Seven persons who were filming the high security area of the Victoria Reservoir in Theldeniya using drone camera were taken into the custody by the Army personnel attached to the security at the Reservoir.
Police said the seven people were taking photographs of the reservoir and the dam while operating a drone without a legal permission.
Although the security officers had instructed them not to take photos or videos of the surrounding area with drones, they had taken videos and photos ignoring the instructions.
Accordingly, the seven suspects were arrested and handed over to the Theldeniya Police along with a drone. A van in which they arrived at the Reservoir was also taken into custody.
It was revealed that the group came for a trip and had taken photos of the surrounding area while visiting the place.
The arrested suspects, aged 31 and 32, are residents of Weligama and Dehiwala areas.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on his re-election as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
He said in a message to the Xi Jinping that the election results have re-confirmed the strenght and courage that his leadership holds and the broad public support for a people centric policy towards the accelerated socioeconomic development of China.
It also strenghtens China’s standing in the international arena.
“My administration foresaw the strategic importance of the Belt & Road Initiative back in 2013 which helped Sri Lanka to enrich its national development agenda.
Our government is looking forward to continuing it’s strong cooperation with China, under your leadership, to further strengthen our bilateral relations and I also look forward to working with you and your government to further the development agendas of both our nations,” he said.
State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage will be visiting US next month to initiate talks in constructing South Asia’s first Disneyland in Hambantota.
A statement from Gamage’s media unit said that the State Minister will be visiting Burbank in the United States next month to discuss initial plans for an 18-billion dollar investment in Sri Lanka, following an invitation following an invitation from the Walt Disney Company.
She was invited by Alexia S. Quadrani, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at the Walt Disney Company. The State Minister had earlier written to Walt Disney Company inviting them to set up a Disneyland in Sri Lanka.
“Following your request, we at the Walt Disney Company have agreed to visit Sri Lanka during late November this year to hold a series of exploratory meetings to understand the financial feasibility of setting up a regional Disneyland in Hambantota,” Quadrani said in a letter to the State Minister. A delegation from Disney is expected in November this year.
Quadrani said that, while unable to provide exact details, an investment would be in the range of $16-18 billion. This would provide much needed financial injection to Sri Lanka in order to mitigate the dollar crisis, the statement said.
State Minister Gamage also said that such an investment would be beneficial to use the large infrastructure available in the area including the Mattala Airport.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the delay in the Sri Lankan university system at the commencement of courses would be avoided enabling students to complete their studies within the stipulated duration.
The President made this observation during a meeting held with the prefects of Royal College, Colombo at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (22).
Head Prefect of Royal College Colombo Kaveesha Rathnayake and the prefects of the college participated in this meeting, the President’s Media Division reported.
The matters concerning Royal College as well as matters regarding the country’s education sector were discussed there while the President answered the questions raised by the students on the measures taken by the government for the advancement of the education sector.
The President made queries from the prefects on the university education where the students brought the focus of the President to the vast difference between the duration to complete a degree in a foreign higher education institute and in a local university.
The President agreed with it and assured that remedial action would be taken without delay. He also highlighted the value of education in a local university over foreign education. He also emphasized that the government has taken many steps to expand the educational opportunities for students who have qualified for higher education following the completion of their school education. He added that measures have been taken to commence several new universities in Kurunegala and Batticaloa.
The President also mentioned that the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Colombo would be set up as a separate campus, while the National School of Business Management (NSBM) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) would be upgraded as national universities.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe raised the issue of ragging with the students during the meeting and said that it seemed that students who attend the universities from schools such as Royal College, Thurstan College, Ananda College and D. S. Senanayake College turn a blind eye when such ragging incidents happen, although a large number of students from these schools are within these universities.
The President also pointed out that the students of those universities have a responsibility to bring ragging in universities to an end and the head prefects of those schools could perform their roles while in school.
The president further said that university education is interesting but the rate of students suffering from physical and mental stress has increased due to ragging at universities and emphasized that he would take measures to solve the problem.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe also appreciated the role played by the Board of Prefects of the Royal College in the development of the school and its reputation.
Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and Chief of Staff to the President Sagala Rathnayake also participated in the event.
Presidential pardons have been granted to a group of prisoners who had been convicted by courts in relation to LTTE activities.
The special amnesty was granted for eight LTTE inmates in accordance with the powers vested in the President under the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Additional Commissioner of Prisons, Chandana Ekanayake said.
Accordingly, measures were taken for the release of 04 LTTE inmates held in the Magazine Prison on October 21, under the reduction of the sentences to be served.
Two other prisoners are set to be released after their appeals court cases are withdrawn by them, he said.
The Department of Prisons further announced that the other two LTTE inmates have been referred to the Attorney General for directives needed for their release, after the completion of the rehabilitation process.
Ali Sabry, Minister of Foreign Affairs and President’s Counsel says that it will be possible to receive the first loan installment from the International Monetary Fund by the beginning of next year. The minister made these comments while speaking to the media in Colombo yesterday.
‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
‘Make the Economy Scream’ were President Nixon’s instructions to the Central Intelligence Agency, September 1970, as the first Socialist President of Chile, Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity Party swept to power amid Cold War headwinds.[i]
According to then US ambassador, Edward Korry a JFK-style liberal, this meant “to do all within our power to condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty.” There was also a massive destabilization and disinformation campaign Noam Chomsky wrote in Secrets, Lies, and Democracy our government intervened massively to prevent Allende from winning the preceding election, in 1964. In fact, when the Church Committee investigated years later, they discovered that the US spent more money per capita to get the candidate it favored elected in Chile in 1964 than was spent by both candidates (Johnson and Goldwater) in the 1964 election in the US. [ii]
The CIA planted stories in El Mercurio, Chile’s most prominent paper, and fomented labor unrest, protests and strikes. This was the soft line, but there was also a hard line.
Three years later, President Allende, a physician by profession was dead; killed, in a CIA-backed Coup that saw the establishment of one of the most repressive right-wing military regimes in South America. General Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile for 17 years and his rule was characterized by massive human rights violations, disappearances, and Dirty War operations, including Operation Colombo”, of which more later. But economic ‘aid’ immediately began to flow again from Washington.
The assassination of Chile’s democratically elected President Allende changed the course of history in a country described as a long petal of sea, wine and snow’ by poet Laureate, Pablo Neruda. Twelve days after the coup Neruda, a member of the Chilean Communist party and close advisor of Allende also died mysteriously. After an independent investigation and declassification of State Department documents in 2015, the Chilean government said that it was likely that Neruda too was murdered as part of the Coup of September 1973.
In 1976 the CIA backed yet another coup in South America: Chile’s neighbour Argentina saw the overthrow of Isabel Peron, who was replaced by a military junta, which triggered a Dirty War that saw thousands disappeared between 1976-83 as the Argentine economy screamed.
Argentina like Sri Lanka has had numerous Washington Consensus (International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank (WB)), bail outs! Protests against the IMF are ongoing in Buenos Aires at this time again, as Argentina continues to Scream under Washington’s Monroe Doctrine Redux jackboot –negotiating its 21st bailout![iii]
History Repeats as Farce: Another Continent
Today, economy and society are ‘screaming’ in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which knows not of Chile’s infamous ‘Operation Colombo’ for which General Pinochet was stripped of his Presidential impunity and tried in Spain. This despite a recent film Alborada purportedly base on Pablo Neruda’s brief sojourn in Sri Lanka as a young diplomat, and a ‘poem he never wrote’!
As Cold War escalated in the Indian Ocean Region this year, Sri Lanka’s duel US Citizen , Finance Minister, Basil Rajapakse, hastily Staged a Default in April for the first time in its history– enabling the Washington Consensus to make deep inroads into the strategic island’s policy process.
As the cost of living soared in June with real and staged fuel and food shortages, amid Aragalaya ‘protests’ a partial regime change operation was effected with US-backed Ranil Wickramasinghe becoming President after the country defaulted on $26 billion of Dollar denominated debt in April this year.
At this time IMF austerity measures are being rolled out ex-ante an actual ‘bailout’ agreement with US and EU-based private creditors who caused the strategic Indian Ocean Island’s debt trap and Default. New York based, BlackRock, Sri Lanka’s biggest private creditor which got huge Covid-19 bailouts from the US government is prominent among them. An outfit called the Hamilton Reserve Bank a shadowy off-shore tax haven based in St. Kitts and Nevis has sued the Government of Sri Lanka for defaulting on bond payments of $ 250!
Sri Lankans face a grim future of Dollar Debt Colonialism, as the rupee has plummeted against an increasingly weaponized US dollar, while the rising dollar has compounded the local currency cost of servicing foreign debts denominated in USD- the global reserve currency— increasingly of last resorts?
Hence, some analysts have called for de-dollarization/ trading in a basket of currencies, and sourcing oil and gas from Russia whose sanctions-hit Ruble ironically remains the strongest currency against the US dollar. The global-local Debtocracy from Argentina to Sri Lanka and its failed policies seems set to continue if the readouts of the IMF and World Bank meetings last week are true.[iv]
An Islanded (Neo) Liberal Civil Society
Ironically too, while protests are set to continue, few among Colombo’s Human Rights activists and Aragalaya Stars had heard of ‘Operation Colombo’ in Santiago de Chile in 1974, which saw the disappearance of 119 dissidents, or the infamous ‘Condor Operation’ across South America- Precursor to the CIA’s Human Renditions program in the so-called ‘Global War on Terror.’
Amnesia in the USAID and EU funded Culture Industries, academic research and propaganda operations have ‘islanded” civil society in the country with few exceptions. Thus ‘dream films’ like Alborada with pretentions at post/colonial avant guard chic and vibes of the ‘Me Too’ movement seem almost Kafaesque – despite the best efforts of Director, Asoka Handagama.
If Neruda, whose voice would have been powerful in condemning the CIA-backed Coup in Chile had to be silenced, in death, he was subject to character assassination and disinformation campaigns replete with reverse Orientalism that seem to continue to this day (viz. Alborada which suggests that he was a white colonial rapist in Ceylon!).[v]
Clueless about Cold War South American history the apparently ‘leaderless’ Human Rights protestors organized via internet platforms controlled by external actors at Galle Face who capitalized on the genuine economic grievances of the masses had a limited agenda for Economic Rights and Debt Justice! Some groups of the Aragalaya held pro-IMF posters!
