Sri Lanka’s death toll from Covid-19 climbed to 16,635 today after the Director General of Health Services confirmed 05 more Covid-19 related deaths in the country for yesterday (Aug 16).
According to the Govt. Information Department, four victims were aged 60 years and above. The remaining one was aged between 30-59 years. Among the victims are 02 males and 03 females.
Meanwhile, another 161 new Covid-19 infections have been identified in the country today (Aug. 17).
This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases detected in the country thus far to 668,497.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe states that the emergency regulations will not be extended further as the situation of the country is getting back to normal and that it will lapse by the end of the week.
But that is not enough. We have to have an attitudinal change and if we do that, then this country will have a future,” said the president, speaking at the 2022 award ceremony of the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka which was presided over by him.
Just after I became the Minister of Finance, I found that I was richer than the Republic of Sri Lanka as far as the foreign exchange was concerned. I had thousand dollars at home which I had saved, so I was thousand times richer than the Republic.”
President Wickremesinghe also stated that discussions are underway with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finalize a staff-level agreement, while there are two groups that prevail now, the West which is planning to provide a haircut and China which would like to give additional loans to pay off existing loans.
We are talking with Japan about how this could be achieved. If we move fast, this will be a short way and if we still keep arguing, then we all are going to suffer.”
President Wickremesinghe further pointed out that they are trying to make the parliament into a government by having oversight committees and a national council. The oversight committees will not only consist of the members of the parliament but also 05 youth representatives who are allowed to question parties with the permission of the chairman, he added.
He also acknowledged that no other country in the world has allowed young people to take part in oversight committees.
In this parliament, we must have the capability of coming up with a new system. We cannot be passing it to others. The baby is ours. We’ve taken it, we’ve got to carry it. And if possible, from there, [we should] go ahead to a new constitution.
We are also looking at the Diaspora. It is a strength; it is also a source of investment,” he said further, noting that the country needs to sort out the issues among ethnic groups.
The President also mentioned that the government has paid attention to establishing a separate office to deal with the Diaspora in order to obtain its support.
Sri Lanka is faced with several challenges – all taken together the ultimate aim is simply to take control of Sri Lanka. Controlling the resources makes a nation compliant and meets the geopolitical objectives of parties using various modus operandi to realize their goals. This is what citizens of Sri Lanka need to understand. We are being played against each other & amidst the confusion and chaos they are walking away with all our resources!
By now we should have understood that UN/UNHRC have been used to weaken our internal systemscamouflaging this drive with ‘accountability’ ‘transparency’ ‘UN goals’ ‘UN checklists’ dispatching UN rapporteurs with their red cards from time to time.
By now we should have understood that IMF/World Bank and other international monetary institutes have also been used to give loans based on ‘bribes’ – negotiations only end up ‘you will get the loan only if you do as we say & agree to what we want’. Funds” are also given to subtly launch programs or initiatives to follow their agenda – education funds mean no inclusion of history into syllabus, or false history, or whitewashing historical crimes. Funds have a magic of their own. Privatization is a key area of these funds and loans to take control of our resources. Leasing land/resources for 99 years means our generation will never enjoy the resources or see its return for 99 years.
By now we should have understood the role that neo-liberal think tanks/NGOs/Civil Society play functioning as ‘lobbyists’ for the corporate agenda. Look at the manner they organize research” papers, hold conferences & tamashas to project a very glorious future if state resources fall under control of corporate hands primarily foreign corporates using locals as fronts. In colonial times these locals were called ‘sepoys’ ‘lascoreens’ – they were bestowed titles & given awards to function as representatives of the white man. Post-indepedence neocolonial agendas continue using the same people who are locals in name only but are loyal to the neoliberal paymasters.
By now we should also understand how all of the above cannot take place if a country has a national leader, a government that is strong and a country that is peacefully prodding forward. The objective is to undermine a strong nation.
By now we should know that the rabbits they pull out – the unions, the protests, the demonstrators, the fringe groups, terror groups & extremists – anyone ready to take part in some form of trouble to weaken a nation.
It is finally dawning on most the flip side of the aragalaya. 1% of these protestors certainly had genuine grievances but the rest were either hired or either paid to promote other agendas tasked of them. The organizers of the protests have actually crippled future protests because no dejected protestor would want to be manipulated again. This serves their purpose to ensure that by the time they succeed with their agendas, there are not many to protest as the purpose of protests have been destroyed. Nevertheless, people must protest but they must be watchful of who they involve in future to protest alongside them and ensure their protest is not infiltrated.
By now we should understand the people, the parties, the issues and slogans being used to divert people’s attention & make a govt weak. We must realize the threats and the challenges as well as the numerous googlys a govt is made to face. It is not easy to govern a nation to a national plan when all those out to weaken Sri Lanka & take over our resources throw a plethora of attacks 24×7 to make the govt go off track on its national plans. Equally dangerous is when the enemies place a puppet govt to do their bidding. Read about puppets & dictators propped by regime change in other countries.
By now, even citizens would have realized how they can be easily entrapped by disinformation and misinformation primarily because they are lazy to draw parallels from incidents happening globally & compare them to what unfolds in Sri Lanka. Only a few citizens have been sharp enough to see and realize these dangers and kudos go to them for their efforts to educate the ignorant.
Everyone tasked for this objective are being used to make the country unstable. People are programmed to come screaming down the govt and the govt is forced to take some actions disadvantageous to the country & advantageous to those that orchestrated the chaos.
Is the picture getting clearer? None of the aragala supporters are ready to make these connections or even wonder if they too have been used at least the one’s who have not received handouts for their ‘drama’.
Thus, the colonial agenda continues in neocolonial formats.
Native cultures are targeted to be ridiculed & replace with theirs, ‘secular’ is being promoted to remove native religious identity & replace with theirs, native customs & traditions are subtly being replaced with their ‘liberal’ values and neo-liberal economic framework – all aimed at drawing people towards consumerisms & selfishness & away from a compassionate society.
Colonials had no sophisticated equipment. Neocolonials are returning to the countries they conquered with sophisticated equipment & technology to plunder what they could not do. Data colonization is what modern technology is all about. All resources of the world are being centralized electronically & under control of a handful to enjoy but charging the rest who have to pay to enjoy what nature has given us free.
Unfortunately, to our disappointment UNPATRIOTIC POLITICIANS who jump from side to side, get roped into various honey traps laid out by foreign intel (baits are money-women-power-positions). This compromises their commitment to the People and the Nation and since independence, their unpatriotic actions have eroded the level of statesmanship expected of elected representatives to lead Sri Lanka as they have succumbed to all the above scenarios.
The newest scenario is to replace politicians with civil society. With handover of resources to corporates to be run by civil society – the role of governance by government & politicians is removed. This is happening subtly without politicians realizing it or making the connections. Once they lose the ability to tax land or resources which falls into corporate hands & when civil society is tasked to do what they were doing, politicians become irrelevant & people will not have elections or a Parliament but a system advantageous to the corporates and civil society & NGOs who represent them to administer what the people can enjoy at a cost & nothing as welfare.
Corrupt politicians are being enticed to facilitate the corporate take over of national resources/assets while others are tasked to create the environment to justify its handover.
The politicians are the ‘takers’ while the ‘givers’ are the entities despatched by geopolitical lobbies to acquire Sri Lanka’s land & resources & assets. This is being done by attempting to privatize state land, by giving stand land on 99 year lease which means people of our generation will never see the return of this land or even be able to utilize it. The next option to counter numerous opposition is the public-private partnerships with the same heavy weight corporates who are given control of the resources & eventual share of the profits. SMEs stand little chance in partnering with the govt.
Confounding the PPP is when third parties like international monetary agencies who are the masters of the corporates enter to dictate how the project is run. 3 stakeholders with 3 sets of differing objectives are unlike to get anywhere near what the public wish to have delivered.
Scramble for Africa was when a handful of western countries took a pencil divided Africa amongst them, christened them with names and plundered Africa. The second phase of this plunder is continuing using technology & fancy neoliberal terms & initiatives justifying their presence. The exact same is happening with the Pivot to Asia. Asia is now the target.
