Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Patali Champika Ranawaka has written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) office in Sri Lanka, questioning whether the recently introduced electricity tariffs and the fuel price hike is in accordance with the IMF criteria.
Accordingly, the relevant letter was sent by Ranawaka, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Sub Committee on Economic Stabilization Committee, to the IMF office in Sri Lanka, located in the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) building.
He asserted that the unrealistic taxes imposed on fuel and electricity will ultimately lead to Sri Lanka’s economy further depleting, adding that the IMF will inevitably be held responsible for this.
MP Ranawaka also raised concerns that the public’s opposition to these taxes will eventually jeopardise the country’s debt stabilisation programme.
Over 50 persons, including the convener of the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) Wasantha Mudalige, have been arrested for forcibly entering the Education Ministry in Battaramulla.
The Police stated that nearly 56 persons, including 30 student monks from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, have been arrested.
The group staged a protest today and had entered the Education Ministry, demanding the reopening of the Buddhist and Pali University in Pitipana, Homagama.
The protesters also demanded action against the Police for using tear gas and water cannons to disperse their Sathyagraha held yesterday (22).
The protest comes after the Vice Chancellor of the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, Venerable (Prof) Neluwe Sumanawansa Thero announced today (23) that the university will be opened to first-year students only.
Venerable (Prof) Neluwe Sumanawansa Thero said that the university will be open to first-year students on the 27th of February 2023.
The Venerable Thero said, however, it was not possible to reopen the university for all students at once, and the Administrative Board has advised opening the university in phases
Western medicine as we know it today was introduced to the island by the British. The western tradition did not recognize the Asian systems of medicine and most local doctors trained in western medicine avoided non western medicine. In 1858 Dr. W.C Ondaatje wrote on the empiricism of Singhalese doctors and the advantage of European practice.”
This attitude continued. In 1974, Gananath Obeyesekera did a survey on the attitude of western medical practitioners to Asian medicine. He found that most were not interested in indigenous medicine. But 12 out of his sample of 38 doctors felt that Sinhala vedakam was helpful in certain instances such as arthritis, and oil massage for fractures that has been set.
In the late 19th century, some Ceylonese doctors trained in western medicine had drawn attention to positive aspects of Sinhala Vedakam (Desiya Chikitsa). The first to do so, according to the available records was Dr John Attygalle. John Attygalle, MD (Aberdeen) was the first Sinhalese to qualify in western medicine. He came from a distinguished family of indigenous medical practitioners in Madapatha.
Attygalle wrote Notes on Sinhalese medicine” (1888) and four ‘Notes on the Sinhalese materia medica’ (1887, 1888) to the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the BMA. He then gathered up all the information and wrote a landmark book titled ‘Sinhalese Materia Medica’ (1917).
Next came Dr. Emmanuel Roberts, whose name originally was Ratnajinendra Rabel Ratnaweera. In 1909 he wrote ’Notes on native drugs’ in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the BMA. In 1919 he published a book on ‘Native remedies used in snake bites’
Emmanuel Roberts had a practice in Dehiwela where he prescribed rasakinda and other local herbs to his patients. The elite families of Colombo went to him for medicine, and one of them, the painter Harry Pieris, a descendant of Charles Henry de Soysa, told me that the drugs provide by Dr.Roberts were very palatable, unlike the usual decoctions and that his remedies were available in a pharmacy owned by Roberts, the Oriental Drug Stores. The other doctors used to laugh at him and call him vedarala. Dr Hugh de Mel had also prescribed local remedies when he worked with Dr Roberts.
Desiya Chikitsa practitioners, described as ‘vederala’ by practitioners of western medicine, had managed to hold on despite the arrival of western medicine. Desiya Chikitsa practitioners gave evidence before the Commission on Indigenous Medicine, in 1947.
They emphatically stated that they were not a part of the Ayurveda system, which came from India. Desiya Chikitsa was a distinct medical system with its own treatment. It was particularly effective for snake bite and fractures. They also said that Sinhala Vedakam was not a mere collection of prescriptions, evolved in Sri Lanka, and handed down from generation to generation, as popularly supposed.
John Attygalle had observed in his ’Sinhalese material medica(1917)’that the vedaralas of the historic Udarata kingdom had possessed valuable remedies handed down from father to son, kept strictly within the familyand taken with them to the grave. This would have been picked up and used by those who wished to replace Sinhala Vedakam with India’s medical system, Ayurveda. But the allegation could be contested. There would have been competition among those treating the royal family and secrecy may have been necessary, but secret medicines are simply not possible in a public health care system.
The western trained doctors had looked at the ancient chronicles to see what they said about medicine. John Attygalle looked at medical descriptions in Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa (1917). Then in the 1970s, C de F Goonaratne wrote Some historical aspects of leprosy in the ancient medical literature of Ceylon. (Medical History 1973).
CG Uragoda wrote Medical gleanings from the Mahavamsa’ (1975) and Medical references in ancient inscriptions in Ceylon” (1977) in the Ceylon Medical Journal. Several ancient inscriptions had references to physicians and hospitals, he said.
In 1987, Uragoda wrote History of medicine in Sri Lanka from the earliest times to 1948, issued as the centenary publication of the Sri Lanka Medical Association. This had a chapter titled Medicine under Sri Lankan kings”, where Uragoda gathered together the information he had found in the ancient records.
Uragoda said there was a liberal mention of medical facts in the Mahawamsa. These, taken together with information in the inscriptions, gave fairly good picture of the medical system that prevailed in ancient Sri Lanka.
Uragoda observed that medicine was a respected profession in ancient Sri Lanka .Kings practiced medicine. King Buddhadasa was known as physician king, he appears to have been adept in medicine, surgery and midwifery as well as veterinary medicine. Aggabodhi VII had studied medical plants over the whole island to find out whether they were suitable for the sick. Parakrama bahu I was ‘well versed in medical lore’.
There is mention of physicians in the inscriptions. Two cave inscriptions from Piccandiyava off the Puttalam-Anuradhapura road, dated to the early brahmi period, recorded donations by Gobhuti, who was physician and teacher to a king named Devanampiyatissa. (This need not be the well known king of that name)
The second Dorabawila pillar inscription, of Dappula IV records grant of lands and immunities to a chief physician named Punalna. The lands were exempted of all taxes, an immunity which exceeds the immunities given even to lands owned by the sangha, observed Uragoda. The Chief Physician was a member of the Kings Council and an officer of state. Godakumbura thought that Chief Physician would have been the head of the medical service as well.
There was a betge attached to the royal palace. The physicians of the royal betge were given lands for their use, maintained by the state. The appointments were usually given to the same family, generation after generation.
King Buddhadasa had appointed physicians to villages and given each the produce of ten fields as livelihood. Parakramabahu I had ordered people qualified in the art of healing to seek out villages and market towns and practice their art. ‘To discerning and skilful physicians who were quick at identifying diseases and knew the contents of medical textbooks, he gave maintenance according to their needs, and made them day and night practice the art in the best manner’.
This shows that there was a public health care service in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods. Inscriptions also support this view. There is there is at least one inscription for hospital, another for dispensary and one for medical halls in Anuradhapura, said Uragoda.
Slab inscription of Mahinda IV says that the king established medical halls. Mahavamsa said that Kassapa IV built houses of medicine in different parts of the town. It is not clear whether this refers to chemist’s shops where medicine could be purchased or to our patient treatment centers. Inscriptions of Kassapa V found in Anuradhapura, Medirigiriya and Dorabawila indicate that he had established hospitals and medical halls. The inscription found at Abhayagiri stated that Kassapa V had established royal medical halls near the southern gate of a particular high street.
The Kirbathvehera pillar inscription proclaims immunities bestowed on a dispensary. Uragoda thinks that the paucity of references to outdoor treatment probably indicates that the physician paid home visits rather than the sick attending a central dispensary.
The ancient chronicles carried reference to medicines. Vihara Maha Devi had gifted medicine to the sangha. Dutugemunu had in 18 places constantly bestowed on the sick the food and medicine ordered by the physicians. Moggallana II had gifted medicines to the sangha. Mahinda IV had distributed medicine and beds in all the hospitals and gave the earning from a mandapa to the sangha for purchase of medicines.
