By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA.

As regards move by a foreign servile and shameless UNP government to sign the reprehensive MCC agreement before the presidential election a fundamental rights violation case has been filed in the Supreme Cou Court demanding to issue an interim order to prevent the signing of this agreement of pawning Sri Lanka to America for 200  years until after the election. The government has become convinced of the imminent defeat of their sanitary pad (feminine napkin) candidate is trying to expedite this horrendous agreement to make a future government of Sri Lanka (Gota-Mahinda government) bound to implement this agreement.  The son of Kaanu Kataa sanitary pad candidate in his manifesto released yesterday (Oct. 31st) has pledged that this agreement will be fully honored, the despicable UNHRC resolution No. 30/1 will be fully implemented, and the devolution demands will be granted on a priority basis.

So, accordingly Sri Lanka’s North will be for Tamil terrorists, Trincomalee-C corridor will be for Americans and the South will be for Sinhalese. In reality, a person in the South including Batticaloa will be compelled to obtain visas to cross the Trnco-Colombo corridor from the American authority stationed there and from the Northern government to enter that territory.  The procedure will be the same for a man in Jaffna to visit Colombo or any other place in the South and it will prevail for the next 200 years or more subject to an extension. So, there is every possibility that Nagadeepa will be a memory of the past for Southerners and the Kovilsin Kataragama, Colombomay become a single territory with the blessings of India and theUnited States and may be named as adhering to the same culture  be asked by every Sri Lankan is what nationality our children of the future generations will have.

In the case of North with making the Palaly an international airport and South Indian fishermen getting full immunity the North and Tamil Nadu will eventually become a single territory speaking the same language and adhering to the same culture and religion and by the passage of time, with the blessings of the Indian government and the Americans will become a single entity called Tamil Desam instead of Northern Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

The opposition is mounting throughout Sri Lanka from people of all walks of life since last Tuesday (29th September) when a forced cabinet approval was obtained for signing the agreement despite stern objection from the President.  Yesterday the President, consequent to a protest delegation of opposition MPs which met him, has requested Finance minister Mangala Samaraweera to suspend the signing of the agreement for which the foreign slavish quisling Samaraweera has responded saying that the agreement was drafted with consent of the Attorney General and it will be presented to Parliament for approval after its signing. This stupid minister who was also functioned as Foreign Minister must be thinking that signing of agreements with foreign countries, and that also with the United States, is like something in the market that can be returned if not required.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral the United States Foreign Aid Agency established by the United States Congress in 2004, applying a new philosophy towards foreign aid. It provides time-limited grants and assistance to developing countries that meet the rigorous standards for fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights. It is reported that the MCC undertook a “constraints to economic growth analysis” in the year 2016 and subsequently decided to focus on the land and transport sectors, which were identified as binding constraints to growth. The constraints analysis concluded that traffic congestion in the Colombo Metropolitan Region, poor transport connectivity between Provinces, and weakness in land administration constrain economic growth. Accordingly, the MCC agreed to grant USD 480 million for financing the above projects.

Final negotiations on the Compact were conducted in October 2018 between the MCC and a Cabinet approved GoSL delegation which consisted of officials from the relevant Ministries and Government Agencies for implementing the selected projects including a representative from the Attorney General’s Department.

The whole process and the final Agreements were done under the guidance of the Attorney General and well within the legal framework. The Attorney General is in the opinion that Agreements are in order and there exists no legal impediment to executing same. A Cabinet Memorandum along with the final drafts of the Agreements was submitted on 31.05.2019 to the Cabinet of Ministers. The Cabinet appointed a committee for further discussions of the matters in detail. And subsequently, the Ministry of Finance submitted the Cabinet Memorandum dated 05.07.2019 seeking the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers for signing the Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement. The Cabinet of Ministers has granted its approval for signing above Agreements on 29.10.2019.

