Col R Hariharan | 31-8-2018
| Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, September 2018 | www.security-risks.com
PC election issues
The failure of the
parliament to ratify the Delimitation Committee Report (DCR) introduced by the
government on August 24 illustrates confusion in the ranks of the ruling
national unity coalition. In a rare show of unanimity, the Sri Lanka Freedom
Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP), Tamil National Alliance
(TNA), Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Joint Opposition (JO) voted
against the report. There was not a single vote in favour of the DCR, which
required the support of two-thirds of members present in parliament. Though Local
Government Minister, Faiszer Musthapha while presenting the report in parliament
was vociferous in saying those who vote against the DCR would be despised as
betrayers of the country, he changed his mind and voted against it!
The episode once again demonstrated the
disconnect between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala
Sirisena, who had appointed a five-member committee, chaired by Dr K
Thavalingam, to carry out the delimitation of Provincial Councils required for
conducting elections by January 2019. According to media commentators Prime
Minister Wickremesinghe had spearheaded the opposition to the report. However
SLFP spokesman Mahinda Samarasinghe dismissed such attempts to blame the PM for
the vote against the report. He said all political parties were opposed to the
report and there was no consensus among them.
The PC
elections are to be held under the PC Election Amendment Act No 17 enacted last
year. The elections would be held on the new 50:50mixed voting system, with 50
percent of the members elected under the First-Past-Post (FPP) system and 50
percent on the district level Proportional Representation (PR) system. Though
the failure of the DCR to pass muster is explained as part of the ruling
coalition’s new political strategy, the real reason is perhaps the new mixed
voting system to be used in the PC elections.
After suffering a severe drubbing in the local government elections held
under the mixed system earlier this year,
most of the political parties want the PC elections to be held under the
existing PR system.
Finance minister
Mangala Samaraweera
had described their poor performance in LG polls as a “timely wake-up call to
Yahapalana [good governance] government to get back on track.”
Three PCs - Eastern, North
Central and Sabaraagamuwa are already under governor’s rule after the expiry of
their term last year. The terms of three more PCs – Northern, Northwestern and
Central – are ending in October 2018. The Western, Southern and Uva PCs will be
completing their terms in 2019. Thus PC elections are expected to act as the
performance score card of the unity government. So the unity coalition is probably buying time to shore up
its image before going ahead with the PC elections. Civil society organizations
have described the delay in conducting the elections as a denial of democratic
rights of the people.
The President has
repeatedly said the PC elections would be held by January 2019. However, the
failure of the parliament to ratify the DCR would mean further delay in
finalizing the delimitation process and the voting system. In a bid to clear
the logjam, the speaker has appointed a five-member committee of
‘intellectuals’ headed by the Prime Minister for its recommendations on
conducting the PC elections. However, the success of the ‘committee strategy’
would only work if and when the SLFP and UNP leadership are ready for it.
Japan’s strategic interest in Sri
Lanka
Japan’s defence minister Itsunori Onedera made his first-ever
visit to Sri Lanka from August 20 to 22 as part of Japan’s continuing effort to
strengthen strategic cooperation with Sri Lanka. The Japanese minister called
upon President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. He visited
Trincomalee port, where a Japanese naval ship Ikazuchi was on a friendly visit. According to a NHK television
interview with the defence minister after he met with the Sri Lankan president
and prime minister, the minister is said to have raised the issue of Hambantota
coming under Chinese control. The NHK quoted Onedera as saying, “despite the
lease [of Hambantota] there was an agreement that the port remains free of
military activities.” This would indicate China looming large in Japan’s efforts
to build close relations with Sri Lanka.
Japan has been one of Sri Lanka’s main development partners and
largest donors. Japan’s interest in building strategic relations with the
island nation increased earlier this year with the visit of Admiral Katsutoshi
Kawano, chief of staff of Japanese Self Defence Forces to Sri Lanka. During President
Sirisena’s visit to Japan in March 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to further
strengthen cooperation with Sri Lanka as part of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy to counter
China’s increasingly muscular assertion in the region. It was welcomed by
President Sirisena.
The Japanese strategy aims at enhancing connectivity between
Asia and Africa to promote stability and prosperity of the region a whole.
Areas of cooperation include counterterrorism, capacity building of law
enforcement authorities and countermeasures against violent extremism. Japan
has agreed to help Sri Lanka’s maritime training and capacity building.
By virtue of its location astride sea lanes of Indian Ocean, Sri
Lanka occupies an important place in Japan’s Indian Ocean strategy for securing
Indian Ocean sea lanes of shipping. India also shares similar concern. So it
was not surprising that Japan invited Sri Lanka to participate as an observer
in the joint exercise of coast guards of Japan and India. This would indicate
the importance Japan attaches to maritime security in its relationship with Sri
Lanka.
The US is also a partner in Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Interestingly,
around the same time as the Japanese defence minister’s visit USS Anchorage, a
US amphibious ship was exercising with Sri Lanka Navy ships off Trincomalee. Recently,
the US had announced that the US would be funding Sri Lanka to the tune of $14
million as part of more than $100 million that would be allotted to South Asia.
The focus of the funding would be on issues like maritime security,
humanitarian assistance, disaster response, peace keeping capabilities and
countering transnational crime, which were “key for a free and open
Indo-Pacific.”
Tailpiece: A Colombo magistrate has directed the police to detain
Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, Chief of the Defence Staff, for allegedly
helping Chandana Hettiarachchi, a naval intelligence officer, accused of
leading a hit squad that kidnapped 11 young men between 2008 and 2009 during
the Eelam War. According to the criminal investigation department there was
evidence of Admiral’s role in allowing the accused to evade arrest.
Col R Hariharan, a retired MI officer, served as the head of
Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90. He
is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies, South Asia Analysis
Group and the International Law and Strategic Analysis Institute, Chennai.
E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com
Blog: http://col.hariharan.info
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