Africa or Asia will never be allowed to rise on its terms. This is possible only if we realize who the true enemies are, who their ‘sepoys’ are and what kinds of googlys they throw at us to destabilize us and how we can counter these. To do that, we must be firm that this is our nation, the resources and assets are for this generation & future generations and that it is our duty to protect, preserve and foster them.
The previous version of this piece was written soon after the Mirihana Incident (31, March,2022) but I was unable to get it published due to some reasons which do not have any importance to the reader. Whilst accepting that during the past one month (in April) many developments had taken place beyond anybody’s control, I have prepared an edited version of the original article as it consists a preamble to a publication, I am compiling tentatively titled, From Mirihana to Galle Face Green”. Since things are unfolding in a rapid pace it is difficult to cluster them in an abridged form.
In the evening of March 31, as a friend my mine telephoned me that a large body of protesters had assembled at Jubilee Post Junction I just went there as an observer to observe what was happening. The protesters in their outward appearance and by the language they used seemed to belong to a cross section of middle and upper middle classes. In the midst of the simmering crowd I was able to identify a couple known to me, staunch haters of MR from the days of his presidency who later collaborated with the Yahapalanistsrejoicing at his downfall in 2015. Nearby was the house of a Yahapalana Minister, now an MP of SJB. It is true that some carried toddlers and the demonstrators were behaving peacefully at that time. But the slogans they chanted and what was written on the placards they carried were provocative and inciting people to rise against Rajapaksas. The biggest question is who drew this peaceful crowd towards Pengiriwatta Road to besiege President’s private residence. Earlier Hirunika Premachandra, the SJB defeated candidate had set an example for these protesters to proceed towards President’s private residence without any obstruction. This was the first security mishap in this whole series of events that unfurled for a few months then onwards. It was fascinating to watch mostly the women demonstrators taking selfies as they have done before at nine arches bridge at Demodera and immediately posting those photographs in social media platforms to say that with the hashtag, # I was there” or # me too”. Later this behaviour became the hallmark of all protesters.
News spread like a wild fire, thanks to FB friends. Protesters converged from Maharagama, Delkanda and Talapathpitiya areas and occupied the main road from Embuldeniya Junction up to Pengiriwatta. This was how a peaceful demonstration of middle and upper middle classes that started at Jubilee Post Junction peacefully was hijacked by some unidentified political elements and rabble rousers. Around midnight Embuldeniya Junction was set ablaze ruining the magnificently carpeted road and karanda trees planted on either side of the road which typified GR’s efforts in urban beautification. Parapet walls either side of the road were smashed and brickbats were used as projectiles to attack the security personnel. This was the first act of terrorism which the security functionaries failed to read and react. I was a witness to this mayhem until the wee hours of the following day. The rest is known to all.
So, this was the beginning. Gota Go Home” cry gathered momentum and was heard at every corner of the big city and suburbs. The grand conspiracy hatched from the day GR became the President was unleashed using INGO-trained tech-savvy youth as Pied Pipers. By carefully watching all the television footage and social media posts and identifying the men and women shown therein we were able to come into the conclusion that none of these celebrities who protested at the early stages of this protest campaign have languished in long gas and kerosene oil queues and had problems in feeding their kids. Most of these protesters who assembled in front of Nelum Pokuna, represent anglicised, pro-Western, comprador bourgeois interests who live in luxury apartments, who dine at luxury hotels, whose children attend either private denominational schools or international schools, having one foot here and the other in a Western country, who go on safari tours not to either Yala or Wilpattu as ordinary folk do, but to Maasai Mara in Kenya, Serengeti in Tanzania and Kruger National Park in South Africa. Some were on vacation, as furlough during the time of the Britishers! Those who came from Australia and the West to see their parents visited the protest sites just to upload their selfies. (This is not a figment of imagination of the writer; I stand for what I write).
Why this sudden change in behaviour of this privileged lot? The answer is a simple one. Its all economics and related to business and disturbances to their life styles; not love and solidarity to toiling masses who undergo severe hardships. It was an irony of history that these elitist groups protesting along with petty-bourgeoisie, toiling masses and different elements of the lumpen proletariat. Their main worry was ACs, pressure pumps and other gadgetry were not functioning due to power outages.
The culmination of these protests was the establishment of a Gota Go Gama”. If Ranasinghe Premadasa could an establish villages within villages which had a historical foundation giving those clusters of homes esoteric names why can’t a set of protesters do the same in the heart of the city? Evidence is not needed to state that most of the other protests held in the city and elsewhere and in front of the houses of ruling party politicos are organised by hidden hands affiliated to two well organised cadre-based political parties. Can the elite remember how they lived without electricity switching off lights when all the power houses were generating electricity to their full capacity fearing the bitter repercussions after receiving the chit” sent by the DJV, the military arm of the JVP in the late nineteen eighties? Are we to believe that class identities, class barriers, class consciousness and class distinctions were outstripped and antagonistic class contradictions between these classes were resolved overnight with the cry of Go Gota Home” campaign? But now we see this class except a few of the former top bureaucrats who helped the politicians of different colours and hues to feast over the cadaver of Mother Lanka and theoreticians who formulate absurd theoretical formulations to the present agitations have slowly and steadily retreated from the hotbeds of agitations. This class is craft enough to identify the wind direction and to have some rough gauge of wind intensity in advance. Very soon publications will appear as Linda Herrera’s Revolution in the Age of Social Media, The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet” (2014) for the consumption of the western pundits
We should be mindful that this so-called Aragalaya is not led by a Marxist party having workers and peasants as its nucleus providing leadership to a broad national united front. It is an unorganised loose outfit representing many interests, classes, ideologies and cultures. It is like a beach carnival with free entry and exit at will. I do not know whether they are knowledgeable of the Paris Commune, Bolshevik Revolution, Chinese Revolution or any other national liberation struggle. May be some are aware of the escapades of Che Guevara and the film The Motor Cycle Diaries”.
Can the government allow some miscreants to set up villages” like this, having its own administrative structures including a post office? If pro-LTTE elements try to set up villages” of this nature in North and East what would the government do?
Yuppies who were ignorant of political, economic, social and cultural change brought forth by SWRD were ungrateful that they blindfolded the bronze statue of SWRD sculptured by that great Soviet sculptor Lev Kerbal, Professor, academician and Vice-President of the then USSR Academy of Arts, a pioneer of Socialist Realism Sculpture, considered as a masterpiece of urban art by their own NGO godfathers. This was a gift by the people of former USSR to the people of Sri Lanka. An economic refugee domiciled in a Western country lamented that it should have been brought down. Even if this happens, we will not be surprised as we have seen statues of Lenin and Stalin brought down by regime changers and the names of great cities such as Leningrad and Stalingrad changing.
A USSR-trained sculptor who claims that he was taught by Kerbal giving an interview to a Sinhala Weekly glorified this vandalism, a man who did sculpting in Premadasa’s Udagam Carnival.
At the Gall Face agitation site posters were seen referring to Pornhub, a well- subscribed pornography portal. Protesters at the Polduwa Junction were asked to bring underwear and hang them on police barricades which male and female protesters did enthusiastically, calling it Nandeta Jangiyak” (lingerie to GR). Women protesters were keener to exhibit their high-end brands to fellow protesters. A well-respected medical specialist texted me that according to his psychiatric knowledge a used/old panty is a highly valuable object to perverts and within a few days all other garbage will remain by the roadside sans panties. Wikipedia describes this as underwear fetishism relating to undergarments and refers to preoccupation with the sexual excitement of underwear such as panties, stockings, pantyhose and bras. Some males can experience sexual excitement from wearing lingerie of women, while others get their excitement when observing, handling, smelling and of course exhibiting underwear worn by others or watching somebody putting underwear on or taking it off.
it’s better not to go into details of the contents of the songs sung, poems recited, posters and other visuals exhibited at these protest villages. This will be dealt in depth when we discuss the culture of protesters. A wreath carried Gota ta Nivan Dukha” as its condolence message. For Buddhists nibbana is the supreme bliss, not suffering as the protesters allude.it is unfortunate that the political monk, the local Ayatollah in saffron robes, who acts as the godfather of these protesters is blind to such sub-culture aspects emanating from the protest sites. (He was the one who protested against some radio plays produced in 2018 alleging that they were insulting Buddhism). Wearing Guy Fawkes masks is child’s play when one studies these sub-culture aspects emanating as not seen before.