The Compact Agreement and the Program Implementation Agreement will be submitted to and enacted by Parliament of Sri Lanka once it is signed and before its entry into force and will be published in the Government Gazette before submitted to Parliament. With all these exercises how can one expect that America which had been insisting for the signing of this agreement will just simply roll it back with all their strategic contours attached to it.

Protests against the MCC agreement and demand for abandoning it without signing are mounting throughout the country.  It has been pointed out that Sri Lanka will lose 15 million acres of land to American control for 200 years.

Several Muslim Mawlavis and religious leaders have condemned this agreement saying that it would divide the Muslim community into three segments such as Northern Muslims, American Muslims, and Southern Muslims and have said that through this several prominent mosques including the Grand Mosque in Colombo and the Muslims of Colombo and several other important places like Muttur, Kinniya and Trincomalee will become subjected to American domination. They have condemned nominal Muslim Ministers such as Rauf Hakeem Kabir Hashim, Eishad Bathiudeen and other Muslim parliamentarians in the government to wake up from their slumber and oppose the agreement and asked whether they have bartered the community in this instance as well as they have done on many issues to fain personal largesse.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has also urged the government not to go ahead with the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement without fully examining the proposed pact.

The following is the full text of the letter issued by BASL President Kalinga Indatissa, PC:

“The Bar Association of Sri Lanka views with grave concern the news item pertaining to the Cabinet paper seeking approval for the entering into of the MCC agreement.

“Despite news reports seeking to assure the public of the benign nature of the said agreement, the draft that was previously made available to us had a multitude of disadvantageous clauses for Sri Lanka. The BASL as a responsible organization took a lot of time to study the proposed MCC and submitted a detailed report. The BASL outlined the grave consequences that Sri Lanka would face as an independent and sovereign State in the event the GOSL proceeded to sign the MCC in that form.

The proposed MCC as it stood then contained many issues of a very grave nature, as explained by us to the Honourable Prime Minister in writing, which we now disclose to the public to make their own observations. In fact, on 5/8/2019, the BASL received a letter of the Hon. Prime Minister thanking us for our efforts.

“We take this step as a responsible Association as the assurance given to us previously by the Government not to take any step towards signing the agreement without amendment and making a full disclosure of the contents to the public after obtaining our views has not been honoured.

“It is our belief that the draft proposals should be made available for Democratic debate before committing the Country to honour an agreement which only a privileged few have been privy to according to these newspaper reports. In the past, these have been instances where the country and the people had to face the consequences where the respective Governments of the day proceeded to enter upon agreements without educating the public about the contents.

“In such circumstances, the BASL holds the view that the MCC agreement should not be signed without providing an opportunity to the people to understand the true nature of the agreement.

“Therefore, we urge the Government not to proceed with the proposed agreement whatever compelling short-term economic reasons there may be without honouring its commitment made to us which we accepted in good faith.”

There were two investigative articles published in the news website Lankaweb on 16th and 117th September 2019 related to the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) by an Indian journalist named Sarojini Dutt.  The title of the articles was When does a Gift Horse becomes a Trojan Horse?” Certain extracts from these articles are reproduced herewith:

Jenner Edelman, the new Country Director of the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), had egg on her face when she was caught red-handed dishing-out fake news during a series of public presentations in Sri Lanka.

The MCC had acquired a malevolent reputation in Sri Lanka and the US was hellbent on whitewashing that image. Edelman embarked on a laundering campaign conducting a series of public presentations and artfully placed newspaper articles scripted by large US Corporate-funded organizations like Advocata.

Razeen Sally, a member of a secret and subversive organization – The Mont Pelerin Society that is dedicated to destroying universal franchise and democracy -dutifully sang for his supper as instructed.

However, anger against the MCC  has been  snowballing and the Sri Lankan people are now demanding that any Presidential hopeful seeking their vote should publicly affirm before a Maha Sangha Council that he/she would not sign the MCC Agreement or any other similar Agreement, and that if such agreements, laws or Treaties have already been signed he/she would repeal such Agreements, Laws, and Treaties when elected to office; furthermore, the people are demanding that the Presidential hopefuls make this the foremost statement, unambiguously, in their Manifesto.