Archaeologists have found medicine troughs at Anuradhapura, Mihintale, Medirigiriya, Dighavapi and Polonnaruwa. Uragoda said that these were probably used for immersion therapy. He observed that Sinhala texts on medicine, Yogarnavaya and Prayoga Ratnavaliya (13 century) speak of bath fluids, containing medicinal oils, milk, ghee, and vinegar .This was used for the management of skin disease, fever, and rheumatism. Uragoda thinks that in ancient times, some households would have had their own medicine baths.(continued)
Sri Lanka Canada Association of Markham Suite 135, 4981 Hwy 7 East, Unit 4, Markham, ON L3P 0E3
The Honorable Melanie Joly Minister of Foreign Affairs House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0A6
Feb 15th, 2023
RE: Canada imposes sanctions on Sri Lankan state officials for human rights violations
Ms. Melanie Joly,
As Canadians of Sri Lankan origin, we feel that Canadian foreign policy towards Sri Lanka is extremely biased, unfair, and damaging. Imposing sanctions unilaterally by Canada against two former Presidents of Sri Lanka is unwarranted and serves no purpose, other than politically motivated to please the Tamil Diaspora voter base in Toronto, and the GTA.
The reason given was that two former Presidents of Sri Lanka – Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have allegedly committed Human Rights (HRs) violations during the Tamil terrorist war that ended in May 2009. This is against the fact that none of the reputable nor recognized global Human Rights (HRs) organizations – like United Nation (UN), United Nation Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), International Criminal Courts (ICC), have not imposed any form of sanctions against Sri Lanka. Besides, if violation of HRs is the issue here, why not Canada sanction pro-LTTE associations in Canada, UK, and US, which are equally guilty of raising millions of illegal funds to support a terrorist war that killed thousands of innocent Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims?
After all it was a brutal war started by a vicious terrorist group called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – that invented suicide bombing by sacrificing innocent Tamil children. There is no such thing called a clean war. The wars are always ugly and brutal as we witness daily in Ukraine, and the previous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. However, the difference here is whenever a war is started by the West (NATO), so-called HRs champions like Canada, do not utter a word about HR violations or atrocities committed by the Western (NATO) forces. Rather they call it collateral damage.” Strangely, such standards do not apply to wars in developing countries, like Sri Lanka?
However, to single out a country that had successfully defeated a vicious terrorist group that was determined to carve out a monolithic, fascist separate state in Northern Sri Lanka, is not only unfair but shows clear hypocrisy, double standards, and biased Canadian foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. If anything, Canada should be ashamed of allowing many pro-LTTE Diaspora organizations to collect millions of dollars in Canada for decades, which helped the Tamil terrorists to prolong their atrocities against innocent Tamils, Sinhalese, and Muslims in Sri Lanka. It was thanks to former Prime Minister, Mr. Steven Harper, who stopped the illegal fund raising of pro-LTTE organizations by proscribing LTTE terrorist organization in 2006.
What we Sri Lankans do not understand is the audacity of the Canadian government to weaponize HRs and use it against Sri Lanka – a fellow commonwealth country, which has a long and proud history of democratic freedom and rights for its citizens to elect governments of their choice. Let us focus on human rights violations, since Canada considers itself a champion and a leading voice of HRs everywhere in the world. However, it is nothing short of hypocrisy and dishonesty for Canada to call itself a champion when Canada has one of the, if not the worst, record of human right violations, systemic racism, and genocide against its own indigenous men, women, and children for centuries.
It is indeed laughable that Canada claims itself a HRs protector when its recent past shows just the opposite. Even today, some of the Indigenous communities are living under third-world conditions, with lack of clean drinking water, Medicare, proper housing, and other despicable conditions. Ironically, Canada is busy sanctioning and lecturing countries like Sri Lanka on alleged HRs violations while ignoring the massive scale of such violations of its own citizens of the first nation communities.
We perfectly understand the hypocrisy of the Canadian foreign policies which seem to be based on domestic ethnic politics – pioneered by the Canadian Liberal Party and its present government, especially regarding Sri Lanka. It seems the Liberal Party is under the impression that to win elections, they need to exploit various ethnic communities, especially in major cities, like Toronto and the GTA where the largest ethnic vote blocks are, such as Tamils, Sikhs, Chinese, etc.
We do understand how a well-funded, well-organized, pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora, and number of their Associations have been lobbying the Liberal Government and its parliamentarians relentlessly, to punish Sri Lanka under the false and fabricated propaganda of human right violations – with unproven and unfounded claims of Tamil Genocide.” These claims are not based on facts, but fabricated lies by various pro-LTTE Tamil groups, with zero evidence or credibility to such claims. Not a single Global HR body – such as the UN, UNHRC, ICC, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), have given any legitimacy to these bogus claims. They are purely fabricated by the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora organizations to achieve their political and financial agenda in the Western nations like Canada, UK, US,etc.
One of the false justifications given by Canada for sanctions is that such action would help the ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka. This is a load of bunk, to say the least. If anything, these sanctions will polarize the ethnic communities rather than bringing them together, with peace and harmony. There is not a single country in the world where reconciliation has been achieved by pitting minority ethnic groups against the majority. South Africa did not achieve its reconciliation by punishing white leaders. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa has taken over 20 years since its inception in 1994, to bring closure and reconciliation for its citizens to heal the wounds of apartheid.
Naturally, it takes time to heal the wounds of the ethnic divide in any country. And the truth and reconciliation process must start within the country by the various groups affected – monitored by an impartial third party, rather than interference and pressure from countries like Canada, that are shamelessly exploiting ethnic conflicts to promote and profit from their domestic political agendas.
Canada certainly could have helped Sri Lanka to overcome the painful wounds of the war if it acted genuinely with total honesty and integrity rather than its own self interest. There was a time when Canada had a global reputation as an impartial country that was genuinely interested in peace, harmony, and unity around the world. Unfortunately, that reputation is severely tarnished globally now thanks to its hypocritical and biased foreign policies based on domestic ethnic politics. And its efforts to weaponize HRs and democracy to punish countries like Sri Lanka has eroded its image further.
If Canada is genuinely interested, it could have certainly helped Sri Lanka by providing humanitarian support, such as food, medicine, to help the people of Sri Lanka, who are severely affected by the worst economic disaster in its history, due to many factors beyond its control such as the COVID pandemic and the current war in Ukraine – which have devastated the economy with shortages and exorbitant prices of food and energy. Unfortunately, Canada has not been forthcoming with humanitarian aid, in comparison to other nations that are helping Sri Lanka.
Rather than helping, Canada seems to have taken the opportunity to punish Sri Lanka during its worst economic, and political crisis by slashing sanctions against its former presidents, which is clearly politically motivated to satisfy the Canadian Tamil Diaspora, and to secure their votes.
Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal government may win the domestic politics by exploiting and polarizing various ethnic groups in Canada and elsewhere. However, by doing so Mr. Trudeau has jeopardized the reputation of Canada, not only in Sri Lanka, but among many countries around the globe.
The former Prime Minister, Honorable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, considered the father of the multiculturalism, who made Canada a beacon of peace, hope, and fairness for millions of immigrants from around the world, would have been extremely disappointed and disapproved of his son’s shameful act of turning domestic politics into partisan ethnic politics, purely for the purpose of winning elections.
Colombo, February 19: Staff members of some State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) continued to rake in large paychecks due to massive overtime and allowance pay at the end of last month, despite the Government’s push to increase utility and fuel tariffs citing a need to be cost-reflective, The Sunday Morning reliably learns.
This, in the wake of a Government circular to all ministries and State institutions, to cut their expenditure for 2023 by 6%.
The Sunday Morning last week learned that a number of employees of the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd. (CPSTL) has been issued paychecks which included overtime pay equivalent or greater than their basic pay. CPSTL, which is part of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), owes the State billions of rupees in debt.
According to a senior official in the Government, the CPSTL in 2022, while the economic crisis was in full swing, had allocated nearly Rs. 1.8 billion for overtime payment in its budget for 2022, Rs. 3.01 billion for the payment of basic salaries of its employees, and Rs. 500 million allocated to be awarded as bonus.
It is understood that in 2021, even during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant drop in the use of motor vehicles, the CPSTL spent close to Rs. 1.6 billion on overtime payments, with Rs. 1.17 billion and Rs 1.7 billion allocated for the years 2020 and 2019 respectively.
The situation with Over Time (OT) pay is clearly being abused by many and the senior management is complacent. This abuse of benefits has been ongoing for decades,” a senior official at the Ministry of Power and Energy, who wished to remain unnamed, said.
According to the source, as recently as January 2023, some employees had more overtime pay listed on the salary strips than the basic salary. In addition, like CPC employees, CPSTL employees are also entitled to a range of allowances.
