Sadly the nation has been pushed to a corner without many options. Who did it is a bygone debate now as time is running out. Sri Lanka needs a surviving mechanism. Without it the island nation will totally capitulate to the New Great Game. Those who dream about utopian options that does not exist in real life indirectly (or directly) support Sri Lanka’s total national capitulation. Banging one’s head on a boulder doesn’t break the boulder; it rightfully smashes the head that is unable to think.
A survival mechanism of some lizards and even humans is the amputation of a limb to escape a life-threatening situation. It is a very hard choice for a human but common. Soldiers with Anti Personnel Mine (APM) injuries are operated in the battlefield itself without sedation. It is both a heart-wrenching and a horror sight. But if that is not done the soldier perishes. Sri Lanka for instance saved 13,000 lives this way. If not for this gruesome and unfortunate amputation, military deaths would have increased by close to 50%.
Of the two choices Sri Lanka before between defaulting on bond loans and repaying them after a restructure, the second option was chosen. That means Sri Lanka must repay these loans with interest. With a continuing trade deficit, there is no way Sri Lanka can earn these additional dollars to repay loans. This leaves with just one option – to sell state assets to foreign investors for dollars. If that is not done, Sri Lanka will not have any foreign trade partners as it would have lost credibility in credit matters and no supplier would be willing to lose their money by exporting to Sri Lanka. The island nation will be unable to buy essentials from fuel, medicine, spare parts, vehicles, manufacturing essentials, fertilizer, etc.
Exporting more housemaids is not the solution as it comes with its own strings. The countries that employ them will extend difficult demands for Sri Lanka to meet. They sure know Sri Lanka’s desperation for foreign currency.
On the other hand if Sri Lanka uses its painstakingly rebuilt reserves to repay loans, the nation will again fall into another 2022.
Either way it will put severe pressure on almost all industries in the island. The military is heavily dependent on import of weapons, consumables, spare parts, fuel, etc. essential to maintain national security. These are not cheap. Sacrifices will have to be made and this will jeopardize national security.
With an economic crisis to deal with, the military will be seen as an area to cut expenses when people’s very own survival is at stake. Such a move will aggravate the situation.
What is even more worrying is since 2009 Sri Lanka did not invest in military hardware as it should. There are no fighter jets or attack helicopters left that can perform combat missions. Transporters and simple aerial stunt aircraft (as in the 1970s) are around. MBTs, IFVs and AMPs are very old and require largescale replacement. Ammunition stocks are the same not to forget the losses due to fires at stores. Sri Lanka requires large investments in drone warfare which is cheap for the attacker but expensive for the defender. There are no dollars for any of this.
All these mean one thing. An easy foreign takeover of the island nation after instigating an internal armed struggle. People’s will to fight is at near zero now as their main priority is survival.
Even the men in the military will not be willing to commit to a difficult war given food shortages and weapons shortages. Dollars will be easily used to bribe some of them to go against Sri Lanka. Fortunately this type of ‘’friendly fire” incidents were uncommon in the last war but unfortunately economic desperation will make them very common in future.
To make matters worse, despite Sri Lanka’s economy shrinking rapidly for the consecutive fourth year running, almost all other nations are massively expanding their economies. This makes Sri Lanka’s comparative defence position even weaker.
In order to avoid national capitulation, Sri Lanka must take the bitter pill soon.
Vultures are sensing Sri Lanka’s weakness and in all certainty are already planning an assault firstly by instigating a local armed struggle and secondly invading the island under the guise of right to protect. It has happened in other countries. The mighty Soviet Union and once prosperous Yugoslavia collapsed mainly due to prolonged economic crises. Vietnam, Iraq, Poland, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Korea in the 1940s, Georgia, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, East Timor (Indonesia), Yemen, Lebanon, etc. are other examples of economic crises leading to invasion. The world order is the survival of the military or economic fittest. The rest are absorbed by the strong.
Not making a choice is equal to choosing national collapse as it is the default option.
Giving” can be defined as providing something to someone else without expecting anything in return. It is a selfless act that can be done in many forms, including donating money, volunteering time, or simply offering a kind word or gesture. Giving has numerous benefits, both for the recipient and the giver.
One of the primary benefits of giving is the sense of happiness and fulfilment that it can bring. When we give to others, it can boost our mood and increase our overall sense of well-being. Research has shown that people who engage in acts of kindness, such as giving, have lower levels of stress and anxiety and higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction.
Another benefit of giving is that it can strengthen social connections and relationships. When we give to others, it can create a sense of reciprocity and gratitude, which can improve our bonds with others. This can lead to increased social support and a greater sense of community.
Giving can also have positive effects on our physical health. Studies have shown that people who engage in acts of kindness and giving have lower levels of inflammation, which is associated with a range of health problems, including heart disease and cancer. Additionally, giving can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of depression.
Finally, giving can have a positive impact on the world around us. When we give to others, it can create a ripple effect of kindness and generosity that can spread throughout our communities and beyond. This can help to create a more compassionate and connected world, where people are more likely to help each other and work together to solve problems.
Attaching the concept of accumulating merit” to the act of giving can change the way people perceive and approach the act of giving. In many spiritual and religious traditions, the idea of accumulating merit is often linked to giving and other acts of kindness. The concept of merit is typically based on the belief that one’s actions have consequences that can influence one’s future, both in this life and the next.
In this context, giving is seen as a way to accumulate positive karma or merit, which can lead to positive outcomes in the future. This can be a powerful motivator for people to engage in acts of giving, as they see it as a way to improve their circumstances as well as those of others.
However, attaching the concept of accumulating merit to the act of giving can also have some potential drawbacks. For example, it can lead to a transactional approach to giving, where people give primarily with the expectation of receiving something in return. This can diminish the selfless nature of giving and reduce its impact on both the giver and the recipient.
Additionally, the emphasis on accumulating merit can also lead to a narrow focus on specific forms of giving, such as giving to religious organizations or specific individuals. This can limit the potential impact of giving and exclude other forms of generosity that may be equally valuable.
Overall, while the concept of accumulating merit can be a powerful motivator for giving, it is important to approach giving with an open and selfless mindset. By focusing on the benefits of giving for both us and others, we can create a more positive and impactful approach to generosity.
In conclusion, giving is a powerful act that can bring a range of benefits to both the giver and the recipient. Whether we donate money, volunteer our time, or simply offer a kind word or gesture, we have the power to make a positive impact on the world around us with merits attached or not.
So, let’s all strive to give a little more and make the world a better place.
The Vatican has publicly apologized for helping European colonizers in the past. But does the apology mean anything? Palki Sharma tells you more
Don Juan Dharmapala and the Portuguese Inquisition in Ceylon
The Website ‘ Wings of Time – Footsteps through History of Sri Lanka’ provides a series of web links giving fascinating accounts and insights into the Portuguese Inquisition in Sri Lanka following the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa (1560-1812).
It was Francis Xavier, the infamous catholic missionary who demanded the setting up of the Goa Inquisition, a religious tribunal for suppression of heresy and punishment of heretics. The Inquisition was set up in 1560. It committed crimes against humanity and was notorious for using brutal torture and lasted till 1812 and this was supposedly the golden age where the power of life and death of ordinary people was held by a Christian priest. If people were unable to pass the ‘act of faith’ (autos – da – Fe), they were stretched on the rack or burnt on the stake in a barbaric manner. For centuries Goa was considered the Rome of the Orient. It was the headquarters of the Catholic Church in the Orient. The tomb of Francis Xavier, who died in 1552, lies in the Igreja do Bom Jesus in the old City of Goa ( Velha Goa). The authenticity of the corpse of Francis Xavier has been challenged by the Buddhists of Sri Lanka who claim with substantial evidence that it is actually the corpse of the highly venerated Sinhala Buddhist monk Ven. Thotagamuwe Rahula.
The Portuguese Inquisition in Goa became one of the most severe and cruel in the Portuguese conquered territories. Alfredo De Mello, who was born and educated in British India and Portugal, reveals many dramatic facts about the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa.
Jerónimo de Azevedo (1540 – Lisbon, 1625) was a Portuguese fidalgo, Governor of Portuguese Ceylon and Viceroy ofPortuguese India.He was a key figure in the late 16th-century Portuguese takeover of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). According to author and historian A. R. Disney, the touchstone of Portuguese ambitions in Sri Lanka by the end of the 16th century was the bequest by King Don Juan Dharmapala of Kotte in 1580 of his entire realm to the king of Portugal.
Dharmapala was a Christian convert and his bequest was unacceptable to the Sinhala Buddhist inhabitants and to the rulers of the neighbouring Kingdoms of Sitavaka and Kandy. The takeover was therefore heavily resisted by the Sinhala Buddhists, and the Portuguese had to subjugate Kotte by force, using methods of the Portuguese Inquisition then being heavily implemented in Goa, formally completing the process during Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo’s captaincy of Colombo from 1594 to 1612. A Portuguese administrative superstructure headed by a captain-general was then imposed on the kingdom following the demise of Don Juan Dharmapala (1541 – 1597) who stands out in the history of Sri Lanka as the country’s greatest villain among a long list of 180 Kings that ruled what was then called ‘ Sinhale ‘ the original name of Sri Lanka.
Azevedo was nominated the 20th viceroy of Portuguese India in 1611 and left Colombo for Goa in 1612. In 1615 he backed an audacious expedition to Pegu in Burma to loot the Moon imperial treasures in Mrauk-U, an enterprise that ultimately did not succeed. However, the fact that it was supported at such a high official level showed how plundering and looting the treasures of other nations was considered a legitimate policy objective of the Portuguese in their colonies and the rest of Asia.
Don Juan Dharmapala was so despised by the Sinhala Buddhist people of Sri Lanka for his conversion to Christianity and Betrayal of Buddhism and the Sinhala nation that his grave which was located in Gordon Gardens adjoining the Queen’s House ( the seat of the British Governors ) in Colombo, was totally ransacked and the remnants of the dead corpse was thrown into the sea when Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike ( 1956 – 1959) allowed public entry to the Gordon Gardens.
(Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel, President Ambassador’s Forum, Solicitor England and Wales)
‘Study of Law’
Study of law is study of social sciences, education of human beings, to govern over persons, social, political, business and like through the rules and study of those relationships. It runs back to ages and currently developed with the digital age fast with modern technology. In certain parts it is digitalized and available on finger tips on CD’s. In developed Latin American countries the modern update legislature is available on CD’s. In our parts of the world the legislation in 1800 in UK is still used in day to day life with few new law introduced from time to time – penal code and the civil procedure being a classic example. (Penal Code- ordinance no 2 1813 adopted in 1883, Two amendment 22/1993 and 16/2006) The case on other legislature is the same with few exceptions.
Study of law in Sri Lanka runs back to the era of Sri Lankan Kings where they used the traditional legal system subsequently codified as ‘’Neethi Nigantuwa’’, until British Rulers introduced English Law under British Rule. Late Dr A. R.B. Amarasinghe says that monarch’s (Sri Lankan Kings) followed different levels of hearings as they wish which is confirmed by Robert Knox in his experiences as a prisoner of the last king of Sri Lanka. Kings were expected to follow the principles on /of ‘Dasaraja Dhamma’ ten rules a king is expected to follow in rule namely, 1- Dhana (charity), 2- Sila (morality), 3- Altruism (pariccae), 4- Ajjawa ( Honesty) 5 – Maddava (Gentleness) 6- Tapa ( self-control) 7- Akorasha 8- Avisansa (Non Anger ) 9- Kanthi ( nonviolence ( forbearance) 10- ‘’Aviridatha’’ ( upbringings ) are the ten commandments a King should follow to be a ‘just king’ based on according to writings of historians on the subject . They are not expected to on dictatorial and arbitrarily rule on the citizen they are told to consider as children of the family. These are guideline a ruler is expected to follow in ruling with absolute power with Ministers to assist and other set of advisors including senior Buddhist Monks. These are the rules expected to be followed by kings and the personal laws such as later known as ‘Kandian Law’ in the current format today ‘Muslim Law’ and ‘Tesavalama’ were practices as personal/regional laws by respective groups. Portuguese and Dutch introduced their laws in maritime areas they controlled and the most important to note is the introduction of Roman Dutch law still used in property law in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Currently Sri Lankan legal system is governed by English Law that enacted the supreme law on the island, the subsidiary legislation, and a mixture of English law for trade and international law, ‘Kandian’, ‘Muslim, ‘Tasawalamai’ , for personal Property laws, Roman Dutch Laws on property, and English legislation coming down from generations from 1800 years by way of acts still in force in Sri Lanka in English Language. After the introduction of ‘Swabasha’ ‘(Sinhala and Tamil) new legislation was passed in three languages namely English, Sinhala and Tamil whilst all previous laws introduced by British prevailed and effective as part of legislation. Acts of 1800 years are not translated to ‘’Swasha’’and it is a nearly impossible task to do so due to practical impossibilities. It is prudent to read the acts rather than attempting to translate.
