Col R Hariharan
Sri Lanka Perspectives June
2025 | South Asia Security Trends, July 2025 | https://www.security-risks.com
For the ruling National
Peoples Power (NPP) group led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka (AKD), the
local government (LG) elections held during May 2025 was one of the coming-of-age
tests at national level. By the third week of June, NPP managed to gain control
of 192 LG councils although it had secured majority only in 151 of them. According
to media reports, though the NPP had no majority in 40 councils, it managed to
take control with the support of local coalition partners or post-election
agreements. In one council the NPP managed to take charge of the administration
with some understanding of the opposition. No doubt, NPP’s political success in
this manoeuvre would increase its confidence to face mainstream political
parties led by veteran leaders.
But for JVP-led NPP to sustain
its quest for national status as a matured group, success in national elections
is not enough. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) founded by former President
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a very good example of the fleeting nature of public
adulation. It suffered drubbings in both
the presidential and parliamentary elections. Even in the LG elections it could
secure majority only three councils, underlining that the Rajapaksas are yet to
regain public trust.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya
(SJB) performed a little better, capturing the administration in 21 local
bodies. The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) with a score of 13 local bodies,
seems to have regained some of its support base. The Ceylon Workers Congress emerged
successful only in three councils. Other parties/groups have taken control of
13 councils. The NPP will have to look hard at 22 local councils where it where
it could not form the administration although it had the highest number of
seats.
But electoral success in three
national elections is only the first step for NPP’s sustainability in the
national political mainstream. It has to make a difference by delivering clean
administration because It is a long time since Sri Lanka had one. National
political parties had accepted political corruption as the done thing. The
Aragalaya agitation had shown that people are not prepared to accept it and, in
the rebound, elected the NPP conglomerate in three successive elections. They
expect it to deliver a corruption free administration.
AKD has realised this as early as December
2024. The President addressing the heads
of government departments thundered “The confidence of citizens in
institutional systems has been shattered, and institutions themselves have lost
faith in their own authority. This deterioration is due to the corrosive
effects of this political culture….While we may not reverse this situation
entirely in a year or two, we are committed to making a meaningful effort.”
However, as Lord Acton’s
cliché goes "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely," AKD should worry about the after effects of NPP gaining power
at the local level, particularly in large municipal councils like Colombo,
Galle, Kurunegala, Puttalam and Nuwara Eliya. It is not going to be an easy
task for AKD because the Local government system corroded by corrupt practices offer
easy pickings for NPP’s neophyte members. The NPP would do well to educate the
first-time members on their conduct and accountability to the public.
Systemic challenges
For too long, governance in
Sri Lanka has been affected by systemic aberrations. AKD’s good intentions are
not enough to improve governance due to systemic challenges. During the month,
there were two examples of systemic aberrations right under the “nose” of the
President. The first related to the release of convicted bank fraudster Athula
Thilakaratne under the Presidential Pardon on Vesak Poya Day, on May 12, though
he did not figure in the President’s list of pardoned prisoners. News reports
of the incident triggered widespread public outcry and questions in Parliament
from the Opposition.
Although the Prisons
Department justified the release the convict was eligible for release under
general guidelines and it was nor politically motivated, the incident dented
AKD’s credibility. The President’s Media Division (PMD) had to issue a
statement clarifying that Thilakaratne’s name was not on the official list of
inmates approved for pardon by the President. It explained that the President
can grant pardon only upon receiving a vetted list of eligible inmates from the
Ministry of Justice, based on recommendations from the Department of Prisons.
Preliminary investigations by
the CID have indicated that some more convicts were also released after they
were falsely classified as recipients of the Presidential Pardon. After this,
the CID questioned the Commissioner General of Prisons and widened the scope of
investigations to include prison officers involved in the process, as part of
an ongoing official inquiry.
