Yes, we need peace. We need reconciliation. Such needs are the inevitable outcomes of conflict-end. Fixing these to exaggerated grievances and out-of-this-world aspirations and tying it all to a constitutional amendment obtained by a bully is unacceptable. Ridiculous, in fact.
Indra Mani Pandey. Remember the name. He’s India’s Permanent Representative in Geneva. He’s no novice in matters diplomatic, having joined the service more than 30 years ago. He would have been old enough even before that to know what’s what in Indo-Lanka relations, if he was inclined at the time to educate himself about international relations and in particular South Asian affairs.
So, to cut to the chase, when someone like Pandey says something about Sri Lanka, we need to take note. He has explained why India abstained on the vote against (yes) Sri Lanka at the UNHRC sessions and thereby has told us how India sees Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan issues and Sri Lanka’s future. We must thank him for being forthright: ‘we are grateful, Indra, for the honesty!’ The cheers stop right there, though.
Pandey waxes, not too eloquently: ‘India has always been guided by the two fundamental principles of support to the aspirations of the Tamils for equality, justice, dignity and peace and unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.’
Always? Really? Why then did India arm, train and fund separatist terrorists? Was that to strengthen unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty? India was clearly intent on destabilising Sri Lanka. Indeed India was a major part of the problem. And, thereafter, we had the problem-creator (or problem-enhancer, if you want to be generous) stepping in to resolve the problem. Indra is a funny guy, folks. India is a funny country, one might say, except that there is nothing funny about doing everything possible to prolong an unnecessary conflict, directly or indirectly paving the way to death, destruction, dismemberment and displacement of a magnitude beyond calculation. Three years before Indra entered the service, India stepped in to effectively bail out the terrorists.
Yes, the Indo-Lanka Accord. Indra knows or has learned about it at some point, for he talks of the 13th Amendment. More waxing sans eloquence: ‘While we have taken note of the commitments by the government of Sri Lanka on issues of implementation of the commitments in the spirit of the 13th Constitutional Amendment, meaningful devolution and the early conduct of provincial elections, we believe that the progress towards the same remains inadequate.’
Right. Here goes. The 13th Amendment was imposed on Sri Lanka at gun point by India. Rajiv Gandhi bragged at the time that it was the beginning of the Bhutanization of Sri Lanka. That’s a weird understanding of unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, right? Let’s talk about commitment though.
India reneged on her commitment to disarm the terrorists. Sri Lanka had to do India’s job and it took a further 22 years. India should shut up about ‘commitments’ especially since India has enjoyed the advantages scripted into the Accord all these years, even after getting a BIG ‘F’ on the one thing India was supposed to do.
How about devolution? Well, on paper it’s not a bad thing, except of course that the relevant territorial demarcations rebel against demography (almost 50% of Tamils live outside the Northern and Eastern provinces), history (lines were drawn by European invaders arbitrarily) and economy (the Western Province’s contribution to the economy is a massive slice and if one pushed the logic of ‘devolution’ to any reasonable conclusion, other provinces will remain relatively impoverished). As for provincial council elections, none of the diehard devolutionists (well, they are really federalists or separatists) have agitated for them to be held over the last several years. Let’s not forget that the Northern Provincial Council couldn’t even spend monies allocated. All it did was to give legitimacy to an Eelam Map that symbolised just one thing: attempted land-theft by one particular ethnic group.
Aspirations. Indra talks about them. He has to, since it’s one of the two ‘fundamental principles of support.’ Tamil aspirations, someone should tell Indra, was essentially a desire to annex two-thirds of the coast and half the land mass for a little more than 5% of the population (considering almost half the so-called ‘Eelam Tamils’ live outside ‘Eelam’. Do the math, Indra/India. Maybe an Indian analogy would help; it would be like Muslims in India aspiring to have control over a territory equivalent to the sum of Rajastha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. That’s an equivalency the likes of Indra would dare not consider.
Yes, we need peace. We need reconciliation. Such needs are the inevitable outcomes of conflict-end. Fixing these to exaggerated grievances and out-of-this-world aspirations and tying it all to a constitutional amendment obtained by a bully is unacceptable. Ridiculous, in fact.
Indra sweetens the apology by talkie of India’s provision to relief, rehabilitation, resettlement and reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka and assistance provided this year to mitigate the economic crises. Well, thank you. Very much. Still falls way short of compensation India ought to pay for all the miseries unleashed on Sri Lanka by hegemonic, arrogant and moronic Indian leaders though. Indra should know, because lately India has been belligerent in demanding reparations from Britain. The histories are different of course, but costs are costs, aggressors are known and if justice is about redress then India owes much and talks not at all about all this.
So, in sum, Indra played a typical Indian card in Geneva. A lot of poppycock and hardly disguised enmity. Not surprising.
Garvin Karunaratne, former Government Agent, Matara
I first met Mr P.C.Imbulana, in 1962 when I assumed duties as Assistant Commissioner for Agrarian Services in the Kegalla District. It was during the rule of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Mr Imbulana was in the opposition. My duties were to implement the Paddy Lands Act and to attend to the collection of paddy under the Guaranteed Price Scheme .
The Paddy Lands Act being a leftist programme was generally disliked by the United National Party to which Mr Imbulana belonged . I therefore expected him to be against the working of the Paddy lands Act. However I was proved wrong. Strangely he was with the people- the farmers and the welfare of the farming community was always his concern. Political nuances was not in him. He was always with the people whom he loved.
It did not take long for us to become close associates.. If there was any progressive movement in agriculture he was there. His lunch table with an array of at least ten curries was always laid down to any person coming to meet him and often I got dragged to a tasty meal.
I got moved to Colombo, to Anuradhapura, to Kandy to Nuwara Eliya and after the United National Party was victorious in 1965,we met again, myself working as Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in Colombo and he being the Deputy Minister in Agriculture. We often met at the Ministry and also at Sravasti.
In 1967 I got posted as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla and Ruwanwella, Mr Imbulana’s electorate was in the Kegalla District and we had the occasion to meet regularly. That was the time when the Prime Minister Mr Dudley Senanayake started directing the paddy cultivation programme and the Ministry of Agriculture was always in the forefront. Mr Imbulana as the Deputy Minister in Agriculture had his hands full.
I had a lot to do with him. I yet remember meeting him again and again trying to get the Ministry of Agriculture to continue loans to farmers on the old basis at 2-3% interest. Till then, for over ten years, agricultural loans to farmers via cooperatives was handled by the Agrarian Services Department and loans were given at 2-3% interest. I had myself handled agricultural loans to cooperatives and we did perform a yeoman service. Down came the order that Agrarian Services Department was no longer to handle loans and instead it was handed over to the Commercial Banks and the interest rate was immediately jacked up- to some 12%. Both of us put up a major fight but a petty Additional Government Agent and a Deputy Minister of Agriculture did not have sufficient clout. I am of the opinion that the increase in the interest of agricultural loans that then took place was one of the reasons why the United National Party was defeated at the 1970 general election. We did really try our best.
We lost touch and in 1973 I moved to foreign lands for studies, to the UK, the USA. I next ran into Mr Imbulana when I happened to visit Sri Lanka in 1993. He was then the Governor of the Central Province. He accused me of working for foreign countries and not for Sri Lanka. He had heard of my work in Bangladesh where as a consultant I had designed a new youth employment creation programme which at that time had guided over a million youths to become employed. The confrontation ended with my agreeing to draft a development programme for the Central Province. I spent two weeks at his Residence, travelling all over the Central Province, meeting officials and assessing current development programmes. It ended in my drafting a Report for Self Employment Creation and Poverty Alleviation in the Central Province.
The Programme was to develop the entire Central Province in agriculture and livestock with appropriate small industries. The planning process was to commence from the village, studying the potential of existing home gardens and land extents on a per plot basis and studying the resources of the area. This was to be done by the Grama Niladhari who will be helped by the specialist officers of the various departments. The aim was to provide for activity in productive enterprise, the full development of the land and thereby generating incomes. It was aimed at finding employment to everyone in the village and to streamline government activities to achieve that aim.
The Minister Mr Imbulana was highly taken up with the programme and decided to implement it immediately in selected Grama Sevaka areas. Two villages were selected as a pilot project. The Grama Niladharis and the Agricultural Overseers of the area were given two weeks’ training at the Mahaberitenna Farm. . where training was commenced. I commenced training sessions at both villages- at Hasalaka and a village near Gampola. Plans were drawn up and expertise were obtained from a few retired officers- The Government at the Center did not totally approve the programme, but Mr Imbulana continued it on his own steam. A former colleague of mine, Balachandran once a Deputy Director of Livestock and KB Ratnayake my former Superintendent of Development Work at Kegalla provided voluntary service to further the programme. However, The Programme had to be abandoned because the ruling United National Party lost at the general election in 1965.
So ended the attempt by me and Minister Mr Imbulana to usher in a programme of development for the Central Province. It is my opinion that if only this Programme had been implemented it would have ushered development like the Youth Self Employment Programme designed and implemented by me in Bangladesh in 1984, which is yet going strong- having bagged over three million youths into viable self-employment.
Mr Imbulana was one of the few Ministers who were really concerned with development. He did play his part well. It was Sri Lanka that was unfortunate. The timing was wrong for the programme. It commenced at the tail end of the United National Party rule.
Minister Mr Imbulana’s career stands out as admirable, a lesson for the politicians of today. He is one of the distinguished political personalities that adorned Sri Lanka.
(This programme is detailed at pages 321 to 341 of my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success: Godages:2006)
Garvin Karunaratne, former Government Agent, Matara
United States of America became the sole superpower in the world, when the Cold War between USA and Russia ended in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unable to conquer the world militarily, US hit on the notion of setting up US controlled governments in the countries in which it had a strategic interest and assassinating any leaders they did not like.
USA has assassinated several heads of state. Lumumba was one (Congo, 1961) . Saddam Hussein was another (Iraq, 2006). In 2011 US killed Osama Bin Laden at Abbottabad, Pakistan, with Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton watching In Washington. A photograph of this group seated in the White House, watching the killing was circulated worldwide.
In 2020 USA killed Iran’s most powerful general, Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad airport. This was a violation of international law, said a UN expert. In 2022, US killed al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a drone strike in Afghanistan.
US sponsored dictatorships were set up in the countries US was interested in. The two best remembered dictatorships today, are those of Iran and Chile. In 1953, the democratically elected Iranian PM Mossadegh was replaced by the Shah of Iran, in a coup d ‘etat. CIA organized and executed this coup, with support from Britain, and Reza Pahlavi took over as Shah. He used secret police and his rule was a cruel one. Eventually, the public rose against him and US had to take him out of Iran and keep him in the US.
In 1973, US engineered the removal of the highly popular President of Chile, Salvador Allende. He had refused to give US control of Chile’s copper mines. US replaced him with Pinochet. This ushered in a 17 year dictatorship, with 3000 murdered and many more tortured. US had told him to make the economy scream”, which he did. Chile was one of most notorious interventions by US in Latin America, said analysts.
USA set up dictators in other countries as well. Rafael Trujillo, President of Dominican Republic was supported by USA. Trujillo’s army was given formable weapons by US. Trujillo was cruel and unscrupulous. His rule of 31 years is considered one of the bloodiest political regimes ever in the Americas. His regime was responsible for many deaths.
Washington has been associated with every one of the military conspiracies and coup d’états in Central and South America, for many decades, said analysts. USA has instigated rebellions against the governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil and Ecuador CIA trained and funded Nicaragua contras.
US had continuously interfered with Venezuela’. US has been trying, for a long time, to oust its President, Nicolas Maduro, who was elected with a large majority at a democratically held election. USA asked the neighboring governments to help overthrow of Venezuela’s President Maduro, and replace him with Guaido. USA also hinted at military intervention. But when Guaido called for street protests against Maduro, in 2020 only a few hundred turned out, reported analysts. ‘The rest went to holiday on the beach.’
USA has been anti-Cuba for decades. Cuba has suffered heavily from US infiltration and subversive activities said analysts. CIA had planned to stage terrorists attack in the 1960s in USA to look as though they were done by Cuba. They were planned carefully, in great detail. Cuban media revealed that USA’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID allocated nearly 250 million US dollars to programs targeting Cuba over the past 20 years. Numerous unsuccessful attempts were made on Fidel Castro’s life.
US also interfered in Africa. In March 2012, President Mutharika of Malawi accused USA of plotting to bring down his government. He refused to give in to USA demands. Mutharika died of cardiac arrest just two weeks later. He was replaced by Joyce Banda and USA provided a USD 350 million grant. Banda was heavily defeated in the next presidential election by Peter Mutharika, brother of the former President. Banda went to the US and was given a position as fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre International Centre for Scholars.
USA had a hand in the Rwandan Civil War (1990-1994). The Rwandan Patriotic Front was armed and trained in Uganda with support from US. The U.S. and UK trained the RPF and helped turn a refugee army into a strong fighting one. RPF leader Kagane was trained in psychological warfare methods at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Museveni, President of Uganda was a CIA puppet who had everything to gain by helping French-held Rwanda fall into the hands of the Americans, observed analysts.
The US has infiltrated, invaded, bombed, and destroyed many countries, said commentators. US sent troops to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo without Congress approval. US President does not have the power to authorize military attacks without Congress approval, but US Congress usually approves the action retrospectively and provides funding for such interventions, observed analysts.
There were unlawful US interventions in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Cuba (1961), Vietnam (1964), Dominican Republic (1965), Chile (1973), Nicaragua (1981–1984), Grenada (1983) Panama (1989), Balkans (2000) , Iraq (2003) and Libya (2012). US invaded Panama to topple Noriega, a former American intelligence asset. US launched an illegal war against Iraq, on the spurious ground that it had weapons of mass destruction.
The US is not concerned about the loss of innocent lives when it attacks countries which have nothing to do with the US. In Iraq, over 300,000 people have lost their lives, in Syria, some 266,000, in Afghanistan, 176,000, in Yemen, 112,000, in Pakistan, 67,000 said analysts. These are conservative estimates. In Yemen, the UN figure is more than twice as high. In Afghanistan, the real figure may be 50,000 higher, according to the Uppsala Data Conflict Data Programme. And there is still no international consensus on the Iraq War casualties.
The US did not win all its wars. It had some spectacular failures such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The US won some of the little ones, but lost all the bigger ones, observed Gwynne Dyer. US military fiascos like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, were due said George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, to USA’s addiction to ‘non-strategic wars’.
US was very aggressive In Vietnam. US dropped Agent Orange and napalm on Vietnam. US killed thousands in the Vietnam War without caring. BBC reporter, John Sergeant was at an American airbase in Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. He found that US pilots who were bombing North Vietnam did not care that they were killing innocent persons. They are just targets, one pilot told Sergeant. They could be trucks, they could also be soldiers but we have to see them simply as targets.
US soldiers also died in large numbers and the American public started to oppose the war. USA lost the Vietnam War in 1975. This was a great blow to its prestige and US has never recovered from this defeat. The Vietnam defeat is still remembered.
US army has been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001. For nearly two decades hundreds and thousands of American troops have rotated through Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a strategic hub in Central Asia bordering Russia, China and Iran, said analysts.
US invaded Afghanistan two decades ago, promising to wipe out the Taliban, instead Taliban won and USA had to withdraw in 2021. The Americans have left behind another unfinished war, said critics.
The world was shown the chaos at Kabul airport in August 2021, when USA made its final departure. They saw a giant USAF transport taking off from Kabul airport with desperate Afghans clinging to its fuselage, and then dropping off.
But the USA retreat was not as disorganized as it appeared on television, said analysts. There was a formal withdrawal agreement between US Ambassador Khalilzad and Taliban chief Baradar signed in February 2020. The Kabul incident was simply the last stage of a planned evacuation. No American assets were attacked by the Taliban after US left.
