Wednesday 29th April, 2026
The police yesterday intervened to prevent a clash between a group of JVP activists and some Opposition politicians who held a protest near the private residence of Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, in a Colombo suburb. The protesters complained of a cow dung attack by the JVP members, who denied the charge. Tempers were flaring, and the two groups would have come to blows but for the police presence.
There is no gainsaying that citizens have a right to conduct peaceful protests near state institutions where scandals occur or in other public places. On Monday, a large number of anti-government activists were seen near the Finance Ministry protesting against an illegal diversion of Treasury funds. They shouted themselves hoarse before dispersing. But some self-proclaimed anti-corruption campaigners obviously overstepped their limits and became a nuisance when they protested near Dr. Suriyapperuma’s house the following day. Such demonstrations, in our view, amount to mob intimidation.
The family members of Dr. Suriyapperuma or other Finance Ministry officials obviously have nothing to do with the theft of Treasury funds and must not be made to suffer distress. One may argue that the JVP, which resorted to similar tactics in the past, has been hoist with its own petard. The JVP even made a determined yet abortive bid to march on Parliament at the height of a popular uprising in 2022. If it had succeeded in its endeavour, the country would have been plunged into anarchy. But two wrongs don’t make a right.
Lessons learnt during the final phase of Aragalaya in 2022, when scores of houses belonging to the then ruling party politicians and their family members were torched and an SLPP MP was murdered, must not be forgotten. Protests and counter-protests tend to spiral out of control once tension rises and seething anger blinds mobs to reason. Hence the need for the organisers of such events to act with restraint and take precautions. Political leaders ought to keep troublemakers among their supporters on a tight leash.
Pressure must be ramped up on the government to stop shielding the corrupt and have the Treasury theft and other scandals probed thoroughly, and the Opposition’s right to hold peaceful protests cannot be questioned, but under no circumstance must protesters be allowed to mob the residences of politicians and officials.
Ad hoc funds
Everything seems to have gone wrong at once for the JVP-NPP government. While the Opposition is flogging the issue of a Treasury fund diversion to a rouge account, Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) and SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva has raised concerns about the legality of the Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund (RSLF), which was set up in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah last year.
On Monday, addressing the media, Deputy Minister of Finance Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando assured the public that the RSLF was safe. Donations had come from Sri Lankans and foreigners in 49 countries, he said, dismissing as baseless a claim that the fund had not been properly utilised. Responding to him, the COPF Chief has said that the RSLF has no legal validity. He has argued in an X message that under the IMF programme several funds were abolished, and only statutory funds are maintained. He has repeatedly questioned the Finance Ministry officials on issues regarding the RSLF only to be informed that they are still working on them, according to his social media post.
The RSLF has been free from allegations of irregularities, but its lack of statutory grounding could give rise to issues about transparency, regulatory oversight and public trust. Statutory recognition will help foreclose criticism that often has a corrosive effect on the integrity of relief funds.
It is hoped that the COPF will ensure that the Finance Ministry officials appear before it and explain why they have made no serious effort to obtain statutory status for the RSLF. The practice of establishing ad hoc relief funds needs to be discontinued.