Cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s inflation eased to 35.3 percent, the lowest in a year, the statistics office said Friday as the country pressed ahead with austerity measures under an IMF bailout.
Fuel and food prices coming off their record highs helped inflation moderate in April, the Department of Census and Statistics said.
April is the first full month since the International Monetary Fund released the first instalment of a $3 billion loan spread over four years.
The rate of price increases peaked at 69.8 percent in September as Sri Lanka struggled to finance imports of essential goods after declaring a sovereign default on its $46 billion foreign debt in April last year.
April’s inflation of 35.3 percent is the lowest since the 29.8 percent recorded a year earlier.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe warned his 22 million people soon after the IMF bailout in late March that they may have to endure more hardships due to austerity measures.
The South Asian nation went through months of food and fuel shortages, along with runaway inflation and prolonged blackouts, due to an unprecedented foreign exchange shortage.
The economic crisis led to months of protests that eventually forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and step down in July.
Wickremesinghe has doubled income taxes, increased electricity tariffs and removed fuel subsidies as part of moves to shore up state revenue since replacing Rajapaksa.
He has also cracked down on trade unions protesting against high taxes and the government has warned it will confiscate the property of anyone staging work stoppages.
In its latest annual report, released on Thursday, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka expected an economic revival next year after a record 7.8 percent GDP contraction in 2022.
The bank forecast the economy to shrink by 2.0 percent this year but said it could grow at 3.3 percent in 2024.
Although human rights violations are cited as the reason for sanctioning, the West has been using sanctions mainly to attain geopolitical objectives.
The US this week sanctioned the former Sri Lankan navy chief, Adm. Wasantha Karannagoda. Earlier, Canada had sanctioned former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa. These listings have been portrayed as measures to enforce human rights. But, in fact, human rights have been a veneer, a fig leaf so to speak, to cover hard-nosed geopolitical objectives.
The history of sanctions clearly demonstrates that the West, particularly the US, uses sanctions as an instrument of geopolitics to browbeat weak and dependent nations and cripple leaders who would not bend to the American ill.
Sanctions are not applied against strong countries or strong leaders who are pro-US. For example, the US will not sanction Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for human rights violations because he is now a powerful, pro-US leader. Earlier, when he was a provincial leader (Chief Minister of Gujarat), the US had no problem about barring his entry into the US for alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat killings.
Holier Than Thou
The sanctioning power would not punish its own citizens who had committed war crimes abroad.
The UK had tried to bring legislation to prevent its troops from being dragged to courts in vexatious” litigations. Eventually, under pressure from rights groups, that move was abandoned.
The US, had been a major violator of human rights in Afghanistan. But it had threatened to arrest and sanction judges and other officials of the International Criminal Court (ICCC) if they moved to charge any American who served in Afghanistan with war crimes. White House National Security Advisor John Bolton had called the ICC unaccountable” and outright dangerous” to the United States, Israel and other allies. He said that the US was prepared to slap financial sanctions and criminal charges on officials of the court if they proceeded against any Americans.
We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States. We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system,” he fumed. We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans.”
Actually, Canada sanctioned the Rajapaksa brothers and the US blacklisted Adm.Karannagoda not for the reasons stated (war crimes) but for not letting the separatist Tamil Tigers off the hook in the crucial final phase of the war in Sri Lanka as per the West’s wish. And after the war, they had brazenly invited China to take the lead in infrastructural development worth billions of dollars.
Bangladesh
Likewise, the US sanctioned top officers of the Bangladesh anti-terrorist outfit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), not for extrajudicial killings and disappearances, as claimed, but because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was accommodative toward China. She had refused to be bullied into joining the Indo-Pacific anti-China line-up Quad”.
Both the Rajapaksas and the RAB were assessed only from the US foreign policy angle in total disregard of their role in ridding their countries of terrorism and separatism (and drug running and Islamic radicalism in the case of Bangladesh).
The Rajapaksas took the Canadian sanctions in their stride, perhaps given Sri Lanka’s dependence on the West for the IMF bailout. But the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen summoned the US Ambassador Earl Miller and delivered a protest about the sanctioning of RAB.
The sanction against Bangladesh came in for adverse comment in the US itself. Derek Grossman, national security and Indo-Pacific analyst at RAND Corporation and Michael Kugelman, South Asia Senior Associate at the Wilson Center, viewed the US action in the context of strategic competition against China,” and noted that the Biden administration had not been happy about Dhaka’s growing ties with China.
Russia
In an unprecedented step against geopolitical rival Russia, which had invaded Western ally Ukraine, the US and its allies imposed wide-ranging sanctions, cutting off economic and trade links; seizing Russian assets, and blocking Russians from global payment systems like SWIFT, PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard. Sanctions made Russia’s Central Bank struggle to support the rouble.
The long term goal of sanctioning Russia is to overthrow the recalcitrant Vladimir Putin and to prevent Russia from being a global challenger to the hegemony of the US and its allies.
ICC
The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague has also become an instrument of Western hegemonic politics. Since the inception of the ICC, Africans have been brought to trial, predominantly. None from the West. In protest against such anti-African bias, Burundi left the ICC and the Kenayan parliament voted to leave it in 2013. South Africa threatened to quit.
The fundamental problem is that the court is operating in a world that is unequal politically and economically,” James Goldston, a former attorney in the ICC prosecutor’s office, was quoted as saying.
Futility of Sanctions
Do sanctions deliver the goods? Mostly not, says Daniel W.Drezner in a piece entitled: The United States of Sanctions: The Use and Abuse of Economic Coercion in Foreign Affairs (Sept-Oct 2021).
Sri Lanka’s ideas or policies on human rights have not changed as a consequence of sanctions because the existing policies have the approval of the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community, and because these policies are considered necessary for the survival of Sri Lanka as a single entity.
In the case of Bangladesh too, the sanctions did not lead to any change in policy because Sheikh Hasina’s political clout has been based on her merciless action against drug peddlers, drug smugglers and Islamic terrorists, actions which are necessary for law and order and economic development.
Globally too, sanctions have not worked, though they have been the most oft used tool of US foreign policy. Daniel Drezner points out that during President Barack Obama’s first term, the US designated an average of 500 entities for sanctions per year, for reasons ranging from human rights abuses to nuclear proliferation to violations of territorial sovereignty. That nearly doubled during Donald Trump’s presidency. President Biden imposed new sanctions against Myanmar, Nicaragua and Russia.
Drezner says that economic sanctions have hurt the targeted countries but have not broken them. But this is not grasped by the US leadership. A 2019 Government Accountability Office study concluded that not even the federal government knew if sanctions were working.
The truth is that Washington’s fixation with sanctions has little to do with their efficacy and everything to do with something else: American decline. No longer an unchallenged superpower, the United States can’t throw its weight around the way it used to. In relative terms, its military power and diplomatic influence have declined.”
Two decades of war, recession, polarization, and now a pandemic, have dented American power. Frustrated US presidents are left with fewer arrows in their quiver, and they are quick to reach for the easy, available tool of sanctions,” Drezner says.
Sanctions have hurt the US too, but the US is oblivious to this.
Sanctions strain relations with allies, antagonize adversaries, and impose economic hardship on innocent civilians. Thus, sanctions not only reveal American decline but accelerate it too.”
To make matters worse, the tool is growing duller by the year. Future sanctions are likely to be even less effective,” Drezner predicts.
Sanctioned countries attract sympathy and material help. China and India came to sanctioned Russia’s rescue. China will help Sri Lanka and India will not give up its policy of wooing Sri Lanka, irrespective of US sanctions. Geopolitics is the determining factor.
P. K. Balachandran
P. K. Balachandran is a senior Indian journalist working in Sri Lanka for local and international media and has been writing on South Asian issues for the past 21 years.
The middle class, fed up of the shortages of the Sirimavo government, hailed the arrival of JR. They welcomed his appointment as head of state. They became disillusioned later, but his core group of admirers did not desert him.
JR handled the transition from a controlled economy to a more open one with great political skill said KM de Silva. JR was one of the few intelligent and educated politicians of Asia, said Daya de Silva. He was a visionary who transformed this country into a modern market economy. It was all good and smooth running since JR took over. JR was a benevolent dictator. He had a strong team and took firm decisions. The open economy was good. Tourists and foreign investors came in concluded Daya.
One of the spectacular achievements of JR was the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Scheme said Sarath Amunugama., A project which was to have taken 30 years was successfully completed in 10 years. It was a gigantic engineering, financial, land settlement, agricultural and management undertaking which changed rural agriculture irrevocably.
This was the largest river valley development which could be undertaken in the country. Many dams were needed. Sarath noted that the early work of the damming of Mahaweli Ganga was done by CP de Silva during 1965-1970. When JR and Gamini Dissanayake got onto it, most of the preliminary planning work was already complete.
The Mahaweli project ignored the creation of a Trincomalee development corridor, it concentrated on dams, reservoirs and power stations. So human settlements and its spatial networks suffered, said Willie Mendis. The Mahaweli programme carried out mostly through aid programmes did bring many benefits but the liberalization policy undermined local agricultural and industrial programmes, said IPC Mendis.
Sarath Amunugama noted that the Tourism sector was started by JR. He set up the Tourist Board. Hotels such as Lanka Oberoi, Intercontinental, Hilton, Taj and other International hotels built in Colombo as well as many resort hotels in scenic parts of the island were built in JR’s time. Trincomalee became an important tourist destination. A busy hotel industry was in operation in the area led by Nilaweli Beach hotel, Blue Lagoon and so on, said Jayatissa Bandaragoda.
The first southern resort was at Bentota, at the Bentota Rest house. Sarath found much land fragmentation when he went to the south to see about the development of tourism there. In Balapitiya there were more than 200 pangu holders for each small block of land. Once the big hotels were built and tourists started coming, an amazing development took place said Sarath. Around our main destination a large number of middle and small level hotels restaurants, batik shops and grocery stores sprang up he noted.
Sarath Amunugama noted that the Cultural triangle” was another achievement of JR, though many tend to overlook this.
I was told long ago, had Japan had offered to introduce television to Sri Lanka free, during the time of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her government had turned it down. In 1965 JR too had suggested the introduction of television, but the idea was shot down.