Late Justice A R B Amarasinghe – a Supreme Court Judge and a scholar wrote extensively on the subject with the newly introduced book by Dr Jayatissa de Costa in his book Laws of Sri Lanka on this subject and as a result the English Law and Jurisprudence became a part of Sri Lankan Law (then Ceylon) with legislation runs back to 1800 years such a Penal Code, civil Procedure and many legislation still applied live in Sri Lanka available only in English. Education of Law commences at the Law College (professional aspects) managed by the Council of Legal Education (headed by His Lordship the Chief Justice) that deals with the professional limb when the Universities commenced academic studies initially leading to LLB in line with English model in traditional universities, now expanded to many in Sri Lanka and worldwide with degree awarding institutions available at a prize. COUNCIL OF EGA EDUCATION was introduced in 1872, and the Law College in 1974, as a self-governing fee levying institution managed by a group of Supreme court Judges headed by the Chief Justice, with some working arrangements with the Ministry of Justice to ease management of the institution. Legal Reforms and Disciplinarians of lawyers are within the ambit if the Bar Association and the Supreme Court in a most traditional format unlike the most vibrant and modern forms are practised in UK USA and the Commonwealth.
Introduction of ‘’Swabasha’’ (Sinhala and Tamil mediums) with legal systems changed
1972 Constitution broke the continuity of the colonial rule, also brought about further changes when Sinhala and Tamil were given preference/priority over English especially on interpretations and the subjects were taught with freedom for the students to learn and answer of their choice that followed swiftly until the disputed gazette notification was introduced taking measures for legal and procedural reforms on legal education with the introduction to conduct examinations only in English language, when the gazette of 2208 was defeated in the Parliament for 113 against only one vote by ‘’Chndima Weerakkody’’ Member of Parliament – a lawyer from Galle and once deputy Speaker for reasons given at his speech in fair detail. It is learnt that the gazette notification was an introduction of a package for legal and procedural reforms with preventive measures to control moneymaking and substandard educational institutions offering substandard degrees with international links, and gradual transformation of converting language of instructions to English with ‘’Swabasha’’ too in practice. The legislature and usual may have not studied the concepts properly and voted against the gazette as a block the proposition for the students to answer only in English leaving the freedom to answer at their choice, which is in force today. Medium of studies was originally on the mother tong, that is now changes to trilingual and English only in private schools abundantly found at a price that attracts parents. Legal studies have direct bearing on the medium of study to meet the main hurdle of law college entrance and study of law in universities on completion of academic studies and highly competitive law college entrance examination. Legal profession feels threatened on the massive number entered to the legal profession by various means using shortcuts most of whom try to be magistrates court lawyers where proceedings are conducted in ‘’Swabasha,’’. Not many take to alternate employments in public and private sector like in the UK EU and Commonwealth countries where the lawyer is well placed in business and like venture successfully with knowledge of IT and extra qualifications acquired. Those who are well conversant in IT and English competency find employments and find way in the superior courts as practitioner’s completing the vacuum created due to want of legal professionals.
Half a century ago I was privileged to be one of the youngest lieutenants handpicked to implement the Paddy Lands Act, the magnificent piece of legislation devised by the visionary leader Hon Philip Gunawardena to allay all the ills of peasant agriculture in Sri Lanka.
It was a time when our country, basking in the early glory of independence, was seeking new roots to serve the people. Hon Philip Gunawardena was a man of the people, loved by the people and admired by all who worked under him. With a background of academic expertise gained at famous seats of learning at the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, he joined the band of patriotic statesmen- Dr N.M.Perera, Dr S.A.Wickremasinghe, Dr Colvin R de Silva and spearheaded the movement for the common man.
When Hon SWRD Bandaranayake of the SLFP and Hon Philip Gunawardena came together and formed a pro Sinhala Front, the MEP- Mahajana Eksath Peramuna we were all enthusiastic supporters. That was a move for the people to move forwards, a move from colonialism to the sovereignty of the people at large.
I was young, having only a years’ experience, a product of the free education system of our country. In about January 1956 I was posted as Assistant Commissioner for Development of Agricultural Marketing at Ratnapura. Ven Henpitagedera Gnanasiha’s temple happened to be in Ratnapura.‚ Ven Gnanasiha took on the mantle of supporting the cause of the downtrodden masses led by Hon SWRD Bandaranayake and Hon Philip Gunawardena. Many an evening I met Ven Gnanasiha at the temple‚ and came to admire his‚ teachings and political slant. He stood up for the Buddhists and the Sinhalese. The visits to the temple became more frequent as the 1956 General Election approached, with Ven Gnanasiha playing a major role. Every day he left the temple in the early hours of the morning in his car, a Volkswagon, as far as my memory goes, and came back late in the night to be greeted and worshipped by us. He was busy addressing publicity meetings all over the island. We had endless discussions on how the masses had to be victorious at the elections. Ven Gnanasiha was an eloquent speaker and his famous dictum was “-Are you a Buddhist?, are you a Sinhalese?, then the choice is clear.”
With victory at the 1956 General Election, Hon Philip Gunawardena‚ was appointed the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives and a few of us Assistant Commissioners were handpicked from the Marketing Department for the Agrarian Services Department, a special department created overnight.
I served under Minister Hon Philip Gunawardena only for the years 1956 to 1959. That was because Minister Gunawardena had to relinquish his duties as a Minister due to the rightist and non socialist elements in the Bandaranayake Government, taking over power. Hon Philip Gunawardena was not going to change his policies to suit anyone. He was for the masses and if that was not accepted he gracefully backed out.
As the Minister for Agriculture he drafted and passed the Paddy Lands Act in Parliament. That was a progressive piece of legislation intended to solve the ills that the peasantry suffered since the colonial days. His sudden departure from the Cabinet did not erase what he had done. He was a visionary leader who left his imprints on the sands of time within a short space of three years. He had established a major Department , the Agrarian Services almost overnight and built up a brigade of young officers in whom he instilled the duty of working for the masses and I am proud to have been‚ one of them. All was not lost with his departure from the Cabinet because the officers took on his mantle to work for the masses. We were an enthusiastic lot that could not be tamed. The Department of Agrarian Services, covered the full services required for advancement in paddy cultivation- the Guaranteed Price Scheme for purchase of paddy and other cereals, rice milling, crop insurance, minor irrigation, fertilizer subsidy and distribution, agricultural credit, agricultural extension and the people’s organization- the cultivation committees.
In addition he established Multipurpose Cooperatives with an apex body at the Divisional level to support the village level multipurpose cooperative. This was a vast organization covering‚ all aspects of paddy production, agricultural marketing and even though Hon Philip Gunawardena left he had provided the essential development administrative framework, which could not be brushed away. Most of the development work in future years was possible because of the development infrastructure he left behind
My experience tells me that we can today benefit immensely in the manner that Hon Philip Gunawardena directed us.
Tackling Inflation
As Assistant Commissioner for Marketing we were in charge of fair price shops in almost every city. In Colombo there were easily over fifty. These were established before Minister Gunawardena came in, but he fine tuned them to work very efficiently. We ran around in circles to keep all these shops fully stocked with essentials like dhall, chillies, flour, sugar, vegetables etc. all sold at a rock bottom priceš‚ Working in charge of the Tripoli Market it was my duty to see that every shop was having the essential stocks and also selling them to genuine consumers and not selling in large quantities to traders.
I can remember an incident. At the District Coordinating Committee in Anuradhapura in around 1957, the District Land Officer reported that the colonists who had just moved in to Padaviya were fleeced by the traders who kept fantastic margins of profit. I said that the Marketing Department was meant to tackle that problem and I undertook to solve it.‚ One telephone call to the Commissioner for Marketing BLW Fernando brought me approval. Those were the days of Hon.Philip Gunawardena who never bowed down to the trader mafia. No errant mafia could ever get near him. I think they could not face his very gaze. He looked a tough rough that could not be tamed. Under him, we were not worried to make decisions. We obtained some buildings in Padaviya, collected a staff of assistant managers and labourers. They were moved in a lorry with all the goods. I followed. We worked till late in the night establishing the shop and that night I slept on some gunny bags. It was a task accomplished within three to four days.
The answer to the present problem of inflation is,. as far as imports are concerned to import and sell at a rock bottom priceš‚ so that no trader can sell at a higher price. This is being done today by Satosa to reduce the margins of profit kept by the traders.
As far as local produce is concerned the Marketing Department purchased vegetables and fruits at the village fairs, transported it overnight to Tripoli Market, the headquarters where the vegetables were graded and sent to the fair price shops all over, As the Assistant Commissioner at Tripoli.‚ I studied the prices at the wholesale market in Colombo and fixed the prices at which produce was to be bought all over the island. The Assistant Commissioners in the District had to report to me the prices at which traders were buying at the Fairs and I fixed a higher price. The Department kept only 10 to 15% margin to cover transport and handling and sold the produce at cheap rates to city consumers. This can be compared with 50% or more which each trader keeps The trader who purchases at the Fair keeps around 40 to 50% and the wholesaler in Colombo too keeps a margin and the retailer also keeps a margin. This easily totals to over 100%. . Our aim‚ was to compel‚ all traders to sell at a price close to what we sold at our shops. The traders had to be satisfied with keeping a low margin because otherwise they would be out of business. Under Hon Philip Gunawardena we fine tuned this scheme and though the Department purchased only 10 % of the crop we were able to control the prices unofficially.
The Canning Factory was further developed and during Hon Philip’š‚ time we became totally self sufficient in fruit juice, tomatoe sauce and jam. The Canning Factory enabled us to offer floor prices- prices at which we will purchase the entire stock offered in tomatoes, red pumpkin, ash pumpkin and pineapple. Recently the farmers at Hanguranketa built a pandal with tomatoes to prove to the Government that they could not sell their crop. The Red Pumpkin was turned into Golden Melon Jam and the Ash Pumpkin was turned into Silver Melon Jam.
The UNP of President Jayawardena under the advice of the IMF disbanded the Marketing Department and privatized the Canning Factory. Today Sri Lanka imports Jam, Fruit Juice etc, all produce which we can manufacture. A year ago I saw Keels Supermarkets full of Heinz Tomatoe sauce. Meanwhile our tomatoe producers cannot sell their produce.
The message is very clear. Re establish the Marketing Department’s Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme and the Canning Factory. We can tackle inflation as well as help the producers with a better price than what the traders offer. A very valid development, something we did do in the past. Today have we not created another trading unit between the producer and the consumer by establishing Economic Centers- nothing other than a conglomeration of traders.
Inflation in the prices of food is caused in two ways. In the case of imports we have to be guided by the import prices. But in those days‚ we had a staff that did specialize in imports, that was in the CWE and the Food Commissioner’s Department. The Food Department was in charge of importing flour and there was a special team led by a Deputy Director to contact foreign governments and foreign suppliers to negotiate supplies at competitive rates..‚ President Jayawardena under the guidance of the IMF to privatize all commercial undertakings‚ came to a deal with a Singaporean Company to handle all the flour imports. He sold the task of importing, milling and selling wheat to Prima, a Singaporean company. Thereafter the profits in milling flour went to Singaporeans. Under Hon Philip Gunawardena it was the Food Commissioners Department that imported flour. We continued the method of importing and establishing‚ rice mills and also encouraging local entrepreneurs to establish rice mills. In this process the profits in milling rice stayed with local people. Then the Government directly imported wheat flour. From the time of President Jayawardena it was a foreign firm Prima that bought the wheat for milling. Prima is authorized to buy at prices it likes and sell the flour to us at its price.
. A few years ago it was reported that when there was a shortage of flour in Sri Lanka, Prima sold flour to the Maldives. Prima also takes away the bran, which is the main ingredient for cattle feed. Our Dairy farming will get a shot in the arm by‚ using the bran. The message is that Prima should be sent packing
The Public Sector as the Engine of Growth
Hon Philp Gunawardena was for the public sector as opposed to the private sector being in charge of development. That is a forte which is very valid for today. During his time and right up to 1977 it was the public service of administrators and engineers that brought about the development of Sri Lanka.