What next? The call has now turned into ousting of all 225 lawmakers (except 3!) and the camping sites have encircled the perimeter of Diyawannawa. Very soon these protesters will have their own clandestine broadcasting and television stations as they are well funded by sources not unknown to the analysts who follow the present scenario. (Do not ask who will provide them with frequencies. See the enormity of funds pumped to Gota Go Gama”) As they have come to the perimeter of the Parliament how can one rule out them storming the Parliament electing their own government as now many claimants have appeared to rescue” the nation. I do not want to discuss this scenario any further and its consequences. As there are many claimants for leadership internecine, military crackdown, a reign of terror and anarchy cannot be ruled out. Will the middle and upper middle-class agitators at Mirihana enter the history as gravediggers of democracy in Sri Lanka?
Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Party Leadership Candidate – 2022
Dear Mr. Poilievre
Reference your “demand” for the arrest of Mr. Gothabaya Rajapakse, the former President of Sri Lanka, please explain what right you have to make any “demands” on politicians of Sri Lanka and the Government of Sri Lanka as well as the Government of Singapore. You were elected by Canadians, to represent them in Canada and not by Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka or Singaporeans in Singapore to represent them. You seem to have the delusion that you have a role in the election and government of Sri Lanka. You are also of the opinion that you can dictate to the Government of Singapore. This is to inform you that you are a Canadian politician, elected only to represent your electorate in the Canadian parliament and have no jurisdiction other than in Canada. Please remember this so you do not make this type of “demand” to other countries. You are just a Canadian politician. It is obvious that you are influenced by those in your electorate who have supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a group recognized as a terrorist group by the FBI. Your support of the LTTE makes you a supporter of terrorism in Sri Lanka.
The supporters of the terrorist group in Sri Lanka, the LTTE, was funded from Canada and Canadian politicians raised funds for the LTTE in Canada merely to get the votes of these supporters of Tamil terrorism in Canadian electorates. It is a reflection on the thinking and integrity of Canadian politicians that they provide funds and political support to terrorists, just not in Canada. Simply stated, you are a supporter of terrorism which is against the stated position of Canada that Canada is against the support of terrorism anywhere in the world.
There are several parts of your statement that illustrate your ignorance and bias regarding the LTTE. I choose one as an illustration – “Women and minorities in the northeast were already brutally impacted by war and military occupation”. For your information, it was not the Sri Lankan forces that oppressed the people of the north and east. It was the LTTE. This fact was illustrated when, at the final phase of the war to liberate people from the last stronghold of the LTTE, the Tamil population rushed into the areas under the control of the Sri Lankan forces. Would the thousands of ordinary Tamil civilians rush into areas controlled by the Sri Lankan forces at the first opportunity, if it was the Sri Lankan forces that oppressed them? They rushed towards the Sri Lankan forces to break free from the LTTE. If their choice was oppression by the LTTE they would have stayed with the LTTE, not run away from them so they could live free from LTTE oppression. Also, it was the Sri Lankan forces, directed by the Government of Sri Lanka, who looked after them, provided food and shelter to these thousands until they were able to relocate to safety. Did Canadian politicians do anything to help these people to get away from LTTE oppression or help them relocate away from the LTTE? The answer is an emphatic no, because Canadian politicians were mere stooges of the LTTE supporters in Canada and had no interest in helping those who were at the mercy of the LTTE terrorists and were oppressed by the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
I suggest that you get your facts correct and not merely parrot what you are told by the very people who funded and supported terrorism in Sri Lanka. It is obvious that you are ignorant of the situation in Sri Lanka both past and present. Please educate yourself and not merely repeat the inaccurate, biased information given to you by your LTTE constituents in Canada who are the very people who for decades funded terrorism in Sri Lanka. Canadian politicians who just want votes in Canada and have no concern for the people who live in Sri Lanka are willing to say and do whatever it takes hoping that they will get votes in Canada. That is a damning indictment on you. Have you any confirmation that they will vote for you after you debase yourself?
The people of Sri Lanka do not know you nor do they care to know you and should not have to suffer because of your myopic actions.
After seventy-four years of democratic Governments, within the framework of democracy, Sri Lanka has today declared bankruptcy, or on the verge of it, due to the lack of much-needed dollars to pay back debts to international organisations up to US 55 billion dollars. Global Organisations investigations reveal that out of the US$ 55 billion loans, Sri Lanka heads the list by fleecing 30 billion out of Sri Lanka.
We are not concerned about any person or Governments which are responsible for such deeds,” says Chanaka Senanayake (One Country Law Organisation) in a YouTube video, which is going viral internationally. Unfortunately, this video is not available anymore!
In his opinion, ‘there is a mechanism to get those dollars back to the country.’ The process is twofold. The United Nations and World Bank established an Institution in 2004 and named it ‘STAR’ (State Stolen Assets Recovery) in 2007. It was established under a special ‘Geneva Convention against Corruption.’ Since the establishment of this convention, ‘STAR’ has recovered illegal monies lying in foreign bank accounts in up to 259 countries so far.
Chanaka Senanayake requests the public and the Sri Lankan media (to question all 225 Parliamentarians -including the Opposition) what they have done so far about it? Instead of making groans about it whether they had even heard the name ‘STAR’ so far? It all came out because of Chanaka Senanayake after speaking to STAR officials.
Chanaka Senanayake relates an interesting story about the President of Guatemala (a military General) who received 67% of the vote base in the General Election. He plundered wealth up to the tune of billions of dollars using his brother’s and his friend’s names (from the time of Marcos in power in Phililliphines). According to his story, the President of Guatemala made use of imports of food items (especially sugar) and while the stocks were in the Guatemala Harbour, he reduced taxes so that his brothers, relations’ and importers benefitted.
Guatemala
The Opposition made a hue and cry constantly about the President’s corruption techniques but he simply brushed them under the carpet calling such accusations complete fabrications. Every time accusations erupted the President blamed his relations and importers rather than accepting himself. In the end, one young female suggested that they hold a calm protest surrounding his official residence. She requested one hundred people who sympathised with her to attend the protest, but to her amazement eleven thousand people gathered. The protesters were yelling that he was a fraud. Furthermore he fired the Deputy President and various ministers in his Cabinet. Meanwhile, the United Nations intervened and proved that he was guilty of transferring a huge sum of foreign currency to other safe havens. This was when the President of Guatemala had to resign.
The present ‘Aragalaya’ in Sri Lanka was akin to the non-partisan development in Guatemala, However criminals managed to intermingle with the protesters, entered the Presidential House, Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s (Residence – Temple Trees) and started looting and caused millions worth of damages to the properties. On May 9 Sri Lankan hooligans threw petrol bombs at many Government Ministers’ houses, including Ranil Wickremesinghe’s house and caused incendiarism. Lots of other buildings and vehicles were torched; some were seen carrying TV sets from the Presidential House.
Concerning the Sri Lankan struggle, unlike in Guatemala, the missing link was the absence of the United Nations appearance on the scene. To fill such a vacuum ‘saviour’ Chanaka Senanayake appeared on the scene to reveal what action could be taken by STAR.
He had done adequate groundwork to prepare for the looted money back to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka does not have to pay a single dollar or cent to get back swindled money. Today, it is very sad to see people suffering to the hilt with soaring food prices and the hospitals do not have adequate drugs to treat patients.
Chanaka Senanayake says there are two procedures to follow to invite STAR to intervene and help to get plundered sums back to the Treasury. The first step is by a new Government (All Party Government making a request), and secondly through the Civil Organisations or the Media appealing to STAR to make an early start.
Chanaka Senanayake says he has already written to the United Nations, the World Bank and the UN Dock on the premise that he would get one million signatures for the petition to recover the cheated money. He started collecting signatures from the Viharmahadevi Park at the beginning. What he says is sooner he gets one million signatures to be sent to STAR the process could enter the fast track and Sri Lanka could get US30 million dollars to Government coffers step by step as STAR finished its investigations.
