• India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) ‘spy chief’ Samant Kumar Goel slunk into Colombo to further grab strategic sectors (fuel, ports, etc) and regions (Trincomalee, Mannar, Hill Country, etc) to divide the country. His arrival accounts for the rather muted LTTE Maaveerar Naal or Great Heroes Day on 27 November (see Random Notes).
India-allied MPs and media then raised greater clamour blaming China for the delay in the IMF’s gifts. Their IMF demand amounts to continuing the colonial import-export plantation economy. Warlord-backed Trinitian TNA MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam is reported as calling for ‘Go Home China’ demonstrations, just like US-funded NGOs are now doing in Thailand, Malaysia, etc. (see ee Focus, Are China and Russia Imperialist?)
• The US government also summoned Foreign Minister Ali Sabry to Washington for a 3-day visit on November 30, just after ‘dual citizen’ Basil Rajapakse returned from the USA. Sabry met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, also meeting US Senate Foreign Relations Committee members (see ee Sovereignty, Minister Sabry meets).
‘The US has been one of the prime movers of the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In this backdrop, diplomatic sources say Washington would try to persuade Sri Lanka to heed the provisions of the resolution. Moreover, a UNHRC Secretariat is now probing allegations against political leaders in SL for alleged human rights violations and ‘economic crimes’.’
• US-state news outlet EconomyNext reports, ‘India sends RAW chief after lending $500mn loan’. The media downplayed the Indian government’s ‘commercial interactions’, their economic and political demands, and instead barked out the usual anti-China rhetoric. RAW’s ‘Goel comes amid indirect efforts by Wickremesinghe to meet Indian PM Narendra Modi since last month, sources said… Officials at Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said they did not facilitate RAW chief’s visit…, while the cabinet spokesman swore: ’I swear that I don’t know such an intelligence chief met the president or any other government official.’
The RAW chief also met finance minister & strategist of the SLPP Basil Rajapaksa… I think the message is related to the upcoming election’… Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa himself in 2015 said it was India and RAW who defeated him. So the RAW chief’s visit could be something more than what we hear. How can India order a sovereign nation on how and whom to deal with?’
‘China has also started funding underprivileged universality students in Jaffna and Eastern Universities. This has also drawn Indian concerns, university sources have told EconomyNext. Jaffna University Students’ Union last week said they are opposed to a move by the government to sign a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese agricultural university.’ (ee Sovereignty, RAW chief Samant Kumar Goel)
• Former IMF & current CIA operator Anwar Ibrahim has been narrowly ‘elected’ PM of Malaysia. This recalls 2015 Sri Lanka’s rigged Yahapalana election. The US chose Ibrahim as Chairman of the Development Committee of World Bank & International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1998. He has been working with the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) ever since. The US government through the NED has massively poured millions of dollars to Ibrahim’s ‘opposition party, a street front he has helped lead, and media networks promoting him across Malaysia’s information space’ (see ee Sovereignty, Malaysia’s New Prime Minister).
• ‘Politicians are known for smug moralising and fervent religiosity’, editorializes the Island. But surely, there is no sickening sanctimony more than the ’Fair and Lovely’ moneyed media, especially the English media. Politicians are an easy target, but this week more evidence arrived of the collusion between this even-more unaccountable and unelected media and those officials who work against the country’s interests.
98 Acres Resort & Spa, a subsidiary of U.H.E. Group, was recently awarded as the Number 1 Luxury Mountain Resort in Asia, at the recently held 16th World Luxury Hotel Awards (2022) in Antalya, Turkey.
The prestigious awards recognised 98 Acres Resort & Spa – placing it on a par with some of the world’s most sought-after, luxury hotels and resorts, known for exclusive service and offering and impeccable quality.
The recent recognition shines a spotlight on Sri Lanka and the luxury offering that is available to both local and foreign travellers. The luxury resort and spa, located in Ella, continues to pique the interest of international travellers, with the aspirational property continuing to garner praise across the globe. Playing a vital role in promoting and expanding not only Ella’s tourism prowess but also Sri Lanka’s, the innovative approach to luxury and experiential travel has made Ella – a noteworthy and aspirational holiday region, that many believe will soon rival Bali as a luxury leisure destination.
U.H.E. Group Group Director Marketing Eranda Aberathna stated, We are honoured and humbled to be awarded as the number one Luxury Mountain Resort in Asia. When 98 Acres was established in 2012, we had a vision for not only the brand and offering but also one that truly made a worthwhile impact on Sri Lanka’s travel and tourism industry. It is the shared vision for the company, from management through to operations and across the 98 Acres family that has made this award possible. This award is dedicated to the entire 98 Acres family and we look forward to pushing the boundaries of what Sri Lanka’s hospitality industry has to offer its global clientele.”
Established in 2006, the World Luxury Hotel Awards is the pinnacle of achievement in the luxury hotel industry, offering international recognition as voted by guests, travellers and industry players. Over 300,000 international travellers vote each year, during a four-week period to select the winners.
Rumours in circulation that remittances of expatriates will be taxed or forcibly converted into Sri Lankan rupees, are completely false. Overseas remittances can be kept in expatriates’ bank accounts in foreign currency and be converted into Sri Lankan rupees at the expatriates’ discretion.
This is what all budgets since 1978 lack. It is production oriented- to make everything that we imported, saving the foreign exchange the country has been spending to import and also in that process finding incomes for the people engaged in that pursuit- that is what is required to remedy the economic meltdown our Motherland is facing today.
It is easily done- with local currency, foreign funds are required only to get down some small-scale machinery to make something that we imported eg paper, and in that case, the output in production can easily offset the foreign exchange used by way of the production within say six months or a year.
We did it earlier. The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale made paper out of waste paper that he got collected from the government offices in Nuwara Eliya District. Today the largest export programme in Colombo one can see is lorries collecting used paper and cardboard- some 7000 tons per month, exported to India, and Indonesia- all to get a few cents and we pay in dollars to import reams of paper from the same countries. That has been done since 1978- for forty long years, we have been foolishly doing that task. Surely we need to have the heads of our leaders- and the chief lieutenants in charge examined.
Once in the Seventies, we had the Divisional Development Councils Programme, headed by the Professor of Economics of the University of Peradeniya, Professor HadeS Gunasekara and he got many small farm projects and small industrial units going all over the island. They were engaged in producing vegetables and small-scale items like mammoties and spades. Was not that a great achievement? Perhaps Professor Gunaruwan of the University of Colombo a professor of economics and also an all-rounder can take the place of Professor HAdeS Gunasekera, who is sadly not among us today.
Then we also did something more. A Mechanized Cooperative Boatyard was established at Matara within two months and every year some forty seaworthy boats were made and put out to sea- employment and incomes for fisherfolk and fish for consumption. That industry was stopped in 1978 and we now buy fish from Chile on the other side of the world. Again we need to have our heads examined for this folly.
Take Coop Crayon, at Morawaka done by a son of Sri Lanka- a member of parliament- Sumanapala Dahanayake, the MP for Deniyaya in his role as the President of the Morawaka Coop Union. It was an industry established in two weeks working on a 24-hour basis and within a year the crayons were sold islandwide. That is a good role model for our politicians of today. The art of making crayons was found after a myriad of experiments locked up in the Science lab of Rahula College Matara, accomplished by my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando a chemistry grad of Colombo University, helped by the science teachers at Rahula.- it took three months of hard effort but we did produce crayons of high quality easily equal to the Crayola of today- made in the USA and sold worldwide. That was done under my direction- the most enthusiastic task I did in my eighteen years of service in the Administrative Service.
It is a certainly workable task to get production going. When our present economic meltdown commenced in March 2022 I made these suggestions. If only these suggestions were then acted on in March 2022 by now- in nine months there would be small industrial units making paper, crayons, and ladders- we imported 90% of our ladders in 2020.
Well to be frank if we cannot make ladders which is a simple task, making crayons etc. is far fetched idea. But we did produce crayons in three and a half months – to be exact, because it took three months of effort in the Rahula School lab and two weeks to make crayons to fill two large rooms and in the third week- that is in three months and three weeks the crayons were sold, opened by no less a person than the Minister for Industries TB Subasinghe. It was sold islandwide within a year. Try to find an equal to this anywhere in the world. Having travelled worldwide and worked in four countries for forty-nine years after my eighteen years in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service, my guess is that you can never beat this record. That is the speed at which our science grads, administrative officers, science teachers and members of parliament once worked.
We yet have the ability to bell the cat again.
Let me hope that this message gets to our leaders.
To my mind, said one writer, the most important question to be resolved is whether this Country is to be regarded as a Sinhala Buddhist State where all the other ethnic, religious groups are treated as guests, or as a multi- ethnic- multi-religious, secular country where all citizens have equal rights.
The above statement contains the following key words ‘Sinhala, ‘Buddhist’, ‘state’, ‘secular’ ‘ethnic’,’ religion’ ‘multi- ethnic/multi-religious’ ‘citizens’ and ‘rights’ . The first essay looked at the words ‘Sinhala ‘and Buddhism. ‘This essay looks at the words ‘State’ and ‘Secular’.
SINHALA STATE
Sri Lanka became a sovereign state very early on, probably before king Devanampiyatissa (250-210 BC). Devanampiyatissa was able to initiate a dialogue with king Dharmasoka of India. Dharmasoka reciprocated by sending him coronation robes. This shows that the Sri Lanka monarchy was well established by then. King Dharmasoka would not have sent coronation robes to a kinglet or kingling.
Coningham, (2017) excavating in the ramparts at Anuradhapura, said he had found evidence of urbanization dating to long before Asoka” of 3rd century BC. The earliest levels of the site (c. 800 BC) showed an extensive intra-island network of trade and exchange, he said.
Devanampiyatissa’s brother, left Anuradhapura and set up his own kingdom in Ruhuna. Kavantissa and Dutugemunu are descended from him. There was also the Kajaragama rulers. They too were connected to Anuradhapura. They had been invited for Devanampiyatissa’s coronation. Dutugemunu (161-137 BC) consolidated the Sinhala kingdom. He brought Ruhuna and Kajaragama kingdoms, and any other kingdoms that were there, under Anuradhapura and ruled from Anuradhapura.
There followed a long list of Sinhala kings starting approximately 250 BC and ending in 1815 (with some gaps). This is a rare instance of royal continuity and one that Sri Lanka can be justly proud of.
The continuity of the monarchy was secured by creating a double line of succession to the throne. The king’s sons or the king’s brothers could inherit the throne. It was usually the eldest
brother or eldest son. There were also the ‘brother kings’, where several brothers held power together. However, some heirs refused to take the throne and handed over to the next in line.
When dynasties died out, they were quickly replaced by new ones. Rival kingdoms did appear, occasionally, but the rival rulers were high up in the line of succession and they eventually succeeded to the throne. The kings were not permitted to rule arbitrarily, they had to rule according to tradition (pera sirit). The king was advised by a Kings Council.
It has been stated that the island was united only under four kings, They were Dutugemunu,( Anuradhapura ) Parakrama bahu1, ( Polonnaruwa )Parakrama Bahu VI (Kotte), I have forgotten the name of the fourth. We are not told how they united the country or how united the country was.
It would not have been possible for a country to get unified, then fragmented, then unified, then fragmented four times, with such huge time intervals in between, unless there was some sort of central government in existence throughout, with local government running alongside. The ‘unifying ‘kings would then have simply tapped into this administration, and ‘unified’ the country. They had ascended by succession, so this was readily available to them.
The Sinhala state was a strong, all island monarchical state, which flourished in the ancient and medieval periods, successfully resisting all foreign invasions. Popular writings speak of the fall” of the Anuradhapura kingdom, ‘fall’ of the Polonnaruwa kingdom and so on. That is incorrect. The Sinhala state did not fall”, it relocated. The populationprobably moved with each change of capital, leaving a segment behind.
The first capital of the Sinhala state was Anuradhapura. Anuradhapura was the capital city from Devanampiyatissa (250-210 BC) to Mahinda V (982-1029).This is a period of 1400 years. Not many capitals can show such a long period of dominance. The capital then moved to Polonnaruwa, thereafter Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Gampola and Kotte. The move downwards from Anuradhapura to Kotte was because the international trade routes had changed direction and ships were now sailing past, below the island.
The Sinhala capital moved upwards to Udarata during the occupation by Portuguese and Dutch. Udarata was protected by hills which were difficult to access. If not for the Portuguese and the Dutch the capital would not have moved to such an inaccessible location, it would, I think, have moved further southwards from Kotte to a permanent location in the ‘deep south’.
The Sinhala state functioned strongly during the Portuguese and Dutch occupations too. The Udarata kingdom was huge, far greater than the area occupied by the Portuguese and the Dutch. So was the Sitawaka kingdom which was the interim kingdom before Udarata.
Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the east and Kalpitiya in the west were under Udarata. The Udarata kingdom was bounded by Jaffna in the north and by Matara in the south. The southern border was a porous one, and there was much secret traffic in and out of Udarata.
The Portuguese and Dutch possessions were confined to a limited number of korales in the south west. The Dutch possessions were less than the Portuguese possessions since Rajasinha II grabbed some of it while the Portuguese and Dutch were fighting. This further expanded the Udarata kingdom and reduced the foreign holding.
Historians trained in European history, with no knowledge of Asian history, let alone ancient Sri Lanka history, argue that the modern state came into existence only after the Westphalia agreement of 1648. Westphalia was a landmark treaty for Europe, not Asia. Asian states had a different history. They were sovereign states long before Europe went Westphalian.
The ancient Sinhala state possessed all four characteristics of a modern sovereign state: a defined territory, a settled population, a central government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. (Montevideo).
Ancient Sri Lanka had a defined territory, the island. It had a settled population. There was always a central government with a capital city. There were plenty of relations with other states. Devanampiyatissa made contact with Dharmasoka, head of the Maurya Empire in India. There is evidence that every Chinese dynasty, with the exception of one, I believe, had diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka .The coins of one dynasty have not been found in Sri Lanka.
There were trade ties with Burma and Iran. A Sinhala princess was sent to Cambodia for marriage in the time of Parakrama bahu I. During Portuguese rule, Aceh, a kingdom in Indonesia, sent a mission asking for a Sinhala princess in marriage. Udarata said it could provide a bride.
Sri Lanka was a sovereign state till 1815, then it went under British rule till 1948 and regained its independence in 1948.This means that in its long history, Sri Lanka has lost its independence only for 150 years.
The country that became independent in 1948 was not a brand new nation, as historians trained in the west seem to think. It was Sinhaladvipa once again, with the same sovereign borders, a settled population which included descendants of the former Sinhala state as well as new immigrants, a central government , international standing as before and a historical memory which went way back to Dutugemunu. The form of government however, was new, Parliament instead of king.
SECULAR STATE.
The non-Buddhists in Sri Lanka have a deep animosity to Buddhism . There is much jealousy and resentment among them regarding the special place given to Buddhism in the Constitution. They wish to remove this provision and use the argument of a secular state to do so.
A secular state is a state which is officially neutral in matters of religion. A country whose government is devoted to secularism even if its people favor one religion over another can be considered a secular country. So can a country in which both the government and the people accept all forms of belief and non-belief equally, said analysts.
But absence of an established state religion does not mean that a state is completely secular. Some states that describe themselves as secular have laws that benefit one religion, they added.
The Sri Lanka Constitution did not make Buddhism the state religion. In 2004, when Jathika Hela Urumaya proposed a constitutional amendment to make Buddhism the state religion, Supreme Court rejected it.
But Article 9 of Chapter 2, states “The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place, and accordingly, it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana.”
This clause was not based on any desire to prop up Buddhism where other religions were jostling for position. The clause reflects the historical position of Buddhism. In ancient Sri Lanka Buddhism had the status of an official religion and had greatly benefited from royal support. Thanks to this, Sri Lanka became known for its high standard of Buddhism .Buddhists want this historic role to be recognized in the Constitution and also for the state to start once again to patronize Buddhism .