It is increasingly clear that the strategic Indian Ocean island has fallen victim to Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD), Digital Colonialism enabled cyber-operations with real and staged protests. as much as, to the ‘lender of last resort’s debt trap neo-colonialism and the International Sovereign Bond (ISB) ‘bailout business’ after the Staged Default. [vi]
However, given that this is Sri Lanka’s sixteenth IMF negotiation, and the fact that key bi-lateral creditors have not replied to the IMF and Paris Club of Euro-American private creditor nations’ (plus Japan), invitation to debt restructuring talks, it would be prudent for the island nation to consider alternatives to the Washington Consensus path.
After all, the IMF promise of an insignificant loan of 2.9 billion over four years with massive shock treatment” of economy and society, to enable the country to borrow from private markets again, is counterproductive to extricating itself from the current debt trap. Indeed, a moratorium and ban on borrowing from private markets which hold almost 50 percent of Sri Lanka’s dollar denominated debt would be logical.
PART 2
Make the Global Economy Scream: Exogenous Economic Shocks as Hybrid War
The IMF wants China and India, Sri Lanka’s biggest bi-lateral donors (aside from Japan which is part of the Colonial Club de Paris), to join its common framework” — for a debt reduction haircut” with creditors on the pretext of “burden sharing”. Whether these Asian Giants would acquiesce and sit with Euro-American private market bond traders convened by Japan on behalf of the OECD’s informal Paris Club is an open question.
India and China are sovereign states parties with their own geopolitical ambitions to match the Euro-American Paris Club and Washington Consensus as an Asian Century dawns again with the Indian Ocean Region a center for global growth.
Hence, should not the Central Bank and Government of Sri Lanka engage directly with the Asian giants China and India on Debt restructuring and a sustainable development path– outside the Paris Club, IMF and Japan led donor meeting and Common framework which has been extensively critiqued by leading economists who recently called for debt cancellation in Zambia with Debt Justice, UK?
The dawn of what has been widely deemed the ‘Asian 21st Century’ (Kishore Mahabubani), again after about 200 years of Euro-American global hegemony and dominance of world history has placed Sri Lanka front and center of Cold War and colonialism 2.0. The Asian Century is the projected 21st century dominance of Asian politics and culture, given demographic and economic patterns in Asia and the Indian Ocean region.[vii]
It is increasingly apparent that the US Empire with its 750 military bases all over the world, and global reserve currency weaponized by sanctions and rising interest rates would not go quietly into the night”. Rather, increasing sanctions and interest rates by the Federal Reserve to curb seemingly self-inflected inflation in the US and EU as economic de-coupling from China gathers pace appear to be a ‘solution’ designed to make the global economy scream”.
Is this an attempt to thwart the Asia Century and ensure that globalization which had benefited the emerging economies is reformatted to serve the imploding Euro-American, NATO, financial and military empire?
Be that as it may, Sri Lanka, located at the center of the Indian Ocean increasingly appears to be the canary in the coalmine of Global South countries facing dollar-debt Colonialism in the aftermath of Covid-19 bio-war lockdowns and Digital Colonialism to promote Euro-American Global Governance and the so-called ‘rules-based order’.
While the IMF and World Bank at their Fall Meetings this month in Washington DC focused on high interest rates and inflation, and War in Ukraine with grim predictions, no one mentioned copious money printing in the Euro Zone or the US government’s mammoth 31 trillion of debt!
Covid-19 Déjà vu: Dire Predictions. Lockdown Culture and Psychological Operations
The IMF and WB were long on dire predictions of low growth and possible global recession and short on solutions for the impoverishment and inequality pandemic sweeping the Global South last week at the Annual Meeting in Washington DC this month. There was no Talk about Economic Rights or Debt Justice.
The same tired IMF recipes are on offer again for the dollar-debt trapped Global South and Sri Lanka, with IMF inspired austerity measures include huge tax increases on the working class which seem designed to shrink the economy– to fit the IMF’s dire predictions for 2023 while promoting brain-drain.
There was however, something déjà vu about the dire predictions, fear, Lockdowns and promises of fuel shortages and Famine to make economy and society scream: We had heard it all before during the past two years of economically-devastating Covid-19 bio-war Lockdowns psychological operations that enabled a pandemic of corruption. Meanwhile Big Pharmaceutical Corporations made massive profits with militarized, mass Covid-19 injection programs.
Fear psychosis blocks critical thinking and reasoned analysis as psychologists have long known. Today Big Oil and energy corporations are making wind-fall profits while global governance institutions and powerful governments wring their hands rather than tax these corporations?!
But ‘reforms’ designed to shrink the Sri Lankan economy to fit the narrative, in addition to taxes, included higher energy, electricity, water prices, and soaring cost of living for hapless citizens caught in a debt trap not of their own making. Meanwhile, State Owed Enterprises are being un-bundeled and sold off to creditors and Vulture funds like BlackRock and their partners like Adani and Ambani as the rupee depreciates against an increasingly weaponized US dollar.
US and EU based private market creditors who made big profits lending at predatory rates in places they deem Frontier Markets”, now seek to profit from an IMF Firesale of Sri Lanka’s Strategic assets and State Owned enterprises. These include, land, energy, transport and telecom infrastructure as Cold War in the Indian Ocean Region ramps up. Rather than be compelled to bear the cost of their speculative investments in so-called frontier markets” these OECD creditors now seek to benefit again–ex-ante the IMF-PC Debt Haircut.
John Perkins’ famous book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, offers direct testimony highlighting how the creditor-debtor relationship built around the US dollar and the international institutions created to administer the ‘rules-based order’ has contributed to the deprivation of sovereignty of many struggling nations, especially those rich in exploitable resources. By design, not only governments but entire populations were meant to fall helplessly into the dollar debt trap and colonialism. The parameters on which the IMF determined that the strategic Indian Ocean’s debt of 26 billion was unsustainable to trigger the Default are not available. Nor is the IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis!
The on-going IMF inspired ‘Firesale’ of Sri Lanka’s strategic assets attests to the fact that the strategic island is now deep in Dollar debt trap colonialism in the wake of 4 years of hybrid economic war induced exogenous shocks –to make the economy scream. This has seen the Washington Consensus to move in to take control of economic, trade and energy policy autonomy and sovereignty, while stymying the possibility of de-dollarizing and buying oil and gas from sanctions-hit Russia at discount rates as Western Oil Companies make wind-fall profits at the expense of consumers while the EU and NATO blames their fuel crisis on their self-inflicted Ukraine war!
Exogenous Economic Shocks as Hybrid Economic War
While the debt crisis in Sri Lanka is primarily the result of poor governance and political corruption, a series of hybrid war style exogenous economic shocks over the past 4 years have also contributed significantly to the Debt trap over the past four years:
A series of Exogenous Economic Shocks including mysterious ISIS claimed attacks on hotels and the tourist dependent economy in 2019, followed by two years of economically devastating Covid-19 lockdowns and other hybrid war operations, such as the Lawfare program against Russia’s Aeroflot Airlines in June this year by external actors enabled the Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism” a la Naomi Klein and contributed to the debt trap and default.
The mysterious 2019 Easter Sunday attacks claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS), on seafront Tourist Hotels and fisheries livelihoods saw the economy into a tailspin with extended security lockdowns. However, inexplicably, the World Bank in July 2019, ‘upgraded’ Sri Lanka to an ‘Upper Middle Income Country” (MIC) trap. MIC Status renders concessionary borrowing difficult and forces countries to borrow from US and EU private capital markets. These now hold the lion’s share, almost 47 percent of the strategic island’s debt.
The 2019 hybrid war attacks were then followed by two years of economically devastating Covid-19 lockdowns recommended by the World Health Organization. These caused knock on institutional debilitation, a corruption pandemic and digital colonialism in 2020 and 2021. Then in 2022 staged fuel shortages triggered by US sanctions on Russia brought the economy to a standstill.
The hacking of production and food supply chains due to fuel shortages and lockdown were accompanied by a psychological operation of fear amid absurd promises of ‘Famine” in a fertile and lush tropical island– as protests mounted.
As the economy screams, it is clear that Cold War headwinds are buffeting the strategic Indian Ocean island located among the busiest energy, trade and undersea data cable routes in the world, and hence perpetually in the cross hairs of big power rivalry as the Euro-American Cold War on China revs up.
But as Nord Stream 1 and 2, gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany in the North Sea come under attacked as part of hybrid energy wars in Europe, it is clear that Sri Lanka would need to seek alternatives to the IMF path and up its game in the field of Maritime Domain Awareness which may need stretching and recalibration.
The strategic island’s Navy will be certainly called on to protect its ocean floors that contain submarine or Undersea Data Cables (UDC), that keep the internet and global financial system going.
Sri Lanka may need to strengthen its Navy and repurpose its military forces for a new generation of hybrid cyber wars. It would hence be logical for the cash strapped government to develop a plan to TAX the UDCs companies and their GAFAM clients. (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft). But it seems unlikely that the ‘lender of last resorts’ would assist or approve such an innovative income generation project is the debt-trapped strategic island, which may then render it solvent and independent!
Solutions and the good News: Alternatives to the IMF and Paris Club
It is increasingly clear, that in the event that the IMF and Paris Club process fails or drags on, contingency plans would be needed and it is imperative that Sri Lanka engage earnestly to meet unexpected exigencies that could arise, also given Cold War geopolitical rivalries.
The good news is that the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), noted in a press briefing recently that the country can on a monthly basis cover its import bill with its export earnings– if it can get rid of the debt and interest overhang.
In the context, the simplest and most elegant solution to the dollar debt crisis would be outright cancelling of Private Market dollar-denominated debt which amount to almost 50 percent, with a ban on future borrowing from International Bond traders (ISB). Once this is done restructuring the bi-lateral and multilateral debt with creditors who are more flexible would be relatively straight forward — though extending time frames for repayment and further debt cancelation.
There is a new Global South Development architecture emerging with new multilateral banks like the BRICS Bank, the New Development Bank (NDB), and the Asia Infrastructure Bank for development financing. Argentina has already applied for membership of the NDB, and Sri Lanka should do so too access credit.