There was a Planning Department that looked after the development of the country and President Jayawardena disbanded national planning and accepted the private sector as the engine of growth under the tutelage of the IMF. The Private Sector development today is to open up Supermarkets and to import and sell. Earlier, the Government Departments played a major role in every development aspect. Take industries, the Government produced paper at Valachchena. The Government produced Textiles at mills and Powerlooms. The Powerlooms were guided by a specialist unit at Velona in Moratuwa and we did produce suiting and textiles of excellent quality. All Powerlooms were run by administrators, working as the President of a cooperative. At Matara it was the Divisional Revenue Officers that were in charge and they were not paid. They had to attend to this task in addition to their duties. In my work at Kegalla as Additional GA and at Matara as the GA I was responsible for the proper functioning of all powerlooms and I interfered if there was a problem. Take the Marketing Department, the Department that totally controlled the prices at which traders purchased vegetables and fruits all over the island and also controlled the prices at which traders in the cities offered vegetables and fruit to consumers. This was done by the Commissioner for Marketing, a Grade I officer. He did not draw‚ millions of rupees in salary‚ like the Golden Key directors- Golden Key is said to have had some seven Deputy Chairmen who drew salaries of over three million rupees, plus many perks a month. The motto of the Public Service is service to the people, not to aggrandize profits and to get paid fantastic salaries. It is true that currently certain commercial undertakings of the Government are in the red. The answer is not to offer them to the private sector and allow the people to get further fleeced but to build up expertise within the public sector to run them efficiently. We have within us the administrators to tackle them.
Agricultural Extension in the hands of the people
In agriculture the main message that Hon Philip Gunawardena‚ tells us is that‚ Paddy Cultivation was to be directed not by officials but by the people themselves. This was the Paddy Lands Act in action. The Act ensured that a Cultivation Committee, elected by the farmers would make all decisions regarding the cultivation of paddy. Paddy cultivation has to be done by the cultivators in an entire village in cooperation. Before the Paddy Lands Act the Government Agent appointed a Vel Vidane for every village and it was his duty to hold a meeting of all proprietors of paddy land to decide when to commence clearing the irrigation canals, commence cultivation, when to sow, when to harvest etc. The Vel Vidane controlled cultivation. With the Paddy Lands Act this task fell to the cultivation committee. It was my experience in Kegalla and Anuradhapura that the farmers were very active participants in the cultivation committees. Further when there was, any repair to be done on an anicut or canal or tank the cultivation committee was entrusted with that task and the work was done by the people, not by outside contractors‚ The importance of this lies in the fact that people- community leaders‚ gain expertise in management as they cooperate in doing tasks together. This is actually community development in action. I can make a definite statement that the cultivation committees in Kegalla in 1960 and in Anuradghapura in 1962 to 1964 did attend to development tasks very efficiently. That was possible because the Paddy Lands Act put the farmers at the helm of decision making. Today the cultivation committees are disbanded and all decisions are made by an O Level qualified official called a Niyamaka, who is also not trained in agriculture. This Niyamaka is today the laughing stock of the farmers. Paddy cultivation is dependent on the rain, which requires that the Kanna Meetings are held systematically and the dates fixed for cultivation etc. are adhered to. Today the Kanna Meetings are held in many areas but the decisions are not adhered to with the result that there is crop damage due to farmers cultivating late. This is due to pests originating from fields that had been planted earlier. Further late cultivation means that the harvest comes in late, with the rains damaging the crop. Even the next season is cultivated late as a consequence. A visit to any district today will find paddy fields with the crop at different stages. Recently looking out of my window at Devon Hotel Kandy I saw paddy fields just sown alongside fields that had a three month crop.
The message is simple. A farmer organization has to be entrusted with paddy cultivation. Not officials. The Niyamaka is an officer. The active cultivation committees paved the path for the use of high yielding seed and fertilizer use. It is unfortunate that the Paddy Lands Act was not implemented seriously after the UNP took over in 1977, which led to the cultivation committees being disbanded. Let us hand over the cultivation of paddy to the people. Incidentally, the only success story in peasant cultivation to talk of comes from Comilla in Bangladesh where people organized in cooperatives did double the paddy yield and create a Division of full employment within nine years. The Comilla- Kotwali Thana, a Division is a paradise in a world of poverty. This is documented in my book:How the IMF Ruined Sri lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success, Godages).
Handing over the management of paddy cultivation to farmers is a must for progress and Hon Philip’s cultivation committees show us the path to success.
Community Cooperatives.
Multipurpose Cooperatives and its apex body at the Divisional Level, the Union of Multipurpose Cooperatives was the brainchild of Hon Philip Gunawardena to handle all commercial aspects. It was to provide all the services- supplies of food, fertilizer etc. for agriculture, the purchasing of paddy etc. The aim was also to get community members involved in the development of their area. As community leaders get involved in commercial activities their abilities and capacities develop and they can attend to further development aspects. The effect of these cooperatives were not very evident in the time when Hon Philip was a Minister, but in later times it was this framework that enabled rural development. The Powerlooms that were established were cooperatives and these were thriving commercial ventures that provided employment to the people and also provided textiles of high quality, cutting off imports.
The flagship of the Sirimavo Government, the Divisional Development Councils Programme(DDCP) used the Cooperative structure left by Hon Philip to the maximum. Cooperatives handled all commercial ventures. In Matara, the Crayon Factory, which produced crayons of high quality for about a tenth of the island’s requirements was a cooperative venture. The Deniyaya Multipurpose Cooperative Union handled the production of Coop Crayon and had islandwide sales under the leadership of Sumanapala Dahanayake the Member of Parliament of the area. This was only one of the commercial ventures commenced to provide employment to youths. In that process the community members who handled this venture got the experience to handle more and by the close of 1977 the cooperatives had a large number of commercial ventures implemented successfully. This was the situation in other areas too. At Matara the Cooperative Boatyard was a great success. Similarly many cooperative industries sprang up all over the island under the DDCP because of the infrastructure that Hon Philip had once created.
The message from Hon Philip for today is to rejuvenate the cooperative structure, with the Divisional apex body and to get the community totally involved in the development of the rural areas. This will never be done by the private sector because as a venture becomes successful the owners will move themselves and their ventures to areas of luxury, leaving the original habitat. Rural Development and creating employment in rural areas‚ is key to development today and cooperatives have to play a major role.
Hon Philip Gunawardena had the idea that banking was important and that a bank of the people should be formed. He gave out this idea in discussions and it was left for Minister T.B. Illangaratne to implement‚ this task when he became a Minister in the 1960 Government of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayake..
Today foreign banks are mushrooming and taking the profits away. The foreign banks are even allowed to fix the sale price of‚ foreign exchange they collect and take the profits away. It has even been found that when there is a shortage of foreign exchange the banks that hold foreign funds are allowed to bid the price of the foreign exchange upwards. This did happen in January 2001 when just after the Rupee was free floated a State bank had to pay a large oil bill and the two State banks did not have sufficient dollars. They approached the private banks‚ and these private banks bid the price upwards. The Rupee that was valued at Rs. 85 to the pound was devalued to Rs 115 in a flash. In other words our foreign exchange is today a commodity where banks can create profits and devalue our currency in the process. This is documented in my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka& Alternate Programmes of Success.
The message from Hon Philip to our finance section is that foreign banks cannot be trusted. The State banks have to be solely in charge of our foreign exchange.
The Industrial Development Board(IDB) established by Hon Philip Gunawardena. Industries have to be developed to enable the people to be employed and also to manufacture the requirements of the people. . The IDB has highly qualified technicians and engineers who could provide plans for establishing industries. The IDB is thus the prime institution and deserves to have a unit in each District, to study the produce in the area and to draft plans to enable manufacture, a task that falls to the cooperatives. Today we import everything; we do not make even a bicycle. Most of our industries are of the assembly type. Instead we should get down to manufacture. To quote the success of the Crayon Factory which I myself established as a cooperative, which could have been easily developed to produce all our requirements, the way ahead for us to create employment and also to save foreign exchange that we today spend on imports‚ is to develop industries.
In this task the IDB of Hon Philip can easily play a major role.
Conclusion
It has been a pleasure to pen this paper detailing how the ideas of Minister Hon Philip Gunawardena can help the present Government’s effort at development. Truly the Programmes. of the present Government, like Gama Neguma are a success, but it has to be said that if the development infrastructure created by Hon Philip could be used, Gama Neguma and other programmes will flower to greater success.
Hon Philip Gunawardena’s idea of Power to the People is also the motto of President Rajapaksa and it will augur well for him to consider having farmers and community leaders to be in charge of their development, in agriculture, animal husbandry and small industry. It could be an elected body like the cultivation committees or a cooperative like at Comilla. At Comilla, a village farmer took the role of the extension officer. He was trained a day every week. As far as I can see this is the devolution of power that has to be done to activize the people and bring about prosperity. All officials and institutions like the IDB should be providing expertise to this august body and the people have to be activated‚ to plan and further paddy cultivation, the Cooperatives to establish Tractor Stations to help cultivators and also to establish Fruit Canneries in fruit growing areas, Creameries churning out butter and cheese and all types of small industries. For instance, today we burn wood shavings and saw dust. In the UK and USA these are turned into processed timber with the addition of some latex. We import such processed timber from Malaysia and India. Many such industries have to be developed. Creating full employment should be the aim and in my experience this is a task that can be achieved in a few years.‚
To tackle the enormous economic challenge that Sri Lanka is facing, everyone must come together to support the recovery and promote stable and inclusive growth, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer.
Speaking in a video on the IMF YouTube channel on supporting recovery and promoting stable and inclusive growth in Sri Lanka, Peter Breuer states that after years of increasing economic problems and policy mistakes, Sri Lanka has committed to report and rebuild.
The IMF is here to help. The fund has approved about USD 3 billion over the next four years to support Sri Lanka in this time of need”, he said, in the video.
Peter Breuer, the IMF Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka expresses that since 2019, significant tax cuts and delays in anticipated reforms have left the country entering the pandemic with thin currency reserves, high debt levels and no fiscal space to buffer against shocks.
With no reserves left, power cuts, shortages of food and medicines, and long lines for petrol emerged. Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history. There are no easy solutions, but that’s where everyone must come together to tackle this enormous problem”, Mr. Breuer mentioned.
Furthermore, Mr. Breuer points out that Sri Lankans must make efforts to continue their way out of the crisis while supporting the less fortunate, highlighting that the global community must support Sri Lanka in this effort so that it can once again be on a path of strong and inclusive growth.
Working with the Fund, the Sri Lankan authorities have put together an ambitious economic recovery program, including reforms to raise the government revenue, stabilize prices, build up foreign reserves and safeguard financial stability, he explained, adding that the Sri Lankan authorities are also asking their creditors to support their efforts by granting debt relief.
When a crisis strikes, the poor are hit hardest. The program aims to raise spending for the poor and vulnerable, strengthen social safety nets and introduce progressive tax reforms to ensure greater contributions come from high-income earners”, he said.
In addition, Mr. Breuer has also highlighted that with breathing room from external debt relief, the IMF expects Sri Lanka’s economy to gradually start to recover and expand.
It’s critical to ensure the hard-won gains from the reforms benefit the Sri Lankan people, and the crisis will not repeat itself”, he claimed.
The IMF representative who emphasized that the authorities have committed to improving public financial management and strengthening the anti-corruption legal framework, also expressed that in addition, the IMF will assess governance and corruption vulnerabilities and provide recommendations.
We, at the IMF look forward to working closely with the people of Sri Lanka for a brighter future for all.”
Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said on Sunday that the government would follow the Supreme Court’s observations on the proposed new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), amid objection from the Opposition and the civil society groups.
He said the decision to delay the tabling of the bill in parliament was based on requests made by various organizations for more consultation. So that they would have more time to go to the Supreme Court if they wished to do so,” Rajapakshe said.
The new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will replace the much-maligned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979, which was enforced to counter the then Tamil separatist militancy.
On April 1, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told reporters that the new counter-terrorism law will be introduced later this month. However, the justice minister later said the bill would be delayed to either late April or early May.
Rajapakshe said that under the new bill the defence minister’s powers of PTA, which allowed indefinite and arbitrary detention, had been diluted.
It will be the police who will be ordering detention and anyone arrested must be produced before court in 24 hours,” he told reporters.
Rajapakshe said if the new counter terrorism act was going against the fundamental and human rights of individuals, the Supreme Court would rule as such.
Under the Sri Lankan parliamentary practice, any new bill could be challenged in the highest court to judge on its constitutionality within 14 days of its presentation in parliament.
The Supreme Court would rule if it required a simple or absolute majority in the 225-member assembly and if it would need a national referendum for its adoption to become law.
On March 17, the new Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 97 pages was published in the government gazette.
