e-Con e-News

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‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 18-24 May 2025

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‘This ‘mass murder on wheels’ accelerated with the IMF-guided

‘explosive growth’ of Finance Companies (FCs) after 1977.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka linked this motorized mayhem

to the larger banking system providing ‘market space’ to

Non-Banking Financial Institutions. The FCs exploited

demographics, that the banks feared to tread. Bankers however

financed imports to serve this burgeoning ‘market’:

the tsunami of Japanese vehicles, TVs, etc.’ – ee 01.01.2022,

The World Bank Driving Madness on Our Roads

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‘Yet it has long been alleged that policemen,

including senior officers run private buses.

If this is in fact true, it would explain why

police checks on such vehicles, many of them

driving like bats out of hell to reach the next bus halt

before their competitors, are not as stringent as desired.’

– see ee Industry, Kotmale bus disaster

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‘A local government is, in fact, the largest wealth manager in town.

At the local government level, real estate is by far the most significant

asset segment & includes transport-related assets such as railways, airports,

& ports, as well as former industrial areas located in or near city centres.’

– Dag Detter, Former President of Swedish National Wealth Fund

(ee Economists, Leveraging Government-owned land…for private investment)

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Despite the splutterings of editorials & gushings of tears, buses keep falling off hills, and trains keep being derailed. People keep getting maimed and killed. Is this an exaggeration? Is it all natural? What kind of terror is this? The media certainly thrives on reporting such horrors, minus photographs of the gory details. This ee looks at the thriving trade & treachery in importing lorry chassis for use in public bus transport, via the detailed witness of a Senior Customs Official (see ee Random Notes). Such chassis, not designed for passenger transport use, assure that the commuting worker comes not just tired to work – they may never arrive there at all! That overloaded Ramboda bus that helped kill & maim over 30 people, had a lorry (not a bus) chassis like all local buses. Yet this is just one factor. The powers-that-be have been insistent on maintaining the rule of the World Bank that initiated this havoc on our roads (see The World Bank Driving Madness on Our Roads, ee 2022Jan 1).

     The government has decided to set up a Western Province Bus Sector Modernization Taskforce to align with the proposed ‘World Bank-supported Bus Sector Modernization Program.’ The Western Province Governor’s Office will serve as the Secretariat for the Taskforce, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Transport. The WP governor Hanif Yusoof is the ‘former owner’ of ExpoLanka, which is controlled by Japan’s Sagawa Group’s Singapore-based SG Holdings Global Ltd. They are linked to Sagawa Express Co, a major transportation company in Japan, founded by Kiyoshi Sagawa. That Senior Custom’s Official has much to say about the import of cheap Indian chassis & expensive Japanese buses.

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What was not said at the time & said in hushed tones

for fear of being name-called by those adept in the business

of vilification, was the fact that Ceylon was the European

corruption of ‘Sinhale’, the true name. – Malinda Seneviratne, see

ee Sovereignty, Today we (don’t) celebrate 40 years of independence

May is the month of the Enlightenment – Vesak. May also illuminates us to bear witness to the delicate treasons of the English media in Sri Lanka in choosing not to celebrate (front-page headline, illustrate, highlight) the 53^rd anniversary of the 1972 May 22 declaration of Sri Lanka as a Republic. Yet can the media alone be blamed – ‘The Government has chosen not to celebrate it’ (see ee Sovereignty). Are such rituals outdated, superfluous, or premature?

     This 1972 act formally bid good riddance to the English monarchy as our theoretical overlords and overladies. Over a year before in 1971, the leadership and cadre of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, now in office but still not in power) had been charged with attempting to overthrow a German tart named Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, aka the Queen of England. This charge may have perhaps reminded our learned constitutionalists (what the majority of the country knew in their bones) that Sri Lanka, decades after 1948 ‘Soulbury’ independence, was still an English ‘dominion’ and not an independent country, at least in words. England’s overruling of the 1958 Paddy Land’s Act, and their release of those who had plotted to coup the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike (but not that Hanoverian Queen?), in 1962, was meant to remind that Sri Lanka was still a colony in all but name, even if SWRD Bandaranaike had gotten rid of those English military bases, and paid a heavy price for it.

     Two years after the declaration of the Republic, came the early warning shots in 1974 of the separatist war waged by the LTTE – a video doing the rounds states that the Indian government trained the LTTE leadership and also then used them for target practice in ‘jungle warfare’, while using the excuse of the government’s repression of a Tamil ‘minority’ to invade the country (see ee Sovereignty, LTTE – Explained in 18 minutes by Indian Commando). The video goes onto show that the LTTE was trained at a joint Indian-US camp that also trained Tibetans, Baluchis and other ‘minorities’ in the arts of terrorism, to be practiced on its neighbors.

