Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The Ides of March are here: The same Playbook to spread disinformation and turn science on its head during the Covid-19 panicdemic that kicked off in March 2020 is playing again. QR-coded digital control of populations and fuel rationing with real and staged shortages and outright disinformation amid propaganda wars are back purportedly due to the crisis in the Middle East.

It feels like we are back to the bad old days of Covid-19 economic meltdown. As fuel prices soar through the roof, QR-queues, limited travel, four-day work weeks that debilitate state institutions and oversight mechanisms back. When coupled with paternalistic and childish policies like alternate day fuel purchases designed to confuse, distract and tie up the public in knots, all this enables a pandemic of corruption.

During ‘emergencies’ oversight mechanisms and safeguards tend to be observed in the breach enabling price gouging, profiteering and disaster capitalism. Recall the surplus of deadly mRNA vaccines purchased at ‘warped speed’ after a huge Data breach at the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), that help bankrupt the Health Ministry.

Amid petrol price confusion the National People’s Power (NPP) regime in Colombo wears a mask of Neutrality and has turned a Nelsonian blind eye towards Israeli-US aggression in the Indian Ocean and Sri Lankan’s national interests. This includes delays in giving harbor to Iranian ship sunk by a US torpedo in the Seas of Sri Lanka, environmental pollution, and need for reparations.

The Colombo regime’s policies to conserve fuel meanwhile seems to mask a compounding energy policy debacle and conceals the outcome of International Monetary Fund (IMF) promoted ‘reforms’ to privatize State owned energy companies including the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

Disinformation and Cross-messaging with a Mask of Neutrality

Sri Lanka’s latest fuel price revision ranks among the highest increase compared to many Asian and global peers.[i] The price increase was for oil and gas purchased before the latest crisis in the Middle east and hence was bought at lower global market rates. Neighbouring India meanwhile has held fuel prices steady except for the high end petroleum.

Even before the recent global oil price rise could affect the price of fuel orders placed months ago, the NPP regime rushed to increase petrol and gas prices at the pump. It’s Spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa positively sneered when questioned during a recent press briefing about the energy situation claiming that the county would not be able to afford oil soon!!His theme song to cause stress, anxiety and fear among a public reeling from price hikes was there is ‘worse to come’.

Government Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa also claimed during a press briefing that the government heavily subsidizes fuel in order to justify a petrol price hike of 25 %.  However, the mysterious petrol pricing formula was not revealed so there was no basis to assess the veracity of Jayatissa’s claim about a massive fuel subsidy to the consumer.

Is unlikely that Indian, Chinese and US firms that sell fuel at the same price would be subsidizing Sri Lankan consumers even if the state owned CPC did! Recently, many state-owned CPC petrol stations were shut while the private distributors, fortune 500 companies according to an expert: LIOC (India), Sinopec (China), RM Parks (US), all had petrol.

Meanwhile the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation suggested that rather than a shortage, there may be a glut of fuel stating that there was not enough storage for the excess ships with fuel arriving in Sri Lanka, which sits front and center of the world’s energy superhighway on Indian Ocean energy shipping lanes.[ii]

Are the NPP regime’s QR-queues and other policies to ration fuel designed to stage shortages and encourage price rigging, amid maximum, confusion, disruption and distraction while concealing incompetence and corruption with disinformation and staged scarcity? Does the cross messaging served to mask President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka’s clear pro-Washington and IMF tilt, which negatively impacts the Sri Lanka consumer?

The American Gas Scandal:  Energy Policy Controlled by IMF?

Although, the Governments of Russia and Iran have offered to help with energy supplies, the NPP regime, fronting a Mask of Neutrality had chosen to buy Gas from distant US refineries via Swiss-based Geo Gas Trading company at higher prices and transport cost.[iii] This was no doubt on the Advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that controls Eurobond debt trapped Sri Lanka’s Central Bank (CBSL) and economic policy-making process, particularly, energy policy.

The purchase of expensive American gas was ironically justified by a much hyped gas shortage cause by the private LAUGHS Gas company and claimed to be on open tender, in the interest of transparency and good governance!

Does this not warrant an investigation?

Simple Solution: De-dollarize, Pivot to Asian BRICS and Indian Ocean Neighbourhood

Sri Lanka clearly needs to diversify its fuel sources and payment methods to reduce dependence on the exorbitantly privileged US dollar that has been weaponized against the Global South’s emerging economies, as much as, against sanctions-hit Russia and Iran which are some of the world’s largest oil suppliers.

Iran, an Indian Ocean good neighbor of Sri Lanka has historically been a large, if not the largest purchaser of Sri Lanka’s Green Gold- TEA.  Russia has de-dollarized. The Colombo Regime would do well to make long-term barter agreements to exchange Ceylon Tea for Iranian and Russian Oil, and in so doing reduce dependence on the exorbitantly privileged US dollar that has been used to debt trap and asset strip the county with IMF experts who run policy at the Central Bank.

The Petroleum price shock delivered by the NPP regime with the emergency mask to the public reflects a lack of a coherent National Energy Security Policy Framework. At this time energy policy seems to be controlled by Washington. The IMF also controls Euro-bond debt trapped Sri Lanka’s Central Bank whose governor in a key player in the energy task force.

The familiar narrative of shortages, famine and queues to spread fear played by former President Ranil Wickramasinghe who claimed in 2022, that the Sri Lanka, South Asia’s wealthiest country by all metrics except the exorbitantly privileged US Petrodollar was bankrupt” and the IMF was the only solution seems to be playing again. That was during the NED and Soros funded Gen-Z Aragalaya protest Chaos Operation staged for regime change and staged Sovereign Default into the waiting arms of the IMF.

At the time, Wickramasinghe famously promised famine and 15-hour electricity power cuts that did not materialize– to distract from the Big Picture geopolitical economic big picture that frames geostrategic Sri Lanka’s endless exogenous economic shocks?

Privatization of Ceylon Electricity Board QR Queues

Amid the fog of America’s illegal war on Iran and the petrol QR queues drama, on March 9 the National Peoples Power (NPP) regime in Colombo issued a Gazette that officially dissolved state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). This was part of the IMF-EFF ‘reform’ directive, now implemented amid threats of electricity outages after a much hyped coal purchase scam.

The 56 year-old CEB was fragmented into six separate companies as prelude for privatization amid a much hyped Coal purchase scam and the fog of war in the Middle East. Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO) will fall under the newly established distribution company as part of the restructuring process.

By now it is evident that President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka serves the IMF and Washington’s interests with great alacrity, in lieu of Sri Lanka citizen’s interests. Meanwhile, his Foreign Minister, Vijitha Hearth has long played deaf and dumb to offers of cheap oil and gas from Russia and Iran.

At this time, there are protest in the Philippines calling to scrap the privatization of the Petroleum sector and for National Energy Security.

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[i] https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2026/03/24/sri-lanka-fuel-price-hike-in-a-month-among-the-worlds-highest/

[ii] https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Sri-Lanka-lacks-storage-facilities-for-excess-fuel-shipments-for-April/108-335879

[iii] https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/main_image/Sri-Lanka-turns-to-American-gas-for-cooking/346-335529