This path forward is NOT Rocket Science in a world swirling in Odious and illegitimate US dollar-denominate debt with the US the most indebted country on the planet, but because of a huge amount of Disinformation, data manipulation, and exaggeration regarding both the Quantum of Debt, and the causes of the Default, relatively simple and elegant solutions to Sri Lanka’s debt crisis has been obscured and elided.
Debt datafication amid Cyber hacks and pseudo-scientific analysis by Economic hitmen who profit from extended negotiations in Colonial Club de Paris and IMF debt treatments do not help the identification of solutions in the Real Economy, but benefit the likes of Lazard, Clifford and Chance that work the ‘Bailout Business” as the Transnational Institute termed it.
A concomitant lack of transparency on the IMF, Paris Club, Lazard process and the opaque nature of ISBs given that bond holders whose identities are not disclosed has rendered debt restructuring needlessly complex and a rabbit hole of infinite regress. Meanwhile, manipulation of Sri Lanka’s status as an MIC country to fit various Washington Consensus narratives are on-going with Government undecided whether it is a now Middle or Low Income Country or not!
Provincializing Europe and America
While the IMF has judged Sri Lanka’s debt Unsustainable” on unknown parameters, a simple solution to making Sri Lanka solvent and keeping its economy going is securing supply of oil and gas to keep industry and manufacturing going given the dollar debt trap.
In the context, maintaining friendly relations with all counties while not succumbing to Western bullying and negotiating to buy oil at discount from India/Russia would significantly ease the economic situation. Fuel is the largest item for which foreign exchange is needed. This would also pre-empt the IMF inspired Firesale of energy infrastructure which will certainly negatively impact national Energy Security.
A second key aspect to sustainable recovery of the Economy is diversifying export markets, Eastward, as well as, products through transfer of technology and value adding, particularly in the Fisheries and Mineral Sectors which are low hanging fruit so to speak. Right now, Sri Lanka is dependent on export markets in the West that use threats of sanctions and tariffs while weaponizing human rights at the UNHRC. Periodic EU threats of GSP plus and minus removals seem to terrify large parts of the business community that has a colonial dependency complex, which have not spurred the so-called captains of industry to find alternative markets!
Another key point in sustaining economic activity amid IMF austerity measures designed to Shrink the economy is subsidizing and returning kerosene oil which is used by poor folks and fishermen to the previous price to enable Sri Lankans to harvest their protein from their extensive oceans.
Sri Lankans do not need digitalized cash handouts from the IMF or UNDP to sweeten the sale of their collective National Assets. What is needed is enabling folks to earn a living wage– sans hybrid war masked Economic Shocks and disaster capitalism!
In the context it would be important that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CBSL implement the Russian MIR Card payment system in Sri Lanka’s banking system. Now that Russian Airlines is flying again to Colombo, it would be necessary and important to welcome Russian tourists to jump start the tourist economy in the island and enable MIR card transactions, while also buying Russian oil and gas at discount rates, perhaps with India’s help.
Finally, as Asia unites to withstand Divide and Rule agendas in order to claim the 21st century– a transformation predicted for a generation now–when power would shift from an increasingly provincialized Europe and America to Asia and other places—is demonstrably underway. Small countries and civil society, from Chile to Sri Lanka, are now called upon to pull their weight in order to ensure that Colonial and Cold War History does not repeat– as tragedy or farce in the Global South.
[iii] President Theodore Roosevelt officially invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify sending troops to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Haiti in the first decades of the 20th century. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/peter-isackson-aukus-monroe-doctrine-cold-war-us-news-joe-biden-china-usa-australia-uk-deal-43892/
[vi] Transnational Institute, 2017 The Bailout Business: Who profits from Bank Rescues? https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/tni_bail_out_eng_online0317.pdf
[vii] Kishore Mahhubhani 2021 The Asian 21st Century https://mahbubani.net/the-asian-21st-century/
The new Booker Prize winner appears to be a Empire Loyalist or one with multiple loyalties. Like Arundhati Rao, another Booker Prize winner, who is Anti Majoritarian to the core and whose pastime is repeatedly attacking Hinduism and other Sanatana Dharma religions. To the vast majority of Hindus Arundhati Rao is a traitor to the cause of India.
While Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans all over the world would be happy to note that a Sri Lankan born writer had won the Booker Prize, which is a great honour for the country, they would not be so happy to note that the same
Prize winner had no hesitation in calling Sri Lanka a failed State.
He also referred to ‘ race – baiting’ in Sri Lanka. A totally unnecessary remark. This is understandable.
To win laurels from the British Raj and their agents e.g. Booker Prize organizers, a contestant for the Booker Prize has it would seem required to engage in self deprecating statements.
Salmon Rushdie, a Booker Prize winner did the same. He ridiculed the religion that he was born to and its practices. Later he published ‘Satanic Verses’ attacking the Prophet to the applause of the Western media who defended it on the ground of ‘ free speech’.
Winning Prizes from the colonial masters in return for defaming your own country and your own people is a mean thing. It can lead to foreigners and tourists developing a negative view of us which is undeserving.
As a matter of deep seated practice the Booker Prize is never awarded to African and Asian writers with decolonized minds and to those who speak against ‘ White Racism’, and had supported the freedom fighters and the vast anti colonial movements that finally led to the ending of Western colonial rule and illegal occupation of Asia.
Writers have a right to space to write and share their views while being considerate to the sensitivities of the readers. In this instance the writer went beyond expectations in his acceptance speech and shamed himself by unduly condemning the political happenings in his own country of birth. That is not the forum to run down one’s own country. An Englishman can be expected not to stoop so low in the midst of a foreign gathering.
Why is Saudi Arabia suddenly defying the United States, after five decades of a strong alliance? It’s a question I’ve been asked frequently in recent days.
Here’s the answer.
I describe in my books the deal that I helped forge in the early 1970s that created this alliance. Known as the Saudi Arabian Money Laundering Affair (SAMA), it can be summarized as consisting of the following five agreements:
Saudi Arabia will invest most of the petrodollars made from selling oil to the world in US treasury securities;
The US Treasury Department will use the interest from these securities to hire US corporations to modernize (westernize”) Saudi Arabia, building petrochemical plants, ports, highways, and entire cities;
Saudi Arabia will maintain oil prices at levels acceptable to Washington and American oil companies;
Oil will be traded on international markets only in US dollars (the power of the dollar had been jeopardized when President Nixon took it off the gold standard in 1971 because the US was unable to pay foreign debts in gold – this fourth agreement essentially established a new standard for the dollar, the Petro-standard); and
The US will guarantee to defend and protect the royal family of Saudi Arabia and keep it in power as long as the above four agreements are honored.
For 50 years Saudi Arabia honored the first four agreements.
As is well known — the US honored the fifth. It flew members of the Saudi royal family out of the United States after 9/11 when all flights had officially been prohibited. It turned a blind eye to evidence that the royal family had sanctioned the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudis. It launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq when Saddam Hussein threatened Kuwait and, by implication, Saudi Arabia. And it took many other less known, behind-the-scenes actions to maintain the alliance forged by SAMA.
So what happened? Why is Saudi Arabia no longer responding to Washington’s wishes and instead cutting back on petroleum production and thereby helping Russia earn income vital to its war in Ukraine? The answer is more complicated than the obvious one – that Saudi Arabia simply wants to increase the price of oil.
For us in those days (the 1970s), the threat to America’s global dominance was Communism and the Soviet Union. Most of the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia) opposed both. Kings and dictators were not about to accept Marxism. Muslims were against atheism. The Soviet invasion of Islamic Afghanistan further encouraged Middle Eastern Muslim leaders to partner with the US.
Today, US hegemony is seriously threatened by China’s skyrocketing economic and military power, the Communist Soviet Union has been replaced by a monarch-like regime in Russia, and US wars in Islamic Afghanistan and Iraq have angered traditional Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The US is no longer trusted to keep its previous agreements because many were discarded during the Trump administration. Furthermore, the ability of the US Congress to reach compromise is seen by the Saudis, as well as much of the rest of the world, as proof of America’s inability to perform as a functioning democracy.
Adding insult to injury, the Petro-standard is being threatened for the first time in fifty years. China is already buying oil from Russia with yuen. And, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price some of its oil sales to China in yuan, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would dent the U.S. dollar’s dominance of the global petroleum market and mark another shift by the world’s top crude exporter toward Asia.
Another important factor: Although the alliance between China and Russia is somewhat fragile, this alliance impacts many other countries. Five nations that are major economic drivers on their continents are united under the very powerful BRICS bank (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Saudi Arabia is dependent on these five countries and their neighbors through a complex network of oil and other trade agreements. Riyad is not likely to jeopardize these agreements by continuing to bend to Washington’s wishes.
Why is Saudi Arabia defying the US?
A cartoon shows a Saudi prince holding an old-fashioned balancing scale in one hand. Hanging from one arm is the US flag; from the other, China’s flag. China’s clearly outweighs the US’s.
Unfortunately, the Saudi prince could be replaced by leaders in many Asian, African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern nations. From Saudi Arabia’s standpoint, its decision to abandon SAMA is pragmatic. It is also a symbol of the shifting sands of global power
USA has continued to invade, bomb and kill in foreign countries, undeterred by the Vietnam defeat in 1975. US methods are now more sophisticated USA now uses smart bombs and drone-guided missiles instead of B-52s and napalm, but US is as brutal and ruthless as ever, said critics.
US says it is waging war for humanitarian” reasons, but US is utterly indifferent to the welfare of the public in the country it has invaded.US shows contempt and arrogance toward the people it is trying to ‘save’ and its wars have much savagery, said critics.
Critics have argued that the US has waged wars in violation of international law. There is no legal justification for US interference in other countries they said. These wars have been made on shaky grounds. They have been launched without the permission or knowledge of the US Congress and the wars lack a clear military objective. They are waging war inside a foreign country and the reason given is ‘self-defense.’
The United States attempts to establish fragile, dependent regimes to serve its global hegemony have crippled regional countries’ efforts to independently explore their development paths and caused a series of disastrous consequences, said critics.