     Indeed, May being the month of an Enlightenment (that long preceded Europe’s own ‘Enlightenment’ to the mechanisms of a wider world which they then resolved to invade & plunder), May 19 saw the 16^th anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, with a host of imperialist governments colluding to efface their role in promoting that war. The farce of the Canadian government trying to deflect their own genocidal horrors onto others is part of the coordinated attempts to undermine a nation-state by labeling military officials as war criminals, and by their NGOs’ insistence on removing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and Online Safety Act, etc. War is War & the state is a pair of handcuffs, but it is not the place of the imperialists to determine any country’s laws, or on whose wrists those handcuffs be placed.

     There is another irony in Canada’s purported expertise on genocide. Their genocide of the original people, involved playing one nation against the other, and creating fake nations, tribes, bands, etc. Last week former Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry called out Canada’s addiction to playing on ‘ethnic vote banks’ at elections. Many ‘ethnic leaders’, MPs, MPPS, etc, in Canada have been involved in the human trafficking game, arranging for ‘settlement & adaptation’, supplying workers to break strikes, assuring them police protection etc. Sabry, however, could very well have examined the history of ‘special representatives’ in Sri Lanka, that appointed and ‘nominated’ MPs representing ‘minorities’ & special interests, such as English, Burgher, Tamil and Muslim traders. Yet, Canada as a ‘settler nation’ is considered a novel experiment in ‘multiculturalism’, or ‘multivulturalism’ (many vultures!). Canada has become one of the leading experts on modern tribalism (aka ethnicity), having learned divide&rule from their imperial masters, England & now the USA.

‘The allegiance of foreign-born citizens was further assured by humoring

their national pride in the holding of Irish, German & French meetings

in the hall, where each nationality was addressed in its own language. The

more influential foreigners were rewarded with places on the Assembly

or local ticket, and to the lesser workers of foreign birth were given petty

jobs in the department offices, or contract work.’

– Gustave Myers, History of Tammany Hall, 1917

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This ee Focus continues looking into Myers’ 1917 History, with this excerpt on the origins of ‘ethnic vote banks’. While Myers curiously avoids the US role in encouraging Irish emigration after the English-induced famines in Ireland, in this excerpt on the history of municipal shenanigans in New York, he described in detail how Tammany Hall became an extension of the US government’s immigration department, and the history of the ‘ward heeler’ and the gangs that delivered assured votes to political parties. Familiar?

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• Having failed to ‘overthrow’ the Sri Lankan government, by 1974 the imperialists were also showing an at-least nominally ‘independent’ state, that the economy was still in their hands. They skyrocketed oil & food prices etc, causing shortages. They bribed ruling party politicians to defect and promoted the subsequent alienation of its ‘Leftist’ partners in the coalition United Front government. In 1978, the government of JR Jayawardena reverted to the colonial ‘Independence Day’ of February 4^th (see ee Sovereignty, Today we (don’t) celebrate 40 years of independence).

     History repeats itself, alternately wailing and guffawing, as the imperialist powers show how they have been able to undermine any government that dares to try to change our colonial import-export plantation economy – by legislative hampering, by coup, by bribery, by terrorism from all sides….

     May being the month of the enlightenment, we are indeed illuminated by how the English media (not just the BBC, CNN, etc) has been teaching their readers and viewers to again love the Nazis and assorted fascists (all good children & students of colonial invasions), while erasing the role of the USSR in the defeat of the Nazi Germany on 09 May 1945 , along with the role of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) in the defeat of an imperialist Japan. This ee records not only how we paid to finance England’s wars (see ee Quotes, Patnaik), but also how the USSR’s defeat of Nazi Germany led to the ‘strategic withdrawal’ of the imperialists from their colonial domains. We also describe the role the USSR played in attempting to advance the true liberation of our countries from the colonial stranglehold of our economies by supporting our modern industrialization (see ee Random Notes).

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‘You work 12-hour days, take calls at midnight when

containers are stuck at customs, and then they tell you

they can’t offer a bonus because ‘the market is tough’

– right after buying their third Prado.’

• The Shipping Mafia’s Ladies – This week saw ‘women in shipping’ hold their 10^th annual general meeting. So what exactly do women ship, as opposed to their male counterparts? Do they do it differently? We’re not told. But this little news item (see ee Who’s Who) also enlightens us to the corporations behind what is called ‘The Shipping Mafia’ (see ee Focus), who ‘invoice foreign clients in dollars but dispense salaries in rupees, without any inflation adjustment or cost-of-living considerations.’ The media rarely reports on the actual conditions of port workers, unless criticizing their strikes. Yet these workers’ fastidious job of documentation and cargo handling ‘has made Colombo Port a darling of international shipping lines’. Yet Sri Lankan shipping employees are the lowest-paid in the region, and social media memes compare shipping owners to pirates. The bosses have ‘fought back’ not ‘with pay raises, but with glossy LinkedIn posts’, and love to import HR consultants. ‘We value our employees as our greatest asset,’ says one CEO just after proudly buying a villa in the Maldives.

     In this ee, we are told that the Ministry of Labour and the trade unions ignore that ‘Sri Lanka’s shipping sector is notably devoid of any meaningful collective bargaining mechanisms’. Most employees are on temporary or contract terms, and fear being flung overboard. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is more interested in foreign partnerships than the labour rights of private-sector logistics employees. The story ends – ‘So here’s a modest proposal for the Colombo shipping mafia: Trade in one Prado. Pay your staff. It might just save your business.’

