, there

are many cases where I agree with the criticism, but think it's taking it too far to write them off for it

as the individual's actions do not discredit his or her good qualities and achievements.

Politics Isn’t All Bad

When it comes to politics, I don’t like the political culture, but don’t think everything a politician says

or does is a lie, corrupt, bad etc. I think there are more good politicians than perceived. I also think

that some politicians can be mixed, i.e. corrupt but also having some good qualities. I think that the

good and decent aspects of politics often get sidelined due to the strong focus on the negative

aspect of politics. Even in cases when a politician is performing better than many of his or her

colleagues, we often paint them with the same brush.

Politicians, despite some of their bad reputations are an essential part of government, and if you did

away with them, society would be worse off. The way forward is to speak out against the negative

aspect of politics and to encourage its positive aspects. It’s also worth noting that politicians aren’t

solely responsible for the negative aspects of Sri Lankan society. These negative aspects also stem

from businesses, institutions and individuals. These factors in society play a role in enabling

corruption, bribery and other ills associated with politics as some politicians may have been

influenced by them prior to entering politics.   

Value of Hope

I don’t agree with the view of there being no hope for Sri Lanka. That is a very defeatist way of

looking at the country. Even at times when I was most displeased with the state of affairs in Sri

Lanka where I had serious concerns about the future, I did not believe that to be the case. An aspect

of hope is wanting the country to do well, where you look for positive opportunities for Sri Lanka.

Without hope, the country cannot progress.

I think Sri Lanka will have ups and downs, with both good and bad things frequently occurring. We

have our different political and ideological views, so we will differ in assessment of our country both

at present and throughout its various stages. We may be more pessimistic and more optimistic at

times, but I believe hope is essential as it helps drive the country forward, especially during its most

difficult times.

Excess Negativity Strengthens the Problems

I think that excess negativity adds fuel to the fire of the problems facing Sri Lanka. Saying these very

negative remarks makes it more likely to happen. If we didn’t have such negativity in the past over

several decades and instead focused constructively on how to improve the country we might have

been able to be in a better state now with stronger anti-corruption efforts and thus a more productive

political culture. We also could have worked towards a stronger economy.

Conclusion

I’m not advocating complacency with the state of affairs in the country. I know there are serious

problems which are in need of fixing. We are going to get disappointed, frustrated, annoyed and

saddened by things that occur in Sri Lanka. I’m suggesting what I think is a way to feel better in the

face of the problems facing Sri Lankan society. I think that these very negative attitudes lead to us

ignoring and not seeing positive occurrences in Sri Lanka.

If you don’t feel comfortable thinking anything different about politics, I hope you’ll at least consider

thinking more positive about Sri Lanka. While one section of society (politicians) has been viewed

unfavourably due to a history of corruption, bribery, getting involved with violence etc, that doesn’t

mean that there aren’t good things done by other sectors of society. You can find good work done by

volunteers, civil society, NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations), entrepreneurs among others. I

encourage you to look out for for good things happening in Sri Lanka. Being more positive about the

country leads to us feeling better and can help take Sri Lanka further.

Five Interesting Facts from the History of Sri Lanka's Governance

When it comes to the history of Sri Lanka’s government, there are some incidents and facts not

widely known or are known mainly by the older generation of Sri Lankans due to many years passing

since its occurrence. In this article, I am compiling five interesting facts from the history of Sri Lanka’s

governance. It begins 87 years ago.

1. Ministers without Ministries

Before Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) Independence in 1948, from 1931 to 1947 there were Ministers but no Ministries under the Donoughmore Constitution. I wonder how the government functioned at this time without Ministries. A possibility I can see is that there was a group of staff under all Ministers performing the responsibilities of Ministerial staff.

