By Shivanthi Ranasinghe
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s mighty Government has just landed a resolute kick on the 19th Amendment’s sorry little posterior. Through a new amendment, the 20th, the President has consolidated his powers and has left the Opposition howling. Newspapers antagonistic to the Rajapaksas have denounced President Gotabaya of assuming dictatorial powers.
President Gotabaya has repeatedly accused the 19th Amendment was designed to target the Rajapaksa family and not national interests. With the 20th Amendment removing the barrier against dual citizens from holding public positions, this accusation will now rebound on him. It will be interesting how the anti-Rajapaksa camp will digest this clause that will allow Basil Rajapaksa to consolidate his power without having to give up his dual citizenship.
Bond to CB Governor and scams
Sajith Premadasa’s camp cannot protest over this matter with a clear conscience. After all, they were silent when Arjuna Mahendran became the Central Bank Governor. Mahendran is neither a citizen nor a dual citizen of Sri Lanka. This makes their concerns over this matter over dual citizenship rather hypocritical. They are now making a huge effort to distance themselves from the Central Bank bond scams. This will be an uphill task after accommodating Sujeewa Senasinghe and Ajith Perera into the nomination list. During the Yahapalana Government they stoutly denied that the Central Bank was swindled. Senasinghe even wrote a book to exonerate the bond scammers. Voters have given them a fitting response. Thus, SJB will be protesting at the risk of raking up this embarrassing connection.
The only ones who can jump on it as if on hot coals would be the JVP. No doubt, they will make the maximum use from it. Anura Kumara Dissanayaka has already pronounced the 20th Amendment as a passage from superiority to inferiority when the effort ought to be towards greatness. The important question however is not what the Opposition did or can do. They are not the ones in power now. If the present Administration tries to justify their actions by trying to compare it against the failings of the previous Government, then the country will be moving in circles and not forward. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of allowing dual citizens into Sri Lanka’s Administration for what it really entails from the country’s perspective.
As President Gotabaya accused, the 19th Amendment closed the road for dual citizens with the specific intention of keeping Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa out from the Presidential race. Just as President JR Jayewardene weakened his Opposition, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also made sure that his nemesis is eliminated. Therefore, by bringing a two-term limit he ensured that Mahinda Rajapaksa will never ever become the President of Sri Lanka again.
Young political leaders
The very man who seated Mahendran as the Central Bank’s Governor imposed the rule to prevent dual citizens from contesting in Presidential or Parliamentary Elections. Ranil Wickremesinghe also feared young Namal Rajapaksa. Namal’s age was used to disqualify him. It is funny that those who sigh over the dominating political arena in the West never protested over this rule that stagnate our young politicians.
Notwithstanding the 19th Amendment’s motive to penalize dual citizens, the question now before us is the 20th Amendment that allows those who had pledged allegiance to another Nation becoming a lawmaker in this country. This is a very serious question that must be carefully analysed with all material at hand and with the sole viewpoint as to how this affects Sri Lanka.
Dual citizen’s national interests
Eran Wickramaratne questioned whose national interests would a dual citizen choose to support, if the two Nations that the individual holds citizenship to, comes into a conflict. This is a most pertinent question. It can be safely assumed that the individual will choose the Nation that benefits him the most – that is, he will support the interests of his adapted Nation over his country of birth.
After all, an individual becomes a citizen of the adapted country after a determined struggle. It is difficult to believe that after having obtained citizenship of that country that offers better prospects than the birth country, that individual will throw it away out of loyalty to his motherland. The West especially is very particular on loyalty and does not look kindly on treachery.
Sri Lanka is more liberal. CV Wigneswaran’s and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam’s recent remarks in their maiden speeches in Parliament are a case in point. They clearly violated the oath they took just hours earlier that pledged their allegiance to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. They did not even get a slap on the wrist thanks to their Parliamentary privileges. Therefore, Eran Wickramaratne’s rhetorical question is very potent indeed.
However, our experience with our dual citizens is contrary to this assumption. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was a dual citizen when he functioned as the Defense Secretary. Towards the end of the war against terrorism, Sri Lanka did come in conflict with the US. In January 2009, the Barack Obama regime replaced the friendly Republican Government. From that point onwards, the Obama regime with the extremist group Tamil Diaspora chewing its ear became increasingly hostile to Sri Lanka.
