Shadow of JRJ hovers over promises and realities of governance

Among the many  promises the NPP made, and we all believed it would keep, was to scrap the Executive Presidency brought in by late president J.R. Jayawardene

One cannot help but admire Comrade Tilvin Silva, the General Secretary of the JVP and a founding father of the National People’s Power (NPP). He has  a knack of being truthful, a very admirable  but rare trait among politicians in our country. Way back in November  2024, Tilvin said  in an interview with this newspaper  his party was not expecting unlimited power, but a simple majority in parliament.

It may have been with this thought in mind that the NPP during its election campaign made so many promises which it could not have kept with a simple majority in parliament. The NPP could then have blamed its limited numbers in parliament for its inability to fulfill its promises to the electorate.

Unfortunately,  this was not to be. The electorate, tired of the corruption-ridden ‘normal suspects’ who have misruled our country since independence, decided to give the untested and untried NPP a massive two-thirds majority in parliament to implement its programme.

And therein lies the NPP’s problem. The NPP, as Tilvin Silva admitted, did not expect such a broad mandate.

Among the many  promises the NPP made, and we all believed it would keep, was to scrap the Executive Presidency brought in by late president J.R. Jayawardene, who enjoyed a 5/6th majority in parliament and used this majority to install himself as the executive head of state. 

After nearly a year of NPP rule, ‘we the people’ are nowhere nearer getting rid of the Executive Presidency. The government however keeps insisting it is in the process of doing so. Sadly, other than pious words,  there is no action on the ground indicating that the government really intends fulfilling this promise.

The NPP also promised to renegotiate the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approved in March 2023, for approximately US $3 billion. The government learned that while you can deceive the masses most of the time, crossing swords with the IMF is a different kettle of fish.

Today, the government sings  praises of the IMF deal and is now amenable to restructuring the CEB; a key commitment Sri Lanka made to the IMF in return for a $3 billion bailout package. Earlier proposed CEB reforms were strongly opposed by the JVP and its trade unions. Resultantly,  even JVP-led unions are up in arms against government’s plans to unbundle the monolithic sector and allow some private investors to come in to cushion its continuous loss-making. The CEB has incurred significant losses accumulating around Rs. 412.1 billion between 2013 to 2023.  The Board also incurred a l Rs. 17.3 billion loss in 2024. 

During its comparatively short lifespan in parliament, the JVP has been in the forefront of trade union (TU) activities. It used its influence among the TUs to mobilise work-to- rule campaigns, stoppages and similar actions to hold previous governments to ransom. Today the Frankenstein monsters they created have come back to bite them.

CEB employees reported sick to work; they also engaged in a strike in front of the CEB headquarters in Colombo a few days ago against the government’s move to divide the CEB into four entities. Frustrated after failing to convince CEB workers to end their TU action, Dissanayaka told CEB workers it wasn’t a crime to amend an old dysfunctional system and it was not a violation of their rights.

Similarly a few days ago, the Minister of Transport got tough on rail workers, demanding they ensure a proper railway service or resign. It earned him praise from the public, but brought memories of the late President Jayawardene’s dismissal of over 40,000 public sector worker in 1980.

The government,  however, has successfully cracked down on corruption. Allegedly corrupt powerful political figures from a past president to cabinet ministers and bureaucrats have been charged in court. Many have been held in remand custody, something unimaginable in an earlier era. But these moves have brought no relief to the mass of people subject to the ever rising cost of living.

If the government is unable to bring succour to this large body of poverty-stricken people -- approximately 24%  according to the World Bank --  people may come to believe the action is merely a ploy to cover its failures.