Among the current political debates, one that appears to take precedence is the one about time. Time as in that which is allowed for the new regime to get its act together and deliver on its commitments. While the commitments made are many, complex, and understandably not that easy to deliver, there appears to be universal agreement that while most of them will indeed take time to be worked on, it is not so with regard to one specific aspect. And that pertains to administering justice, or in political lingo, ‘catching the rogues’ – the election slogan that has generated the most traction. 

This is so because regimes past and present since 2015 have been consistently making this same promise and much groundwork has in fact been done by law enforcement authorities in this regard over the years. It has been pointed out by no less an entity than the present regime while in Opposition that the missing ingredient in most cases – in order to implement the law – has been the lack of political will. Now with its fortunes reversed, it is incumbent upon the regime that it not only proves to the people that it has the will to walk the talk, but also assure them that the trust placed in it is being upheld.

While the 6.8 million who voted for the National People’s Power (NPP) are insistent that more time is needed, the majority among the 10.2 million who didn’t vote for it are of the opinion that the 70 days that have passed since Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as Executive President are more than adequate to show progress in this specific department. They qualify this opinion by pointing to the promises made on political platforms in the run-up to the elections that ‘such and such a number of rogues’ will be locked up within a week or a couple of weeks after taking office. 

The NPP took the extra step of justifying these deadlines by proclaiming that it already had 400 files in its possession covering almost all of the alleged corrupt acts of regimes past and that the investigations into the majority of them had already been completed. It went to great lengths to make the point that all that was needed to rein in the crooks was a mandate from the people. 

Understandably, people have begun to point out that it has been 70 days since that mandate was given to the President, but that progress has been slow while the self-proclaimed timelines have lapsed. To further strengthen their argument, people also point to the fact that the man who was in charge of carrying out the investigations and completing those 400 files during the ‘Yahapalana’ era is today the Minister of Public Security, under whom law enforcement operates. Therefore, there should be no impediment to ‘catching the rogues’ and thereby setting the tone for system change.

It is important that the regime gets its priorities right based on the mandate it received, which was primarily a comprehensive vote for justice and system change. Having made the case that the root of all the decay – from governance to economic to moral – has stemmed from unmitigated corruption, it must necessarily put the fight for justice and an end to corruption at the top of its agenda. The new regime must be mindful of the ‘Yahapalana’ lesson of 2015, where the people who placed their trust in that regime to catch the crooks were badly let down and responded in kind when they were consulted in 2019 and 2020. 

However, that is not to deny that there was progress made with some 40-odd cases being filed against various individuals of the pre-2015 regime who were accused of an assortment of crimes, ranging from murder, kidnapping, corruption, and embezzlement to money laundering, among others. Interestingly, not a single conviction was obtained in the five years that regime was in office. Subsequently, all of the cases were dismissed on ‘technical issues’. 

If the NPP is serious about proving itself worthy of the people’s trust as opposed to the ones before, one easy way to reinforce that trust is to direct the Attorney General to correct the ‘technical faults’ and re-file those 40-something cases. In addition to these are other cases, such as unresolved murders and disappearances of journalists and others whose loved ones are still awaiting justice over a decade later.

Given that the debate about time is one that has been created by the regime itself, stemming from the deadlines it set for itself during the hustings, which voters obviously bought into, as they did in 2015 and again in 2020 to catch the Easter terror attack masterminds, there is little room for excuses this time around.

While the regime must be commended for walking the talk in the austerity department, with State spending coming under a microscope for the first time starting from the Presidential Secretariat itself, at the end of the day such action will only count as cosmetic change in comparison to the other, more substantial, issues for which people have sought redress through their ballot. If the status quo persists in focusing on the mundane at the expense of greater issues, it is inevitable that people’s aspirations will yet again be out of sync with that of the regime, which, in other words, would signify the end of the honeymoon for the regime.

Therefore, sooner or later, when the novelty factor of the cosmetic changes wears off and the real issue of equitable justice once again comes to the fore, the regime will find it increasingly difficult to distinguish itself from those past and the inevitable sense of déjà vu that comes with it. 

While the regime will likely take refuge for the unwarranted delays in the quest for equitable justice by pointing to the more pressing problems on its plate like the weather inflicted damage that has so far affected nearly half a million people, it must also take cognisance of the fact that it has less of an economic burden to contend with than the last leadership. Speaking of which, Wickremesinghe and Co., to their credit, appear to have pressed the right buttons in their economic reform effort, with Moody’s rating agency vindicating the path taken with an imminent upgrade to Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating. 

With other global agencies likely to follow suit, it marks the first significant step towards normalcy in Sri Lanka’s painful economic recovery process. The news comes on the back of the Central Bank announcing the completion of the lengthy and complex debt restructuring process, with a debt swap being announced with International Sovereign Bond holders who account for one-third or a $ 12 billion chunk of the $ 36 billion external debt burden, having previously reached agreement with multilateral and bilateral lenders.

Therefore, there should be no qualms if one were to consider the weather woes being offset by the positive news on the economic front. Nevertheless, that is not to underestimate the impact of the extreme weather on Sri Lanka’s food security over the next couple of months, with thousands of acres of crops, including paddy and other cultivations, being destroyed. It appears that the regime has been pushed into the deep end of the pool even before it could don swimwear.

However, no natural disaster should come in the way of the regime’s reformist agenda and the need to lock in the people’s trust by delivering what it promised: foremost of all, justice for the years of injustice, for justice delayed is justice denied, making it no different from regimes past. Therefore, time is of the essence if the tumult about time is to be quelled.