PTA, ATA, ICCPR and we, the citizens - EDITORIAL

For the past 73 years, we Lankans have at different times permitted different governments to take away our freedom for one reason or the other. We permitted without too much ado, the right of the government to impose emergency regulations in an effort to prevent workers demanding a living wage.

One of the best examples was when late president JR Jayewardene dismissed over 40,000 public sector workers for demanding a monthly increase of Rs. 300/- in July 1980 using emergency regulations. Neither the public nor mercantile sector trade unions took up the cause of the dismissed strikers. Many a striker committed suicide, but the caravan moved on.
We next accepted a further reduction of rights in 1979, when the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was first introduced as a temporary law and later made permanent in 1982. The PTA; infringes constitutionally vested rights, including freedom from right to be free from torture, arbitrary arrest, detention and punishment, and the right to a fair trial.

At that time, large sections of the majority community - sans a few individuals like MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara - supported the PTA, seeing it as being directed against the Tamils who were calling for a separate state.
Despite numerous warnings from the minorities, that the draconian piece of legislation would come back to haunt them, large sections of the Lankan community continued supporting the legislation.

It was only during the past year, once the PTA began to be used to crush the ‘Aragalaya’ group, did a majority of citizens become aware of the deadly powers they had conferred to their rulers. In the aftermath of the crackdown on the ‘Aragalaya,’ ordinary citizens, politicians and political parties soon began demanding the abolition of the PTA.
The Ministry of Defence at an International Research Conference in 2023 admitted there were flaws in PTA; which infringed constitutionally vested rights and the Act had discriminatory provisions which need revisiting.

To ‘assuage’ the people’s feelings, government has presented a new piece of anti- terrorism legislation - the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). However, the bill in its present form seems to increase the powers of the president to proscribe organizations issue curfew orders, and restrict areas of access.

Human rights organizations, trade unions and even religious groups have joined the political parties in describing the ATA as being worse than its predecessor, the PTA. Political Scientist, Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda speaking to the Daily Mirror columnist Kamanthi Wickremasinghe said the proposed new law would turn the country into a police state, posing a threat to the rule of law, democracy and human rights in the country.

‘Sunday Times’ columnist Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene points out that the ATA has features worse than its predecessor, the PTA, bringing in Section 3 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act as a component of the ‘offence of terrorism and concentrates even more power in the office of the presidency.

While speaking of terrorism, the ATA is imprecise in its description of what constitutes a terrorist offence and could include perfectly legitimate actions in given circumstances.
The bill also appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the media, describing any person who publishes or causes to be published a statement which could be understood by some or all members of the public as ‘instigating’ an act of terrorism. The punishments for violation of the bill are - the death penalty or 20 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine up to Rs. One million upon conviction by the High Court and forfeiture of property.

The bill also empowers the president with powers of proscription if he has ‘reasonable grounds to believe an organization is engaged in an act amounting to an offence’. What these reasonable grounds are ‘God only knows’!
Will we, the sons and daughters of Lanka, once more meekly bow our heads as our rights are being effectively stripped of us?
In Germany, before the World War II, people surrendered their rights and a Hitler emerged. The ATA looks more and more like a ‘Frankenstein monster’ in the waiting. Will we acquiesce to this?

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has announced it would not hesitate to challenge any bill it would deem undermines the rule of law and liberty of citizens in the country. In response to mounting criticism, the government has announced that it would delay tabling the bill.
We, the citizens, need be alert to prevent an erosion of our rights whether by our elected representatives or those elected by our elected representatives.