Taliban takeover will not affect the rest of the world, observed analysts. Taliban is only interested in turning Afghanistan into a theocratic Islamic state. Russia, China and Pakistan have recognized the Taliban government.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena requested the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to assist the government’s initiative to establish a digital data base of labour workforce in Sri Lanka. He pointed out that the Ministry of Labour has taken steps to establish a comprehensive digitalized data base of the workforce and urged the ILO to assistance for expediting the process.
This was discussed when ILO Country Director Simrin C Singh and Senior Employment Specialist of ILO Headquarters, Sher Verick called on him at the prime Minister’s Office today (13).
The Prime Minister briefed them on the impact of the Covid pandemic and economic crisis on labour workforce and the short-term and long-term steps taken by the government to recover the economy and to help the workers, especially the low-income labour force.
Ms Simrin Singh said despite some signs of positive trends, most developing countries including Sri Lanka are faced with difficulties due to global recession, limited fiscal space, debt sustainability challenges and rising inflation. She pointed out that these issues have resulted in a labour market crisis.
Prime Minister Gunawardena stressed that the government was very keen to make labour workforce upwardly mobile and explained the multitude of training programmes launched for skill development. Increasing the quality and quantity of jobs is the surest way of moving people out of poverty, he said.
Employment Specialist Sher Verick said that the founding principles of the ILO concerned not only with ensuring sources of income, but also as a means for people to live a self-determined life, and for participating fully as citizens in their communities.
Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said emphasized that the quality is the essence of the concept of decent work, defined by ILO as opportunities for men and women to obtain productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
The ILO delegation assured fullest support to all the efforts taken by the government for the wellbeing of the labour and measures for upgrading skills of the workforce.
The Beatles was a rock band from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. The primary members of the Beatles were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was a singer, songwriter, musician, and peace activist. Paul McCartney inherits the former’s capability. Sir Richard Starkey (better known by his stage name Ringo Starr) is a singer, songwriter, and actor.
At the age of sixteen (John Lennon) and rhythm guitarist McCartney (the age of fifteen) had a meeting with two music-loving teenagers to discuss a separate rock music project. Lennon, at the time, performed with the Quarrymen, which blended jazz and folk music. In 1957 the formation of the group Beatles commenced.
Quarrymen
The ‘Quarrymen’ accepted bookings initially at a charity church in Liverpool. When they set up their instruments for the performance in the evening, the Band’s bass player introduced Lennon to his classmate McCartney. Lennon enthusiastically joined the group and debuted his singing that night, making him a permanent member of the ‘Quarrymen.’ Over three years intermittently interspersed from 1960 to 1962, ‘The Quarrymen’ played for clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg (Germany) before forming the Beatles. Subsequently, the foursome formed the group, and pop music became popular. Consequently, the Beatles gradually expanded and made their reputation sturdier.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr initially performed at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Brian Epstein, who became the manager later, saw the group in action. After reading about the Beatles in the magazine Mersey Beat’, which was recorded live at Newcastle 02 Academy – in 2018. Subsequently, Epstein’s family-owned record store magazine became popular. He approached the band and convinced him that he could manage the new band; finally, Epstein ended up with a five-year contract signed in January 1962 with the Beatles.
Brian became the Beatle’s manager, often referred to as the Fifth Beatle”, alongside Paul, John, George and Ringo. He hardly had experience managing bands, but he made the Beatles worldwide recognisable. Epstein created another organisation known as ‘Northern Songs Ltd’ to publish the Beatles’ music separately. In doing so, he offered Lennon and McCartney a fifteen per cent commission out of the sales.
Epstein saw the band’s ability and how the four members were the best combination in music. He then began to work in earnestness to promote them. The band’s first UK single, Please Me,” was recorded in November 1962, released in January 1963 and became number one on the UK charts. Epstein eventually travelled to the United States to secure a booking for the Beatles. Finally, the Beatles made their first appearance in the United States on a variety show in February 1964. It became so popular with a vast audience of over seventy million people.
International Fame
In the early part of 1964, the Beatles became international stars and became incomparable. They made their first film which became very popular ‘ A Hard Day’s Night, in 1964, which broke all box-office records. They ultimately ushered in the British invasion of the United States pop market. Their levels of commercial success became the leading force in Britain’s cultural recovery.
The Beatles decided to stop performing in 1966. Still, Epstein opposed such a decision to maintain the quality of ‘The Beatles’ music. Yet the group stopped performing in 1966 and changed their music style to culture-based values music of society. In doing so, their income fluctuated, making them move smoothly from Epstein.
During 1968 -1970 the group conducted many cheerful businesses meeting at their Head Quarters at Apple Records. Amidst the joyous meetings, Lennon hinted that he wanted to leave. Their new manager, Allen Klein, advised that Lennon would go the group but also announced that McCartney and Starr were about to quit the group. Also, Klein discovered a secret about Lennon leaving the group but kept it under the hat until the Apple Records ownership dispute. Although the group’s financial situation improved after signing the Apple ownership deal, Lennon left the band for good.
For a long time, a battle existed between Lennon and Starr on the appointment of Allen Klein of the Rolling Stones to take over as the Beatles’ manager when the group was desperate for revenue, which struck a wedge on their tours after Epstein’s death. In their desperate situation, they opened the Apple Boutique. They recovered a loss of around GBP 200,000 before closing it after eight months.
Lennon and Ono
In 1966 Lennon met Yoko Ono, a theoretical artist. In 1968 Yoko Ono was seen with John Lennon frequently. By 1969 they became inseparable. Yet, Yoko Ono expressively influenced John Lennon’s songwriting to appear on several Beatles tracks. There were also rumours about how Yoko Ono was responsible for breaking up the Beatles.
Lennon and McCartney eventually used Ono as an easy target for the breakdown of the Beatles. Lennon once 1970: pronounced, I had to either marry the band or Yoko, and I chose Yoko Ono.”.
Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969. His departure remained a secret until April 10, 1970. In a press conference, McCartney revealed that his partnership with Lennon was over. Later, Lennon denied that he had left the Band, blaming McCartney.
Last Performance
The Beatles performed their last live public performance in London on 30 January 1969. Despite the hidden tensions, the company published numerous tracks by Lennon. At the same time, McCartney and the other Beatles worked in perfect harmony. Lennon later requested that his songs should be separate from McCartney’s. However, the blending of their music made the albums emblematic,
When the hostility between Lennon and McCartney became public knowledge, and the Beatles broke up, McCartney composed a song against Lennon, Too Many People,” blaming Lennon. In return, Lennon responded (with Yoko Ono), How Do You Sleep? The only thing you have ever done was ‘Yesterday,’ and since you’re gone, you’re just ‘Another Day!”
The Paris Club creditor nations last month reached out to China and India seeking to coordinate closely on Sri Lanka’s debt talks, but is still awaiting a reply, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Paris Club officials reached out to two of Sri Lanka’s biggest bilateral creditors after the crisis-hit nation reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund board for a $2.9 billion loan in September.
The Paris Club still hasn’t received a reply from either country, the person added, asking not to be named because the talks are private. Officials also met with Indian officials in Washington on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Chinese officials were not present in person.
Sri Lanka is grappling with the worst economic crisis in more than seven decades, with more than a quarter of its population struggling with food shortages, according to United Nations estimates.
The island nation of nearly 22 million people, is seeking an ad-hoc coordination platform to obtain financing assurances from bilateral lenders, which also include Japan.
As a middle-income country, Sri Lanka is not able to apply for relief under the Group of 20 common framework for debt treatments. Its total foreign currency debt of $38.7 billion amounted to 48.2% of GDP, the latest IMF report showed in March.
The person added that India and China might be at odds on who should take the first step to engage in close coordination with the Paris club on Sri Lanka.
The country owes close to $14 billion to a wide range of bilateral creditors, of which 66% is owed to non-Paris Club members, according to Sri Lankan government data.
The country also needs to renegotiate around $12 billion with overseas bondholders after defaulting on its international debt earlier this year.
While the country is promoting the ad-hoc common framework, it is still unclear which country would chair a creditor committee.
State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that immediate action will be taken to enforce the law against people who come to Sri Lanka from abroad wearing gold jewellery for smuggling purpose, exceeding the limits.
He said country is incurring about USD 30 million in losses per month due to smuggling of gold into the country.
The minister said that these traffickers have already been identified and that necessary legal measures will be taken against them immediately. However, he emphasized that common passengers will not be affected due to this. (DSB)
The Committee of the Vice Chancellors and Directors (CVCD) has noted with concern the recent spate of incidents of ragging and student indiscipline that have occurred with the resumption of on-site academic activities in the state universities.
Issuing a statement on the incidents, the CVCD said it categorically condemns all forms of ragging in educational institutions of Sri Lanka. None of the Vice-Chancellors condone or support ragging, or act to protect perpetrators.
However, the committee of vice-chancellors and directors of state universities said they believes that ragging is a complex issue that needs many interventions for it to be eliminated from the Sri Lankan Universities.
It must be recognized that it is carried out in a novel, sophisticated manner, using technology, with the collective power of the student groups backed by certain political elements. It uses a network of individuals and starts even before the students enter the universities and continues for a long period thereafter,” it said.
The CVCD also noted the introduction of cyber ragging, in addition to physical, mental, or sexual forms. These complexities require a comprehensive strategy planned by Universities, law enforcement authorities, political parties, and media with the support of the civil society for its prevention and elimination.”
There needs to be a strong movement against ragging in civil society to encourage the new entrants to universities, and their parents, to stand up to organized groups of student perpetrators motivated by political intentions.”
The committee said that universities are faced with multiple issues in their efforts to eliminate ragging. These include the lack of legitimate complaints with evidence or clues for identification of perpetrators; lack of a robust system for protection of victims and witnesses; inaction of law enforcement authorities to fully implement the provisions of the Act No 20 of 1998 on prevention of ragging, and slowness of the judicial and disciplinary procedures.
In many instances, dissemination of one-sided information obtained from highly vocal student movements opposes the university administration in taking action against the student perpetrators of ragging.
It is common for protests to be stage-managed in front of University Grants Commission or the Ministry of Education to pressurize authorities to withdraw or mitigate punishments that have been handed to perpetrators after due process.
In the past, there have been instances where instead of supporting the VCs and University authorities in taking stern actions against ragging and other acts of student indiscipline and violence, undue influences have been made by external forces to the legal and disciplinary processes. This aims to protect perpetrators with scant regard to the rights of the victims and the harm caused to them.”
The CVCD said it views with grave concern the fact that perpetrators abuse provisions in the legal system and exploit the facility of taking their complaints to the Human Rights Commission. This occasionally escalates to severe harassment of VCs and university authorities.”
The CVCD requested the civil society to understand that ragging has been in existence in Sri Lankan universities for 70 years, with damaging consequences. The CVCD also noted that the recent reduction or near-elimination of ragging as has occurred in some universities, was the result of active intervention by university authorities led by the VCs, who risked their lives and positions.
The international advisor of climate change to Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said Thursday that Sri Lanka is very vulnerable to climate change as the dry areas in its north are getting drier and the wet areas in its south getting wetter.
During a visit to the South Asian country, former Norwegian minister Erik Solheim said the threats from landslides and extreme weather will increase and measures must be taken to overcome these challenges.
He told local media that tackling climate change however brings an enormous opportunity to create green jobs.
Renewable energy, electric mobility, tree-planting, green agriculture and eco-tourism all offer huge opportunities for jobs and prosperity while taking good care of Mother Earth at the same time,” Solheim said.
Sri Lanka ranked as the second worst-hit country in terms of climate change according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2019.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) today said that it is not in a position to consider favorably” to the request to operate Russia’s MIR bankcards within the country’s banking system due to the US sanctions on the payment system.
Due to the US sanctions on the MIR payment system, as confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Sri Lanka, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is not in a position to consider favorably, at the current juncture, the request to operate MIR card scheme within the banking system,” the CBSL said in tweet.
It was reported last month that Sri Lankan authorities are discussing with Moscow the possibility of joining Russian payment system MIR, and that the discussion was underway between the Central Banks.
The importance of Mir cards for Russians rose substantially this year after U.S. payments firms Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc suspended operations in Russia and their cards that were issued in Russia stopped working abroad, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion and continuing war against Ukraine.
Cuba, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and a handful of former Soviet republics accept Mir, which means both peace” and world” in Russian, with others such as Iran intending to follow suit soon.
Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara says that no tax will be charged for remittances sent to Sri Lanka by migrant workers through the official banking system.
He said this at a press conference held at the Ministry of Labor this morning (13).
Explaining the latest situation regarding the monthly income tax effective from this week, the minister said that the money sent to the country illegally outside the official banking system is not entitled to this tax relief.
The Minister stated that the Central Bank and the Sri Lanka Police have been investigating the people who are illegally sending money to Sri Lanka and have arrested several people.
“The pay as you earn tax system is in operation in this country. The worker who works abroad is subject to that country’s tax policy. Therefore, the tax amount related to that country has been paid from the money they earn. Therefore, we will never charge foreign tax again for the remittances they send to this country. No. It is not ethical to do so. But this tax relief is available only if remittances have been sent to the country in foreign currencies through the official banking system of the country. Otherwise, do not expect tax relief by sending money to the country through other illegal methods. They will definitely come under the new income tax system”. The minister said.
In the meantime, the Minister said that there have been reports of loss of goods sent by foreign workers and regular investigations are being carried out in this regard.
“It is reported that these problems have arisen in private institutions that send goods to Sri Lanka. Therefore, as a new program, we have started a program to scan the goods in the relevant institutions and hand them over to the relevant parties.” The minister also stated.
This article pertains to an open letter addressed to the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Lands by three attorneys-at-law – Mahinda Ellepola, Elmo Perera, and Nihal Pieris – on 12 April 1998, titled Registration process to be expedited? Really?”
Their open letter was penned after reading a news item titled Land registration process to be expedited”, published on 24 March 1998, referring to an interview with Mahinda Kulatunga. Taking the centre stage of discussion was the Registration of Title Act, which had been passed by Parliament on 17 March 1998. The Registration of Title Act is not the Land Title Registration Act.
Prior to the Act being passed by Sri Lanka’s Parliament a delegation had gone to Australia on a study tour to familiarise themselves with the Title Registration system in Western Australia, in January/February 1998, a month prior to the Act being passed in Sri Lanka. The delegation comprised officials from the Surveyors Institute of Sri Lanka (two participants), Surveyor General’s Department (three representatives), Registrar General’s Department (two representatives), Legal Draftsman’s Department (two representatives), the Land Commissioner, the Commissioner of Land Settlement, the Deputy Chief Value, and the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Lands.
Participating from the Australian Government were representatives from the Department of Land Administration (DOLA) of Western Australia who organised the study tour.
After these key personnel associated with land matters went on a study tour, the Sri Lankan Parliament suddenly passed the Title Registration Act on 17 March 1998, and a week later, on 24 March 1998, an interview with Mahinda Kulatunga and the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Lands claimed that the land registration process will be expedited.
The three attorneys, in their letter, had highlighted some important points for consideration by the general public.
The participants of the study tour (Sri Lankan and Australian), as well as the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Lands, were unanimous in their opinion that the Bill was defective.
The draft Title Registration Bill had been presented to Sri Lanka’s Parliament in December 1995 (a year after President Chandrika Bandaranaike took oaths as President in November 1994).
The Bill did not take into consideration the basic requirements for registration of title to land
The Bill if implemented would create chaos and confusion, and increase litigation (exactly what has happened and is happening now).
The Sri Lankan delegation, including the Additional Secretary, were unanimous that the issues arising from implementing the Bill could not be remedied by amendments, and that therefore it should not be proceeded with. What does this mean in the present context?
The three attorneys questioned the Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Lands, who undertook to convey the unanimous agreement to the Minister of Agriculture and Lands. The attorneys also questioned how the Bill came to be passed when the Additional Secretary undertook to convey the unanimous decision of those who took part in the study tour.