It appears that the objective of Edelman’s programme, besides whitewashing the MCC, is to take the MCC off the political agenda at the forthcoming election campaign.

When Edelman was caught out being untruthful and metaphorically with her pants down, critics were quick to pounce on her ham-handed deception, pithily describing her conduct as America’s ‘Millennium-Gate’ scandal.

Many in Sri Lanka have accused the MCC of subversion and of spearheading an alleged US military thrust into Sri Lanka; this campaign, people say, is in consonance with America’s much-trumpeted, and bi-partisan, foreign policy doctrine of ‘Pivoting-to-Asia’ pronounced officially by Obama in 2012.

In all their presentations and contrived newspaper articles, Edelman and her assistant projected the MCC as an altruistic organisation, playing ‘Santa-Claus’ to the most poverty-stricken countries of the world and, making the poor in those countries rich.

Edelman went on to suggest that the MCC was created by Washington as a philanthropic arm of the US and not a tool of US foreign policy; she said that if Sri Lanka is not interested in America’s benefaction, the US would take their ‘gift’ to a more appreciative and grateful country.

Having said that, Edelman in the next breath did a positional pirouette;  rather sternly, she said, We are determined that Sri Lanka shall accept our ‘gift’; we shall sign the agreement before 17 Sep 19; if the people do not like it, the President, they elect, can annul the Compact at that time”.

Edelman then went on to say, The MCC has been maligned by much fake news. There are no electrified railway lines and there is no special economic Corridor running from Colombo to Trincomalee; everything is done by the MCC is what the Sri Lanka Government wants”.

How complying with MCC conditions would  result in Sri Lanka gifting the entire country on a platter to the US forever, is dealt with further down this piece 

What is one word for an agreement where one party to an Agreement has to fulfill his part of the Contract before the Contract is signed and, where the other party fulfills his part of the Contract only after the contract is signed? That word is, ‘MCC-Compact’.

Controverting Edelman who said that the ‘gift’ is unconditional another page of the MCC document was shown

The conditions imposed on Sri Lanka by the MCC are: All-State Lands to be mapped out; All-State Lands to be inventoried; a parcel fabric of all State Lands to be prepared; The Land Registry to be converted from the Deed system to the Title Registration system; the Land Registry Records to be Digitalised; a– new system of Land valuation to be introduced; All government Grants (of Land) to be  Registered;A Land Policy Body to be Established; pass new laws that support reforms under the Title system.

Sri Lanka has done nearly ¾ of what MCC wants Sri Lanka to do; only about a quarter remains to be done. From Sri Lanka’s perspective, there is now hardly any requirement to sign an ‘Agreement’ Document as most of what the US wanted Sri Lanka to do, has been done; from the US perspective, the balance quarter must mandatorily be complied with if the MCC is to part with the money promised.

The Americans are laughing all the way.

All-State Lands have been mapped out, inventoried and a parcel fabric of State Lands done. The and Registry has been converted from a Deed System to a Title Registration system (this is the ‘Bim Saviya’ Act that was passed in 1998 by Kumaranatunge, a member of another secret subversive organisation of the Whites – the Club of Madrid – dedicated to breaking up Sri Lanka and the other Nation States).

With Sri Lanka responding subserviently to the crack of the MCC whip, MCC requires Sri Lanka to digitalize the Land Registry, establish a new system of Land valuation, register all Government Land grants, establish a Land Policy Body and pass new laws that would support Land Reforms under the Title System.

On these conditions which MCC requires Sri Lanka to act on and which remain to be completed, Sri Lanka has already taken the initiative to have them implemented.