He states that anyone may escape from Sri Lanka, but STAR will be able to find him wherever they are, and refund the ‘plundered’ money to the benefit of the Sri Lankans. He warns that it might not be a quick action as STAR needs to find where the hoarded monies lie, and therefore, it might take months until all the probes are completed but the main consolation is that Chanaka Senanayake has laid the foundation to recover the plundered money! It would be interesting to note whose names are there on STAR’s list of swindlers.
STAR’s fundamental policy is to get the robbed money by rulers or officials in any Government. Therefore, Chanaka opines: ‘Why should we maintain noiseless about it any further? Many associations work on such deceitful draining of money that belongs to people in many nations. At this very moment, he says we need dollars as our children are starving without any milk powder and the entire society is suffering immensely without petrol, and soaring consumer prices. He adds that ‘if we can get back at least fifteen billion out of the thirty billion defrauded from Sri Lanka, then we would be in an advanced position to arrange Sri Lankan affairs systematically.
Out of the Asian countries that have sought the assistance of STAR were Malaysia and Pakistan. According to world statistics, the highest number of dollars that were swindled was 1.2 million thus Sri Lanka comes up on top of the list of swindled money totalling 30 billion. Senanayake says it is a national crime when people are starving and suffering incalculably. Therefore, Senanayake says to come forward and sign the petition as quickly as possible to get the money back to the Sri Lankan treasury.
One million signatures
Chanaka Senanayake says Sri Lanka has intentions to get further loans from the IMF and the World Bank, but he has not asked them not to grant loans because it might be a wicked inhumane crime. But before granting any loans to Sri Lanka he has requested the IMF and World Bank to include conditions so that no one will be able to swindle loaned monies. The UN has its inbuilt frame of such legalities.
Further, Senanayake says he has already invited the Law Society in Sri Lanka to arrange the legal framework and the Law Society has agreed to his request. He states that protests alone are not adequate, but there should be some effective means so that the swindlers will get worried when they realise that they are going to lose their billions. Therefore, Senanayke urges the public to help him to get one million signatures. One missing link in his appeal was that he did not make the petition online or give an email address or a telephone number to contact his association. It would have helped to fill well over a million signatures as the general public with their suffering is fed up with their teeth!
Chanaka Senanayake further states legal monies could be deposited in banks in the British Virgin Islands, Panama Papers or any other off-shore bank account as far as they are legally earned money according to each country’s existing regulations but certainly not theblack or stolen money.
The recently released Q2 data of the House Price Index of LankaPropertyWeb revealed that the overall selling prices of apartments increased by 45.17% when compared to Q2 of 2021. According to developers and real estate agents that LankaPropertyWeb has been in contact with, these price increases are largely a cause of the demand created for real estate as a hedging against inflation, shortage in raw material and skyrocketing construction costs.
Mainly the devaluation of the Rupee against the US Dollar and the shortage and high priced raw materials have shifted people’s behavior since March 2022, with them preferring to buy houses or apartments rather than build a home. The uncertainties of obtaining raw materials and rising interest rates for home loans have also contributed to this behavior.
Average property prices according to the Sri Lanka House Price Index
A study on the overall asking prices of houses in Sri Lanka showed prices had increased by 21.85% when compared to Q2 of 2021. Houses for sale in the North-West Province recorded the highest increase of 31.2% from Q1 of 2022, followed by Colombo house prices that had risen by 13.9% during the same period.
Meanwhile, the prices of apartments for sale in Colombo had increased by 32.9% in Q2 of 2022 when compared to Q2 of 2021. This phenomenon takes place simultaneously at the same time as the country has battled the pandemic since Dec 2020 and foreign exchange (FOREX) issues that worsened towards the end of 2021.
According to LankaPropertyWeb’s Development Consultancy and Research team data, the top 5 searches for apartments for sale were from Colombo 6, Colombo 5, Rajagiriya, Colombo 3 and Colombo 2, respectively.
Increasing prices of raw materials for construction from 2018 to 2020
Meanwhile, data from the Construction Industry Development Authority showed that the average price of a 50Kg cement bag sold by public and private dealers has increased by 187% from June 2021 to June 2022. The same increased by 98% from January 2022 to June 2022.
Home loan interest rates that recorded lowest at 7% p.a after decades during Q3 2021, have also been increasing with its current highest being at 22% and negatively influencing property buying decisions of first-time homebuyers.
In addition to this, LankaPropertyWeb’s recent studies on the Land Price Index (based on asking prices) also show that the rate of land prices increasing on a quarter to quarter basis in Colombo city has slowed down over the past quarters. Lands for sale in Colombo 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 recorded the slowest percentage increase in prices in the last five years. While the rate of prices increasing in lands for sale in Colombo 9, 13 and 15 were at a peak of 113%, 87% and 47% respectively during Q1 2018 to Q1 2022. This is mainly due to the construction of many mixed development projects that are expected to drive prices further in the future.
Elsewhere in the Western Province (except Colombo 1-15), per perch prices of lands for sale in Ingiriya and Horana, which once had the lowest rate of price increases, have seen the highest increases and lands which had the highest prices, such as prime Colombo areas, have seen the prices stagnate or drop between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022.
With the Central Bank’s (CBSL) decision to float LKR in March 2022 and due to the inflation surge to a record high, we saw a rapid increase in demand for completed condos in primary and secondary markets as well as for the houses as a hedge against economic calamity. Especially expats’ interest in Sri Lankan real estate increased to gain in the Rupee devaluation. This behavior was further recorded on LankaPropertyWeb portal that in fact saw a surge in search traffic from countries such as the UK, Australia, USA, Canada, and UAE,” added Tharindu Jayarathne, Head of Research at LankaPropertyWeb.
In addition to this, according to the press release of the Prime Minister’s office on 31/05/2022 proposed tax reforms, the exemption granted on Value Added Tax (VAT) on residential condominiums shall be removed from 01/10/2022. This is expected to drive prices in the future when buying apartments directly from the developers and considering the probability of VAT being imposed in the near future. Thus, now is a good time for buyers willing to invest in apartments to plan ahead before VAT comes in.
Issuing a clarification on Sri Lanka lifting the ban imposed on several Tamil diaspora organisations, the Defence Ministry says that such inclusions and exclusions for blacklisted individuals and organizations are routinely carried out by relevant authorities after observation and careful study over a continuous period of time.
According to the blacklisting and delisting of persons, 577 individuals and 18 organizations were blacklisted in the year 2021 for financing terrorism under the United Nations Regulation No. 01 of 2012, it said today.
After a series of discussions and careful study conducted at the Ministry of Defence by a committee consisting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Attorney General’s Department, key Intelligence Agencies, Law Enforcing Agencies and Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and based on reports and evidences with regard to the financing terrorism by individuals and organizations, recommendations were submitted for the listing and delisting, it said.
Accordingly, among the aforesaid 577 individuals and 18 organizations, a decision was made to delist 316 individuals and 06 organizations since they no longer continue to fund terrorist activities,” the ministry said.
Furthermore, it has been decided to blacklist 55 individuals and 03 organizations those recently recognized as active in financing terrorism during the period, it said in a communiqué today.
Thus, forwarding the recommendation of the Ministry of Defence to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 29, 2022 for their consent, 316 individuals and 15 organizations were blacklisted on August 1, 2022 by Extraordinary Gazette No. 2291/02.
Such inclusions and exclusions for blacklisted individuals and organizations are routinely carried out by relevant authorities after observation and careful study over a continuous period of time.”
Relevant authorities remain to be vigilant on the activities of the delisted individuals and organizations and will ban them again, if raising of funds for financing terrorism is resumed,” the Ministry of Defence further said.
Britain has launched a scheme to extend tariff cuts to hundreds of products, such as clothes and food, from developing countries including Sri Lanka, part of London’s post-Brexit efforts to set up systems to replace those run by the European Union.