The Australian consultant also agreed on the assessment by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka that the Registration of Title Bill, if implemented, would create chaos and confusion in the community, and inevitably lead to an escalation of land disputes”, and this is exactly what we see happening (refer to Volume 1 of Land Titling and Cadastral Mapping Project – Sri Lanka – Feasibility Design Study” by the Australian consultant).
Thought the Australian Government had agreed to provide Australian dollars (AUD) 350,000 worth of equipment to set up a computerised database to implement Stage 1 of the programme (legislative framework for registration of title to land), given that the Australian consultant claimed the Registration of Title Act was passed against specific counsel, Australian funding was unlikely to be given. Besides, the AUD 350,000 would hardly suffice against the cost Sri Lanka would have to bear for the project. Did Sri Lanka conduct a costing estimate for implementation of the project before the Act was passed?
The three lawyers highlighted the cost aspect too – as no quantitative or qualitative assessment of the costs, resources, or time frames had been looked at to register the title system islandwide. The Australian consultant had estimated it would take 35 years and 2,500 staff members (including lawyers and surveyors) to implement the project.
Ironically, it has now been 24 years since the Act was passed; only 750,000 lands have been registered over 20 years, out of 12 million owners.
The three lawyers challenged the Additional Secretary, who in the 24 March 1998 interview claimed that all State and private lands would be surveyed at State expense, and demanded to know if the personnel and facilities to take on such an exercise were available.
The three lawyers claimed that the Minister of Agriculture and Lands brought an amendment in 1995 to the Land Development Ordinance (LDO) because he did not want to wait until plans were prepared to issue Swarnabhoomi deeds, as this may have taken 14 years to do.
The 1935 LDO had a valuable provision that ensured no grant was to be issued under the LDO unless land was surveyed and a diagram was annexed to the grant. This was repealed in 1995.
The three lawyers used the assessment by the Minister (taking 14 years to survey land) to question how long it would take to survey all State and private lands in Sri Lanka in order to implement the Registration of Title Act.
What is relevant in 2022 to the citizens of Sri Lanka are the following predictions made by these lawyers in 1998 April:
When the Title Registration Act (Bim Saviya) comes into operation, a person will be able to obtain a title registration certificate for his/her land – a one-page printout
Prior to obtaining certificate of title – a cadastral survey and investigation into the title is a must (this negates the claim that a certificate can be given in minutes)
Title deeds will be replaced with the new computerised registration system
The new system claims to eliminate delays in registering land and prevent forging title deeds
Western Australia has only one Land Registrar’s Office. They have two centres to collect deeds to register at the Land Registrar’s Office. Thus, how can Sri Lanka maintain computerised offices in 200 divisional secretariats, especially when 39 land registries have been denied the basic needs to carry out their functions? Another pertinent question the three lawyers asked was why land transactions would be recorded by deeds, and how deeds could become a thing of the past in such a scenario. The three lawyers also raised doubts about the new computerised system preventing the forgery of title deeds.
The most important aspect of the open letter was to highlight how a foreign concept was to overrule the law of the land, where there were likely to be instances of the rightful owner’s title to land going to a person who purchased land by fraud and has it included into a computer system, resulting in the rightful landowner restricted to claiming only compensation from a fund set up by the State, as the provision to go to court is denied by the Act.
The three lawyers rightfully raised the merit of an Act that has spent time, money, and effort to introduce to Sri Lanka whereby more chaos and confusion would emerge. They suggest instead that the present system of land titling should continue.
The three lawyers rightfully questioned the Additional Secretary, who had also been a participant in the study tour, and having studied the pros and cons of a foreign land system, was in agreement with the rest of the participants that it was not beneficial to Sri Lanka. Having agreed to convey this to the Minister on behalf of the team that went on the study tour, the Additional Secretary instead sang hosannas for the new land system, going so far as to falsely extol its merits.
The poignant aspect of this open letter written in 1998 was that the lawyers highlighted how a foreign land registration system was not only going to change the prevailing land system, but was also to give public servants the role of guardianship, which had thus far been vested in the courts. How can the rights of the people be vested in public servants instead of courts?
If the outcome of the study tour, as well as the decision of the Australian consultant, was not to proceed with the Registration of Title Bill, why was the Bill passed and enacted in March 1998?
The predictions of these three lawyers are proven truer with each passing year – chaos and confusion prevails, and this should be immediately addressed instead of soliciting more funds to roll out what was agreed to be unsuitable for Sri Lanka in 1998.
Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is acting to discard the old map (Colombo black-white model).”
-An observation made in 2013, which became true with OC-OL report in 2022
As stated in Part-II, the essay below is resurrected for the benefit of people like Sepal who go for the Marxist path of system change by revolution. This was the difference between the two approaches of Gandhi and Mao Zedong. Gandhi and to some extent Mao believed in individual self-discipline which the late Buddhist philosophy Prof. W. S. Karnaratne described as internal and external revolution (සන්තානගත හා බාහිර විප්ලවය) within a human being. Metta-Karuna-Muditha-Upekka (මෙත්තා-කරුණා-මුදිතා-උපෙක්ඛා) as well as indulgence in material things such as desire for big cars, big houses, imported food etc. We in Sri Lanka has the Buddhist Middle Path, which all the anti-establishment YouTubers like Sepal neglect to understand. Comments to the essay are not removed to assess the essay in an objective fashion.
… ජනතා සහයෝගය (විභවය) උපයෝගී කරගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගාන්ධිගේ හා මාවෝ ගේ ක්රියා පිලිවෙල ගැන අගනා විග්රහයක්, HOMO FABER: Technology and Culture in India, China, and the West from 1500 to the present day (1980) යන ඔහුගේ පොතේ C. A. Alvares විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත (පිටු 195-199). ගාන්ධිට අවශ්යවූයේ කොන්ග්රස් පක්ෂය විසුරුවා හැර ග්රාමීය ප්රතිසංස්කරණ ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කිරීමටටය. ඔහු මානව සංවර්ධනය පිළිඹඳ බටහිර ක්රමවේදය (පැරඩයිම්) ප්රතික්ෂේප කලේය. නේරු හා රාජෙන්ද්ර ප්රසාද් (අගමැති හා ජනාධිපතී) ඇතුළු ප්රභූ පැලන්තිය (elite) එය අනුමත කලේ නැත. ලඟදීම තමන් මේ අයට විරුද්ධව සිවිල් නීති කඩකිරීමේ ව්යාපාරයක් ආරම්භ කරණ බවට ගාන්ධි අනාවැකියක් පහල කලත්, ඊට පෙර ඔහුගේ ඝාතනය සිදුවිය. එසේ වුවත්, ගාන්ධිගේ මූලික අදහස් සර්වෝදය ව්යාපාරය (a rural reconstruction force) වශයෙන් පසුව (evolved) ක්රමයෙන් ගොඩනැඟුණේය. 1947 ට පසුව ඉන්දියාවේ ග්රාමීය සංවර්ධන නිල වැඩසටහන් මෙම ක්වෝමින්ටන් ක්රමයට සමාන විය…
Bodu Bala Sena and LLRC (Buddhist self-reliance) Posted on March 31st, 2013
C. Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.
Need for a new map of terrain
What empowers a Sinhala/Tamil medium graduate left Sri Lanka in frustration to become a professor, a scientist, or a research director for example, in USA facing world-wide competition? How was it possible for young men from poor Sri Lanka to win the world cup of cricket by team effort? What reasons were the behind the capacity of village girls and boys in Sri Lanka to end a thirty-year war in less than three years surprising the whole world? In each case the old map of terrain which was not real and not true was replaced or revised with a new map, new model. Since 1832 Sri Lanka used the Eurocentric-colonial map/model. Prior to that Sri Lanka had a map based on the trinity of village, tank and the temple guided by a philosophy set out in the Buddhist Jataka Stories, 550 of them. That model was based on truth and reality. In 2013 the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is acting to discard the old map (Colombo black-white model). We cannot escape from freedom and avoid challenge. We must be open to challenge.
Compare you-tube video clips of monks Dambara Amila, Bellanvila Wimalaratane and Baddegama Samitha with the monks Kirama Wimalajothi and Galabodaaththe Gnanasara. You can almost touch the pain the latter two monks undergo in their feeling of responsibility (Those who are genuine in their public service mission get angry and agitated like what we heard of the Anagarika Dharmapala). The former three are reading old unreal maps without any feelings, like those Marxists happened to be in front of Jetavanaramaya, Somawathiya or the Tissa weva. For them they are just brick and water. There is no national pride, no goose bumps. Meanwhile the types of Azath Salley sents secret SMS to mosques!
Reasonableness Doctrine
In these times of our seeing the Buddhist King Pasenadi Kosol’s Sixteen Dreams in real life, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) reminds one the idea known as the Pas Maha Balum. BBS is in the right place at the right time. If one surf the English medium websites like the anti-Sinhala Buddhist Colombo Telegraph and newspapers, what jumps out is venom and confusion against BBS. Those English-speaking local and foreign agents who refused to come before the LLRC then are the ones now in the forefront demanding the implementation of its report. This same – this war is not winnable boat – people are so confused, they think that BBS is all about Taliban-based halal and pretend that they did not know or see the BBS website. Under colonial assault the first Buddhist Renaissance began shortly after the 1848 genocide culminating with an ideological victory at the Great Panadura Debate in 1873. The public cheating of Buddhists by partisan politics since 1948 deteriorated so badly with a crook and criminal system of governing that began after 1978, forcing the arrival of the Bodu Bala Sena Movement in 2012. The business of BBS is open discussion and debate, no lurking in the dark.
BBS is an idea based on the Middle Path doctrine in Buddhism. In ancient Greece and in China there was the idea of the Middle Way, but the Buddhist Middle Path goes along with the phenomenon of impermanence and the cyclical nature of life (not linear). Buddhism is simply the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Noble path (4NT+8NP). This Middle Path is nothing but the reasonableness doctrine of the modern Western world. For example, it was this reasonableness which allowed women to become Buddhist monks 2600 years ago. In modern politics or global geopolitics reasonableness is equated as moderates or compromise of give and take. Majorities and minorities compromise in modern representative capitalist democracies. Rights as well as duties, not escape from freedom! Because BBS is based on reasonableness doctrine it was ready to discuss openly the merit and demerit of Halal certification and the gonibilla full face cover. What is reasonable in Afghanistan or dessert sands of Arabia or in Paris or London may not be reasonable in the context of Sri Lankan history and geography. Thus, marijuana can be legal in Bangladesh but not whiskey. If Muslim MPs did not like to see pork served in the parliament canteen, was it reasonable to ban pork from 90% of others’ choice of almost free lunch that all the MPs are enjoying?
When the Bamian Buddha statutes were dynamited and later ancient Buddhist documents uncovered were burnt, Sri Lankan Buddhists could not do anything to prevent this destruction of world civilizational heritage. UNESCO failed. But when an ancient Buddhist ruin in the Eastern province was bulldozed and the archeology department officers ignore it saying it was a pile of dirt, was it reasonable for BBS to preach non-violence and keep hands folded? It would be like accepting Stanly Tambiah’s stupid theory of ‘Why Buddhists kill?’ floated in his Buddhism betrayed book. This theory destroyed Buddhism in India, Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Korea, and Indonesia. Buddhism will always be in books and computer disks, but Buddhist culture must be saved and protected. If taxpayer funded police cannot prevent assault on Buddhist institutions, then BBS must develop its own civilian police force based on non-violence but acting as thousands of eyes in the neighborhood. If the horse is not drinking water when it was taken to water, in these un-Buddhistic (abuddassa) times you must force it to drink. There is no doubt that thousands of retired people with valuable experience, skills, and talents, marginalized at present, will be a technical resource police of BBS, volunteering at the village level.
Monks in politics
Because politics has become such a dirty game in Sri Lanka — not only dirty politicians themselves say so, but even the Mother Teresa kind of a person like CBK has begun to say it lately– there is blind dislike of monks in politics. Since partisan politics has become a dirty profession, in Sri Lanka or in the USA, monks in party politics can get caught in corruption. BBS has declared that it will not support any political party, all 65 of them. The representative capitalist democratic system the modern world has is dirty and corrupt, but politics is after all a noble idea. Allocating limited resources, the most reasonable manner, resolving community and or ethnic conflicts in a reasonable manner, providing equality of opportunities to all, protecting valuable cultural heritage, preventing the tragedy of the commons such as public pollution, forest clearing, are all political acts. Buddhist literature is full of examples of why such politics is needed. The Buddha was a great public speaker. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Noble Path is a balancing act between inner purification and outer discipline: spiritual versus material. There is no perfect world and there are no perfect people: saint and devil both reside in human mind. Was it DNA or was it the environment: nature versus nurture. The late professor W. S. Karunaratne said this as a UNP candidate in the 1960s referring to a Santhanagatha and a Bahira Viplavaya.
If the government is incapable of acting reasonably for whatever reasons, BBS has to come forward to save Sri Lanka from socio-economic malaise and international conspiracies to destabilize and break it into two as the second U.S. resolution of March 2013 plans to achieve in the long run. Since Sri Lanka is an island, enemies cannot destabilize it by cross border arms transfers. But spies and enemies within can capitalize governments’ unreasonable, inefficient and unwise behavior in handling domestic affairs, for example food supply, healthcare management or education. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa prepared a new map of military affairs and ended the war, but in all other sectors of domestic affairs the old map is not changed. When some ministries say they changed the old map, it is only a new road added to the same old road map. People, especially the Sinhala Buddhist people, who got marginalized by governmental wrong action or no action who gave the benefit of time for the government to change road maps finally came out embracing BBS as the solution.
Public cheating of Buddhists has gone beyond reasonable limits. A president who got elected because of the Buddhist vote, Buddhist ministry PMs, a constitution which says it gave something special to Buddhists had failed to implement a single item reported by the Buddhist Commission Report of ACBC, 2009. Instead, Buddha statutes are smashed and urinated on the broken pieces by unethical evangelist-Islam converters. Actually, Buddhist PM Ministry did severe damage by linking SambuddhaJayanthi with the Inter-faith fake. In any other country such PM will be fired. Anti-Buddhist officers lead these politicians like cows. Even the Dambulla Cultural Triangle is run by non-Buddhist agents. Thus, the government, if it takes a realistic assessment of the current situation could benefit from the BBS Movement. Government imporoper action and inaction gave birth to BBS. It must get out of the two-valued orientation, if you are not my friend, then you must be my enemy syndrome. It must be able to penetrate the cage created for it by its own yes men, UNP and Marxist ministers, top level and lower-level officers busy in making a buck for their personal gain. Who can deny that there is no corruption triangle of evil, ‘politician, officer, NGO, operating at local, regional and national level? It is this triangle scared of BBS.
BBS and the LLRC Report
LLRC had the opportunity to be on par with two previous commissions, Colebrooke-Cameron (1832) and Donoughmore (1931), in its impact on the future of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, it did not have the capacity or courage to escape from the Eurocentric Colombo paradigm. It was less pain to read the old map rather than taking responsibility to design a new road map. Despite the fact that a new road map was presented to it as evidence, LLRC was willing to go only a politically correct (thinking to please Robert Blake) half way. Even in its desire to please everybody in the world other than the Sinhala Buddhists, LLRC could not escape from truth and reasonableness. It dismissed the existence of any ethnic homeland (Vadukkoddei, Oluvil declarations) in the island. This meant an indirect nullification of the 1987 Rajiv-JRJ agreement and the 13-A. LLRC stated the need for devolution of power (8.212-8.226) clarifying further that devolution means empowerment of people by people-centric devolution (9.231) and by maximum possible devolution to the periphery especially at the grass roots level (8.225). Health, education, and agriculture for families should have received priority over roads and bridges involving major contracts and commissions.