Sri Lanka is not the only Buddhist country that recognizes Buddhism .Thailand openly supports Buddhism . Section 9 of the Thai constitution (2007) states, “The King is a Buddhist and Upholder of religions”, section 79 says The State shall patronize and protect Buddhism as the religion observed by most Thais for a long period of time. In Thailand too, there have been calls by Buddhists to make Buddhism the country’s state religion, but the government has turned down these requests.
The Constitution of India, declares India to be a secular state with no state religion but India pays special attention to Hinduism. Article 48 of Indian constitution, prohibits the slaughter of cows . Pakistan is more direct. The name of the country is Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
There are at least two western countries which are definitely not secular. Britain has a state religion, the Church of England and the king of England is head of the Church. The Swiss Constitution begins ‘ in the name of the Almighty God’ and 24 of the 26 cantons support the Catholic Church or the Swiss Reformed Church, started by Switzerland’s own Zwingli. Religion is accommodated in other ways too. The President of USA took his oaths, placing his hand on the Bible.
The Anuradhapura kingdom, I am told by indignant local historians, has been described as a theocratic state, by a foreign researcher. From the little I managed to read on the issue, the author simply means an organic system in which local monastic centers played the role of towns acting as foci of economic, political and spiritual power”. He appears to know very little about the monastic system in Rajarata. The use of the word ‘theocratic’ is unfortunate.
The word theocracy originates from the Greek word meaning “the rule of God”. A theocratic state is one which believes in one God and is ruled by its religious leaders. Iran is the best known example today.
It is difficult to see any Buddhist country turning theocratic. Buddhism is concerned with control of the individual mind, not in controlling the collective mind. The Buddhist philosophy is bent on showing you how to get out of this world, not how to run it. Further, Buddhism does not believe in an almighty God and it does not feature a religious leader who issues mandatory orders.(Continued)
In early 1980 the GCEC was getting many visitors to learn about the experience of the new investment promotion zone. One of those visitors was a Chinese official who at that time was vice-chairman and concurrently secretary-general of the State Administration Commission on Import and Export Affairs and the State Administration Commission on Foreign Investment. At that time the GCEC had so many visitors, the Chinese official was not given any special treatment. After the usual official briefings, the visitor was passed on to the then Export Promotion Secretariat (EPS), which happened to be the nucleus of the GCEC until they were fully staffed. EPS was willing to accommodate any foreign official in a relevant field and learn from them. I happen to be the Director General of the then EPS and saw the potential benefit of a closer dialogue with the Chinese official. He was also interested in visiting Kandy and the Dalada Maligawa which I readily arranged.
As he was a very senior official I myself accompanied him to Kandy and back. We had a long and friendly discussion. He was interested in the history, the economy and development programs of the country. We talked freely about many topics on China including the long march, the Cultural Revolution and the contemporary development strategies in China. He mentioned about run of the river hydroelectricity projects which was new to me. (Still not exploited in Sri Lanka) Although he asked many probing questions ,he was well briefed on the comparative advantages of Sri Lanka. I of course gave him a few reasons why we have been slow in economic development. Almost at the end of the journey he thanked me and said, “You have a literate society, a strategic location, a rich ocean around you, well established administration and many other advantages which many countries do not have. He paused for a few seconds and more or less shouted at me the words ‘What then is your problem’?.
Very much later it was revealed that China had learned much from our experience in free trade zones when they went for a massive exercise in establishing free trade zones in which this Chinese official had played a key role. He was Jiang Zemin president of China from 1989 to 2003‚ he took the helm of the world’s largest country in the wake of the Tiananmen Square student uprising. (When he came to power, China was a virtual pariah state. By the time he had handed the presidency over to Hu Jintao, it had become the fastest-growing economy in the world) BBC.
I am happy that I had a rare privilege of sharing the company of a future President of China for almost one whole day. I feel sad about his demise.
Colombo, December 3 (newsin.asia): Commemorating the arrival of Most Venerable Sanghamitta Theri in Sri Lanka from India, the second volume of the Jataka Tales Audio Book in Sinhala was released at the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC), the cultural arm of the High Commission of India on December 2.
The Audio Book contains 50 Jataka Tales, selected from Jatakattakatha under the theme of ‘Good Advice’ and is dedicated to the people of Sri Lanka, particularly the visually impaired.
The first volume was released at the sacred Ruwanweli Maha Seya premises in Anuradhapura on the auspicious Poson Poya on June 14, 2022, to mark the 75th anniversary of India-Sri Lanka diplomatic relations.
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The Most Venerable Mahasangha, the High Commissioner of India Gopal Baglay, the State Minister of Pirivena Education Vijitha Berugoda, Deputy High Commissioner Vinod K. Jacob, and several senior functionaries and representatives from various organizations including the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, Ratmalana, and the Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies (CCIS), University of Colombo, took part in the event.
The Jataka Tales Audio Book” project is a collaboration between SVCC and CCIS, University of Colombo, supervised by the Most Ven. Rambukana Siddhartha Thero, several experts such as Prof. Upul Ranjith Hewawitanagamage, Chair Senior Professor of Hindi Studies, University of Kelaniya, Dr W. A. Abeysinha and Ms Wathsala Samarakoon, a popular TV and Radio presenter contributed towards the initiative.
High Commissioner Gopal Baglay interacted with the winners of the International quiz competition on Buddhism and Buddhist Heritage who returned after a successful and enriching 5-day multi-city tour of key Buddhist sites of India.
The winners thanked the Government and people of India for the care and affection they received during their trip to India. Organized by the High Commission in collaboration with the State Ministry of Pirivena Education, the quiz competition had witnessed the participation of about 6000 Pirivena students.
Speaking on the occasion, the High Commissioner described the Audio Book as a Dhamma daana from the people of India to the people of Sri Lanka. He also underlined that the Jataka Tales represent more than two millennia-old close cultural ties between India and many countries, of which Sri Lanka has a very special place as one of the first countries to receive the gift of Buddhism from India. State Minister Vijitha Berugoda thanked the Government of India for supporting the Pirivenas and Dhamma education in Sri Lanka.
Buddhism has been a key pillar binding the people of India and Sri Lanka. The government of India has committed a USD 15 million grant for promotion of Buddhist ties between the two countries.
The inaugural international flight to the sacred city of Kushinagar from Sri Lanka on the auspicious ‘Wap Poya’ day in October 2021; a multi-city exposition of the sacred Kapilvastu Buddha relics from the Rajaguru Sri Subhuthi Maha Vihara of Waskaduwa, in India in October 2021 are among the notable milestones that underscore the abiding Buddhist linkages between the two neighbors in the recent past
With Sri Lanka still to initiate a dialogue with the Xi Jinping regime, chances of the IMF executive board approving an extended fund facility of USD 2.9 billion to deeply indebted island nation this month are virtually non-existent. The question is who will give the bridge funding till the IMF meeting in March 2023.
New Delhi: Putting equal onus on rich global north and developing global south, the Paris Club creditor nations are proposing a 10-year moratorium on Sri Lankan debt and another 15 years of debt restructuring as a formula to resolve the current financial crisis in the Island nation.
While the Paris Club is still to formally reach out to India and China, two of Sri Lanka’s biggest creditors with Beijing holding near 50 per of external debt, Colombo on its part is still to initiate a formal dialogue with the Xi Jinping regime and the chances of getting extended fund facility of USD 2.9 billion approved from IMF executive board this month range from very low to non-existent. This means that Sri Lanka will have to wait for the March IMF meeting of the IMF before any aid is extended by the Bretton Woods institution.
While Sri Lanka owes some USD 800 million in structured debt to India, the Modi government has provided emergency aid to the tune of USD four billion to the Island nation to tide over its economic crisis. China, Chinese Exim, and China Development Bank hold billions of US dollar debt with Sri Lanka with the total external debt of the Island nation touching nearly USD 40 billion.
The Sri Lanka government public debt has gone up from 115.3 per of the GDP in end-2021 to 143.7 per cent of the GDP in end June 2022. During 2022, the debt has increased further due to foreign exchange depreciation, deep recession and fiscal deficit with no signs of early revival.
Due to the misgovernance of Rajapaksa and reckless undertaking of white elephant projects on high-interest loans from China’s Exim and Development bank, Sri Lanka is not only economically but politically fragile as the local politicians are largely discredited and radical left making in-roads into the polity due to perceived corruption of the past regime.
Fact is that for Sri Lanka to revive, creditors will have to take a huge hair cut with Paris Club clearly hinting that global south should also take the same cut as global north notwithstanding the inequitable distribution of wealth. In the meantime, as Colombo is still to get its act together and initiate a dialogue and debt reconciliation with China, it will need bridge funding to sustain the next three month before the IMF executive board meeting in March 2023. Clearly, things will get much worse for Sri Lanka before they get any better—both economically and politically.
Time management and discipline of MPs were questioned today by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene saying that Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MPs are the most undisciplined lot in the House.
Some SJB MPs rise and speak by force. This group of MPs are the most undisciplined group in the House,” the Speaker said.
It is the chair who should maintain discipline of the House,” Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella said.
You allow MPs to speak if they want to raise an issue. However it is the duty of the Chair to maintain discipline. The cross talk began when Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga said that the opposition was wasting time during the morning by raising various questions.
The opposition wastes time raising questions during mornings so that they can get their cuts telecast in TV news. This has caused problems as speaking time of MPs is lost. Even the speaking time of ruling party members are curtailed. Also we had to extend the closing time as a result of this issue,” Ranatunga said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)
A program to provide packs containing nutrients for children suffering from malnutrition is to be starte soon by the health ministry, Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha said.
He said a special program is to be drawn to put in place to provide ‘Thriposha’ for them.
A recent survey conducted by the Ministry identified between 20,000 and 30,000 children suffering from malnutrition across the country.
About Rs. 500 million have been allocated to provide nutrients for those children. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)
A testicle trafficking racket has been uncovered at the private hospital in Borella where Ada Derana’s Ukussa” recently exposed a kidney trading racket was being carried out.
Further investigations into this incident uncovered the said testicle trafficking business that was also being operated at the hospital.
The illegal operation is believed to be run by a broker by the alias of Bhai” who initially convinced people, faced with various difficulties, to sell their kidneys and later offered higher sums of money in return for their testicles.
An individual who was promised Rs. 7,000,000 for his testicles spoke to Ada Derana’s Ukussa” about the scam, revealing exclusive details.
He had agreed to sell his testicles as he had several loans to pay off and wanted to buy a house, however, later refused to go through with the sale after finding out that those who had previously sold their kidneys did not receive the money they were promised.
The individual’s brother had sold his kidney for Rs. 3,200,000 to the broker named Bhai” however had received only Rs.2,200,000, he said.
Ada Derana’s Ukussa” remains on high alert till strict legal action is enforced against the illegal trafficking of human organs currently taking place within this private hospital.
Meanwhile, the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) has initiated investigations into the said private hospital and a police officer involved in organs trafficking syndicate.
On September 1, 2022, debt-trapped Sri Lanka reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 48-month Extended Fund Facility of $2.9 billion, which hardly covers the country’s outstanding debt, nor its immediate survival needs. Nevertheless, IMF structural adjustment requires the country to meet its familiar debt restructuring conditions: privatization of state-owned enterprises, cutbacks of social safety nets and alignment of local economic policy with US and other Western interests. There are already signs that these policies would be detrimental to the well-being of ordinary Sri Lankans and the sovereignty of the country and will inevitably lead to more wealth disparity and repeat debt crises.
The most important source for generating state revenue identified in the 2023 Sri Lanka budget is the privatization of SOEs (State Owned Enterprises), a primary strategy of IMF structural adjustment and neoliberal economics. The 2023 Sri Lankan budget states:
The government is currently maintaining 420 State-owned enterprises. 52 of these generate over Rs. 86 Billion in losses… A Unit has now been established at the Ministry of Finance with the specific task of restructuring SOEs. Initially, measures will be taken to restructure Sri Lankan Airlines, Sri Lanka Telecom, Colombo Hilton, Waters Edge, and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) along with its subsidiaries, the proceeds of which will be used to strengthen foreign exchange reserves of the country, and strengthening the Rupee.”
The left-wing and nationalist Bandaranaike governments established many SOEs between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, many of them import substitution industries to replace foreign imports with domestic production. Many SOEs were privatized after the introduction of the Open Economy in 1977, and privatization (or commercialization) has continued steadily since then, with successive governments selling SOEs outright or turning them into Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
There are 55 strategic SOEs, 287 SOEs with commercial interests and 185 SOEs with non-commercial interests in Sri Lanka. The 55 strategically important SOEs are estimated to employ around 1.9 percent of the country’s labor force. The total state sector workforce is estimated to be about 1.4 million people, which accounts for over one in six of the country’s total workforce. Many Sri Lankans prefer to work for the government sector given job security, retirement and other benefits. There are concerns that …privatization can result in lower salaries and benefits as well as retrenchment and high employee turnover,” and that privatizing SOEs that enjoy monopolies can result in corporations making decisions based on profits rather than on public benefit.”
Unlike the private sector, many of the SOEs in Sri Lanka have powerful trade unions, with workers at different skill and professional levels, which have fought for workers’ rights and the country’s sovereignty for decades. Privatization is likely to lead to the elimination of many trade unions, strikes and other forms of labor resistance. In October 2022, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) workers held a protest strike against the proposed privatization of the CPC. Similarly, 1200 union workers of the Government Press plant – also targeted for privatization and cutbacks in wages, work conditions and jobs – went on strike in November 2022.
The CPC, a vital enterprise in the island’s oil supply and energy security, has been targeted for privatization under the IMF restructuring program. Lanka India Oil Company (LIOC), China’s Sinopec, Petroleum Development Oman and Shell have expressed interest in this deal. It is important to note that, in the name of privatization, the CPC is being handed over to state owned enterprises of powerful foreign countries. The parent company of LIOC is the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) which is owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India. Similarly, Sinopec Group is the world’s largest oil refining, gas and petrochemical conglomerate and is wholly owned by the Chinese state; and Petroleum Development Oman is owned by the Government of Oman, Royal Dutch Shell, Total Energies and Partex.
Parasites and Vultures of Privatization
Sri Lanka must take lessons from privatization episodes in other parts of the world. According to a 2016 study, ‘The Privatising Industry in Europe’ by the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, privatization in Europe has failed to produce the expected revenue as only profitable firms are being sold and consistently at undervalued prices.” The study notes that privatized firms are no more efficient than state-owned firms and that, under the rubric of privatization, many European energy companies in Portugal, Greece and Italy, have been sold off to state-owned corporations from China. The Study also states that privatization in Europe has encouraged a growth in corruption, with frequent cases of nepotism and conflicts of interest” in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the UK.
We must also be vigilant for conflicts of interest in such large deals involving public money and wellbeing. For example, the financial and legal advisory firms Clifford Chance and Lazard have been hired by the Sri Lankan government to assist with IMF debt restructuring. The Transnational Institute Study lists Clifford Chance as part of a small group of privatization advisory law firms, with annual revenues of more than a billion Euros, reaping huge profits from the new wave of crisis-prompted privatisations.”
Lazard is reputed to be both the number one sovereign advisory firm” and the world’s largest privatization advisory player.” Lazard’s operational global headquarters are in New York City, but the company is officially incorporated in Bermuda – always a warning sign when it comes to (lack of) financial ethics. In previous government advisory contracts, Lazard has taken advantage of its prominent position by involving itself not only its advisory services branch, but also its asset management branch. According to the Study, Upon the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of important state companies, Lazard has on a number of occasions undervalued the price of a company, which has allowed its asset management branch to buy up the stock at low prices which have then been sold for considerable profit when stock prices soared.”
The practice of both advising on processes of privatization and then profiting from that advice, raises ethical questions about Lazard. Questions are also raised about the entire global financial industry responsible for creating debt crises in the first place, and then finding devious ways to benefit from them, at the expense of debt-trapped countries.