The opposition and civil society groups objected to the new ATA, saying it targets the civil society protests which took place mid-last year over the then government’s failure in handling the ongoing economic crisis.
Since 2016, the European Union has been urging the government to repeal the PTA and bring in new counter-terrorism legislation in line with international standards. The EU has linked its GSP+ export tariff concessions to Sri Lanka modifying its counter-terrorism Act.
The main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa had slammed the bill as undemocratic and authoritarian”.
The opposition and rights groups fear that anyone expressing democratic opposition to the government could be targeted using the ATA.
Sri Lanka, which currently is reeling under its worst economic crisis, has witnessed several activities that have threatened its national security.
The nation saw the end of the Tamil insurgency in 2009 after the killing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. A fresh security threat dented the country’s security after the Easter suicide attacks in 2019 that killed 290 people.
Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara says Sri Lanka has reached a bilateral agreement with the government of Japan, in order to establish training centres aimed at Japanese employment that will open up more employment opportunities in Japan which generate higher income.
Minister Manusha Nanayakkara, who is on an official visit to Japan, has reached this agreement when he met with Japanese top diplomats and the heads of the institutions from which the foreign employees are recruited.
At the time, Minister Nanayakkara has pointed out that, more Japanese job opportunities will be opened up by increasing the number of days and the number of centres for the examinations related to the recruitment of employees for the nursing service.
Accordingly, Japan’s Minister of Labour has agreed to provide more opportunities for job seekers to appear for the said examinations.
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday assured justice for all the victims of the 2019 Easter bombings in which 270 people were killed, saying legal proceedings are being processed independently and impartially, without any influence.
President Wickremesinghe also pledged his unwavering commitment to ensuring the security of the country, by preventing any recurrence of heinous acts.
On April 21, 2019, nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of blasts that tore through three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 270 people and injuring over 500.
The legal proceedings related to this tragic incident are being processed independently and impartially, without any influence. The necessary groundwork towards this end has been laid, to ensure justice for all the victims,” Wickremesinghe said in his Easter Sunday message.
I pledge my unwavering commitment to ensuring the security of our country, by preventing any recurrence of such heinous acts,” the President said. He also said that the Government is dedicated to realising the aspirations of all Sri Lankans regardless of race, religion, party or colour. I strongly believe that we can overcome these challenges in the near future,” he said.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Easter message
Easter Sunday celebrates the ability of Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, to transform lives by dispelling darkness in people’s minds and bringing hope to the world.
With Easter commemorating the resurrection of Jesus, it is an occasion for us to reflect on the values of love, peace, and forgiveness as espoused by Him, which are at the core of Sri Lankan culture, and we must come together with family, friends and communities, to solemnize the blessings life has to offer.
We are presently seeking to overcome an era of unprecedented hardship, uncertainty and disappointment and are looking forward to a better tomorrow. The Government is dedicated to realizing the aspirations of all Sri Lankans regardless of race, religion, party or color. I strongly believe that we can overcome these challenges in the near future.
However, it is crucial that we all unite on a common agenda that elevates us beyond narrow political objectives and regressive trends, and instead paving the way for the country toward progress. Let us all unite and work for a brighter future for Sri Lanka.
I am very much aware of the extreme pain caused by the Easter Sunday attack being still fresh in your minds, and I share that pain. I wish to reassure you that the legal proceedings related to this tragic incident are being processed independently and impartially, without any influence. The necessary groundwork towards this end has been laid, to ensure justice for all the victims. I pledge my unwavering commitment to ensuring the security of our country, by preventing any recurrence of such heinous acts.
As we continue to face these challenges, let us draw strength from the spirit of Easter, and its message of hope and renewal.
May the Easter celebration bless the country, with wisdom, positivity and spiritual strength to overcome all its challenges. I extend my heartfelt wishes to all those who are celebrating the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, a meaningful and peaceful Easter.
Before approving the loan, the IMF had urged Sri Lanka to reduce corruption by improving fiscal transparency and public financial management and introducing a stronger anti-corruption legal framework.
Sri Lanka has gazetted a new anti-corruption bill that is in line with the conditions listed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before approving the $2.9 billion loan to bail out the economic crisis-hit nation.
A gazette was published on Thursday on the order of Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, listing some of the objectives of the proposed act.
These rules, according to the act, are meant to prevent and eradicate bribery and corruption in order to meet the just requirements of the general welfare of a democratic society; enhance transparency in governance; strengthen integrity of governance and increase accountability.
The provisions of the act, once passed, would pave way for the formation of an independent commission which will be mandated to conduct preliminary inquiries and investigations into, and to prosecute against, bribery, corruption, offences relating to declaration of assets and liabilities and associated offences.
If the draft bill is enacted, it will enable the authorities to introduce an effective system for the declaration of assets and liabilities in order to prevent illicit enrichment by public officials, promote inter-agency cooperation and international collaboration in preventing bribery and corruption.
It will also give effect to obligations under the United Nations Convention against corruption and any other International Convention relating to the prevention of corruption to which Sri Lanka is a party and recognise international standards and best practices in order to establish a culture of integrity in Sri Lanka.
Before approving the loan, the IMF had urged Sri Lanka to reduce corruption by improving fiscal transparency and public financial management and introducing a stronger anti-corruption legal framework.
On April 2, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the Sri Lankan government will enact key points of its agreement with the IMF into law upon parliamentary approval, one of which would be new anti-corruption legislation which would likely be enacted in May.
For almost two years, the western media, aided by its Indian counterparts, has flogged a false narrative of predatory Chinese lending as the cause of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis, ignoring the fact that it is reckless borrowing and lending in the International Sovereign Bond (ISB) market which is the main cause of it.
There are many skeptics in Sri Lanka who wonder if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is really bailing out the international bond markets who have made reckless lending to successive corrupt governments and stand to make huge profits?
This has not been properly discussed in the local or the international media. The ISB market is mainly controlled by western hedge funds, and in April 2021 Sri Lanka’s Department of External Resources released a colourful chart that showed 47 per cent of Sri Lankan debts are market borrowings” (meaning ISBs) and the exposure to Chinese loans is only 10 per cent. ISBs lend at high interest rates around 5-8 per cent while Chinese and most bilateral loans are between 2-3 per cent.
In what Noam Chomsky calls the theory of manufacturing consent” in the The Port City. function of the news media, Sri Lankan media taking the cue from international news sources created an environment where the local public agenda was mainly focused on why Sri Lanka needs to go to the IMF for a bailout.
This suited the US geo-political agenda perfectly, as it gradually changed the Sri Lankan public perception of China as an all-weather friend” who can be depended upon to help the country’s development funding needs.
On March 21 when the long awaited official announcement from the IMF, that bailout” loan of $3 billion was approved by their board, some of President Ranil Wickremasinghe’s supporters lit fire crackers to welcome the news.
Using the IMF approval, Wickremasinghe is projecting himself as the saviour of the nation to dispel the widely held notion in the country that he is an unelected President who came forward to save the corrupt rule of the former President Mahinda Rajapakse’s family.
The fact is, that he is heading a government that is supported by the Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) that commands a majority of seats in the parliament, and thus is still referred to as the ruling party”.
For the past three decades, Wickremasinghe has been the darling of the West, who could be depended upon to serve the West’s geo-political interests.
It is this perception in Sri Lanka that was his undoing when the SLPP won a 2/3rd majority in parliament in the August 2020 general elections campaigning against Wickremasinghe as a national security threat because as the then Prime Minister, he was accused of secretly negotiating with the Americans to hand over Sri Lankan land to US companies, and also facilitate stationing of US marines in Sri Lanka.
Wickremasinghe not only lost his own seat, his United National Party (UNP) — Sri Lanka’s oldest political party — lost all its seats in parliament. He was able to sneak into Parliament through a consolation seat the party got under the proportional representation system.
Then how is he the president today? The huge street protests that forced President Gotabaya Rajapakse to flee the country and resign could be compared to the 2014 colour revolution” in Ukraine that outsted a proRussian president.
Rajapakses is perceived to be too pro-China by the West (and India). In puzzling circumstances, Gotabaya first appointed Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister and after the resignation of the president, Wickremasinghe became the president under the constitution to serve the rest of Gotabaya’s term (until November 2024).
But, for that the parliament had to endorse his appointment, which they did with a majority of the SLPP members voting for Wickremasinghe! The Prime Minister and the Cabinet is made up of almost exclusively SLPP members.
Many Sri Lankans still debate what has the July 2022 ousting of President Gotabaya by the protest movement has achieved? The movement was against corruption of the Rajapakse family and its ruling party cronies, but today, the strings of governing are believed to be pulled by former finance minister Basil Rajapakse who is the most tainted of the Rajapakse family with corruption allegations, and he is also a duel US-Sri Lankan citizen.
Since taking over the presidency, Wickremasinghe has been repressing the democratic rights of the people cracking down on workers’ and students’ protests. As Prime Minister, he is well known for the ruthless suppression of the Marxist-JVP uprising of Sinhala youth in the late 1980s.
Speaking on Mee Massoo TV You-tube channel, Yamuni Thushara, President, Anti-Corruption and Anti-Wastage Peoples Organisation pointed out that within hours of taking over power in July 2022, Wickremasinghe has signed an order to import 5000 canisters of teargas and in January 2023 he has increased it to 10,000.
He showed documents signed by the president to prove it. Government knows that there will be three to fours years of protests (over the IMF program) and teargas is needed to suppress peoples’ dissent” he argues.
Recently a security guard at the University of Colombo died after police fired teargas at protesting students. Government says they have no money for holding (local government) elections, but they can spend 144 billion rupees (about $F1 million) to import teargas” points out Thushara.
Sri Lanka is no longer a bankrupt country,” declared Wickremasinghe in presenting the IMF agreement to Parliament on March 23. Our banks will be internationally recognised. International financial institutions will honour our banks’ letters of credit.
The basis for obtaining credit from other international financial institutions at low interest rates will be created”. What he failed to tell Parliament is that under the IMF agreement, Sri Lanka could only borrow from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (both controlled by the West and Japan).
He also did not say how this agreement is going to help Sri Lanka to renegotiate the loans owed to the western hedge funds (ISBs).
The London-based campaign group Debt Justice that includes 182 economists and development experts from around the world, said two months ago that some of the world’s most powerful hedge funds are the cause of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis.
Such lenders charged a premium to lend to Sri Lanka to cover their risks, which accrued them massive profits and contributed to Sri Lanka’s first ever default in April 2022” they argued. In June 2022, one such bond holder, St Kitts and Nevis-based Hamilton Reserve Bank which holds more than $250 million of Sri Lanka’s ISBs, sued the Sri Lankan government in New York federal court seeking full payment of principle and interests.
The court case is still to be heard. Hamilton’s lawyers in their submission to court said that the default is causing American retirees tremendous suffering from potentially massive losses of up to 80 per cent of their original investment value”.
Well to safeguard US retirees making bumber profits from loans given to poor countries, it seems the poor have to suffer. Speaking on a popular social media site POD TALKS, Manju Nishshanka, a former Vice President of International Banking at Merill Lynch and currently the leader of the Global Sri Lankan Congress, which he founded, pointed out that IMF’s programs are designed to support market-driven economic policies and globalisation which its member countries believe in.
IMF has predicted that if the government implement some of their recommendations, there could be social and political chaos,” noted Nishshanka. It is people who will be effected when tax is raised, or when government enterprises are privatised. Government has promised (to IMF) electricity and fuel subsidies will be eliminated. That also effect peoples’ pockets. And when peoples’ savings (in Employee Provident Fund accounts) are siphoned off for (domestic) debt restructuring that will create resentments”.
IMF has acknowledged that the chance of a failure of their program is very high due to the unfavourable international environment where disposal incomes of people in developed countries are decreasing due to inflation and that will impact on Sri Lanka’s two main foreign exchange earners — tourism and apparel — and also disruption of supply chains and tense political environment in the country.
With Wickremasinghe using the IMF agreement to paint himself as the saviour of the nation, perhaps with a view to contest the 2024 presidential election, he needs to control the media narrative. On Thursday (23rd), after calling a meeting with editors and news directors of main media organisation in the country, Wickremasinghe asked them to tow the government line and support the IMF program.
He scolded the media for predicting revolution if the IMF program is implemented and for suggesting that Sri Lanka would become a pawn of the West.
The day before this meeting, opposition lawmaker and former banker Eran Wickremaratne addressing a media conference claimed that the IMF has blanked out sections of the report that was released to Parliament, which they claim were market-sensitive information.
The IMF should look into its own transparency” he remarked holding a copy of the report.