If the officer with a golden brain that was entrusted by the president with the task of implementing LLRC recommendations was not still a Marga Institute agent, he would have utilized this opportunity to act on the language-blind, ecology-based, and geography-guided GSN-level action plan presented to LLRC (Plan A), because it was the alternative to replace 13-A. This monumental blunder intended or unintended has landed Sri Lanka in a mess, all those who want to divide Sri Lanka hammering at it. Only BBS can now provide oxygen to the Mahinda R Administration to come out of this mess as what is reasonable was rejected by the officer. Action Plan (Plan B). A Jayalath Jayawardena-John Amaratunga-Tilak Marapona linked UNP government is no alternative to a MahindaR administration, and Plan B is like trying to cure a cancer by feeding it. Plan B will lead to a Tamil Eelam. In this context elections for a NPC will be a new disastrous Plan C, paving way for a South Sudan in Sri Lanka. Whose brains are behind these? Ghosts of Dayan Jayatilekes in the government?
Spatial inequality
Plan A (language-blind, ecology-based administrative units) on the other hand is a plan based on reasonableness which concentrates on spatial inequality affecting the scrambled egg-like population map of Sri Lanka. Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim masses equally suffer under capitalist corruption system now in operation in the country allowing certain selected crowds to thrive. Only a movement like BBS can cut through this utilizing Plan A which merges three paths (1) the Buddhist Middle Path, (2) the Bio-regional Path (geography-ecology) and (3) the Reasonableness (Doctrine) Path in western jurisprudence to create a people-based democratic society in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is now faced with three kinds of threats: (1) Separatist gimmicks of Tamil Nadu love and politics family clans controlling Delhi political puppets (2) Prabakaran remnants in New York, London etc. with Christian evangelical and corporate imperialist plans aimed at balkanization of India (3) Emerging new threat of Talibanization of the traditional Muslim community in Sri Lanka. Plan A will make Geneva USA second resolution a case of a dogs barking at a passing caravan. Like the Gota’s War, only BBS has the people power to make it happen.
Plan A rejects the new imperialist strategy called ‘meaningful devolution by way of unmajoritarian institutions. This method promoted by white Eurocentric writers like Donald Horowitz creates regional ethnic minority elites and slowly weakens the central governments in former colonies (it may take a decade or two or more), until a new Kosovo or South Sudan (or even a separate country of Scotland) is established splitting countries. Thus, the new policy of creating unmajoritarian institutions, sanitized version of the old divide and rule policy, providing ladders to separatist monkeys to carve out separate countries at each other’s throat. Already, South Sudan started an internal war. No wonder Christian-Marxists like Dayan Jayatileke promotes this path calling it the Nye Soft Path! Dayan J has begun his new cold war against the Sinhala Buddhists.
Plan A is the real homegrown solution which offers a new kind of 13-A plus on the new map of terrain that BBS is now drawing. The real democracy of empowering people (not separatist party politicians) locally is not in Horowitz-Nye-DayanJ or Raliv Wijesinghe Eurocentric formula. This formula stops at regional ethnic politicians’ level, and it failed in Nigeria and Lebanon, two cases that Horowitz used to cite as success stories. It is also interesting to note that in his writings Horowitz did not mention even once the concept of Panchayathi Raj Institutes in India based on consensus politics (God speaks in five, if five people agree, God is with them), not western party politics of throat-cutting competition. International expert Horowitz was clueless about the Sri Lankan Gamsabhava! Sri Lankan villagers are today divided so hopelessly due to green, blue, and red party politics. Fortunately, LLRC did not buy the Horowitz path of devolution which would empower Tamil separatist TNA politicians. LLRC promoted meaningful empowerment of people at the village level to deal with social, economic, and spatial inequities prevalent in the island, but it did not propose a mechanism. For Example, Marxist Tissa Vitharana’s APC majority proposed a Tamil policeman in each Sinhala village! Plan A proposed a mechanism to escape from the death trap called 13-A.
Instead of asking how can we help Tamils and Muslims to achieve their aspirations, LLRC could have asked, Why most spatial units (districts, electorates, natural regions, villages or GSN units) in Sri Lanka are not developed, because poverty is not just a Tamil or Muslim problem. In that case LLRC could have focused on the issue of spatial rights or spatial justice. Tamils in villages are not asking group rights. They want water, rural roads, schools, more busses, railway line, radios, rural bridges, TVs, bicycles, and hospitals. When they have these basic human needs, they will copy Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and intelligently think on their own if an aspiration to have a separate Tamil country in Sri Lanka is viable, possible, or desirable. What is happening now is that Tamil and non-Tamil selfish separatist politicians, local and foreign, trying to manipulate innocent Tamils and Muslims villagers to satisfy their ulterior motives. Only BBS can prevent the government jumping into a domestic mess by holding NP elections.
Sri Lanka cannot expect any reasonable outcomes unless the electoral system is changed, and the public service is overhauled with performance evaluation and merit promotion installed. Ordinary citizens have no place to go for normal/usual services. They have to either know somebody in an office or give a bribe to somebody in an office. Increasing numbers in the government service or increase in expenditure on government projects cannot erase the frustration people have about the moral and ethical decay taken place in the country. If the head of unit is out shopping using office time can we expect the clerks of that unit to be at the desk or not on cell phone for hours? Despite preaching by ministers this is reality and only BBS civil volunteer force can stop this with thousands of eyes. How can we provide incentives to the public servants to serve better and how can we remove corrupt behavior with disincentives (carrot and stick) should be the number one priority. The introduction of mandatory income/assets declaration by public servants open to citizen scrutiny; community service method of punishment for crimes against society such as bribery and corruption; removal of illegal weapons in the hands of people and the utilization of military for civilian construction purposes are matters that need attention for any serious progress.
Divineguma based on old map
All kinds of development work are taking place in Sri Lanka today. But similar work of national magnitude was attempted in the past by Mrs. B, Dudley S, and R. Premadasa, respectively. How efficient and effective were they? Did officers act as yes men and women and deceive politicians? Or were there systemic defects that even dedicated officers cannot succeed? Development work cannot be successful unless it improves the living standards of the local people impacted by it. That is the yardstick of progress. There are programs like Gami Diriya successfully empowering people marginalizing the politician-officer-NGO corruption trio. Divineguma will be a sitting duck to this evil axis. The funny thing is that Samurdhi officers were given the impression by politicians that the Samurdhi program was created to give jobs and pension rights to them, and not for the purpose of uplifting village life!! Unfortunately, Divineguma is a mega job security project. It is not people-decided village development. It is officer-imposed directions to plant vegetables and save money in the bank. BBS can help change Divineguma giving its control to people at village (GSN) level which was proposed to LLRC by Plan A. One need to remember that even the Sarvodaya which says it has 6000 villages in its bosom cannot submit an impact report.
Empowerment of people – Plan A
The problem in Sri Lanka is spatial inequality, not racial inequality (Teaching Tamil and Sinhala to school children will remove within ten years any opportunity Tamil or Muslim politicians now have in trying to manipulate Tamil-speaking people). Since the government is a prisoner to Eurocentric thinking BBS can help the government to reconsider implementing the Jana Sabah concept based on polling station or GSN unit-level. Reminiscent of the Road Development Committees or Sanitary Boards during the early colonial times what Sri Lanka needs today is grass roots level non-political party entities elected to handle basic needs of people such as garbage disposal, road building and maintenance closer to home dwellings, basic health services, quality improvements in schools, prevention of soil erosion and environmental conservation and cooperative efforts to protect local farmers and producers from exploitation. Election of ten members per each entity and then one from such entity making an electorate level unit proceeding further up to the national level with whom the President of the country can have direct communication. This plan can be implemented by creating an office reporting directly to the president. A separate ministry or a department not needed.
This idea is not new (MagaNaguma and DiviNaguma are two programs on these lines). Several witnesses presented similar concepts for consideration by LLRC. But Plan A is the simplest and most effective way to monitor how big projects impact on local communities and to give people an opportunity to decide and control their day-to-day affairs. Each unit will prepare a land use map (plan) for their locality and monitor how government and NGO projects are implemented in their area. If a contractor is corrupt and doing sub-standard work local committee can prevent it. If schoolteachers are not teaching and promoting private tuition the local committee can interfere via parent-teacher associations or old schoolboys/girls association. Education ministers cannot solve these problems. If people are dumping garbage on to the road, local committee can act against them. There is no doubt that politicians of all shapes would not like this idea, but Sri Lanka cannot become a Singapore in economic development and cleanliness if local people are not linked with the governance structure. At present there are no checks and balances to prevent political and official corruption rampant at the local (local government and GSN) level. A citizen affected by inefficiency of a local government, district, provincial or central government officer must be able to go to the local non-political party committee for redress.
Get people behind the government
The need to empower people at the grass root level is not just a political strategy to meet the external threat backed by local separatist agents. It is a necessity to protect peoples’ democracy while promoting sustainable development. In the West, local level administration was done by counties and parishes for generations which are more recently supplemented by groundwater management districts, river basin management districts and more specific functional districts such as solid waste management districts. In New Zealand, a smaller country like Sri Lanka, all local administrative units are demarcated using river basins as boundaries. Long before ‘think globally, act locally’ became a popular concept Sri Lankan society was guided since antiquity by a sustainable development-related trinity of village, water tank and the temple. Ironically, what a few enlightened, people-sympathetic, western professors are now prescribing to Sri Lanka and other countries are so like the principles enshrined in the concept of trinity of ancient Sri Lankan society.
Sustainable development via three merging paths
The Jana Sabha or Gam Sabha (or GSN unit level peoples committees) system can be justified utilizing three interrelated approaches. The Horowitz path (the infamous 13-A is an example of Horowitz path) can be easily dismissed as unwanted burdens (inviting snakes crawling yonder) placed on this tiny island nation by any one of these approaches. Presented as a model the three approaches (paths) are like the three sides of a triangle. The base of it is the moral and ethical foundation of a society. In the West, it is the Judo-Christian norms and values. In Sri Lanka this base has been Buddhism, Buddhist Jataka Stories. The sides of a smaller triangle inside the larger triangle indicate action, perception, and location. Location is also described as space consisting of places. Inside this triangle at the center is the triangle of spatial inequality, a result of not following or abusing the three paths. By following them inequality and inequity could be erased allowing Sustainable development to take root. The close affinity that exists between law and geography on the one hand and between law and Buddhism on the other in their applied interface generating socio-economic processes creating spatial (geographical) patterns deserves scrutiny by all who genuinely wish for a prosperous Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has laws in books, but no action!
The reasonableness doctrine in law and the Middle Path in Buddhism are like the two sides of a coin. What is reasonable has a geographical context; in some places people eat dog meat, in some other places stray dogs are not eliminated and the kinds and types of some activities of the Eight Fold Path are also influenced by the human and physical geography of an area.
Whether it is reasonable to think of separate homelands or demarcate language-based or religion-based spatial units considering the population geography of Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka becomes a legal as wells as a geographical issue that goes beyond separatist politics by non-Buddhists. When ethnic distribution is like a scrambled egg is it not better to have smaller spatial units so that ethnicity pockets have an opportunity to have full local representation? For example, in the Panadura electorate there are at least three Muslim pockets: Totawatta-Ambalanduwa, Sarikkammulla and Eluwila. A GSN unit-based division will allow Muslim majority units, which the Sinhala people in proximity will not consider as an ethnic threat, unless Islam extremists from overseas try to spoil them. Muslims will have to be reasonable in developing their group aspirations. Unlike India, Canada or Belgium, geography does not support language-based spatial divisions in Sri Lanka.
Western capitalist representative democracies love the doctrine of separation of powers to death as seen from the constitutional crisis in the USA today. However, it is now uncovered that Montesquieu did not suggest a strict separation of powers among the three branches of government. In fact now there are about five such branches. What he wanted was to distribute the sum-total of governmental power (including even some judicial power) to as many spatial/political units as possible. It was as if Montesquieu thought about our Gamsabha system or the sovereignty enjoyed by the village-level Buddhist temple chief monk, who is free from central control unlike the local Christian church. The Buddhist Republics in ancient India were like the Tribal Councils Native Americans later had in North America, which Benjamin Franklin wanted the fighting 13 states to follow. These ideas later influenced the western political science theories of governance.
Bioregional vision
Empowerment of people means giving people governmental power at the lowest possible spatial unit level. The American, Kirkpatrick Sale described this human scale in his book, Human Scale (1980). He says everything works best if it is at a scale (size) manageable by local people. This is akin to what we generally identify as grassroots politics. In a global village one thinks globally but acts locally. Or, as the former U.S House Speaker Tip O Neil once said all politics is local. Empowerment works best at the Small Is Beautiful scale. With global warming and local floods, droughts and landslides, massive development projects and environmental degradation, sustainable development at local level becomes a top priority.
A paradigm shift has taken place in (physical-economic) development from things to people as reflected in the increasing use of Participatory Rural Appraisals and people-centered methods of endogenous development‚ Local knowledge (local farmers and villagers) is more valuable than an agriculture or civil engineering graduate can learn from books. The value of this social capital is now recognized by the World Bank and other UN development-oriented agencies. After fifty years of technocratic misadventure, in Sri Lanka these methods are now employed in irrigation settlements in the dry zone.
Spatial justice atlas
Empowerment of people at the local level is not just a political affair. It is a scientific endeavor. Each locally elected non-political party committee will base their work on a locally developed land use map. Each unit will have a graduate research assistant. Ironically, in the Vavuniya District such maps are already in use as a research tool. Tamil tigers had an elaborate land use planning system developed after CFA 2002. Tamil officers are ahead of Sinhala officers in this regard. Most districts in the South now have data tables displayed at GSN unit level. Volunteer students from local high schools and their geography/biology teachers will no doubt take part in updating such maps available at the survey department. This will help in identifying natural boundaries for the local unit. For example, such action could help to reduce 14,000 GSN units to a more reasonable number (it was only 4,000 in the late 1980s).
An ecologically demarcated local unit maps will lead to an ecologically demarcated electorate similar to the pre 1980 era. By converting land use data to data tables an atlas of spatial justice could be developed at the national level using local natural-ecological unit as the lowest spatial unit. An atlas of spatial justice will be the quarterly or annual report card of this monitoring process. It will be an ongoing system with feedback loops. In the 1940s, in the United Kingdom, the late geographer Dudley Stamp undertook a national land utilization survey with the help of public-school students. It was continued in the 1970s and 1990s.
The proposed spatial atlas of Sri Lanka will be an improvement of Dudley Stamp’s original idea interpreting the data from land use planning with issues of spatial injustice.
Since local level watersheds/basins have a hierarchical order of progressively increasing in area/size they can become a large River Basin Region at macro level. Seven such River Basin Regions could advantageously replace the present arbitrary nine provincial units: each with an ocean front and each with somewhat equal land area. If people are allowed to handle their basic affairs at GSN unit level, 70% of Sri Lanka’s present crises can be solved.
The map above first developed by the geography professor C.M. MaddumaBandara can be used as the goal of a country administered by language-blind political units. This is the only way to develop a Sri Lankan identity. The Seven River Basins are: 1. Yalpanam, 2. Rajarata, 3. Dambadeni, 4. Mahaveli, 5. Deegavaapi, 6. Kelani, 7. Ruhunu (This map was published in Chapter 4, in Fifty years of Sri Lanka’s Independence: a socio-economic review, edited by A.V. de S. Indraratna, 1998, p.83).
Readers are encouraged to contact the writer at Cwije7@google.com
17 Responses to Bodu Bala Sena and LLRC (Buddhist self-reliance)”
bbs now should take a different turn – it should become a bit militant, not on the offensive but on the defensive. all able buddhist sinhala young men and women in bbs should take up to marshal arts purely to defend themselves from the thuggery of the present admistration (please ask jayantha liyanage if you don’t believe me). at every electorate bbs must have a branch with a group of young people taking up karate. this will be a deterence to any impending attacks by government supporters at protest rallies. bbs as their direction is not inclined towards becoming a political party – should however definitely become a peoples movement and let the course takes it’s way – a leader will be born out of this peoples movement and the rest of the story will be written in the annuals of heladeepa.
I agree with Sunil BUT I suggest a different approach – EXPAND RAPIDLY within the army.
Once that is done NO SANE person will ever want to mess with BBS.