Despite such serious concerns over privatization, there is now an enormous push by local and international actors that the solution to Sri Lanka’s debt and economic crises is to privatize the remaining SOEs, and no doubt a select few profit greatly in the process.
A key local player in this is the Sri Lankan NGO, the Advocata Institute in Colombo, which is associated with the Mont Pelerin Society and the Atlas Network and their neoliberal agenda. Advocata is spearheading a major campaign to convince the public that privatization of SOEs is the path to ‘reset Sri Lanka’ for solvency and prosperity. The ‘Great Sri Lanka Fire Sale’ of state owned enterprises and strategic assets is now on, with huge returns expected for colluding local and global financial and corporate elites and pauperization for ordinary people.
Land Privatization
One key state-owned resource at risk is land, such that commoditizing state-owned land is a major aspect of privatization in Sri Lanka. Not only the land, but water – indispensable for survival of life on Earth – is threatened by privatization and commoditization in Sri Lanka and around the world.
This is not new; privatizing and commoditizing state land for export production has been going on in Sri Lanka since the British colonial era. Although the more recent neoimperial US Millennium Corporation Compact agenda, initiated under George W. Bush in 2002, has not been officially signed by Sri Lanka, contemporary Sri Lankan governments have been advancing its agenda of privatizing state land to prioritize export production over local food production, despite rising prices of imported food and the food crisis facing the country.
Two very important proposals in this regard have been slipped into the 2023 budget proposals without public discussion. Firstly, Clause 12.1 on ‘Lands for Agricultural Exports’ states:
A vast amount of land belonging to Janatha Estate Development Board [EDB), Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation (SPC), and Land Reform Commission (LRC) remains without being cultivated or productively utilized for a long time, ….. Accordingly, a programme will be devised to allow investors to productively utilize them in a manner to increase both the production and exports. Hence, it is expected that large parcels of unutilized/unproductively used lands will be leased out on long-term basis to grow exportable crops…”
…activities related to the disposal of government lands are carried out by District Secretaries/Government Agents through Divisional Secretaries/ Additional Government Agents…, , such duties were also allocated to Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority and Land Reform Commission which were established for special requirements at a later stage…there are occurrences of discrimination and malpractice as …activities related to disposal of lands … Therefore…, a programme will be prepared during the next year to enable preliminary activities in relation to disposal of all government lands including the disposal of lands under the above two institutes only by the Divisional Secretaries.”
Nationalist members of Parliament and the Federation of National Organizations have criticized the move to place state land under Divisional Secretaries as a ploy for land grabbing, and that the move to deliberately privatize state land may have ‘irrevocable consequences.’ While recognizing the need to reform the existing Land Reform Commission, they point out that solely empowering Divisional Secretaries would encourage partisan land distribution. The 2023 Budget seems to put the MCC Compact into effect although activists challenging the Compact have warned of a neocolonial agenda for a massive modern-day land grab, displacement and peasant pauperization.
There is great concern over the legitimacy of crucial land and other privatization decisions taken by President Wickremesinghe as neither he nor his United National (UNP) Party have a mandate to do so from the people. The land, the ports and the state enterprises do not belong to politicians but to the people and to future generations of Sri Lankans.
Clearly, there needs to be careful deliberation of alternatives before the IMF dictated ‘Great Sri Lanka Fire Sale’ is allowed to proceed.
ASOKA BANDARAGE
Asoka Bandarage PhD has taught at Brandeis, Mount Holyoke, Georgetown and other universities. She is currently distinguished (adjunct) professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is the author of Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy and many other books and publications. She serves on the advisory boards of the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Critical Asian Studies and the International Buddhist Association of America.
The health of the nation is in the hands of the medical profession. The President claimed in Parliament that the government spends Rs 6 million to produce a graduate MBBS physician. What is unfortunate is that around 500 doctors leave the health service to go abroad. The GMOA claims that in the first 8 months of this year 477 doctors left for foreign jobs. In fact, we are producing doctors for developing countries. It is impossible to stop this brain drain. More rats will leave the sinking ship. It will be fair to demand the personnel who abandon the country after receiving free education reimburse the cost of the education they received. Of course, that would not cover the opportunity cost of depriving another student of the training. To ensure that this condition is complied with, every internee should be called upon to enter into a legal agreement to consider that amount as an interest-bearing loan. The reimbursement will be less than 20 thousand dollars.
The cost of producing MBBS-qualified doctors is expensive and holding them to their post in the country is a perennial problem. This cannot be resolved by increasing the intake of students and providing more medical faculties. In the past, we had a cadre of medical practitioners named Assistant Medical Practitioners AMP (apothecaries). They provided a useful medical service in village dispensaries. But around 2015 on the objection of the GMOA that it compromises the the Standards of Medical Profession in Sri Lanka. Their main complaint was that the entry qualification to the AMP service was low, and they have not received proper training. It is proposed that this service is revived under any appropriate designation and given a Diploma level training. Following are a few observations published in research documents on the subject.
The history of Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs) in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the 1860s. Their training from the beginning followed an allopathic, ‘evidence-based’ model. AMOs have played a key role in rural and peripheral health care, through staffing of government central dispensaries ….Task shifting is a well-recognized cost-effective model for providing healthcare worldwide and is used in many lower-income countries as a means to expand access of care in critically underserved areas.” But in Sri Lanka, the AMO training programs were suspended in 1995 without research into their contribution, particularly in rural areas. One argument was that there was no longer a physician shortage in Sri Lanka so AMOs were no longer needed. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236673824_The_assistant_medical_officer_in_Sri_Lanka_Mid-level_health_worker_in_decline
Different countries have begun to look to medical task-shifting as one way to address physician workforce shortages. Since the 1960s, the United States (US) has deployed over 80,000 Physician Assistants (PAs) .PAs have been characterized as …a new healthcare professional who, while not a doctor, works to the medical model, with the attitudes, skills and knowledge base to deliver holistic care and treatment…under defined levels of supervision.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication /235729641_The_physician_assistant_Shifting_the_Paradigm_of_European_medical_practice
When AMOs training course in Sri Lanka was discontinued in 1995, it was argued that the quality of care provided by the AMOs is substandard relative to that of physicians. The success, rapid expansion and integration of physician assistant programs into the US healthcare system have recently spurred other countries to introduce similar programs. The history of Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs) in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the 1860s. Their training from the beginning followed an allopathic, ‘evidence-based’ model. AMOs have played a key role in rural and peripheral health care, through staffing of government central dispensaries and maternity homes. Sri Lanka’s moved in the opposite direction, phasing out the AMO profession, without any research into their contribution to primary health outcomes.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236673824_The_assistant_medical_officer_in_Sri_Lanka_Mid-level_health_worker_in_decline
What is important is to identify precisely the job description of primary health care. First premise is that preventive care should take precedence. A layman’s opinion is that an MBBS qualification is not essential for this.
WHO and UNICEF defines Primary Health care as a whole-of-society approach to health that aims at ensuring the highest possible level of health and well-being and their equitable distribution by focusing on people’s needs and as early as possible along the continuum from health promotion and disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care, and as close as feasible to people’s everyday environment.”
WHO defines the primary health workforce, as those engaged in addressing the social determinants of health and are engaged in the provision of diagnostics and treatment with referral to specialized services when needed. In many jurisdictions, these occupational groups perform a gatekeeper role to the health system. This is precisely the task of the AMO.
As far as treatment is concerned it is sad to say that most present doctors have lost the art of diagnosis. How can consultants in private hospitals make a proper diagnosis when they spend less than 5 minutes on a patient? Today most doctors depend on laboratory reports and antibiotics which could be used by AMOs as well without charging an exorbitant consultancy fee. What we need is more laboratories and laboratory staff.
We now have enough jobless biology stream graduates who can be given relevant, a Diploma level functional training and assign to field jobs as AMOs.
They will be less inclined to look for greener pastures abroad. This measure will also allow more space for MBBS-qualified physicians to train in specializations.
The resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ (A/HR/51/5/L1/Rev1) was adopted on October 06, 2022, without Sri Lanka’s prior consent or consultation. The number of votes against the Resolution (7) and the number of absentations (20) totaling 27 votes exceeded the number that voted in favour ( 20) of the Resolution. It was interpreted as a moral victory for Sri Lanka as the proponents of the Resolution failed to gain a clear majority for the adoption of the Resolution.
Japan which usually votes together with the Western block surprisingly abstained and joined India, Indonesia, Qatar, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates from voting for the Resolution.
It is now widely believed that Japan’s deliberate abstention from voting against Sri Lanka was secured by a historic speech delivered on the premises of the Japanese Parliament (Diet) on November 14, 2018, by Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney-at-Law upon the invitation of The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact headed by Mr. H. Moteki, a reputed Historian and writer in Japan. Mr. Weeraratna thanked Japan for making huge blood sacrifices in its heroic efforts to free Asia from the stranglehold of Western colonial domination. Though Japan lost the war its popular catch cry ‘ Asia for Asians’ won the hearts of people all over Asia who took up arms against the foreign occupation of vast swathes of Asian territory. The liberation of Asia is the outcome of the Second World War and Japan’s prominent role as a major belligerent.
The speech of Mr. Senaka Weeraratna:
YouTube link
These two photos were taken on the occasion of a Symposium held at the Japanese Diet (Parliament) on November 14, 2018. Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney–at–law, delivered the keynote address on this occasion on the topic titled ‘ Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western Domination – Time for Asia to express gratitude to Japan’.
The Symposium was organized by the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.
On November 14, 2018, a meeting was held to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Japan’s Proposal for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, sponsored by the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact. More accurately, the Japanese government made this proposal at the Paris Peace Conference, in a committee that would eventually draft the Covenant of the League of Nations, on February 13, 1919. In any event, we are commemorating this monumental event in a number of ways, domestically and internationally, and this meeting was one of them.
Three speakers made presentations at this meeting: Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney at Law, from Sri Lanka, Mr. Kase Hideaki, Foreign Affairs commentator and President of the Society, and Dr. Yamashita Eiji, Professor Emeritus, Osaka City University.
Mr. Senaka Weeraratna was the keynote speaker at this meeting. He is not only a practicing attorney but also acquired a Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies. He is actively involved in Buddhist-related activities–recently, he participated in an International Buddhist Conference held at Narita (Japan).
Mr. Weeraratna stated:
I am here today not only to share my thoughts on what needs to be done to rectify a blatant historical injustice done to the leaders and people of Japan in the aftermath of the Second World War, through manipulation of the media and the writing of history, but also to fulfill a long overdue duty, as a Buddhist Sinhalese from Sri Lanka, as a representative of South Asia and a fellow Asian, to thank Japan for setting in motion a phenomenal process that brought about the liberation of Asia from Western colonial domination.”
Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney – at – law, delivered the keynote address at a Symposium held on the premises of the Japanese Parliament (Conference Room No. 101 of the Diet) on 14th November 2018 on the topic titled ‘ Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western Domination – Time for Asia to express gratitude to Japan’. The Symposium was organized by the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.
Mr. Weeraratna was the first Sri Lankan and first Asian to thank Japan on the premises of Japan’s Parliament for making huge blood sacrifices of Japanese soldiers and thereby paving the way for the liberation of Europe’s Asian colonies including British-occupied Ceylon.
The crux of his argument was as follows: The time has come to challenge the hype that Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948 exclusively by our own local efforts through an exchange of correspondence and political negotiations without any supportive foreign factor. This British-centric – friendly narrative is increasingly unsustainable in the light of new evidence”. This article is based on Mr. Weeraratna’s aforesaid paper)
Following Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney at law from Sri Lanka, Mr. Kase Hideaki made a speech titled The Greater East Asian War: How Japan Changed the World.”
He said that Between the last days of the Shogunate and the dawning of the Meiji era we Japanese had two immense dreams. One was the revision of insulting, unequal treaties that had been forced upon us by the imperialist powers of the West. The other dream was achieving racial equality throughout the world. Many members of Japan’s warrior class traveled to the West on observation missions between the end of the Edo Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji era. During their ocean voyages, the Japanese travelers saw how their fellow Asians were abused by their white bosses, treated like beasts of burden, like slaves.
With strenuous efforts, Japan realized those two dreams.
A symbolic example of this took place this year. Prince Harry took an African-American woman as his bride. An ideal world had materialized, thanks to Japan’s strength. Throughout human history, which revolution stands out the most? The French revolution? The Russian revolution? The Industrial Revolution? The IT revolution? None of these. The greatest revolution in human history was the achievement of racial equality in the world.
Good Afternoon. Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. The title of my presentation is ‘Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western domination – Time to Express Asia`s Gratitude to Japan`. This is a very important topic not only for the people of Japan but also for people of Asia and beyond.
I am indeed honoured and privileged to be among such a distinguished audience in the Japanese Diet. I am grateful to the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact for providing me with this precious opportunity and in particular Mr. Hideaki Kase (President), Mr. Hiromichi Moteki, Mr. Hiroyuki Fujita, and Mr. Yukio Tanimoto, with all of whom I have been having informative and cordial correspondence on matters relating to accurate dispersal of news and views particularly relating to the Japanese involvement in the Greater East Asian War.
The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact is doing something marvelous and timely. To correct distortions in historical narratives which are usually biased, eurocentric, and prejudiced against Japan. Ever since the end of the war, Japan has been the victim of malicious propaganda that is directed against Japan, demonizing Japan and its people as the guilty party or the wrongdoers, who deserve to be punished and shamed. This has to be challenged and countered in the interest of ensuring truth and establishing historical fact. The existence of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact is therefore warranted and its work eminently justifiable.
Mr. Hideaki Kase’s book ‘The Greater East Asian War: How Japan Changed the World and British Journalist Henry Scott Stokes’s book ‘ Fallacies in the Allied Nations’ Historical Perception as observed by a British Journalist’ serve as excellent resource material for obtaining an insight into the true causes that forced Japan to enter the war.
I am here today not only to share thoughts on what needs to be done to rectify a blatant historical injustice done to the leaders and people of Japan in the aftermath of the second world war through manipulation of the media and history writing but also to fulfill a long overdue duty as a Buddhist Sinhalese from Sri Lanka, as a representative of South Asia and a fellow Asian, to thank Japan for setting in motion a phenomenal process that brought about the liberation of Asia from western colonial domination.
This year on December 8th, 2018 the 77th anniversary of the Japanese bombing raid on Pearl Harbour will be commemorated. Special ceremonies will be held to remember the loss of loved ones, friends, and relatives. We share their grief.
On December 8, 1941, Pearl Harbour was attacked by 353 Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines were lost, and 64 servicemen were killed.
The purpose of my presentation today is not to embark on an inquiry to determine who was at fault and who was not. This is a complex issue with enough evidence readily available today to show that Japan was not the aggressor nation but was pushed under unavoidable circumstances to enter the war. Japan had no other option left to secure oil to sustain its existence as a nation, after the USA regardless of probable consequences deliberately ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941.
What is intended here is to examine the effects of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and other western colonial possessions in Asia, on the psychology and morale of the people of Asia then mostly under western colonial domination, and ask whether Japan’s anti-colonial leadership and battle success in the early phase of the War helped Asia’s freedom fighters to step up their campaign for liberation from foreign occupation and achieve independence.
In the early part of the 20th century, it is undisputed that Japan was the only major country in the world that stood out openly for the liberation of Asia from western colonialism and had the capacity and resources to take on the challenge. ‘Asia for Asians’ became a battle cry of the Japanese. No other Asian country including China and India took up such a Pan–Asian slogan or was placed in a such militarily strong position.
On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbour i.e. December 8, 1941, an Imperial Rescript described Japan’s war aims: to ensure Japan’s integrity and to remove European colonialism from and bring stability to East and Southeast Asia. On December 08, 1941, Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo read out Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s proclamation of war to the Empire, excerpts of which are as follows:
It has been unavoidable and far from Our wishes that Our Empire has been brought to cross swords with America and Britain.