The UK’s new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) is one of the most generous sets of trading preferences of any country in the world, and will benefit Sri Lanka by boosting the economy and supporting jobs,” the British High Commissioner in Colombo Sarah Hulton said.
She said Sri Lanka will continue to benefit from duty free exports to the UK on more than 80% of products and that the DCTS will remove tariffs on over 150 additional products.
It will also simplify some seasonal tariffs, meaning additional and simpler access for Sri Lanka’s exports to the UK.
In June, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted to start a new trade system to reduce costs and simplify rules for 65 developing countries to replace the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences, which applies import duties at reduced rates.
Trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the Developing Countries Trading scheme (DCTS) would extend tariff cuts to hundreds more products exported from developing countries, a system, she said, that goes further than the EU scheme.
As an independent trading nation, we are taking back control of our trade policy and making decisions that back UK businesses, help with the cost of living, and support the economies of developing countries around the world,” Trevelyan said in a statement.
UK businesses can look forward to less red tape and lower costs, incentivising firms to import goods from developing countries.”
The DCTS covers 65 countries including Sri Lanka, simplifies rules such as rules of origin, which dictate what proportion of a product must be made in its country of origin, and removes some seasonal tariffs, such as making cucumbers tariff-free in the winter.
Products that are not widely produced in the UK, like olive oil and tomatoes, will also have lower or zero tariffs, making them cheaper to import.
The scheme also simplifies complex trade rules, including so-called rules of origin, making it easier for businesses in countries like Bangladesh to export clothes to the UK.
Duties will also be reduced by 14 per cent on bikes from the South Asian nation, 12 per cent on T-shirts for Cambodia, 12 per cent on baby clothes from Sri Lanka, eight per cent on roses from Ethiopia and eight 8 per cent on onions from Senegal.
Broadly, the scheme will ensure British businesses benefit from more than £750m a year of reduced import costs, which the Department for International Trade said would lead to more choice and lower costs for UK consumers to help with the cost of living.
Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan highlighted the fact the scheme goes further than its EU equivalent, adding: As an independent trading nation, we are taking back control of our trade policy and making decisions that back UK businesses, help with the cost of living, and support the economies of developing countries around the world.
UK businesses can look forward to less red-tape and lower costs, incentivising firms to import goods from developing countries.”
The scheme replaces the UK Generalised Scheme of Preferences, which was rolled over from EU membership, and will come into force in early 2023.
It covers 37 countries in Africa, 18 in Asia, eight in Oceania and two in the Americas.
Sri Lanka is among 8 countries under the scheme’s Enhanced Framework that will receive a preference of 0% import tariffs on two-thirds of product lines”.
Bolivia, Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines and Uzbekistan are the other countries under the Enhanced Framework.
The scheme reduces and removes those tariffs reduced or removed by the EU GSP.
Read the UK government policy paper on Developing Countries Trading Scheme here.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe says that the State of Emergency, which is scheduled to lapse by the end of this week, will not be extended.
As the country’s situation is back to normal, I will not extend the State of Emergency which is scheduled to lapse by the end of this week,” he said today (16).
The President stated this while addressing the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka – 2022” awards ceremony held at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in Colombo today (16).
President Ranil Wickremasinghe expresses confidence that the current state of emergency will be lifted by the end of this week.
Pointing out that the country is currently at a stable level, he also points out that there is no need to extend the state of emergency.
Speaking further, President Wickremasinghe pointed out that many measures are currently being taken for the building of the country and support from all parties is needed for that.
He also mentioned that the government is focusing on establishing a diaspora office in Sri Lanka in order to get the support of the diaspora to Sri Lanka.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Minister of Justice Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament Eran Wickramaratne, former Minister John Amaratunga, President of the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka Dulitha Perera, General Secretary Upali Jayawardena and others attended the event.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is spending for his current foreign travels through his personal funds and not through state funds, the Government Information Department said today.
Issuing a statement, it said former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa does not spend government money on any expenses he makes abroad and that all such expenses shall be borne by the personal funds of the former President.
At the press conference held today (16) at the Government Information Department’s auditorium to announce the weekly cabinet decisions, media persons had raised a question about the foreign expenses of the former President, who is currently in Thailand after brief stays in Maldives and Singapore.
Minister Bandula Gunawardena’s response that former and current presidents are legally entitled to certain privileges, had been reported by some media in a manner that insinuates that state funds were being spent for the foreign expenses of the former president, the communiqué said.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa informed that the reports published by some media about his overseas expenses are incorrect and emphasized that his personal funds are spent for all the expenses.
The coterie of people chanting ‘democracy’ and in particular speaking about age limits and term limits of others ignore that the same has to apply to them. Take some of these NGOs and Media heads – they have been heading their organizations for over 25 years! What kind of ‘democracy’ is this?
Here are a few of the main NGOs/Civil Society heads who have something to complain about Sri Lanka at all times. For over 25 years they have been wailing the same sod stories promoting negativity amongst the masses and carrying tales of woe to the international community.
JEHAN PERERA
Executive Director
National Peace Council since 1995
27 YEARS HEADING THIS NGO
PAKIASOTHY SARAVANAMUTTHU
Executive Director Centre for Policy Alternatives since 1996
26 YEARS HEADING THIS NGO
SARVODAYA
Started as a family movement & continues, though championing against nepotism.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Some of the main English media editors have been holding posts for over 25 years.
These are a handful of examples to highlight that spotlight must also turn to these entities that are always pointing fingers at others while they are themselves not transparent.
These entities collaborate with each other to do major harm. They are given columns on account of the advertising they give to media & these columns for decades have been used to always pitch a one-sided version and brainwash readers or viewers. For decades these individuals in their role for decades have been playing the same broken record.
They call for removal of people on account of their ages and citing need for term limits while they are glued to their chairs!
If they can hold placards and produce blueprints for others, shouldn’t these same checklists apply to them?
Are there no other suitable candidates to take over their roles – are these titles to be held by them eternally? What happened to meritocracy and promotion?
Byline Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, Senior Fellow, The Millennium Project asangaaa@gmail.com
UN reform to make the international organization more future-oriented was assessed by 189 futurists and related international experts from 54 countries. They overwhelmingly endorsed and will support the five foresight elements of Our Common Agenda, as an integrated and interdependent system: the success of each one affects the success of all the others. The five elements are:
• UN Futures Lab
• UN Summit on the Future
• UN Envoy for Future Generations
• Periodic UN Strategic Foresight and Global Threats reports
• Re-purposed UN Trusteeship Council as a Multi-Stakeholder Foresight Body
…Humanity faces a stark and urgent choice: a breakdown or a breakthrough,” says UN Secretary-General António Guterres.” Our Common Agenda details how the UN can play its part in creating breakthroughs and preventing breakdowns. It is expected to be discussed at the UN General Assembly annual meeting next month.
If the five foresight elements in Our Common Agenda are implemented along the lines of our study, it could be the greatest advance for futures research and foresight in history,” says Jerome C. Glenn, CEO of The Millennium Project.
The report: Five UN Foresight Elements of Our Common Agenda Results of a Real-Time Delphi Study is available at:
I give you the relevant news item below as it was rereported. Posted on August 14th, 2022 Ada derana
Sri Lanka lifts ban on six Tamil diaspora organizations. The Government of Sri Lanka has lifted the ban imposed on six international Tamil organizations by the previous Government”.
In my opinion this is a very serious and dangerous a move against the National Security of this country. that will have far reaching implications. Because obviously it opens the gates for a resurrection of the LTTE. Which mean the present Government has betrayed the 2009 May victory over the most cruel and dangerous Terrorist outfit in the world.
Therefore, in the first place, I would like to find out as to on whose direction this decision was taken.at a time the whole country is on fire with far more serious national problems the Gov has to tackle first as priority business in order to overcome human suffering and a major uprising. whether this decision has got the approval of the Cabinet and the Parliament. Also has to be probed
If the answer is no, then the President has to withdraw his decision immediately and restore it to its previous status quo. If the President refuse to do so then the Parliament may have to take firm decision in the name of the Security of the country.
None of the MPP who disagree with such course of action is fit to be in Parliamen.t
The Government of Sri Lanka has lifted the ban imposed on six international Tamil organisations.