BBS was there during the war. MOST people have forgotten that. BBS did a lot of work to give blood to wounded soldiers, help at the hospitals, help in rehabilitation, console loved ones of soldiers, etc. BBS is not like those Arabic tape worms that landed in SL from hell for the bad karma of SL people.
lorenzo – brilliant idea. for a peoples movement to capture power in heladeepa, we need the armed forces. i was in anu and at bodhi when the army with all its reps.(flags) in various battalions, gathered and marched around the bodhi to invoke blessings, just before they went to war with tigers. all these corrupt politicians in unp, slfp and jvp and predominantly the provincial council uneducated bastards should be wiped out just as we wiped out the tigers and the near future the wahaabis. for that to happen the only solution is a peoples movement as democratric means cannot achieve an authentic result in an election as intimidation will be at it’s maximium force. check with sjp. we are not racists. we are against tigers(both in sl and india), wahaabis and hegemonic anglo saxons, who are hell bent to destroy our country. with these ponna hupocritical politicians around, we will be doomed, we will have no country to call our own as saudis, malaysians, english, italians, french etc. do, called a sinhala buddhist country.
Sinhalese Buddhists are still in the majority in Sri Lanka. We need to forget whatever differences there are and join hands with BBS. Then it will be possible non violently defeat the hidden agenda of the radical Islamists who wants to spread Sharia law, crazy Ivangalists who try to convert the poor Buddhists,NGOs and all others working against the Sinhalese Buddhists .
Whatever action the BBs takes to safeguard the Nation, that action must be essentially based on well informed, rational thinking and always non-violent. We propose that the BBS should become, among their other actions, a vast Think Tank for Sri Lanka to ensure security and prosperity for all.
Some Questions for the BBS :
* How would BBS address the Labor needs in the plantations sector, especially the tea sector ? Is Sri Lanka going to continue to depend on Tamil Labor living in line rooms built by the British ? These Tamils are called Indian Tamils” and listen to their leaders who are totally India controlled. Isn’t it high time they became Upcountry Tamils and not known as Indian Tamils ? Isn’t it high time they integrated properly into mainstream life in Lanka and lived outside of the plantations ? Isn’t Mechanisation & Modernisation of the plantations the new way to go ?
* How is the BBS going to address the Illegal Migrant issue ? How did the army estimate of around 100,000 in the ltte Human Shield become 300,000 ? What is to become of these ‘extra’ people ?
* What is the future Language Policy for Lanka ? What do you propose we do to stop Lanka to becoming an appendage of Tamil Nadu through language and religion ?
* How does BBS propose handling the spread of Sharia Law in Lanka ? What prevails in Courts when one party is for Sharia and the other for the Law of Sri Lanka ?
* Isn’t it that when Sri Lanka is destabilised, local rule of law is disregarded and the ‘law of the jungle’ prevails ? Has BBs found out who destabilises Sri Lanka and for what reasons ?
That way we can PROP UP Gota instead of Basil, Namal and MR who are all pro-Tamilian (NOT pro SL).
When Gota realizes BBS has infiltrated” the 300,000 strong MOSTLY Sinhala Buddhist troops who are now NEGLECTED, he will have to NEGOTIATE.
Army cannot have a trade union and they SILENTLY suffer problems – NO LAND despite saving millions of hectares of land, NO GOOD SCHOOLS for army kids but best free education to Tamilian kids, etc.
This kind of things happen in US, Israel, Japanese armies too.
LTTE and Al Qaeda will sh*t in their pants just to think of it.
BBS should do simultaneous projects. Delay is justice denied, and will result in intractable problems in the near future …
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The article below is from today’s Lanka Page. I fail to understand what is ‘Aggressive’ about an Awareness Campaign the article below refers to. Also, haven’t the Sinhala people taken enough crap from the world ? it is high time the Sinhale defended themselves without harming others. It is always mostly the Sinhale who die in other peoples wars, about 98% who die are the Sinhala people, and they die to save the Nation. High time they brought about a ‘no more war’ situation in the country. All the recent wars were to save the Nation from ltte Tamil terrorists & Tamil Caste Wars exported to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu – other peoples wars !
Aggressive campaign by Sri Lanka’s extremist Buddhist group to create awareness on challenges to Buddhists Mon, Apr 1, 2013, 09:40 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 01, Colombo: The extremist Buddhist activist group emerging in Sri Lanka plans to carry out an aggressive awareness campaign on the challenges faced by the Buddhists in the country.
The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) organization will organize monthly conferences in districts to make Buddhists aware of the challenges face by them and to advise on how to overcome these problems.
The organization will also set up youth bodies to educate the youth in the country.
BBS programme coordinator, Dilantha Vithanage, said the organization is looking at setting up an academic institution called the Bodu Bala Sena Vidyayathanaya.
He said the institution is to incorporate Buddhist leadership and attitudes with other disciplines such as management and information technology.
According to Vithanage, it is elements with ulterior motives that are trying to misrepresent the BBS as a force against the Muslims in the country.
Bodu Bala Sena’s hardline attitude towards other religions has drawn concern from moderate Sri Lankans who fear that a Taliban like group is in the formation if the government and the society fail to take action against the group”.
BBS should work WITH the armed forces, quite openly. What is there to hide ? Does BBS have a hardline attitude towards other religions ? Wasn’t the Halal certification issue was resolved without violence ? One People, One country with Peace dividends for all.
The writer of the LankaPage article sounds as though he/she is from a foreign hostile country, inimical to the mass of people of Lanka. Are we that divided ? why do we fear each other ?
Cerberus seems to have answered for me ! Thanks Cerberus.
The use of correct words is very important.
After WWII, all the people in every European country pulled together to get each country on its feet again, and wonderful growth happened for all in those countries. Similarly, all in Lanka must pull together for this country to shine again. Only happiness & wellbeing for all puts the cherry on the ‘cake of peace’ !
For the benefit of Lankaweb stated policy of the democratization of information and opinions” I somehow doubt this would be published.
Courtesy of Mr David Blacker
Our Moment of Destiny : From The Blacklight Arrow
I think every generation faces its own particular challenges; but the greatest and most defining ones are those of morality and courage. That moment, if missed, condemns that generation — and often many that follow — to a world far more unpleasant and evil than we would wish it to be. For many in the free world of the late 1930s, that moment came with the invasion of Poland and the bombing of Pearl Harbour. It was a moment when my grandfather’s generation had to decide if they would simply stand on the sidelines or go out and fight someone else’s cause. Fortunately for them, the choice was easy; their respective governments took the right fork, and millions of young men — my grandfather included — went out into the deserts, the jungles, and across the seas to ensure that tyranny and racism would not shape our world. For 1960s America, the moment of destiny was in fact a place — Vietnam — and a moral choice. America made its decision, albeit a little late for millions of Vietnamese.
But when that hour of destiny arrived thirty years ago in Sri Lanka, our parents’ generation failed us. For decades, they had watched as extremist rhetoric leveled at the Tamil community gave way to physical violence. They stood by as our constitution was changed to remove any protection the minorities had a right to under law. They were silent when the nation’s leadership was silent on the racism and hatred that was all around them. They did nothing when their elected politicians in fact helped instigate the violence that climaxed in the orgy of assault, murder, rape, and destruction now known as Black July. For thirty years we have wondered how our parents could have been so docile, so shortsighted, so wrong in their choices. We have watched our country torn apart by suicide bombers and child soldiers, by tanks and artillery. We have watched a hundred thousand die, because our parents didn’t say stop!”
Thirty years later, the clock is back at five minutes to midnight; racists are calling for violence, for this country to be only for Sinhalese Buddhists. They are calling for a tiny minority to change their lifestyles or leave; they are calling for their right to worship to be curbed. And they are threatening violence if their demands are not met. Our government is at best silent; at worst in collusion. Our police force is standing by while Muslims are attacked. There are no arrests. There is no condemnation. There is no justice.
The last time this happened, I was eleven years old; an uncomprehending child. I grew up to wonder why my father who could ride a motorcycle through a wall of fire to get me home that July, hadn’t been able to stop what was done to the Tamils and to my country. Was he scared? Didn’t he care? I ask the same questions from myself today. Why am I doing nothing as my country heads towards the flames again. I ask it of my friends — especially the Buddhists — my colleagues, my girlfriend. None of you are racists, I think. None of you believe that Muslims must be persecuted and harassed. Why are you not speaking out? Why are you not protesting? What will it take? Or is there nothing that will drive us out of our homes and on to the streets to brave the thugs and the tear gas, the water cannon and the bullets? Have we no fucking shame?
I feel ashamed right now; ashamed of my government; ashamed of my friends; ashamed of my country. More than anything, I am ashamed of myself. I have never felt this way about my country, and I never thought I would, but I feel it now. And I hate feeling this way. In the worst of the war, I told myself that it wasn’t my fault; that I hadn’t chosen this war to fight. But this is now. This is me. This is us. This is our country and our moment of destiny is here. Why are we doing nothing?
Marco, You seem to look at SL from London through a Micro’ scope. You dont get the bigger picture; it is blured. We who live here can see what is happening. Go to any supermarket in Colombo. There will be atleast five gonibillas looking at us through a slit in their dress. Isnt this an insult and an aggression on all others?. Why this change all of a sudden. This is just one aspect among many. Cheating in exams and drug trade are two others. Every body should learn to co-exist respectfully and peacefully.
Aloy Thank you for your response. Regrettably Lankaweb moderator thought fit not to publish my comment in response to yours for reasons i cannot fathom. I spend 4-5 winter months a year in Sri Lanka overseeing my interest and over the years i have witnessed (among others) a noticeable increase in the Muslim garb in not only in supermarkets but well to do establishments. It would be wrong to say i was intimidated by such garb and neither should you or any one else. I don’t believe its an insult or aggression unless of course you feel threaten or developed a complex of jealousy. Its no secret the Muslim community in Sri Lanka with their business skills and acumen have closed a void and taken advantage whilst the rest have been sitting on their backsides and resting on been given on a plate.
Perhaps, you ought to explain yourself with facts on cheating in exams and drug trade. I agree with your sentiments that all Sri Lankans should learn to co-exist respectfully and peacefully.
Ironically, i find it rather amusing that the 3 suspected Buddhist monks” resorted to the Burqa when escorted to the courts by the police.
Marco, I was thinking of not commenting in this forum any more as I have started getting many unusual telephone calls and smss. Anyway I have to respond to your last comment. I am sure Lankaweb used the correct judgement, looking at your previous comment where you got overly sentimental and even used words only roughians in UK use. I cannot understand why you got so emotional. Even Sattelite who knew the tiger war very well as a onetime head of state told a sob story in public. She may have done that to get some advantage. Was it so in your case, too?. As for exam cheating almost everybody in SL know minorities have been doing it for ages. Thanks Marco.
By Chandre Dharmawardana (chandre.dharma@yahoo.ca)
Although there is much talk of system change”, it is hard to find specifics of the new systems that are to be created. In the early seventies, Mahinda Wijesekera, the father of the present Minster for Power was a student leaders of the Vidyodaya University. As a key figure of the JVP, he told me that that they are fighting for a system change”. My critique of their plans got reported by Viranga (Nihal Ratnayake) in the Daily News. The campus faced student strikes with the demand that I withdraw my critique, considered reactionary and insulting. The five lessons of the JVP sufficed for the young revolutionaries to fall behind Wijeweera and cause mayhem.
Pathum Kerner, one of the Aragalists out on bail is a medical doctor, in his forties. He contested the 2020 general elections as the leader of an unofficial Green political party, rejecting the existing corrupt political parties. More recently, his approach to system change” was presented in a U-Tube.
The rural farmers began the initial protests. They faced Gotabaya’s ban on agrochemicals that drastically reduced harvests and brought them bankruptcy. The eco-extremists of the Viyathmaga who triggered the ban believed that traditional agriculture and organic farming were healthier” and equally bountiful. Going organic” was the SYSTEM CHANGE that the eco-extremists had wanted. That the present methods of food production are unsustainable”, and that ”a different system” is needed, seem reasonable and had acceptance among the elite, among politicians, and even among many scientists who gloss over the realities of feeding a world of 7-8 billion people. Many regard the switch to organics as an objective that should be achieved gradually”. Pathum Kerner would have endorsed this policy in July 2020. The JVP also seems to support going fully organic” gradually.
The present writer has argued (in many publications) that even the gradual approach” is meaningful only if we let half the world population starve. Growing organic food for a niche market of elites and for export, while retaining fertilizer-based agriculture for feeding the world is the only scientifically valid model of agriculture that we have today. Modern approaches to agriculture using agro-chemicals are far friendlier to the environment than organic” models of agriculture.
The Yahapalanites under Sirisena, Ven. Ratana, Champika Ranawaka and others pushed to ban the pesticide Glyphosate, destroying the corn harvest and critically damaging the plantation sector. This was not lesson enough for the eco-extremists of the Viyathmaga who influenced Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The protests of farmers were soon overtaken by the protests of the middle class facing shortages of natural gas for cooking and fuel caused by the forex crisis that was expected in the wake of the Pandemic. The Aragalaya gathering at Colombo’s Galle Face Green, fueled by the forex crises swelled, demanding Gotabaya’s resignation to make a radical system change”. It was not only a protest, but also a cultural carnival displaying a spontaneous creativity and gaiety nourished by the inputs of the leisured classes of Colombo. I was reminded of the fête de l’Humanité” that the French Communist party newspaper holds every September in Paris, since the 1930s, showcasing its many famous literary and artistic adherents. The Aragalaya sent President Gotabaya into exile on July 10th but the goons of government and the violent side of the Aragala got exposed in the process.
Although Ranil Wickremasinghe (RW) bemoaned the destruction of his valuable collection art, books and Buddhist sculptures in his house, he had no thoughts of preserving for posterity the spontaneous art of the Aragalaya. The public has clearly expressed its opposition to violence and counter-violence, destruction of MPs’ houses and ignored the August 9th Aragalaya call to regroup.
Gotabaya called several leaders to ride the cusp of the crisis, but it was RW who captured the wave and shot up to become the new President. The Aragalaya and the public had rejected all political parties, corrupt to the core, and asked for a clean break. In contrast, the party leaders and political commentators have called for an all-party interim government (APIG)”. This did not happen even under daily suicide attacks by the LTTE, and so, how can cantankerous politicians come together heeding a largely peaceful Aragalaya? An election under an APIG would have returned the same politicians conferring them a false façade of legitimacy. The best option is indeed to carry on with RW and a skeleton government. But what a corrupt skeletons did RW gather? Why was it necessary for RW to appoint individuals with criminal records, men suspected of blatant bribery etc. to his cabinet? One of the reasons given by Premadasa against joining the government is the continuing stench of corruption in the RW government.
So, how does the Aralgalaya leaders, some out on bail, or any other new faces hope to change this entrenched system? They have some two and a half years to get organized and form new parties with new faces and write manifestos, while RW also has a chance to either prove his worth and his integrity, or to fall into the hands of criminals, financial wheeler dealers and old cronies. Or, is RW already a prisoner of the Pohottuwa party?
Dr. Pathum Kerner (PK) has presented his proposals for system change in a U-tube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTOXSCjmB0g While the revolutionary youth of the 1970s under Wijeweera demanded full nationalization, PK proposes to go beyond JRJ towards a complete privatization” of the internally economy. Everyone complains of the large size of government. It runs most of the industries and services using 1.5-2 million to do the work of 0.5 million. PK makes the same complaint and speaks glowingly of Thatcher and Regan. He points to how the state sector is used by politicians to give contracts and employment to their cronies. New business licenses are issued through patronage. An arrack permit brings ten to twenty million rupees to the politician. The system” breeds corruption and cronyism. PK alludes to the need for law and order, transparency, efficiency and shrinking the government — the standard neoliberal narrative since Margret Thatcher.