Eager for the realization of their inordinate ambitions to dominate the Orient, both America and Britain, …. have aggravated the disturbances in East Asia. Moreover, these two powers, inducing other countries to follow suit, increased military preparations on all sides of Our Empire to challenge us. They have obstructed by every means our peaceful commerce and finally resorted to direct severance of economic relations, menacing gravely the existence of Our Empire.
Patiently have we waited and long have we endured in the hope that Our Government might retrieve the situation in peace. But our adversaries, showing not the least spirit of conciliation, have unduly delayed a settlement, and in the meantime, they have intensified the economic and political pressure to compel thereby Our Empire to submission. This turn of affairs would, if left unchecked, not only nullify Our Empire’s efforts of many years for the sake of the stabilization of East Asia but also endanger the very existence of our nation. The situation being such as it is Our Empire for its existence and self-defense has no other recourse but to appeal to arms and to crush every obstacle in its path.”
President Roosevelt called the attack on Pearl Harbour a day of infamy.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a staggering blow” and our prestige suffered with the loss of Hong Kong”. In early 1942, Churchill reassured the House of Commons amidst widespread, mass resistance to colonialism in India, that the Atlantic Charter’s provisions were not applicable to [the] Coloured Races in [the] colonial empire, and that [the phrase] ‘restoration of sovereignty, self-government, and national life’…[was] applicable only to the States and the Nations of Europe’.
Japan’s war policy intended a total break from Western dependence, including a rejection of bankrupt Western cultural traditions, which had been slavishly adopted since the Meiji restoration, and a return to an Asian consciousness (as opposed to Western) and civilizational values as a source for national greatness. Critical to the nation’s survival in the midst of unbridled Westernization was political and cultural regeneration and pan-Asian solidarity under Japanese leadership which was articulated as a new Order for Asia in resistance to Western imperialism.
Matsuoka Yosuke, Japanese Foreign Minister, proclaimed the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” in August 1940. The idea of decolonization under Japanese leadership resonated with Asians widely because, in the words of former U.S. President Herbert Hoover in 1942, universally, the white man is hated by the Chinese, Malayan, Indian and Japanese alike,” due to his heartless and spiteful conduct as a colonial master over a few hundred years.
Japan’s military success in the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 fired the dreams of Asians and Africans for freedom.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany appealed to Europe to rise above its parochial disputes to defend your holiest possession,” Christianity and European civilization, against the rising threat of the Yellow Peril”.
Within a decade of the German Kaiser’s raising of the alarm of the danger of the yellow peril,” Japan defeated Russia in 1905.
It prompted a young Oxford lecturer, Alfred Zimmern, to put aside his lesson on Greek history to announce to his class the most historical event which has happened, or is likely to happen, in our lifetime has happened; the victory of a non-white people over a white people.”
Japan’s spectacular military victories at the beginning of the 20th century and their impact on Asian intellectuals are well documented in Pankaj Mishra’s book titled, From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia.” This work is a survey of Asian intellectuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and their role in pan-Asian, pan-Islamic, and anti-colonial movements. The book begins with an electrifying moment in Asia’s struggle for liberation from Western domination: the spectacular Japanese naval victory over Russia at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, which stunned Asians and Africans living at the time under the yoke of colonialism.
This victory of the small but resurgent Japanese navy over the imperial might of what was then accepted as a major European power fired the imagination of an entire generation of Asian leaders.
Jawarharlal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Sun Yat-Sen, Mao Zedong, the young Kemal Ataturk, and nationalists in Egypt, Vietnam, and many other countries welcomed Japan’s decisive triumph in the Russo-Japanese War with euphoric zeal. And they all drew the same lesson from Japan’s victory,” Pankaj Mishra writes. White men, conquerors of the world, were no longer invincible.”
Even Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, noted that the reverberations of that victory have gone like a thunderclap through the whispering galleries of the East.” The world wars that followed further shrunk Europe of much of what remained of its moral and political authority in Asian eyes. In the long view, however,” Mishra concludes, it is the battle of Tsushima that seems to have struck the opening chords of the recessional of the West.”
Japan’s defeat of Russia in 1905 was uplifting news for Asians. For the first time since the middle ages, a non-European country had vanquished a European power in a major war. And Japan’s victory gave way to a hundred-and-one fantasy – of national freedom, racial dignity, or simple vengefulness – in the minds of those who had bitterly endured European occupation of their lands.
Mahatma Gandhi then made an astute far-reaching forecast. He remarked that so far and wide have the roots of Japanese victory spread that we cannot now visualize all the fruit it will put forth.”
Japan’s proposal for equality of races at the League of Nations Japan had championed the cause of peoples under European colonial rule at the Treaty of Paris (1918–19) and the formation of the League of Nations. Japan proposed an amendment to the League’s covenant that would ensure equal and just treatment in every respect, making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality.” To their great shame, the western colonial powers rejected the notion of equality between human beings, fearing that it would become a challenge to white supremacy and the Colonial Order which suppressed non–white people. However, Japan by this proposal for recognition of the equality of all, gained the esteem of Asians and Africans as the logical leader of all coloured peoples.”
In respect to the Second World War, Jawaharlal Nehru observed; it became ever clearer that the western democracies were fighting not for a change but for a perpetuation of the old order, ” and both the Allied and Axis powers shared a common war interest, the preservation of white supremacy and the colonial status quo. Both sides, he noted, embraced legacies of empire and racial discrimination,” and in affirmation after the war, the old imperialisms still functioned….”
Japan’s stunning military victories in 1941 – 1942 Thirty-six years after its victory in the Battle of Tsushima, Japan struck the greatest decisive blow ever by any non–white country or non–white people to European power in Asia with the attack on Pearl Harbour. In about 90 days, beginning on December 8, 1941, Japan overran the possessions of Britain, the US, and the Netherlands in the east and south-east Asia, taking the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies, much of Siam and French Indochina, and Burma with bewildering swiftness to stand poised at the borders of India by early 1942. All over Asia, subject people cheered the Japanese advance into countries forcibly held and occupied by western colonial powers.
Days before Singapore fell to the Japanese in early 1942, the Dutch Prime Minister-in-Exile, Pieter Gerbrandy, had conveyed his fears and anxieties to Churchill and other Allied leaders in the following words Japanese injuries and insults to the White population … would irreparably damage white prestige unless severely punished within a short time”.
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, has said most Asians felt inferior to the European colonizers and rarely did we even consider independence a viable option.” The colonies, he explained, were structured to serve the European demand for raw materials and natural resources,” and were thus dependencies. But Japan’s expulsion of the British changed our view of the world,” showing that an Asian race, the Japanese” could defeat whites, and with that reality dawned a new awakening amongst us that if we wanted to, we could be like the Japanese. We did have the ability to govern our own country and compete with the Europeans on an equal footing.” So despite the suffering under Japanese wartime occupation and the tremendous disappointment” over the return of the British after the war, Mohamad wrote, the shackles of mental servitude” had been broken.
Similarly, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew testified that Japan’s defeat of the British completely changed our world”.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita – Tiger of Malaya The brilliant military campaign of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the Malay Peninsula in early 1942 is described in great detail and displayed with graphics in the Yushukan Museum which is found next to the Yasukuni Jinja (Shrine) in Tokyo.
The Japanese conquest of Malaya and Singapore (considered impregnable by the British colonial rulers) in a mere 70 days under the leadership of General Yamashita and the sinking of the British warships Prince of Wales (Pride of the British Royal Navy) and Repulse by Japanese carrier-borne torpedo aircraft led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the humiliating fall of Singapore to Japan as the worst disaster” and largest capitulation” in British military history. It was one of the biggest blows to Western prestige in Asia as it was coupled with the surrender of 130, 000 British Empire troops to General Yamashita’s Japanese army of 30,000 troops. This was the death blow to European colonialism and it was never able to recover its supremacy in Asia thereafter.
Expressions of praise and gratitude to Japan The Japanese with their stunning military victories over a common foe had made Asian people proud and stand erect with their heads held high.
Britain was colonizing, and enslaving Asian people before WW2. They ruled the Indian people for 180 years. It was Japan that got rid of the British from most of Asia and later all those countries gained independence.”
Japan lost WW2 but as the consequence of Japan’s entry to war all S E Asian countries and India achieved their long hoped-for independence from the Western colonial powers within 15 years after the end of the War.”
British historian Arnold Toynbee said: Japan put an end to West’s colonialism in Asia once and for all.”
Toynbee added In World War II, Japanese people left a great history. Not for their own country but for countries that achieved benefits from the War. Those countries were ones that were included in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a short-lived ideal that Japan held out. The biggest achievement the Japanese people left in history is that they succeeded in displaying the fact that Westerners who dominated the world were not Undefeatable Gods.”
Former Thai Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj Expressed his Admiration for Japan The former Prime Minister of Thailand, Kukrit Pramoj, who was Chief Editor of the newspaper ‘Siam Rath’ at the time and who took office as Prime Minister in 1973, stated:
It was thanks to Japan that all nations of Asia gained independence. For Mother Japan, it was a difficult birth that resulted in much suffering, yet her children are growing up quickly to be healthy and strong.
Who was it that enabled the citizens of the nations of Southeast Asia to gain equal status alongside the United States and Britain today? It is because Japan, who acted like a mother to us all, carried out acts of benevolence towards us and performed feats of self-sacrifice. December 8th (1941) is the day when Mother Japan – who taught us this important lesson – laid her life on the line for us, after making a momentous decision and risking her own well-being for our sake.
Furthermore, August 15th (1945) is the day when our beloved and revered mother was frail and ailing. Neither of these two days should ever be forgotten.”
Long accustomed to servility in colonial countries, western powers grossly underestimated the post-war nationalism that the Japanese had both wittingly and unwittingly unleashed. They had also severely miscalculated their own staying power among foreign subject people innately hostile to them. Despite futile counter-insurgency operations and full-scale wars, especially in Indochina, the spread of de – colonization was swift and extraordinary.
Burma, which hardly had a full-blown nationalist movement before 1935, became free in 1948. The Dutch in Indonesia resisted with a rear-guard defense and US and British assistance but Indonesian nationalists led by Sukarno finally overpowered them and pushed them out in 1953. Postwar chaos forced Malaya, Singapore and Vietnam into long periods of insurgencies and wars, but an ultimate European retreat was never in doubt.
Japan’s unsung role in India’s independence struggle British governance in India — three centuries of exorbitant taxation, unfair trade practices, rampant free-marketeering, and deliberate starvation had led to the deaths of millions of Indians in preventable famines. Japan played a critical (largely unsung) role in India’s struggle for independence by supporting Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and assisting him to form the Indian National Army (INA). It is argued with vehemence by informed observers that without Bose’s INA, India might never have achieved independence.
This is because, although the INA failed militarily in the Battles at Kohima and Imphal along the India–Burma border in 1944 as part of the Japanese attempted entry to India, its troops (INA) got another opportunity to challenge the British Colonial Government in a Delhi courtroom in 1945. Three INA Officers were put on trial for treason at Red Fort. This move backfired on the British. The accused a Muslim, Sikh and Hindu justified their roles as liberators of a colonized nation and won the sympathy of the Indian public.
This led to support for the defendants spreading throughout the nation — including among Indians serving in the British Indian Army. These newly radicalized troops staged strikes and mutinies across the subcontinent in 1946 against the British occupation. With its once-solid military foundation shaken to the core — and facing widespread, huge demonstrations and possible mutinies by the three forces, Army, Navy and Air Force, on a scale bigger than the Indian Mutiny in 1857 — the British authorities decided that it was time to pack up and leave. On August 15, 1947, they granted India its independence.
An unwise partition of the Indian subcontinent, which placed two new nation-states in endless conflict, marked Britain’s humiliating departure from India in 1947. Europe,” Jean-Paul Sartre claimed in his preface to Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, seemed to be springing leaks everywhere.” In the past we made history,” Sartre asserted, and now it is being made of us.”
The retreat of the West from its colonies in the East may well be said to be the singular most important event of the 20th century.
My presentation is also intended to make a plea to right a great wrong done to Japan. In other words, to call on Asian countries to shun looking at Japan as an aggressor with criminal intent to plunder and loot other Asian countries a line pushed by massive western propaganda but to look at Japan as the real spark that ignited the fight all over Asia for independence from western domination. The time has come for fellow Asians who have benefited from Japan’s massive war effort and the blood sacrifices of Japanese soldiers to concede due acknowledgment to Japan. To single out Japan for war crimes selectively while avoiding any mention of the crimes committed by western countries in third-world countries including calling for reparations which both Germany and Japan have paid is anything but a travesty of justice.
What is surprising and morally repugnant today is the unrepentant nostalgia for western hegemony that has not only gripped many prominent Anglo-American leaders and opinion-makers but also several servile Asian politicians, NGOs, and columnists writing as cheerleaders of neo-colonialism, who strive to see Asia through the narrow-angle of protecting western colonial interests, leaving unexamined the historical memory and the collective experiences of Asian peoples during the dark period of western colonial rule.
Colonialism and foreign occupation constitute crimes against humanity. They represent some of the most serious violations of the national sovereignty of states and breaches of international law, and in almost all colonial territories in Asia, Africa, and North and South America horrendous crimes against humanity have been committed by the occupying colonial powers. The perpetrators have yet to be held accountable and brought to book under international law for these genocidal crimes.
De-colonize Asian minds and show gratitude to Japan. The challenge before fellow Asians is to de-colonize our minds and look at Japan’s conduct before and during the Second World War afresh. Though Japan eventually lost the war its military effort was not in vain. It substantially weakened and demoralized the western countries then in occupation of large tracts of Asia, such as Britain, France, Netherlands, Portugal, and the US, that they were forced to quit Asia in next to no time.
Tragically today the legacy of Japan’s heroic contributions and sacrifices as the first Asian country that stood up and fought to drive out European colonialism from Asia in the 20th century is seldom acknowledged, rarely celebrated, and hardly observed as a form of thanksgiving.
It is never too late to show Asia’s gratitude to Japan and rewrite the historical narrative.
Sri Lanka’s Independence – a direct outcome of Japan’s entry to the Second World War which sealed the fate of European Colonialism in Asia
Now let me talk about Sri Lanka’s Independence.
Sri Lanka together with several other Asian countries owes much in winning their freedom, to Japan’s entry into the Second World War and the resulting chain of events that sealed the fate of European colonialism in Asia.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister (1947 – 1964) when asked in the 1930s to name a likely date that India would win independence from Britain, replied by saying it would probably be in the late 1970s i.e. long after their time.
According to Major–General Mohan Singh of the Indian National Army (INA) The British had not given even an empty promise to grant us complete freedom after the war” ( The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of World War II).
The fact that India gained freedom in 1947 much earlier than the date that Nehru thought was possible, followed by Burma and Ceylon in 1948, was largely due to the interplay of both external and internal factors.
Today, there is a great turnaround in Historiography with respect to the role of Japan in the Second World War. Japan no longer has a pariah status or is subject to isolation because of its conduct in the war. In fact, except in a couple of Far Eastern nations, Japan is increasingly gaining acceptance and recognition in much of Asia for being the catalyst in igniting the relatively dormant Asian Independence movements.
Nehru himself refused to take part in the San Francisco Peace Treaty Conference held in 1951 on several specified grounds and declared that Japan has done no wrong to India for India to seek an apology and reparations from Japan. India’s sympathies beginning with Subash Chandra Bose and Judge Radhabinod Pal ( the only dissenting Judge in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial) have always been with Japan. J.R. Jayewardene from Ceylon made a resounding plea for Japan citing the Buddha’s insightful words that ‘Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal law.”
Asia’s leaders and Historians now see a direct and incontrovertible connection between Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour and Western Colonial bases in Asia, and the subsequent success of the independence movements which drew inspiration from Japan’s courage to take on the West and liberate Asian colonies. Japan more than any other Asian country was responsible for sealing the fate of European colonialism in the Orient.