2. Ministers without Portfolios

Sri Lanka's first Cabinet was appointed 71 years ago on the 14th of October 1947, the day of the first session of Sri Lanka’s Parliament known then as the House of Representatives. In this Cabinet, there was a Minister (R.S.S. Gunawardena) without a portfolio. He was also Chief Government Whip who was unseated via an election petition on the 12th of March 1948. R.S.S. Gunawardena continued to function in his positions until replacements were made in May 1948. Interestingly his successor A.E. Goonesinghe also functioned as a Minister without Portfolio and a Chief Government Whip, though he also got assigned the Minister of State portfolio on the 26th of July that year. I’m interested to know what these Ministers functions were. Perhaps their work included working on topics not covered in the other Ministerial portfolios. 

3. Parliament with Two Houses

As pointed out above, Parliament was known as the House of Representatives at the time of Sri Lanka’s independence. The House of Representatives was one of two houses of Parliament, with the House of Representatives being the Lower House and the Senate of Ceylon being the Upper House. The House of Representatives at its first sitting had 101 MPs, with 95 elected and six appointed by the then Governor-General who represented Britain’s monarch. The Senate had 30 members with 15 members being elected by the House of Representatives and 15 nominated by the Governor-General on the Prime Minister’s advice. The Senate was led by a President and it enabled a system of accountability towards the House of Representatives. This institution continued until its abolishment in 1971. I intend to write about the Senate of Ceylon in a future article.

4. The First Speaker Standing Up to the Prime Minister

The first Speaker Francis Molamure is reported to have told Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to take his seat. Nihal Seneviratne, former Secretary-General of Parliament revealed in a conversation (video in link) with political scientist Asoka Obeyesekere that he was told that the first Speaker said to Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake: “Honourable Prime Minister, I think you are being irrelevant. Please take your seat.” I hope to see this happen again.

5. Two MPs for Kalawana

Following the 1977 general election, there were two people claiming the seat of Kalawana, a town 106

km from Colombo in the Ratnapura district. The seat was won by Mr. Abeyratne Pilapitiya of the

United National Party (UNP), the party which won the general election. For some reason, it was

challenged by Mr. Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) who

contested against him via an election petition. Mr. Pilapitiya was involved with an accident, and stayed

away from Parliament without requesting leave. As a result of this, he lost his seat which was

believed to be an intentional move on his part. His party then nominated him to fill the vacancy,

changing his position from an elected MP to a nominated MP. In late 1980, the election petition result

in the Supreme Court unseated Mr. Pilapitiya and a by-election was conducted in January 1981 that

elected Mr. Sarath Muttetuwegama.

At about the same time, the government led by then President J.R. Jayewardene brought in a bill, the Third Amendment to the Constitution that would enable the Kalawana electorate to have two MPs, one elected and the other nominated. The Supreme Court ruled that this amendment required both a two-thirds majority and a referendum. Though the bill was passed with a two-thirds majority, a referendum was not held. This issue was concluded with Mr. Pilapitiya resigning resulting in Mr.Muttetuwegama taking his seat as the MP for Kalawana. This shows an instance of the judiciary preventing presidential abuse of power.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed these five facts from the history of Sri Lanka’s governance. I’d be interested in

hearing from anyone who remembers any of these happenings, knows more details or has similar

stories they’d like to share.

Thoughts on President Sirisena's Shocking Betrayal

Last month, the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena sadly began degenerating into a greedy

power hungry politician. This noticeably started on the 26th of October 2018 in his shocking move

where he unconstitutionally sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former

President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. This was followed by him proroguing Parliament on

the following day. Two weeks later, he made another unconstitutional move on the 9th of November
where he dissolved Parliament and called for general elections to be held in January. The dissolving

of Parliament has been temporarily suspended by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka whose final

judgement is scheduled to be delivered of the 7th of December. It is very distressing to see the

President brazenly violate the Sri Lankan Constitution and betray everything he stood for. In this

article, I’ll be giving some of my thoughts on the President’s behaviour.

Violating His Own Restrictions

In April 2015, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed in Parliament. The

President was one of the key people responsible for the 19th Amendment. Some features of the 19th

Amendment include the restoration of the two-term limit for Presidents and the removal of the

President’s ability to sack a Prime Minister & to dissolve Parliament until the first four and a half
years of its term. Having done the last two actions, he has violated the very restrictions he was
instrumental in bringing about.