In 1977 JR was in a position to introduce television to the island. He wanted it to be a state venture supervised by the media ministry. He turned to Japan. The enthusiastic Japanese ambassador got us the whole project free of charge as an outright grant said Sarath Amunugama who was in charge of the project.
The Grant could be given according to Japanese law only for education, so we said this was for education and the original agreement carried this. One of the studios in Rupavahini was specially designed to facilitate the making of education programmes and we did start broadcasting lessons in English and mathematics which won awards at international competitions, concluded Sarath.
JR started the National lottery to supplement the national budget. Other ministers also saw the advantage of this, specially the printing contract it carried and started their own lotteries. Prime Minister Premadasa started Sevana fund, then came Mahapola. Eventually JR stopped any more lotteries.
President JR Jayewardene decided that a new parliament building was needed to accommodate the increased number of Parliamentarians. He requested the Embassies to help with the necessary expertise. The only Embassy that responded was the French and following consultation a team from Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient for new towns led by Dr. François Daniel and Architect Planner Deloche arrived in Sri Lanka. Architect Ashley de Vos was asked to join the team. JR had read something that Ashley de Vos had written, visited him and requested him to join.
Ashley recalls that the team toured the country for about a week to understand the history of the island. The historical monuments and the use of water as a feature in the landscape was impressive and taken note of. The team looked to see whether it was possible to create a connection of the new with the past and a location in Anuradhapura for the new Parliament was suggested.
Meanwhile, AnandaTissa De Alwis the MP for Kotte had suggested Kotte where there was marsh land with very little habitation. The island in the middle of the Diyawanna Oya was thought to be appropriate for the Parliament project, especially with the marsh and the potential for the use of water in the design. This island belonged to the E.W.Perera’s.
The Dutch hydrology expert brought over by the French reported that the marshes had to be preserved inviolate with the rain water flowing over the maximum area and finding its natural outlet to sea. If the marsh was intruded into or filled, and the free flow of water obstructed, the site and anything on it will get flooded.
Accordingly, the cleaning up and freeing of the natural lakes of the accumulated reed beds and other accretion was done The Diyawanna Oya now had a free flow into the lakes behind the old Christian College, Kotte and into the sea.
However, having got wind of the proposal, large areas of the marsh were hurriedly sold by the owners to private developers and many areas were subjected to arbitrary filling. Two large tracks of land was bought up and resold for development. This affected the landscape and interfered with the proposed location of the Ministerial offices and the housing for the officers who were going to work there.
This was totally against the views of the Dutch Hydrology expert. He wanted the marsh kept inviolate. He concluded that arbitrary filling and blocking of the free flow of excess water of the Diyawanna Oya into the natural lakes behind the old Christian College Kotte, and the canals leading to the Wellawatta canal and to the sea should not be restricted or closed off. If not flooding would occur.
If you interfere with the free flow of rain water in the marshes and along the Diyawanna Oya into the natural lakes, into the canals and into the sea, the heavy rain will inundate the little marsh that is left and the unfortunate outcome will be that the Parliament building will get flooded he said. The parliament went under water on two occasions, noted Ashley de Vos. (Continued)
It is now established that the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency is eroding. When corporate western media begins to attack the multipolar world’s de-dollarization narrative in earnest, you know the panic in Washington has fully set in.
The numbers: the dollar share of global reserves was 73 percent in 2001, 55 percent in 2021, and 47 percent in 2022. The key takeaway is that last year, the dollar share slid 10 times faster than the average in the past two decades.
Now it is no longer far-fetched to project a global dollar share of only 30 percent by the end of 2024, coinciding with the next US presidential election.
The defining moment – the actual trigger leading to the Fall of the Hegemon – was in February 2022, when over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves were frozen” by the collective west, and every other country on the planet began fearing for their own dollar stores abroad. There was some comic relief in this absurd move, though: the EU can’t find” most of it.
Now cue to some current essential developments on the trading front.
Over 70 percent of trade deals between Russia and China now use either the ruble or the yuan, according to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
Russia and India are trading oil in rupees. Less than four weeks ago, Banco Bocom BBM became the first Latin American bank to sign up as a direct participant of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), which is the Chinese alternative to the western-led financial messaging system, SWIFT.
China’s CNOOC and France’s Total signed their first LNG trade in yuan via the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.
The deal between Russia and Bangladesh for the construction of the Rooppur nuclear plant will also bypass the US dollar. The first $300 million payment will be in yuan, but Russia will try to switch the next ones to rubles.
Russia and Bolivia’s bilateral trade now accepts settlements in Boliviano. That’s extremely pertinent, considering Rosatom’s drive to be a crucial part of the development of lithium deposits in Bolivia.
Notably, many of those trades involve BRICS countries – and beyond. At least 19 nations have already requested to join BRICS+, the extended version of the 21st century’s major multipolar institution, whose founding members are Brazil, Russia, India, and China, then South Africa. The foreign ministers of the original five will start discussing the modalities of accession for new members in an upcoming June summit in Capetown.
BRICS, as it stands, is already more relevant to the global economy than the G7. The latest IMF figures reveal that the existing five BRICS nations will contribute 32.1 percent to global growth, compared to the G7’s 29.9 percent.
With Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico as possible new members, it is clear that key Global South players are starting to focus on the quintessential multilateral institution capable of smashing Western hegemony.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) are working in total sync as Moscow’s partnership with Riyadh in OPEC+ metastasizes into BRICS+, in parallel to the deepening Russia-Iran strategic partnership.
MbS has willfully steered Saudi Arabia toward Eurasia’s new power trio Russia-Iran-China (RIC), away from the US. The new game in West Asia is the incoming BRIICSS – featuring, remarkably, both Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose historic reconciliation was brokered by yet another BRICS heavyweight, China.
Importantly, the evolving Iran-Saudi rapprochement also implies a much closer relationship between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as a whole and the Russia-China strategic partnership.
This will translate into complementary roles – in terms of trade connectivity and payment systems – for the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), linking Russia-Iran-India, and the China-Central-Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor, a key plank of Beijing’s ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Today, only Brazil, with its President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva caged by the Americans and an erratic foreign policy, runs the risk of being relegated by the BRICS to the status of a secondary player.
Beyond BRIICSS
The de-dollarization train has been propelled to high-speed status by the accumulated effects of Covid-linked supply chain chaos and collective western sanctions on Russia.
The essential point is this: The BRICS have the commodities, and the G7 controls finance. The latter can’t grow commodities, but the former can create currencies – especially when their value is linked to tangibles like gold, oil, minerals, and other natural resources.
Arguably the key swing factor is that pricing for oil and gold is already shifting to Russia, China, and West Asia.
In consequence, demand for dollar-denominated bonds is slowly but surely collapsing. Trillions of US dollars will inevitably start to go back home – shattering the dollar’s purchasing power and its exchange rate.
The fall of a weaponized currency will end up smashing the whole logic behind the US’ global network of 800+ military bases and their operating budgets.
Since mid-March, in Moscow, during the Economic Forum of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CSI) – one of the key inter-government organizations in Eurasia formed after the fall of the USSR – further integration is being actively discussed between the CSI, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS.
Eurasian organizations coordinating the counterpunch to the current western-led system, which tramples on international law, was not by accident one of the key themes of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s speech at the UN earlier this week. It is also no accident that four member-states of the CIS – Russia and three Central Asian stans” – founded the SCO along with China in June 2001.
The Davos/Great Reset globalist combo, for all practical purposes, declared war on oil immediately after the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. They threatened OPEC+ to isolate Russia – or else, but failed humiliatingly. OPEC+, effectively run by Moscow-Riyadh, now rules the global oil market.
Western elites are in a panic. Especially after Lula’s bombshell on Chinese soil during his visit with Xi Jinping, when he called on the whole Global South to replace the US dollar with their own currencies in international trade.
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), recently told the New York-based Council of Foreign Relations – the heart of the US establishment matrix – that geopolitical tensions between the US and China could raise inflation by 5 percent and threaten the dominance of the dollar and euro.”
The monolithic spin across western mainstream media is that BRICS economies trading normally with Russia creates new problems for the rest of the world.” That’s utter nonsense: it only creates problems for the dollar and the euro.
The collective west is reaching Desperation Row – now timed with the astonishing announcement of a Biden-Harris US presidential ticket running again in 2024. This means that the US administration’s neo-con handlers will double down on their plan to unleash an industrial war against both Russia and China by 2025.
The petroyuan cometh
And that brings us back to de-dollarization and what will replace the hegemonic reserve currency of the world. Today, the GCC represents more than 25 percent of global oil exports (Saudi Arabia stands at 17 percent). More than 25 percent of China’s oil imports come from Riyadh. And China, predictably, is the GCC’s top trading partner.
The Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange went into business in March 2018. Any oil producer, from anywhere, can sell in Shanghai in yuan today. This means that the balance of power in the oil markets is already shifting from the US dollar to the yuan.
The catch is that most oil producers prefer not to keep large stashes of yuan; after all, everyone is still used to the petrodollar. Cue to Beijing linking crude futures in Shanghai to converting yuan into gold. And all that without touching China’s massive gold reserves.
This simple process happens via gold exchanges set up in Shanghai and Hong Kong. And not by accident, it lies at the heart of a new currency to bypass the dollar being discussed by the EAEU.
Dumping the dollar already has a mechanism: making full use of the Shanghai Energy Exchange’s future oil contracts in yuan. That’s the preferred path for the end of the petrodollar.
US global power projection is fundamentally based on controlling the global currency. Economic control underlies the Pentagon’s ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ doctrine. Yet now, even military projection is in shambles, with Russia maintaining an unreachable advance on hypersonic missiles and Russia-China-Iran able to deploy an array of carrier-killers.
The Hegemon – clinging to a toxic cocktail of neoliberalism, sanction dementia, and widespread threats – is bleeding from within. De-dollarization is an inevitable response to system collapse. In a Sun Tzu 2.0 environment, it is no wonder the Russia-China strategic partnership exhibits no intention of interrupting the enemy when he is so busy defeating himself.