Historiography and the narrative of who won Independence for India in 1947 are also rapidly changing with an increasing number of writers prepared to give credit to Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, the Indian National Army, and Japan for the eventual liberation of India while conceding to Mahatma Gandhi and his followers’ due respect for their noble and sustained efforts in seeking freedom from British colonial rule.
New Book – ‘ Bose: An Indian Samurai’ In a new Book ‘ Bose: An Indian Samurai’ military historian General GD Bakshi, claims that the former British Prime Minister Clement Atlee had said that the role played by Netaji’s Indian National Army was paramount in India being granted Independence, while the non-violent movement led by Gandhi was dismissed as having had minimal effect.
In the book, Bakshi cites a conversation between the then British PM Attlee and then Governor of West Bengal Justice PB Chakraborty in 1956 when Attlee – the leader of the Labour Party and the British premier who had signed the decision to grant Independence to India in 1947 – had come to India and stayed in Kolkata as Chakraborty’s guest.
Chakraborty, who was then the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and was serving as the acting Governor of West Bengal, is quoted as saying: When I was acting governor, Lord Attlee, who had given us Independence by withdrawing British rule from India, spent two days in the governor’s palace at Calcutta during his tour of India. At that time I had a prolonged discussion with him regarding the real factors that had led the British to quit India.”
My direct question to Attlee was that since Gandhi’s Quit India Movement had tapered off quite some time ago and in 1947 no such new compelling situation had arisen that would necessitate a hasty British departure, why did they have to leave?”
In his reply, Attlee cited several reasons, the main among them being the erosion of loyalty to the British crown among the Indian Army and Navy personnel as a result of the military activities of Netaji,” Chakraborty said.
Toward the end of our discussion, I asked Attlee what was the extent of Gandhi’s influence upon the British decision to leave India. Hearing this question, Attlee’s lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he slowly chewed out the word, ‘m-i-n-i-m-a-l’,” Chakraborty added.
Fear of another Indian Mutiny Though Japan lost in 1945, the legacy of Subhas Chandra Bose endured stirring the Indian masses and soldiers of the British Indian Army and ratings of the Royal Indian Navy to mutiny following the trial of the INA Officers at the Red Fort. It was the fear of such a Mutiny on a scale bigger than the Indian Mutiny in 1857, that convinced the British that it was time to quit India and Burma and Ceylon within a few months.
No colonial country withdraws voluntarily from its colonies unless there are insurmountable ‘ push ‘ factors or except under compelling circumstances. The best illustration of this proposition is the shameful return of the Dutch and the French to regain their colonies in Asia after the end of the second world war. Japanese occupation during World War II had ended Dutch rule, and the Japanese encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement.
Despite their opposition to the tyranny of Nazi rule of France and Netherlands (1940 -1944), and delight in being liberated by the Allies, these two colonial powers were not prepared to share the freedom they gained in Europe with the subject people in Asia ( and Africa). They were not welcomed when they returned. Indonesians under Sukarno with the help of Japanese volunteers that remained in Indonesia after the defeat of Japan, defeated the Dutch in a series of military battles to finally gain independence in 1949. Likewise, the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh performed admirably to wrest control from the
French by defeating them at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and finally resulting in their withdrawal from all colonies of French Indo – China under the Geneva Accords of 1954.
External factors Mainstream writings on the Independence movement in British-occupied Ceylon have so far failed to account for the external factors that contributed to the advancement of the date of independence.
A study of the colonial history of Ceylon shows clearly that local Kings have sought external help to end foreign occupation of parts of Ceylon. Several Kings of Kandy had contacts with the Dutch finally leading to the Treaty of 1638 signed in Kandy where the Dutch undertook to assist the Kandyan Kingdom under King Rajasinghe the Second to expel the Portuguese which was successfully achieved in 1658.
Likewise, the Kings of Kandy solicited the assistance of the British Empire towards the end of the 18th century to end the Dutch occupation of Ceylon. This was achieved in 1796.
It is necessary to show that external factors again contributed substantially to ending the British occupation of Ceylon finally leading to independence in 1948.
To remain oblivious to these external factors and extend credit exclusively to the locals on the ground that they were ‘Freedom Fighters’ is an exercise in fantasy. There were no authentic freedom fighters in Ceylon after 1848. The last shot for freedom from colonial rule was fired in Matale in 1848 during the second war of independence (also called the Matale Rebellion).
The succeeding generations yearning for freedom produced marvelous orators, letter writers, pen pushers, and even collaborators who preferred British colonial rule to continue rather than handing over the country to the locals. Several were quite happy to accept knighthoods and other perks, and co-exist with the colonial administration. There was no fight in them compared to what we have seen in warriors such as Keppetipola Disawe, Gongalegoda Banda, Puran Appu, or even earlier in Kings such as Sitavaka Rajasinghe, Mayadunne, Veediya Bandara ( son in law of Buvanekabahu the 7th), Wimaladharmasuriya I, Senerath, and Rajasinghe the Second, among others.
Local leaders pursued ‘ Constitutional Reform’ and not total independence through armed resistance e.g. Indonesia, or even large-scale civil disobedience movements e.g. India. They were far removed from the type of fight and determination we have seen in other Asian nationalist leaders who fought against Western domination of Asia such as Hideki Tojo ( Japan), Subhas Chandra Bose (India), Mao Tse Tung (China), Ho Chi Minh ( Vietnam), Sukarno ( Indonesia), and Aung San ( Burma). These Asian freedom fighters and patriots preferred to use the only language that the West really understood and respected i.e. force of arms.
Except for Angarika Dharmapala, the world`s first Global Buddhist missionary, the freedom movement in Ceylon never produced a single leader of repute who enjoyed widespread support and admiration overseas for speaking out and engaging in battle for the liberation of Asia.
Historiography – a neglected field in Sri Lanka Ceylon was very fortunate in gaining independence in 1948 despite not having fought in the real sense of the word to rid the country of foreign occupation. It is soldiers from other Asian countries e.g. Japan, who primarily made blood sacrifices to fight western domination of Asia during the Second World War. We were beneficiaries of these sacrifices and battles. We have to acknowledge this support from fellow Asians at some point in time.
Historiography in Sri Lanka is lagging behind the rest of the world. It is a relatively neglected field. With respect to the narrative relating to the Second World War, our Historians have been merely echoing western perspectives and self–serving interpretations instead of carving out a separate original and independent path of research and writing.
It is time that we learn to look at historical events not from the angle of the colonizer but from the angle of those who have resisted foreign occupation both within and outside Sri Lanka.
Perspectives on the Tokyo Trials Finally, as a lawyer, I would like to end this speech by sharing some of my perspectives, on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East ( Tokyo Trials):
Japan was not prepared to accept the freezing of the World Order based on colonialism and making it the Status Quo that could not be challenged or changed except at the risk of being branded as committing crimes against peace. Japan led the world in rejecting the western theory of Manifest Destiny which held that the United States was destined—by God—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent and thereafter the Asia – Pacific.
Japanese leaders have unfortunately paid the supreme penalty for their defiance of the West. They were brought before Tribunals which in the words of their own American judges were nothing but ‘ high grade lynch mobs’. In a sense, these Tribunals were nothing but ‘ Kangaroo Courts’.
A survey of Courts set up by colonial authorities all over the world in European colonies to try freedom fighters, whether they be black, brown, yellow, or even white, shows a remarkable consistency in the manipulation of justice to serve the political ends of colonial rulers.
Victor’s Justice was what was served to those who had fought for the freedom of their people and were unfortunate to be defeated and then be brought before courts accused of committing crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (also known as the Tokyo Trials) was a larger and more sophisticated manifestation of Kangaroo Court-type trials held in European colonies during the last 500 years.
In Sri Lanka, the rebels who fought in freedom struggles in 1818 and 1848 were executed and the entire communities in rebel-controlled territories were subject to vicious reprisals e.g. Uva- Wellassa (1818) and Matale (1848) that were not very different from what happened to the innocent civilians in Lidice in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1942.
The Nuremberg Trials for major Nazi War Criminals (1946) and the Tokyo Trials for Japanese wartime leaders were not conducted on the same footing though there were some similarities with respect to the procedure adopted.
There were critical differences in the alleged war crimes. Racial prejudice against the accused of the Tokyo Trials stood out prominently. This was not surprising as the Japanese proposal for Racial Equality was rejected by several western countries in the League of Nations in 1919.
The Jewish Holocaust was the highlight of war crimes in the European theater of war. It had no parallel in the history of any country though antisemitism has religious roots. There were no such similar crimes in the Greater East Asian war.
The Judges in the Nuremberg Trials were all Europeans. The majority of Judges in the Tokyo Trials were European though the theater of war was exclusively Asian.
In excluding Asians from the panel of Judges bar three out of the eleven judges the authorities displayed a crass colonial attitude of contempt and insensitivity to Asian claims for equality and like treatment.
Only one Judge had the spine and moral backbone to challenge the legitimacy of the Trial. He was the legal luminary of Justice Radhabinod Pal (India). In his 1, 235-page landmark dissent he condemned the trial as unjust and unreasonable, contributing nothing to lasting peace. He saw the exclusion of western colonialism and US use of nuclear (Atom Bomb) weapons, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the list of war crimes and the sidelining of Japanese judges (of the vanquished nation) from the bench of the IMTFE, as signifying the failure of the Tribunal to provide anything other than the opportunity for the victors to retaliate ”
Justice Pal referred to the US dropping Atomic Bombs on Japanese cities and innocent Japanese civilians as the worst atrocities of the war comparable to Nazi crimes.
Weren’t Western countries morally guilty as well in practicing colonialism? If the acts of aggression of Western countries were not indictable as war crimes why should only Japan be singled out for war crimes, this was Justice Pal’s line of thinking.
In every aspect of the Tokyo Trials, there was unfairness and perversion of justice to achieve both political and unlawful objectives. Basically, the trials were one-sided and lacked even the trappings of Justice.
The conviction of the Japanese leaders was based on grounds that were not criminal at the time of the commission of such conduct. Retroactive trials are bad in law and unsustainable in societies that respect the Rule of War.
In applying the method of selectivity and singling out the Japanese and in turn excluding the victors i.e. British (India), Dutch (Indonesia), French (Vietnam), Russia (Poland), and America (Philippines) from any form of investigation for war crimes in their colonies the controllers of the Trials showed extreme bias and prejudice, and lack of impartiality.
Japan is a part of the proud Asian civilization. Asia’s liberation after centuries of evil colonialism of the West was largely due to Japan’s daring effort to rid Asia of Western dominance.
Should Asia not be grateful to Japan for having come to our rescue when we were down and out?
How shall we repay our debt to Japan for contributing to our liberation from the stranglehold of western colonialism?
We must try to wipe out the ignominy of the Japanese being judged and convicted as war criminals and wrongdoers in show trials that did not have even the slightest attribute or pretense of fairness and impartiality.
Enlightened leaders of Asia drawn from various professional and academic backgrounds must convene a Tribunal of Judges (like the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal which works like a court of conscience rather than as a UN-Backed body that has powers to enforce its determinations) to re-examine the verdicts of these so-called ‘Tokyo Trials’ and set aside the flawed judgments as unacceptable as they constitute a travesty of justice.
‘Asia for Asians’ is not a slogan of the past. It has power and relevance in this ‘ Asian Century. It is Asia’s turn to ensure Justice for its fellow Asians. There is no greater feat of Justice in Asia than to have a Re – Trial for the wrongfully convicted Japanese leaders by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Even the dead are entitled to be exonerated from false charges and wrongful convictions.
Former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara made the following observation in 1995 Many Westerners act as if Human Rights are their moral ace in the hole, until their abysmal record in Asia is cited, and their position collapses like a pack of cards. Pointing out their hypocrisy does not deter the Americans, however. They blunder on badgering Asian Governments …. ”
” Heramba Lal Gupta, one of the leaders of the Indian Independence Movement, gave the following speech in 1946: I think that the International Military Tribunal for the Far East will surely be re-evaluated by the nations of Asia by the time we enter the twenty-first century, and then, a second Tokyo Trial will be held where Asia and all the world will regain its good sense and will judge all deeds in a fair, equal, and truthful manner. At that time, all the war heroes of the United States and of the great powers of Europe, who have been committing acts of aggression against Asia for many years, will receive stern punishments. Conversely, the Japanese who were accused of serious crimes by the IMTFE, especially the seven killed as Class A war criminals, will be rehabilitated, and the day may come when they shall be worshipped like gods as the saviors of Asia. That is what should rightfully happen.”
When both Germany and Japan stood condemned like outlaws or pariahs of the international community by the victorious Allies at the end of the Second World War, seeking huge amounts of reparations and heavy punishments for their leaders, political and military, as war criminals, the leaders and people of Ceylon / Sri Lanka adopted an entirely different approach to both these countries. It was an approach based on the Buddha´s teachings. The words of Ceylon´s delegate Finance Minister J.R. Jayawardene ( who later became President of Sri Lanka in 1978) in defense of a free Japan at the San Francisco Peace Conference on September 06, 1951, are worthy of reproduction here. He said: We in Ceylon were fortunate that we were not invaded, but the damage caused by air raids, by the stationing of enormous armies under the South-East Asia Command, and by the slaughter-tapping of one of our main commodities, rubber, when we were the only producer of natural rubber for the Allies, entitles us to ask that the damage so caused should be repaired. We do not intend to do so for we believe in the words of the Great Teacher the Buddha whose message has ennobled the lives of countless millions in Asia that hatred ceases not by hatred but by love. It is the message of the Buddha, the Founder of Buddhism which spread a wave of humanism through South Asia, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Siam, Indonesia, and Ceylon and also northwards through the Himalayas into Tibet, China, and finally Japan, which bound us together for hundreds of years with a common culture and heritage. This common culture still exists, as I found on my visit to Japan last week on my way to attend this Conference; and from the leaders of Japan, Ministers of State as well as private citizens and from their priests in the temples, I gathered the impression that the common people of Japan are still influenced by the shadow of that Great Teacher of peace, and wish to follow it. We must give them that opportunity.” Mr. Kase`s father Kase Toshikaz participated in the surrender ceremony accompanying plenipotentiary Shigemitsu Mamoru. He was standing right beside Foreign Minister Shigemitsu on USS Missouri as he held back his tears and signed the Instrument of Surrender at the table placed directly in front of General MacArthur. When Hideaki Kase was in middle school, he asked his father what was going through his mind while he was on board the USS Missouri. His father`s reply was as follows： Although Japan had been defeated in battle, we had liberated the people of Asia from hundreds of years of oppression and enslavement. As I stood on the deck of the USS Missouri, I knew in my heart with pride that Japan had actually won the war, insofar as we had led Asia into a great new era of history. Shigemitsu felt the same way.” Mr. Kase says: As I grew up, I felt the same pride and sorrow that my father did the day that he stood on the deck of the USS Missouri. These feelings have still not left me. The impact of Asia’s liberation, which Japan had won at such a high price, was soon felt on the African continent as well. The peoples of Africa, who had been oppressed by Western powers, achieved their independence, one after another. Japan played a monumental role in human history. Today’s world of racial equality was forged through battles fought by Japan.” I wish to end this presentation by reminding the people of Asia as fellow Asian that the time has now come for Asia to express its gratitude to Japan. Thank you, Japan. Senaka Weeraratna
This viewpoint of the Greater East Asia War should be included in our history books since we have been fed with one-sided Western propaganda all these seven decades.
As a person who has been interested in this subject since my school days, I greatly appreciate the fact that you were able to make this great speech in Japan representing Sri Lanka.