What is so secretive about your policy intentions being known,” he asked. IMF reform could succeed only if a popularly elected government could carry the people along to implement the reforms in the interest of the country and the people” argues Nishshanka.
At the moment, Wickremasinghe is refusing to release money to hold local government elections which were due this month (March) and the opposition is demanding a general elections. Under the constitution, the President can dissolve parliament any time after March 2023.
We have an extremely corrupt government in power says Nishshanka, so there’s no hope(for eradicating corruption)”.
• DR KALINGA SENEVIRATNE is a Sri Lankan born journalist, broadcaster and international communications specialist. He is a consultant for the journalism program of the University of the South Pacific in Suva. The views expressed in this article belongs to the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper
In December 2022, the NIA arrested nine people from the Sri Lankan refugee camp in Tiruchy.
CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted searches in eight locations in the city and arrested a trader for allegedly possessing unaccounted cash, ganja and gold, among other things. The authorities made recoveries worth Rs 1 crore, which included Rs 82 lakh in cash, 300 gm of gold, 1,000 Singapore dollars and 10 kg of ganja.
The searches were conducted after authorities had thwarted an attempt in Kochi to allegedly revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The arrested man was identified as Muhammad Iliyaz, who runs a shop at Burma Bazaar.
The surprise checks were conducted based on a specific tip. At least six NIA officials from the Kochi NIA had come to the city and conducted the surprise check at specific locations and in a shop functioning at the Evening Bazaar near the RBI subway. Nearly 50 police personnel from the Armed Reserve unit helped the NIA officials. The raid started on Thursday afternoon and went on till 9 pm. NIA officials took Iliyaz to Kochi for questioning.
In December 2022, the NIA arrested nine people from the Sri Lankan refugee camp in Tiruchy. All of them were allegedly connected to Haji Salim, a drug dealer operating out of Pakistan. Haji Salim is suspected to be related to the incident where a boat carrying 300 kg of heroin, five AK-47 assault rifles, and 1,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition was intercepted by Indian defence forces in March 2021 near Kerala’s Vizhinjam port.
The Medical Supplies Division (MSD) of the Ministry of Health has temporarily withdrawn the use of an anaesthetic drug used for surgeries in Sri Lanka with immediate effect.
Accordingly, the use of three categories of the relevant drug has been temporarily withdrawn.
The drug was received under the Indian Line of Credit, and was distributed to Sri Lanka by an Indian pharmaceutical company.
However, the decision was taken owing to the fact that the quality of the drug cannot be tested within Sri Lanka, and was brought based on its performance in other countries and the relevant certificates provided by India.
– Ranil says he will consult all parties concerned and a presidential poll may be held early 2024
– Informs opposition MPs that he presently has the numbers in Parliament
– Will call for Parliament to work as one after IMF agreement presented in House
President Ranil Wickremesinghe will contest the next Presidential Election and has hinted at a possible presidential poll to be held early next year, the Daily Mirror learns.
In a meeting held with minority political party parliamentarians this week, Wickremesinghe informed them that he would contest as a presidential candidate and would call for an election early next year following consultations with the Elections Commission, Treasury and Attorney General.
Wickremesinghe also informed the opposition parliamentarians that the economy was on an upward trend and would improve in the coming months. The President said the country was in a better position when compared to a few months ago and once the economy stabilizes, he would consult all political parties and other parties concerned and call for a presidential poll.
The President further said that he would call on all political parties in parliament to work as one to implement the IMF reforms in order to strengthen the economic revival after he presents the IMF agreement before Parliament in April or May.
To those opposition parliamentarians who want to join the government, Wickremesinghe encouraged these MPs to come with their respective groups or political parties and if the party leadership is not willing to join the government, then the MPs can cross over on their own.
Sources who attended the meeting told Daily Mirror that Wickremesinghe had however informed the parliamentarians that he presently had a comfortable majority in Parliament, and hence he was not in any rush to take MPs from the opposition. He said if these MPs want to cross over they should do so voluntarily and not under political pressure or expecting portfolios in return and those who do not want to cross over, but yet want to support him can do so.
He said such MPs would be allocated tasks and designations to support the government while being in the opposition so that all parties could be united in taking the economy further.
Several opposition parliamentarians including from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya are in discussions with the President and have informed him that they are ready to support him in taking the country forward. (Jamila Husain)
Fiscal stability refers to a condition or state in which a country’s government manages its finances responsibly and sustainably, with its revenues and expenditures in balance or in a stable and manageable relationship over time.
It is often characterized by a government’s ability to effectively manage its fiscal policies, including taxation, spending, borrowing, and debt management, to maintain a stable and sustainable fiscal position.
Fiscal stability is crucial for the overall health and well-being of an economy, as it impacts the government’s ability to meet its financial obligations, provide essential public services, and promote economic growth.
A fiscally stable government is able to generate sufficient revenues to cover its expenditures, without accumulating excessive debt or resorting to unsustainable fiscal practices.
There are several key components of fiscal stability, which include:
1. Balanced Budget: A balanced budget is one in which a government’s total revenues match or exceed its total expenditures in a given period. This means that the government is not running a deficit (spending more than it takes in) or a surplus (taking in more than it spends), but rather maintains a balanced fiscal position.
2. Debt Management: Responsible debt management is an important aspect of fiscal stability. This involves managing the government’s borrowing and debt levels prudently and sustainably. Governments may borrow to finance deficits or to invest in infrastructure, education, or other areas that promote long-term economic growth. However, excessive debt levels can lead to debt servicing burdens, increased interest costs, and potential risks to fiscal stability.
3. Sustainable Revenue Sources: Fiscal stability requires a diversified and sustainable revenue base that is sufficient to cover the government’s expenditures. This may include a mix of taxes, fees, and other sources of revenue that are stable, predictable, and capable of generating sufficient revenues to meet government obligations.
4. Prudent Spending: Responsible spending is a critical element of fiscal stability. Governments need to prioritize spending on essential areas such as infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social welfare programs while avoiding wasteful spending and managing expenditures sustainably.
5. Economic Growth: A growing economy can contribute to fiscal stability by generating increased tax revenues and reducing the need for deficit spending. Governments can implement policies that promote economic growth, such as investment in infrastructure, education, and innovation, which can positively impact fiscal stability in the long term.
Fiscal stability is critical to a government’s ability to meet financial obligations, maintain essential public services, and promote economic growth.
Balanced budgets, responsible debt management, sustainable revenue sources, prudent spending, and fostering economic growth are all critical components of achieving and maintaining fiscal stability.
It is critical for a country’s overall economic health and well-being, and it necessitates prudent fiscal policies and responsible management of government finances.
Further, fiscal stability is critical for a country’s overall economic health and well-being, and it necessitates prudent fiscal policies and responsible government finance management.
Overall, fiscal stability is critical for a country’s overall economic health and well-being, and it necessitates prudent fiscal policies and responsible government finance management.
Selling state enterprises is not the right thing to do. If Sweden, Singapore and even Sri Lanka before 1972 could do it, state business undertakings can profit and run efficiently. However, the current state of affairs surrounding state businesses is pathetic and they cannot be salvaged. On top of that Sri Lanka is in a continuing economic downward trend for the fourth year running. Sri Lanka declared its inability to repay loans on April 12, 2022. Under these circumstances the options are very limited. IMF or not Sri Lanka has to sell off government business undertakings to foreign investors just to survive economically. Otherwise it will be a total economic and societal collapse and a foreign takeover of the nation.
All countries other than Cuba and North Korea invite foreign investors. Even developed countries and their geopolitical rivals like China, Russia and India encourage foreign investors. Sri Lanka cannot be the exception.
Combined losses of all loss-making State Owned Enterprises exceed the total government education and healthcare allocation combined! This is a terminal economic illness affecting Sri Lanka.
A comparison of foreign direct investments as a percentage of GDP (for comparison) in Sri Lanka and India shows where Sri Lanka went wrong. Until 2005 (inclusive) Sri Lanka received more foreign direct investments as a percentage of GDP than India. However, since 2006 every year India beat Sri Lanka in receiving more foreign direct investments than Sri Lanka.
What’s worse is that since 2012 Sri Lanka’s loss has been India’s gain in this regard. India performs exceptionally well economically despite massive challenges. It is mostly due to foreign investments. Most surprising is the fact that India closed its doors to foreign investors until the collapse of the Soviet Union whereas Sri Lanka opened its doors since 1977. Still, India has come a long way in overtaking Sri Lanka in receiving more foreign investments than Sri Lanka in comparative terms (and of course in real terms too).
Sri Lanka has mostly positive outcomes from foreign investors.
There are various levels of foreign investments. One is where the foreign investor outright purchases an entity wholly or in part with management control. The other is when a foreign investor enters into joint ventures with local companies. Another is when foreign investors buy shares of local companies traded in the Colombo Stock Exchange. All three forms are important and essential for Sri Lanka. The most controversial has been the first type. However, Sri Lanka’s experience in this regard has been mostly positive.
A host of state entities were sold (wholly or partly) to foreign investors in the 1980s and early 1990s. They have performed very well. They have employed a large number of locals, paid their taxes (after the tax concession period ended), made donations and sponsorships to locals, made additional investments in these ventures and removed the state burden of investment, management and running losses. Some of them include United Motors Lanka Limited, Buhari Hotels Limited, Ceylon Cold Stores Limited, The National Milk Board, Dankotuwa Porcelain, Pugoda Textile Mills, Thulhiriya Textile Mills, Distilleries Corporation of Sri Lanka, Oils and Fats Corporation, Tyre Corporation, Veyangoda Textile Mills, Leather products Corporation, State Hardware Corporation.
A few of them have scaled down their business due to global business reasons. These would have prevailed irrespective of the ownership. They handled these very well without burdening taxpayers and without trapping Sri Lanka in a debt trap.
However, large government corporates resisted privatization. Some of them were privatized in the late 1990s with remarkable outcomes. There was a time when Sri Lankans had to wait for a decade or more to get a telephone connection. With the sale of a majority stake in SLT in the 1990s the Japanese investor revolutionized Sri Lanka’s telecommunications sector. It was turned highly profitable and private and business customers massively benefited from new deregulation and efficiency that came with it. Without this foreign investment, Sri Lanka would have languished in extreme backwardness. Foreign investors did wonders to Sri Lanka’s mobile phone and internet market.
Privatization of Lanka Gas was another epic win for Sri Lanka. That too totally upgraded the gas sector in the island despite many allegations of price hikes, etc. Had it been in government ownership, global price hikes would have resulted in national bankruptcy as the government would have yielded into public pressure to keep prices low and borrowed foreign loans to pay for the difference. That would have landed Sri Lanka in the current mess in the 1990s. Later the gas industry underwent radical change with local and government business entities taking back from the foreign investor as a commercial transaction (not nationalization). Building local business acumen and resilience is another success story of privatization.
Though blamed for price hikes on privatization, there was nothing unusual. Sri Lanka’s gas prices still remained lowest in the region as price increases were driven by global price changes.
Privatization of Srilankan Airlines was yet another success story. Not only did that relieve the government of losses and the burden of investments, it also earned a profit for the government! Srilankan Airlines rose the ranks in the quality of service under the foreign investor. The biggest benefit came in 2001 when Tamil terrorists destroyed most of its fleet. Unknown to most, Srilankan Airlines bounced back within a year without any government burden! In wide contrast, the same airline is making massive losses since the government took it back over and the now forgotten Mihin Air (another government business venture) failed leaving massive losses for taxpayers to pay.
Under the foreign investor, ticket cost did not increase compared to other airlines providing similar service. In fact, it reduced as economies of scale were obtained. Since the government taking over their tickets are over-priced compared to other regional airlines.
In conclusion, while turning around government owned businesses by restructuring while keeping government ownership is preferred, it has always failed in Sri Lanka, and the ongoing economic crises make it impossible to restructure them. Privatization, especially selling off to foreign investors, remains the only economic way out for Sri Lanka. As the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers. Those who trapped Sri Lanka into this desperate corner are responsible for eliminating options for the nation. If the only available option is not taken, the nation will go bankrupt resulting in civil war and disintegration. Sri Lanka will be unable even to purchase weapons and fuel for military vehicles. Those who think military might can survive without economic might are still living in the 15th century, on the verge of another foreign takeover.
A few weeks ago, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) posted a ‘wanted’ advertisement for a Financial Consultant ‘to provide guidance on investment decisions, cash management and dy-to-day organisational expenses. The expanded responsibilities include, ‘forecasting costs and revenues, conducting risk analysis for financial plans, evaluating capital expansion options and to provide guidance and recommendations to the Chairman and the Board on all finance related matters.’