Such acts of toppling the governments of other countries by force, interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and forcible export of the so-called “democracy” not only violated the basic norms of international relations such as prohibiting the use of force and non-interference in internal affairs, but also seriously violated the rights of the people of the relevant countries to choose their own development paths as well as their basic human rights, said critics.
The wars launched by the US in the 21st century were mainly in Middle East. USA’s forced transformation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya has disrupted political order, and destroyed social and national cohesion in these countries, declared China. These wars have had an adverse effect on the population in those countries. In Iraq US used depleted uranium munitions in large quantities, causing enormous damage to the health of the local population.
USA waged war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. US wanted to crush the Taliban. Instead Taliban won and US withdrew in 2021. The Afghanistan war went on for six months more than the Vietnam War (1955–1975) so it is USA’s longest war. It was also USA’s second spectacular failure.
US took the war into every corner of Afghanistan as well as across the border into Pakistan, said analysts. US army carried out night raids on Afghan villages and these devastated the villages. On Aug. 29, 2021, a drone attack by the U.S. military in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, killed 10 local civilians, including seven children.
US army had also engaged in behavior offensive to Muslims, such as urinating on corpses, taking fingers and other body parts of murdered Afghans as trophies,” and burning the Koran at Bagram Air Base.
Brown University’s Costs of War Project (est. 2011) pointed out that more than 174,000 people died directly in the war in Afghanistan, of whom more than 47,000 were civilians. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2.6 million Afghans have fled abroad and another 3.5 million were displaced.
US invaded Iraqon the bogus charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. War lasted from 2003 to 2011. Then in 2014 at the request of Iraq, US sent soldiers to Iraq to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces to fight ISIS. This was followed by an agreement to station 5,200 soldiers in Iraq. But in 2020, the Iraqi Parliament ordered all foreign troops to leave the country. US President Trump objected and threatened Iraq with sanctions.
The Iraq War caused regime change, social unrest and prolonged conflicts in Iraq. Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, was plunged into a state of anarchy, and the Iraq Museum, which is listed by UNESCO as one of the top 11 museums in the world, was plundered of 170,000 artifacts. The Director of the Museum openly blamed the US military.
US-Iraq war had many civilian deaths. In 2007, employees of the American Blackwater Company, which had been under contract to US, carried out a massacre in Nisour Square in Baghdad, killing 14 civilians, including two children, and injuring at least 17 others.
On Aug. 12, 2005, a U.S. armored patrol vehicle shot at people coming out of a mosque in the suburban town of Ramadi, killing 15 Iraqis, including eight children, and injuring 17 others. On Nov. 21 of the same year, the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq opened fire on a civilian vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing a family of five, including three children. Nine of the 13 hospitals In Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city were destroyed.
According to Statista, a global statistical database, from 2003 to 2021, about 209,000 Iraqi civilians died in wars and violent conflicts, and about 9.2 million Iraqis became refugees or were forced to leave Iraq.
US has involved itself in the Syrian Civil war from very beginning in 2011 US supplied aid and intelligence to the rebels fighting President Assad. CIA established an extensive program to train and equip the rebels.
Since 2014, the United States has conducted periodic airstrikes and maintained hundreds of troops in Syria as part of its war against Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and Syrian government forces. In 2015, the United States sent a small number of ground troops to train, advice, and assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their fight against IS. Since 2016, US army has also fought Iranian-backed militia groups such as Kait’ib Hezbollah, Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada and Russian mercenaries.
Since 2016, the US has controlled al-Tanfbase, in a remote area of Syria, near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet. U.S. troops are stationed there. US troops are also in Hassakeh.
In 2017, USA and Syria fought vigorously. There was a missile strike on Shayrat Airbase. In 2017, the U.S. military attacked Raqqa. On March 18, 2019, U.S. drones killed at least 64 civilian women and children in an attack on the town of Baghouz on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
In 2021 there were 900 U.S. soldiers operating in Syria, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. In February 2021 US ordered airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in eastern Syria in response to attacks against U.S.troops. In February 2022, the U.S. military launched a raid in Syria’s Idlib province, killing at least 13 people, including six children and three women.
The New York Times reported that based on an investigation of classified Pentagon documents, it had found that frequent U.S. airstrikes in Syria caused a large number of civilian casualties. They were due to “mistargeting.” Times noted that the Pentagon covered up these actions and did not punish those responsible.
According to data released by the United Nations, U.S. military intervention has claimed at least 350,000 lives in Syria, displaced more than 12 million people, and left 14 million civilians in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The Syrian refugee issue has been called by the United Nations “the biggest refugee crisis of our time.”
US has no plans to retreat from Syria but analysts observed that Islamic State (IS) has now turned to long-term, low-intensity insurgency, and there is now the question whether the US can fight this and indeed, whether it should continue at all.
US has also waged war in another way. The United States is the only “sanctions superpower” in the world, said critics. According to the US Treasury 2021 sanctions review, the United States has had more than 9,400 sanctions in effect by the 2021 fiscal year. In 1996, it issued the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, forbidding foreign companies from investing in Iran’s and Libya’s energy industry.
The unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against countries in the Middle East and elsewhere have hurt the ordinary people, and seriously undermined development U.S. government imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, Syria and other countries, during COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain medical supplies needed to fight the pandemic. Iran was unable to import essential medicines and medical equipment, and that has seriously affected the health of millions of Iranians.
From 1980 to 1992, the United States imposed unilateral sanctions on Libya, and from 1992 to 2003, it made US allies also impose unilateral sanctions against Libya. The World Bank said the Libyan economy has lost 18 billion dollars due to sanctions, while an official Libyan estimate put the loss at 33 billion dollars.
Since 1979, the United States has imposed various unilateral sanctions on Iran. US imposed more and more sanctions on Iran as the years went by. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump administration cost Iran at least 200 billion U.S. dollars in economic losses.
United States imposed brutal unilateral sanctions on Iraq with severe consequences. From August 1990 to May 2003, sanctions cost Iraq 150 billion dollars in losses of oil revenues. To date, Iraq’s per capita annual income has fallen short of its 1990 level (7,050 dollars).
In addition, the sanctions have caused a serious humanitarian disaster in Iraq, with the infant mortality rate doubling and the under-five mortality rate increasing sevenfold. Iraq’s education, health and social security systems were destroyed, and its literacy rate fell from 89 percent in 1987 to 57 percent in 1997.
After withdrawing its troops from Afghanistanin 2021, the United States has not only imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan, but also frozen billions of dollars of foreign exchange reserves of the Afghan central bank, bringing the Afghan economy to the brink of collapse and worsening the life of the people. World Food Program officials pointed out that the U.S. economic sanctions on Afghanistan has exacerbated the local food crisis.
During the course of its various wars, United States has committed crimes that seriously violate international law, announced China. They include war crimes, crimes against humanity, arbitrary detention, and torture of prisoners.
American aggressiveness over the past decade has an absolutely criminal character, agreed other analysts. The US has the worst history of war crimes in the world they said. US has had a horrifying record of human rights abuses added others.
US is guilty of dropping bombs on innocent targets. It excelled in aerial bombardments, said Stearns. US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. US continued to drop bombs thereafter. US has dropped over 3000 tons of depleted uranium through its bombs.
There is a long list of bombing, from Nagasaki, to Guatemala, Korea, Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia, Libya, Nicaragua, Iran, Bosnia, Sudan and Afghanistan, said Shenali Waduge.
In 1971, 800,000 tons of bombs were dropped by the United States on Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.In 1973 US sent B-52s over Hanoi and Haiphong, destroying homes and hospitals, killing unknown numbers of civilians.
From 2001 to 2017, bombs and missiles have rained down on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iran, said critics. In 2011, US dropped bombs on at least 100 targets in Libya.America has conducted 108 air strikes in Somalia since 2017, killing some 800 people, said Economist. In 2019, US had an air strike in Iraq against Iranian militia, which killed 25 and injured over 50.
A United Nations report released in September 2019 noted that many of the airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition in places like Syria “did not take the necessary precautions to distinguish between military targets and civilians.” United States has widely used air strikes to carry out so-called “anti-terrorism” operations, which often killed civilians “by mistake,” injured innocent people, and arbitrarily deprived them of the right to life, said China.
US sold weapons in large quantities, to its proxies in the Middle East and they used them indiscriminately causing large-scale humanitarian disasters. The US army was also guilty of killing civilians.
In Iraq at Mahmudiyah in 2006 two daughters, 14 years oldAbeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and 6-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, mother Fakhriyah Taha Muhasen, father Qassim Hamza Raheem, and were murdered by US soldiers. The two remaining survivors of the family, 9-year-old brother Ahmed and 11-year-old brother Mohammed were at school during the massacre and were orphaned by the event.
In Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2012, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales killed 16 Afghan civilians and wounded six others in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Nine of the victims were children, and eleven of the dead were from the same family.
US army had been found guilty of rape. Wikipedia said that U.S. military personnel raped Okinawan women during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
In 2006, Congress found that CIA had engaged in widespread torture. There has been torture of inmates in secret US prisons.In 2003, the U.S. military, in serious violation of international human rights law, blatantly abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A group of soldiers committed a series of human rights violations including physical and sexual abuse against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison.
The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.
United States established Guantanamo Bay detention camp (est.2002) to lock up a total of nearly 780 “terrorists” from the Middle East and elsewhere total, many of whom have been held without bringing any criminal charge. More than 30 people, old and frail, remain in the prison, who are deprived of liberty for long periods of time and subjected to endless mental and physical torture. USA admitted before the UN Committee against Torture that they had ‘crossed the line’ at its CIA site at Guantanamo, reported the media.
In Guantanamo, U.S. personnel also harassed its Muslim prisoners, by desecrating the Quran throwing the Quran into toilets, tearing to pieces or burning the Quran under the guise of searching for weapons, and having female guards spy on naked prisoners in bathrooms, which sparked collective protests and even caused mass suicides among the detainees.
In September 2021, the U.S. prison and prisoner abuse practices at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan were exposed by the media. U.S. forces inflicted “torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual abuse” on detainees for a long time, including putting at least 30 prisoners in a cage, leaving tortured prisoners to die in concealed areas, parading naked prisoners with blindfolds, among others.