One employee, whose basic salary is Rs. 131,000 racked up Rs. 136,000 in OT and, with other allowances, his take-home pay was over Rs. 320,000 for January. Another, who earns a basic salary of Rs. 127,000, racked up Rs. 114,000 in OT and with other allowances, his take-home was Rs. 315,000. Why is the Government tolerating such overheads? If we are in debt and we are trying to be cost-effective, then we need to streamline our operations and reduce wastage.
This volume of OT is not possible without administrative support. They are all in this for benefits. On some Sundays, where we only have a few operations of fuel bowsers scheduled to happen, some managers and staff who are in excess to the requirements of the day turn up and clock in. Senior officials sign off on their work records, so all of them get OT, even when such numbers are not needed at the terminal on low traffic days,” the senior official told The Sunday Morning.
When The Sunday Morning contacted CPSTL Director General Management (Finance) Pradeep Kaggodaarachchi regarding the massive OT payments and the allowances granted to the staff, he declined to comment, asking that we address our questions to the Chairman.
CPSTL Chairman Mohamed Uvais Mohamed responding to a query told The Sunday Morning that plans were being drafted to restrict the issuance of OT payments to not exceed an employee’s basic salary. He also stated that this issue was partially due to staff working on Sundays being required to be paid double rates at petroleum terminals.
However, Mohamed stated that the culture of seeking OT payments excessively needed to be addressed and would be taken up in the review process for SOE restructuring.
Meanwhile, a senior CPSTL official who spoke to The Sunday Morning on terms of anonymity defended the massive allocation made to sustain large OT payments.
One of the main reasons for a large OT payment is that our staff work on a shift basis – many of them work 24 hours or sometimes all seven days of the week. That is one reason. Also, Sundays and Poya days incur Special Holiday pay. We are forced to work on such days due to the ongoing crisis. However, earning almost double your salary is unusual. It may be a few individuals. We need to assign more shifts to staff due to a recruitment freeze which has been in effect since the end of 2019,” the CPSTL official said.
According to him, CPSTL which had a staff strength of about 2,400 has now dwindled to approximately 2,000 due to retirement and attrition.
Allowances Galore
According to documents seen by The Sunday Morning, the CPSTL offers their employees nearly 20 allowances and incentives, including an attendance allowance, for which the SOE had forked out Rs. 16 million in 2022, while Rs. 16 million had been paid in 2021.
CPSTL staff who reach a ceiling in their work profession without the prospect of another promotion are paid ‘stagnation allowance,’ which cost the taxpayer Rs. 39 million last year.
As part of the CPC, the loss-making SOE had also forked out Rs. 12 million in 2022 as an ‘Inconvenience Allowance’.
Many senior officials are issued a vehicle loan through the CPSTL which they have to pay 4% interest on and the CPSTL pays the rest of the interest on the employee’s behalf. The abuse comes when the said employees have the vehicle paying a low-interest rate and still use official transportation and fuel for their work. How is this sustainable?” the senior CPSTL official complained.
The official added: This culture of reaping all you can and more from State institutions need to stop. A long time ago, being a State employee was an honourable job. People looked up to you and we weren’t called thieves. How can we describe ourselves now, with such things happening?
No one wants to talk about it as it benefits the administrators and they are afraid of the unions. That’s part of the problem. There is a Government circular that says a State employee can not do OT more than 30% of their basic salary, so how is this all legal?” the official asked.
The Sunday Morning attempted to contact several trade unions close to the petroleum sector but they would not respond to our queries.
Cost Cutting
Last week, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera, responding to a question from The Sunday Morning, stated that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) planned to cut Rs. 53 billion in expenditure for the year 2023.
The CEB General Manager stated that bonuses would also be trimmed by the CEB. However, when The Sunday Morning asked Minister Wijesekera about how the CPC and CPSTL would reduce their expenditure, he directed us to ask State Minister of Power and Energy D.V. Chanaka. However, neither Minister Chanaka nor his Secretary responded to our queries.
For Industrial Peace
According to to think tank LIRNEasia Founding Chairperson Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, the troubling patterns of OT pay and allowances at CPSTL indicate a managerial subculture at State enterprises which hold monopolies to allow such practices to keep the industrial peace.
He also pointed out that in the State sector there was a culture of keeping the salary looking modest while offering other benefits to retain staff. However, Samarajiva also said that the high OT payments may reflect that the approved cadre amount was not available or that it may be indicative of managerial deficiencies.
One of the key performance indicators for managers at State enterprises is to keep the industrial peace. This is especially true when they hold monopolies in the market,” Samarajiva opined, adding that such practices should be reviewed in the SOE reforms agenda, which is yet to be clearly outlined by the Government, despite the announcement to the effect several months ago.
Frontier Research Product Head (Macroeconomic and Thematic Research) Chayu Damsinghe opined that such wasteful practices may be an indication of a lack of a national employment management strategy, where the longitude and progression of the workforce was planned in advance.
Colombo, February 22 (Counterpoint): The latest Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) taken in January, shows political disarray in the country even as it battles a severe financial crisis marked by a continuing shortage of foreign exchange and sky-high prices of essential commodities.
The survey found that even the front-runners in the political arena, namely, the National Peoples’ Power/Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (NPP-JVP) combine and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), got approval ratings of 32% and 31% respectively.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) got only 9%. And his support base in parliament, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by the Rajapaksas, got 8%.
Compared to the July 2022 SLOTS, Wickremesinghe’s UNP had improved by five points while the Rajapaksas’ SLPP had lost 11 points. This should be a matter of concern for the SLPP because Wickremesinghe, who is sustained by the SLPP in parliament, is making headway at its expense. If this trend continues, the SLPP may have to function as a junior partner of the UNP, and the mighty Rajapaksas may have to play second fiddle to Wickremesinghe.
Consequences of Disarray
Be that as it may, the absence of a dominant political force in Sri Lanka bodes ill for the country whose economy is hanging by the thinnest of threads. It is utterly dependent on the promised IMF bailout of US$ 2.9 billion. There is no policy clarity in the polity, with the President Wickremesinghe saying one thing and the opposition rejecting it completely.
The President is firmly pro-reform as per the IMF’s prescriptions. He sees no other way to pull the economy out of the woods, get much-needed foreign direct investment, and the support of international lending agencies. He has repeatedly challenged the opposition to come out with an alternative to his IMF-dependent plan, but none has been put forward thus far. All that the opposition says is that Wickremesinghe is wrong and that he should quit. Wickremesinghe’s answer to this has been that his quitting is not going to solve the economic problem. At any rate, he assumed the office of President at a very difficult time when even the Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa, did not come forward to take up the challenge.
Wickremesinghe blames the opposition for the delay in the arrival of the IMF’s much-needed bailout. He told businessmen in Kandy, that government had repeatedly missed the deadlines set by the IMF for bringing reforms because of opposition from some entrenched quarters within the system.
However, the President contends that despite the delays, his government has managed to meet all the 15 demands of the IMF and had notified the IMF about that on February 15. He expects the IMF to announce a favorable decision on the bailout in March.
Wickremesinghe has also decried the demand for local bodies elections at this juncture. These local elections costing LKR 10 billion are not only wasteful in these days of scarcity and want, but inconsequential as they will not change the government. His plan is to put the economy ticking again by December 2023 through the IMF-suggested reforms and then go for an early Presidential election in 2024.
But the opposition will not cease to slam his dependence on the IMF. The opposition contends that the people will not be able to bear the burden of higher taxes and workers/unions will not be able to tolerate job losses due to the inevitable public sector workforce rationalization.
The SJB leader Sajith Premadasa has gone to the extent of saying that he will not honor agreements signed by the Wickremesinghe government, including those with other countries and the IMF. The leftist-nationalist leader Wimal Weerawansa has said that Sri Lanka has been trapped in a US conspiracy to take it over.
The opposition, the media and civil society also contend that Wickremesinghe has no political legitimacy to take any decision. They point out that Wickremesinghe was not elected by the people directly but by parliament; that he depends on another party to manage his government’s affairs in parliament; and that he is but a front for the dangerous Rajapaksas, who are waiting in the wings to grab power when conditions are ripe.
Adding to the prevailing political instability is mutual recrimination in the opposition camp. The SJB is saying that the NPP/JVP will abolish private property as per its Marxist agenda. But the JVP leader Anura Kumara.Dissanayake has denied any such plan. The new-look JVP wants to convey the impression that it is not against private capital per se.
Though the Rajapaksas’ SLPP is supporting Wickremesinghe in parliament, it has differences with the latter. The SLPP wants more cabinet posts for its MPs so that it can increase its clout among the electorate using these offices. But Wickremesinghe has not obliged them completely. He is exercising his constitutional right to choose his cabinet team as per his political and administrative agenda.