To digitalise the Land Registry, the US advertised in the local newspapers and selected a Sri Lankan contractor, Harin Gunawardena, to do the job of establishing the infrastructure for digitalising the Land Registry, under US instructions. The Registrar General of Lands, Gunasekera, and the Surveyor-General, Udayakantha, devotedly permitted the Americans to access to their offices and work on the process of digitalising the Register. The process is underway, with American input, unsupervised.

A similar situation exists in the Valuation department.

Gunasekera, Udayakantha and their successors are put on notice; they could, however, redeem themselves by assisting the State.

The double-speak of the Americans is quite evident. In their ‘Constraints’ analysis, a primary concern of the Americans is their inability to access and buy-up land in Sri Lanka.

Hence most, if not all, of the conditions laid down by the MCC for Sri Lanka to comply with, is to give the Americans easy access to buy-up or lease land in Sri Lanka.

What then is the motive of the MCC compact? The objective of the MCC is to create the necessary conditions in Sri Lanka to enable the United States to buy up Sri Lanka for a song.

Where then is the double-speak? The MCC tells Sri Lanka (and other poor nations) that they are here to alleviate poverty. If they have access to Sri Lanka’s land and buy up the land of the poverty-stricken farmer, the MCC does not alleviate poverty, they only aggravate poverty.

The MCC slogan, ‘alleviating poverty’, is a good sell; poor countries, because of their poverty, are vulnerable, malleable, and susceptible to economic blackmail; for example, ‘if you do not conform to our conditions, we take our ‘gift’ and go to a more appreciative country who would conform’.

Yes, there are many poor countries in the world; and the world today is a predator’s market for land-grabs. It could be argued that what motivates MCC is not altruism but naked self-interest.

In the last 70 years Sri Lanka has been able to maintain sovereignty of her land, not through an Army that would deter foreign aggression, but with Buddhism, a deeply engrained culture, a supportive Constitution, an incorruptible judiciary, legislature and Administration and, an Army that is excellently capable of dealing with the internal proxies of foreign military powers.

Consequently, the people of the country own 84% of the land.

Politicians, elected by the people, are only the temporary custodians of that land; they have been delegated the people’s authority to protect the sovereignty of that land and to preserve the fundamental rights of the unborn generations.

To deprive the people of Sri Lanka sovereignty over their land the foreign aggressor has to attack, Buddhism, Sri Lanka’s culture, Sri Lanka’s Army, Sri Lanka’s supportive Constitution, and the incorruptibility of  Sri Lanka’s judiciary, legislation, and administration.

The attack has begun and the attack is on all fronts. The MCC is an integral part of that attack.

The Corridor from Trincomalee to Colombo is mostly government land given on lease to farmers. One of the conditions laid out by the MCC is to register all Land grants.

Why has the MCC included this condition?

Until about three years ago no foreigner could own land in Sri Lanka. But Wickramasinghe enabled foreigners to own land in the country. However, this is restricted to the 14% of private land available in the market and that too is restricted by extent, to a limit of 50 acres.

The rest of the country’s land, an 84%, is not available for sale; it is only available for lease, only if the temporary custodian of the land, the President, deems it fit to be leased.

This 84% of Sri Lanka’s land is under the protective hand of the President of the country despite amendments to the Constitution and despite interpretation of the amendments being challenged in the Supreme Court of law.

How could America’s impediment to access 84% of Sri Lanka’s land, as a result of the President’s power, be overcome and how could these powers be devolved to the provinces as is the demand of the TNA?  

How could this ‘restriction’ on this 84% of the land is available only for lease and not for sale be removed and such land be made available for outright private sale?

How could the limitation of ownership of land to a maximum of 50 acres be done away with?   

This is where the MCC, Wickramasinghe, and Sirisena have colluded.

Wickramasinghe promised the issue of a million deeds to farmers who already have lease ownership to those lands; he and his hirelings have begun issuing deeds for these lands. 

Sirisena placed the Presidential seal on each one of those million deeds issued, as is mandated by law. 