War crimes charges were made against the USA troops in Afghanistan, reported BBC. The US armed forces and the CIA are alleged to have committed the war crimes of torture and cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and rape and other forms of sexual violence in Afghanistan.
The ICC Prosecutor alleges that members of the US armed forces and the CIA had used the following torture techniques against detainees – incommunicado detention and prolonged and continuous solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, sensory overstimulation, exposure to extreme heat or cold, exploitation of phobias and cultural, religious and sexual taboos, sexual humiliation or insults, offensive use of items of religious significance, imposition of stress positions designed to induce muscle fatigue, suspension from the ceiling, food deprivation, slamming against a wall, cramped or close confinement by placing detainees in boxes, sexual violence, including by means of rectal rehydration or rectal feeding applied with excessive force; and suffocation by water, or the practice of water boarding, placing of detainees in icy water baths.
In November 2017, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) had requested authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC to initiate an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by the USA in Afghanistan since 2003. This was initially rejected.
The Prosecutor filed an appeal against that decision.On 5 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC decided unanimously to authorize the investigation against the USA. An investigation of alleged war crimes by the US and others in the Afghan conflict can go ahead, ruled the ICC.
ICC chief prosecutor said that US may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan, as a deliberate policy, She spoke of war crimes of torture and related ill treatment by US military forces in Afghanistan and secret detention facilities operated by the CIA. This ICC war crimes probe against the USA had been in the pipeline for more than two years, observed critics in 2020.
Attempts to investigate these crimes were blocked by the US. US said it was not a signatory to the Rome Statute and could not be investigated without a UN Security Council order or consent of USA.
Though USA is not a member of the ICC and therefore does not come under its jurisdiction, Afghanistan is a member of ICC and any crime conducted on its territory can be brought to the ICC regardless of the nationality of its perpetrator, said ICC. Afghanistan joined the ICC in 2003 and it is on this basis that the ICC has claimed jurisdiction over deeds alleged to have been committed in Afghanistan by US armed forces and the CIA, said the media.
The US establishment has reacted sharply to the initiative of the ICC Prosecutor. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in 2019 that they are determined to protect American and allied military and civilian personnel ‘from living in fear of unjust prosecution’ for actions taken to protect America. If the ICC persists in this course of action, they will impose travel bans on judges and personnel of the ICC and will also take further steps like economic sanctions. President Trump said that any attempt to target American, Israeli or allied personnel for prosecution by the ICC will be met with ‘a swift and vigorous response’.
US armed forces have committed war crimes, as defined in the ICC and Geneva conventions, in the various US wars. But USA has made sure that it cannot be prosecuted. The main agency dealing with war crimes was the International Criminal Court (ICC). The US is not a signatory of the ICC and does not recognize its authority over American citizens.
US went out of its way to protect its military personnel accused of committing war atrocities. USA signed some 100 bilateral immunity agreements with a number of countries, prohibiting the surrender to the ICC of officials, military personnel and US employees US also threatened to veto UN peacekeeping mission unless its troops were granted immunity from prosecution by the ICC. No American has been indicted in ICC, said TIME.
In 2002, USA passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act which was specifically aimed at the International Criminal Court. It prohibits any U.S. citizen or institution from cooperating with the International Criminal Court and prohibits the transfer of U.S. classified national security and law enforcement information to that court. It even bans the provision of U.S. military assistance, (with specified exceptions) to the government of a country that is a party to the court.
The American Service-Members’ Protection Act authorizes the President to bring about the release from captivity of any U.S. military personnel or covered allied persons who are being detained or imprisoned by or on behalf of the ICC and authorizes the US President to use all means necessary to do so. The phrase ‘use all means necessary’ enables the US government to resort to force to obtain the release of a US citizen or an ally who happens to be in the custody of the ICC. It authorizes military force to free military personnel held by ICC, observed critics.
The US Congress has also passed two other laws relating to this matter, the Foreign Operations Act and the Patriot Act. U.S. government, the U.S. judiciary, and American citizens are strictly prohibited from cooperating in any international investigation into the US Armed Forces. American citizens are subject to severe penalties if they directly or indirectly accuse the US Armed Forces. Ambassador John Bolton, who represented the United States at the United Nations, has stated that any officer of the International Criminal Court will be directly imprisoned if he or she investigates the US Armed Forces.
Earlier this week, after a sudden illness, 56-year-old Peetambaram Rajan passed away in the Batticaloa region of Sri Lanka.
But though there appears to be few details about his life recorded online, the reaction of those Rajan left behind suggest his was one teeming with love.
According to the Tamil Mirror, Rajan was known to be an animal lover. Every day, he was reportedly visited by a local gray langur whom he’d offer treats.
However, Rajan evidently did more than just quell her hunger. It seems he touched her heart as well.
On Tuesday, as Rajan’s grieving family gathered to pay their final respects after his passing, they were joined by an unexpected visitor — the monkey he had befriended in life. And she was in mourning, too.
Given the trusting relationship the langur had with Rajan, it should come as no surprise that she would be saddened to learn he’d passed away.
Though, at times, there may appear to be a divide between people and other animals — our feelings of love and loss are much the same.
“There is no doubt that many animals experience rich and deep emotions,” writes animal behaviorist Dr. Mark Bekoff in Psychology Today. “It’s not a matter of if emotions have evolved in animals but why they have evolved as they have. We must never forget that our emotions are the gifts of our ancestors, our animal kin. We have feelings and so do other animals. Among the different emotions that animals display clearly and unambiguously is grief.”
The report regarding the welfare arrangements of the underage children of women under 45 years of age is compulsory when leaving the country for foreign employment, the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) said.
Addressing the media, the number of Sri Lankans leaving the country for foreign employment has increased, with the majority of them being women, and a significant number of them being mothers.
Accordingly, the SLBFE has decided not to grant permission for mothers with children under two years of age, as mothers should pay special attention to the care and education of their children, she said.
Moreover, the SLBFE has decided to call for a report on the welfare arrangements of their underage children. A circular will be issued making the practice compulsory. Affidavits are not required in this instance.
The Bureau further said that the decision was taken as a step for the protection of their children and to continue with their successful education.
During the period of the employment overseas, it will help to identify the family members who are responsible for the welfare and protection of those children.
The women who are under 45-years of age should obtain their report on the child welfare program from the respective Divisional Secretariat where they are residing. To obtain the Divisional Secretariat report, those people must first obtain the Grama Niladhari (GN) certificate from where they are residing.
If they are not residing in the registered electorate, they should submit their reports through the GN officer where they were last registered.
The child welfare program report is not necessary for people who plan to leave the country again within nine months from the date of arrival. This opportunity will be granted only to those women who went abroad and returned to the country after registering with the SLFEB.
If the nine months from the date of arrival exceeds, those women must provide the child welfare program report prior to their next departure.
A special committee has been appointed by the Ministry Secretary to rectify the issues that had taken place in the case of residence or any other issue when issuing the report. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)
The newly-gazetted personal income tax will be implemented from November 1, after the approval by the Finance Committee of the Parliament and the signature of the Speaker.
Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said this while speaking at a press conference in Ruwanwella. Earlier, a gazette notification was issued amending the Inland Revenue Act.
Accordingly, any individual with gross monthly earnings of Rs. 100,000 or above, would be liable to pay Income Tax. The top marginal personal income tax rate is gazetted as 36%.
The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has looked into maintaining a special rice reserve of 8,000 metric tons in accordance with the Colombo declaration of the SAARC Organization and the 16th Summit meeting.
The committee also probed the rice reserves of 100,000 metric tons not being maintained in the warehouses owned by the Food Commissioners Department of Sri Lanka all over the island in accordance with the cabinet decision dated 27/8/2008.
The COPA members inquired about the failure to maintain the aforesaid reserves despite the fact that 06 warehouses numbered 1, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 in Veyangoda warehouse complex were modified in a scientific and natural manner. 292 million rupees have been spent from 2012 to 2019 to modify these warehouses.
Discussions in this regard took place at the COPA which met on Thursday (Oct. 20) under the chairmanship of MP Kabir Hashim.
The meeting was called for by the Food Commissioners Department of Sri Lanka to examine the audit report on the maintenance of rice reserves and the performance of storage utilization.
The officials mentioned that their department requested for adequate provision from the treasury, but due to non-receipt, it was not possible to maintain the above-mentioned reserves. It was also revealed that on an average, to maintain 100,000 metric tons of rice, about Rs. 22 billion per year is required.
Officials stated that even though a storage complex capable of storing 250,000 metric tons has been scientifically modified, it has not been able to store the number of reserves equal to its maximum capacity so far and that the World Food Programme and rice aid received from other countries have already started to be stored.
The committee also informed the Secretary to the Ministry to conduct proper research on the existing government food warehouse complexes across the country and collect data and submit a report containing specific information about the ownership of the warehouses within a month.
Irregularities in giving the warehouse complexes owned by the Food Commissioner Department to other government or private institutions on rental basis and monthly rent collection issues were discussed at the COPA. The committee informed that with the support of the Attorney General’s Department, the relevant agreements should be prepared as necessary.
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has requested the Auditor General to conduct a special investigation into the transfer of ownership of lands by the Land Reform Commission (LRC) for the past 20 years.
The request was made by the COPE chairman, Prof. Ranjith Bandara during its meeting which looked into the irregularities in land transfers.
Various reasons contributed to beginning the unsuccessful ARAGALAYA in 2022, which focused on either capturing the government or changing the government policy towards the people suffering from economic difficulties. Capturing a government that was elected by a democratic election could be considered illegal in terms of law and gaining political power in a country using an undemocratic way could not be considered an equitable or ethical way of changing the government. Modern democratic values are working not only in Sri Lanka but also in other countries. Therefore, ARAGALAYA had ethical and moral issues at the beginning that are questionable.
Compare to the previous ARAGALA in Sri Lanka, the major reason for the failure of this ARAGALAYA was leaders failed to present their economic policies and convince the people that their economic policy would have a positive impact on the economy and will gain clear benefits for people. Without knowing the real leaders of ARAGALAYA, people couldn’t trust the way it was going on and people surrounding Colombo gathered at Galle Face ground like buffaloes that came out from sheds that hadn’t reflect the democratic values and acceptable economic policies that would be beneficial to people. The fundamental weakness of ARAGALAYA was it failed to justify policies that they would do and the policies which contained justice.