After months of struggle and challenges, Sri Lanka has been successful in fulfilling the 15 tasks set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and now awaits for the verdict if enough has been done to unlock the bailout, the government said.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe confirmed that only last week the final requirement of the Fund was fulfilled and with that Sri Lanka has done its part to obtain the relief package.
The fifteenth issue that had to be addressed was the increase in electricity tariffs as the severely mismanaged Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) continues to incur losses, and is a heavy burden on the government.
According to Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka missed fulfilling the 15 tasks within the set deadline twice. Initially, the IMF gave the government until 31 December 2022 to implement all tasks, and then the deadline was pushed to 31 January 2023. In both instances, Sri Lanka was unable to deliver what was expected from it to release the fund.
Finally, the deadline was pushed back to February 15. By 06:00 p.m. on February 15, we completed all that was expected of us and sent them to Washington.
“Only one of these fifteen issues was being delayed. It is related to the increase in electricity tariffs. The Electricity Board incurs Rs.230 billion each year in losses,” said Wickremesinghe addressing a businessmen and lawyers in Kandy this week.
The IMF has been firm that government taxes cannot be used to support state-owned institutions, and if so it will not extend assistance.
One person in this country opposed the decision to increase the electricity tariff. As a result, receiving assistance from the International Fund was delayed by six weeks.
All 15 tasks assigned to us have been completed. Now it is up to the International Monetary Fund. This is being discussed further,” said Wickremesinghe.
Further, while the Fund has been urging creditors to restructure debt to help struggling economies recover, China, one of the largest creditors, remains stubborn with the restructuring agenda. Tomorrow (February 23), Finance Ministers of the G20 countries will hold a discussion in Bangalore, India where the emphasis will be on how the debt of countries with collapsed economies can be restructured.
There I hope to discuss the debt restructuring method of Sri Lanka with the Chinese Finance Minister. As per their stand, we have two or three options to implement,” said Wickremesinghe.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe today said that the agreement reached with the IMF would be presented to Parliament and the House could decide whether to pass or reject it.
Once an agreement with the International Monetary Fund is reached, it will be presented to Parliament and it will have the option to pass or reject it. If the proposal is rejected, the relevant parties should submit alternative proposals to the International Monetary Fund,” the President said.
The President made these remarks while delivering the keynote speech at the Tax Forum 2023. The forum, held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo yesterday (21) was organized to discuss the taxation policies introduced by the government in the 2023 budget.
According to President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the current tax policy in Sri Lanka is not a normal tax policy, but rather a rescue operation. He warned that if this process is disrupted, Sri Lanka will not be able to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program and may lose the opportunity to do business with foreign countries.
In addition to his comments on the tax policy, President Ranil Wickremesinghe also stated that the budget presented for the year 2023 in Sri Lanka is not an ordinary budget, but rather an operation to rescue the economy. The President highlighted that, apart from the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce, no other party, person, or institution has submitted any proposals or alternatives to the IMF.
Commenting on the debt restructuring process with the main creditors of Sri Lanka, the Paris Club, India and China, the President said that the Paris Club has guaranteed its financial support for Sri Lanka, and India is following its own method, but China has not expressed agreement about its method so far. However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe mentioned that their stand will be announced at the G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting on the 23rd in Bangalore, India.
The Tax Forum 2023 was organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) while Chairman of SLIM Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, Chairman Sri Lanka Chartered Institute of Personnel Management Ken Vijayakumar, Chairman of Sri Lanka Institute of Chartered Accountants (Faculty of Taxation) Tishan Subasingha and Deputy Commissioner General of Tax Policy and International Affairs N M. M. Miffly joined the panel discussion on the tax policy.
President’s Senior Adviser on Climate Change Mr. Ruwan Wijewardene also participated in this event.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe says the current tax policy in Sri Lanka is not a normal tax policy, rather a rescue operation.
He warned that if this process is disrupted, Sri Lanka will not be able to join the International Monetary Fund program and may lose the opportunity to do business with foreign countries.
In addition to his comments on the tax policy, President Ranil Wickremesinghe also stated that the budget presented for the year 2023 in Sri Lanka is not an ordinary budget, but rather an operation to rescue the economy.
The President highlighted that, apart from the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce, no other party, person, or institution has submitted any proposals or alternatives to the IMF.
The President made these remarks while delivering the keynote speech at the Tax Forum 2023.
The forum, held in Colombo was organized to discuss the taxation policies introduced by the government in the 2023 budget.
The President also stated that once an agreement with the International Monetary Fund is reached, it will be presented to Parliament and it will have the option to pass or reject it. If the proposal is rejected, the relevant parties should submit alternative proposals to the International Monetary Fund.
Commenting on the debt restructuring process with the main creditors of Sri Lanka, the Paris Club, India and China, the President said that the Paris Club has guaranteed its financial support for Sri Lanka, and India is following its own method, but China has not expressed agreement about its method so far.
However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe mentioned that their stand will be announced at the G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting on the 23rd in Bangalore, India.
The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved to service of 2.6 billion dollars in debt payments due in the first half of this year, whilst vesting the authorisation powers to the Treasury Secretary to provide the necessary funds.
Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Minister Bandula Gunawardena said at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing Sri Lanka will continue to pay back multilateral loans obtained from institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank as well as the bilateral partners.
As per him, of the total of 2.6 billion dollars, just over 2 billion dollars is for loan repayments whilst 540 million dollars is for interest payments.
There are also 709 million dollars in dollar-denominated Sri Lanka Development Bonds to be paid with 46 million dollars as interest payments.
The total amount payable in the first half of 2023 is just under 300 million dollars from what Sri Lanka is expecting from the International Monetary Fund via an Extended Fund Facility of 2.9 billion dollars within the first quarter of the year.
Minister Gunawardana said “Every Government has been doing this,”adding that the Parliament has approved financing the Budget 2023 with loans amounting to almost 5 trillion rupees via financial tools such as SDBs, treasury bills and treasury bonds.
He also said that these debt repayments will be done within the borrowing limits set in the Budget for 2023.
During an event held this morning (Feb. 22) at Royal College, Colombo, President Ranil Wickremesinghe urged all citizens, including politicians, professionals, teachers, those engaged in agriculture, the business community, and members of the security forces, police and civil servants, to work together to overcome the current economic crisis and promote reconciliation efforts.
The event was held to honour President Wickremesinghe, who is an alumnus of Royal College. The President called upon the present generation of Royalists to dedicate themselves to serving the country and transforming it into a place where they would like to reside. He urged young Royalists to take up the challenge and shape the future of the nation.
President Wickremesinghe also highlighted that Royalists are trained to live in harmony with all races and religions, emphasizing that the country cannot be divided on the basis of race or religion. He invited all politicians who are also Royalists to collaborate with the government in its efforts to revive the country’s failing economy, emphasizing that it was not a political invitation, but rather a call for a collective effort to address the economic crisis.
The statement made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe is as follows:
I have come here on the invitation of the Prefects of Royal College to address you. I know that you’re going to stand in the sun. I won’t make my speech long. I myself have stood in the sun like this and said when they will shut up so we can go back to the classroom. And I don’t want that to happen to me. Knowing that the Prime Minister has already said that he will not speak, but he will be the Chief Guest at the prize giving, where you will be under a hall.
Before I start to say a few words, I must thank the principals who moulded me and the Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Mr Disa Bandaranayake, Mr H.D. Sugathapala, headmasters of the Royal Primary, Mr Dudley Silva and Mr Bogoda Premanath. We must thank them for all the influence that they and the other masters and lady teachers had on us in moulding our character.
I must also thank another member of the former Royal College Union Council, Mr Dian Pieris, who, together with me, stood up to save the name of Royal College and for all the other members of the Council who supported us. Otherwise, you would have had another name. But we honoured the intention that the country must have a school named after the President.
President Jayawardene in 1978 inaugurated the President’s college in Sri Jayawardhanapura, Kote, the new capital. I come here together with the Prime Minister to address you while we have also established another achievement of Royal College, where the President and the Prime Minister are from the same school and from the same class.
Royal’s history in politics goes back to about 1860 onwards. A few years after the Colombo Academy started when some of its outstanding students became members of the Legislative Council. They are, as you see in some of their portraits, C. A. Lorenz, and James De Alvis both of who wanted more power in the council. Sir Richard Morgan, the first Asian to be knighted, member of the Executive Committee, acting Attorney General and also Acting Chief Justice and Sir Muthukumarasami. The four of them dominated the politics of Ceylon for the first few years of our modern history. We have Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan the first member to be elected by the Sri Lankans. His opposing candidate who lost, Sir Marcus Fernando was also a Royalist. It was a question of deciding which Royalists you are going to vote for.