The MCC has made it one of their mandatory conditions that all Land grants be registered under the Title system;

In short, by issuing a million Land Grants to the farmers, the land has been privatised; by the land being privatised, the power to deal with those lands has been devolved to the respective provincial councils along the MCC Corridor. The issue of  land grants, therefore, is not to alleviate  poverty, as is proclaimed, but a necessary ‘precedent’ condition – a condition that has to be met before the MCC donates its ‘gift’ –  that would enable the Americans to buy up land while satisfying  the Eelamists demand for power over ‘land’.

With the MCC electric railway barrier dividing the North from the South, with the Americans controlling the Corridor from Trinco to Colombo and having the ability to hinder movement of the military between the North and the South, with Land power devolved to the provinces, the separatists have got what the American-backed terrorists fought for before they were wiped out at Nandikadal; Eelam.

The farmers are poor not because of a lack of land; they are poor because they do not obtain, at the appropriate time, the fundamentals necessary for farming, such as seed, water, fertilizer, warehouse facilities for their harvest, markets, price, etc.

Since the farmers continue to be poor, they are encouraged to sell their land (for which they now have deeds) or mortgage their land with lending institutions; when the farmers default on their mortgages the lending institutions would seize the properties mortgaged with them, and sell these properties.

And this is exactly what the MCC wants and that is why the MCC requires, as a precondition, ‘the registration of land grants under the title system’. The MCC would buy all this land for a song.

When land deeds are given to farmers, these lands now become private land; no longer do these lands come under the control of the President (or the Centre); all land powers to these million deeds issued are devolved to the respective provinces.

The Corridor from Trinco to Colombo, approximately 1.2 million acres of land, is replete with Phosphate, Ilmenite, Monazite, Thorium – a nuclear fuel like uranium – and other precious and rare metals. 

Issuing of a million Deeds – viz a million Land Grants – has removed the restriction on Government lands being available only for lease; these lands are now available for sale, as required by the MCC.

A geopolitical analysis suggests that the US wishes to occupy Sri Lanka and that they propose to do so by buying out the country; they are restricted in a way that there is a limitation on ownership of land by an individual to a maximum of 50 acres.

This restriction and many other restrictions to America’s easy access to buy Sri Lankan Land have been done away with, in the draft laws prepared by the MCC, unknown to the Sri Lankan public.

The MCC has been cajoling the Government to sign the MCC agreement before 17 Sep 19. Wickramasinghe, Sirisena, the MCC and others are put on notice that they would be in contempt of Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court should they sign the MCC Agreement before the Supreme Court give its determination on the plaint filed regarding the constitutionality of the  Land  (Special Provisions) Bill.

The member of the audience who publicly challenged Edelman for being economical with the truth indicated another pernicious issue in the MCC Plan put out by the MCC; he said that the MCC was planning to set up a Land Policy Body which would be the cardinal authority on Land Policy in the country.

This Policy body is empowered to override any decision relating to land made by the Government which is the denouement of Sri Lankan people’s sovereignty and democracy.

And in this policy body are entrenched the Americans and the NGOs, the paid hirelings of the Americans. When Edelman denied this allegation, this individual calmly pointed to the ‘Conditions Precedent for MCC Land Investment’ where the establishment of a Land Policy Body is one of the conditions that should be done before the MCC ‘gift’ can be given. 

Then turning to another page in the document in his hand, he showed a wiring diagram of this supreme Land Policy making body, as portrayed by the MCC. 

At the apex is the MCC and subordinate to it is the Land Policy Research Council and further below is the Land Policy Office of the Ministry of Lands!

With a very strong possibility of, an Eelam,  a terrorist caliphate in the East (see MCC map), Americans in control of the entire island, of the littoral states in the Bay of Bengal and the Bay being destabilised by the caliphate terrorists,  Sirisena, Wickramasinghe and the entire cabinet (collective responsibility)  and are put on notice.