IS THE CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE? REFLECTIONS ON COVID GOVERNANCE IN SRI LANKA EDITED BY PRADEEP PEIRIS Publisher: Social Indicator, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Colombo, Sri Lanka Editor: Pradeep Peiris ISBN 978-624-5914-01-2 Bar Code: 9 786245 914012 Cover photo credits: Nazly Ahmed © 2021 CPA and individual authors The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is an independent, non-partisan organisation that focuses primarily on issues of governance and conflict resolution. Formed in 1996 in the firm belief that the vital contribution of civil society to the public policy debate is in need of strengthening, CPA is committed to programmes of research and advocacy through which public policy is critiqued, and alternatives identified and disseminated. Social Indicator (SI) is the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and was established in September 1999, filling a longstanding vacuum for a permanent, professional, and independent polling facility in Sri Lanka on social and political issues. Driven by the strong belief that polling is an instrument that empowers democracy, SI has been conducting polls on a large range of socio-economic and political issues since its inception. Printer: Karunaratne & Sons (Pvt) Ltd. 65 C, Thalgahawila Road Midellamulahena Horana, Sri Lanka Contents Contributors v Foreword vii Preface and acknowledgements ix Chapter 1 Introduction: Reflections on pandemic governance in Sri Lanka 11 Pradeep Peiris Chapter 2 Sri Lanka’s accelerated democratic decay amidst a pandemic 29 Bhavani Fonseka and Kushmila Ranasinghe Chapter 3 Healing the population by constructing subjects: Pandemic governmentality of Sri Lanka 61 Pradeep Peiris Chapter 4 Lives or livelihoods? The erosion of welfare in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response 87 Nipunika O. Lecamwasam Chapter 5 Ethno-centric pandemic governance: The Muslim community in Sri Lanka’s COVID response 111 Sakina Moinudeen Chapter 6 Not-so-free education: State-citizen relations in Sri Lanka’s educational policy response to the pandemic 129 Hasini Lecamwasam Chapter 7 Out of the frying pan into the fire: Life of migrant garment workers in the COVID-19 response 149 Kaushini Dammalage Chapter 8 Contacts during difficult times: A study on the function of social networks in accessing state services during the COVID-19 pandemic 169 Shashik Silva Annexure 1 191 Annexure 2 193 Annexure 3 207 Contributors Bhavani Fonseka is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at Law with the Centre for Policy Alternatives, with a focus on research, national and international advocacy and public interest litigation. She is presently on the editorial board of the International Journal on Transitional Justice and a visiting lecturer at University of Colombo. She was an adviser to the Consultation Taskforce appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka in 2016 and a member of the drafting committee to formulate the National Human Rights Action Plan for Sri Lanka for the period 2017-2021. Kaushini Dammalage is with the Social Scientists’ Association. Her primary research interests are in gender studies, democracy, electoral politics, and the history of leftist politics in Sri Lanka. She has conducted research on the gendered processes of labour mobilisation in the plantations, and the party organisational strategies of the traditional left in Sri Lanka. Hasini Lecamwasam is lecturer in Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University of Peradeniya, and co-editor of Polity, the English language magazine of the Social Scientists’ Association. Her research interests include the Political Sociology of identity construction, democratising of education, and spatial politics. Nipunika O. Lecamwasam is lecturer in Political Science attached to the Political Science and Sociology programme at the Royal Thimphu College, Bhutan. Her research interests span anthropology of development, youth, peace, and democracy research. vi Reflections on COVID Governance in Sri Lanka Sakina Moinudeen is a Researcher at Social Indicator, the survey research arm of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, and has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. Her research experience has led her to deal with public perceptions and expectations of democracy and governance, literacy and nutritional aspects of development, and issues of war and peace with particular relevance to post-war and conflict societies. Pradeep Peiris is senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo, and founder of Social Indicator, the survey arm of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. He has published on a range of subjects from the federal debate in Sri Lanka to the state of democracy in Sri Lanka. His research interests include conflict resolution, gender, political parties, local government, and the state of democracy in South Asia. Kushmila Ranasinghe is a Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo with an LLB and also holds a BSc. (Hons) in International Relations from the University of London. Shashik Silva counts more than 15 years of experience as a survey researcher, quantitative analyst, and qualitative researcher. He has previously worked with Social Indicator, the survey research arm of Centre for Policy Alternatives, and the Applied Research Unit of UNOPS. He is presently Researcher and Administrative Manager at the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka. His main research interests are in deciphering the multiple narratives of reconciliation in Sri Lanka, understanding citizens’ aspirations for justice, and issues of inclusion and exclusion in local governance. He is a member of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR), and has presented his research at annual conferences organised by WAPOR Asia since 2019. Foreword In the Sri Lankan context, the possible long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly disturbing. What public satisfaction prevails with the government is based on the relatively low number of deaths and infections. The public has not seen beyond their immediate health concerns to consider the impact of the pandemic on the key question of governance. And it is here that there is cause for serious concern. COVID-19 has provided the government the perfect excuse for effective Executive aggrandisement and militarisation. Parliament did not sit for some 03 months, and therefore there was no legislative oversight of public finance. Management of the pandemic is through the Presidential Task Force headed by Army Commander Shavendra Silva, aside a number of other Task Forces staffed by current or former military personnel in the main, to ensure a disciplined society and to look into archaeological sites in the Eastern Province. The latter does not reflect the multi-ethnicity and pluralism of the Province. Regulations have become the order of the day with the President declaring that his pronouncements constitute government policy. Furthermore, there was a rush to introduce legislation such as the Port City Commission Bill, which nevertheless was challenged by political parties and the civil society in the Supreme Court. The bill had to be amended, before being passed, as per the Court’s decision. Militarisation has fed into this aggrandisement of Executive power made possible by the passage of the 20th Amendment removing checks and balances on the exercise of Executive power and authority. Apart from the Task Forces, military personnel with wide ranging powers have been appointed to the 25 districts as chief coordinators to facilitate quarantine requirements. Air-force drones viii Reflections on COVID Governance in Sri Lanka as well as “Sri Lanka Army Quick Reaction Riders Team” are used to apprehend those who violate quarantine regulations. Alongside this, the shrinking of the space for civil society, the harassment and intimidation of civil society actors in the North and East in particular, and the use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) continue. As with the experience of Emergency rule, the danger is that the practices and procedures adopted to combat the pandemic will come to be seen as normal, before it is too late. This volume raises these questions in relation to a host of issues currently in society concerning democratic institutions, governance, welfare impact of the pandemic, ethnic relations, free education, migrant workers, and political patronage. I trust the volume will encourage discussion and debate on these issues, and thereby constitute a contribution to better governance and government in Sri Lanka. Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Executive Director Centre for Policy Alternatives Preface and acknowledgements Pandemics go far beyond mere public health crises, leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary social fabric. The tangible and intangible transformations emanating from pandemics that societies experience require intense probing. In the final analysis, the evanescent quality of human memory demands these events be critically chronicled to benefit future generations, not least to avoid the quicksand shores on which we find ourselves. Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? Reflection on COVID Governance in Sri Lanka is the result of an initiative of Social Indicator (SI), the survey research arm of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). The ‘Socio-Economic Index In the Face of COVID-19’, an island wide opinion poll conducted from February-March 2021 by SI, aimed to