JR’s role in creating an all powerful President, bringing in a highly defective Constitution in 1978, his introduction of Proportional Representation, the Manape, the National list and Bonus seats, which allowed defeated candidate to sit in Parliament , the Open Economy, the Indo Lanka accord which gave the Trincomalee tank farm to India, made Tamil a national language and created the hated Provincial Councils, have all been discussed heavily in newspapers, in the social media and elsewhere.They are still under angry discussion, but the country has not succeeded in eliminating any of them. They are still in existence.
A post of Ombudsman was created in 1978. Vittachi pounced on this. The Ombudsman could not entertain complaints from the public on his own, observed Vittachi. He could only look at cases referred to him by a parliamentary committee and these could be approached by a member of the public only through an MP. Further the Ombudsman could not inquire into anything done by the President, Minister, deputy ministers, MPs, members of the Public Service Commission or Judicial Services Commission. Also exempt were members of the President’s staff.
MPs received many benefits during JR’s time. MPs received a lifelong pension after five years in Parliament. Public servants have to work for ten years to get a pension, critics observed.
In 1986 media noted that brand new fleets of luxury Mercedes Benz limousines were acquired by government for use of MP and visiting VIPs. This is in Vittachi’s book. The year before, government had ordered 16 Mercedes Benz cars, one was a fully bullet proof one which has been sent to UK for special modifications. One politician, who had got a luxury Benz complained that the cassette player did not work and a new one was sent via DHL within three days as replacement at the cost of Rs. 40,000, recorded Vittachi.
In March 1986 there was a Special Presidential commission to probe complaints of bribery and corruption against MPs. Once the commission had disposed of allegations against two or three minor officials, JR wound it up. It had received 1973 complaints, of which 634 were under investigation at the time. His ministers were safe. No one had seriously expected JR to permit his Mps activities to be probed by the Commission, said Vittachi.
JR wanted to give punitive powers to Parliament. In 1987 Parliament powers and privileges Amendment bill was passed. Parliament was both complainant and judge, observed Vittachi.
JR’s administration had many unsavory aspects and these are remembered even today, specially the way he crushed the 1980 trade union strike. The July 1980 strike was on cost of living and reinstatement of some interdicted workers and a wage increase of Rs 300 per month. Government used emergency regulations and declared all service as essential services and that all strikers be considered to have vacated post. Strike was crushed. 40,000 workers had lost their jobs. Thousand remained sacked. Many committed suicide.
A simple demand of a wage increase to meet the hardships of cost of living was allowed to escalate, without government trying to talk to them at all. Was it a showdown deliberately engineered by government to crush the Trade union movement, asked Vittachi. Many unionists lost their jobs in the 1980 strike. Many committed suicide, others lived for the rest of their lives in utter poverty, said Sarath Amunugama. When he became Minster of Finance, Sarath gave them compensation but many of them were dead by then.
In 1981, JR’s government introduced a highly controversial white paper on education. After introducing pro-market policies in the late 1970s, the UNP sought to liquidate free education, said angry critics. In 1981, it published a White Paper on Education” that proposed school management committees, with parents responsible for seeking funds to run schools. Mass opposition forced the withdrawal of the plan.
The United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike put Rohana Wijeweera in prison. But Wijeweera did not stay there for long. When JR came to power in 1977, he ordered Wijeweera’s release. JR negotiated with JVP and offered them three portfolios. They asked for defense. Then the UNP chairman and Secretary were assassinated by JVP within few weeks of each other, observed Sarath Amunugama.
During JR’s time there were two foreign ministries, said Sarath. One was the formal Ministry. The other was an informal one created around Minster ACS Hameed. This second ‘Ministry’ was staffed by his favorites and relatives. It ran a parallel service making appointment, soliciting funds and scholarships, privately contacting NCOs and entering into all sorts of negotiations where the donors were held to believe that they were negotiating with the formal Foreign Service and not the Minister’s private bureau. 10 Cuban medical scholarship holders were handpicked by Hameed. Ambassadors fell over each other to carry the minister’s suitcase. ( Amunugama p 179)
Lionel Fernando as GA Jaffna was very popular. At the time, the best of Sinhala teachers were attached to Oriental faculty of university of Jaffna, Sucharitha Gamlath, Dharmasena Pathiraja, Sunil Ariyaratne, observed Sarath. JR suddenly transferred Lionel to accommodate Doraiswamy, who angered Jaffna by his haughty ways. ( Continued)
Joe Biden with a dismal approval rating of 37% has announced that he is running for a second term. How can he possibly win? By again stealing the election.
Democrats control the large cities in swing states. In the past two elections, they have proven that they can easily steal the election. It is now impermissible to even report evidence of election theft. Experts who provided evidence were threatened with prosecution, and Fox News management rushed to pay more than three-quarters of a billion dollars of shareholders’ money in order to create the precedent that reporting evidence of stolen elections constitutes defamation. As Democrats control election procedures and vote counting in large cities, they, and not the voters, determine election outcomes. The last two American national elections prove the truth of Stalin’s dictum: It matters not how people vote; it matters who counts the votes.
The All-America Economic Survey found that 70% of Americans disfavor a Biden second term. This indicates that a large percentage of Democrats themselves do not want Biden. In America today, elections are nothing more than a veil behind which the elite rule.
The Democrats have a good candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But RFK opposes Big Pharma’s control of US medicine and the agencies–FDA, NIH, CDC–that serve as Big Pharma’s protectors and marketing agents, and he opposes other aspects of the oligarchic system protected by official narratives upheld by the media. RFK will not be permitted to be president.
Republican Trump has by far the largest number of voters, but the Democrats have weaponized law in an effort to stop him from running. Other possible and strong Republican candidates–Ron DeSantis and Tucker Carlson–are unacceptable to the ruling elite and to the Republican establishment. If DeSantis makes himself acceptable to the establishment, he will lose his luster with voters.
The long-term ongoing collapse of US education has produced a population many of whom are comfortable with censoring and suppressing information that they are programmed to regard as offensive” or misinformation.” These two categories of unwelcome information refer to truths that are inconvenient for the elite and their official narratives. The regard of truth as hurtful has gained a foothold and exercises peer pressure on parts of the population, which makes it difficult for the people to act in their own interest.
Essentially, democracy has ceased to exist in the US. Increasingly, elected” representatives are appointees of the ruling elite, who control the selection of candidates by their allocations of campaign funds. Trump was the last elected President (twice). It is unlikely the ruling elite will allow Trump to again enter the White House.
When facts can’t matter, there is no science. Remember how easy it was for a crank to destroy Soviet genetics. Already in the US we have reached the point where mathematics is said to be a tool of white supremacy. Americans might think this is laughable, but the Soviet geneticists who were executed and imprisoned didn’t find it laughable.
In America today there is no remaining foundation for democracy. The media has been captured and turned into a propaganda ministry for the ruling elites. Truth is discredited as hurtful, offensive, and a danger to national security–remember Julian Assange has been in effect incarcerated for a decade without due process of law simply because he reported leaked facts inconvenient for the US government. Tucker Carlson has just been fired from Fox News for telling truths inconvenient for the ruling elite.
Formerly, the Democrats represented the working class, and Republicans represented the business class. Today both parties represent the ruling oligarchy. No party represents the people.
JR made a huge change to Sri Lanka‘s economy by ‘liberalizing’ the economy. That was in 1977, but JR’s economic policy is remembered today as well, with deep feeling. His policy is blamed for the current economic collapse and JR is criticized all over again.
Sri Lanka had liberalized too soon, said critics. Sri Lanka had opened its economy in 1977, while all other South Asian countries commenced opening their economies only after 1990, said economist Srimal Abeyratne. Sri Lanka was the first in south Asia to openly embrace neoliberalism, added others. India started implementing neo liberal reforms only in the 1990 and at a much slower pace.
JR is remembered with deep feeling as the person who brought in the ‘Open Economy’. Critics observed that the ‘Open economy’ did not help to improve Sri Lanka’s economy. It made it worse. Welfare gains were reversed. Food subsidies were trimmed and transport subsidies eliminated. The protections that had been in place for small scale businesses were removed. The existing small businesses were closed down but no new industries were started. This meant that existing jobs were destroyed without creating new jobs.
The emphasis was on imports. The private sector was encouraged to import and market almost anything from a pin to a Rolls Royce said critics. Smuggled goods flooded the consumer market with low priced imported goods. Local goods could not compete with these goods, their cost of production was too high. Out went the handlooms and the power looms and instead fabric was imported. CWE shops were disbanded, commented Garvin Karunaratne.
Perfectly acceptable local products such as the Wadsco clock and Menik spaghetti disappeared. Satisfactory local products were replaced by inferior foreign products. To give two homely examples, the imported plastic curtain tape was far inferior to the locally produced cotton item I had used for years. For decades we had used a locally produced file tag for our files. This was replaced by a complicated imported plastic tag with three separate components. These continue to be used in offices today. The local tag has disappeared.
Food and agriculture were affected by JR’s policy. The Paddy Marketing Board was abolished. The government scrapped the Guaranteed Price Scheme for rice and the farmers had to sell their goods to traders at low prices. Rice mills and paddy stores became neglected to pave the way to import rice. I could not believe the way the Ambalantota Rice mill had been vandalized. It had been my home for one full year, lamented Garvin Karunaratne.
A vegetable and fruit purchasing scheme and a canning factory were set up in the Marketing Department and were functioning well. Under JR the Marketing Dept was abolished because it interfered with the private traders. The canning factory was privatized. Instead of buying fruit from local producers they now imports fruits and produce jam, continued Karunaratne.
The CWE and the Marketing Department which purchased vegetable, fruits at fair prices from producer and sold the goods at cheap rate to city consumer, the canning factory which enabled us to be sufficient in jam and fruit juice, and the rice mills were enterprises which Sri Lanka had built up over three decades. They were all blown to bits by the JR Jayawardena government at the behest of the IMF, said Garvin Karunaratne.
This policy of importing food stuff continued long after JR. In 2019, a newspaper editorial said that even kurakkan is imported today. Cheap imports have taken their toll on the local food production. There have been instances where rice was imported shortly before the commencement of the harvesting season, here, so as to bring down the prices of rice and, thereby, enable big-time millers to purchase paddy at extremely low prices and hoard it. This kind of exploitation has caused many farmers to give up paddy cultivation, unable to recover even the cost of production, concluded the editorial.