1915 was the turning point in our history when we decided after the 1915 riots that we will become an independent nation. It was Henry Pedris, a young old boy from this school who was executed by the British and we started the whole campaign. Sir Ponnamabam Rahmanathan pleaded for him in the legislative council, since he was also a Royalist. E.W. Perera and Sir James Pieris went to England to plead the cause of the Sinhala Buddhist leaders. They were also Royalists. Then all the key players on the Sri Lankan side in the 1915 riots were Royalists. After independence, we had Sir John Kotalawala as the first Prime Minister after whom the Defence University is named, and we had President J.R. Jayawardene. It was actually about, I would say nearly 44 years ago when we assembled at the quadrangle to felicitate him.
So, Royal College today has in its records, four Prime Ministers and two Presidents. This is an outstanding record for any school. We also have a Sultan of Maldives who was also a Prime Minister, Muhammad Fareed Didi and the man who modernized the Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom spent a year or more at Royal College. I think the disease of modernization, he must have gotten from Royal College. Now, we are here as the Royalists from the same class.
There is another record. The first republican constitution was drafted by Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, an old Royalist. The second republican constitution was drafted by J.R. Jayawardene, his classmate. Royalists have done it so well that no one else can change it. Now I think we have equalled that record, when the Prime Minister and I, together with the late Mr Anura Bandaranaike and Mr Malik Samarawickrama established another record. Between us, two of us have held the presidency, some Prime Ministers and one has become the Speaker, two of us have been Leaders of the House and two of us have been Leaders of the Opposition.
So this is what education at Royal has brought us and I hope you will do even better than us. That is my hope. Records are meant to be broken and not to be kept. Are any of you willing to break that record?
So, I have come here to address you at a very difficult time. A situation we have not seen in the last 400 years. A complete collapse of the economy. I won’t talk in general economic terms, but it affects all of you. In all our households, we didn’t have fuel, and electricity and those who were farming didn’t have fertilizer, we have to pay a lot of taxes and prices have gone up, inflation has come and every household has had to face the consequences. There was a total collapse of the country and when I took over the country, Mr Dinesh Gunawardane became Prime Minister, as I mentioned it was our duty to put the country first. I thought that I will take whatever decision that has to be taken to bring the economy back to at least be recognized in the world as no longer being bankrupt, within one year.
It was a tough call, but I did not want it to go on for much longer. I don’t want you’ll to suffer. We want to start fighting back and we want to have an economic resurrection. So I took all the decisions we had to take and the Prime Minister supported me. I knew the decisions I take are going to be unpalatable. It will make me unpopular. But, without those decisions, the country could not come right. And that’s what I learnt in Royal College, do what is correct and do what is good for your country. Remember that. Every decision I have taken I have thought twice or thrice on what is the burden it will impose on us. How unpopular should I become? Should I even take this decision? And when I felt that it was in the country’s interest, I took it because my first task and our first task is to bring the economy back in order. We can’t be a bankrupt country. We can’t be a beggar nation, so we have to learn that there are hard decisions to be taken in life and those decisions have to be taken. And I assure you we will by this year, see a very good improvement in our economic condition and then we will set the stage for the economic recovery of this country, not to go back to an old system which brought us down, but to a new system.
When I first came here and I came along, it was not even a ten-minute walk for me to come from there to here and we stood here in the hall, I realized one issue that all of us knew at that time. We thought we were in one of the best countries in the world because when we became independent, we were second to japan and the London Times said, we will be another Switzerland. So we were here at that time. Today, we are a country which has only Afghanistan below us. We don’t know what the future is. So when we build this future, it’s an economy that must last for 25 years. It must be a new Constitution that must last for 100 years. It must be a society not for us. None of us here are going to live for 25 years. It’s country for you’ll. Most of you here, in the first row, I don’t think you will be even 45 years old in the next 25 years.
And those in the back rows, the seniors will be around 50-55 years. That is the country you will have to live in and I want you’ll to decide what country we will live in. Not for us. That is the challenge you must take. I want you’ll to take that challenge and decide the future of the country. Just as much as President Jayawardane told us in 1977, you’ll decide what your future should be. So, I want you to be there and most of you here are living in a time when young people want to go abroad. They don’t see a future. They want to go away. But, we are Royalists and we must fight back. That’s what we have learnt to do. As you know, we have to fight both alone and with many to uphold the values that we are committed to.
So many of you will go abroad for studies and some of you will stay here. But, you must remember that this school made you a man and come here. I studied at Royal and I could have gone abroad to a university but I didn’t. My father wanted me to go abroad but I stayed here because I valued what I had. And after I passed out I did not go abroad, I stayed here because I owed my education to the state which paid for me and which sentient to the Royal College.
The Prime Minister went abroad and studied there but he remembered his obligation to the country, so he came back. And that is what you have to do. All of you come here to this school and for each of you selected, there were another 100 that were left behind. The country chose you to come here. The school chose you to come here. Then, you have the responsibility to come back to your country or stay in your country and build a new Sri Lanka.
Are you as Royalists, willing to do that? That is your task, you should come back. You should fight the odds and go ahead because we have two difficult tasks in this country. One is to put the economy into order and the other is reconciliation. We can’t be divided by race or religion. Royalists are not. So let us not do that and let us all get together. For all of you who come back, take your place in society and do your best. Whether you are at the highest level or whether you are running a normal business that’s what you have to do.
So, first I would like to ask all the old Royalists, to forget the differences and join together in bringing this country up. I am in no way telling all those in politics to join me, I am only asking all of them to get together to get over this economic crisis. I am asking those in the business world, those who are doing a small business, those who are carrying on their agriculture, and those who are in professions to join us to get over this crisis. I am asking those who are in the military services, police, public service and teaching services to join us in getting over the crisis. That is to get over it now.
But, I want you’ll to come back and ensure that you build the country again to a developed economy in 25 years. That is the task that you have.
I will not speak to you anymore but I would like to conclude with the words which we know of the oath taken by the young men of Athens, which we all had to learn in our days. I don’t know whether you learn it now. But, I would like to repeat the commitment that they gave there which we also have to follow. We will transmit this city not only, not less but greater, better and more beautiful than when it was transmitted to us.” That is the duty of all Royalists.”
The welcome speech was delivered by the Principal of Royal College R. M. M. Rathnayake while the vote of thanks was delivered by Head Prefect of Royal College Kavisha Ratnayake.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickremanayake, , Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, State Minister of Justice and Prison Affairs Anuradha Jayaratne, Members of Parliament Rauf Hakeem, Gevindu Kumarathunga, Priyankara Jayaratne, Duminda Dissanayake, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Dilan Perera, Yadhamini Gunawardena, Kavinda Jayawardena, and Senior Adviser to the President on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake, were also among those present at the occasion.
Minister of Plantation Industries Dr. Ramesh Pathirana has highlighted the importance of identifying new localities for rubber plantation as a solution to address shrinking cultivations.
Addressing an event to launch a project funded by France to support small holder rubber planters, the Minister pointed out that rubber planters shifting to other crop cultivation should be strategically addressed.
Meanwhile, the French Ambassador in Sri Lanka pointed out that Sri Lanka and France can improve agricultural cooperation to uplift industries such as rubber, a major foreign exchange earner to the country.
Rubber improvement of Value Chain and Embedded Small Holders Resilience (RIVER) project was launched today at the Ministry of Plantation Industries with the aim of supporting 6,000 small-scale rubber plantations in Sri Lanka.
Funded by the French Government together with French tyre manufacturing company Michelin, the project will be technically supported by French Consultancy firm KSAPA.
Facing a dire national financial crisis and an urgent need to generate foreign currency income, state-owned SriLankan Airlines (SL) is restructuring and expanding its network to markets that were strong in the pre-Covid period, including Australia, and China. India remains the flag-carrier’s largest market, though flights have been reduced from 125 to 90 each week.
With negligible domestic business, the airline is aggressively tapping the Indian market to fly via Sri Lanka to international destinations. Around 55 to 65 percent of our flights [in Airbus A330-300s] to Sydney with three dailies and a daily to Melbourne comprise passengers from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and several secondary Indian cities,” Dimuthu Tennakoon, SL’s head of worldwide sales and distribution, told AIN. SL flies to nine destinations in India, which before the pandemic accounted for around 15 percent of revenues, and plans to add three more soon.