This is through an Amendment to the List of Designated Persons under Regulation 4(7) of the United Nations Regulations No. 1 of 2012.
According to the Defence Ministry, a total of 577 persons and 18 entities were Listed under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373.
Accordingly, 316 persons and 06 entities have been De Listed from the Designated List.
Entities De Listed from the Designated List:
01. Australian Tamil Congress (ATC)
02. Global Tamil Forum (GTF)
03. World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC)
04. Tamil Eelam Peoples Assembly (TEPA)
05. Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC)
06. British Tamil Forum (BTF)
The List of Designated Persons published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 1992/25 of November 9, 2016, is hereby amended.
By Indrajit Samarajiva Courtesy The New York Times
As a Sri Lankan, I find watching international news coverage of my country’s economic and political implosion is like showing up at your own funeral, with everybody speculating on how you died.
The Western media accuses China of luring us into a debt trap. Tucker Carlson says environmental, social and corporate governance programs killed us. Everybody blames the Rajapaksas, the corrupt political dynasty that ruled us until massive protests by angry Sri Lankans chased them out last month.
But from where I’m standing, ultimate blame lies with the Western-dominated neoliberal system that keeps developing countries in a form of debt-fueled colonization. The system is in crisis, its shaky foundations exposed by the tumbling dominoes of the Ukraine war, resulting in food and fuel scarcity, the pandemic and looming insolvency and hunger rippling across the world.
Sri Lanka is Exhibit A. We were once an economic hope, with an educated population and a median income among the highest in South Asia. But it was an illusion. After 450 years of colonialism, 40 years of neoliberalism, and four years of total failure by our politicians, Sri Lanka and its people have been beggared.
The former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa deepened our debt problems, but the economy has been structurally unsound across administrations. We simply import too much, export too little and cover the difference with debt. This unsustainable economy was always going to collapse.
But we are just the canary in the coal mine. The entire world is plugged into this failing system, and the pain will be widespread.
Here’s how the past few months have felt.
I have a car, which has now turned into a giant paperweight. Sri Lanka literally ran out of gas, so my kids asked if they could play inside the vehicle. That’s all it is good for. Getting fuel required waiting for days in spirit-crushing queues. I gave up. I got around by bus or bicycle. Most of the economy stopped moving at all. Now fuel has been rationed, but irrationally. Rich people get enough fuel for gas-guzzling S.U.V.s while working taxis don’t get enough and owners of tractors struggle to get anything at all.
The rupee has lost almost half its value since March, and many goods are out of stock. You learn to react at the first sign of trouble: When power cuts started a few months ago, my wife and I bought an expensive rechargeable fan; days later, they were sold out. When fuel cuts became dire, we immediately bought bicycles, and the next day their price went up. Staples like rice, vegetables, fish and chicken have soared in price.
Many Sri Lankans are going on one meal a day; some are starving. Every week brings to my door a new class of people reduced to begging to survive.
I earn in dollars as a writer online, so when the rupee depreciated and was devalued, I effectively got a raise. We can afford solar and battery backups to keep the power on. But many others are at the mercy of blackouts. People couldn’t work as factories and other workplaces shut down, and children couldn’t sleep in the heat. The first major protests kicked off in March after a full night of this, when it seemed that the entire country was sleep-deprived and furious.
Last month, protesters breached the presidential residence and prime minister’s office, and it was the one thing that felt good. Along with thousands of ordinary Sri Lankans, I got to see inside these colonial-era fortresses for the first time. It was spontaneous, safe and respectful. Couples went on dates there; parents took their kids. I saw people singing in the president’s house, a mother dancing with her toddler, people swimming in the pool. I walked around a hall lined with plaques bearing the names of British colonizers, which seamlessly became the names of our own presidents.
At the prime minister’s office, someone played the piano, and a shirtless man draped in a Sri Lankan flag slept on a couch. Four guys had set up a game of carrom and were flicking the discs around. A child joyfully cartwheeled across the lawn outside, and a community kitchen served rice to anyone who was hungry. It was a beautiful sight in a space where elites nibbled on canapés before, surrounded by armed guards. It felt hopeful.
But what had briefly felt like true democracy didn’t last. Parliament merely replaced Mr. Rajapaksa with one of his cronies, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had been prime minister a handful of times but lost his parliamentary seat in 2020. He has turned the military on demonstrators and arrested protesters and trade unionists. It’s all been constitutional,” eroding faith in the whole liberal democratic system.
Sri Lanka — like so many other countries struggling for solvency — remains a colony with administration outsourced to the International Monetary Fund. We still export cheap labor and resources and import expensive finished goods — the basic colonial model. The country is still divided and conquered by local elites, while real economic control is held abroad. The I.M.F. has extended loans to Sri Lanka 16 times, always with stringent conditions. It just keeps restructuring us for further exploitation by creditors.
And as much as the West blames Chinese predatory lending, only 10 to 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is owed to China. The majority is owed to U.S. and European financial institutions or Western allies like Japan. We died in a largely Western debt trap.
It’s going to get worse: The I.M.F. just warned that the likelihood of a global recession is growing. As economies collapse, Western loans simply won’t get repaid, and poor nations will crash out of the dollar system that props up Western lifestyles. Then, even Americans won’t be able to money-print their way out of trouble. It’s already begun. Sri Lanka has started settling loans in Indian rupees, and India is buying Russian oil in rubles. China may buy Saudi oil with yuan.
The Sri Lankan uprising that threw out our leaders is called the Aragalaya. It means struggle.” It’s going to be a long one, and it’s spreading across the world.
The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka will hold a welcoming ceremony for the arrival of the Chinese Yuan Wang 5 scientific research vessel at the port of Hambantota, a source close to the matter told the Global Times on Monday.
“The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka will hold a simple but warm welcoming ceremony on the premise of epidemic prevention and control,” the source said.
According to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yuan Wang 5 was cleared to dock at Hambantota port from Tuesday to August 22 after the government “engaged in extensive consultations at a high level through diplomatic channels with all parties concerned,” Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
At Monday’s media briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin confirmed that Sri Lanka has granted permission for Yuan Wang 5 to dock.
A separate source told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that Yuan Wang 5 is China’s third-generation space-tracking ship. Survey vessels are an important part of the aerospace measurement and control network. Compared with land surveying stations, survey vessels can flexibly select and deploy stations on the vast oceans, and maneuver emergency monitoring and control, the source said.
The vessel was scheduled to dock at the port of Hambantota on August 11, but India had continuously pressured Sri Lanka to defer the arrival of the Chinese vessel, citing so-called national security concerns.
In response, Wang Wenbin said at a routine media briefing on August 8 that Sri Lanka is a transportation hub in the Indian Ocean, and scientific research vessels from various countries including China have made port calls in Sri Lanka for replenishment. China always exercises freedom of the high seas in accordance with law and fully respects coastal countries’ jurisdiction over scientific research activities in waters under their jurisdiction.
It is completely unjustified for certain countries to cite so-called security concerns to pressure Sri Lanka, Wang said, noting that as the country grapples with economic and political difficulties, grossly interfering in its normal exchange and cooperation with other countries exploits its vulnerability, which is morally irresponsible and goes against the basic norms governing international relations.
While de-listing six Tamil international organizations including the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and 317 individuals, the government has added 55 new individuals and three more organizations to the banned list as part of this year’s review, informed sources said.
According to the gazette notification issued on July 28 this year signed by Defence Ministry Secretary General
(Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne ban on Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC),TAMIL Eelam Peoples Assembly (TEPA), British Tamil Forum (BTF) and Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), have been lifted.there were 18 entities that were listed as banned organizations in Sri Lanka.
At the same time a ban on 317 individuals out of 577 individuals, has been lifted. GTF Spokesman Suren Surendiranan is also among those de-listed.
The ban was retained on fifteen entities including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),TAMIL Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ) and Save the Pearl.
According to UN resolution 1373 (adopted in 2001), UN member states should appoint a Competent Authority and it should recommend to the Minister of the respective country, regarding the removal of the names of any person, group or entity designated from the List every year after reviewing each and every entity and individual.