The second instance pertains to the appointment of Tysers Insurance
Brokers Ltd (TIBL) — a UK-based firm with questionable reputation —as the
broker of record by the National Insurance Trust Fund (NITF) operating under the
Ministry of Finance. In February 2024, Fraud Section of the US Department of
Justice (DOJ), Criminal Division is said to have filed a case against TIBL
under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The TIBL reportedly entered
into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay a substantial fine and
forfeit assets to resolve the charges. According to the DOJ, TIBL was
also engaged in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme to influence Ecuadorian
Government officials.
The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption
(CIABOC) is probing the case based on a formal complaint from an advocate. It
will be interesting to know how the foreign brokerage managed to overcome the
government’s strict vetting process as required by the Insurance
Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (IRCSL)
Bringing a closure on genocide
allegations
Even as POTUS Trump was making the UN largely irrelevant, Sri Lanka
Government rolled out the red carpet for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Volker Türk’s visit to the country from June 23 to 26.
Sri Lanka had made human rights commitments at the UNHRC to investigate allegations
of war crimes and human rights violations. However, they have been on the
backburner in the past few years. However, Sri Lanka’s commitments will come up
once again during the September session of the UNHRC. At the session, when the
High Commissioner Turk will submit his findings on Sri Lanka during his visit, along
with reports from key members of the Core Group on Sri Lanka – the UK, Canada,
and Germany.
During his visit, the UN High Commissioner met with not only the
President and PM but with opposition leaders and religious heads as well. He
visited the mass grave at Chemmani, near Jaffna. His statement thereafter says
it all: “My visit yesterday to the recently re-opened mass grave at Chemmani
was a compelling reminder that the past haunts the lives of many in Sri Lanka…I
heard from many mothers during my visit to Jaffna and Trincomalee, as well as
victims of enforced disappearances in the south. A woman from a southern
province, whose husband disappeared in 1989, for example, she still goes from
town to town searching, and that the tears of Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims are
the same… Acknowledgement and truth-telling are important steps towards healing
and closure, as are justice, reparation and non-recurrence.”
We do not know what AKD had promised the UN High Commissioner or what stand Sri Lanka will take in UNHRC session in September. But his own JVP party had lost 10,000 to 20,000 people suspected of being JVP sympathizers in 1971 insurrection. In the second JVP insurrection between 1987and 1989, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 young people suspected of JVP sympathies were killed by the State. Over 20,000 people disappeared after being taken into custody. Of course, Eelam Wars had left its own mass graves and forced disappearances.
How can AKD and NPP afford to
ignore this gory history? NPP/JVP will never come of age unless they make
accountability for war crimes and human rights articles of faith. Firstly, they
can take follow up action on the data already collected on enforced
disappearances. Secondly, resurrect prosecuted during the wars/insurrections
but abandoned thereafter. For instance, the Chemmani mass grave came to light
during the 1998 trial of Sri Lanka soldiers for the rape and murder of
Krishanthi Kumaraswamy. One of the convicted soldier Somaratne Rajapakse
testified 300-400 Tamil civilians were executed and buried in Chemmani after
the military recaptured Jaffna in 1995-96. There one too many such abandoned/pardoned cases.
Tailpiece – Bringing back the
Super Cop: Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shani Abeysekara has
been reappointed as the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
with the approval of the National Police Commission (NPC). Abeysekera’s return
to the helm of the CID comes after nearly five years, shows the government is
serious about independent investigations. His initial stint as Director of CID (2017-19)
was characterised by several high-profile probes that drew both praise and
criticism. Among the most notable investigations under his leadership were the
murder of journalist and Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, the
disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, and probes into the
controversial Avant-Garde maritime arms scandal and the 2019 Easter Sunday
terror attacks. He earned accolades for investigating these cases as they
involved several influential figures.
[Col R Hariharan VSM, a
retired MI specialist on South Asia and terrorism, served as the head of
intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-90. He is
associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies. Email: haridirect@gmail.com,
Website: https://col.hariharan.info]
