With the dawn of the festive season, elaborate plans are being drawn up to light up Colombo with decorative illuminations imported from China. But the intentions behind it are not lost on a people strangulated by economic hardship brought upon by the economic crisis. Last week it was announced that Colombo would be lit up from the Presidential Secretariat up to Duplication Road in Colpetty to mirror Singapore’s famed Orchard Road. The announcement led to an outpouring of mirth on social media, with one individual summing up the general sentiment as follows: ‘Decorations like Singapore, economy like Somalia.’
The debilitating economic crisis that has driven millions to despair, especially during this festive time, is the result of dubious decisions taken by seven individuals of the last administration as per a historic Supreme Court ruling. However, epitomising all things Sri Lankan, no action is being contemplated by the current powers that be to make these individuals account for their actions. That responsibility has once again been cast on the parliamentary Opposition, negating everything spelt out in the IMF’s Governance Diagnostic.
While lighting up the city may well achieve its objective of distracting the hoi polloi from their daily grind to make ends meet, it will not take away the reality people face in their homes, where switching on a bulb has become a challenge. The sketchy statistics available in the public domain paint a picture of a nation far removed from what its rulers paint it out to be, with dazzling lights, foreign jaunts, and tamashas galore.
It appears that austerity is reserved exclusively for the ordinary people while those in high places live it up as if there is no tomorrow. Statistics in the public domain indicate that while the environs of the Presidential Secretariat are to be transformed into a glittering winter wonderland, 600,000 or so electricity consumers have had their power disconnected for non-payment of bills in just the last quarter. Then we have the disconcerting data that is also available in the public domain of thousands of school-going kids abandoning school to engage in menial labour to eke out a living and support their financially-challenged families.
It has been reported that the number of people identified as poor has increased from three million in 2020 to seven million in 2023 as a direct consequence of the economic crisis. The situation has been further aggravated by an estimated 500,000 people losing their jobs owing to a combination of the pandemic and economic crisis. Besides, hundreds of Small- and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) are continuing to put up shutters, with their assets being seized by banks and finance companies. The first quarter of this year has reportedly seen 400 such asset seizures of SMEs.
In light of these startling stats which the ruling class is well aware of, the least these affected people would have expected was some relief via the Budget that is being debated in Parliament these days. That relief could have materialised in the form of income generation through job creation. Unfortunately, Budget 2024 has not outlined any such proposals and the millions who are already at the receiving end will now be forced to jump from the frying pan into the fire with the VAT increase from 15% to 18%. This VAT increase encompasses almost every product and service, including many essential items that were previously exempted.
The policy of increasing indirect taxes most notably hits the poorest the hardest and persisting with that policy will only make life that much harder for the seven million Sri Lankans now identified as poor, constituting exactly one-third of the nation’s population. While this mere fact would have automatically triggered austerity mode in any empathic governance structure, not so in bankrupt Sri Lanka, where Budget 2024 has allocated billions more in funding for new highways and airports – all of which will be funded through fresh borrowing. Budget 2024 has also sought approval from Parliament to increase the debt ceiling by another Rs. 3 trillion in the year ahead.
One wonders if the average citizen is aware of the startling fact that per capita debt that stood at around Rs. 250,000 in 2012 has shot up to five times that in just 10 years since. Technically speaking, the quality of life of the people should have, in relative terms, improved by a corresponding five times during that decade, but the reality is the opposite, with the quality of life having decreased. So the question that people are entitled to ask is, if their per capita debt has increased by five times in 10 years and their quality of life continues to deteriorate with the nation now driven to bankruptcy, should not those who have presided over the affairs of governance during this period be held accountable for demonstrably poor governance and compromising the future of this country?
Given the plight of the marginalised in a backdrop of ever-increasing public expenditure and the serious lack of empathy on the part of the regime, the least the people would have expected was better governance and respect for the rule of law. But unfortunately even that appears to be too much to ask if the appointment of the new Inspector General of Police is anything to go by, once again paying scant regard to the IMF Governance Diagnostic.
In the entire 156-year-history of the Police Department, this is probably the first instance where an individual that does not fit the bill of an officer with an unblemished track record has been appointed to that office. The new IGP, contrary to the impeccable record that the post demands in the best traditions of the department, brings with him excess baggage of serious allegations, controversy, and infamous political loyalties.
As the sole entity tasked with maintaining law and order and rule of law in the country, it obviously necessitates the head of that entity to be of unimpeachable character. The fact that the latest to hold that office cannot by any measure be described as such is in fact testament to the times we live in; the severe erosion of morals and ethics that have in consequence led to mediocrity in every level of governance, the reason for the fate that has befallen this once proud and prosperous nation.
Two allegations that stand out like sore thumbs against the new top cop are those pertaining to the Easter Sunday terror attacks and of aiding and abetting the attacks on peaceful protesters at Galle Face during the Aragalaya. In the case of the Easter attacks, the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Report has stated that it appears the then DIG in charge of the Western Province seemed aware of an impending attack but did nothing to prevent it. In the case of the Galle Face attack on protesters by political thugs who came out of Temple Trees, the then DIG is accused of ignoring the then President’s direct order to prevent the political goons from entering Galle Face. If the man could allegedly ignore an order from a President with a 6.9 million mandate, one can only contemplate the fate of a President dependent on 134 MPs for survival.
The President may well have been aware of this reality, given that he resisted the appointment up until last week, but with the crucial Budget vote still looming, the ruling party has made it clear as to who calls the shots when it comes to crunch time. Therefore, despite the attempt to dispel the shadows of darkness with festive lights, there is no taking away the reality that is slowly but surely dawning on the people that the more things appear to change, the more they stay the same.