Speaking to Daily Mirror, a senior military official said that the listing or de-listing process should be carried out following a thorough investigation into those entities and individuals and it should be reviewed every year.
It is totally dependant on law enforcement authorities and nothing to do with the politicians, as each country should clearly produce evidence about those entities/individuals whether they financed terrorism or not during each year,” the official confirmed.
In response to the reason for de-listing the influential Tamil diaspora organization Global Tamil Forum, the official confirmed that during last year there had been no evidence that the above organization financed terrorism-related matters.
Sri Lanka’s death toll from Covid-19 climbed to 16,624 today after the Director General of Health Services confirmed 03 more Covid-19 related deaths in the country for yesterday (Aug 14).
Two victims were aged 60 years and above, and the remaining one was aged between 30-59 years, according to the Govt. Information Department. One victim was a male and the other two were females.
Meanwhile, another 129 new Covid-19 infections have been identified in the country today (Aug. 15).
This brings the total number of Covid cases detected in the country thus far to 668,141.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the public sector officials to strictly adhere to the circular issued by the Treasury earlier this year to limit government expenditures.
Pakistan Navy Ship (PNS) ‘Taimur’ which arrived at the port of Colombo on an official visit on 12th August 2022, set sail from the island after successful conduct of a Passage Exercise with Sri Lanka Navy Ship (SLNS) “;Sindurala” today (15th August).
Sri Lanka Navy bade customary farewell to the departing ship in accordance with naval traditions at the port of Colombo. Subsequently, PNS ‘Taimur’ conducted the Passage Exercise with SLNS “Sindurala” off Colombo harbour, on her departure. As such, the two ships conducted maneuvering and Search and Rescue exercises off Colombo harbour.
Exercise of this nature will pave the way for regional partners to enhance interoperability, partnerships and goodwill as well as exchange best practices with foreign navies when responding to common maritime challenges.
The alarm bells had been ringing for some time in Sri Lanka. The island nation is strategically located at the center of the Indian Ocean on the busiest trade and Undersea Data Cables routes in the world and hence perpetually in the cross-hairs of big power rivalry.
For those who missed the signs if not the red flags; ripples caused by the US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s Pivot to Asia last week announced loud and clear that colonialism and Cold War are back, big time in the mythical Free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Island nations from Taiwan to Solomon Islands, and the illegally occupied Chagos islands that house the Diego Garcia military base are being used for target practice amid environmentally destructive militarization once again.
Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan was in the wake of the setting up of AUKUS last year as if the QUAD or Quadrilateral Group which comprises Australia, Japan, US and India was not enough, in addition an estimated 40 US military bases to contain China and the Belt and Road Initiative.[i]
Following remote instructions, the US-backed regime in Sri Lanka last week informed a Chinese research ship with Satellite tracking capability that was due to dock in the southern Hambantota Port to defer its trip. This was just when Yuan Wang-5 which also has intercontinental ballistic missile tracking capability was entering Sri Lanka’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone.
Yuan Wang 5’s docking was delayed after India and the US Ambassador, Julie Chung, had raised concerns about the ship in a meeting with President Ranil Rajapakse. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), refers to the Hambantota Port as one of the Indian Ocean String of Pearls”, along with Chittagong in Bangladesh, Sittwe in Myanmar, and Gwadar ports in Pakistan.
Debt, Default, Greenwash or Hybrid Economic War
Signs of the escalation of Cold War geopolitics in scenic Sri Lanka, one of South Asia’s wealthiest countries that was classified as an Upper Middle Income Country (MIC), by the World Bank in 2019 have been apparent for a while.
The country was declared ‘bankrupt’ a couple of months ago by an Economic Hitman who became president in a deft ‘regime change’ operation after a Staged Default enabled the entry of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) into the strategic island in April this year.
As Sri Lanka negotiates a Staff-level Agreement” with the IMF, it seems to be fully remote controlled from Washington DC with New Delhi as a junior partner. The country is already in structural adjustment mode and being readied for an IMF Firesale and asset stripping as part of a bailout” of US and EU-based International Sovereign Bond (ISB) holders.
Although China is routinely blamed for debt trap lending, almost fifty percent of Sri Lanka’s $26 billion external debt is held by ISBs. They caused the odious debt trap, default and financial melt-down, ironically, also due to a purported lack of exorbitantly privileged” US dollars to buy Oil and Gas from sanctions hit Russia and Iran! These same opaque bondholders stand to benefit from the sale of assets in the strategic island. The Sri Lankan Airline is set to be privatized soon and the state-owned Yugadanavi Power plant was sold to a US company, New Fortress, last year.
The IMF does not recognize the difference between ‘illiquidity’ and ‘insolvency’, or the fact that location, location, location” matters in valuing assets, particularly, or the fact the island’s mineral-rich sea bed has UDC data cables that keep the global financial and economic system going, and if taxed would render the country super rich!
According to some United Nations agencies, Sri Lanka is now a potential victim of famine and may soon be listed as a Least Developed Country (LCD), like Haiti. This would enable Debt for Nature Swaps (DFNS), and humanitarian disaster capitalism promoted by the UNDP. This despite the fact that local communities would be impoverished and deprived of access to forests, fisheries and marine resources in the name of environmental conservation’.
Beware the clean energy and organic fertilizer Greenwash that have caused food and fuel shortages and economic meltdown in a country with a minute carbon footprint, while the environmental impacts of the global military-business industrial complex remains the elephant in the room of the ‘Anthropocene climate catastrophe’ discourse.
There seems to a miss-fit between the economic disaster narrative and the data and ground reality: It is increasingly clear that Sri Lanka’s financial meltdown may have other roots/routes beside certain corruption by successive regimes in Colombo.
Over the Horizon Operations: Chinese Experiment-3
Over the Horizon (OTH), hybrid war operations have been apparent in the island ever since the mysterious 2019 Easter attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS), that targeted the environs of South Asia’s busiest port, the Colombo harbor and adjacent Chinese investments, as well as, Sri Lanka’s tourism dependent economy and multi-religious society.
Four scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences scheduled to board the “Experiment 3” research vessel at the port of Colombo to carry out joint research with local scientists were confirmed dead after the Easter attacks. Li Jian (38), senior engineer of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, senior engineer Pan Wenliang (35) Chinese Academy of Sciences, assistant researcher Li Dawei (30) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the doctoral student Wang Liwei (28) were killed at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo. They had arrived in Sri Lanka on April 18, 2019.
The Easter bombers also targeted the Hong Kong Chinese-owned luxury Hotel Shangri-La and Sri Lanka’s tourism-dependent economy in a hybrid war attack. Although the purported reason for the crime was religious, the leader of the group, Zaharan Hashim died at a luxury hotel!
Colombo’s Shangri-La was built on land where the Sri Lanka military headquarters once stood, overlooking South Asia’s busiest port and trade hub which was also protected by the iconic St. Anthony’s Church that was also bombed. The soon to be commissioned Chinese Port city built on reclaimed land was adjacent to the Colombo port.
The Easter suicide attacks that targeted hotels and churches were staged by locally networked external actors while the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Status of Forces (SOFA) agreement were being discussed, and were believed to be a pretext for setting up a US ‘lily pad base’ to purportedly fight Islamic Terrorism in the Indian Ocean region.
Like the devastating explosion in Lebanon’s strategic Beirut Harbour in 2020, there have been endless cover up ‘investigations’ into the 2019 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka by local and foreign intelligence agencies. The identity of the mastermind of the hybrid war style crimes remain elusive.
Militarization amid Fishy Lockdowns and Blockades
Over a hundred pilot whales were stranded on southern beaches of Sri Lanka, with many dying during the Malabar War Games staged by the QUAD in October 2020, a year after the IS claimed Easter attacks. The stranding of so many Whales due to the sonar disturbance was unprecedented.
The Malabar exercises were followed by 2 mysterious burning ships– the MV Pearl and the MT Diamond – spilling oil and other deadly cargo eon the east and west coasts of the island in 2020 and 2021. The MV Pearl sank just outside the Colombo Port.