Neoliberal economies legalize” corruption by institutionalizing lobbying. Following Thatcher will need tough inhuman steps that only a government armed with draconian powers can carry out in culling out one million government employees. Pathum Kerner refused to elaborate how he hopes to do this. A large part of the government business” is in providing health, education, security, infrastructure and public transport. PK avoids these inconvenient topics.
So the Aragalaya Right offers the usual free-market deregulation imposed under an iron hand a la Pathum Kerner, while the Aragalaya Left offers the usual socialist workbook to be imposed by the July 10th revolutionaries with their helmets, motor bicycles and incendiary devices?
Culling a million workers to shrink government will cause economic collapse even if they go without a fight because removing a million consumers from the market will cause a market slump. A country facing economic collapse immediately needs MORE GOVERNMENT intervention and not less. The governments can buy stock in private companies and inject money. The claim that governments must sell off loss-making enterprises to come out of an economic crisis is inconsistent with macro-economic dynamics. When employment is terminated, the government must pay unemployment allowances to keep people solvent and ensure that their collective loss of buying power does not kill the market. The government can safely divest itself of profit-making businesses, but it has to restructure and re-invest in loss-making businesses, unless they are nonessential businesses that can be closed up. Issuing of licenses and permits should be tied to bank loans so that the liabilities of failed businesses or corrupt contracts become a bank liability. Politicians should be barred from sponsoring projects and limit themselves to legislation. Strong executive powers are needed to enforce social stability during a crisis.
Meanwhile, strategic sectors like energy and food must be re-organized (jointly with foreign entrepreneurs where needed) to exploit the special advantages that Sri Lanka has. The large potential in hydropower obtained by reducing evaporation, diesel from vegetable oils, biomass energy etc., can be developed with limited forex expenditure, unlike solar energy that needs forex in the initial stages. The food and plantation sectors too need forex but this is immediately recovered within the year with good margins when the products are exported.
PERADENIYA ARTS FACULTY TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION (PAFTA)
PERADENIYA ARTS FACULTY TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION (PAFTA) Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya Peradeniya 20400, Sri Lanka President General Secretary Vice President Assistant Secretary Treasurer Prof. A. Parakrama Dr. T. Kithsiri Prof. U. Abeyrathne Mr. A. Dharmarathne Dr. S. Dorabawila Committee Members Prof. A. Jayawickrama Prof. D. Karunanayake Dr. K. Thoradeniya Dr. S. Mantillake Mr. S. Premarathne
On September 14, 2022, a group of students studying law in the Faculty of Arts were assaulted while they were dining in the canteen and were subsequently prevented from entering the canteen premises. This is not an isolated incident. For years now, in the Faculty of Arts, a group identified as Raggers”, through sheer force of might and intimidation, have denied students identified as Anti-Raggers” entry to public spaces of the university, including canteens. Anti-Raggers” were forced to find other inadequate spaces for their daily interaction and even to have their meals on campus. The violent and intolerant culture of the rag in the universities is such that Anti-Raggers are either prevented from residing in the halls of residence or hounded out of the halls of residence through other means.
To return to the specific incident, on the 14th of September a group of students from the Department of Law, who could find no other place, decided to have their midday meal in one of the two main student canteens in the vicinity. This resulted in a faction of the Rag Group” to assault these students, and to later barring the Law students’ entry into the canteen. On hearing the commotion, the Dean of the Arts Faculty, along with other members of the staff, intervened at this point. The Dean called a meeting representing all factions, in order to resolve the matter amicably even at this stage. He also made it clear on that occasion that all public areas of the University commonly accessed by students, were open to all students, with no exceptions at all. However, promises made at this meeting were willfully broken within hours, resulting in further violence against these Law students.
To end this spiraling cycle, the Dean, on the basis of the Faculty Board’s decision, asked for a written assurance on the part of the two affected student groups and the student union, the official representative body of the students, guaranteeing their commitment to free and open access to the canteens and other common facilities to all. Initially, in the interest of protecting the anti-rag group, on-site classes were converted to the online mode. However, after further discussion and clear intransigence on the part of the union and its allies who alone of the three groups refused to provide such a letter, it was decided that until such an assurance is made, all academic activities of the Faculty of Arts should be suspended as such activities cannot be conducted in an environment of violence and intimidation. To date, the Student Union has failed to provide such assurance. Further, subsequent to the interventions made by the Dean, he became the target of threats and intimidation made by some students led by the Student Union. An effigy of him was burnt near the very canteen and he was publicly vilified at a much-publicised student union rally on the 15th September.
Ragging has been the bane of the university system for decades. It is a violent, unjust, undemocratic, and inhuman practice. As PAFTA, we have zero tolerance for the rag and all related actions that perpetuate this practice. We are also particularly outraged at the intimidation and threats levelled at the Dean by members of the Student Union. We are committed to safeguarding the interests of all members of the university community, the safety and welfare of our members and the safety of all students and others in the university community; upholding that basic principle, we condemn these acts of intimidation unequivocally.
As teachers in the higher education system we have always demonstrated a firm commitment to the functioning of the State University System. This system has nurtured all of us, and has contributed greatly to the welfare of this country, in the economic, administrative, political and cultural spheres. In condemning the undemocratic and violent practices of groups of students, we only wish to make the state system better, more democratic and be in greater service to the larger society. It is not, as has been implied elsewhere, particularly in media releases of the student union, that we are a part of a conspiracy to undermine the state university system. In condemning the rag and the violence of September 14 and 15, we can only improve the quality of education and the well-being of the university system.
It has to be made crystal clear that we recognize the inalienable right of students to engage in political activities and to work towards constructive social and systemic change. It is not our intention and not in the public’s interest to use incidents related to the rag, including this incident in particular, to undermine the people’s struggle of the past few months which is founded on the call for greater democracy in the country. We condemn the actions of any group or political faction that seeks to misuse the just struggle against the rag to gain cheap political mileage and to undermine the greater democratic vision of the present political struggle against injustice. In sum, we condemn the practice of ragging and require all students to commit to a university environment in which everyone can learn with peace of mind; we condemn all practices of violence and repression, and stand by all those who are unjustly treated in any system. Specifically, we trust that the Student Union can assure us of their commitment to restoring normalcy and to a violencefree environment in the Faculty, so that we can resume the conduct of lectures as soon as possible. Prof. Arjuna Parakrama President Peradeniya Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association
During the course of his address, as Chair of the 55th Annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Sri Lanka’s President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said, As they say, in many of our countries, when the elephants fight, it is the grass that is crushed”. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, its strategically significant location in the Indian Ocean makes it the turf for the rivalry between the QUAD made up of the United States, India, Japan and Australia on the one hand, and China on the other, to manifest itself. How Sri Lanka strategises its survival in such an environment is key not only to its immediate economic revival but also for all time.
The single most critical issue affecting Sri Lanka’s economic revival is debt, and therefore the need to restructure it. In this regard, the expectation is that the role played by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed up by the Extended Fund Facility of US$ 2.9 billion is expected to encourage the creditors to be more accommodative towards Sri Lanka, when addressing its debt crisis. This however is not an assured outcome. The President during his address announced the progress made with the IMF when he stated: Towards this end we have already undertaken major macroeconomic policy reform measures. I am pleased to inform you that we have now reached a Staff Level agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a four-year program supported by the Extended Fund Facility. The program is aligned with the commitment of the Government to implement an ambitious and comprehensive package of reforms that will help restore the sustainability of our public finances, addressing external imbalances, and restarting our growth engine through structural reforms and improvements in governance”.
The question addressed below is the need for Sri Lanka to explore alternative strategies in the event Sri Lanka fails to reach a common agreement with the creditors despite the Staff-Level Agreement reached with the IMF, and Sri Lanka is left to its own devices to get back on a sustainable track. For these reasons, it is imperative that Sri Lanka engage earnestly in an alternative exercise to be prepared to meet unexpected exigencies that could arise from geopolitical rivalries.
IMF CONDITIONALITIES
Presented below is a press release issued following the Staff-Level Agreement reached with the IMF team. Parts of the Key elements of the program” are highlighted to emphasise what it takes for Sri Lanka to comply with the 48-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility of about US $ 2.9 billion”
End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.
IMF staff and the Sri Lankan authorities have reached a staff-level agreement to support Sri Lanka’s economic policies with a 48-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of about US$2.9 billion.
The objectives of Sri Lanka’s new Fund-supported program are to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while safeguarding financial stability, protecting the vulnerable, and stepping up structural reforms to address corruption vulnerabilities and unlock Sri Lanka’s growth potential.
Debt relief from Sri Lanka’s creditors and additional financing from multilateral partners will be required to help ensure debt sustainability and close financing gaps. Financing assurances to restore debt sustainability from Sri Lanka’s official creditors and making a good faith effort to reach a collaborative agreement with private creditors are crucial before the IMF can provide financial support to Sri Lanka.
Key elements of the program (emphasis mine) are:
RAISING FISCAL REVENUE TO SUPPORT FISCAL CONSOLIDATION.
Starting from one of the lowest revenue levels in the world, the program will implement major tax reforms. THESE REFORMS INCLUDE MAKING PERSONAL INCOME TAX MORE PROGRESSIVE AND BROADENING THE TAX BASE FOR CORPORATE INCOME TAX AND VAT. The program aims to reach a primary surplus of 2.3 percent of GDP by 2025.
INTRODUCING COST-RECOVERY BASED PRICING FOR FUEL AND ELECTRICITY
to minimize fiscal risks arising from state-owned enterprises. The team welcomed the authorities’ already announced substantial revenue measures and energy pricing reforms;
MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENT CRISIS ON THE POOR AND VULNERABLE BY RAISING SOCIAL SPENDING,
and improving the coverage and targeting of social safety net programs;
RESTORING PRICE STABILITY
through data-driven monetary policy action, fiscal consolidation, phasing out monetary financing, and stronger central bank autonomy that allow pursuing a flexible inflation targeting regime. A NEW CENTRAL BANK ACT IS A CORNERSTONE OF THIS STRATEGY;
REBUILDING FOREIGN RESERVES THROUGH RESTORING A MARKET-DETERMINED AND FLEXIBLE EXCHANGE RATE,
supported by the comprehensive policy package under the program;
Safeguarding financial stability by ensuring a healthy and adequately capitalized banking system, and by upgrading financial sector safety nets and regulatory standards with a revised Banking Act; and
REDUCING CORRUPTION VULNERABILITIES THROUGH IMPROVING FISCAL TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, INTRODUCING A STRONGER ANTI-CORRUPTION LEGAL FRAMEWORK, AND CONDUCTING AN IN-DEPTH GOVERNANCE DIAGNOSTIC, SUPPORTED BY IMF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.
These Key Elements of the program were known to the government at the time the Staff-Level Agreements was reached. It must then mean that the Sri Lankan government has agreed to commit itself to fulfilling the undertakings specified above to receive about US$ 2.9 over 48 months to support its economic policies” notwithstanding the nature and range of its scope that amount to intrusion into the domestic affairs of a sovereign State. The other even more daunting challenge is reaching a common agreement on debt restructuring with countries such as Japan, India, China and private creditors. However, the fact that Sri Lanka is prepared to resolutely face such extreme challenges reflects the desperation Sri Lanka finds itself in at this juncture.
The question that arises and it is imperative that it is answered is: WHAT IF, after banking so heavily on support from the IMF for Sri Lanka’s economic revival, Sri Lank fails to meet the benchmarks and parameters set by the key elements” in the IMF program or fails to reach a common agreement for debt restructuring with the creditors? Since such a prospect cannot be ruled out in a background of geopolitical rivalries, it is imperative that Sri Lanka prepare itself by seriously exploring alternative options independent of support from the sources currently being pursued. If Sri Lanka does not explore alternative options. its economic revival program would be severely impacted, and Sri Lanka would then be left to its own devices to meet all challenges.
THE FOCUS of the SURVIVAL STRATEGY
One key area that would impact on Sri Lanka’s economic revival program is the cost of fuel oil. A Special Press Release dated June 13, 2021by the Cost of Living Committee chaired by the President states: Sri Lanka has become a country that not only spends a large amount of foreign exchange for fuel imports, but also a country where its transport services, power generation and the function of some of the factories are based on these imports. In 2019 alone, the foreign exchange spent on oil imports was US$ 3, 677 million”. However, with the reduction in international oil prices coupled with the ban on vehicle imports the cost of fuel imports was reduced to US$ 2,325″. DESPITE, SUCH FLUCTUATIONS, THE PRESS RELEASE STATES: THE EXPENDITURE FROM THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS FOR PETROLEUM IMPORTS WOULD BE AROUND US$ 4,000 MILLION. THIS AMOUNT IS CLOSE to 1/3 of the TOTAL FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNED FROM THE EXPORTS… THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ACCOUNTS FOR NEARLY 60%OF THE FUEL CONSUMPTION”.
With the introduction of the QR system for transport and the continued ban on vehicle imports together with the fact that the cost of importing fuel oil is highly dependent on global developments, a more realistic import bill for fuel oil could be assumed to be US$ 2,500 to 3,000 million annually. This means that Sri Lanka would need US$ 10, 000 to 12,000 million over a period of 4 years. Since the Extended Fund Facility of about 2.9 Billion proposed by the IMF pales in significance to meet the fuel oil needs of Sri Lanka, and because fuel oil is fundamental to the economic revival program, it is imperative that Sri Lanka explores fresh strategies to meet fuel oil needs without which there would not be an economic recovery.
The following are the hard realities:
The economy cannot revive without sustained supplies of fuel oil.
Sri Lanka does not have the foreign exchange to sustain importing its fuel oil needs.
The economy cannot revive if Sri Lanka has to live from ship load to ship load, or on negotiated credit lines.
The Strategy:
Therefore, Sri Lanka has to negotiate a government to government arrangement or one that is underwritten by governments where the payment for immediate fuel oil needs is deferred to a later date, until a Refinery is set up and functioning on the basis of a Joint Venture. Furthermore, such a Joint Venture would enable Sri Lanka to repay deferred commitments from Sri Lanka’s share of the proceeds from the Joint Venture.
Savings arising by deferring payment while the refinery is being set up could be used to repay outstanding debts.
The Refinery should be located in Trincomalee.
The Capacity of the Refinery should be to meet Sri Lanka’s needs with the excess being exported to Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) countries.
Sri Lanka’s equity to the Joint Venture could be part of the Tank Farm in Trincomalee, its Harbour and its strategic location for distribution of finished petroleum products.
Equity of the Partner is the Refinery and the steady supply of fuel oil.
THE URGENCY of the SITUATION REQUIRES THAT SRI LANKA EXPLORES THIS OPTION at the HIGHEST LEVEL — an OPTION that is REFLECTIVE of the CORE VALUE of SELF-RELIANCE.
CONCLUSION
The Staff-Level agreement that Sri Lanka has reached with the IMF backed up by an Extended Fund Facility of about US$ 2.9 billion is expected to boost the confidence of the creditors and encourage them to be accommodative towards Sri Lanka in their efforts to reach a common restructuring arrangement to address its debts. If such a positive outcome materializes, the prospects of an economic revival would be real. On the other hand, if outcomes of the negotiations do NOT turn out to be as encouraging as hoped for, it is imperative that Sri Lanka prepares itself beforehand with alternative strategies, one of which would be to earnestly explore arrangements at the highest level to secure its fuel oil needs on the basis proposed above, if it hopes to revive its economy. If by a stroke of unusual good fortune, the outcomes relating to restructuring and a Joint venture to secure Sri Lanka’s fuel oil needs are both positive, the economic revival would be that much faster.
By A. Abdul Aziz – Chairman, Press & Media Desk, AMJSL.
A two member delegation from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Sri Lanka (AMJSL) visited to Ministry of Mass Media in Colombo on 11 October 2022.
Ministry Officials welcomed the delegation and arranged to meet Hon. Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Mass Media.
