Divergent views on national govt and 100-day program

by Manjula Fernando

The Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party formed a four- member committee last week to discuss the formation of a national government with the major constituent party of the new government- the UNP.

With Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe calling for a general elections on schedule, the SLFP and the UPFA seemed to be bidding for a delay till at least the 100 days program, that may require more days than what was initially anticipated.

The Sunday Observer spoke to a cross section of people including those at the helm of the political debate on the developments after the SLFP Central committee meeting and on the prospect of a national government prior to holding parliamentary elections.

Kotte Sri Naga Vihara Chief Incumbent Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha thera said before having any discussions on a national government, the Government must first fulfill the pledges in the 100 day program. He said the forming of a national government, can come after the election.

“Already fifty days of the 100 day program has lapsed. The people are looking at the countdown everyday. The Government needs to execute what's in the program fast. Then you can talk of a national government.”

He said it was fine if the government needed more than 100 days to fulfill some of the pledges.

“ Take whatever time you want but fulfill the promises”, he said.

The Thera who lead the campaign to bring in a regime change for a much-aspired people- friendly government opined that only electoral reform could be contentious and it needed more time. But he said if the program was executed soon after the forming of the government, the 100 days would have been sufficient to fulfill all the pledges.

“I cannot comment on the prudence of skipping elections and forming a national government at this point, it is too premature to make any comments on such a possibility. But President Maithripala Sirisena can call upon parties to rally round the Swan symbol at the upcoming election. If they get elected that could be a national government.”

The Thera said the elected national government can then formulate a policy plan to govern the country for the next five years. "I believe going for an election will be a sound option to weed out corrupt politicians who served in the previous government", he said.

Reputed sociologist and political analyst, Prof.Siri Hettige said whether an election should precede or succeed the formation of a national government was a difficult question to answer.

“It's a difficult question. We are not bothered about the type of government in power, whatever the government that is elected, it must take firm decisions with the future of the country in mind. We need a firm government, that is the requirement of the country.”

He said these decisions should be on ‘governance’, ‘rule of law’ to facilitate an independent judicial system and ‘enlightened public policies’ on economy, special sectors and the national issue. The Government has to focus attention on these three issues.

“We have a change of regime now. We wanted this change because we had none of the above in the country under the former regime.

We did not have good governance, we had serious problems with the rule of law, then we did not have clear enlightened public policies in this country.”

He said details of the type of the proposed national government were still vague. “A national government is a government where there is no particular political party or a block, in power. It has a very broad coalition or forces including members of the former regime. “

If that is the case, Prof.Hettige warned that there could be a huge issue. “On the one hand, we have a change of regime, a regime voted out by the people due to their corrupt practices. But when such an arbitrary national government is formed there will be no effective change of regime.

There is no clear division of the political parties, between those who stand for good governance, rule of law and enlightened public policies on the one hand and those who did not heed these issues.”

In a national government,with all these people trying to work together, there would be no division between the two factions. This will hamper future efforts to find a lasting solution to the national question as well as other key areas needing immediate solutions.I am not quite sure how this is going to really workout", he said.

Asked what will happen to the people who had committed wrongs during the past regime, he said as long as they accept that there is a change of regime, the old manner of doing things would no longer be valid, since it had been rejected by a majority of the people and the missing pieces of the puzzle may fall into place.

The people must be convinced that the government is not going to continue the old system. Both sides in the national government must accept that these three things were fundamental. "We have to establish good governance, rule of law, adopt enlightened evidence- based public policy. Once this is accepted, the next step will naturally follow that those who committed offences cannot be pardoned.

If someone has committed an offence, he must be punished. I am not saying that this is easy. When you form a national government, the offenders will be part of the government and punishing a colleague is no easy task. The offenders are no longer in the Opposition.”

In the last regime, there were many who opposed certain unethical decisions. But they had to be silent and act together.

It's not easy to declare ‘get rid of my colleague he is corrupt'. However, he said it depends on whether the members of the former regime would join the new national government in a block.

Prof.Hettige said, ideally a fresh elections should be held and parliament should be reconstituted. “There are serious problems with the present Parliament. There have been all kinds of combinations in the present Parliament. Members were crossing sides like nobody's business. There is no clear division between those who are elected by the people and those who have been rejected.”

Referring to the recent political developments he said, in the present Parliament you have MPs who have ceased to be members of their respective coalitions. Some of the Government members do not identify themselves with old parliamentary groups. It is not a clean Parliament today. Clean in the sense, there are no clear divisions" , he said.

He also opined that the Government cannot have it both ways. You cannot fulfill all the promises and have elections in 100 days. “But on the other hand, why do you want to rush things, these are matters of national importance.

The Government should not be mechanical and try to stick to a timetable. Governments were elected for five years so you have five whole years to meet those pledges.”

"The Government must win the hearts of the people. We have seen, so far, all kinds of people being appointed to all kinds of places. Some of these appointments were questionable. For instance we want to appoint the most competent and suitable person to a position at the top. When we have the Constitutional Council the idea is to nominate people to these positions, evaluate the nominations and select the best person. What we have seen today is not good governance", he stressed.

He said the present public debate was aggravating the issue. “It has become a media circus.

The process has to be set in motion, then it will find its destination in time. Besides, needing six months for a three -month job is not a major issue but ideally election and re-constitution of Parliament would help restore good governance", he said..

Jathika Hela Urumaya Chairman Ven. Athuraliye Rathana thera said he believed that the on- going efforts by the SLFP was a move in the right direction.

The 100 days program can be implemented if only there is a national government to back the constitutional and other changes to be brought in. “President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe agreed on a national government before the presidential election,” he said.The thera said without either a majority in parliament or the support of the party enjoying the majority in Parliament, none of the pledges to the people can be fulfilled.

The national government must deliver the promises in the 100 day program. There is no decision to postpone the election but there cannot be a major issue of 100 days stretching to 150 days. I don't think anyone can find fault with that. The Government is taking every effort to deliver their promises.

That arrangement will never downplay the 100 day program. The current effort at the central committee of the SLFP is to fulfill the pledges, and do it better." We have never proposed to postpone the election, we want to implement this program to the best of our ability", he said.

Rathana thera said Parliament can go on for another year before its term expires and yet if they want elections soon it can be dissolved even tomorrow. “We have no issue if Parliament being dissolved soon after the 100 days program is implemented.”The JHU leader said, however they were not satisfied with the achievements of the new Government so far. “I think the Government had not been successful during the past 50 days.

We have not reached our target, that is my personal view. This on -going effort is to speed up the process and not to cling on to power.”