Privatization was introduced by JR. The first to be privatized was United Motors. They were selling Mitsubishi vehicles and the Japanese were prepared to pay a big price and buy the firm, but JR said no. They were finally given 5% of the shares. This trend to privatize continued thereafter. Bogala mines, when it was in private hands it was doing so well .Then the government took it and after that it was sold to the Germans, said Karunasena Kodituwakku. Assets like Insurance Corporation and Distilleries Corporation that brought in money to the government were singled out and privatized for a song.
Petroleum Corporation’s Sapugaskanda refinery worked well throughout the 1970-77 period, despite difficulties. A new urea plant was built next door by the State Fertilizer Manufacturing Corporation, to produce urea for fertilizer for domestic agriculture, using naphtha, a byproduct from the refinery. After JR took over in 1977, the government decided to export the naphtha. It shut down the new fertilizer factory and handed it over to a private business for producing nails.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) brought in by JR did not benefit Sri Lanka. The benefits went to the foreign company. The best example of this is Prima, the first recorded FDI signed by the JR government. JR gave Prima a lucrative deal in Sri Lanka.
Prima had started as flour mill in Singapore in 1961 and rose to be a world flour milling company. Prima wanted to expand and had decided on Sri Lanka, with Maharajas as the local negotiating partner. The preliminary discussions were in Singapore between Cheng Tsang Man, founder of Prima and a representative of Maharajas.
Sri Lanka was purchasing 400,000 tonnes of wheat mainly from France. Cheng proposed setting up a state of the art flour mill in Sri Lanka, with foreign investment of more than USD 50 million. For every 100 metric tonnes of wheat the government supplied, Prime would give 76 metric tonnes of wheat flour, keeping the 24 metric tonnes of bran. There would be no payment from Sri Lanka. In 20 years the mill would be handed over to Sri Lanka. It sounded good but actually, Prima was benefitting, Sri Lanka was losing. Prima was getting the valuable part of the wheat, the bran. Sri Lanka was getting the left over flour.
Negotiations began with JR’s government .Prima were hardnosed business men, who knew to strike a deal. After an interminable amount of time, there was agreement on both sides. Prima got unprecedented tax concessionsand government allocated land for the project in Trincomalee.
Prima was quick off the ground. Prima had earlier identified the perfect location to build the Prima facility, at China bay, Trincomalee through an aerial survey of the Trincomalee harbor. Mitsui Japan was nominated for the construction of the flour mill. This was Mitsui’s maiden foray into Sri Lanka. Prima brought in the best expertise and world’s best equipment from Germany for the mill.
Construction was completed in 1980, and flour milling by Prima Ceylon started in China Bay. The collaboration was so close between government and Prima Company that the foundation laying ceremony was held at the Government Agent’s residence, recalled Jayatissa Bandaragoda, then GA Trincomalee .
The Prima project was presented to the public, as though it was a public investment project, which it was not. JR used this mill as a trump card in his election campaign. He would craftily say on the election platform’ I am giving you eight kilograms of grain’, but never said that the public was paying for it, observed Sumi Moonesinghe.
When the time came for the plant to revert to Sri Lanka, 20 years later, President Chandrika Kumaratunga sold the mill back to Prima. If it had been placed on the open market it would have sold for much more, said Sumi Moonesighe.
In 2019 Prima happily celebrated 40 years’ uninterrupted operations in Sri Lanka. Prima said it is getting on splendidly. It was operating one of the largest integrated flour-milling complexes in the world . The silos store 350,000 MT of flour with the harbor having the capacity to berth vessels with a 100,000 MT capacity. Prima exports 45 different flour varieties. Wheat is imported from the US, Canada, and Australia. Exports are mainly to South East Asia, India, the Middle East, and other Asian destinations which include Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. ( Continued)
A recent book by a parliamentarian equates the events of Aragalaya (2022) in Sri Lanka to Euromaidan uprising (2013) of Ukraine. However, the two are vastly different; in fact, opposed to each other. Most of these claims are unsubstantiated and only based on either hearsay or guesses. Understanding key differences between Euromaidan and Aragalaya is important.
On the surface both were aimed at removing their respective elected presidents and both relied heavily on social media. As with every trouble spot around the world, Americans were seen around both. However, similarities end there.
One major difference between Euromaidan and Aragalaya is that the former was driven by Urkainian ethno-nationalism while the latter (Aragalaya) shunned nationalism. Euromaidan was not supported by Ukraine’s minorities and in fact hurt their businesses, connections and even security. Ethnic Russians in Ukraine were severely affected by the Euromaidan Uprising. On the contrary, Aragalaya had the support of all minorities including Christians. Instead of alienating minorities, Aragalaya created unity with minorities. Following Euromaidan, all minorities in Ukraine felt unsafe and a civil war started targeting them which escalated into a full-scale war in 2022. However, Aragalaya on the other hand strengthened reconciliation between ethnic groups both during its activities and even after its conclusion. The deposed Ukrainian president won his mandate from Ukrainians of all ethnicities but the deposed Sri Lankan president only won his mandate from the majority community. Over 90% of Ukraine’s minorities voted for Yanukovych but over 90% of minorities rejected the deposed Sri Lankan president. Events after each uprising were significantly shaped by this difference.
Although Euromaidan changed the policies of Ukraine’s government, Aragalaya didn’t. Even after Aragalaya, the same policies are carried out by the Sri Lankan regime. Real power still remains with the same people in Sri Lanka.
Euromaidan Uprising had political leadership from the formal opposition of the nation despite being jailed. However, Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya had no such political leadership. Individuals with no political party membership at that time led it collectively. Some of them have since been lured into various political parties but they were not party members at the time of Aragalaya.
After Euromaidan, the then Ukrainian president fled to Russia where he lives. However, the Sri Lankan president returned to Sri Lanka where he and his wife live.
The then Ukrainian president ordered its military to attack civilians who participated in Euromaidan but the Sri Lankan president did not. In fact, the Sri Lankan president himself designated Galle Face as a protest site, provided sanitation facilities to participants, police assistance to ensure the safe passage of vehicles and the general safety of participants, water facilities and even allowed them to occupy high security zones for months. The then Ukrainian president had Russia in mind for his retirement whereas the Sri Lankan president had USA in his mind for his retirement. Aragalaya replaced Sri Lanka’s US citizen First Lady and US citizen economic affairs minister with local citizens.
The Ukrainian president was accused of major corruption during his term as president but the Sri Lankan president did not have serious accusations of corruption against him during his term as president.
Another key difference is the fate of participants. All participants of Euromaidan were released from court cases and criminal liability but hundreds of participants of Aragalaya face court action, are remanded and some are convicted.
Ukraine had a thriving economy when Euromaidan was launched, however, Sri Lanka had a shrinking economy for the third consecutive year when Aragalaya was launched. In fact, Sri Lanka declared loan creditors’ bankruptcy with a week of the official commencement of Aragalaya in April 2022. Ukraine then had adequate supply of electricity, gas, fuel and fertilizer when Euromaidan was launched. In fact, Ukraine was a net exporter of all these then! On the other hand, Sri Lanka suffered severe fuel, gas, electricity and fertilizer shortages when Aragalaya was launched. Fuel queues stretched up to 10 kilometres, gas queues lasted for five days and electricity was supplied for only 14 hours a day. Farmers had to forgo fertilizer for over a year.
Ukraine maintained a single-digit inflation rate when Euromaidan was launched. Sri Lanka had double-digit inflation which was the fourth worst in the world when Aragalaya was launched.
Euromaidan was opposed by Russia but Aragalaya was not. In fact, Russia extended trade with Sri Lanka even more after Aragalaya in terms of fertilizer, tourism and tea and also extended a very generous fuel offer which Sri Lanka rejected. Sri Lankan authorities detained a Russian passenger plane before Aragalaya but following the change, none of it was even contemplated.
Ukraine’s relations with China suffered heavily following Euromaidan but Sri Lanka’s relations with China improved following the change brought by Aragalaya.
During a discussion on the 178th Anniversary of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) at the Mahaweli Centre on Thursday (April 27), President Ranil Wickremesinghe shared his intentions to establish the Institute of History, with the aim of bringing together the museum, archives, archaeology, cultural triangle, and universities with the RASSL as the focal point.
The President emphasized that this institute should not be in competition with RASSL or any other institute. Rather, it should work collaboratively with these institutions to enrich the process.
Once the final draft of the Institute of History is ready, it will be discussed with the relevant parties such as the universities, Archaeology, and RASSL.
Additionally, President Wickremesinghe stressed the importance of protecting libraries and the need to collect various collections from museums, archives, and universities, including unpublished theses. He also highlighted the importance of funding projects and urged officials to prioritize them.
Regarding historical programs, the President emphasized the need to resolve funding issues related to the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, seeking assistance from the legal draftsman to finalize a copy, followed by the establishment of a committee to carry out the functions and appoint members.
He is hopeful that these efforts will give a better impetus to the study of history in the country, as many people do not study history.
The Head of State further assured monetary assistance to establish air conditioning units to preserve library books and urged the organization of conferences that were postponed due to COVID.
During his visit to the RASSL Library, the President inspected the facility and took an official photograph with council members, as well as signed the Visitors Book.
During a discussion held at the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL), the President of the RASSL, Dr. Malini Dias presented the 175th anniversary medal, two scholarly books, and a letter to President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Additionally, Dr. Bohingamuwa and Ms. Hasula Wickramasinghe presented RASSL journals, while Dr. Chandana Jayawardhena handed over Science and Technological volumes to the President. Past President of the RASSL, Archt. Ashley De Vos and other RASSL Council members were also in attendance.
The notorious criminal figure, Sinharage Saminda Silva alias ‘Ratmalane Kudu Anju’ has been arrested in France, Sri Lanka Police confirmed today.
‘Kudu Anju’ had been wanted for his involvement in multiple crimes including the murder of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council member Ranjan de Silva, as well as large-scale drug trafficking. The suspect had operated his drug syndicate while in hiding abroad.