SL carries significant numbers of passengers to Middle Eastern countries from South India as its fares have been competitive with those of Indian and Gulf carriers. Many of the people on these flights are migrant workers in locations including Qatar and the UAE.
The demand from India is so strong and growing,” said Tennakoon, as the airline continues to consolidate routes. In its quest for restructuring, SL released a request for proposal for five A320 narrowbodies and five A330s on a six-year dry lease. The bids, which were opened on February 7 and are now under discussion, could add significantly to the present fleet strength of 17 aircraft.
Last year, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was then Prime Minister, called for partial privatization of SL and the need for restructuring as it faces payment obligations to suppliers. It has now been almost 15 years since the Sri Lankan government reacquired all the shares in SL from Emirates, which had partially purchased the carrier in 1998.
In August, the government said it would sell a 49 percent stake in its catering and ground-handling business units. The State-Owned Enterprises Restructuring Unit is currently working on recommendations for the cabinet.
Now, as China reopens its borders, SL is to restart operations in the first week of April with tri-weekly services to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. It has also begun offering international flights to Paris; Frankfurt, Germany; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Seoul, Korea.
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) has issued a letter of approval to India’s Adani Green Energy Limited for the two wind power plants to be set up in Mannar and Pooneryn at a total investment of USD 442 million.
The project will add 350 MW of electricity to the national grid within two years, the BOI said.
Thus, the wind power plant in Mannar will operate at a capacity of 250 MW while the wind power plant in Pooneryn will operate at a capacity of 100 MW.
The two wind power plants of 350 MW are scheduled to be commissioned in two years and accordingly, they will be added to the national grid by 2025, the BOI mentioned.
Furthermore, the new project will generate 1500-2000 new employment opportunities.
Earlier today, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara had tweeted that the progress of the Renewable energy project of 500 MW in Pooneryn and Mannar was discussed with the visiting Adani Group officials this morning at the Ministry of Power and Energy, with the participation of officials of the Ministry, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Sustainable Energy Authority.
A national study conducted by local researchers has revealed that Sri Lanka has the highest rate of diabetes in Asia, with almost one in four adults having being diagnosed.
The survey, done in 2019 by researchers from several local universities, the Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Colombo and the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), was the first national survey of diabetes in Sri Lanka that used the gold standard method of an oral glucose tolerance test to diagnose diabetes.
Results of the study, which were published this week in the London-based British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open Diabetes Research and Care, revealed that almost one in four Sri Lankan adults (23%) had diabetes, while another one in three (31%) had high blood sugar levels.
Meanwhile, the results also showed that almost two in five persons with diabetes (38%) have not been diagnosed.
The findings also indicated that geographically, the highest number of cases were reported in the Western Province , with as many as one in three cases (34%) being reported from Colombo, while Jaffna and some other parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces also reported high numbers.
These findings indicate that Sri Lanka has the highest rate of diabetes in Asia, and in fact one of the highest in the world, since there are only a few countries – some small Pacific Islands and places like Egypt and the Gulf states – with higher rates”, Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya, Executive Director of IHP and the lead investigator of the study, said.
He further urged all persons to maintain healthy diets, and healthy weights and that they get tested on a regular basis, adding that the study further showed that diabetes develops at lower body weighs in Sri Lankans than in Europeans, with one in five locals (21%) of normal body weight having diabetes, while over one million Sri Lankans remain unaware of the fact that they have the disease.
Dr. Rannan-Eliya noted, however, that despite these efforts, it is inevitable that millions of Sri Lankans will develop diabetes in the next few decades.
That’s a reality our health system is going to have to deal with for many years to come. At a time when many diabetes patients are struggling to obtain their medicines, this really underlies the importance of raising taxes in the long-term to properly fund the Ministry of Health medicines budget so that everyone can have access to the needed treatment”, he said, commenting on the severity of the issue amidst Sri Lanka’s political, economic, financial and medical crises.
The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and the Ambassador of Japan today (22 Feb.) signed an exchange of notes for a grant of USD 46 million.
Accordingly, Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena and Ambassador MIZUKOSHI Hideaki signed an exchange of notes for the USD 46 million grant to provide 20 million litres of diesel for the operation of state hospitals across the country.
The signing took place at the Presidential Secretariat today in the presence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the President’s Media Division (PMD) reported.
Ask the majority of so-called Tamil leaders & they will claim Tamils have problems. They will quote problems that is not exclusive to them & examples that do not even exist. Ask them to name present problems exclusive to Tamils, they will get stuck, so everyone asking the problem are careful not to put them on the spot, while they make sure no one dares ask them what they cannot answer. Put the same question to Tamil Nadu, LTTE Diaspora, the foreigners supporting LTTE Diaspora including foreign MPs or even India, they too would wriggle out with some irrelevant koheda yanne, malle pol answer. Such is the situation, Sri Lanka is faced & no wonder we are running around the mulberry bush trying to find solutions to problems that do not exist or solutions to problems that are not exclusive to Tamils.
Claim of Homeland
What Tamil politicians initially & terrorists thereafter are claiming is a piece of land that was demarcated by colonial Britain in 1833, but of a period of rule that is centuries old & of areas that had been under rule of others before them & thereafter. If someone is claiming as homeland a period during X century, if that area had been ruled for centuries of years thereafter by others & even before that by others – how valid is this claim, when for centuries different communities had been living in this area & continue to do so, while following South Indian invasions and European invasions, people had been imported & settled in these areas too.
This is like a used doll given to a child & then held by other children over the years.
Can the child claim that used doll as only hers!
Given that we accept the out of Africa theory, with man drifting to different corners where depending on the location, environment their traits, habits, physique changed & they began evolving themselves into different ethnic groups based on the language they spoke etc, the question arises where did Tamils evolve originally – is it in Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka. With 72m Tamils already living in Tamil Nadu it is without a doubt that Tamils evolved in Tamil Nadu as evidence from colonial records show that all 3 colonial invaders transported large numbers of Tamils from South India to Sri Lanka to work as coolies/indentured labor.
Did the ethnic group known as Tamils evolve/emerge & spread from Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka?
Discriminations & Aspirations
Discriminations has a history & began with colonial rule where divide & policy meant segregating people as blacks/browns/whites, separating people according to ethnicities, religion & dividing people as minorities & majority. The psyche of division was embedded into minds of people by colonials. The most horrendous discriminations, human rights violations, crimes against humanity, war crimes & genocide were committed by colonials & modern day crimes cannot match what colonials did over 500 years. Ironically, these perpetrators present themselves as beacons of virtue & upholders of human rights without atoning for their crimes upon millions of people across all nations around the globe.
Colonials gave minorities education & position depriving same for majority. They found it easier to rule controlling smaller groups. This was discrimination but it was acceptable to the minorities & at post-independence, minorities deemed it their right to rule over the majority. To continue the divide & benefit from the division, colonials who had given privileges to minorities turned the tables to hand power to the majority, so that they could pretend to be safeguarding the minorities & continue to interfere in nations using minorities to back them. Did the minorities want to take over from colonials to rule over the majority? Was this not discriminating the majority?
There is frequent reference to Tamil aspiration. Is a govt bound to only deliver to the aspirations of one community disregarding aspirations of other communities? That too only the aspirations of one group within one community. The supposed aspiration for a Tamil Eelam is to satisfy just a handful of Tamils while the rest are happy to live with other communities. How many Tamils are going to live in supposed Tamil Eelam, how many Tamils are living outside this Tamil Eelam & how many who don’t even live in Sri Lanka are asking for Tamil Eelam? By now you should be able to realize that this whole issue has nothing to do with discrimination or aspirations.
Language issue / Social Disabilities Act / Standardization /Riots
Was Tamil an official language before 1505 or after 1505 to claim grievance? Why did Tamils not object when English was used as official language & not Tamil? Is their animosity only with the Sinhalese language?
During colonial rule – best of education & automatically best of jobs went to minorities & the Sinhalese who converted to Christianity & studied in English. This group constituted the elite & they were very happy to enjoy privileges knowing the suffering of the rest of the masses. Only this elite gained admission to universities, obtained scholarships & enjoyed the best of jobs.
2 incidents shook those enjoying unfair privileges
The 1957 Prevention of Social Disabilities Act which allowed low caste Tamils to gain school education & enter kovils that was denied to them. This resulted in uproar by high caste Tamils against their own. So much for wanting to have a separate state for them own!