On the face of it, this is a good move. In fact all state owned enterprises, statutory bodies, state institutions including ministries ought to be regularly monitored and evaluated, inefficiency and incompetence determined and action taken against those responsible if that be the case. The flip side — and we say this taking into consideration the history of such exercises — is to place an agent or set of agents in such positions with an informal but specific brief: deliver ‘findings’ that can justify policy directions already envisaged.
In any event, Minister Kanchana Wijesekera has been saying a lot about cost-reflective pricing, amending legislation and restructuring. All good, except that there’s more than one way to skin the cost reflecting pricing cat and he’s opted to kick the poor and cushion the rich, ensuring that Sri Lanka adds to dollar-expenses for oil and coal to keep the latter satisfied. Except that he seems to believe that restructuring is about kicking non-engineering unions in the teeth and turning a blind eye to inefficiencies, over-staffing and the shady schemes related to the engineers. Except that we are yet to hear him talk specifics in relation to legislative enactment in relation to doing away with archaic clauses which in the name of energy security ensure continued dependence on dollar draining imports.
Sri Lanka, not too long ago, was ahead of India in terms of national coverage. India at the time was heavily dependent on coal and thermal energy. Power cuts were normal. In 2015 Prime Minister Modi essentially told the Indian counterparts of CEB officials that India will go for solar power. They were required to fall in line or else.
Today most of India’s state grids are completely self-sufficient and that country is even exporting electricity to Bangladesh. Modi’s drive in fact had a significantly positive impact on the global solar scenario. India believes that a KWH of electricity could be generated at a cost of just 4 US cents!
What’s Sri Lanka’s story? Given the relative total generating potential, scale, population and demand, Sri Lanka could have produced a surplus. Had the CEB got its act together (a tough ask given entrenched personal interests of high-ranking officials and the complicity of politicians), looked at global trends and technological development, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have ended up in this pathetic dollar-deficient, import-dependent situation.
Numbers. Sri Lanka needs 4,000-4,500 MW of installed capacity to meet currebtpeak demand. Now Bangladesh’s current requirement is 20,000 MW, projected to at least double by 2050. They don’t have major renewable resources and will have to look to fossil fuel thermal and nuclear energy well into the future. The CEB? To put it bluntly, it’s a matter of monkey-sees, monkey does. No working or innovative expertise, no vision, no compulsion; not since Wimalasurendra.
The CEB, Wijesekera must know, cannot be ignorant of the fact that Sri Lanka has tremendous renewable generation potential well in access of even projected increase in local demand. Today countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are talking of importing solar based electrical energy from Australia via an undersea cable almost 4,200 km in length called the ‘Sun Cable.’ Sri Lanka is just 1,800 km away from Bangladesh, a fact that can only become significant if Sri Lanka aggressively pursued the eminently logical option of developing the renewable sector inclusive for export purposes.
It seems logical because even today, the general rule of thumb for the CEB to meet peak demand is to depend on thermal energy. ‘Emergency power,’ when required all the time, year on year for over a decade, makes the adjective meaningless. The CEB has no plan to reduce reliance on emergency power which translates in practical terms to that which a preferred supplier can deliver upon a quick call. Greasing of palms then? Kanchana’s Financial Consultant (FC), if appointed and if possessing any integrity, may find out.
The CEB, it is well known, fought hard to scuttle plans for enhancing the contribution of renewables which, theoretically could satisfy the entire demand for electricity and even double it for export. The CEB grudgingly agreed to a plan to bump the slice to 70% but this hasn’t moved from policy to implementation. Another question that the FC could address. Interestingly, no other country in the world has quibbled over numbers related to targets.
Engineers simply say ‘more expensive, it’s not worth it.’ And they point to archaic related to unwarranted concern about energy security which, interestingly, goes against the economic thinking of this government, namely the limitation on maximum installed capacity by a private sector power producer, 50MW. So, ‘Mega Solar’ is out of the question.
The CEB sites ‘inertia,’ as an inhibiting factor. In other words, thermal energy is generated more or less at a constant, whereas solar is dependent on factors that cannot be controlled, bad weather days, cloud cover etc. Inconsistency plugged into the grid is harder to balance and could trigger it to trip, this is correct. However the concern of instability is easily addressed and indeed has been addressed in countries with worse an ‘inhibiting factor’ not just those that are developed, but by countries in Latin America as well. Maybe the CEB is ignorant, lack sector working expertise or, worryingly, know very well that such transformation could trip cutbacks.
Perhaps this is why the CEB seems to be so averse to digitising the grid. The know-how and technology exists, however, to put in place a highly digitised oversight and dispatch control system based on predictive artificial intelligence on both the generation and demand side, capable of even a 15 minute dispatch interval. Instead, someone has to make a manual intervention to a power generator, is able to fiddle with choice of who andnumbers, scaremonger governments to submission and make a sweet deal with a supplier cutting into Sri Lanka’s exchange reserves. Digitisation would make things algorithm driven. transparent. Accountable. Good for all except whoever is making bucks by blocking the move towards renewables. Maybe Kanchana could hire an FC who is well versed in technologies used in other countries. Indeed there are probably many Sri Lankan expatriates who would fit the bill. Would the CEB embrace such an option and if not, why not? Would Kanchana ask his buddies in the World Bank and IMF to facilitate digitisation? Would they say ‘no’? Unlikely.
The CEB has also talked of the problem posed by grid infrastructure or lack thereof, e.g. ‘we need to build more high tension transmission lines.’ This is a barefaced lie. To put it crudely, no transformer on the planet will argue about the source of generation. Doesn’t know, doesn’t care. As long as you feed the electricity to the specification the transformer is built to receive.
For example, if floating solar panels were installed in all the reservoirs currently producing hydropower, ensuring that less than 15% of the relevant surfaces are used in order not to infringe upon environmental concerns, the very same transformers could be used. The same high tension grid as it is for hydro. The hydropower could be used as back up or to address inertia issues, again based on a system of AI-based generation governance and balance that is transparent and accountable and greasing-free.
The truth is that we would not be needing any backup or ‘emergency power generation’ if we utilised the existing hydro-generation reservoirs,Negombo, Kalpitiya, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Jaffna lagoons, all locations there are currently touched by transmission lines. No additional infrastructure expenditure, but enabling massive solar generation even at using just 15% of the surface so that there are no environmental concerns.
And that’s just solar. There’ also wind. The CEB, it must be mentioned, has never spent mega bucks on developing the sector to any degree of success. Failure perhaps, success no. The Treasury provides the money, the CEB operates and maintains, spending only for these functions.
Back to numbers. The current peak demand is projected to double by 2030, requiring an additional 15,000 GWhrs annually (4,000-4,500 MW installed capacity) to be provided to the grid. As is, the lagoons and the Mahaweli reservoirs could generate 8,000 MW, meaning that at any given time there’s at least 4,000-4,500 MWs for export, provided of course that there is investment for installation of under sea cables. Do not restrict ones self to existing transformer capacity/ grid connectivity network and more can be exported.
Currently peak demand is 4000-4500 MW or around 15,000 GWhrs a year. By 2030, demand is projected to rise 30,000 GWhrs and therefore an additional 15,000 needs to be provided to the grid. The lagoons and the Mahaweli System at minimum can generate 8,000 MW (as is). At any given time we can export 4000-4500 MW for export. MINIMUM. If we exploit the full solar potential only on floating solar capacities, we can be a dominant net energy exporter in the region. CEB will never be a bankrupt institution, never be a dollar-demanding institute but actually a dollar-earning institute.
Yes, there are costs. Floating solar panels don’t fall from the sky or drip along with sunbeams. If, say, the installation cost is 1.5 million USD per MW, the total cost would be in the region of 6 billion USD. Obviously, it should be opened to private investors. If Kanchana and this government is truly ok with that kind of economic policies, then, why not? We would not be needing a single dollar on imports to produce coal or thermal power. Bad idea? What would the FC say? It can’t be done by limiting maximum generation to 10MW by the private sector. Mega solar is the answer.
As of now, neither Kanchana nor anyone in the CEB seem interested. If no one is, it means that rank idiocy and corruption could be the main reasons. Or rank incompetence. The FC could tell us, of course. And maybe we will have meaningful change which of course requires the necessary restructuring of thinking-ways, frames of reference and of course overall, long-term objectives of energy security and insulation against dollar-dependency.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has busted a racket allegedly working for the revival of a militant group in Sri Lanka. The agency has arrested one member and seized illegal proceeds.
The National Investigation Agency has seized a huge cache of cash, gold bars, mobile phones, memory cards, drugs and documents, along with other incriminating material, during raids and searches at the Chennai residential and business premises of eight suspects.
The crackdown on Thursday was on Indo-Sri Lankan illegal drugs and arms trade racket, which allegedly was working for the revival of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organisation in Sri Lanka involved in the civil war in the island nation.
In the operation, which began in July last year, the probe agency arrested one of the members of the racket, identified as Ayyappan Nandhu.
Ayyappan Nandhu allegedly managed the drug trade on behalf of Muhammed Asmin, a Sri Lankan refugee and a drug trafficker who conspired with other accused to revive LTTE through drugs and arms trade.
The agency so far has arrested 14 people, 13 from previous raids, including at the Special Detention Camp in Trichy
(Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves grew in March to the highest in over a year after the South Asian nation clinched a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
The stockpile increased to $2.69 billion from $2.22 billion in February, according to data released by the central bank on its website. The reserves include a swap facility from the People’s Bank of China equivalent to about $1.4 billion, which helped lift reserves to a previous high of $3.14 billion in December 2021, even though it has conditions on usability.
On March 20, the IMF board approved the 48-month loan program and subsequently disbursed about $333 million as a first tranche, which helped to stabilize Sri Lanka’s economy and let the nation begin restructuring its debt. The endorsement by the Washington-based lender is expected to unlock more funding and provide a reform framework to enable the island nation to recover from its worst economic crisis in decades.
Improving investor sentiment has also boosted the local currency, while rising worker remittances and tourism has helped ease balance-of-payments constraints after the nation last year ran out of dollars to pay for essentials, including food, fuel and medicines.
Sri Lanka last month took a key step toward winning the cooperation of its external bondholders for restructuring $84 billion in debt by agreeing to include local-currency bonds in the program. The exercise, which will include the shorter term Treasury bills held by the nation’s central bank as well as some longer-term Treasury bonds, is intended to reduce the burden on foreign commercial creditors by providing the concessions needed for Sri Lanka to achieve debt sustainability.
The Central Bank Governor and the leaders of the country must be mindful to work and not complain, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said. I have done this job for the last nine years. Have I ever complained or cried for a single day? We did our work despite a war. That is what is required of a Central Bank Governor and leaders of the country,” Cabraal said.
https://youtu.be/YIMvgo1ITJg
There is no point in talking to us anymore, or the leader of this country. You must ask these questions in Washington as they are now controlling our country and economy,” he added responding to questions by journalists.
Sri Lankan migrant workers’ foreign remittances have seen a sharp increase in March 2023, according to the figures published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).
Thereby, workers’ remittances amounted to USD 568.3 million last month, recording an increase of more than USD 161 million from February 2023.
Sri Lanka consecutively registered over USD 400 million in migrant workers’ remittances in the first quarter of 2023, with cumulative inflows reaching USD 1,413.2 million.
Workers’ remittances climbed to USD 437.5 million and USD 407 million in January and February, respectively.
Dr Sudath Gunasekara. Ex- Permanent Secretary Prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranayaka and President Mahanuwara Senior citizens Movement
BRICS alliance working to create its own currency, says Russian official
1 min read . Updated: 02 Apr 2023, 10:25 PM IST Anwesha Mitra
(L-R) Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping leave after a group picture during BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in Benaulim, in the western state of Goa, India, October 16, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – S1BEUHGQRWAA
The bloc grouping the emerging economic heavyweights Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are reportedly working on their own currency – established on a strategy that ‘does not defend the dollar or euro’.
Moscow has found itself reeling under an avalanche of sanctions and restrictions as the Ukraine Russia war rages. Against this backdrop, President Vladimir Putin adopted a new foreign policy this week, identifying China and India as its main allies on the world stage. Now, the ties between the three nations (and a few others) appear poised to go a step further with the formation of a new currency.
According to reports quoting Russian lawmaker Alexander Babakov, the BRICS nations are in the process of creating a new medium for payments – established on a strategy that “does not defend the dollar or euro”. He reportedly indicated that the new currency would be secured by gold and other commodities such as rare-earth elements.