The Interpol too had issued a Red Notice for the arrest of ‘Kudu Anju’.
The INTERPOL informed the arrest of ‘Kudu Anju’ of the Sri Lankan authorities, police spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa said.
He was taken into custody by the French law enforcement authorities following a complaint filed by his wife over a personal dispute between the duo.
The Sri Lanka Country Engagement Plan was launched on Friday (April 28) as a joint initiative of the Inland Revenue Department, the Fiscal Policy Department, the Finance Ministry and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Sri Lanka.
The engagement plan aims to better align taxation policies with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.
The SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. But it requires fundamental changes to the way the economy and fiscal policies are organized.
In order to offset challenging market conditions faced by developing countries and accelerate progress towards the SDGs, the recently launched SDG Stimulus Plan of the UN Secretary-General had called for a fit-for-purpose sustainable financing approach.
Therefore, stable and reliable state revenues are crucial for financing the SDGs.
Hence, the Inland Revenue Department, the Fiscal Policy Department, the Finance Ministry and the UNDP in Sri Lanka came together to better align taxation policies with the achievement of the SDGs in the country.
Joining 25 countries globally – notably the Maldives and Bhutan in the Asia Pacific region – the Sri Lanka Country Engagement Plan will provide the roadmap for the demand-driven activities envisaged for the country.
Funded by the governments of Finland and Norway, this initiative will be implemented for two years and anchored at the Inland Revenue Department and the Fiscal Policy Department.
Gracing the occasion, State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe stated, The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes that revenue generation stands at the core of financing public development and is integral to achieving the SDGs. Tax systems play a major role in mobilizing domestic resources which form the bedrock of both development and climate finance.
This initiative does not implement new taxes to achieve the SDGs, but rather propose how existing public finance policies and principles can be better aligned and efficiently managed to make progress towards the SDGs.”
Commenting on the importance of aligning fiscal policies towards the achievement of SDGs, R.M.P. Rathnayake, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury stated, the Government of Sri Lanka – through this initiative – hopes to enhance domestic resource mobilization and foster a stronger connection between development financing and revenue generation by designing a sustainable progressive tax system for the realization of the SDGs. Notably, this initiative will explore better alignment of fiscal policies and frameworks with the SDGs, develop capacities to improve tax administration, and help incorporate Sri Lanka’s perspective and needs in global and regional discussions on reforms”.
Forging wide-ranging partnerships, the Initiative will roll out an SDG Taxation Framework, raise awareness on alignment of public finance to achieve the SDGs and implement an OECD-UNDP Tax Inspectors without Borders Programme (TIWB) which will provide hands-on ‘learning by doing assistance’.
Further, the Initiative aims to explore digitalization solutions to improve tax filing, processing and collection efficiency, support Sri Lanka’s climate and gender considerations in fiscal policies, and support treaty negotiations in partnership with the South Centre, Switzerland.
Articulating the need to address the gap between public finance and the SDGs, UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Azusa Kubota stated, At the time of polycrisis characterized by the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy shortage and the rising cost of living, the global community is confronted with a fast-growing fiscal gap. At the same time, we are seeing regression in the SDGs – none of the countries in the region are likely to reach SDGs by 2030. This situation calls for a more efficient generation of income and targeted and responsible use of resources for investments in areas that directly contribute to the SDG attainment. UNDP is committed to working with the Government of Sri Lanka and a wide range of stakeholders in the roll out of this Initiative to help the country mobilize its resources at scale and achieve the SDGs”.
Dr. Priyanka (Pri) Bandara Medical Researcher/Educator
Asking the question, Do we really want to live in a society where everything about us is tracked and traced?,” Dr. Pri poses real, relevant concerns. Dr. Pri, Dr. Carpenter and Jennifer Manzier are today’s three ‘Good Morning CHD’ guests, divulging the science and personal impacts of the an invisible smog” we are bathed in.” Watch to find out what implications this form of pollution poses on our health.
A friend joked recently that there was a time when friends and relatives would ask ‘aren’t you thinking about being married?’ but now they ask ‘haven’t you thought about migrating?’ Clearly times have changed from relatively bearable to hard and worse. Understandable too.
If things are unbearable, there are two options. One, do your best to make things bearable. If this cannot be done alone, then seek like-minded people, network, build a community, turn idea into ideology. Fight. That’s if ‘this place,’ however you define it, is considered to be of value.
That’s not easy when one’s mind has been and is constantly bombarded with negativity about the country, the culture and history even as it is injected with all kinds of fairy stories about some other place.
So there’s the second option: leaving. Decide to leave and you can support the decision with countless arguments. In other words, once you’ve convinced yourself about a decision or a course of action, it’s easy to convince the world, especially because even if the world objects, you’ve justified things to yourself.
Nothing wrong with this.
Recently I met a school friend, Esala Hettiwatte. He spoke about these matters.
‘I have told my children, go wherever you want to go, but remember that there’s no land like this.’
Now someone could argue that it’s a place-bias born of long years of residence. ‘There’s no place like home,’ after all it is not a country-specific assertion.
I get him though. When people ask me why I returned to Sri Lanka (and many have, over the years), I’ve told them, ‘there are two reasons: first, I am a beneficiary of free education and that’s a debt I cannot every hope to repay in full, and secondly I can’t think of a country more beautiful or a people more enchanting than this.’
It’s not just free education though. Just think. The vast majority of Sri Lankans benefit from free education and free health services including complicated surgeries which would cost a fortune if done in a private hospital. They benefit from all kinds of subsidies. Much of it can be calculated but we don’t add it up to overall income. Someone paid for someone’s education. That beneficiary is not asked to repay that someone. Indeed most beneficiaries aren’t even conscious that these can be seen as debts and that the civilised thing to do is to repay in one form or another.
So, being ignorant or feigning ignorance allows us to absolve ourselves from any guilt. Indeed, no one will say ‘hey dude, pay your debts before you leave!’ I am not saying that either, don’t worry. One doesn’t have to be resident in a village, a community, a household or country to serve the relevant place or people. And there’s no deadline either. If you do feel obliged to repay, you can do it as you wish, when you wish.
Esala was not talking of any of these things. He feels blessed to have been born here. He feels blessed to live here, despite all the deprivations. I feel the same way.
The beauty needs no description. All you need to have done to love this country is to have traveled. It’s a small island. Easy to cover, so to speak. Easy to discover and rediscover. It’s more than that.
There was a sitcom that was very popular in the USA a few decades ago titled ‘Cheers’. The theme song had a line that was almost an ad: ‘where everybody knows your name.’ Familiarity. That’s what was special and was being marketed.
In Sri Lanka, any conversation of any length has the potential of producing life-long friendships. Talk to a stranger for a few minutes and you’ll probably find that the person is related or knows someone you know or there are places both have been to or things both are fascinated by.
Maybe it is the size of the country. Maybe it is the culture. Maybe it is just Esala. Maybe just Esala and myself. But maybe there’s some truth in the Victor Ratnayake song, ‘Okkoma rajavaru (all kings)’ where he claims, ‘we are all fathers, we are all mothers, we of the Thun Sinhale are all related.’
Yes, people have issues with ‘Sinhale’ thanks to those extremists who have misread the name and are convinced that it confers exclusive ownership to a particular group identifying itself with a particular language and thanks to those who have different fixations about self and community. Sinhale, though, is a composite of the Yaksha, Naga, Deva and Raksha, the four hela communities. And ‘Thun Sinhale’ refers to the island’s geography separated into the three provinces Ruhunu, Maya and Pihiti.
That’s an aside.
We are all related. A nation of relatives. We will be there for each other, even those we dislike or consider to be enemies, in moments of triumph and moments of tragedy: we are present at the magula (celebration) and the maranaya (death).
We can never leave. We can never completely pay off the debts we owe. True for me. True for Esala too, probably. But more than that, this country is way too beautiful to leave. Some loves are like that.
[‘The Morning Inspection’ is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is a new series. Links to previous articles in this new series are given below]
(Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s inflation eased in April amid a higher borrowing rate and a stronger local currency that helped reduce import costs.
Consumer price index in Colombo rose 35.3% from a year ago, the Statistics Department said in a statement Friday. That compares with a 50.3% rise in March based on a revised index, and Bloomberg’s survey estimate of a 37.8% gain.
The latest reading suggests the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s efforts to reach single-digit inflation by the end of this year is bearing some fruit. The monetary authority earlier this month held its benchmark rate at a two-decade high to keep Asia’s fastest inflation in check and support economic recovery after the nation secured a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
Read More: ADB Eyes Cheaper Funds for Sri Lanka, Green Bond Support
The IMF loan is unlocking more funding for the South Asian nation which faced its worst economic crisis since independence with a default in sovereign bonds as well as shortages in dollars and essential items. Improving investor sentiment after the funding has supported the local currency, helping the nation boost imports of food and fuel.
Food prices rose 30.6% in April from a year ago, slower than 47.6% in March, while transport inflation was up 32.3%, significantly lower than 72.7% in the previous month, reflecting impact of cut in fuel prices.
The Sri Lankan rupee has strengthened from its record low in May to emerge as the world’s best-performing currency this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tourism is also helping fuel the recovery.
There are some roadblocks though, particularly with Sri Lanka’s push to expedite a debt restructuring plan that would be crucial to unlock funds under the IMF program.
In the latest setback, the government has pushed back the release of its debt overhaul plan to the middle of May. It is seeking to avoid talks that include pre-conditions amid demands from its foreign bondholders and reluctance from some local banks to participate in the restructuring, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Wednesday.
–With assistance from Tomoko Sato and Ronojoy Mazumdar.
Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda yesterday (27) said that he had not applied for a visa to visit the US and was not planning to do so. He said so when The Island sought his response to him being designated by the US State Department.
The action is the first since the US designation of the then Commander of the Army General Shavendra Silva in Feb 2020.
Sri Lanka’s most successful Navy Commander said that his designation over 12 years after the eradication of the LTTE had come as a shock because the US provided the much-required intelligence to hunt down some of the LTTE’s floating arsenals.
In fact, I haven’t visited the US since 2007,” Karannagoda said. The US owed an explanation as one time US Ambassador in Colombo Robert O Blake, who was instrumental in providing US intelligence in 2015––six years after the conclusion of the war––didn’t have any hesitation in solidly standing by the Navy.