Standardization in University Admissions – this allowed non-elite amongst Tamils & Sinhalese to enter universities & gain higher education. This narrative is also being unfairly promoted by many who belonged to the elite class & did not like nonelites to gain university admissions as their quotas were taken by non-elite Tamils & Sinhalese.
The same incidents of riots is being repeated as an argument to claim Eelam. These are all in the past and every incident has its own story & there is no smoke without a fire. However, what needs to be said is that inspite of scores of killings by LTTE, no riots took place against Tamils as people knew that while all LTTE were Tamils – all Tamils were not LTTE. In fact, there have been more caste related riots amongst Tamils than the handful of incidents repeatedly quoted. There has been no riots for over 40 years.
With the economic crisis aggravated after the covid-19, all communities in Sri Lanka are suffering some form of hardship. Just because Sinhalese are the majority, they do not enjoy any special privileges at all. In fact, they are the most marginalized community when looking at the ownership of wholesale/retail & other segment business units/industries across Sri Lanka. Those in the majority & in important roles are made to flag reconciliation” & together” mottos while the minorities are claiming separate lands, separate privileges, separate this that & the other. No one is taking these demands & looking at the merit of the demands & the validity of the demands. All are using the demands for political gain & personal agendas.
The bottom line is – how can Sri Lanka solve or provide solutions to a problem that does not exist & why should Sri Lanka provide political solutions advantageous only to politicians & not the people. Solutions must be to problems that exist in the present & solutions must be advantageous to the people not to politicians.
A digital voting system should be introduced in the country as soon as possible as it would benefit the country in a variety of ways, including a significant cost reduction when conducting polls, Sri Lanka Digital Citizen Association said.
Sri Lanka Digital Citizen Association Convener Amanda Ranasinghe emphasized that it would bring down the cost of election sharply and the election staff required.
Speaking at a press conference today, Ranasinghe pointed out that digitizing the voting system should not be considered as a cost incurred, but as a future investment.
He added that a digital voting system has to be introduced without thinking of political advantages or disadvantages if democracy and the people’s supremacy are respected.
It is said that the Local Government Elections would get postponed due to the inability to print and hand over the ballot papers for the postal vote on the required date. The printing bill amounts to millions. Why cannot we move to a digital system? Digital voting will save a considerable amount of money spent on transport, staff payments and security,” he said.
The Government envisions to make this country prosperous by 2048. Digitizing the public service is necessary for that. What steps has the Government taken in that direction?” he questioned.
He pointed out that India introduced a mobile-based e-voting system in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming at senior citizens, people with physical disabilities and those working in remote areas. It was a pilot project and it was 95 percent successful. At the same time, it has been using an electronic voting system to prevent crowding at polling stations since 1989. If India can do it, why cannot Sri Lanka, which has a population of only 22 million, do it?” he asked.
The Association requested to go for an electronic postal voting system, a mobile-based voting system or a web based system for e-voting. Our proposal is to initiate a pilot project in three selected cities. Change the laws where necessary to accommodate e-voting. Not only voting, time has come to digitize all services,” he commented.
by A.Abdul Aziz. Press Secretary, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at – Sri Lanka.
On 20th February 1886, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jama’at) in Islam Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be on him) – the Promised Messiah and Imamal-Mahdi, claimed to have received a divine revelation informing him that an exceptionally gifted and pious son would be born to him. This prophecy came to be known as the prophecy of ‘Musleh Maud’, meaning the ‘Promised Son’. In fulfilment of this grand prophecy, on 12 January 1889, his son, Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad was born. This Grand Prophecy is as follows:
Under Divine inspiration Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (peace be on him) traveled to Hoshiarpur – a city about 60 km away from Qadian on January 22nd, 1886 to perform Chilla (period of forty days spent in secluded place for prayers and worship). He stayed in a house for forty days, all his time was spent in intense meditation, devotion & prayer. These supplications resulted in God Almighty giving him the news of a grand prophecy. According to this prophecy Allah the Exalted will bestow him a son in the next nine years who would bring awesome progress to Islam and Ahmadiyyat. This Promised Reformer would spread the message of Islam to farthest corners of the Earth. A part of the grand prophecy reads as follows:
I confer upon thee a Sign of My mercy according to your supplication. I have heard thy entreaties and have honored thy prayers with my acceptance through My mercy and have blessed this thy journey. A Sign of power, mercy nearness to Me is bestowed upon thee, a Sign of grace and beneficence is awarded to thee and thou art granted the key of success and victory……………..He will be accompanied by grace, which shall arrive with him. He will be characterized with grandeur, greatness and wealth. He will come into the world and will heal many of their disorders through his messianic qualities and through the blessings of the Holy Spirit. He is the Word of Allah for Allah’s mercy and honor has equipped him with the Word of Majesty. He will be extremely intelligent and understanding and will be meek of heart and will be filled with secular and spiritual knowledge…………………………”.
Behold a light cometh, a light anointed by God with the perfume of His pleasure. We shall pour Our spirit into Him and he will be sheltered under the shadow of God. He will grow rapidly in stature and will be the means of procuring the release of those held in bondage. His fame will spread to the ends of the earth and people will be blessed through him. He will then be raised to his spiritual station in heaven. This is a matter decreed. (Announcement February 20th 1886)
As foretold by the prophecy Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad was born within the prescribed period of nine years, on January 12th, 1889. Promised
Messiah(as) announced in his treatise ‘Siraje Muneer’ that the promised son whose advent had been foretold to him, had been born. Subsequently during the caliphate of Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad, it became quite apparent that the prophecies were fulfilled in his person.
The characteristics explained in the revealed words of this prophecy regarding this illustrious son were evident in his person; thus fulfilling the prophecy with grandeur. Praise the Lord.
In 1914 the ‘Promised Son’ was elected as the Second Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at and his period of spiritual leadership lasted for more than 50 years until his demise in 1965.
In 1944, Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad declared that he was indeed the Promised Son whose birth was foretold by God Almighty to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, peace be on him, as mentioned above.
Before mentioning these great achievements, it is important to first preface them by saying that growing up, he endured very frail health during his childhood; his eyesight was very weak and he even started losing vision in one eye. Furthermore, he did not have any conventional education, in fact, he himself mentions that his formal education was only at the primary level. However, God Almighty had decreed that he would be filled with spiritual and secular knowledge and as such, he was enabled to deliver such lectures and pen such books that were remarkable and unmatched.
This promised son Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad (may Allah be pleased with him) proved to be a leader of infinite wisdom, courage and piety. His Khilafat (Caliphate) was laden with countless achievements as he spread the true and peaceful message of Islam to the corners of the world.
Throughout his life, the Second Khalifa extolled peace, love, tolerance and mutual understanding as the cornerstones of Islamic teachings and he proved this through his magnificent commentaries of the Holy Qur’an.
Ahmadiyya Supreme Head (Khalifa) His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) in his weekly Friday Sermon of 17 February 2023 delivered in United Kingdom said:
This Promised Reformer’sbooks, speeches, lectures, sermons, which have been published in book form or are prepared and ready to be published number 1,424. They are in the form of a set called Anwarul Uloom which has 38 volumes. The total number of pages is 20,340
The total number of pages spanning his work on the commentary of the Holy Qur’an is 28,735. He delivered 1,808 Friday Sermons, which span 18,700 pages. He delivered 51 Eid al-Fitr (Ramazan Festival Sermons which span 503 pages. He delivered 42 Eid alAdha (Hajj Festival) Sermons which span 405 pages. He delivered 150 Nikah (Islamic marriage announcement) Sermons, which span 184 pages. His addresses to Shura (consultative body) have also been published which span 2,131 pages. There are various other categories as well, and if all the pages of his works are added together, they amount to about 75,000 pages The Promised Reformer’s(ra) commentary is also published in English, in the form of the Five Volume Commentary………….
He also presented the views of Western and European scholars regarding Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad’s(may Allah be pleased with him) commentary on the Holy Qur’an. For example, AJ Arberry, a renowned scholar, said that this commentary was a great achievement. He said that it would not be an exaggeration to say that this work stands distinct in the history of Islamic academics. Ahmadiyya Head also presented the views of various other scholars and publications…………
Non-Ahmadis have also lauded the various speeches delivered by the Promised
Reformer. For example, he delivered a speech which was then published under the title A
New World Order. A renowned Egyptian journalist and professor Abbas Mahmoud alAqqad said that upon studying this lecture, it is clear that the lecturer had full knowledge of fascism, nazism, communism and other world orders, however, he also presented the very correct belief that politicians and governments alone cannot solve problems such as poverty and hunger, rather a spiritual power is required in order to solve these problems and they can only be solved when all people come together. Ahmadiyya Head also said that the Promised Reformer(may Allah be pleased with him) also presented a very just view of the various orders and presented a new order which can be universally accepted and with sound proofs has shown that it is only Islam which possesses the ability to solve all of the world’s issues……………..