Unethical Conduct  

I think this conduct is very unethical as the President purported to remove the man who helped him

win the Presidency and appointed the very man he contested against. In November 2014, Maithripala

Sirisena who was then the Health Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, crossed over to

the opposition to be the Common Candidate to campaign against his former boss. Defeating

Mahinda Rajapaksa seemed very difficult then and it was achieved on 8th January 2015. The

President even said in 2015 after former President Rajapaksa got nominations to contest in the 2015

general elections that if the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) won, he wouldn’t appoint Mahinda

Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. What President Sirisena did is a betrayal of his mandate of good

governance, accountability, reconciliation, media freedom among other issues. He was elected to

usher in a new era to Sri Lanka and had the potential to be a good President, but he has sadly

reverted to the lowest level of political indecency.

Since the 26th of October, he has been acting in such a disgraceful way. He has been getting

involved in and supporting a very bad form of governance. Incidents include the forceful taking over of

state media by those loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa, apparent bribery as United National Party (UNP)

MP Palitha Range Bandara claims that he was offered $2.8 million USD to crossover and the

disrupting of Parliamentary proceedings by many United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MPs. I

don’t believe the appointments to the role of Prime Minister and the Cabinet by President Sirisena

were constitutional, but even if you put aside the constitutionality of his actions, it’s very distressing to

see his reactions following the no-confidence motions passed against Mahinda Rajapaksa and his

purported government. Firstly, it’s him not accepting the first no-confidence motion. He requested the

first clause stating that the appointments were illegal to be removed which was adhered to resulting

in a second no-confidence motion being passed. He again did not accept the second no-confidence

motion. This is disgusting behaviour to request for something, have it granted and then not do what

you promised.

Party Centric Thinking

An issue I had with President Sirisena was that he had been focusing too much on his party the

SLFP which got into conflict with his mandate and his working relationship with Ranil

Wickremesinghe & the UNP. It is my perception that those actions led to this moment. I wish he
had been an Independent President, that is being a President with no party allegiances. I think this

arrangement would have resulted in him accomplishing more, making more sensible decisions and

not reuniting with Mahinda Rajapaksa.  

The Need to Abolish the Executive Presidency

The President’s actions to me are a reason why the Executive Presidency should be abolished. It

shows that the powers of the Sri Lankan President can easily corrupt those who come in with good

intentions. This is despite the fact that President Sirisena himself was responsible for reducing

presidential powers. In fact, founder of the Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG),

Attorney-at-Law Elmore Perera who contributed in 2016 to my article “Impact of the 19th Amendment

One Year On” said the thought provoking words in my correspondence with him that I didn’t include

there, “It was widely agreed that 35 years of experience had shown that the Executive Presidency

had contributed immensely to several of the ills that plagued the country.”

The Presidential system enables Governments to be formed where the President and the Prime

Minister are from two different parties. This results in the two leaders getting into conflict with one

another, which happened in the relationship between Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe

despite the fact that they came together on the same platform. I am in favour of a ceremonial

President which Sri Lanka did have from 1972 to 1978. I think that a ceremonial President would not

get into conflict with the Prime Minister, as the President in this situation wouldn’t be a member of a

political party. I further think that an Executive Prime Minister would have less opportunities to abuse

his or her position than an Executive President.

Conclusion

These are very sad and difficult times for Sri Lanka, which is so disturbing as the cause of these

problems comes from the President elected against the type of governance he has been currently

practicing. I am pleased that the actions of Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa seem to be

getting weakened and remain confident that the status quo in Parliament prior to the 26th of October

can be restored. It’s encouraging to see activism against the actions of the President by many Sri

Lankans. This activism gives hope that it can drive our country further once we are out of this mess.