DBS Jeyaraj’s third idea Posted on February 28th, 2019
(Posted first on February 13, 2014)
C. Wijeyawickrema
(A respected journalist, DBS Jeyaraj, operating from Canada, makes suggestions from time to time on how to solve the ‘Tamil issue’ in Sri Lanka. Jeyaraj presents himself as a Tamil Moderate. If you just take R Premadasa’s (and now Ranil W’s) servant cum master Paskaralingam as a test case, no sane person could believe that there are Tamil moderate souls in Sri Lanka, meaning Tamils who will refuse a Tamil state with a UNO flag, if it is possible within their lifetime. Jeyaraj revolves around the ‘F’ solution, just like Anandasangaree’s ‘Indian F” solution in the past. But, is he willing to come out of the Tamil homeland in east myth of SJV Chevanayagam? During Mrs. Chandrika’s package deal days, Neelan Thiruchelvam, a symbol of Tamil Moderatism, did not want to accept the Pondicheri model (other ethnic enclaves within) as a compromise to mono-ethnic Tamil N-E region. He did not want a moth-eaten like Tamil homeland.
Jeyarj’s latest proposal (February 25, 2019, Daily Mirror), this time promoting a Supreme Court three-judge decision dated August 4, 2017, on a thesis that federalism is not separatism,” needs a critical analysis, because the judges’ illogical thesis was based on their lack of knowledge in history and geography of the island and their poor understanding of local and world politics and geopolitics.
Before that, readers need to be aware of a previous attempt made by Jeyaraj and a reply sent to him requesting him (dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com) to print it on his website so that his readers get an opportunity to see the other side of the story. If Jeyaraj is sincere in his quest for a peaceful Sri Lanka unbroken, I cannot understand why he is afraid of a dialogue. Fortunately, that reply was printed on Lankaweb on February 13, 2014).
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Mr. DBS Jeyaraj under the title, Sixty-six Years of Independent Sri Lanka and the Tamil State of Mind,” (6 February 2014) on his own website, an essay that he says was, an updated version of the DBS Jeyaraj Column article that appeared in the Daily Mirror of February 2nd, 2013, appeals moderate Sinhala and Tamil people to find a third way to live amicably in the island of Sri Lanka. DBSJ says there are three schools of thought clashing; hegemonism, secessionism and pluralism… the Sinhala hardliners want Sinhala-Buddhist domination. They see this country as theirs alone. Others are excluded or reduced to subservient status in this ‘Chinthana.’….the Tamil hardliners want a separate state for the north-east known as Tamil Eelam. Just as Sinhala hawks say Sri Lanka is for the Sinhalese, these Tamil hawks say Tamil Eelam is for the Tamils…” A state for the dominant ethnicity within, excludes, other ethnicities living within these real or imaginary borders. Both these ideas have brought about disunity, violence, and destruction. The nation bled profusely, and the country diminished drastically.
The third idea is that of establishing an egalitarian and plural society where all children of this country can live together in amity and fraternity. It incorporates a vision where no one will claim superior rights on the basis of belonging to the majority race/religion or claim exclusive rights to their historic habitat…..power will not be confined to Colombo but shared with the periphery. All people regardless of race, religion, caste or creed will have their say and a role to play…”
Tamil Obama
Lakshman Kadiragamar’s and Jeyaraj Fernando Pullai’s funerals showed that a Tamil Obama in Sri Lanka is not an impossible idea. Both were given Buddhist funeral rites by monks came from all over the island even though they both were Christians by birth. Take Arun Tambimuttu’s case. What Sinhala Buddhist voter will not vote for him as he is not telling anything different from what the Bodu Bala Sena has been telling for the past two years? Except for a few adjustments needed, DBSJ is advocating a position that I have been writing for the past 15 years or so. Sri Lanka has a third way, if it can get rid of the two political camps under SLFP and UNP. These two parties destroyed Sri Lanka, so said the monks Ven. Walpola Rahula and Ven. Balangoda Anandamaitreeya. The third way is based on reasonableness which is also the Buddhist way. This must be the way that two Indian ex-presidents meant when they said that solutions to world’s problems could be found from Buddhism.”
The Tamil state of mind that DBSJ presented was based on facts he considered true and relevant. There are other facts that one can list which would modify what DBSJ used to interpret his side of the story of Sinhala-Tamil drama. Suffice it to say that the black-white ruling class in Sri Lanka converted a Buddhist-Christian clash into a Sinhala-Tamil clash so that the black-whites could thrive while the country goes down. Local black-whites are supported by global black-whites who use R2P, HR, pluralism and Interfaith as tools of exploitation. Living in peace with minority communities should not make a majority a minority, and if pluralism means that, then pluralism will not work. As the army commander Sarath Fonseka once clarified, Sri Lanka is the country of the Sinhala Buddhists. Minorities could live with equal rights and equal opportunities, but they cannot make unreasonable demands.” This is a good Buddhist approach.
For example, a pluralism pioneer France is however, not ready to deny that France is the country of the French, just like Norway is not ready to deny that Norway is the homeland of the Norwegians. Pluralism should mean a majority allowing a minority to live with equal rights and equal opportunities like the majority and no discrimination based on religion or language. But this had to be governed by the doctrine of reasonableness. A Muslim woman should not expect a right to cover her face with only two hole and walk in public street in a crime-filled, bomb-carrying country because that is not reasonable. Same way a national anthem or a national flag is a symbol that cannot be dismembered with translations. The Indian national anthem cannot be sung in Tamil or Telegu. Then it is not a national anthem. The Indian national flag has a Buddhist symbol and not a cross or a crescent moon. Hindus, Muslims, and Christians cannot modify it.
Sri Lanka’s two problems
Sri Lanka has two problems created by the black-white politicians of green, red and blue colors. One is mismanagement of the economy, or their inability to change the colonial economic system. In 1948 there was a majority and a minority. That was Sinhala and Tamil-speaking majority and an English-speaking minority. Then there was a rich Colombo crowd and the poor villagers. The 1962 coup represented the minority. 1971 JVP insurrection represented the majority. Rather than learning lessons from these, the politicians who came to power tried to keep in power by dismembering constitutions at first, and changing constitutions, and changing parliamentary to executive presidency thinking that they outsmarted the opponents. Today the country is in a big mess, because these changes gave rise to an evil triangle, the politician, officer and the NGO.
The other is the ethnic problem. There are two aspects to this. First is the fear of Sinhala people that Tamil Nad will grab Sri Lanka. Statement by SJV Chelvanayagam, GG Ponnambalam created this fear which during Dudley Senanayaka’s time came as DMK threat in immigration and Indian Tamil areas in upcountry. 1976 Vaddukoddai resolution and the behavior of the leader of the opposition Amirthalingam added more fear and then came Prabhakaran. Today the fear is even worse with western white countries trying to break the country into two. Then we have the second aspect, Tamil political leaders looking for recognition for them, and in that process creating a thing called; Tamils have aspirations. Tamil politicians living in Colombo talk about it. Whatever its origin, one has to accept that they need a reasonable geographical area for them to promote these aspirations. When Ven. Maduluwave Sobhitha asked Kumar Ponnambalam to name any item that the Sinhalese have but Tamils do not, he thought for a while and said, Tamils have aspirations.” Tamils have a source region just 22 miles of shallow sea away. The only real estate for the 16 million Sinhala people in a 6 billion world is this tiny island.
The reasonable solution to this ethnic problem is to remove Sinhala fear and to allow fairly reasonable geographical areas for the Tamils to engage in their aspirations. One immediate requirement is that Sinhala and Tamil should be taught to school children from grade three. If a solution to these two needs could also handle the first problem of mismanagement so much the better. If the solution also takes care of the ecological problems and global warming related environmental threats, then it will be perfect. If it could be in agreement with Buddhist and Hindu principles people will be happy.
I presented such a solution for consideration by LLRC and when I read between the lines of LLRC report I see it written there. The problem was that Lalith Weeratunga who was asked to examine it did not see it in the LLRC report or in the documents forwarded to him by me directly and indirectly. Instead, a Divi Neguma thing came, and Geneva March 2014 is a direct result of this bad behavior of the top government officer. If Sri Lanka is to remain as one country, if Sri Lanka wants to come out of mismanagement and does not want to get labeled as a corrupt, crime-ridden land, I think it had to follow a solution like what I have suggested.
Here is the solution in brief:
1.Demarcate GSN units in Sri Lanka as lowest level ecological units.
Rpremdasa increased them from 4,000 to 14,000, God only knows why. But following the trinity of village-water tank-temple in ancient Sri Lanka, an ecology/hydrology-based GSN unit is an innocent/pragmatic gift that rulers can grant to people. Engineer D.L.O Mendis recently documented that these kinds of eco villages were part of both Jaffna and dry zone farming communities.
2.Empower a ten-member committee elected on non-political party basis to run the basic daily affairs of the unit (if one unit is too small due to geographical reasons then combine them as needed. This should not surprise anybody as under the Gami Diriya program this method of empowerment has been in practice, yes despite the anger and jealousy of local and national politician crooks.
3.Because Sri Lanka has 103 river basins, use these GSN units to create Seven River Basin Regions for Sri Lanka. See the map attached. This map has seven units so that Jaffna region gets one large basin area for them to feel that there is territory for aspirations to grow.
This division gives a sea face to each region, all of equal size and most importantly, because it is language-blind, western white countries or Tamil Nadu or Prabhakaran remnants in New York or London cannot talk of a homeland based on the eastern province. That takes away the fear of Sinhala people.
At GSN level there will be so many Tamil units, Muslim units and mixed units who can also think of aspirations at that level. The beauty is that no one unit can become a threat to another unit. They will learn to respect others because, if one unit acts selfishly then the other units will also act selfishly, and both will be in trouble.
4.When one looks at problems of living that people are facing today, they are not big complex problems. How to dispose garbage, how to control Dengue, water supply, water pollution, basic health and basic education, how to get a birth certificate, how to prevent GSN asking bribes or school principal asking sex bribe; these can be easily and effectively handled at the local level. This way 70% of peoples’ basic issues can be transferred to local units, which is what people want, empowerment, not devolution of powers to provincial politicians. 13A method has proven to be a disaster with sex and now beauty has become the hot selling item for council candidacy.
5.Because the basic unit is an ecological/hydrological unit they can be combined to represent an electorate or district-size units before becoming one of the Seven River Basins. Thus, this horizontal division can go upward administratively with representatives sitting at a separate national body.
6.What should be done at the national/central government level to allow minority participation, if more is needed than what is proposed by item 5, such as a new constitution for the country, this GSN system can remain intact, without political interferences.
I hope DBSJ prints this essay on his website.
Seven River Basins
1. Yalpanam 2. Raja Rata 3. Dambadeni 4. Mahaveli 5. Deegavaapi 6. Kelani 7. Ruhunu (Compare this map with the nine-province map which cuts all major rivers into artificial pieces).
From November 14 to 18, ICITAP conducted two, two-day training programs regarding Forensic Interviewing training to forty (40) male and female officers from the Sri Lankan Police Women & Children’s Bureau who are responsible for conducting investigations involving child abuse, eight (8) Attorney General’s Department Child Abuse Unit prosecutors and seven (7) representatives from the Child Protection Force (a civil society child advocacy group).
Two instructors from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) delivered the training, one of whom is a forensic interview specialist with significant experience in this field. Group one participants received welcoming remarks from the U.S. Ambassador and Group two participants received welcoming remarks from the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission.
Participants were able to increase their skills and knowledge through observation of scenario-based role playing, case studies and the sharing of knowledge from their different perspectives.
The participants were thoroughly impressed by the victim centric approach used during the interviews which they will utilize during their investigations. Further, feedback was very positive from the participants who had not heard or learned of many of the techniques that were used by the forensic interview specialist during interviews with victims and witnesses.
The Department of Justice’s new Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) to Sri Lanka also gave a presentation to the groups during the training, in which he shared his experiences while prosecuting the Elizabeth Smart abduction case in Salt Lake City.
The RLA’s remarks were very well received by the prosecutors who were able to learn firsthand the challenges faced by federal prosecutors in that case and the necessity of being thoroughly prepared to respond to any assertions made by defense attorneys of the suspects mental state during the crime. In Sri Lanka, ICITAP works with the support of and in coordination with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).
Indo-Sri Lankan relations are currently in the doldrums. The bonhomie seen in the early stages of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka when India rushed US$ 4 billion worth of fuel, food and medicines, is now missing.
Apparently, New Delhi is deeply aggrieved that while accepting Indian largesse, Sri Lanka has not shown due regard for India’s economic, political and strategic concerns. Colombo has not followed up on important economic, strategic and political agreements already entered into by the two countries.
Perhaps this is the reason why Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to give an appointment to Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe despite repeated efforts by Sri Lanka to secure it. Perhaps this is the reason why Samant Kumar Goel, head of the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), reportedly visited Colombo on November 21 to meet President Wickremesinghe and the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s chief organizer, Basil Rajapaksa.
Goel is believed to have discussed all the irritants in the relationship. But the emphasis would naturally have been on the security aspects of the relationship given the heightened activity of China and Pakistan in certain parts of the island which are of strategic interest to India.
Goel’s reported visit indicates the seriousness with which the top echelons of the government in New Delhi are taking some recent happenings in Sri Lanka.
Economic Issues
Meanwhile, the economic situation in Sri Lanka continues to be dire with prices of essentials hitting the roof, though the supply of essentials has greatly improved. Sri Lanka’s efforts to restructure its external debt of US$ 35 billion are yet to bear fruit. The IMF bailout of US$ 2.9 billion, which is expected to clear the way for restructuring, is still some months away. China, to which Sri Lanka owes US$ 7.4 billion, is yet to discuss a haircut. Beijing has been willing to refinance a part of the debt but not restructure debt repayment.
India has been wanting Sri Lanka to implement a slew of joint venture infrastructure projects for which MOUs were signed on April 25, 2017 in the presence of the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
The projects include the following: a re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)-fired 500 megawatt power plant in Kerewelapitiya near Colombo; an LNG Terminal/Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) in Kerawalapitiya; a piped gas distribution system and retail outlets for the supply of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to the transportation sector; a 50 MW (extendable to 100 MW) solar power plant in Sampur in the Eastern Province; joint development initially of 10 of the 84 giant oil tanks in the Upper Tank Farm in Trincomalee; development of the Trincomalee port and the setting up of industries in the hinterland; Industrial Zones or Special Economic Zones in identified locations in the island; roads linking Mannar and Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee and Dambulla and Trincomalee; upgrading of the railway rolling stock; construction of a Container Terminal in Colombo Port; and agricultural development including livestock development, water management and agro-based industries. All these projects have been in limbo.
If at least some of the 2017 MOUs had been implemented, the Sri Lankan economy would not have broken down as it did in 2021-2022. India has also been urging Sri Lanka to encourage foreign investment instead of seeking foreign loans and getting into a debt trap as it has done vis-à-vis China and other creditors. But New Delhi’s appeals have fallen on deaf ears.
Political Issue
On the political plane, India has been urging Sri Lanka to fully implement the 13 th.Constitutional Amendment (13A) devolving powers to the provinces. The degree of actual devolution has been minimal keeping the Tamil issue alive. The 13A stems from the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 which was meant to meet the minority Tamils’ demand for provincial autonomy. With the 13A not fully implemented, the Tamils have now dumped it and are demanding a fully federal constitution.
President Wickremesinghe’s reported statement that he would abolish the Provincial Councils only infuriated the Tamils and raised the hackles in New Delhi. In 1987, India had to intervene politically and militarily to solve the Tamil issue through the India-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987 and the deployment of an India Peace Keeping Force.
Security/Geopolitical Issues
India has grave security/geopolitical issues vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. New Delhi appears to fear that China and Pakistan have colluded to challenge India’s pre-eminent position in North Sri Lanka, which is geographically close to India and where the minority Tamils are in a majority. The North also has a very significant Muslim population. While the Chinese are investing in fisheries projects to win over the common man in the North, Pakistan is concentrating on the Muslims, especially in Mannar district which faces Tamil Nadu.
Recently, the Pakistan High Commissioner Maj.Gen. Umar Farooq Burki was on a week-long tour of the Northern Province during which he distributed sewing machines and inaugurated a rural water supply project in Mannar. The Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong also had gone on a well-publicized tour of the North. He even worshipped at the Nallur temple in the traditional Hindu fashion to endear himself to the Hindu Tamils. China had swung a renewable energy project in three islands off Jaffna facing India, but Colombo canceled the deal when India raised security issues.