Honorable Minister was very much delighted and respectfully accepted the Holy Qur’an Sinhala Translation and the Sinhala Translation of the book ‘Life of Muhammad (pbuh)’ – and the book: World Crisis and the Pathway To Peace – A compilation of addresses in various Parliaments by Ahmadiyya Khalifa His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that using children as shields in demonstrations is a serious offence according to the law of the country and advised the Sri Lanka Police to take immediate measures to prevent the perpetuation of such conduct.
President Wickremesinghe issued these instructions during the special discussion held at the Presidential Secretariat this morning (Oct. 12) on the protection of children’s rights.
Highlighting sub-section 13 of Article 27 of the Constitution, The State shall promote with special care the interests of children and youth, so as to ensure their full development, physical, mental, moral, religious and social, and to protect them from exploitation and discrimination,” the President emphasized that protecting children is the prime responsibility of a government.
Steps were also taken to assign the responsibilities of child protection to the Sri Lanka Police and related government institutions.
The President upheld the need for an Act to protect children’s rights to prevent them from being used for sexual activities and protect their fundamental rights. He also advised the officials to discuss this issue with the Attorney General in order to take necessary steps in this regard.
The President drew attention to the detention of the children, who were among the people who were arrested for illegally migrating to India, and separated from their parents as a result. He said that this situation needs to be rectified immediately and arrangements made to return the children to their parents.
The President also requested special attention to be paid to the education of children in orphanages and protection of their rights and advised the officials to submit a report on those with special needs in such institutions.
President Wickremesinghe pointed out the need to provide formal training to those in charge of these children’s homes in order to avoid facing difficult situations.
Minister of State for Women and Children’s Affairs Geeta Kumarasinghe, President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake and government officials of line institutions were present at this discussion.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed officials to celebrate the 75th Independence Day in a dignified manner that reflects national and religious unity.
Steps have been taken to celebrate the 75th Independence Day celebrations on the 04th of February 2023 at the Galle Face Green with all pomp and pageantry under the theme, Let’s stand together”.
A discussion on the organization of the 75th Independence Day commemoration was held under the chairmanship of President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the President’s Office this afternoon (12). The President issued these instructions during this discussion.
Numerous events and programs have been organized in conjunction with the Independence Day commemoration and a special cycling race, school tournament, historical and rare book exhibition are among the main features planned.
In addition, marking this special occasion, a housing project of 2000 houses has been planned in Colombo and Gampaha districts.
On the 04th and 05th of February, all national parks will be open to the public free of charge and a commemorative stamp will be issued in conjunction with the 75th Independence Day celebrations.
The organizing committee of the Independence Day celebrations comprises 10 sub-committees and an open invitation is extended to the public to witness the Independence Day celebrations. With the support of the armed forces, arrangements will be made to provide necessary facilities to the people participating in it.
Concurrently, the organization of various cultural, religious and social programs was also discussed based around all regional secretariats and district secretariats throughout the island.
Many rural programs such as Best Home Garden, Best Rural Revitalization Centre, Best Tree Planting Program etc. have been planned to be held concurrently with the National Independence Day celebrations.
The President also issued instructions to display the national flag and light up the buildings owned by all government institutions in the island on Independence Day.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Cabinet and State Ministers, United National Party Chairman MP Wajira Abeywardena, Senior Adviser on National Security and President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayake, Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence General Kamal Gunaratne (Rtd.), Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva and the Tri Forces Commanders, Inspector General of Police, Colombo Mayor Mrs. Rosy Senanayake and several others participated in the discussion.
The draft Amendment Bill to revise the Inland Revenue Act was published in the government gazette on Tuesday (Oct. 11), proposing key changes to the income tax.
The gazette notification was issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies to amend the Inland Revenue Act, No.24 of 2017.
According to the draft proposal, it has been decided to tax people based on different income-earning criteria.
The income tax payable by a person for the year of assessment commencing from April 01, 2022, is calculated separately for two periods of the year of assessment as the first six months and the second six months.
As such, the taxable sum from the income of a person for the first 06 months from April 01, 2022, to September 30, 2022, begins with people earning an annual income exceeding Rs. 1.5 million.
Thereby, a tax will not be charged from anyone with an annual income of Rs. 1.5 million or lower. Those who earn an annual income between Rs. 1.5 million and Rs. 3 million will be subject to a tax of Rs. 90,000 and 12% of the amount in excess of Rs. 1.5 million. In addition, people with an annual income above Rs. 3 million will be required to pay a tax of Rs. 270,000 and 18% of the amount in excess of Rs. 3 million.
Meanwhile, for the second 06 months from October 01, 2022, to March 31, 2023, it has been proposed not to impose a tax on people with an annual income not exceeding Rs. 250,000. All those with an annual income above Rs. 250,000 but not exceeding Rs. 500,000 will be required to pay a tax of Rs. 15,000 and 12% of the amount in excess of Rs. 250,000.
For those with an annual income over Rs. 500,000 and below Rs. 750,000 will be charged a tax of Rs. 45,000 and 18% of the amount in excess of Rs. 500,000. Further, people who earn more than Rs. 750,000 but do not exceed Rs. 1 million annually will be subject to a tax of Rs. 90,000 plus 24% of the amount in excess of Rs. 750,000.
For people with an annual income of over Rs. 1 million but not exceeding Rs. 1.25 million, a tax of Rs. 150,000 and 30% of the amount in excess of Rs. 1 million will be charged. If the annual income exceeds Rs. 1.25 million, the tax payable will be Rs. 225,000 plus 36% of the amount in excess of Rs. 1.25 million.
Meanwhile, the taxable income of a person for a year of assessment commencing from April 01, 2023, will be as follows:
• Income not exceeding Rs. 500,000 – Tax payable is 6% of the amount in excess of Rs. 0 • Income exceeding Rs. 500,000 but not exceeding Rs. 1 million – Tax payable is Rs. 30,000 plus 12% of the amount in excess of Rs. 500,000 • Income exceeding Rs. 1 million but not exceeding Rs. 1.5 million – Tax payable is Rs. 90,000 plus 18% of the amount in excess of Rs. 1 million • Income exceeding Rs. 1.5 million but not exceeding Rs. 2 million – Tax payable is Rs. 180,000 plus 24% of the amount in excess of Rs. 1.5 million • Income exceeding Rs. 2 million but not exceeding Rs. 2.5 million – Tax payable is Rs. 300,000 plus 30% of the amount in excess of Rs. 2 million • Income exceeding Rs. 2.5 million – Tax payable is Rs. 450,000 plus 36% of the amount in excess of Rs. Rs. 2.5 million
The most notable feature of the draft proposal is the revision of the annual personal income tax subject to a tax-free threshold being reduced from Rs. 3 million to Rs. 1.2 million.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that colliding pressures from inflation, war-driven energy and food crises and sharply higher interest rates were pushing the world to the brink of recession and threatening financial market stability.
In gloomy reports issued at the start of the first in-person International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in three years, the IMF urged central banks to keep up their fight against inflation despite the pain caused by monetary tightening and the rise in the U.S. dollar to a two-decade high, the two main drivers of a recent bout of financial market volatility.
Cutting its 2023 global growth forecasts further, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook that countries representing a third of world output could be in recession next year.
The three largest economies, the United States, China and the euro area, will continue to stall,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, said in a statement. In short, the worst is yet to come, and for many people, 2023 will feel like a recession.”
The IMF said Global GDP growth next year will slow to 2.7%, compared, down from its July forecast of 2.9%, as higher interest rates slow the U.S. economy, Europe struggles with spiking gas prices and China contends with continued COVID-19 lockdowns and a weakening property sector.
The global lender maintained its 2022 growth forecast at 3.2%, reflecting stronger-than-expected output in Europe but a weaker performance in the United States, after torrid 6.0% global growth last year as the COVID-19 pandemic eased.
Some key European economies will fall into technical recession” next year, including Germany and Italy, as energy price spikes and shortages slam output. China’s growth outlooks also were downgraded as it struggles with continued COVID-19 lockdowns and a weakening property sector, where a deeper downturn would slow growth further, the IMF said.
The growing economic pressures, coupled with tightening liquidity, stubborn inflation and lingering financial vulnerabilities, are increasing the risks of disorderly asset repricings and financial market contagions, the IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report.
It’s difficult to think of a time where uncertainty was so high,” Tobias Adrian, the IMF’s monetary and capital markets director, told Reuters in an interview. We have to go back decades to see so much conflict in the world, and at the same time inflation is extremely high.”
Finance officials from the IMF’s 190 member countries this week are grappling with these uncertainties from differing economic positions in Washington, along with food and energy crises prompted by the war in Ukraine and other global challenges including massive clean energy financing needs.
The IMF said central bankers had a delicate balancing act to fight inflation without over-tightening, which could push the global economy into an unnecessarily severe recession” and heap economic pain on emerging markets that are seeing their currencies fall sharply against the dollar.
But Gourinchas said controlling inflation was the bigger priority and letting up too soon would undermine central banks’ hard-won credibility.”
What we are recommending is that central banks stay the course. Now that doesn’t mean that they should accelerate compared to what they’ve been doing,” Gourinchas said in a news conference, adding that it was a bit early” to shift course.
I think right now our advice is, ‘let’s make sure we see a decisive decline in inflation.’”
The IMF forecast that global headline consumer price inflation would peak at 9.5% in the third quarter of 2022, declining to 4.7% by the fourth quarter of 2023.
But the outlook could darken considerably if the world economy is hit by a plausible combination of shocks,” including a 30% spike in oil prices from current levels, the IMF said, pushing global growth down to 1.0% next year – a level associated with widely falling real incomes.
Other components of this downside scenario” include a steep drop-off in Chinese property sector investment, a sharp tightening of financial conditions brought on by emerging market currency depreciations and a continued overheating of labor markets that results in lower potential output.
The IMF put a 25% probability of global growth falling below 2% next year – a phenomenon that has occurred only five times since 1970 – and said there was more than a 10% chance of a global GDP contraction.
Erotic crimes are punished by criminal law and the ragging in Universities of Sri Lanka could be investigated and punished as criminal offences. These barbaric activities are going on in universities despite controls and laws against these barbaric activities. When I entered a university in 1969, I was relegated to ragging which was the major cause of depression and the rag leaders were associated with Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa who was working in the university library.
University ragging is a criminal offence and these offenders should be criminally prosecuted and punished. Jail sentences for more than five years with rigorous imprisonment would be the appropriate punishment for these offenders.
Today is the 22nd death anniversary of this illustrious daughter of mother Lanka. I am compelled to re-publish an article here again which was published on 30th Jan 2021 Lankaweb (First, published on the 14th, December 2010 in Lankaweb), since we have miserably failed as an ungrateful nation to fulfil this proposal, I made as far back as in 2010.
A Statue to Commemorate Mrs Bandaranaike, the first woman Prime Minister in the world, the most illustrious Lady and the greatest political leader of our time.
What a shame even not to have one such erected to commemorate this great of the nation lady in a suitable place even after 22 years of her death on 10th October, in a country where we have hundreds of statues of colonial murderers and plunderers and even indentured labour leaders like Thondaman are exhibited in front of the Parliament. I propose that a statue of legendary daughter of Lanka be erected in front of the Parliament and other important places such as the Mahamaluwa in front of the Sri Dalada Maligava. Mahanuwara from where her ancestry hails.
The writer with Prime Minister Mrs Bandaranayaka at the Sri Lanka Handicraft Exhibition organized by him as the Deputy Director Small Industries for the Nonaligned Conference 1976
Everyone in the world knows that Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayaike was the first woman Prime Minister in the world. No one can refute that. In that context she was the greatest and the most illustrious Lady ever born in this resplendent Island. I do not think anyone will disagree or quarrel with me for this statement. On account of that alone she has made history by creating a world record which any one will not be able to break on any day. It is irreversible forever. That alone makes her a national heroine who should be remembered and adored by all Sri Lankans forever irrespective of their politics.
She became the Prime Minister on 21st July 1960 and carried forward the socio-cultural revolution launched by her late husband S.W.R.D in 1956. S.W.R.D’s untimely assassination within three years and five months robed him as well as the country of the historic role he was destined to play for mankind. Although the credit for that turning point in the history of our country goes to him it was Sirimavo who really took off the flight that crash landed with SWRD’s untimely death in September 1959. When she took over the reins of the nation’s leadership in 1960 it was like a wrecked and rudderless ship on high seas. No one thought she could steer it in the correct direction. As D.B. Dhanapala the veteran journalist of our time wrote in his book Among Those Present
No one thought she will do it, but today no one doubts that she had done it better than any other man or woman”.
I had the rare privilege of reading the Encyclopedia of Social Science at the University of Cambridge when I was doing my post graduate work in 1982 and you will be surprised to hear that in that book, she carries the longest and the most colourful account on any contemporary leader of this country. Then again when once I attended an International Film Festival in Czechoslovakia in May 1991 and I told the audience that I come from Sri Lanka this was how they reacted
Oh! you come from the Land of Bandaranaike. How is your Queen Sirimavo Bandaranaike”
Remember at that time she was not even the leader of the opposition and she was at home deprived of even her civil rights in 1980 by the JRJ Government. Furthermore, she was the only Sri Lankan leader I think who had a wax statue in the famous Madame Tussauds Art Museum in Landon
I mentioned these three events just to tell my readers how this great Lady was regarded and respected by the outside world
It is common knowledge how she spearheaded the social revolution that was set in motion in 1956 and how she put this Island in high heavens in the world map in the years that followed. Everybody knows how she handled the Non-Aligned Conference in 1976. The 1972 Republican Constitution that made this Island nation an Independent Republic, Non-aligned Foreign policy, settling the Sino- Indian war in 1962, taming the Marxist giants like NM, Peter Khenaman, Colvin, Lesli, and Dr Wickramasinha (which even SWRD could not do), handling the 1962 coup and the JVP insurrections of 1971, historic Land reforms that limited private ownership to 50 acres and nationalization of Sterling plantations, laid the foundation for a national economy by introducing import substitution, Sirima- Sastri Pact and how she resolved the Kachchative issue and the Indo-China conflict as a mediator were shining jewels in her crown. Above all her dominating personality and character, simplicity, the captivating smile and the devotion to religion, like Viharamaha Devi, which has made her the ideal ”Symbol of a Sinhala Buddhist Mahopasika’ of our time, has elevated her above all others, both men and women, in contemporary society. Her period of governing also has gone down in history as the best period of Indo-Lanka relationship between India and Sri Lanka after King Devampiyatissa’s reign.
She became the Prime minister thrice in this country by popular vote and dominated and illuminated the political stage for 40 years which no one else had done. She set the rhythm for the emergence women leaders all over the world to be followed by all others like Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meyer, Benazi Bhutto, Corazon Akino and Shia Kalida. Thereby she carved a permanent niche for all women the world over.
Thus, she made history irreversible and created a legend unparalleled and thus became a legendary woman not only in Sri Lanka but in the whole world. The open question I am asking therefore from all politicians and more specifically those in power having come to power under the banner of Bandaranayaka policies as to why they have not erected at least one monument of this legendary Sinhala Buddhist uncrowned Queen in a suitable place in this country for the posterity to get inspired.
But it is unfortunate and shameful too that we as a nation have not been able to recognize her role and show our gratefulness to this most uncommon and Great Lady even though 22 years have now passed after her death in October 2000. What a shame for a nation that boasts of a religious legacy which teaches us even to venerate a tree that helped Gautama Buddha to attain Supreme Enlightenment. Lord Buddha himself set this example for others to follow by paying respect to the Bo tree for seven days with Animisa lochana puja.
Therefore, I call upon at least the present government to erect a statue near the Parliament to commemorate this great personality at least now, without further delay. Even Thondaman, an immigrant south Indian labour leader has a statue made for him, in front of the old Parliament, within few months of his death during President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s time. But even the daughter had forgotten to erect a statue for this great lady of Sri Lanka.
I hope at least some one will erect a statue to remember this Great Mother of Lanka at least before the next death anniversary in the most prominent and appropriate place, in the Kotte Parliamentary complex.