Blake, who served as US Ambassador in Jakarta in 2015, is on record as having said that he facilitated help for two reasons, namely the Navy hadn’t been responsible for gross human rights violations and it was their interest to thwart weapons transfers to any terrorist group.
Referring to the US State Department announcement on the latest designation, the former Navy Chief said that it was difficult to believe a senior retired officer or any person for that matter could be designated simply on the basis of ‘a gross human rights violation documented by NGOs and independent investigations is absurd’.
The Admiral of the Fleet responded to the US statement as the Foreign Ministry declared that such unilateral action by the US without following due process is counter-productive to the holistic approach that Sri Lanka has taken on addressing national unity and reconciliation.
In January, this year, Canada imposed sanctions on former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi over gross and systematic violations of human rights” during armed conflict. In all these instances Sri Lanka hasn’t done anything other than regretting such actions.
Regretting the US decision to target Karannagida, the Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, PC, expressed grave concerns to US Ambassador Julie Chung.
The FM stated: As a longstanding bilateral partner of Sri Lanka, such unilateral action by the U.S. without following due process is counter-productive to the holistic approach that Sri Lanka has taken on addressing national unity and reconciliation. It is also unfortunate that the announcement emanates against the backdrop of tangible progress made by the Government in strengthening the country’s democratic governance and reconciliation structures.
Despite these challenges, Sri Lanka will continue in its ongoing efforts to achieve reconciliation, economic recovery and socio-economic development.”
The US State Department has announced Karannagoda has been designated in terms of Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, due to his involvement in a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as a Naval Commander. As a result of today’s action, Karannagoda and his wife, Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda, are ineligible for entry into the United States,” the State Department declared on April 26.
The allegation that Wasantha Karannagoda committed a gross human rights violation, documented by NGOs and independent investigations, is serious and credible. By designating Wasantha Karannagoda, the United States reaffirms its commitment to upholding human rights, ending impunity for human rights violators, acknowledging the suffering of victims and survivors, and promoting accountability for perpetrators in Sri Lanka.
The bilateral relationship between the United States and the Government of Sri Lanka is based on 75 years of shared history, values, and a commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. As we continue to build our bilateral relationship, we are committed to working with the Sri Lankan government on advancing justice, accountability, and reconciliation, including promoting security reform that maintains human rights at the forefront while ensuring Sri Lanka has the resources and training to properly address emerging security concerns”, the State Department said.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today named former Parliamentarian J. Sri Ranga as a suspect regarding the investigations over the incident of setting fire to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence in Colombo.
Accordingly, Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage issued an order directing the Prison Authorities to produce J. Sri Ranga before Court on May 3.
Former MP J. Sri Ranga is currently in remand custody for allegedly influencing the witnesses of a fatal traffic accident in Vavuniya in 2011.
A group of protesters had torched President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence on July 9, last year causing extensive damages to the property.(Lakmal Sooriyagoda)
While expressing surprise on the US decision to blacklist him and his family from entering US, North Western Province Governor Wasantha Karannagoda yesterday said that there is ‘something else’ behind the move.
I have some doubts about the move and believed that there is something else behind this,” the former Navy Commander Karannagoda said adding that, It was a surprise to me that 14 years after the war, suddenly the US has taken a decision to blacklist me.”
He also said he believed that a former military official and the US ambassador are behind the move.
The former Commander also accused the State Department for refereeing information that were documented by NGOs and other investigations to impose the ban on him. It is a shame for the State Department to refer some NGOs reports to designate me,” he said.
The Resolution for the Implementation of the Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Sri Lanka was passed in the parliament today (April 28) with majority votes.
Members of Parliament voted for the resolution on the implementation of the IMF-supported program following a three-day debate from April 26 – 28.
A total of 120 MPs voted in favour of the Resolution while 25 voted against it. Thereby, the resolution was passed by 95 majority votes.
The main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka Freedom Party did not back the resolution.
President Wickremesinghe had previously noted that the key points of the IMF agreement would be enacted into law, once the resolution on the implementation of the EFF program is passed in the parliament.
On March 20, 2023, the Executive Board of the IMF green-lighted a 48-month extended arrangement under the EFF program of SDR 2.286 billion (approximately USD 3 billion) for Sri Lanka.
The EFF program opens doors for Sri Lanka to access financing up to USD 7 billion from the IMF, international financial institutions and multilateral organizations.
The program is expected to provide much-needed policy space to drive the economy out of the unprecedented challenges and instill confidence amongst all the stakeholders.
Soon after receiving the IMF’s board approval, Sri Lanka received an initial disbursement of USD 333 million (amounting to SDR 254 million) from the EFF arrangement, which is expected to catalyze new external financing including from the ADB and the World Bank.
Sri Lanka reached a Staff-Level Agreement with the IMF on a four-year program supported by the Extended Fund Facility on September 01, 2022.
The government is currently negotiating debt restructuring with bondholders and creditors before the IMF reviews the agreement in September.
Earlier this month, Japan, India and France launched a common platform for talks among bilateral creditors to coordinate restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt.
The three creditor countries have been working closely for a coordinated debt restructuring process for the island nation.
China, Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, did not join the initiative at the outset, however, on several occasions, reiterated support for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process. The Asian economic giant says it has been in close communication with the island nation and supports Chinese financial institutions in actively discussing debt treatment arrangements with Sri Lanka.
A statue of Buddha has been discovered in Egypt’s ancient seaport of Berenice on the Red Sea, shedding light on trade ties with India under the Roman empire.
A Polish-US mission discovered the statue dating back to the Roman era while digging at the ancient temple in Berenice”, an antiquities ministry statement said on Wednesday.
The find has important indications over the presence of trade ties between Egypt and India during the Roman era”, the head of Egypt’s supreme antiquities council Mostafa al-Waziri said.
The statue, with part of its right side and its right leg missing, measures 71 centimetres (28 inches) in height and portrays Buddha with a halo around his head and a lotus flower by his side.
Waziri said Berenice was one of the largest seaports in Roman-era Egypt, and was often the destination for ships from India laden with spices, semi-precious stones, textiles and ivory.
Egypt has unveiled many major archaeological discoveries in recent years, amid attempts to revive its vital tourism industry after years of political unrest and the Covid pandemic.
However, critics say the flurry of excavations has prioritised finds that grab media attention over hard academic research.
The crown jewel in the government’s plans is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza.
The government plans to attract 30 million tourists a year by 2028, up from 13 million before the pandemic.
Over the last 24 years, Easter Sunday has been celebrated on various days, from the 23rd of March to the 5th of May. It is then a movable holiday or, if one wants to be overly technical about it, a movable holy-day given that the word derives from the Old English hāligdæg (hālig ‘holy’ + dæg ‘day’). Not all holidays have anything to do with divinity or religious purpose, but Easter certainly is. In Sri Lanka, however, while the ‘true’ Easter, if you will, is movable, there’s also a political Easter that is not only static but has in fact taken on greater significance. That’s the Easter Sunday of the attacks on several churches executed by…hold you breath…a since hardly-mentioned organisation led by a since-hardly-mentioned man.
April 21, 2019. The audacity of the attacks, the magnitude of the damage caused and the enormity of the tragedy certainly makes casual passover impossible, even though the politics that followed is as unholy as it can get.
So, first of all, a moment of silence.
A moment of silent in memory of those who lost their lives, were injured or who lost loved ones. A moment of silence for members of the clergy (let’s leave the relevant faith and denomination out) who called out for justice quite out of character to the ‘turn the other cheek’ recommendation.
A moment of silence for the perpetrators, the architects of the attack and those who executed them, their backers, apologists and others who through various means ensured that the name of a particular organisation and the names of particular perpetrators of a particular religious persuasion were systematically removed from the discourse on terrorism, truth, justice and retribution.
A moment of silence for whoever first touted the idea of a ‘mahamolakaru’ and all those who turned it into a refrain when talking about the tragedy, tossing around insinuations, tossed out the dictum ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and proceeded to judge, condemn and execute…no, not the perpetrators, but some who were at worst enables on account of incompetence and negligence.
A moment of silence for the over 700 persons arrested in relation to these crimes, the over 300 enlarged on bail and the over 40 persons on whom 11 indictments have been served.
A moment of silence for those who believe justice was done the day stiff fines were imposed on some people whose ‘crime’ was, as mentioned, of the omission kind; the ‘some people,’ coincidentally or otherwise, belonging to a particular community which has been considered ‘The Enemy’ by spokespersons for both the accusing religious community and the religious community which the perpetrators belong to, now and in the long centuries that have passed.
A moment of silence for those whose fixations, ideological and political persuasions and shameless designs to use the Easter Sunday attacks to exact revenge on people they hated for reasons that had nothing to do with the tragedy pushed them to make a mockery of justice, truth and due process.
A moment of silence for selective amnesia. A moment of silence for selective and pernicious targeting. A moment of silence for ignoring the truth and in the process affecting a lovely pass for the religious fundamentalism that was the bedrock on which the attacks were planned and executed.
Those who carried out the attack were of a particular faith. Let’s not name it because that would be unholy. They prayed to an entity they considered divine before embarking on their murderous mission. Indeed they may have uttered the name of this entity at detonation-point by way of consoling themselves that the appreciative omnipotent would arrange a heavenly afterlife for them.
But no, terrorists have no religion. At least that’s the weak and laughable dismissal offered by those who were trigger-happy to attribute to an entire community numbering over ten million the crimes of a handful who happened to belong to that community because of given name, yes, not even close to, say, religious affiliation reverentially obtained and affirmed as was the case of the Easter Sunday terrorists.
Let’s forget all of the above, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s join hands with the vile, revengeful, pernicious, lying and myopic. Let’s form a human chain from Peduru Thuduwa through Colombo, Devundara Thuduwa, Madakalapuwa and back to Peduru Thuduwa.
Let us, in this hand-holding way, express unity in calling upon leaders to render justice to victims and remain conspicuously silent about the names and convictions of those who caused so much grief on that immovable and immutable Easter Sunday in the year 2019 and made us forget THAT resurrection and embraced the resurrection and re-resurrection of deceit and crass politicking in the name of justice and truth.
