Democracy gets boost with end to Emergency

For the past several years it has been the task of Prime Ministers and Leaders of the House to rise in Parliament each month and present a motion to extend the Emergency regulations. They were carrying out the Constitutional requirement of Parliament having to endorse the extension of the Emergency every 30 days. With all the criticism that has been levelled at Sri Lanka for repeated and continuous extensions of the State of Emergency and its related regulations, it is a credit to the acceptance of the Parliamentary process that the extension always had the approval of the House.

Last Thursday, in one of his more entries to the Chamber of Parliament, President Rajapaksa played a different role. Speaking with assurance and elan, he told the House, the country, and the world, that Sri Lanka did not require Emergency regulations anymore. In a statement that gave a complete overview of the need for Emergency regulations for so long, he made a carefully studied case for its introduction with the Black July of 1983, and how the LTTE used that phase to launch its terrorist battle for separation, until the situation when he was able to announce that the country can now be governed under the ordinary laws of the land.

Public Security Act

In announcing the decision not to extend the State of Emergency, although having enough votes in Parliament to ensure the passage of any resolution to extend it, Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President who has served the shortest period, within one's term, using the powers of the Public Security Act. What he inherited on November 2005 with election as Executive President, he has now repealed five years and nine months later, in the early part of his second term as

 Executive President. This is different from JR Jayewardene, who served part of his first term and his entire second term with Emergency powers, and Chandrika Kumaratunga, who served most of her two terms with Emergency powers, except for the brief period when it was lifted after the Ceasefire of 2002. The situation of President Ranasinghe Premadasa cannot be compared as he was assassinated within his first term, which was entirely under Emergency. D B Wijetunga also had Emergency on through his brief term of office.

With the confident announcement that President Rajapaksa made in Parliament on Thursday, one more issue on which ill-informed members of the international community and others with an agenda of distortion about the reality in Sri Lanka, were pointing accusing fingers at Sri Lanka has been removed. But, the President's statement made clear that it was not the accusing fingers that led to the decision, but the realities of the situation in Sri Lanka, after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.

Ceasefire Agreement

In the well studied statement that exuded with confidence, Mahinda Rajapaksa demonstrated that he has not lost his Parliamentary skills, and also that he had the strength of conviction in deciding that the country did not anymore need the support of Emergency regulations for governance. From the rise of LTTE terror that saw the Emergency introduced in the current lengthy phase, he described how other developments such as the JVP's terrorism and large-scale assassinations of politicians and social leaders as well as massive destruction of public property in 1988/89, also contributed to continuance of the Emergency.

He detailed how after the lifting of Emergency regulations, in the search for peace with the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement in 2002, they had to be reintroduced due to large-scale violations of the CFA by the LTTE, that culminated the assassination of the much revered Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in August 2005.

From then on he explained the launch of the Humanitarian Operation by the security forces that finally led to the rout of the LTTE. To use his own words: "Although we made strong efforts to proceed with the peace talks that had been initiated at the time I assumed office in 2005, the brutal killing of people by the LTTE at Kebithigollewa and the later closure of the Mavil Aru Anicut led to our having to launch a humanitarian operation. The liberation of the East and the subsequent liberation of the North from terror were done under this environment. Emergency regulations became necessary and useful for providing relief to a large number of innocent people who had been taken hostage by the forces of terror and were released with the liberation of the entire North and East from terror, as well as for carrying out urgent measures for their resettlement."

Reconstruction and rehabilitation process

The President made clear how after the defeat of the LTTE, Emergency regulations were necessary to carry out the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in vast areas, especially in the North, where there had been so much destruction and the necessity to carry out the very slow and dangerous process of de-mining in vast areas of previous habitation by the Tamil people.

He made an interesting and important observation about the absence of censorship of the media through Emergency powers since he assumed office in November 2005. It was a fact that had not been noted by those pressing for lifting of the Emergency, as well as those who supported its continuance. The President said: "You are aware that even before 2005 there were several occasions when there was censorship of the press under Emergency regulations. However, although we were compelled to carry out a massive battle against the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, at no time in the term of our government has there been a control or censorship of the press under Emergency regulations.

"Although some sections of the media caused grave obstacles to the humanitarian operation, up to this time we have not carried out any media censorship. I believe this is a very good means of showing the world that we were engaged in a genuine humanitarian operation. It is with considerable regret that I state that this media freedom is being betrayed today to discredit the humanitarian operation that we carried out."

Having explained in detail all the development work that has been carried out in the North and East, the large sums spent on such work and allocated for work still to be completed, and the opportunities now available to the people of North and East, once controlled by the guns and terror of the LTTE, to live and work in freedom, Mahinda Rajapaksa made clear the case for the repeal of Emergency regulations and bringing the entire administration of the country under the normal law of the land.

He said: "For several years this Parliament has extended the Emergency regulations every month. Some voted against it while some abstained. This supreme Parliament is enriched by representing all political parties in the country. Through this representation we can consider this House comprising the Honourable Speaker and its 225 honourable members as a great asset that brings together the multiplicity of views in the country. It is nurtured by all ethnicities and all religions, as well as those who hold liberal and progressive views. All of them have gained wide experience in the recent past.

Ordinary law

Among these representatives are about 40 young members. We have for the first time an opportunity to find solutions for problems in our country within a democratic framework and without any influence from terrorists. Therefore, on behalf of the people of this country, I request Parliament to grant this opportunity to them through Parliament.

"I would like to present to this supreme Parliament, the proposal to repeal the Emergency regulations for administrative activities to function democratically under the ordinary law. This is because I am satisfied with that fact that there is no longer a need for extending the Emergency regulations for the administration of the country now. Therefore I propose not to extend the Emergency regulations."

With hardly any leaked out or pre-announced plans about the important announcement that was to be made by the him in Parliament, he reached a great height, in both his career as a Member of Parliament and as Executive President, in making this announcement, which answered so much of ill-informed and deliberately distorted criticism of the country for continuing with the Emergency more than two years after the rout of the LTTE. His dignified statement that rose above the usually unseemly level of Parliamentary debate today, made the case for both the government and Sri Lanka, of the commitment to Democracy and the Rule of Law.

It was a much needed response that underlined our strength as an Asian democracy, in the context of the continued din over the continuance of Emergency with little regard for the realities here.

These have mainly come from those abroad known for their duplicity, who for long supported naked and brutal dictators, never naming them as such, and providing them with huge funds to build arsenals only for use against their own oppressed people, who have suddenly become the darlings of these so-called missionaries of democracy, as they rise against oppressors kept in power for decades, mainly through the support of these double-tongued champions of democracy and human rights.