Sri Lanka Crisis, Defeat of China ?

Amlendu Bhushan Khan / Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday suspended Parliament till November amid a political crisis which erupted after he sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Presidential Secretariat said Sirisena had instructed to prorogue Parliament till November 16 and a gazette notification had been issued. Sri Lanka’s surprise move that signals escalating political tensions in the South Asian nation.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday suspended Parliament till November 16 after sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sought an emergency session to prove his majority, deepening the political crisis in the island nation.
Sirisena’s move is seen as an effort to allow former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa to buy more time to seek majority in Parliament. Parliamentary officials said the President prorogued the House till November 16. The Parliament was earlier due to meet on November 5 to unveil the 2019 annual Budget.
Rajapaksa and Sirisena combine has only 95 seats and is short of a simple majority in the 225-member house. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) has 106 seats on its own with just seven short of the majority.
The UNP claimed that President Sirisena sought to prorogue Parliament as 72-year-old Rajapaksa did not command a majority in the House. Wickremesinghe had earlier in the day in a letter to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya demanded an emergency session to prove his majority in Parliament.
Sirisena said he had acted under Article 42 (4) of the Sri Lankan Constitution, which said that the President “shall appoint as Prime Minister the Member of Parliament, who, in the President’s opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament”.
However, Wickremesinghe and his party called the President’s decision “illegal” and urged Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to convene Parliament immediately to prove he still retained his parliamentary majority.
“I urge to convene Parliament without leading the country into chaos. It is not necessary to create a crisis in the country. Let the Parliament decide who should be the Prime Minister,” he said.
Wickremesinghe said that Sirisena’s decision to suspend Parliament showed that he and Rajapaksa lacked a majority in Parliament.
Rajapaksa’s party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, however, claimed that they had secured a majority in the 225-member Parliament and would prove their numbers when Parliament convenes.
The Speaker in a statement urged for calm from all political leaders and the public and said they would resolve the current political impasse in a democratic manner in accordance with the Constitution.
Sri Lankan Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and State Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs Harsha de Silva described Sirisena’s action as illegal and in violation of the Constitution, the Island reported.
Wickremesinghe has been asserting that the swearing in of Rajapaksa in his place is “illegal and unconstitutional”.
Addressing the media along with his constituent party leaders, the UNP leader said, “This is a created crisis, there is no need for this crisis. The people must not suffer because of this at a difficult time for them.”
He said the crisis could be resolved with no difficulty if Parliament was convened. “I can prove majority on the floor of the House,” Wickremesinghe said.
Sirisena formalised the sacking of his former ally by issuing two extraordinary gazette notices.
First notice was on Wickremesinghe being removed as prime minister and the other on the appointment of Rajapaska as the new premier. The Prime Minister’s Secretary has been removed according to the powers vested with the President as the appointing authority.
Responding to Sirisena in writing, Wickremesinghe said he is still the “constitutionally appointed Prime Minister” of Sri Lanka.
“I write to inform you that I am the constitutionally-appointed Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and continue in that office and that I command the confidence of Parliament as contemplated in Article 42(4) of the Constitution,” he said in letter.
Speaker Jayasuriya would now have to decide if he recognised Rajapaksa or Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister. The Joint Opposition group of Rajapaksa backers claimed that the controversial strongman has a clear majority.
Prof GL Peiris of the JO frontliner said the unity government of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe ceased to exist the moment Sirisena’s party, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), announced that it had withdrawn from it.
“So there is no Cabinet from that moment. When the unity government arrangement ended the Cabinet needs to be pruned under 30 members,” he said. He said when the Cabinet stands dissolved the Prime Minister will have to be either removed or resign himself.
Peiris said Parliament has been suspended to allow time for Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minster to present a vote of account in Parliament instead of the 2019 Budget scheduled for November 5.
“This will provide resources to govern the country for three months,” Peiris said.
Meanwhile, Rauff Hakeem the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress said his party would firmly back Wickremesinghe. Two other constituent party leaders from minority Tamil and Muslim parties, Mano Ganesan, Palani Digambaram and Rishath Bathiyutheen also said they would be firmly in support of Wickremesinghe and called Sirisena’s move to sack Wickremesinghe as illegal and unconstitutional.
Sirisena’s sacking of Wickremesinghe was the culmination of a year of bitter relations between them on several policy matters. The President has been critical of the Prime Minister and his policies, especially on economy and security.
In April, Wickremesinghe successfully defeated a no-trust motion in Parliament engineered by Sirisena with backing from Rajapaksa.
The UNP, however, suffered one defection after Rajapaksa was sworn in with Ananda Aluthgamage meeting the former President and extending him support.
The political developments unfolded after Sirisena’s broader political front UPFA announced that it has decided to quit the current unity government with Wickremesinghe’s UNP.
The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisena was elected President with Wickremesinghe’s support, ending a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa’s return to power ends a more than three-year-old coalition government that was formed by Sirisena and Wickremesinghe on a promise to combat corruption and financial irregularities. The unity government was thrown into a crisis after Rajapaksa’s new party pulled off a stunning victory in local elections in February seen as a referendum on the ruling alliance.
Sri Lanka nearly faced economic sanctions from the West over Rajapakse’s brutal military crackdown on the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE sought a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Rajapaksa and his family are facing several cases of corruption and financial irregularities.
A delegation of the European Union said on Saturday that it was closely following the events in Sri Lanka.
“We urge all parties to fully act in accordance with Sri Lanka’s constitution, to refrain from violence, to follow due institutional process, to respect the independence of institutions, and freedom of media.”
Sirisena administered the oath of office to Rajapaksa on Friday after sacking Wickremesinghe, who was away touring the south of the country. Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, the prime minister heads parliament and the president has executive powers.
The political rift, which comes amid weakening economic growth in Sri Lanka, follows months of infighting in the ruling coalition.
Relations between Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) and Sirisensa’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been strained recently after Sirisensa criticised Wickremesinghe’s for not adequately investigating an assassination plot against the president. The UPFA had threatened to quit the ruling coalition.
Sirisena accused India’s intelligence services of involvement in that plot, a claim New Delhi and Colombo have both denied.
There was no immediate reaction from India which has long seen Sri Lanka, located just off its southern tip, as part of its area of influence. India’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request seeking comment on the change of leadership in Sri Lanka.
India has been concerned about Rajapaksa’s wooing of China — he ushered in billions of dollars of investment from Beijing to help rebuild the country following the end of a 26-year-long civil war against Tamil separatists in 2009. That investment has since put the island nation deep in debt and forced it to hand over control of a strategic southern port to China, drawing criticism from India and the United States.