The country indeed had problems relating to business and the living concerns of people. Such problems would have been solved by the government using the right economic policy that has been planned considering broader factors and would successfully organise related activities by the leaders of ARAGALAYA. These vital activities were not done by the leaders of ARAGALAYA and the failure of leaders was the main contributing factor to its unsuccess. In this situation, there was a higher risk that was not considered by leaders. Generally, people doubted the economic policy of young people who have no experience and never studied past economic downturns. In addition, certain people had different objectives, for example, a family living in Australia had a secret religious agenda that was not disclosed to people. In that background, the struggle was a misleading activity the general public didn’t know whether the struggle was a justifiable matter of the public
The increase in productivity in all sectors of the economy and the aggrandisement of the volume of foreign exchange reserves were vital issues that needed urgent attention and other economic problems related to macroeconomic concerns must have been highlighted by them as in the economic policy. They were major issues of ARAGALAYA and leaders lacked understanding of these factors they must have thought in the way university students are thinking without practical experience.
Many people in the country have no clear understanding of how to solve the problems and the leaders of ARAGALAYA should have explained to people why they were so concerned about the economic problems and that they can solve problems by implementing trusted policies. The ARAGALAYA in 2022 was not described the specific economic policy which will positively impact the economy. People even did not know who were the leaders of the struggle. The vital factor in modern society is that struggles could gain benefits if there are reserved assets and when there are no such preserved assets physical materials would not come to support the struggle.
In 1971, Rehana Wijeweera specifically stated that we will uproot tea plantations and replace them with Tapioca which would be an input-boosting industrial input with factories. Using cassava for industrial input would not be a substitute for the tea economy as it generates billion of foreign exchange and casava cannot do it. People at that time (1971) knew that such policies would not work for the country. Wijeweera whether policies were right or wrong publicly stated but in such a way modern leaders should have expressed economic policies that have not happened during the struggle. How the policies of struggle leaders would practically impact the macroeconomy to solve problems of people did not express and the struggle showed it was a clear attempt to cheat power.
It was not a productive and acceptable policy action to the public and the policies of Wijeweera were questionable to people at that time and the public was reluctant to associate with JVP. The open talks of Wijeweera were more respected by people than the rough leaders of the modern struggle. Many people state that the Aragalaya has not finished and people were invited to participate in several rallies but they did not participate, only a few people participated, who were hardcore Marxists and after tear gas and water cannon treatment all left the ARAGALAYA. It should note that struggles would not succeed in the modern era because the government has the more strong firepower and the other matter was many of the participants of the struggle were amatory criminals who attempted to popularize by ragging innocent students. Rohana Wijeweera 1971 openly rejected erotic criminals in universities and had human values.
People did not know who were the leaders of modern ARAGALAYA and what were their economic policies of them. Could leaders of ARAGALAYA respond to people and able to act in response to modern weapons of arm forces? Schoolkids in Grades 10 and 12 know economics better than leaders of ARAGALAYA and people can trust the economic piece of advice of international financial institutions such as IMF, WB, Asian Development Bank and ADA.
Sri Lanka has complicated political issues with many political parties, which are based on selfish dispositions and religions in the country are working against the teaching of the religious inventors. Political parties should attempt to stop misleading people and create a production economy in all sectors such as agriculture, industry, construction, services and information technology. It is the right thing to do than commanding struggles. If a 10% production increase in all sectors of the economy, current problems could be defeated and people would gain economic benefits at a normal level and then the economy could be expanded by new investments.
Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe is working well, however, the ruins of the Rajapaksa strive to regain power for Namal Rajapaksa and put their hands on Wickremasinghe’s policy further intending to regain power. As James Dusenbery stated aggregate consumption of Sri Lanka is influenced by the demonstration effect and destroyed the foreign exchange reserves. During the Rajapaksa regime spending more money on imports reflected the worse nature of the demonstration effect in Sri Lanka. Many urban people borrow money and purchase luxury goods and services as a result of the demonstration effect. The worse situation is that the government should invest funds in road development and many others. It is difficult to change consumption patterns and the government needs to neglect people in the lower-income category who are below the poverty line.
Colombo, Sri Lanka — The crisis facing the Buddhist world is neither a decline in religious conviction nor an apprehension that truth underpinned by rational argument and new scientific discoveries will one day overtake and outstrip the core teachings of its founder which is a perennial fear bordering on despondency that characterizes several other competing religions, but the lack of an effective institutional mechanism that can lend support when a Buddhist institution, Buddhist community or even a pre-dominant Buddhist nation is in danger.
We see the lack of substantial networks of support driving threatened Buddhist nations or Buddhist communities into a sense of despair and hopelessness at times of emergency. Traditional Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Laos are now under severe pressure to distance themselves from extending state patronage to Buddhism and erase their Buddhist country identity and embrace a secular identity with no such pressure being applied to countries in other parts of the world such as the Middle East or the Catholic belt of Europe.
Despite a 2500-year-old history that makes Buddhism one of the oldest religions in the world, a worldwide presence that makes it a global religion, and a way of life grounded in wisdom and compassion that attracts the envy of other civilizations, Buddhism still retains its biggest constraint i.e. lack of effective protections. It is a historical fact that Buddhism has lost more territory and space in Asia, its traditional homeland, in the last one thousand years than any other religion. It is also a hard fact that this process is ongoing with no sign of abatement and no effective measures developed to counter it.
Buddhism’s biggest appeal of being an eternally passive, non – confrontational, peace-loving religion that lacks a central place to direct its affairs in the international arena unlike in the case of say the Vatican (sovereign state enjoying both temporal and spiritual power) or the World Council of Churches ( powerful and well – funded with influence reaching to four corners of the world) or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (promoting Muslim solidarity in economic, social, and political affairs), has become Buddhism’s Achilles’ heel. Its organizational bases are relatively powerless when compared to the aforesaid entities. For example, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations which has a membership of 57 states spread over four continents. The Organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world and is committed to safeguarding and protecting the interests of the Muslim world. It has its headquarters in Saudi Arabia.
Rising Challenges to Buddhism
The issue of rising challenges to Buddhism to the extent of undermining its very existence as the pre-dominant religion of a nation hardly merits much attention in discussions of International Buddhist Organisations, International Buddhist Conferences, or among National Governments in countries with predominant Buddhist populations and corresponding state and constitutional obligations to protect and foster Buddhism.
Traditional Buddhist countries now find themselves force-fed with ideas that are foreign to Asia, that had been given birth primarily in a Western setting and related to the interplay of dynamics of European societies but are nevertheless required to be uncritically accepted and transplanted in Asian societies without due consideration being given to the social tensions that would be generated in transplanting such ideas. To de-link state patronage to Buddhism is one such pressure brought on by various religious interests that during the heyday of colonialism enjoyed exclusive patronage from colonial rulers.
The solidarity that countries in Buddhist Asia showed towards each other in the distant past i.e. pre-colonial era, has greatly evaporated or become non–existent. The sense of kinship of being fellow travelers in a spiritual journey overarched by Buddhist precepts and bonded by common religious beliefs and foundations no longer acts as a reference point to summon or render assistance even between Buddhist peoples based in neighboring countries at times of need.
Recent events, for example, attacks on Buddhist Temples in Bangladesh or the crisis in Myanmar hardly drew concerted attention or action in other Buddhist countries in the form of assisting our co-religionists facing an existential plight.
Areas of growing concern
1) Religious conversions
Countries preserving Indian Civilizational religions e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, etc. are seen as soft and easy targets for manipulation and religious conversion of their people, and in turn replacement of centuries-old traditional culture with new cultures subservient to foreign interests. The resulting change in religious demography brings pressure on the State to disassociate itself from Buddhist values that underpin the stability of the society, legal framework, and moral direction of the country.
2) Mass Media
The mainstream Mass Media in the English language in pre-dominant Buddhist countries which act as the window to the world hardly makes any contribution towards creating any Buddhist public opinion or providing a voice reflecting Buddhist concerns. Instead, it acts as a group largely hostile to the creation of any such Buddhist opinion and thereby sacrificing the interests of the wider majority of the country’s people. One hardly reads newspaper editorials in support of a Buddhist cause. Instead, Buddhists find themselves repeatedly fed with a regular and steady diet of lectures on ‘human rights, ‘rule of law’ ‘democracy’ non – violence’, and ‘peace and reconciliation despite no such intransigence on their part at a major level.
There appears to be a calculated move to place Buddhists, metaphorically speaking, in the ‘dock’, make Buddhists feel guilty of alleged crimes or misconduct, and then extract more and more concessions totally out of proportion to what Buddhists enjoy as a religious minority in non – Buddhist countries.
3) Status of Buddhism as an official religion
Reciprocity is the norm that governs diplomacy or the grant of religious concessions. Buddhism hardly enjoys official status as a religion in Europe or in the Middle East. Freedom of religion is honored in the breach when it comes to acceptance of Buddhism as an official religion in these parts of the world. In Europe, only Russia and Austria recognize Buddhism as an official religion.
4) Hidden Agenda of ‘Secularism’
The proponents of secularism in Sri Lanka like in India are those clearly bent on repudiating the civilizational ethos of this country. Their main objective is to marginalize Buddhism from public – political and social – life. In the West, we find that secularism had stood for rationalism, universalism, and humanism. In Asia, secularism is being used as a smokescreen and a shield to push Indian civilizational religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism away from the center stage and replace them with religions and ideologies that were introduced much later in time to these lands.
In pre-colonial Sri Lanka, there was never any conflict between the State and organized religion. It is essentially a European phenomenon. What we are now faced with is an increasing challenge to an ancient, indigenous Buddhist civilization that is gentle, accommodating, and pacifist by later introduced religious cultures that have a track record of intolerance and violence and close association with colonialism and a self-declared objective of world conquest. They use the language of human rights and freedom of religion but their goals are very much political and predatory. They support the country’s adversaries in the international arena to engage in the game of finger–pointing, naming, and shaming our leaders and people. It is also a battle for the moral conscience of Sri Lanka which our people and rulers have worked so hard relentlessly to keep over many centuries as an expression of our indigenous religious beliefs and outlook.