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‘The traditional working class is being replaced globally

& in England by a ‘precarious’ class who have no

permanent work or decent wages & conditions

& are being ‘left behind’.’– Michael Roberts

(ee Economists, Progressive Economics & progressive capitalism)

• This ee’s Random Notes also reproduce details on the move by England’s largest retailers to sack almost 2,000 workers in Katunayake’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Next Manufacturing gave no prior warning as required by law. It was considered a model for Sri Lanka’s export industrialization drive in the late 1970s, as one of the first foreign investment projects set up in the-then FTZ which forbade trade unions. The company claims operating costs are too high, and indirectly blames the trade union, as well as ‘activism’. The charge of activism may be linked to their failure to pay a living wage. An NGO Living Wage Foundation is said to have bought Next shares and attended their annual general meeting, demanding they pay better wages. After all, Next has claimed to be a good employer while making huge profits. Yet these profits in such labor-intensive sectors are based on gross exploitation, as opposed to investment in modern technology and upgrading workers’ skills. While critics claim such employers could afford to pay much more, economists claim that state enforcement could cause unemployment in the retail and labour-intensive industrial sector. The English government claims they pay billions to low-paid workers through tax credits, and retail companies – which have the highest proportion of low-paid workers – exploit austerity, effectively adding their workers’ unpaid wages to England’s welfare bill.

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‘A Congolese bourgeoisie never existed. Internal trade,

which in most colonies, including West Africa, was a

stamping ground for small-scale indigenous enterprise,

was dominated by Portuguese & Greeks. The closed

trading networks of these alien minorities were a barrier

to all but a handful of Congolese petty traders in Leopoldville.’

– SBD de Silva (see ee Focus)

• Could Africa’s experience illuminate Sri Lanka’s own political economy? Indeed, they can & do, and is indispensable. As we approach the 7^th anniversary of SBD de Silva’s passing from the planet, let’s recall de Silva’s efforts to scour the world to find resonances with the roots of our country’s discontent. This ee Focus concludes the excerpts from Chapter 4 of SBD’s classic, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. This chapter examines the alleged exceptions to his thesis on the dichotomy between such settler-colonial states as Algeria and in Southern Africa, & non-settler colonial states such as ours. The names appearing in this excerpt echo names sometimes broadcast in the news on the current US war on the Congo. The names from Indochina (Vietnam) echo the news of earlier European & US wars. But SBD’s focus was on how these countries have been set up for destabilization and underdevelopment. Rather than strictly adhering to one or the other in SB’s division of the world, he found they represent a continuum in between.

     In the Congo, expats dominated the economy, thwarting ‘a fuller realization’ of its growth potential. The plantation and mining companies had ‘to purchase more than half of its materials from Belgium and to employ Belgians to the extent of 60% of its European personnel’. And yet in the province of Katanga, Flemish settlers dominated the economy, and created a different society based on developing modern industry and a home market to sustain it. The europeanized buffer class of Congolese – the évolué (‘evolved ones’) – who were promoted to take over, only wished to re-enact the colonial game, minus investing further in industrial production. They also prevented real economic independence, helping to murder Patrice Lumumba. Continued warfare has been that legacy.

      Meanwhile in Asia, France extricated Indochina’s economy from its geographic milieu, from which its commodities were derived. France bought rice, corn, coal and cement ‘(mainly to help its balance of payments) but they ‘were not complementary to the French economy; as bulky or heavy commodities, they ‘could more conveniently’ have been exported to Indochina neighbors.

     Like Sri Lanka, Indochina’s export trade with France was encumbered by heavy payments to middlemen & other distributive agents, and by high freight rates due to a monopoly by French vessels of the shipping between France and the colonies.

     Tariffs and financial subsidies encouraged the development of the production of minerals & agricultural raw materials, compared with industrial investment. The colonies were not permitted to compete with France in any part of the world market – in France, in the colonies, or outside the empire.

     Meanwhile, large French imports challenged Indochina’s access to low-cost goods from Japan & China (which were then smuggled in). The French-owned branch plants did not substitute for nor reduce the dominance of French imports. Indochina’s colonial export produce was forced to depend on a precarious French market, based on ‘the vagaries of domestic harvests and the mood of the agricultural interests’. Indochina served the French economy more ‘as an investment outlet and a market’. This made the French Parliament and industrialists willing to finance French PM Jules Ferry’s invasion and war on Tonkin (Vietnam) in 1885.

     SBD de Silva’s detailed analysis of imperialist exploitation in Africa and Southeast Asia provide fresh clues into the insidious ways and means by which the Republic of Sri Lanka is still held in the grip of thralldom He also charts for us a map of the ways and means to get out of and overcome their old non-settler colonial traps.

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Contents:

Is Sri Lanka Still Too Colonial to Celebrate its Own Republic Day?