She is the Daughter of Lanka” who should be honoured not only at the Parliament Complex but also in every village and town. As for me I regard her as the greatest stateswomen this country has ever produced. For me she is simply a Legend, unparalleled in the history of this country. Most women in this world shine on the achievements of their husbands or their children. But Sirimavo made history by being a leader on her own achievements.
I met her for the first time as the Prime Minister when I was only the Deputy Director of Small Industries in 1976. I organized the Handicrafts Exhibition for the 1976 Non-Aligned Conference for her full satisfaction and ever since I have had a very intimate and close relationship with her until her death in 2000. When I was Secretary to the Ministry of Technical education in 1994, one day she called me home and appointed me as her Ministry Secretary. That is how she remembered people.
I am not a political fanatic as many people are in this country. But going by the Buddha’s noble word we must respect the one who is respect worthy, ‘Pujaca Pujaniyanam’ irrespective of their political colour, ethnicity or ideology.
As I wrote in 1996 in the supplement issued on her 80th birth day, by the Ceylon Daily News (April 17th)
Chiseled on granite and embossed with golden letters the name of Sirimavo Bandaranaike will remain immortal as the most illustrious and celebrated daughter of mother Lanka as long as the sun and the moon shall last”.
It is a tragedy that the whole nation has failed in its onerous duty by this great personality up to date. What an ungrateful bunch of people we are to have completely forgotten the mother of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the mother of the Nation as well? Above all the SLFP and all the politicians who enjoy the plums of political power gained under that banner should be ashamed for not doing their duty by this Great Lady for whom they owe so much for all what they enjoy today. Most of these men and women who are in power would have been unheard and unseen, if not for her sacrifices.
If she did not consent to lead the party in 1960 after it had been ruined by people like Dahanayaka there would have been no SLFP at all for these people to enjoy the luxuries of political office. It is true that it was SWRD with his astute and unsurpassed statesmanship and his silver tongue, who founded the SLFP and brought it to power in 1956 under the banner of the MEP. But there would not have been a SLFP today if not for Mrs Bandaranaike who resurrected it in 1960 from the grave and built it up for forty long years under her able, magnetic and charismatic leadership, having lost everything including her husband who was gunned down by an assassin and even her civil rights for seven years robbed by her political rival JR in 1977 who feared her charismatic and populist leadership.
To examine all avenues available to find appropriate avenues to address the current foreign reserves crisis with the help of a ready resource of foreign earners as expats for a long-term relationship beneficial to the country and individuals who are a strength that has not been tapped while many possibilities have been overlooked or not explored.
II. Problem to address:
The current situation with foreign reserves of Sri Lanka is in dire straits. There are options that can be considered beyond borrowing with long term burden on Sri Lanka. Borrowings for immediate relief with further plans for long term solutions is a need that must be considered for long term.
With the large expatriate population living and earning foreign currency income overseas in professions and even at middle level in stable employment overseas, enjoying disposable income that can be rewarded will benefit Sri Lanka if the right approach is taken. Access to their participation under the appropriate checks and balances to win the confidence of expats will be of immense benefit to the country. However, there are many factors to consider between countries, international regulations, and permissions. The most critical condition is the confidence provided to investors with transparent, corruption free security of funds. The investor must be protected from corruption that plagues every level of transactions in the country.
Sri Lanka’s decision makers need to acquaint themselves with systems and processes in other countries beyond country-to-country macroeconomic solutions. The Government must have links to various well-informed representatives of developed countries who can acquaint the government with systems in place that can factor into solutions for Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan expat groups can provide sources to help the government if the control of their assets is totally in their hands and not in any way accessible to corrupt power sources. This is easily done and is not to be considered rocket science or be stereotyped as avoidance excuses. They do not encourage rules and regulations put into effect with lack of subject matter knowledge.
This document is written with respect to possibilities in the USA. However, a modification of the recommendations made can be explored for other developed nations where Sri Lankan earners can be reached.
III. Participants:
Participants can be retirees earning foreign currency pensions living overseas with or without dual citizenship and in addition it can consider younger citizens of Sri Lankan birth to park part of their savings in secure foreign currency accounts in Sri Lanka. Non retirees can also be considered based on the needs of working expats with foreign national status without dual citizenship being a deterrent in either case.
Offering benefits to younger Sri Lankan expats will benefit the country with a pool of qualified intellectuals among them who will be encouraged to contribute to informed decision making that is seriously lacking in Sri Lanka. There is a perception that knowledge is not given importance and proper fact finding, data collection of this population does not take place.
It must be remembered that in the USA as is the case in most developed countries that do not experience shortfall in foreign reserves, the encouragement for savings accounts earning interest is very low. For example, in the USA, it is 1% or less return on savings investment. Sri Lanka is at an advantage to attract expats with the attractive interest rates for rupees and a better and more competitive rate for foreign currency that offers a higher rate than they can receive in the US or any other country.
The low interest on savings investments may be attributed to the larger interest and dependence on investing in stock trading and in the case of employer offered retirement plans referred to as 401K plans that are incentives to reduce and defer lumpsum taxes paid on earnings by contributing to tax deferred plans for later years. However, these are volatile investments and Sri Lankan expats will accept anything with more stability if only the country does the thinking in those terms. It is a disappointment that the creative thinking element is missing.
Also, all employees contribute to Social Security and Medicare in the US that are mandated by government throughout their working life. At the end of 40 quarters or ten years of employment paying this tax, at age 62 or 65 any qualified employee gets a guaranteed pension that can be subsidized with employer retirement plans or other tax deferred tools available. That part of tax deferred income that does not sit parked in savings can be worked out by the Government exploring international banks that can be permitted to park foreign currency of expat Sri Lankan Born account holders with other conditions as stipulated.
Current Status: It must also be noted that currently, among foreign nationals of Sri Lankan origin, only those with dual citizenship can open NRFC accounts as it requires an NIC number after obtaining dual citizenship. Dual citizenship takes too long and is too cumbersome and expensive draining the enthusiasm of expats. Instead of the lump sum one time, if they open the resident status without dual citizenship, they can receive continuous asset investment which does not happen with dual citizenship focused only on the individual for property ownership. Holding dual citizenship is not an attraction to return to Sri Lanka and so far the government has not secured systems that win the confidence of expat investors. The NIC card is not an automatic inclusion in the Dual Citizenship process, and it takes a further time interval extending longer than a year as reported by those who have tried.
A very small population of Sri Lankans who had NIC prior to immigration and taking a foreign citizenship retained their bank credentials using their NIC number prior to converting to a foreign nationality. For example, in the USA, a permanent resident of US status is retained for 5 years with a Sri Lanka Passport that could provide an NIC for holder prior to completion of 5 years as a PR and gaining US citizenship. The need to have Dual citizenship for those who accepted US Citizenship cuts out a large portion of the immigrants from opening Non-Resident Foreign Currency Accounts (NRFC). In such cases requiring dual citizenship acts as a deterrent that also serves no purpose without the NIC. The large fee is also a deterrent that serves the country no purpose in a rupee fee.
Dual citizenship is not secure with some developed countries with their policy on immigration. The power to validate, accept or recognize dual citizenship of those with a foreign nationality with another country can be reversed and the power to do so is in the hands of other powerful countries. This results in the reluctance of some Sri Lankan born expats to get dual citizenship. If Sri Lanka takes their power in their hands and permits foreign nations with Sri Lankan birth right to live indefinitely in Sri Lanka and finance their upkeep with foreign pensions, the benefit to the country will be immense. Also, such liberty to move back without losing the hard earned foreign status will generate employment with care givers for seniors, enhance the demand for practical housing and have benefits on the fringes that no government is exploring.
IV. Foreign Citizens and their Fears:
With the dual citizenship requirement to park foreign earnings in Sri Lanka, there is a remote possibility that prosperous countries may at some point ask for a single citizenship. This has been expressed as a reluctance to take dual citizenship with Sri Lanka. An open Non-Resident Foreign National type of status with unlimited stay, spending foreign income pensions or transferring savings accounts parked in Sri Lanka is far more feasible. Expats have many fears even donating to causes due to their inability to assume transparency.
However, pensions earned through Social Security at retirement in the USA, provides an advantage to recipients to enjoy a better standard of life overseas, as in this case in Sri Lanka. It is however insufficient to meet costs in the USA unless qualified concessions can be obtained, or other investments/assets are available. The Social Security pension is a contributory pension that the US Government cannot restrict regardless of where the Sri Lankan born citizen with a US citizenship decides to live. This pension is owned by the citizen as it is a contributory pension. This was confirmed by informed US authorities. Even with direct deposit to US bank accounts, they can make electronic transfers from any location if Sri Lanka provides foreign currency accounts that are freely accessible.
It is now established that Sri Lankan immigrants to the US count four generations beyond the first-generation immigrants. This keeps growing and not all generations will be Sri Lankan born but they can be provided some concessions if they have interest in parking savings in Sri Lanka. This is a decision to be cleared by the government.
Expanding the above to non-Sri Lankan born foreign citizens with careful thought:
Exploring the privilege of investing private foreign currency for non-SriLankan will also be worthy of exploration. The attractive interest rates over the low rates in the United States will definitely attract investments with the appropriate checks and balances.
V. Conditions to be met:
The Government of Sri Lanka needs to visit these possibilities. Provide for a category of Sri Lankan born foreign citizens to choose to return under a different category while retaining foreign nationality with unlimited time to live in Sri Lanka using foreign currency income.
The long processing and cumbersome dual citizenship may not be attractive to most people. Those who try are frustrated by the process and it may not bring a return on their investment. If they can retain their foreign nationality if they abide by the financial requirements of Sri Lanka and do not engage in money laundering or misuse of their privileges another category will certainly be of benefit all round. Savings income in Sri Lanka will be attractive for retirees to return.
Such a category should be permitted to stay for indefinite periods if they are not dual citizens. In the current situation, those without dual citizenship, born in Sri Lanka or of Sri Lankan Heritage can live only 6 months at a time using a 5-year multiple visas. Those who wish to live longer periods in retirement should be given the choice to do so.
VI. Government Intervention Required:
The role of the government should be to investigate possibilities, collect data and evaluate the interest among expat Sri Lankans to seek their ideas. It must however be completely under the control of the account holder and the government assurances must be watertight before people part with their hard-earned savings in full or part for a higher interest rate if parked in Sri Lanka. These are US Taxpayers, and the Government can negotiate taxation terms to avoid double taxation of foreign nationals who are liable for taxes in their foreign national countries.
The Government must create a well thought out category that is different to the stringent long-drawn-out process of dual citizenship that takes too long for people who need to bring their foreign earnings back to Sri Lanka. If relocating to Sri Lanka, expats cannot wait for delays. The process should be speedy with no undue hardship for participants trying to help the country. Appreciation is key.
The Government must also study the use of secured technologies adopted in the USA to provide autonomy to account holders. This is easily done if those who make decisions understand and follow the global trends today.
There is a considerable transfer of funds direct from US$ to rupees in donations and to families and this can be taken into consideration and encompassed in the system to count as legitimate foreign currency coming into the country. The possibility for large scale money laundering must be plugged and addressed accordingly with close monitoring.
VII. Participant Expectations:
As referred to above, accounts must be secure, accessible online from global locations, ownership secured with appropriate security and clearly defined taxation implications because US citizens are mandated to file annual tax returns.
It will be an avenue for tax accountants between the two countries to tie up a practice to facilitate tax payments on interest earned and reporting structure set up so that double taxation is prevented. In any case, Sri Lankan banks require foreign passport holders to report funds in rupee accounts in Sri Lanka.
VIII. Engaging Pre-retired Foreign Currency Earners Overseas:
If the above category is permitted for retirees to park foreign currency accounts and earn higher interest in Sri Lanka, this can be extrapolated to provide the same opportunity for others who are pre-retirement, and their savings will serve to benefit Sri Lanka and the higher interest will help those who are building their resources.
IX. A transparent system of transfer to dependents in Sri Lanka:
Many Sri Lankans living overseas provide charitable donations to Sri Lanka and help with financial support for family members. All these transactions can be provided through a system that is quick and convenient for the donor and recipients. Electronic transfers, cyber security for accounts and all the services at the highest level should be available to users.
X. Encouraging Retirees to Return with Foreign Pensions:
The Government must make a close study of the locked foreign assets potential of Sri Lankan born retirees living in the USA and other countries and provide an easy method for them to return with assets in exchange for contributing to foreign reserves.
They should be given the right assurances by making sure their input and expectations are listened to and fulfilled. This is better for the country than paying for loans and interest at taxpayer’s expense. These are time sensitive and if the government is serious, they need to work on a plan right away and provide a project plan to those who are entrusted with implementation. This cannot take on the face of the long-drawn-out dual citizenship that discourages most Sri Lankans from applying with long waits and the package of the NIC is another operation that impedes opening accounts with foreign currency. This is a totally unproductive practice that is not at all beneficial to the country or the account holders.
With time, the benefits to individuals will be guaranteed with growing interest by depositors. The key is an efficient, well-planned operation that is a lot to expect but a dire need.
XI. Concessions to Patriotic Citizens helping Sri Lanka
As a note of appreciation for patriotic Sri Lankans of Foreign citizenship, a simplistic identification card provided by the government with their identity will be widely accepted. This is particularly as a courtesy card when those who visit Sri Lanka are treated with some courtesy that is lacking now.
Such a tool should be made known to immigration officers and front-line greeters of patriots who can report shabby treatment on entry to Sri Lanka. Personal stories reveal experiences that have offended returning immigrants with their first encounters on entry. With a card to distinguish those who help the country, this can be overcome.
Very little is done for those who live decades away from Sri Lanka but continue to serve their home country without reservations or rewards. This has been ignored for decades and is a loss for the country. The opportunity to engage expats in productive ways that benefit them too will be appropriate to investigate.
Some concessions to live indefinite periods with foreign citizenship, enjoy the higher percentage interest on foreign currency savings accounts that can be opened on proving birth right is a simplistic beginning to an expanded advantage to Sri Lanka.
XII. Brief SWOT Analysis
Strengths not utilized: Well educated expats and skilled work force earning overseas not tapped into for the benefit of the country.
Weaknesses: Lack of creative thinking in problem solving and the lack of strict systems with transparency not made available to participants who lack confidence. Lack of knowledge about the systems in other countries and methods that can be used to benefit Sri Lanka. Poor education, background knowledge and language inadequacies play a part. Lack of commitment in providing efficient services.
Opportunities not used: Expats are not provided comfortable and trusted systems with choices that benefit the country and meet their needs. Transparency and commitment to accurate and easy to access systems are not considered with input from the users.
Threats: Those who bring politics into all aspects of changes that are beneficial to the country and focus on personal gain and corrupt practices with no accountability for the efficiency in expediting programs that clearly benefit the country.
The report containing the observations and recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Committee, which was appointed to investigate the cause of the frequent fires in Modara Kajimawatta houses, was handed over to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on 10-10-2020 at the Prime Minister’s Office, Colombo.
The co-chairmen of the committee, Member of Parliament Major Pradeep Udugoda and Colombo District Secretary Pradip Yasaratne were present on this occasion.
Within a short period of one and a half years, three fires were erupted in the Modara Kajimawatta estate houses and a large number of families were displaced.
The Prime Minister, who drew attention to this matter in the Colombo District Coordinating Committee, appointed this committee to investigate the cause of the fire and about the residents as well.
The co-chairman of the Colombo District Coordinating Committee Major Pradeep Udugoda and the Colombo District Secretary Mr. Pradip Yasaratne acted as the chairpersons of that committee while officials and institutions including the Colombo Municipal Commissioner, Government Analyst, Superintendent of Police, Colombo Divisional Secretary, Grama Niladhari and Disaster Management Center, Urban Development Authority, Housing Development Authority and all other relevant parties were appointed as members to the committee.
The committee that met last week investigated the ownership of the house, its current users, how the residents got there, the future measures to be taken and the reasons for the recent fires. The final report containing the observations and recommendations prepared accordingly was handed over to the Prime Minister.