All the qualities foretold to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – the Promised Messiah and Iman-al-Mahdi, peace be on him, about the Promised Reformer were all found in Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad- the second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. God granted him knowledge and understanding, such that no other scholar could compete or compare with. All of his works are a treasure for this Community, and a great deal of work continues to be done to translate his works into English. Ahmadiyya
Head prayed that may we benefit from these work (Source: Friday Sermon 17.02.2023 by Ahmadiyya Head)
No need for alarm but be warned that some Turmeric Manufacturers Add Lead to the Spice The golden spice is one of the most potent natural ingredients out there, and the active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, has been shown to have antimicrobial and cancer-fighting properties, among many other health benefits. Unfortunately, several manufacturers have been adulterating the spice since the 1980s by adding lead chromate, a lead-based yellow dye that enhances the natural bright gold color of the spice, as reported in a recent article by Stanford researchers. Lead, a heavy metal, is a known neurotoxin that interferes with brain development, so it’s especially dangerous for children, but it also significantly contributes to brain, endocrine, and heart disease in adults, which is why it has been banned from the food supply for decades. Despite the ban, high blood lead levels were consistently found in children and women in Bangladesh, creating a serious threat to public health. After years of trying to find the source of the lead poisoning, Stanford researchers managed to spot the culprit. The source of this mass lead poisoning was turmeric, a culinary staple in Bangladesh. Like This prompted a new study, where the researchers tested a total of 524 samples from 9 of the major turmeric manufacturing districts across the country. The researchers used X-rays to scan the samples and locate traces of lead in those samples, and found lead cadmium in 7 out of the 9 districts. A ban on lead cadmium in the food industry in Bangladesh has existed since 1999, but it appears that the ban needs further and urgent enforcement. On a global scale, Bangladesh is the fifth largest exporter of turmeric in the world, producing an estimated 3% of turmeric powder in the world. This may seem like a small percentage, but Bangladesh isn’t the only country caught adding lead to turmeric in the past. In fact, a total of 15 manufacturers in India and Bangladesh have been refused certification by the FDA in the past few years due to lead-based dye use. Furthermore, many of the worst offenders found by the study discussed above had plans to export their products abroad. The authors of the article also pointed out that many potentially adulterated products may have flown under the radar of international regulatory authorities due to the lack of awareness about the possibility of lead contamination in the products. This is extremely alarming knowing that turmeric is a staple in cuisine worldwide and a common ingredient in ready-made foods and condiments, such as mustard and macaroni and cheese, for example. Like The study prompted global awareness of the issue of lead contamination in turmeric and suggests conducting X-ray testing by the regulatory authorities before approving the import of turmeric into a certain country. As a consumer, the authors of the study point out, you should avoid low-cost and potentially-unregulated goods and get rid of old turmeric powder, if you have any, as these powders have a higher likelihood of containing lead. This is why it’s better to purchase turmeric in-store or from trusted websites and from a reliable mainstream brand. Also, it’s best to avoid turmeric that originated in Bangladesh for the time being, so look at the manufacturing label on the packaging before purchasing a new packet of turmeric. Finally, try to avoid low-cost spices you can buy in bulk, as these have a greater chance of being diluted or containing added dyes.
Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe has suggested that local government polls in Sri Lanka should be postponed, in view of the economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka. The government has explained the difficulty in mobilising necessary funds to hold elections. The Government Printer, too, informed that it was unable to print ballot papers due to lack of funds.
Instead of appreciating the issues and cooperating with the government, some political parties and some activists in Sri Lanka are demanding that local body election should be held as per the schedule. They are threatening to organise protests and launch agitation to demand elections.
The entire world knows that Sri Lanka is facing unprecedented level of economic crisis , bordering bankruptcy The country is facing humiliating condition of having to ” beg” for loans from international financing institutions and appeal to those countries which have earlier extended loans to defer the repayment schedule, so that Sri Lanka will not end up as a loan defaulter.
In such circumstances, Mr. Wickremesinghe was elected as the country’s President in July 2022. With long years of exposure to political and economic scenario in Sri Lanka and with reasonable level of personal credibility, the President has been trying his level best to sail Sri Lanka out of the rough water and restore it’s dignity as a vibrant nation in the global arena. The task is not easy, as the President has to start virtually from a scratch.
In such conditions, in a matured democracy, all political parties and citizens in various walks of life are expected to show understanding and support to the President, as the urgent task and challenge is to retrieve Sri Lanka from the brink of economic collapse.
Several elections have taken place in Sri Lanka in the past and delay of one more election for a few months in such adverse scenario should not be viewed in any irresponsible manner as to state that such attempts to prevent elections mandated by law represent an unprecedented attack on democracy and the rule of law and pose a grave threat to the electoral process in the future”
The ground reality is that democracy in any country can not thrive on empty stomach”. Therefore, giving precedence to exercise people’s franchise, at the cost of national economy which is on the brink and is facing distress conditions impacting day today life of millions of poor people, is absolutely unacceptable and against the national interest.
The commitment of some politicians and civil society members and the members of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka to the nation’s interest and their capability to appreciate and understand the grim situation, has created some doubts about them, in the view of discerning observers not only in Sri Lanka but across the world.
It is particularly disturbing to note that some politicians have written to Colombo-based diplomats seeking their intervention in ensuring the timely conduct of local body elections. What to make of the mindset and approach of these politicians in Sri Lanka? Is it their case that international intervention is necessary to ensure local body elections? Can there be more humiliating act for the people of Sri Lanka than such approach of such politicians who want global intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs?
It is seen in many democratic countries that the politicians are not the best of people among the citizens and they occasionally cause havoc due to self centredness, parochial approach and sometimes even adopt unethical methods to grab power. In such circumstances, many thinkers and political researchers across the world are veering to the view that a controlled democracy will do world of good particularly to developing countries , in place of uncontrolled and chaotic democracy.
Today, if the elections were to be held in Sri Lanka, there would be acrimonious debates, hate politics, corrupt methods to win elections and perhaps even violence due to political clashes. These are the possible developments that Sri Lanka need to avoid at any cost.
The focus of the country has to be on economic development and economic development only.
Sri Lanka has the most experienced person as the President and he needs time and support to restore Sri Lanka’s glory. This is the time for less democracy in Sri Lanka. If postponement of local body polls would mean less democracy, let it be so and it is in the interest of Sri Lanka.
N. S. Venkataraman
N. S. Venkataraman is a trustee with the “Nandini Voice for the Deprived,” a not-for-profit organization that aims to highlight the problems of downtrodden and deprived people and support their cause. To promote probity and ethical values in private and public life and to deliberate on socio-economic issues in a dispassionate and objective manner.
Claims opportunity to do business with foreign countries may also disappear
Says current tax policy is no normal tax policy but a rescue operation
The current tax policy in Sri Lanka is not a normal tax policy but a rescue operation, and any disruption to this process will result in Sri Lanka not being able to secure the International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding, which may also result in the opportunity to do business with foreign countries being lost, warned President Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday (21).
He made these comments while delivering the keynote speech at the Tax Forum 2023. The forum, held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo today (21) was organised to discuss the
taxation policies introduced by the Government in the 2023 budget.
In addition to his comments on the tax policy, President Wickremesinghe also stated that the budget presented for the year 2023 in Sri Lanka is not an ordinary budget, but an operation to rescue the economy.
The President highlighted that, apart from the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce, no other party, person, or institution has submitted any proposals or alternatives to the IMF.
He added that once an agreement with the International Monetary Fund is reached, it will be presented to Parliament and it will have the option to pass or reject it, and if the proposal is rejected, the relevant parties should submit alternative proposals to the International
Monetary Fund.
Commenting on the debt restructuring process with the main creditors of Sri Lanka, the Paris
Club, India and China, the President said that the Paris Club has guaranteed its financial support for Sri Lanka, and India is following its own method, but China has not expressed agreement about its method so far. However, President Ranil Wickremesinghe mentioned that their stand will be announced at the G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting on the 23rd in Bangalore, India.
The Court of Appeal today further extended its interim order preventing Justice Ministry officials from deducting the Advance Personal Income Tax (APIT) from the monthly salaries of the High Court Judges until February 24. (Lakmal Sooriyagoda)