India has an advantage in the North over China because the Tamils believe that, unlike India, China will invariably support the Sri Lankan government on the Tamils’ demand for provincial autonomy. Significantly, a recent attempt by China to set up an Agricultural unit in Jaffna University was thwarted by the Jaffna University Students Union. The union alleged that the unit is a ruse to grab the Tamils’ land in collusion with the Lankan government. India fears that Colombo would subtly encourage the Chinese and Pakistanis to get a foothold in the North to check India’s influence there.
Visit” of Intelligence Chief
More recently, what prompted India to engage Sri Lanka at the highest level, was the supply of fuel to a second Chinese research and surveillance (spy) vessel Yuan Wang 6 off Hambantota port in early November. Without informing India, which is a maritime security partner, Colombo allegedly helped the vessel refuel in international waters off Hambantota port.
Earlier, in August, India had objected to the docking of Yuan Wang 5 at Hambantota port on the grounds that it will spy on vital Indian installations in South India. The vessel eventually docked at Hambantota after Sri Lanka gave some assurances regarding security.
India had wanted Sri Lanka to consult it before allowing Chinese military and dual-purpose vessels. But Sri Lanka was constrained by the fact that China had taken Hambantota port on lease for 99-years, and also has a terminal in Colombo port.
Absence of Reciprocity
Some Sri Lankans wonder how Bangladesh manages to have good relations with India and China while Sri Lanka is unable to. Bangladesh is a major recipient of Chinese economic investment and also arms, but still it has good relations with India.
The answer lies in the fact that Bangladesh, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been able to satisfy India on vital security matters and also meet its economic needs. Sheikh Hasina has seen to it that Bangladesh does not become a sanctuary or a cockpit for terrorists intending to strike India.
On the economic front, she has allowed transit for Indian traffic between the Indian State of West Bengal and India’s North Eastern States. She has not allowed the dispute over the Teesta river waters to bedevil cooperation with India on other matters. Most importantly, peace with India has allowed Bangladesh become a South Asian economic tiger.
Well-wishers hope that Sri Lanka will see the futility of being indifferent to India’s concerns and begin cooperating with it for the betterment of both countries.
P. K. Balachandran
P. K. Balachandran is a senior Indian journalist working in Sri Lanka for local and international media and has been writing on South Asian issues for the past 21 years.
Revisiting his proposal to hold power-devolution talks with the Tamil parties after the conclusion of budgetary processes in Parliament in the first half of December, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has since advised/appealed to them, ‘not to place hurdles’ before even meeting them once. Else, they might end up regretting once again that they had ‘’missed one more opportunity’’, he has said.
Given his vast and varied experience as a parliamentarian for 45 years and association with the Tamil political leaders, especially those from the TNA, Wickremesinghe was obviously referring to the TNA’s pre-conditions for negotiations. Meeting in Colombo, the three-party TNA, along with a couple of erstwhile partners from the Sri Lankan Tamil (SLT) community, has said, they would participate in the talks only if the government promised ‘federalism’ in the place of the present unitary Constitution, and, also re-merger of the North and East. This is precisely what Ranil has since clarified that they would have to refrain from.
‘13-Plus’
Ranil made the original offer to hold talks with the Tamil parties while addressing Parliament, a week earlier. In doing so, he said his government would protect (the rights conferred by) the 13th Amendment, facilitated by the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, 1987. He named Tamil front-row members like TNA’s M.A. Sumanthiran (in the absence of group leader R Sampanthan, who has been granted three months’ leave owing to his failing health). The President also named Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of the two-member Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) in positive terms.
Intervening in the brief debate, two-term President and three-term Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said they could discuss 13-Plus. Mahinda’s intervention is important as the single-member UNP parliamentary group of President Wickremesinghe is dependent near-exclusively on his SLPP for floor majority, which alone matters in making and facilitating laws and constitutional amendments.
Rajapaksa was alluding to the forgotten post-war negotiations his government had initiated with the 16-member TNA (now, 10 MPs), in 2011. At the time, the two sides were believed to have made substantial progress on some issues and progress on the processes in others.
Both sides, shifting the goalposts
The talks failed after the TNA, out of nowhere, started talking about ‘war crimes probe’, accountability issues and the UNHRC process, in public – and without mentioning it at the negotiations table. The government gave it an ‘indecent burial’ when the official team, led by then Minister G.L. Peiris, ‘boycotted’ (?) a two-day session, without even having the courtesy to inform the other side, waiting in a discussion room in the Parliament complex.
The government’s predicament was understandable under the circumstances. Yet, it cannot to date justify how a governmental delegation was overnight converted into a team from the then-ruling SLFP, headed by President Mahinda. Already, the government had played foul when it declared that the equally forgotten Report of the ‘Tissa Vitharana Committee’ on power devolution, appointed by the President, had to be vetted by an SLFP team before the government took a decision.
It is such moves that also made the international community (read: West) conclude that the government kept shifting the goalpost and was also taking unilateral/autocratic decisions. But they did not talk about the TNA too shifting the goalpost and a Party leader claiming/ owning up credit for the US-led West moving the UNHRC on ‘war crimes probe’.
Possibly, the TNA leader did not know the enormity of what he was telling the Southern Sinhala polity and society. The Party too did not venture to correct him, if it was desirous of a negotiated settlement to what remained the ‘national problem’. Today, that place has gone through an overwhelming economic crisis, sorry!
Too much of a risk
It is all in the past. Now, it is not as if the Tamil parties, particularly TNA group leader, R. Sampanthan, not unaware of the ground realities. That whatever be, his hopes and intention, President Wickremesinghe does not have the numbers to do what he wishes. Even if he is willing, and so does Mahinda Rajapaksa, both would still face opposition from within their Sinhala-dominated Parties. In particular, Mahinda is no more the master of all that he surveys, which was however the case even after he lost power in 2015.
If the two have not spelt out their positions on ‘federalism’ thus far this time round, SJB leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa, a self-proclaimed friend of the Tamils, has offered all support for a negotiated settlement, but (only) under the current, unitary Constitution. Even if all three leaders and their Parties ‘conspire’ to accept the Tamil demand for ‘federalism’, under the existing Constitution, it would have to face a Public Referendum. It is too much of a risk that none of them in political terms and the Sri Lankan State as an institution would want to risk.
Re-merger and the rest of Tamil demands would then have to wait. Even discussing terminologies like ‘union of provinces’, as outlined in the failed ‘Chandrika Package’ and recently revived by PLOTE leader D. Siddarthan won’t have any ‘takers’ in the Sinhala South. So does the ‘contiguity-based merger’ of the North and the South, again mooted by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. It has passed its time, or so it seems.
No clarity
It thus remains to be seen if the negotiations would at all commence, as there is no clarity whatsoever on the kind of commitments that the Tamil side would expect from the government on their pre-conditions. Or, would they be willing to join the maiden session, where they lay down their pre-conditions formally, and then take it forward from there? Again, there is no idea.
Sooner than later, the President will have to decide if he intends to take forward the talks without mainline TNA-Plus participation, if it came to that, and continue with the processes with pro-government Parties like the EPDP of Minister Douglas Devananda in the North and TMVP of former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, now MP from Batticaloa district.
Will the government be willing to commence the talks from where they had left it at the Constitution Assembly, which was there when he was PM (2015-19)? That is another question. The chances are that the government may not have any clear ideas on what to offer, what to accept and what course to adopt just now. It is only clear what not to offer, and what not to accept. It may be able to decide on the positives, only if the talks commence and progress – and not possibly otherwise.
(The writer is a policy analyst & political commentator, based in Chennai, India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)
This is a season for scapegoating. Aragalaya blames Gota for all the ills in the economy and called for his resignation and demanded that both Gota and MR must go. Later they added Ranil to the list of expulsions. Maithree swears that only an all-party govt can find a solution. Minister Wijedasa thinks that without a legal solution no economic solution can be found. The JVP and FSP insist that the solution must be extraconstitutional. All these snake oil vendors claim that a solution to the present economic crisis is in only their prescriptions.
At the same time the economic wizards who are responsible for the catastrophe are busy firefighting with their monetary arsenal. None of these specters or their minions have the honesty and courage to say Mea culpa and own up their doctrinaire blunders and profligate behaviors in the past.
Meanwhile people were dying in fuel and gas queues. Children are starving at home. Media is not in short supply of their variety of high-octane fuel which they are gleefully adding on to the fire. There is a severe escalation in all prices. Inflation is running at over 60 percent. There is increase of crime and desperation. A social upheaval of a catastrophic proportions is in the making. Vultures are on nearby treetops waiting for the mutilated cadavers. Media is adding fuel to the fire. Nary a word on the real problem and how it can be solved.
The present economic debacle is the result of irresponsible policies of political leaders and criminal negligence of economic wizards in the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance.
The simple explanation of the present crisis is the chronic adverse balance of payments situation of the country. In the pre-Corvid the returns from foreign employment and tourism mitigated the crisis. But the vulnerability of these two sources was soon demonstrated. The only solution was and continued to be the closing of the adverse trade balance. The proven path is in industrialization and not in subsistence agriculture which is practiced in Sri Lanka. The country has a high density of population, and the land man ratio is high. In modern agriculture with the introduction of new technologies there is a drastic reduction in employment in agriculture. But Sri Lanka has not given industrialization any priority.
At independence Sri Lanka (Ceylon) had a stable democracy, sound economy, and an effective public service and external assets equal to 100 percent of annual import value. We were second to Japan on almost all social indicators and above South Korea as late as the mid-sixties. Singapore‚s per capita income was just a little bit higher than Sri Lanka at that time. It is now over USD 64,000 whereas ours is USD 3845. The oft repeated question is why did Sri Lanka with better physical resources failed to advance like Singapore.
What went wrong? Did we have the correct policy mix? What were the unforeseen events which impacted on the destiny of the country?
This note is impressionistic but unbiased. It tries to focus on turning points in the political and economic trajectory of the country and the consequential policy determinations.
1. In 1944, the State Council resolved to launch a State Project of Industrialization in Ceylon. In the same year there was the – Industrial Corporation Bill. The concept of socialist industrialization was keenly advocated by the Marxist parties which believed that full employment could be achieved only through industrialization. In the same year J.R. Jayawardene (JR) moved a motion in the State Council for the ‚preparation of a complete plan for industrialization‚ There was a firm bipartisan consensus on industrialization with a different emphasis on ownership. D.S. Senanayake (DS) was a prime mover of the plan for industrialization.‚
At the general election of 1947 the UNP fell short of a majority, and had to form a government in coalition with the All Ceylon Tamil Congress. The success of the left parties at the 1947 election alarmed DS who was an astute politician. He was aware that the left could build a mass base with industrialization. DS also had a staunch commitment to the development of agriculture through colonization. But his prime motive was to create a pool of peasant farmers who would be a strong base for the UNP. The project had both a nationalistic and political flavor and was vigorously pursued in the face of criticism from the left parties. But for the political bias, DS could have steered a two-pronged strategy for the development of the country leading to food security and full employment. We had the funds, human resources, and the infrastructure to venture into manufacture. But politics prevailed.
This was the most important opportunity missed by independent Sri Lanka for an early start in a manufacturing-based economy.
2.DS denied SWRD Bandaranayake (SWRD), who was at the time the leader of the House, his due place, and maneuvered to get his son Dudley Senanyake to succeed him as Prime Minister. This maneuver also kept JR, the best brain in the party, out in the cold. If JR succeeded DS, he who believed in planned industrialization could have introduced industries with modern technology with the help of the Japanese who were under obligation to him for his open support to Japan on war reparation conference at San Francisco in 1951,where he rejected reparations and quoted the Buddhist saying: nahi verena verani.
Dudley who inherited the leadership was a perfect gentleman but a weak leader. He followed the policies of DS in giving priority to agriculture. He resigned in the face of a civil disobedience campaign (Hartal) organized by left parties. With his resignation Sir John, the strong man in the UNP became the Prime Minister. Sir John took over the leadership at a moment of history of politics in Sri Lanka when there was a tempest of opposition to the policies of the UNP. It also coincided with a socio-cultural groundswell spurred by the Buddhist Commission Report. The flamboyant style of Sir John was not helpful in resisting the forces against the UNP.
3. The wrong choice of the successor by DS was the next miss of opportunity.
The creation of a new party by SWRD resulted in both positive and negative consequences. The split created divisive politics based on ideology and ethnicity. This was the dawn of the era of chauvinistic and emotional politics. However, SWRD believed in planning and development based on nationalism and state ownership. He established a Planning Secretariat which formulated a 10 year plan in consultation with renowned development economists such as Gunnar Myrdal, Joan Robinson, Kenneth Galbraith and Nicholas Kaldor. It is reported that Myrdal recommended the invitation of foreign investors on a Build Operate and Transfer basis. The period of foreign operation was to be limited to 20 years. (The Prima investment during the time of JR was on this basis). The ascent of SWRD was supported by the Pancha Bala Vegaya led by leading Buddhist clergy some of whom acted as kingmakers. The assassination of SWRD by the same kingmakers terminated the planned development in the country. The danger of depending on assumed kingmakers is a lesson for all national leaders. The proposals and the 10-year plan of SWRD were not implemented by subsequent governments. This was a big miss.
4. On the demise of SWRD, Philp Gunawardhane, the most dynamic and experienced minister in the MEP government was denied the Prime Minister‚s position. That prevented the continuation of the 10-year plan. At the same time the country lost the opportunity of realizing the best of the left parties which had the talent and the dynamism. It was also partly due to the misplaced ideological stance of the left. Left politics had its origins in the Suriya Mal Movement and was politically entrenched in the rural coastal and the Kalani valley Districts. But they believed in a permanent revolution achieved with the support of the plantation population and the trade unions, and neglected the rural population. Left politics was also fragmented on theoretical trivialities. Except leaders like NM and Philip, other key party cadres were too dogmatic. How removed some segments of the left from ordinary people was reflected in the very names of the parties like Bolshevik Leninist party.
5. The left movement had the opportunity to support SWRD who was getting alienated with the rightist groups in the SLFP. Had they joined the MEP the hand of SWRD and Philp would have been strengthened and the reactionary elements eliminated. Even after SWRD the left elements in the MEP would have continued to rule.
This was another lost opportunity.
6. The 1962 military coup attempt and the 1971 JVP adventure saw the emergence of the strong man Felix Dias in the SLFP, who opposed the smooth operation of the coalition between the SLFP and the left in the 1970 government. This denied the country of the continuing services of intellectuals like NM and Colvin. Felix was smart but arrogant and had an inherent, feudal aversion to socialism.
7). The 1977 JR regime missed many opportunities under fortuitous circumstances, and made more self-inflicted blunders and evaded emerging opportunities. The 1977 regime established new institutions like GCEC and EDB for investment and export development (which had origins in the previous regime) but introduced a wide-ranging package of neoliberal policies. The government removed all import controls and opened the floodgates to imports. These free-market policies destroyed many nascent domestic and import substituting industries and had a severe adverse effect on domestic agriculture. The import liberalization diverted most of human and financial resources into import related activities. Although the government was keen to encourage exports the sector was starved of finance which went to meet the incessant demand for import and construction activities that carried minimal risk. The Banks were more than happy to finance these activities which involved low risks. Import finance was recoverable in a short time. Finance for exports and investments in export projects carried interest rates as high as 25 percent. The 1977-regime went into a frenzy of unwarranted and unplanned privatization of state enterprises. This was contrary to the successful development model of Singapore, which adhered to the basic principles of a free market economy, but never shied away from state planning or state ownership where deemed important. The premier State enterprise Temasek Holdings of Singapore’s has nearly $300 billion in equity holdings.