And let us celebrate the fact that thanks to these devious machinations, we’ve unshackled ourselves from the tyrannies of the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Let us retire prayer. Let us feast to our hearts’ content. Tongue-in-cheek of course.
There were several other rigged elections in JR’s time. The Referendum was not the only one. JR had intervened in the Jaffna District Development Councils elections held on June 4, 1981. This was the first election to take place under Proportional Representation. Officials selected by the Commissioner of Elections were replaced by nominees of the ruling party just before the poll. For the first time in the history of the country, the conduct of an election was wrested from the election authority and exercised by a political party, said Vittachi.
Vittachi also quoted S. Nadesan who said, on the day before the election, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, on the order of the President had given instructions to the Returning Officer. 150 presiding officers at polling booths were removed and others substituted. Some were peons in government departments. They knew nothing of election procedure. When it came to counting, 6 ballot boxes were missing.
Elections to the Jaffna DDC in 1981 were rigged, agreed Ranga Chandraratne. There were last minute instructions from Colombo to change the presiding officers at the polling booths. There was widespread booth capture and the stuffing of ballot boxes, he concluded.
UNP used the same tactics at the Mulkirigala by-election in 1985. There was thuggery and intimidation. But voters reacted. They turned up in gangs with some carrying guns. UNP got 26,000 and SLFP got 24,000 votes at the election, reported Vittachi.
JR meddled with election laws. Neville Fernando UNP MP for Panadura was expelled from the party in 1982. Instead of a by election, government filled the seat with a new nominee. There was no protest, reported Vittachi.
The Kalawana seat fell vacant due to the non attendance of UNP MP Pilapitiya, but Pilapitiya continued to sit in Parliament. To accommodate Pilapitiya, Parliament passed a law making Kalawana a two member seat. This was passed with two thirds of the votes. Kalawana became temporarily a multi member seat. At the election, Sarath Muttetuwegama was elected. However, Pilapitiya resigned and the matter ended, observed Vittachi.
JR had also wanted to alter the election laws. He wanted to shorten the period of time for nominations, manipulate the time allotted to media for election promotion, allow for a period time after elections for winning candidates to switch parties and allow political parties to nominate whom they liked to the winning seats, after the election was over. JR also wanted to change the defamatory laws. He wanted a law allowing the President to dissolve Parliament at his sole discretion at any time. There was a howl of protest over these suggestions, said Vittachi.
JR Jayewardene was the first head of state to engage in violence. This has not been sufficiently emphasized. JR had once been garlanded with flowers which had red ants hidden in it. JR endured the bites and when the meeting was over he had the guy who introduced the ants thrashed, said Sarath Amunugama.
Political violence became institutionalized after 1977, observed Nira Wickremasighe. This was the start of an era of political thuggery, often perpetrated by member of the JSS union affiliated to the UNP. Parliamentary MPs also engaged in Intimidation and violence, added Nira.
One highly disconcerting fact about JR’s administration was its condoning of violence, said Sarath Amunugama. When his plans met with organized resistance JR had no hesitation in bringing in thuggish trade unions for the purpose of attacking the protestors. Until then the state had not encouraged this. Even Leftist parties like LSSP and Communist Party did not encourage its workers to attack others. But JR did, observed Sarath.
Much of the work was carried out by Cyril Mathew goons but there is no doubt that JR was behind these attacks, said Sarath Amunugama. They attacked persons who were critical of the open economy. In 1982, Prof Ediriweera Sarachchandra started to give a talk at ACBC Hall on decline of Sinhala culture in recent years. Gang of thugs rushed up and beat him and several others on the rostrum including monks, one of whom was Maduluwawe Sobitha.
The settling of 40, 000 Sinhala colonists at Maduru Oya, was to have been done unobtrusively, with quiet support from the Ministry, but instead it was carried out clumsily by Ven. Dimbulagala Seelalankara, who went to Maduru Oya openly in a large convoy, blaring pirit and shouting all the way. 40,000 Sinhalese were settled at Maduru Oya.
There were protests from the Tamil Separatist Movement and JR wanted this Sinhala settlement dismantled. The task was entrusted to Paul Perera, MP for Kaduwela. He was appointed District minister of Polonnaruwa, for the purpose. Paul Perera and Col. Benedict Silva a volunteer soldier form Katana thoroughly dismantled the settlements. I do not like to state the methods used said Malinga Gunaratne in his book ‘For a Sovereign state’. Malinga did not realize the value of placing such violence on record. Instead he said there are witnesses in Nikawewa, Padaviya, now lame, who can describe the atrocities committed
JR strangled the General strike of 1980 using force. Cyril Mathew goons led by UNP trade union launched a murderous attack on striker near Lake House roundabout. They had come armed with clubs, knives and knuckle dusters. One worker was killed and others ran to escape. Lake House roundabout was like a war zone with placards, shoes, slippers, files strewn all over, recalled Sarath Amunugama.
Black July 1983 was of course, total violence. The first wave of rioting and looting was organized by Cyril Mathew, with the seeming concurrence of the President, said Sarath Amunugama. Many of the looters at least on the first day were workers of state institutions like Electricity Board, and Port Corporation. They were going about in government vehicles.
The signing of the Indo Lanka Accord in July 1987 was also associated with violence. When the news of the proposed Accord became public, there was a violent reaction amongst the public. The accord was met with violent protests n the south. Thousands of millions of rupees worth of damage was done to government owned buses, cars, buildings, telephone exchanges, electricity stations, said Vittachi.
Large number of state buses and other property were destroyed by protesting masses, said Bandaragoda. Posters saying kill the old man appeared began to appear all over the country said Sarath Amunugama.
Jayatissa Bandaragoda had gone to Katunayake airport to drop a friend at the airport. On his return he was stopped at more than 10 places. At Hendala there was a barrier of burning tires across the road. Jayatissa was recognized by someone and the barrier removed. On his way back from Pannipitiya, after dropping the driver, Jayatissa saw people walking in thousands towards Borella.They were angry mobs who were prepared to attack anything, he said. There were reports of gangs of protestors approaching Colombo from the suburbs, confirmed Sarath.
The government retaliated. A crowd had assembled at Parliament .A helicopter gunship had fired from the air and the crowd quickly dispersed. UNP goons had been unleashed against a protest by monks and about a dozen protestors had been killed. Muruttetuwe Ananda said Maubima Surakeeme Sanvidhanaya had bombs thrown at them at the demonstration.
There was one last expression of violence. The first session of Parliament after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was due to be held on August 18, 1987. Before that JR held a meeting of the government group on 7 august, in Parliament premises.
Ajith Kumara, recruited by JVP, was hiding behind the curtain in the room. He hurled two grenades at the head table where the President was sitting. Instead of undoing the pin and waiting, he had hurled the grenades immediately after undoing the pin. The grenades bounced off the table, and rolled to where National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudali and Matara District Minister Keerthisena Abeywickrama were seated, and exploded in front of them. Keerthisena was killed and others seriously wounded. JR escaped. (Continued)
Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, today said that duty free allowance given to expatriate workers at the airport will be increased from May 01. He said a circular in this regard was issued. The Minister was addressing the media at the Government Information Department. Earlier a memorandum presented by the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, to the cabinet of ministers seeking their approval to increase the duty free allowance given to expatriate workers at the airport was approved. Accordingly the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment has issued the relevant circular. According to this circular, expatriate workers who legally send money to Sri Lanka through the banking system are eligible to receive an increased duty free allowance. The amount of money sent through the banking system since the first of May last year will be taken into account and this concession will be given under five categories.
Workers who have sent between USD 2400-4799 will get an additional duty free allowance of 600 USD and workers who have remitted between USD 4,800 – $7,199 will get an additional allowance of USD 960. Workers who have sent between USD 7,200 – USD 11,999 will receive an additional duty free allowance of USD 1,440. Expatriate workers who have remitted between USD 12,000 – USD 23,999 can get a USD 2,400 and workers who have sent USD 24,000 or more can get an additional USD 4,800 duty free allowance.
The Minister speaking further said;
It is very important to direct the workers for foreign jobs and it is equally important to bring the money they earn to the country through legal channels. We have worked hard for that in the past. At a time when the amount of remittances received from expatriate workers had dropped to 190 million dollars, when some went to other countries and told workers not to send money to the country and while some chose illegal methods such as undiyal to send money we implemented several measures to rectify these issues. After understanding how the people of our country were suffering, our expatriate workers once again started sending money to the country through the banking system. Several programmes were implemented to bring money to the country through safe and legal channels. Accordingly, an import license was introduced for migrant workers to import electric vehicles. We have also arranged to provide duty concessions to expatriate workers. Accordingly, the circular was issued yesterday to increase the duty free allowance for expatriate workers at the airport. Accordingly, the increase in duty free allowance for expatriate workers at the airport will be implemented from the first of May. The facility is available through an App operated by the Central Bank. By registering through this App, it is possible to get the additional duty free allowance based on the amount of dollars sent to the country.
Also, last week, Cabinet approval was obtained to introduce a low interest loan system for expatriate workers. Accordingly, expatriate workers can get loan facilities up to two million rupees. Also, the President presented his observations to the Cabinet and informed the Cabinet that a programme should be implemented for the workers who have returned to this country after working abroad.
Some time back, expatriate workers were called heroes of our country. Then during the Corona period, they were treated as human bombs. False information were circulated that expatriate workers returning to the country will put the country in peril during the covid pandemic. They were mistreated and embezzled during quarantine.
In this backdrop the initiatives taken by the new government gave the expatriate workers new hope and the foreign remittances started flowing again through legal channels.
NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to shrink by 2 per cent in 2023, its central bank said in an annual report on Thursday (Apr 27), as the country struggled to emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades.
The central bank projected Sri Lanka’s economy would grow by 3.3 per cent in 2024, according to the report.
The economy shrank by 7.8 per cent in 2022, in a year dominated by deep political instability, soaring inflation and steep currency depreciation as Sri Lanka struggled with a financial crisis triggered by record low foreign exchange reserves.