While the claim is yet to be verified by other officials from the member nations, it came mere days before South Africa sent senior officials to Russia to discuss “recalibration of the global order” with President Vladimir Putin’s party. The country is also slated to host a BRICS summit in August this year.
ALSO READ: Russia adopts new foreign policy amid war, cites India, China as main allies
Earlier on Friday, President Putin adopted a new foreign policy that put India and China at the forefront. The announcement also came mere days after Chinese premier Xi Jinping visited Moscow to further cement the “no limits” partnership announced last year.
“Russia will continue to build up a particularly privileged strategic partnership with the Republic of India with a view to enhance and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances,” the statement said.
It also announced its intention to prioritise and enhance its capacity and international role in groupings such as BRICS ‘to help adapt the world order to the realities of a multipolar world’.
My Comments
I warmly welcome this move as I see it as a new move for a free world. This will mark the end of western colonial repression and exploitation and the dawn of the Birth of a New World Order”? I see it as the prophecy by Samuel Huntingdon made in1996 coming true. His 1996 thesis was The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order” where he argued that the future wars of the world will be between cultures and not countries.
I call upon the BRICKS also to form a new UNO to replace the present UNO and allied organizations run as the monopoly of the Western world in order to make all countries free as I had proposed in the following article
An Independent Afro-Asian UNO to replace the Western dictated UNO? That exploit the So-called Third world countries and eternally trying to keep them as their dependencies.
Posted on July 6th, 2010
Dr. Sudath Gunasekara President Senior Citizens Movement Mahanuwara. 7.7.2010
September last year I wrote on the need for an independent Afro-Asian UNO in view of the anti -Asian and anti-African attitude of the UNO under its present dominance by the western powers. Now with the final appointment of a Committee by its Secretary General under the pressure from these powers it clear that the need for such organization has become more crucial. I reiterate the urgent need for such a new world organization to protect the Asian and African countries from western harassing and also to address the needs of the Afro-Asian countries.
I reproduce what I wrote last year below. I would like to add only one comment regarding the role of Japan and South Korea to this article. These two countries which are pro-American at present I think should now adopt a pro-Asian attitude to common regional problems.
My sympathies with Ban Moon the present Secretary General though he represents an Asian country, he is struggling to gain a second term by representing the western interests. Today he acts only as a puppet in the hands of US ‚ his religious convictions, personal greed for the second term. It is a tragedy that he does not realize that thereby he is going against one of his Asian Nation State. His religious conviction, the influence of his church and personal greed for the second term and perhaps the benefits he may be getting from the Tamil Diaspora may have made him to forget the Sri Lankan government’s support he got last time to gain this position. Had the Sri Lankan Government supported its own man Jayantha Danapala things would have been different.
My article of 27.9.2009.
Going by how things are been currently manipulated at the UNO by the West and its allies and how shabbily and discriminately Asian countries like ours are treated, I fully endorse L. Jayasooriyas proposition (Asian Tribune) that we must look for an alternative Asian (or Afro-Asian) UNO in place of the present disintegrating (politically, Economically and culturally) West dominated neocolonial exploiter gang dancing to the tune of USA in order to destabilize and pauperize the small countries who are trying to rise from the abysmal depths in to which these very colonial powers have driven us from the beginning of the 16th century. The UNO today has forgotten its Charter and has got reduced to a United Neo-colonial Outfit of the west. The main aim of these ex-colonial exploiters is to keep these Afro-Asian countries in eternal poverty entrenched in political disarray and ethnic wars so that they could sell their arms and all other industrial stuff including outdated technology and continue their neo- colonial exploitation in order to perpetuate their hegemony and prosperity.
However, they little realize that their days of supremacy in all aspects, such as economic, military and intellectual are a thing of the past; at least the journey to that destination has already begun with the election of Obama as the President of the United States of America. As Samuel Huntington, the renowned Harvard professor, has very aptly pointed out in his The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order (1997) the Euro-American face of Western affluence and political influence, universality of the western culture and the beliefs are no more tenable. Today it is false, immoral and dangerous to have such a view as he says. America today is a disparate nation, whereas countries like Sri Lanka are not. This is what unfortunately the west has failed to understand. They have become the victims of their affluence which is a direct product of colonial exploitation. Rejection of the western creed and civilization as Huntington has argued means the end of the USA. It also means effectively the end of western civilization. Like all other world civilizations today the western civilization has entered in to the stage of internal decay and therefore it is marching towards the grand finale of its end in the same manner other past word civilizations like the Greek, Roman and Ottoman etc did. What is more is now it is universally accepted that tomorrow once again, as it had been in the golden past, belongs to the East and not to the West.
In this backdrop it is high time that these western powers at least now renounce their assumed supremacy mentality and learn to treat all nations as equals, irrespective of their geographical size and economic power. I am making this comment especially in the context of the current attitude of the west towards my own country particularly after the Sri Lanka government has successfully defeated the LTTE terrorist outfit after 30 long years of suffering and destruction. The whole world knows how the western camp and even India were instrumental in training and arming the LTTE to destabilize this little Island, the Home of Theravada Buddhism and the Land of the Sinhala people for the past 2500 years. But thanks to the Present President and his able team led by the Secretary Defense and the Heads of the three forces with Sarath Fonseka in command, we were fortunately able to defeat all those diabolical conspiracies. By doing that I think Sri Lanka has achieved a historic victory. Both in its scale and military ramifications and also external involvements, this was the biggest and the most difficult war ever fought on Sri Lankan soils. What everybody thought unwinnable the Sri Lankan government has won and set an example to the whole world for which they have to be thankful to this little Island nation. Because it has set the modus operandi as to how terrorists should be eliminated. In the aftermath of the war it should be the duty and the obligation of the entire world in the name of world peace and humanity to help Sri Lanka to raise its head out of thirty years of destruction and devastation left by these terrorists and re-emerge as a politically and economically stable state. The whole world also should help Sri Lanka to trace the remaining remnants of LTTE and eliminate them not only to complete the mission carried out by Sri Lanka but also to free the whole world from terrorism. Instead of intimidating this little Island the west should help to complete the wonderful job the Sri Lankan government has done in defeating the LTTE. The burden is more so, on the part of those western countries such as the United Kingdom who are directly as well as indirectly responsible for this unfortunate situation in countries like Sri Lanka. Although the LTTE has been physically defeated on Sri Lankan soils we have to remember that it’s widely spread tentacles both at home and over the globe are still not dead.
Now let us see what some of these countries are doing instead and how they behave nakedly again to destabilize this Island Nation to fulfill their own agendas, completely ignoring the independence, sovereignty and the democratic right to manage our own affairs. The major issues they are gunning at are the question of IDPs, violation of human rights, so-called excesses in the concluded war against LTTE terrorism, freedom of the press and a political solution to the so-called ethnic problem that exist only in their own minds. See the blatant duplicity ‚y ‚ compared with what the”¹…”Bush Doctrine ‚ stated in 2001 that it would not distinguish between ‚ organizations and nations or governments that harbor them
The problem here is the tiny Sri Lankan government ‚ has done in two and half years what these major powers could not do for decades. I know it is a shame on them as it was acknowledged even by the New York Times.
They also must now be trying to take revenge for not conceding to their pressure to save Pirapahan and his lieutenants at the last moment ‚ When they did so, they little realized that they are interfering with the independence and sovereignty of an independent nation and also with the mandated right of the government of Sri Lanka to conduct its internal governance according to the will of its own people. It is true that there are international conventions and treaties governing certain actions of individual nations but you can’t have one criterion for America and its allies and another for smaller countries like Sri Lanka. What the Sri Lankan government has done is it has put an end to an internal terrorist movement that was pestering its very existence for nearly 30 long years, internationalized and supported by these very forces now again trying to give a new lease of life to LTTE under different names like human rights and war crimes. ‚ I also must say that we as a member of the UNO have not violated any principle enshrined in the UN Charter either.
On the other hand, what moral right do they have to advise us on matters like human rights and excesses of war etc when they are the real culprits who have done worst things in other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam? I am sure how suspects are treated in Guantanamo has no conceivable parallels, in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government is only trying to rehabilitate those victimized by the LTTE. Of cause in the process the legitimate government of the country also has to weed out the LTTE elements who take cover under the IDP flag with the intention of regrouping and reorganizing in the future.
According to New York Times/The Nation, US $ 800 billion have been spent on the Iraq war. 130,000 US troupes (in addition to other European carders and 75 US bases are involved; 14040 journalists and 600,000 civilians have been so far killed; there are 5 million IDPS suffering 70 % of whom do ‚ not have even adequate water. The Iraq war began in March 2003. In Afghanistan they started the war in 2001 and an equal number if not more people have been killed. What right do they have severally and jointly to invade those countries and kill their people in tens of thousands. Are they not war crimes? Why didn’t Banki Moon take action against such gross violations? Have they not violated human rights in a global scale? The pot calling the kettle black, though we cannot be categorized as a kettle for the simple reason that we have not violated any such human right, as we were only defending the country against an internationally manipulated terrorist outfit which has waged a brutal war to destroy this country? We also have not invaded someone country as they have done. Was it not the USA who trained and financed Al-Queda against Russia in Afghanistan and finally got the retribution with enhanced interest when they attacked the World Trade Centre on 1.11.2001?
Similarly, was it not the UK who provided a heaven for global terrorism by accommodating Al-Queda and LTTE Head Quarters in London even after they have been named and banned as terrorist organizations.
Shenali Waduge recently has lucidly exposed UKs involvement in global terrorist activities under Has not Britain been sponsoring terror?
(Wed, 2009-09-23) I reproduce the whole thing here because it is so interesting to get a clear idea of their duplicity. I do so for the benefit of those who may have not read this in view of its importance as an invaluable source of information
I quote,
It was in 2000, that the Editors of Executive Intelligence Review requested the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to review the British Governments role in supporting international terrorism this request came largely on the grounds of the British Government asking for the safe passage of Ahmed Omar Sheikh to Britain claiming that they would not prosecute him despite him being sentenced in India for 5 years in 1998.
If the US feels that Britain has been sponsoring international terrorism it has only to enforce the Congressional acts and it is interesting to know why Britain escapes investigation but then who said the US has a clean record where funding international terrorism remains a hot topic. When G8 nations account for over 90% of manufacture and sale of arms we need not look very far for the culprits and source for where terrorists get their arms and weapons from. Of course, the funds used largely arise from drug trade and other illicit activity for which again these powerful states are in a position to dislodge, if they have the will to do so and relieve the world of all the scrooges that prevail.
Take a few examples in 1996, the US military base in Saudi Arabia was bombed killing 19 US soldiers, M Massari, Head of London-based Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights promised more such strikes yet the British Government granted Massari exceptional leave (4 year refugee permit) to remain in Britain. Massari is closely attached to Osama bin Laden as well and would anyone be surprised that he continues to maintain a residence in wealthy Wembly and London, London also happens to be the head quarters of Bin Laden Advise and Reform Commission. Then, again the LTTE headquarters was also in the UK and LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham and wife were openly canvassing for the LTTE terror movement without any problems by the UK Government.
Also that same year, a former British M15 officer (David Shayler) admitted that British Security Services financed ‚£100,000 to a London based Islamic terrorist group to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi.
Would it not be correct to assume that it was because the British Government had funded terrorist activity that in 1997 a Tory MP, Nigel Waterson felt the need to introduce legislation (Conspiracy and Incitement bill) to ban foreign terrorists from operating on British soil? This bill came soon after the scandal over Britain providing safe haven for Massari. However, Labor MR George Galloway blocked the bill by claiming that the Bill will change political asylum in this country in a profound and dangerous way. It will change a state of affairs that has existed since Napoleon. Time, ¦.We are all in favor of controlling terrorism in Britain. Surely not a single honorable Member has any truck with terrorism here, but we are talking about terrorism in other countries the bill will criminalize such people, even though they have not broken any law in Britain or caused any harm to the Queen peace in her realm
A year later, we can recall the massacre of tourists in Egypt where 62 died perpetrated by Gamaa al-Islamiya whose leaders have been provided political asylum in Britain and calls for extradition by Egyptian authorities even summoning the British Ambassador and demanding that Britain stop providing safe haven to terrorists even going so far as to say that identified Britain as the main center for radical plotting assassinations Egypt did not stop there they even opened a State Information Service (Call to Combat Terrorism) on the country official website & listed some of the wasted masterminds of terrorism who are currently enjoying secure and convenient asylum in some world capitals
Of the 14 listed wanted men linked to the Luxor massacre the top 7 were domiciled in London. What about the US terror list released in 1996 with 30 Foreign Terrorist Organizations banned from operating on US soil also finds 6 groups all headquartered in London including Sri Lanka LTTE the others include Al-Jihad (Egypt), Hamas, Armed Islamic Group, Kurdish Workers Party & the Islamic Group. The UK was to go a step further in 1997 by granting permission to Abel Abdel Majid and Adel Tawfiq al-Sirri of the Islamic Group to open fund raising & media offices in London under International Bureau for the Defense of the Egyptian People.