The JR regime did not focus on economic restructuring other than dismantling existing institutions like the Marketing Department and the Paddy Marketing Board which were the connecting links between the producer and consumers of food products. The adverse impact of this policy is felt even today. Unlike Sri Lanka, in 1979, the Singapore Government started a program of economic restructuring. This was achieved by modifying education policies, expanding technology and computer education, offering financial incentives to industrial enterprises and launching a productivity campaign‚. Sri Lanka Government had no innovative policies. Even today the education system in SL is not producing the manpower to fit the needs of skills and knowledge for now and the future.
On the other hand, JR regime was notorious for deliberate wrecking of opportunities in the field of politics. Power sharing at the periphery has been a demand since the time of independence. After lengthy negotiations the main Tamil party the TULF had agreed to a scheme of decentralization of government at the District level, and a law was introduced in 1980 for the establishment of District Development Councils. It is well known that government circles sabotaged the election of the DC in Jaffna. It is also alleged that the Jaffna library was set on fire during the same time. These episodes made the TULF getting disillusioned with the DC scheme and finally withdrawing from the agreement to work within the scheme. The final outcome is the imposition of an unwanted and divisive white elephant in the country in the form of Provincial Councils.
On the plus side the Accelerated Multi-Purpose Mahaweli Project was launched during this time.
This was a series of self-inflicted harm and lost opportunities.
8) The next criminal blunder of the UNP was the alleged instigation and evading the control of the communal riots of July 83. This single event provided the LTTE the manpower and motivation to fast-track their separatist movement against Sri Lanka and resulted in the commencement of a civil war backed by India. The Black July 1983 also saw the mass flight of Tamil civilians to foreign countries where they formed anti Sri Lanka campaigns and won over the support of politicians in many western countries. It must also be mentioned that the UNP tried in vain to put the blame for the riots on a few opposition political parties. The banning of the JVP on this count kept them out of democratic politics which had its own ramifications.
An idiotic and timid decision with long term and pervasive damage domestically and internationally was the sudden ceasing of theVadamarachchi Operation.
In June 87 the UNP government made a firm decision to wipe out the LTTE from the Jaffna peninsula and bring an end to the terrorist menace. The SL army launched a full-scale operation in May/June 87 in Jaffna peninsula named the Vadamarachchi Operation using over 8000 troops. When our troops were about to capture the LTTE leadership India intervened with a show of force and JR backed out. JR, known as the Fox was outfoxed by the then Indian High Commissioner Dixit who was an obtrusive, obnoxious bully.
If that did not happen the war would have been over 30 years before Nandikadal.
India did not stop there. India bludgeoned Sri Lanka to enter into an Accord and an amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka for the establishment of Provincial Councils with powers more than enjoyed by the States of India providing a steppingstone to a future Federal Sri Lanka. In a dubious procedure of letters exchanged, India dictated terms on our foreign policy, use of our harbors and airports, Trincomalee Oil farm, and broadcasting.
With this, development opportunities were stymied for over three long decades.
JVP too was indirectly responsible for the IPKF intervention. JR who was more worried of the JVP than of the LTTE, was forced to invite the IPKF as he did not have the resources and the confidence to fight on two fronts. At this time (1987) JVP had launched a major insurrection in the South. Even with SL troops moved to the South, in this conflict the country lost over 60,000 youth killed by the JVP and state agencies. By November 1988, Sri Lanka experienced near total anarchy. JVP organized strikes that affected all Publics services. The economic damage committed by JVP sabotage was colossal. In addition, the society was traumatized, and violence became the norm.
Two specific misses of FDI which could have been trail blazers and made an immense cutting-edge impact on the technology, export earnings and employment in SL were that of Motorola and Samsung. Motorola withdrew after the 1983 Black July and went to Indonesia. But what we missed with the withdrawal of Samsung which initially showed a keen interest is enormous and tragic. They did not give a straight reply to this writer on why they withdrew but said that SL was not ready for FDI. The reason is anybody ‘guess. What we lost was the gain of Vietnam which welcomed them. During 2020 the value of Samsung exports from Vietnam was USD 54 billion. Samsung Electronics plans to make an additional US$3.3 billion investment in Vietnam this year to make chip parts.
Despite all these omissions and commissions of policy makers, Sri Lanka has shown a remarkable resilience. The country has withstood the disasters of a catastrophic separatist war, two youth insurrections and a devastating tsunami. The country also had to deal with a brazen Indian intervention and palpable and oppressive Western pressure which continues unabated.
According to India’s former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon Sri Lanka’s internal war which ended in May 2009, had cost the country around US$ 200 billion Menon says that this estimate does not include opportunity costs” .
There is no estimate of the economic cost of the two youth insurrections, but the loss of life is estimated at 60,000. Loss of life with the tsunami is estimated as 40,000.
Direct and indirect and opportunity costs of these ordeals are enormous. The answer to Sri Lanka critics why the country has not developed like Singapore to a great extent rests on this background. The total foreign debt of the country of 50 billion US dollars at present is only 25 percent of the 200 billion we lost due to the war.
There is a misconception that a nation’s leader cannot singlehandedly build a country for it to become rich and prosperous.
The writer states that a visionary leader alone (of course with the support of his/her chosen team) can transform a country from utter poverty to utmost prosperity, within a matter of few years. We have seen this happened in some countries.
One of our prominent political parties states that if they are elected to power a council of professionals numbering about 6 will advise each and every cabinet minister. According to them these ‘consultants’ will mostly be university dons. They imply that even the country will be governed not by one leader but by a council of leaders (like how they run their party now).
This is a most ridiculous idea. It may even be contrary to our Constitution, as the Constitution stipulates that the government is required to be run by the President and the Cabinet (the Executive). The President is the head of the Cabinet.
It seems the leader of that political party is afraid of becoming the country’s leader or he is unsure about his own capabilities. If this is the case, he should leave and offer the leadership to someone else. Their other elected MP (from Gampaha district) seems very bright and better leadership material.
Appointing advisors to ministers, prime ministers and presidents has been a hallmark of every Sri Lankan government since 1978. It is still happening. All these experiments have badly failed.
These so called experts only know how to waste the precious taxpayer money. The country has to spend enormous amounts to maintain them. In effect, the advisors themselves are white elephants.
Each ministry is well equipped with a permanent secretary and other high officials. Then, there are the government departments, authorities, corporations and boards etc that come under a ministry. One main duty of these institutions is to advise policy to the minister. Then, what is the requirement to have another layer of external consultants on top of these well paid public servants?
It is sad that this political party that has built an unblemished name as uncorrupt, and upon it which people have placed so much faith and trust in their future, now professes the same old, failed ideology.
This party must realise that the saying ‘too many cooks spoil the soup’ is true.
During the 2020 general election an idea was propagated – that, highly educated professionals will be largely nominated as one of the major party’s election candidates and National List MPs. That party won the election and all know what happened afterwards.
It was those so called experts who pushed that government into great difficulty. Upon their advice the use of chemical fertilizer by farmers was halted in 24 hours. There were several other foolish examples. The extraordinary end result was that the head of the state had to flee the country through the backdoor of his presidential palace.
One main criteria of a visionary leader is that they are not afraid of taking decisions. For this, the leader must be highly intelligent, knowledgeable and talented. He/she must not be arrogant.
A visionary leader possesses the extraordinary talent to identify and select the best personnel to run the government. His/her cabinet of ministers, election candidates (prospective MPs), top public officials are picked solely on merit. Owing to his/her abiding love for the motherland, he//she will never engage in cronyism or nepotism. Those who are picked for the important positions are the best and most qualified people of the citizenry.
A visionary leader thinks and plans the future according to their own imagination and wisdom. They do not rely too much on outside advice in arriving at crucial decisions. A good leader makes the ultimate decisions him/herself. This is why the leader must possess good common sense. They cannot be stupid, naïve or non- serious.
No matter how busy he/she is, a visionary leader will attend to each of his/her tasks promptly, with immaculate precision/accuracy. They maintain a very fine memory; they know the ins and outs about their administration. They will take risks only after very carefully analyzing them.
A visionary leader always works in a positive framework, even when some of his/her goals and ambitions go astray.
A visionary leader loves his/her motherland wholeheartedly. He/she will give the most of his/her time and energy for same. The country’s interests are always his/her paramount consideration.
Another significant characteristic of a visionary leader is that they are always punctual and will always bear a pleasant personality. They are 100% honest and will never engage in bribery and corruption, nor will they encourage others to engage in so.
Some of the visionary leaders that comes to the writer’s mind are (the writer acknowledges that some of them are labeled as serious human rights violators and tyrants. He has ignored these serious allegations, as this article only investigates whether or not they were able to rebuild their ‘fallen’ countries):’
Abraham Lincoln – Architect of the modern Republican Party. He successfully a waged a political struggle and civil war that preserved the US Union and ended slavery. Lincoln had the strong desire to create an egalitarian America and provide civil and social freedom to Negroes (now, Afro-Americans).
Lee Kuan Yew – Yew transformed Singapore from a poor country into a developed, high income country. He wanted to emulate Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). In 1950s he stressed that ‘let’s try to become another Ceylon’. When he saw the rapid decline of Sri Lanka, in 1980s he stated ‘let’s not become another Sri Lanka. Yew made Singapore’s port a strategic, very competitive port in Asia. Today Singapore’s trade-to-GDP ratio is one of the highest in the world.
Chiang Kai-shek – After his rule was confined to Taiwan following his defeat to Mao Tsethung in the Chinese Civil War, Kai-shek caused a rapid industrialization in Taiwan which was very poor then (in late 1940s). Kai-shek’s vision saw Taiwan emerging as an economic powerhouse. Taiwan developed alongside Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong; the foursome came to be known as ‘Asian Tigers’.
Joseph Stalin – If not for Stalin, Russia would still have been an agrarian society. A hardworking, committed individual, Stalin embarked on a massive industrialization and a collectivization of agriculture programmes. Both were successful (true, many soviet nationals unnecessarily died during the processes). Thanks to Stalin the industrial revolution finally took place in Russia. It is this effort that enabled him to defeat Hitler. An ardent nationalist, Stalin did not bend rules even to safeguard his own son who became a prisoner of WW II. Germany was keen to negotiate the son’s release with the Soviets but Stalin was uninterested. For him, the Soviet Union was more important than his own family. Stalin was firmly committed to defeat Hitler militarily, and he succeeded. Stalin ruled the Soviet Union closer to 30 years. When he died in 1953, the country had emerged as a world superpower.
Deng Xiaoping – After CCP Chairman Mao Tsethung died (in 1976), Xiaoping who rose to become the leader, initiated far- reaching market reforms (Xiaoping’s ‘marginal revolutions’). These transformed China into a capitalist economy. Xiaoping is regarded worldwide as the ‘‘Architect of Modern China’. If not for Xiaoping, China would not have become the world’s 2nd largest economy by 2010. True Xiaoping was the Chairman of the Communist Party, but his policies were nothing else but high-end capitalism. It is Xiaoping’s entrepreneurship and market forces that ignite the Chinese economy to grow at 8% – 10% per annum in the past 25 years consecutively.
Ronald Regan – At 69 years Regan was the then oldest person to assume the US presidency – in 1981. Early in his first term Presidency Regan implemented new political and economic initiatives. He knew what he was doing so his policies succeeded. Dubbed ‘Reganomics’, he advocated tax cuts and economic deregulation. Regan waged a successful ‘war’ on drugs and fought against labor union strikes. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction in inflation from 12.5% to 4%. The average annual GDP growth was a healthy 3.6%. During his 8 years as the President, Regan had made the US extremely rich again. Why Regan was such a successful President was because he pursued policies that reflected his personal beliefs and own individual freedom. A real visionary, Regan is credited with contributing to end the Cold War in favour of the US.
Robert Menzies – Menzies was the longest serving Prime Minister of Australia (held the office for 18 years in total).For most Australians the Menzies era is regarded as the era of real prosperity. He effected a lengthy economic boom for Australia. Menzies is credited for pushing rural farmers to become wealthy ‘middle or upper class’ land owners. A noteworthy feature of Menzie’s administration was that he maintained a close rapport with his people through open chats in his frequent radio talks.
Margret Thatcher – In late 1970s the UK was in recession. There was high unemployment and high inflation. Thatcher (Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990) embarked on a policy of monetarism – targeting money supply to reduce inflation and increase jobs. She introduced higher interest rates, higher personal taxes and spending cuts. The trick worked; the stagnant British economy began to improve. By the time she left the premiership, the UK was very wealthy again. Thatcher is the UK’s ‘Father’ of Free Market economy and Privatization.
John Howard –After years of failed Labor governments that had made Australia poorer, Howard worked hard and made Australia prosperous again. He ended the recession that had lasted for more than 8 years, until mid-1990s. Howard was brave enough to introduce various reforms – introduced government spending cuts, paid off most of the foreign debt, introduced gun control and introduced the new tax – GST. Howard was able to increase Australia’s revenue tenfold through mineral exports, mainly to China. Howard introduced significant Industrial Relations reforms and handled the 1998 Waterfront dispute in a statesman like manner.
DS Senanayake – The ‘Father of the Nation’, he had the foresight to recognize the importance of establishing new human settlements in the North Central and the Eastern provinces. If not for them, instead of Padaviya, Sri Pura, Galoya, Kanthale, Aranthalawa and Kandakaduwa, the ‘marginal villages’ during Prabhakaran’s insurgency would have been Anuradhapura, Kekirawa, Horowpathana, Ampara and Polonnaruwa. DS Senanayayake worked tirelessly first as the Agriculture and Land Minister (1931 – 1947), thereafter as the Prime Minister (1948 – 1952) to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in rice and other food crops. His permanent secretary (Ceylon’s fist native born Civil Servant) was Cyril Leonard Wickramasinghe – the current President’s paternal grandfather. The Senanayake Samudraya that DS Senanayayake built in Gal Oya is one of Sri Lanka’s largest manmade reservoirs.
Ranasinghe Premadasa – The demise of Ranasinghe Premadasa on 1 May 1993 was the saddest event that happened in Sri Lanka in the 20th century. Had Premadasa survived, there is no doubt that Sri Lanka under his able leadership would have become ‘another Singapore’. His untimely demise is a great misfortune for the nation. An incredibly hard working man, Premadasa started his day at 4 am and finished at 12 am the next day (he may have had intermittent sleeps during the day). Premadasa was so dedicated to his motherland; he would get senior state officials woken up in the early mornings to carry out his orders – in relation to urgent development work. Premadasa, a workaholic, worked non-stop. Every morning at 5 am he attended on people at Sucharitha, his Colombo private residence. He resolved most of their problems. During his short sojourn as the President, he was able to establish 200+ new garment factories. For this, he worked closely with the then US Ambassador in Sri Lanka. Today these factories bring much needed foreign exchange to the nation. Premadasa is well known for his very successful housing programme – ‘Uda Gammana’ which was geared to help the extremely downtrodden.
Paul Kigami – Upon ascending to power in 2000, Kigami worked hard tounite the Rwandan people and transform Rwanda from a highly impoverished nation to a middle income country. His reform programme consists of a list of goals which includes reconstruction, infrastructure, transport improvements, good governance, improving the agriculture and private sector development. Even his critics acknowledge that Kigami was successful in achieving most of his programme ambitions. Kigami persuaded his fellow countrymen to participate in voluntary work on every Saturday for few hours to clean up the country. Today, Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa. Its natural environment is well protected. Kigami’s target is for Rwanda to become a high-income country in 2050, and he is working well to achieve it.
Winston Churchill – Never give up, Never give up, Never ever give up …” so said the then UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill to his people when the UK was in the midst of the ‘bloody’ WW II. This statement alone tells the story about this great man. By then, Hitler had conquered Europe and the US was not assisting Briton; the only option available to Churchill was to surrender. Many advised him to do so. But, Churchill had other ideas. He travelled to the US few times and persuaded the Congress and the then US President Franklin D Roosevelt to give wartime aid to Britain. Finally, not only that the US gave Briton such aid, they also became a war party. If not for Churchill Briton would not have won the WW II.