League of Buddhist Nations
During the last five hundred years or so, since the beginning of the western colonial era, the governance and steering of the world were very much in the hands of powerful western nations using their mono religio- cultural framework as terms of reference in policy making and implementation of policy. That era is now drawing to a close. Sino – Indic civilizations will take over from euro-centric civilizations. The question is not whether but when. The old world will give rise to a new world and revert to Asia its traditional leadership role of the world.
Buddhism is well-integrated and deep-seated in both the Chinese and Indian cultures. To the Buddhists in Asia, the challenge is to develop new structures and institutions that reflect current realities. It would be feasible for countries with pre-dominant Buddhist populations to consider developing closer ties with each other in the spheres of economic, cultural, trade, and investment. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) provides a role model for the Buddhist world to adopt and establish at the summit level an equivalent body to give voice and make representations on behalf of the Buddhists.
Buddhist heritage countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka among others should engage in increasingly close cooperation in international affairs and regularly meet like the European Union or the OIC in the form of a League of Buddhist Nations. Sri Lanka as a traditionally Buddhist country with the longest continuing Buddhist history in the world is eminently well qualified to take an initiative in this direction.
Buddhist Television Channel on par with BBC, CNN, and Al – Jazeera
The Buddhist voice is relatively speaking largely unheard in the international arena. Buddhist nations which are embattled or threatened by more powerful vested interests have to rely on International news agencies or foreign Television Channels such as BBC, CNN, or Al – Jazeera which have different policy objectives and are largely unsympathetic or sometimes even prejudiced towards the Buddhist cause, to air their position. This is an unsatisfactory situation. The time has come for the Buddhist world to seriously consider the inauguration of a Buddhist Television Channel on par with the aforesaid major TV Channels.
Every dead Russian and Ukrainian in this war, every family anywhere in the world that suffers the consequences of this war, every business that shuts down because of the economic damage this war is causing and the increased risk of nuclear annihilation, it’s all US Govt made.” Twitter @KimDotcom
Proxy War (def)– a war instigated by a major power which does not itself become involved.
Ukrainian gains on the battlefield have been met by a widely-anticipated Russian escalation. On September 21, in a rare national address, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilsation of 300,000 reservists who would be called to serve in the war in Ukraine. In recent weeks, the Russian army has suffered a number of setbacks due to its lack of sufficient manpower in the battlespace. Simply put, the Russians did not have enough combat troops to carry out their mission or to defend the vast area that has recently been annexed by Moscow. Russia’s Special Military Operation was never designed to seize and occupy great swaths of Ukrainian territory. In essence, the SMO was a police operation aimed at locating and eliminating the Ukrainian forces that had been bombarding and killing ethnic Russians living in east Ukraine. After numerous clashes with advancing NATO-trained battalions, it’s clear that Russia needs significant reinforcements to roll back Ukrainian forces and impose a security buffer around its new provinces. Russia’s critics see the under-staffing as an indication of military incompetence but, in fact, Moscow is merely adapting to a fluid situation in which both parties continue to raise the stakes. Here is an excerpt from a post by Big Serge at Substack that helps to clarify what’s going on:
Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka is a Sri Lankan-born New Zealander based in Auckland, where she lives and works as a public relations consultant.
OPINION: “Man wins top literary prize to convince parents he didn’t need to do medicine,” a Sri Lankan Aucklander tweeted in response to the announcement of this year’s Booker Prize winning author, Shehan Karunatilaka.
If you’re Kiwi of any kind of Asian heritage, you’ll probably recognise the reference immediately: we aren’t hugely represented in creative industries, but when we do, it’s often an act of rebellion against tradition and family.
There is a Sinhalese phrase that I heard a lot growing up: kala keroth mala. It translates roughly to: creative pursuits will lead you to ruin and failure” – or, more literally: do arts and die.
So, of course, if you are a creatively inclined Sri Lankan-Kiwi, you go hardbecause you know there’s no going home.
KATE GREEN/GETTY IMAGESShehan Karunatilaka holding the Booker Prize 2022 award for his second novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.
Sri Lankan-born Karunatilaka’s win of the most prestigious literary prize in the English-speaking world this week was a real moment for Sri Lankan creatives everywhere, but especially so for Sri Lankan-Kiwi creatives in Aotearoa.
Karunatilaka is not only Sri Lankan, but arguably Kiwi too, having attended secondary school and university in New Zealand. Digesting and dissecting his win with my Sri Lankan-Kiwi friends this week, there is an overwhelming feeling that he’s been where we’ve been, and he feels like he’s one of us.
Of course, the feeling of one of us” isn’t limited to Sri Lankan-Kiwis or Asian-Kiwis.
Karunatilaka has said he is in the process of moving back to New Zealand. When that happens, he’ll be an addition to our Booker-winning landscape along with Keri Hulme and Eleanor Catton.
At the same time, while Karunatilaka represents the zenith of Sri Lankan literary talent in 2022, it would be remiss to assume he’s an outlier as a literary Sri Lankan or literary Sri Lankan-Kiwi.
STUART C. WILSONMichael Ondaatje described his writing style as being shaped by Ceylon’s oral traditions of tall stories, gossip, arguments and lies at dinner”.
In fact, Sri Lankans have now won the Booker more times than the Cricket World Cup.
Remarkably, 2022 also marks 30 years since Sri Lankan Michael Ondaatje won the Booker Prize for The English Patient (although I maintain Running in the Family is his true masterpiece).
Though now a migrant to Canada, Ondaatje famously described his writing style as shaped by Ceylon’s oral traditions: “tall stories, gossip, arguments and lies at dinner”.
Back home, Sri Lankan-Kiwi writers are coming into their own as part of the modern New Zealand storytelling identity.
DAVID WHITE/STUFFChamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka is a Sri Lankan-born New Zealander based in Auckland.
The five writers below are a sample of the depth and variety developing amongst New Zealand writers of Sri Lankan heritage today.
No two writers are the same, though in typical Sri Lankan-Kiwi fashion, they all definitely go hard, pairing their writing with interesting and ambitious day jobs.
Five Sri Lankan-Kiwi writers to watch
Brannavan Gnanalingam
SUPPLIEDBrannavan Gnanalingam has, in true creative Sri Lankan fashion, juggled a law career with a writing one.
Born in Colombo and brought up in Lower Hutt, 39-year old Brannavan Gnanalingam has seven novels to his name.
A three-time Ockham finalist (two shortlists and one long list) and recipient of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards for his novel Sprigs, his writing draws widely and acutely from personal experience and observation both as a Kiwi and a Sri Lankan.
In true Sri Lankan creative fashion, outside of his absolute domination of the local literary scene, he is a lawyer and litigator at a major New Zealand law firm. (He is also a regular contributor to Stuff and Sunday magazine in the Sunday Star-Times.)
Himali McInnes
ALEX CARTERDr Himali McInnes, author of The Unexpected Patient.
Himali McInnes proves you can be Sri Lankan-Kiwi and have it all, by being both a doctor and a writer. An accomplished essayist and short story-writer, her 2021 book The Unexpected Patient: True Kiwi stories of life, death and unforgettable clinical cases explores the bonds that are forged between practitioner and patient in unique situations, from terrorist attacks to the brink of death to supernatural connections.
Jehan Casinader
STUFFJehan Casinader, journalist, TV presenter and public speaker.
Sri Lankan-born New Zealander Jehan Casinader writes when a disaster strikes, most people run away – but journalists run towards it”.
The television presenter, public speaker and journalist takes the inherent rebellion of Kiwi-Asian creative pursuits up another notch by tackling one of the most taboo of Asian cultural topics: mental health.
His book This is Not How it Endsis both a personal memoir of his own journey of depression and a contribution to New Zealand’s growing male mental health kaupapa.
Romesh Dissanayake
./STUFFRomesh Dissanayake is an up and comer in literary circles and a talented chef to boot.
Romesh Dissanayake’s ostensibly Sinhalese name belies his Sri Lankan-Korean-Russian-Kiwi heritage.
An up-and-comer, his name is popping up in literary magazines, anthologies and writers’ festivals.
Like the others in this list, Dissanayake is no one-trick pony. A talented Wellington-based chef, he is also known for running Sri Lankan-themed pop-up dinners in the capital. He named the dinner series SEELA, after his rebellious, full-of-life Sri Lankan grandmother.
Andrew Fidel Fernando
Kiwis who are serious about cricket will likely recognise Andrew Fernando’s name. A prodigious and prolific writer on Cricinfo from a young age, this Auckland-raised Sri Lankan is now based in Colombo – a returnee of the diaspora, covering the country on the ground.
His book Upon a Sleepless Isle: travels in Sri Lanka by Bus, Cycle and Trishaw was the recipient of the 2019 Gratiaen Prize – Sri Lankan’s highest English-language literary honour which, incidentally, was won by one Shehan Karunatilaka in 2008.
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Sri Lankan state minister of defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon met Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt, defence secretary Ajay Kumar, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the three service chiefs
Sri Lankan state minister of defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon with Indian chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan (right). (ANI Photo)
India has reiterated its readiness to continue supporting Sri Lanka in the defence sphere during a meeting between the visiting Sri Lankan state minister of defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon and minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt.
Tennakoon is visiting India with a three-member delegation comprising army and navy officers to participate in the biennial global defence exhibition DefExpo2022. This is the first high-level visit from the Sri Lankan side since bilateral ties hit a rough patch over the visit of a Chinese surveillance to Hambantota port in August.
Besides meeting Bhatt, Tennakoon and his delegation also had interactions with Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, defence secretary Ajay Kumar, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and the three service chiefs of India.
During the meeting with Bhatt on October 17, the Indian side reiterated its readiness to continue to support Sri Lanka in the defence sphere”, according to a readout from the Indian high commission in Colombo.
India will continue to strengthen its multi-dimensional cooperation with Sri Lanka for mutual benefit and also for enhancing regional peace, security and stability,” the readout added.
This is the second time in the past year that a Sri Lankan minister has participated at an event inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ministers from Sri Lanka were part of the event to mark the inaugural international flight to Kushinagar airport in October 2021.