This was despite Majid being implicated in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The Algerian Armed Islamic Group responsible for the assassination of Algerian President Mohamed Boudia most deadliest terrorist organization but it too has been holding its international secretariat in London since 1984 openly canvassing its cause as well as illicitly raising funds and smear campaigns against a democratic Government. Most of the orders for assassinations are delivered via London. So when London-based terrorist groups plans and launches operations to destabilize countries we should not be in the least surprised.
This happened to Yemen in 1998 but the Yemeni authorities were faulted when several of the kidnapped foreigners got killed in the rescue operation. The Yemeni authorities were however immediate in their response by sending back British Scotland Yard officials who had been called to investigate and even went so far as to withdraw its application for British Commonwealth membership.
The connection to Britain by internationally established terror groups is when locating its international bases which all happen to be in London. Egypt, Israel (UK response to accusation of Hamas involvement in several attacks on Israeli We have seen no proof to support allegations that funds raised by the Hamas, in the UK are used directly in support of terrorist acts elsewhere France (Armed Islamic Group ordered a terror war against France), Algeria, Peru (demanded extradition of Adolfo Hector Olaechea but refused by British authorities), Turkey, Germany (following PKK leader Apo Ocalan calling for the assassination of German Chancellor Kohl) and India following the hijacking of Indian Airlines in 1999.
The accusations against Britain from foreign Governments finally got media attention with the Daily Telegraph in 1999 claiming Britain is now an international center for Islamic militancy on a huge scale and the capital is the home to a bewildering variety of radical Islamic fundamentalist movements, many of which make no secret of their commitments to violence and terrorism
Thus, we can safely conclude that terrorists from Britain emerge in every hotbed of terrorist extremism
around the world and therefore should we also conclude that the terror taking place in these countries is perhaps by no accident? This then implies that fundamentalist extremism in the case of the Islamic terrorists and the separatist agenda in the case of LTTE is part and parcel of British policy linked with charities that raise and fund terror campaigns. These accusations against Britain has been documented by a British think tank called Policy Exchange where it cites how the Labor Party and the Foreign Service have promoted radical Islamic terrorism even ensuring that extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK. Yet, the Muslim community in Britain comprises Muslims from Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and India and not so much from Saudi Arabia. So why the British legal system protects the Anglo-Saudi financing of terror and why should British intelligence collaborate with terrorists and their recruiters?
Abu Qatada, a notorious Al-Qaeda operative in London was granted asylum in 1994 the Times of London exposed Qatada as being a M15 double agent in 2004- these dealings obviously to ensure that while terror may be unleashed in other quarters Britain remains untouched or undamaged then what happened in 2005? Britain may have wanted terrorists not to bite the hand that fed them but what if they come home to roost? The irony in the aftermath of the attacks on Britain was that while the entire British police were out chasing for the culprits the British Secret Service was all out to hide them! This obviously equates to mean that despite the anti-terror hype and the counter-terror collaborations the Brits have an ugly habit of providing safe havens for terrorists in Britain.
Therefore, it would be no exaggeration when we say that the world most feared terrorists are all creations of the intelligence services of Governments who have directed their emergence into society as toys to instill terror. The CIA created Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda, the CIA and German intelligence (BND) trained the Kosovo Liberation Army (supported by Al Qaeda) in the 1990s (Balkans) to support NATO war effort against Yugoslavia. A Report published in 1999 by the US defense intelligence agency (DIA) that MI6 was asked to arrange training for the KLA this training was sub-contracted to 2 British private security firms who began trained from bases in Northern Albania. So much so for these passionate and patriotic calls to end terrorism.
So, if we are alarmed to hear that virtuous Britain has been creating and harboring terrorists we should not be surprised to hear Britain complicity in torture. The surprise is meritorious in the light of these very officials demanding Sri Lanka to be investigated for war crimes, human rights violations, denied concessions while these very nations are deeply involved in rendition of suspects to unknown destinations and countries to be tortured and abused with no care for their human rights and has the UN Secretary General been the least concerned about these goings on or has the UN Special Rappateur Prof. Alston ever picked up US, UK and its allies for their HR abuses? What have they done about the British territory of Diego Garcia being used for rendition of suspected terrorists? The British however continue to deny these allegations even though former SAS officers like Ben Griffin (2006) revealed that Iraq s and Afghans had been captured by British and US Special Forces and rendered to prisons where they faced torture. We are unaware of any individuals originally detained by UK authorities and subsequently rendered by the USA Kim Howells, December 2005 (response to parliamentary question)
However David Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary admitted that 2 CIA aircrafts transporting abducted prisoners landed in UK in 2002 for refueling en route to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The admission also recalls Lord Gilbert comments (of UK role in Kosovo) in the House of Commons that the Rambouillet terms offered to the Yugoslav delegation had been absolutely intolerable and designed to provoke war.
The 1994 public inquiry presided by Lord Justice Scott revealed the illegal British arms sales to Iraq this could not have taken place without the explicit approvals of top political figures, very senior civil servants from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defense and the Dept of Trade and Industry in sum the top echelons of the British Government.
Going back to 1965-66 if we recall the blood bath that brought Gen Suharto to power in Indonesia, the scale of British complicity will emerge. The Labor Government under Harold Wilson supplied logistics and intelligence, warships to support Suharto and close upon a million perished as a result of Britain. Documents are to also reveal how Britain acted to ensure that millions perished in Rwanda and ensured through its diplomatic weight that the UN did not use words like genocide Therefore, Genocide and other rants attributed to UN emissaries are obviously with the explicit nods by powerful nations.
The UN too has a Consolidated List the list includes many for plotting to blow up passenger airlines, bomb US embassies, assassinate foreign dignitaries and they are all British citizens residing in different parts of the UK. David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: quite outrageous for these people to carry on living here, many of them on benefits. The Home Secretary should have the right to either lock them up or throw them out of the country, but for that to happen requires a change in the Human Rights Act.
With the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdel al-Megrahi by British authorities fresh allegations against the British Govt surfaced. The US Govt was outraged by the manner Megrahi was welcomed in Libya by Muammar Gaddafi.
Therefore, we can assume that the US and UK do not see eye to eye all the time and it is extremely clear that the British Governments have been applying secret services for their own benefits. With at small terrorist listing it is no surprise that London is the home to most of the world deadliest terrorists and London is also the base for the offices of these terror groups.
We were told that there is a war on terror, unfortunately, we do not know against whom. Is it because nations like the UK and US prefers to have an almost enemy giving them a carte blanche to descend upon nations. What these powerful western nations call terrorism may be an inevitable response to this injustice & certainly not when the maxim followed is one man terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
With development and population increase, national energy requirements will inevitably rise. Fears of exhaustion of the resource and inflation at supply sources, will surely increase prices of coal and oil. Small nations such as ours are bound to lose out.
Two considerations have dominated discourse on Energy issues. (I) Both coal and oil face scarcity, if not extinction. (Ii) Burning of both as fuels, release large quantities of Greenhouse Gases (Methane, carbon dioxide and monoxide), which contribute towards Global Warming.
This has triggered widespread interest in renewable and non-polluting options. Much progress has been made. Electric cars and use of hydrogen, both for motive power, and liquid hydrogen for energy storage, are two thrust areas of research. Electric cars are already a reality, and petrol engines are being phased out in richer countries.
It has been a constant lament of our Electrical Engineers that Long Term Generation Plans have not been adopted and that this has resulted in the current crisis.
It is said that our Hydropower potential has been fully exhausted and no further expansion is possible. Hence the need for new coal or oil-fired generating facilities.
It is doubtful that possibilities for adoption of renewable biological resources for energy generation have been adequately considered. This is surprising and the reasons for this apparent official reluctance is not clear. Despite this lethargy, considerable information on biomass use is available. Additionally, rooftop solar panels are now also common.
The introduction of the Net Metering” system is a great incentive for such domestic power generation.
Wind and large scale solar possibilities are also now being addressed. Meanwhile, a good number of rooftop solar panels, over houses and commercial buildings are already in use. This has evidently not been helped, nor hardly noticed, by the bureaucracy. There is probably ample scope for exploiting this sector. In fact, in the long term interest, even a 100% subsidy on installation costs may be justified. It needs to be stressed that huge transmission costs from generator to customer as now exists, would thereby be eliminated.
The most inexplicable lethargy in taking fair notice of these options, will for the umpteenth time, mean our missing the bus”!
A slight deviation here would be useful. The World’s only primary source of energy is the sun (materially, as substances such as radioactive minerals, or indirectly as sunlight, wind, waves or biomass). It has also to be noted that coal and petroleum are also derived from bio-materials – coal from tree trunks and petroleum from fat of animals, both from over millions of years. Also, in nature, with every step in a chain, there is an accompanying loss. This would mean that a photovoltaic device, or wood would be more efficient for trapping solar energy and converting it to usable form, than coal or oil.
It is estimated that an hour of bright sun is equivalent to 200,000 times the total amount of energy consumed annually by the World, or that the receipt of a mere second of bright sun would provide about 500 times the current annual consumption of energy by man on earth. Clearly, solar energy is an inexhaustible, clean and practically eternal source. However, to trap it all through photoelectric devices now available, would cover an area of Sweden or Morocco.
Developments in the continuing improvement of photo-voltaic cells are proceeding at great speed. In particular large floating panels over water bodies, is seen as an attractive possibility. Some work is also progressing in using well reinforced panels to cover roadways and walkways (pavements). These are possibilities that it would be unwise to ignore.
Nature’s way of purposefully harnessing this energy resource, is through vegetation (and marine organisms). However the extent of incoming radiation being fixed by photosynthesis is estimated to be only around 2 to 4%. The pigment chlorophyll which makes leaves green, is the first step in capturing energy from the sun. The chlorophyll molecule has magnesium at its centre.” The configuration of the magnesium atom is such that when light hits, an electron in it’s structure is knocked out to an outer orbit, using the energy of the incoming sunlight. After this step is over, the electron returns to its stable orbit, releasing the energy absorbed, to drive a step in carbohydrate synthesis.
This is an exquisitely elegant way, to force upon us the humbling reality, that the capture of the energy that drives all of society, flows from the behavior of electrons in elemental Magnesium. Likewise, the delivery of this energy to all of the cells in our bodies, relies on the iron in the pigment hemoglobin, in our blood. So, acting in accord, Magnesium and Iron are in a sense, central to what we call Life”.
Of the light energy emitted by the sun, only a fraction of less than 1% reaches our planet. Of that too, less than a half is in the fraction that chlorophyll can use for photosynthesis. Despite this apparent profligacy, photosynthesis is crucial as a sink for the millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, that human activities discharge annually, into the atmosphere. Vegetation laps this up, and in exchange give us life-giving oxygen. This is why forests are so important. Interestingly, Bhutan is so far, the only country, that through its forest cover of 70% of its land area (the Constitution requires that a minimum of 60% is maintained for posterity), is better than Carbon Neutral”, it is Carbon Negative.”
Internationally, the importance of tree cover is recognized and rewarded by the Carbon Credits” arrangement. This is a kind of parallel of the Net Metering” scheme on a macro scale.
This is a powerful reason for our assiduously
pursuing the option of Dendrothermal Energy”. The potential for this option has led to a wealth of local information. The Late Dr Ray. Wijewardane was an ardent advocate, who deemed that the power needs of a town the size of Kalutara, could be met by 150 hectares of Glyricidia maculata (Wetahira or Makulatha), cultivated and managed. The feasibility of planting Glyricidia as an intercrop in coconut, was extensively studied and endorsed by the work of the Late Dr Jayantha. Gunathilake of the CRI. The use of Biogas generators” as a means of providing gas directly for domestic use, has been demonstrated.
In days gone by, tea estates maintained Wood Lots” mainly of fast growing Gum trees, to supply the needs of tea factories.
So, in summary, much information is available on the potential for sustainable, renewable, economical and clean energy to supplement, perhaps even to replace, fossil based fuels. This must be explored and harnessed before we rush into nuclear or expanded oil and coal facilities.
We are a small and poor country, but blessed by conditions supportive of tree growth and exceptional year round sunlight. Surely these potentials should be examined, the available information harnessed, and workable methodologies worked out. Without which Long Term” generation plans would be incomplete.