The central bank’s growth estimate for 2023 is more optimistic than the 3.1 per cent contraction projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which finalised a nearly US$3 billion bailout to the crisis-hit country last month. The World Bank estimates Sri Lanka’s economy will contract by 4.3 per cent in 2023.
“Sri Lanka’s economy has been gradually stabilising since mid-2022. The long fuel lines, severe shortages, and high inflation have gradually reversed,” said Udeeshan Jonas chief strategist at CAL Group.
“Recovery from sectors such as tourism could be better than expected and consumer demand is also picking up. That together with the low base could see better performance.”
Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its foreign debt a year ago, is currently negotiating its debt repayments with bondholders and bilateral creditors. The island expects to complete its debt restructuring process in time for the first IMF review in September.
The Chinese economy is off to a roaring start this year, clocking in a 4.5 per cent year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter – A figure that has surpassed even the most-optimistic projections. With this sturdy start in the first quarter, China is poised for a full -year economic rebound in 2023. The ripple effects of China’s strong economic performance are sure to reverberate across the globe, providing a much-needed impetus for the wider global economic recovery. On 18 April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shared data revealing that China’s GDP for the first quarter of this year has reached a whopping 28.5 trillion yuan (USD 4.15 trillion), indicating a year -on-year increase of 4.5 per cent. This is a significant uptick of 2.2 per cent compared to the previous quarter in 2022.
The statistics highlight China’s economic prowess and its ability to stay resilient despite the ongoing global turbulence. The most recent economic data for Q1 has highlighted impressive growth in various sectors. This economic growth pattern is exactly the same as what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted. On 3 February, the IMF website published a report by Diego A. Cerdeiro and Sonali Jain-Chandra, which forecast very optimistic numbers of the Chinese economy in 2023. They predicted, China’s economy is set to rebound this year as mobility and activity pick up after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, providing a boost to the global economy. The economy will expand 5.2 per cent this year, according to our latest projections, versus 3 per cent last year. That’s good news for China and the world as the Chinese economy is now expected to contribute a third of global growth this year.” The first quarter data has corroborated this forecast.
Indeed, the data shows a month-on-month trend of growth, as businesses adapt and consumers gradually regain their confidence. One particularly notable positive factor is seen in the retail sector, which has far exceeded the expectations in the month of March. This is a clear indication that the consumer confidence, which had been shaken by the uncertainties of the past year, is gradually being restored. Retail sales, which serve as the ‘barometer for consumption,’ witnessed a remarkable 10.6 per cent growth in March, surpassing earlier expectations of 7.4 per cent growth. This figure also outpaced the growth rate observed in January and February, indicating a general upswing. The total retail sales have grown by an impressive 5.8 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. This marks a significant reversal of the downward trend seen in the final quarter of 2022. Furthermore, the real estate sector displayed several positive signals of stabilisation and rebound, indicating an overall positive trend. The macroeconomic figures from the first quarter of this year suggest that China’s economy is undergoing a significant structural optimisation. In addition to 5.1 per cent annual growth in the fixed-asset investment, 7 per cent year-on -year increase in investment in the manufacturing sector was witnessed, indicating a robust expansion.
The high-tech industries attracted 16 per cent more investment over the same period, while investment in e-commerce services surged by a remarkable 51.5 per cent. These numbers suggest that China’s economic transformation is accelerating, with a shift towards a more digital and high-tech economy taking hold. In the face of a global economic landscape marked by uncertainty and challenges, China has once again demonstrated its remarkable resilience and adaptability. Against the backdrop of skyrocketing inflation across the globe due to the pandemic and year-long Ukraine conflict, the country’s exports increased by an impressive 23.4 per cent year -on-year in yuan-denominated terms during the month of March.
This far exceeds market expectations, and is a testament to China’s robust rebound after the lifting of the zero-Covid restrictions last December. Across a range of key indicators, there are clear signs of stability and even growth. For example, production demand appears to have stabilised and rebounded, while the employment rate and consumer prices have remained generally stable. Personal income has continued its upward trend, and market expectations have improved significantly. These trends are indicative of a broader development pattern in the Chinese economy, which is generating a sense of optimism among market observers. As late as December 202, most of the Western economists were quite apprehensive about the performance of the Chinese economy in 2023 and they were hyping the deflation narrative.
The strong momentum presently exhibited by the Chinese economy effectively dispels any notions of deflation theories. Nonetheless, the Chinese Government skilfully harnessed the economy’s inherent fortitude and internal momentum by enacting tailored initiatives to enhance economic growth and cultivate a more favourable environment for businesses. Despite the United States’ protracted trade war with China, the global Covid-19 pandemic’s enduring impact for over three years, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict for over a year, China has not lost its firm grip on the reins of its economic development. In fact, even after five years of economic brinkmanship with the US, China has remained resolute and unyielding in its pursuit of economic recovery. While the global landscape remains intricate and unpredictable, and domestic demand still falls short, the groundwork for a resilient economic recovery has been firmly established. Nevertheless, the impressive first quarter performance indicates that the Chinese economy is poised to achieve remarkable growth in the remainder of 2023, while the major economies – as well as the global economy as whole – are struggling with stagnation and corrosion.
During a visit to Sri Lanka on 14 December 2015, then US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Designate Thomas Shannon announced the launch of the first US-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue. The Dialogue, held in February the following year in Washington, sought to enhance cooperation between the two countries in several key areas, including governance, development cooperation, people-to-people ties, economic cooperation, and security cooperation.
At the Dialogue, much was made of the common links between the US and Sri Lanka, including their contribution to the promotion of democratic governance”. The initiative had been the brainchild of a government perceived as more pro-West and pro-US than its predecessor. While such geopolitical considerations had a significant say in the Dialogue, however, they also highlighted the potential and the limitations of US attempts at cementing ties with Sri Lanka.
Ostensibly, the Dialogue sought greater engagement with Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, as with all such initiatives, it ended up framing and promoting such engagement through the prism of certain key geopolitical issues, including though not limited to US-China tensions in the Indo-Pacific. This was reiterated by then US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who stated that the US would like to calibrate its relationship with a Sri Lankan military that was strong” and that reinforced shared regional security interests.” These interests obviously included Washington’s concerns about China’s activities in the Indian Ocean, concerns shared by New Delhi.
There is of course nothing wrong or objectionable in this. Countries pursue their interests and they view their relations with other countries through the prism of those interests. The US, like India and China, has long viewed Sri Lanka as a strategic outpost in a strategic ocean, an ocean that has for all intents and purposes become the most contested maritime sphere in the world. The US, however, has got bad press over the last three or four decades. Much of that bad press has, for the lack of a better way of putting it, been deserved: its adventures or misadventures in other regions, and its promotion of democracy with whatever means, has not been to the liking of countries which view any form of interventionism with concern, if not suspicion.
How, then, can the US and Sri Lanka recalibrate their links with each other? It must be noted that such a task will not be easy. The US’ reputation in South Asia, even in India, is not what it used to be. Though India has become its de facto partner in the region, Delhi is showing signs of wanting to gain a stronger hand. Small States in South Asia, by virtue of their troubled relations with New Delhi and their historically friendlier ties with China, have not been too keen on getting closer to the US. The Nepali Government’s decision to deny entry to the Head of the CIA, on the basis that the latter’s presence in the country was not conducive”, is one of several recent examples.
On the other hand, the US cannot be expected to view Sri Lanka through any other prism. It will continue to make bilateral ties contingent on its motives and interests within the Indian Ocean and the wider Indo-Pacific. In that respect, rumours that the Head of the CIA made a secret visit to the country, rumours that have not been officially denied yet, have supplemented vague and intriguing remarks by US officials that have actually visited the island: to take one example, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Defence Jedidiah P. Royal’s statement that he had not visited Sri Lanka to discuss a camp in Trincomalee.” Such remarks are really attempts by US officials to allay domestic fears about the ownership of the island’s strategic regions.
One strong point which neither Washington nor Colombo has explored, which has the potential of improving bilateral ties without necessarily bringing in security, would be cultural interactions. For some strange reason, though, while people-to-people ties and cultural cooperation was brought up and flagged at the first US-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue, the press releases and joint statements did not highlight such areas: they were, and continue to be, more concerned with military cooperation, trade prospects, and security concerns. While the latter areas do constitute the cornerstone of US ties with any country, and not just Sri Lanka, it is intriguing why Washington has not seen it fit to use cultural diplomacy to engage more constructively with the island.
Sri Lanka and the US celebrated 75 years of bilateral relations this year. However, Sri Lanka’s ties with the US go back much further, by at least 235 years: the first recorded American encounter with the country comes up in 1788, eight years before British colonisation of the Maritime Provinces. These initial encounters were based on trade, but they eventually evolved into more concrete and official engagements. In 1850, John Black became the first US emissary to the country in his capacity as US Commercial Agent in Galle. For decades his graveyard was believed to be situated somewhere in the Galle Fort. In September 2016, officials from the US Embassy managed to locate the site, an event of much significance for both countries, but one which hardly made headlines.
Apart from the economic and diplomatic connection, there is also the religious and cultural element. Yet, here too, Washington’s record at cementing ties with the island, indeed the region, has been less than felicitous: while the CIA sought to undermine Communism across Asia through a deft, strategic use of Buddhism, such efforts never paid off. Still, the US and Sri Lanka have had longstanding ties on the cultural-religious front, including Henry Steel Olcott’s involvement in the Buddhist Revival of the late 19th century, Anagarika Dharmapala’s links with Mary Foster, and Miranda de Souza Canavarro’s contribution to Buddhist and women’s education in Sri Lanka.
Despite all this, it must be acknowledged that the US faces a huge credibility gap in the country and the region. It has received and continues to receive bad press over allegations of meddling in other countries’ affairs, allegations that its actions have done little to counter. Perhaps, before seeking deeper ties with Sri Lanka, it will have to address these gaps, to assure the island and its people that it does not view them through its Indo-Pacific strategy only. As Bhagya Senaratne has put it, the US should identify the individuality of Sri Lanka in the South Asian and Indian Ocean regions.” But then it is doubtful whether it will ever shift its policy in this direction, any time soon.
About the writer:
The writer is an international relations analyst, researcher, and columnist who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com.