Speaking at DefExpo2022, Tennakoon hailed the India-Sri Lanka partnership in defence and highlighted the importance of the defence industrial base in augmenting security policy.
India and Sri Lanka have maintained bilateral engagements in defence despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The SLINEX naval exercise and the Mitra Shakti army exercise are held every year alternatively in India and Sri Lanka, and both armed forces collaborate closely in dealing with common security challenges such as drug and human trafficking, the readout said.
The Colombo Security Conclave – which brings together senior security officials from the Maldives, Mauritius, India and Sri Lanka – has emerged as a key platform to address security issues at a regional level. In August, the first Dornier reconnaissance aircraft provided by India was inducted into the Sri Lankan Air Force to enhance the country’s maritime surveillance capabilities.
However, ties between Colombo and New Delhi hit a rough patch when the Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese vessel with extensive surveillance capabilities, docked at the Hambantota port, which is controlled by the Chinese. Since then, officials from both ties have worked to restore ties to an even keel.
India and Sri Lanka also cooperate closely in training and capacity building in the defence sphere. Indian military establishments, including the National Defence College, have produced leaders of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Every year, 1,500 to 1,700 slots are allocated to Sri Lankan personnel, which amounts to an outlay of around ₹500 million to ₹550 million (more than $6 million). Similarly, Indian military officers are hosted by the armed forces of Sri Lanka, including for specialised training modules in fields such as counter-insurgency.
Both sides also cooperate on humanitarian issues, as reflected by joint efforts to avert large-scale environmental damage, expeditious supply of liquid medical oxygen and other materials, repatriation of around 700 Indian nationals with the assistance of Sri Lanka’s armed forces during the pandemic.
The futuristic partnership between the two neighbours underscores India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy as well as Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) doctrine,” the readout said.
The Indian Navy on Friday shot at a fisherman while trying to intercept a suspicious boat” in Palk Bay, near the maritime border with Sri Lanka, with the Tamil Nadu government identifying the injured man as resident of the state and writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue. The Indian Navy on Friday shot at a fisherman while trying to intercept a suspicious boat” in Palk Bay, near the maritime border with Sri Lanka, with the Tamil Nadu government identifying the injured man as resident of the state and writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
The Tamil Nadu government identified the injured fisherman as K Veeravel, a resident of Vanagiri village in Mayiladuthurai district. Chief minister M K Stalin has announced a compensation of ₹20 lakh for Veeravel and wrote to PM Modi asking him to direct security forces to exercise caution.
A statement tweeted by the defence ministry’s PRO in Chennai said that during the early hours of October 21, a suspicious boat” was observed by the Indian Navy ship on patrol in Palk Bay.
Despite repeated warnings the boat did not stop,” the statement read. The ship, as per standard operating procedures, fired warning shots to stop the boat. One of the crew onboard the suspicious boat is reported to have sustained an injury. The injured person was administered first aid by the ship and evacuated by an Indian Navy Chetak helicopter,” it added.
The injured person has been shifted to the Government Hospital, Ramanathapuram for further medical management. His condition is reported to be stable. An Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the incident,” the PRO tweet stated.
Veeravel sustained injuries to the abdomen and thigh but is in a stable condition, according to officials familiar with the matter. District authorities and the state’s fisheries minister, Anitha Radhakrishnan, met him at the hospital in Madurai.
Union minister of state L Murugan, who was in Chennai on Friday said he would comment on the matter only after the investigation is complete.
We have asked for an investigative report to identify the person who shot the fishermen,” Murugan said, adding that they will review if Veeravel falls in the ambit of the ministry’s group insurance scheme.
We have been insisting that fishermen attach a GPS because sometimes, we have instances of them crossing the border. We will know what happened in this specific instance only after completing the investigation,” he said.
Veeravel was among a group of ten fishermen (seven from Tamil Nadu and three from Karaikal in Puducherry) who had ventured for fishing in a Karaikal-registered mechanised fishing boat, said one of the officials mentioned above, asking not to be named.
Announcing the compensation for Veeravel, CM Stalin said: I am deeply shocked and saddened to learn that Mr Veeravel has sustained serious injuries after being shot by the Indian Navy this morning… I have ordered for him to be provided special medical treatment.”
Later in the day, he wrote to PM Modi Stalin on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the incident.
I am extremely saddened by this incident that has happened by an act of the Indian Navy. You are well aware of the plight of Indian fishermen being ill-treated by Sri Lankan security forces. But, when our security forces resort to similar acts, it creates a sense of despair and insecurity in the minds of the downtrodden fisher folk,” he wrote.
I request your intervention in this matter and request you to direct the Indian Security Agencies to exercise extreme caution and restraint while dealing with Indian fishermen in Indian waters,” he added.
While claiming that the Metropolitan Police have not deployed any officers in support of the Sri Lankan investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, Britain on Wednesday said that Metropolitan Police ‘will consider any request to support an overseas investigation where it is proportionate, necessary and legal.’
In response to a written question by a Labour Parliamentarian whether the Metropolitan Police are taking steps to support the investigation into the 2019 bombings in Sri Lanka, Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) Tom Tugendhat informed the UK Parliament that Metropolitan Police have not deployed any officers.
However, he said that the Home Office works closely with policing partners to support requests from international partners across the full spectrum of policing.
The Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command dispatched a team of specialists to Sri Lanka in 2019, including family liaison officers, to support the families of British victims and assist with the repatriation of deceased British nationals. A programme run by Interpol involved the training of 30 Sri Lankan forensic specialists and police officers by UK experts in disaster victim identification,” the Minister stated.
Earlier, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will seek the assistance of the police authorities of the UK in order to complete the investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019. (Sunil Jayasiri)
The third reading of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution has been passed in Parliament by a majority of 173 votes.
Announcing the result of the vote on the third reading of the bill, the Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena informed the House that 174 had voted in favour of the bill while only MP Sarath Weerasekara voted against it.
Meanwhile it is reported that 44 Members of Parliament including former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa were absent during the vote.
Earlier, the second reading of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill was passed by a majority of 178 votes.
During the division, 179 parliamentarians in total voted in favour of the bill while it received only one vote against it, with SLPP parliamentarian Sarath Weerasekara deciding to oppose the bill.
The two-day parliamentary debate on the second reading of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill commenced on Thursday (Oct. 20). At the end of the debate today, a vote was called on the bill.
The 22A draft bill was approved for its second reading at the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms held on Oct. 04.
Later, the Committee on Parliamentary Business, which met under the chairmanship of Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, decided to schedule the debate for Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.
The constitutional amendment is expected to empower parliament over the executive president and annul the 20A to the Constitution, which had given unfettered powers to President after abolishing the 19th Amendment.
Under the 22A, the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Council will be held accountable to the parliament. Fifteen Committees and Oversight Committees are also accountable to parliament.
The 22A comprises features of both the 19th amendment introduced by the Yahapalana Government and the 20th amendment brought forth under the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
According to the draft Bill, a Constitutional Council will come into effect which will consist of members including the Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, the Opposition Leader, a Member of Parliament appointed by the President, two members nominated by both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader. The council will be chaired by the Speaker.
The Public Service Commission, the National Police Commission, the Audit Service Commission, Human Rights Commission, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, Finance Commission, Delimitation Commission and the National Procurement Commission shall be responsible and answerable to the parliament. However, Election Commission is not.
As per this amendment, no person shall be appointed by the President unless such appointment has been approved by the council upon a recommendation made to the council by the Head of State in instances of appointing the Chief Justice and the judges of the Supreme Court, the president and the judges of the Court of Appeal, the members of the Judicial Service Commission other than its chairman.
The same is applicable when appointing the Attorney General, the Auditor General, the Inspector-General of Police, the Central Bank Governor, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Secretary-General of Parliament.
The 22A abolishes the ability of a dual citizen to be appointed as a Member of Parliament.
It also includes provisions of the 20th amendment that the number of Cabinet Ministers shall not exceed 30 and the number of ministers who are not members of the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers shall not exceed 40.
However, if a recognized political party or an independent group which obtains the highest number of seats in parliament forms a national government, the number of ministers in the Cabinet, the ministers who are not in the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers shall be determined by the parliament.
Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has informed the National Council that the report of the committee for the restructuring of the energy sector would be submitted within two weeks.
At the same time, the minister stated that the National Council is also expected to be informed about the proposed measures to be taken for the various energy generation projects proposed to be launched by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority and the Ceylon Electricity Board.
The National Council met yesterday (Oct. 20) under the chairmanship of Speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and the Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella.
Institutions such as the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) were called before the National Council where the officials presented ideas and proposals related to the progress of the energy sector.
MP Namal Rajapaksa, as the chairman of the National Council sub-committee to identify short- and medium-term programs related to the National Policy, and Patali Champika Ranawaka, the chairman of the National Council sub-committee on identifying short and medium-term programs related to Economic Stabilization briefed the National Council about the progress and the expected future work of the committees.
Ministers Kanchana Wijesekera and Nasir Ahmed, State Ministers Indika Anuruddha and D. V. Chanaka, MPs Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi, Johnston Fernando, Sagara Kariyawasam, Asanka Navaratne, Rishad Bathiudeen, M. Rameshwaran and Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan were present at the Council meeting held.
The Department of Census and Statistics (DSC) has released the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) and the inflation rate for the month of September 2022.
The NCPI for all items for the month of September 2022 is 256.2 and it records an increase of 5.8 in index points compared to the month of August 2022 for which the index was 250.4. This increase represents an increase in expenditure value of Rs. 1879.94 in the ‘Market Basket’.
For September 2022, month-on-month change was recorded as 2.3% compared to August 2022.
The overall rate of inflation as measured by NCPI on year-on-year basis has increased to 73.7% in September 2022 from 70.2% in August 2022. In July, this was reported as 66.7%.
With respect to September 2021, the reported inflation for the month of September 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels that prevailed in both food and non-food groups.
Accordingly, the Year-on-Year inflation of the food group increased to 85.8% in September 2022 from 84.6% in August 2022 and the Year-on-Year inflation of the non-food group increased to 62.8% in September 2022 from 57.1% in August 2022.