Sri Lankan Twitter Showcase: September 2018

On the Internet, people discuss and share happenings of Sri Lanka. One platform where this occurs is on social media. I decided to showcase a collection of tweets about Sri Lanka from the social media website Twitter covering the month of September 2018 in sequential order. If you don’t use Twitter or are unfamiliar with it, you can still read this post. The tweets (a message of 280 characters or less) are featured on this blog post. I selected a group of tweets that I like. Issues covered include politics, economics, pictures and positive occurrences. I’m including positive occurrences as there is usually more talk about the negative occurrences than the positive ones and hearing positive news can make us feel good.

Sunsets in Matara pic.twitter.com/i2VKwvWMzq

— Kalani Kumarasinghe (@KalaniWrites) 1 September 2018

This is a good picture of Matara by Kalani Kumarasinghe. Sorry, but the image embedding doesn't do it justice. I recommend clicking the picture link above to see it properly.

#SriLanka #Finmin @MangalaLK says  “the government needs to undertake more difficult and challenging #reforms in order to drive future economic growth and development”, given higher debt and unproductive mega infrastructures like port & airport

— Shihar Aneez (@shiharaneez) 2 September 2018

I think this is a good statement from Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera. What ultimately matters is if the government takes these reforms and how successful they are if carried out. I am of the opinion that Mangala is one of Sri Lanka’s better ministers so that gives some hope.

After falling to 10% of the average World GDP in 1978, Sri Lanka's GDP per capita has now climbed to 38% since the liberalization of the economy, and most of this boom happened in just the last 15 years!
Our last post will show you how this has reflected in Sri Lankan households. pic.twitter.com/SH3q7hxU8h

— Frontier Research SL (@FrontierResSL) 3 September 2018

These statistics show economic growth of Sri Lanka, particularly since the start of the 21st century.

Power limitation is an overriding concern in democratic constitutions - one way of ensuring this is through term limitations @welikalaa#19A #constitution #lka

— Verité Research (@VeriteResearch) 6 September 2018

This is a good point made by Dr. Asanga Welikala at his recent Verité Research talk titled “The Presidential Term Limit After The Nineteenth Amendment”.

Sri Lanka's per capita GDP 1820-2016. From Angus Maddison's brilliant dataset. pic.twitter.com/WictyrGbmO

— Daniel Alphonsus (@danielalphonsus) 7 September 2018

This is an image of Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita as shared by Daniel Alphonsus who got the figures from English economist Angus Maddison. The reason this is different to the previous Sri Lankan GDP per capita figures that showed GDP decreasing from 1960 to 1978 is because that one was in comparison with the rest of the world. This shows tremendous growth Sri Lanka has undergone and gives hope that as the GDP per capita has gone up in the past, it will go up again in the future to bring benefits to Sri Lanka.

#Citra, #SriLanka's first Social Innovation Lab, recently entered into a partnership with the Mount Lavinia Municipal Council to develop a citizen-centred open source platform for dengue prevention and control. pic.twitter.com/Io78H6dtgp

— Sri Lanka Times (@SriLankaTimes) 8 September 2018

It’s good to see technology being used to work on dengue prevention and control.

Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has received 1968 complaints during the past nine months of the year, according to the commission. #Srilanka

— Thuvaraki Thuva (@NilaThuva) 11 September 2018

These are interesting statistics regarding CIABOC. It’s good that they are getting these complaints. I hope that CIABOC will get more complaints and that it will get more effective in the fight against corruption.

Sri Lanka Navy rescued a Whale Shark (Rhincodon Typus) that was stranded to Alampil beach area in Mulathivu and supported it to swim deep waters, yesterday (10th Sep). It weighs about 9000 Kg and about 9m in length. pic.twitter.com/uRHQ8scnOi

— Sunil Jayasiri (@sjayasiri) 11 September 2018

It’s good to see a story of a whale shark being rescued. It’s interesting to note that whale sharks are not harmful to humans.