A friend in need
The new US Government began to exert extreme pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to stop the war that was pushing the LTTE towards its Waterloo. Hillary Clinton as the then US State Secretary even resorted to unorthodox methods and asked the IMF to hold on to the funds due to Sri Lanka. Fortunately, Colonel Gaddafi promised President Mahinda Rajapaksa the funds and this assured the investor confidence to continue to engage with Sri Lanka. Thus, the intended economic sabotage was foiled and the Rajapaksa brothers were able to end the war successfully.
This worsened the conflict between the Obama Regime and the Rajapaksa Administration. The two Governments became increasingly confrontational. Indeed the Rajapaksas could have saved quite a heartache for themselves had they just cooperated with the US Government. Yet, they chose against it.
Maintaining good relations
Therefore, as a dual citizen Gotabaya Rajapaksa played an interesting role. He used the good will of his adapted country to end the war. Sri Lanka benefitted immensely from George Bush regime’s war cry on all terrorism. As the Defense Secretary, he built good relations with the US ambassador Robert Blake to defeat the LTTE.
The FBI lent muscle to his fight by identifying the LTTE as the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization. They began to monitor the Tamil Diaspora’s activities and caught them as they tried to procure arms and other military hardware for the LTTE. The US intelligence greatly assisted the Sri Lanka Navy by pinpointing the LTTE floating armories.
Possibility of arrest
However, with the change of the US Government so did the US policy vis a vis Sri Lanka’s fight against terrorism. Yet, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stayed on course. After the war, as the US began its campaign against Sri Lanka by accusing the political and military leadership of war crimes, Gotabaya Rajapaksa remained unmoved. It has been quietly suggested that instead of fighting with the global superpower, Sri Lanka co-operate by condemning few officers and soldiers into a super luxurious prison to be quietly released when the heat is off. Obviously, this was not humored by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Administration.
As a US citizen, Gotabaya Rajapaksa could have been arrested whilst on American soil over these purported war crimes. Yet, he continued to stand by the Sri Lankan military. He steadfastly refused to sacrifice even one officer or soldier over a purported crime just to please his adapted country.
Ironically, this was not the case with the Yahapalana Government even though its leaders are Sri Lanka citizens. Their loyalty to the US came at the tremendous cost to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and integrity. At the US directive the then Foreign Minister even co-sponsored a US Resolution against Sri Lanka. At the commission to investigate into political victimization by the Yahapalana Government, Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that this was co-sponsored with the consent of the then President and the Cabinet – who are all Sri Lankan citizens.
Country rallies behind him
When Gotabaya Rajapaksa came forward as the Presidential candidate, nearly 7 million voters hoped and prayed that his dual citizenship would not prevent him from running for presidency. He would not have got his overwhelming mandate at both the November 2019 Presidential Election or at the August 2020 General Elections with only the SLPP supporters. Clearly, voters across the entire political strata rallied behind him.
Voters understand that the country was under foreign influences, and at the real risk of losing our sovereignty, national assets, inheritance and independence. Our culture and way of life has come under severe threat. The constitutional councils brought in by the 19th Amendment paved the way for elements who are under the payroll and/or other obligations to foreign Governments and INGOs to meddle in the country’s affairs.
Religious sects
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was seen as the only saviour to get rid of these elements who are subservient to foreign powers, despite their Sri Lankan citizenship. This includes people like Eran Wickrematatne who belong to the religious sect.
This religious sect is alleged to be controlled by a school of thought that are anti-Sri Lankan and of being aligned with the western political neo liberal thinking. Indeed, the decisions taken by the likes of Eran Wickremaratne have been unsympathetic towards the ordinary Sri Lankan citizen.
Therefore, the mandate received by President Gotabaya is not against dual citizens but those who are loyal to foreign powers and share their thinking and sympathies. The Opposition can have all the hissy fits over the dual citizenship, but the voters are not complaining. As seen by Lord Naseby’s conduct, citizenship is not the foremost consideration for public office but that person’s integrity.
ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com