RTI Commission has received 951 appeals of which 690 have been completed hearing and 4% of received appeals have been rejected by the commission, DG of RTI Com. Piyathissa Ranasinghe says. #lka #srilanka #RTIworkshop #RTIsrilanka

— Piyumi Fonseka (@Piyumi_KF) 17 September 2018

This is a good example of the Right to Information (RTI) law functioning with all the work on appeals by the RTI Commission.

#NuwaraEliya #SriLanka

Photo credit: @rovinovic pic.twitter.com/6RD38giHwY

— Sri Lankan Trends (@SriLankanTrends) 18 September 2018

This is a great photo of Nuwara Eliya taken by Rovin Shanila featured on the Sri Lankan Trends Twitter account.

Price of a 400g Milk Powder packet to be reduced by Rs. 25 - Cost of Living Committee #LKA #SriLanka

— Sri Lanka Tweet 🇱🇰 (@SriLankaTweet) 18 September 2018

The Sri Lankan economy functions in a way where the government sets prices for certain goods. As it’s very unfortunate that prices of goods frequently rise, it’s worth noting that there are also some price reductions such as this one.

Sri Lanka will celebrate RIght to Information week from 21st to 28th September, 2018 says Ms. Tilaka Jayasundera, Addl Secy (Development), Minister of Finance and Media today while declaring open the RTI week today. #RTI

— Sudarshana Gunawardana (@Sudarshana_RN) 20 September 2018

It’s good to note that Sri Lanka is celebrating Right to Information week this week of writing as recounted by Director General of Government Information, Sudarshana Gunawardana. It's also worth noting that today (28th September) is International Right to Know Day.

This year #lka's #PenalCode was amended increasing the min. age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12 years. According to the #UN Committee on the Rights of the Child a min. age below 12 years is not acceptable #CRC #children

— Verité Law (@VRlawSL) 20 September 2018

This is information of the Amendment to the Penal Code which was passed earlier this year that increased the minimum age of criminal responsibility as reported by the Verité Law Twitter account (part of think tank Verité Research).

Sri Lanka's  @DailyNews_lk  is 67 years younger than the NYT, but the Sri Lankan daily got on the internet a year before the prestigious New York publication! NYT went on line on January 22, 1996, when the Daily News of Colombo was already on the World Wide Web. https://t.co/MeJJDWNTGk

— M A Ratna (@maratnasiri) 20 September 2018

M.A. Ratnasiri shares recent contrasting facts alongside the New York Times of Sri Lanka’s paper the Daily News. It’s good to know that the Daily News went online before the internationally acclaimed New York Times.

We collected over 200 sacks of garbage cleaning up Preethipura beach this morning. Thanks to everyone who participated from @EU_in_Sri_Lanka @UNOPS and the Marine Environment Protection Authority! #BeatPlasticPollution #lka pic.twitter.com/NnOYREHiIe

— EU in Sri Lanka (@EU_in_Sri_Lanka) 21 September 2018

It’s good to see a beach clean-up effort by the EU in Sri Lanka, UN agency UNOPS and the Government entity Marine Environment Protection Authority.

UPFA MPs Wimal Weerawansa and Prasanna Ranaweera were suspended from parliament for two weeks and four weeks respectively for unparliamentary conduct and breach of parliament standing orders.

— K.T.Rajasingham (@KTRaja) 21 September 2018

At the end of last week, two MPs were temporarily suspended from Parliament. I suspect that this is a result of the new Parliamentary Standing Orders adopted in April.

The constitutional council (appoints indep commissions) requires 3 "persons of eminence and integrity who have distinguished themselves in public or professional life and who are not members of any political party" -any names that should be top of the list for consideration? #lka

— Asoka Obeyesekere (@asokao) 24 September 2018

This is from Asoka Obeyesekere (Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka). My suggestions are Priyan Dias, Nishan de Mel and W.A. Wijewardena.

I hope you enjoyed reading my selection of tweets on Sri Lanka. I am on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sumith90 in case anyone is interested. I would enjoy hearing people’s thoughts on any of the issues and happenings featured here.