The months of curfews and lockdowns in the wake of the Easter attacks in 2019 seem like a dry run for almost two years of ill-advised economically devastating Covid-19 Lockdown and militarized mass injection policies by the Rajapakse regime in 2020 and 2021, albeit on the advice of the World Health Organization. These dealt a devastating blow to the country’s economy.
So too the island’s impoverished fisheries communities lost livelihoods for many months, indeed years as a result of various ‘disasters’ ever since the mysterious Easter 2019 attacks that targeted coastal regions. These lockdowns and blockades were enforced ironically by the Sri Lankan Navy (which is constantly receiving foreign training), against the island’s fisheries communities enable Distant Water Fishing State ‘aid donors’ like France, Japan, Korea, and EU trawler companies to fish literally and metaphorically in Sri Lanka’s strategic seas.
Sri Lanka is constantly visited and its Navy trained in inter-operability” by various foreign powers seeking a foothold in the country while citizens are often kept in (Covid-19) lockdowns and blockades. At other times the SL Navy follows external orders, arresting citizens in the EEZ while the country’s fisheries resources are looted by Distant Water Fishing States (DWFS) and their trawler companies.
Thus the price of fish hit record highs, indeed was unaffordable, in an island with fifteen times more marine extent than land. In 2022 following Covid-19 lockdown precedent, fuel shortages and embargos again devastated the livelihoods of coastal fisheries communities who were unable to operate their boats due to the fuel embargo enforced in the island by external actors and their local economic hit men.”
US Marines in Sea Vision Operations
The various lockdown and blockades imposed on Sri Lankan citizens and the fisheries communities during various bio- war games by big powers reached its peak this year in June-July during the US Department of Defense ‘Sea Vision’ training operation by US marines when the island was effectively shut down due to an oil and gas blockade.
While the US Marines under a US Department of Defense program carried out Sea Vision” Operations, purportedly trained the SL Navy, ships bringing Russian oil had disappeared mysteriously into thin air.
The US had imposed sanctions of Russia following the Ukraine war, but many countries have been de-dollarizing and continue to buy oil and gas from Russia, while India has set up a currency swap widow to trade in rupees and rubles. However, the island at the center of the Indian Ocean was under US-India and Quad air and sea embargo and blockade with planes diverted to South India as the Sea Vision operation proceeded.
While the Indian Oil Company made massive profits selling small amounts of oil in fuel during the embargo, citizens starved of oil and gas protested, and the economy was shut down while an International Monetary Fund (IMF), team with Special Advisors from Washington was in Colombo!
Thus it came to pass, that Ranil Wickramasinghe, Washington’s Economic Hit man who became President in an Arab Spring Protest Playbook regime change operation less than three months ago, declared the country with the best Human Development and Social Indicators and one of South Asia’s wealthiest, bankrupt– with relish — shortly after taking office, while promising 15 hour-power cuts, zero fuel, and famine.
Conclusion: Yuan Wang to dock and IMF to bailout BlackRock
The thriller narrative around the mysterious Yuan Wang-5’s arrival in Sri Lanka has ended for the time being. Colombo has declaring that New Delhi and Washington had “failed to give concrete reasons” for why they opposed the arrival, of the high-tech Chinese tracking vessel Yuan Wang 5. The ship will dock at the Hambantota International Port on August 16, five days behind its original scheduled visit and we must hope that there will not be any explosions at Hambantota Port!
It is increasingly clear that the so-called free and open Indo-Pacific” is a device to contain China and the BRI for global connectivity and infrastructure development.
In Sri Lanka the game with the Yuan Wang 5 ship is also related to ongoing IMF negotiations to bailout of Sovereign Bond traders, like BlackRock. The IMF controlled by the US and G-7, is making new transparency demands from countries in Western debt traps, seemingly to target the new Asian donors like India, China and the members of the New Development Bank. The later have resisted joining the Western Paris Club debt restructuring process, preferring to deal bi-laterally with development partners.
The Chinese and Indian approach to debt restructuring also enables great policy autonomy and sovereignty for debt trapped countries, rather than the IMF approach of enforcing convergence of all debt holders in a debt restructuring process designed to benefit the BlackRocks and Hamilton Reserve Banks of the world and Global One percent, and enable asset stripping of Global South countries.
Ironically, while the IMF claims to promote transparency the ISB holders whose interests it represents in so-called debt restructuring are not properly identified, the interest rate and fees are unknown and as opaque as their deals and trades in secondary markets.
Given the lack of information and transparency about the ISB Debt holders, the Coalition for Economic Development (CEDSL), has called for ISB debt to be declared null and void” and cancelled outright, while re-structuring bi-lateral and multi-lateral loan payments which would also enable future borrowing from friendly countries.
In the final analysis, the facts on the ground are clear: There is a miss-fit in the fear inducing debt and famine narrative and ground realities at this time: Sri Lanka’s economy has picked up and is open and functioning while the Chinese ship draws near. However, in the months of June and July, when Washington advisors and US Marines were conducting Sea Vision operations in the country, the citizens were under a fuel embargo, the economy shut down, with famine threatened in the midst of a psychological operation of fear, dread and debt messaging.
Ironically, the only thing happening while the IMF team was in Colombo was the Arab Spring style protest, or Aragalaya—that had enabled an Economic Hit man to become President. And Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, is yet to call for the resignation of the Minister of Power and Energy, Kanchana Wijeratne, for incompetence, corruption, and bringing the country to standstill with fuel shortages.
[i] David Vine 2020 The United States of War. University of California Press.
This is a response to the media, the BASL and foreigners who never give up preaching on how ‘peaceful protesters’ were attacked ‘brutally’ by the Security Forces, especially at Galle Face Green on July. 22. With hundreds of thousands of protesters (Sunday Times Aug . 7) including non-nationals living on charity,, who were the peaceful protesters?
There is a right to peaceful assembly but not to unlawful assembly..Under which law can protesters ‘peacefully’ block access to government buildings or interfere with other purposes the building was designed for? Can they obstruct vehicles or pedestrian traffic or cause a threat to public peace?.Did they not? Interestingly in the UK the punishment for a public nuisance offence is life imprisonment under laws made eons ago. .So which law, ancient or modern, allowed protesters to occupy the Presidential Secretariat in SL? Was it the same law that allowed protesters to overrun the President’s official residence, the prime minister’s office, set fire to the prime minister’s home, murder persons on May 9 and incinerate 76- 91 homes of MPs etc? Were the people who did so ‘peaceful’, never mind the protests?
An unlawful or any assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace may be ordered to disperse by a magistrate or police officer not below Inspector rank and it will be the duty of the of the members of such assembly to disperse (Code of Criminal Procedure Act (No 15 of 1979 Sect 95).Did the protesters do so? Peacefully or otherwise?
Unlawful assembly is one in which those involved behave in a violent, boisterous, disruptive or tumultuous manner. Who else except Ambassador Chung and the media remembers all these protesters being ‘peaceful’? The leaders and associated ruffians were blood thirsty..
Unlawful assemblies can be dispersed with the use military force by a commissioned officer of any of the three Forces acting alone in the absence of a magistrate or Inspector level police officer (Sect 96).The military has not used military force so far. Possibly because Ms. Chung thinks ‘the time is not right just now’. Will she signal the right time? Heaven help SL when she does, knowing how well she knows what ‘force’ is including ‘shredding’.
Public order – a definition It is an offence to use threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour or display in writing signs, a representation of which is threatening or abusive in the hearing or sight of a person that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. Were we deaf and blind from April 22 that we did not see the behaviour of the mobs as ‘threatening’ or ‘abusive’ and in fact by some massive abberation thought they were actually ‘peaceful’? Who decides which is which? The BASL,the media, Ms. Chung or the police? Why was a magistrate not asked to be present at barricades to decide? Did the sight of ‘ thousands upon thousands’ baying for blood prevent the legal system from functioning through fear and cowardice of those responsible for public security? The same people who, did not hesitate to castigate, ridicule and insult the police soon after they took office? Who then weighed in profoundly to say the constitution was irrelevant and the government illegitimate helping to creating a state of anarchy? It actually became the popular thing to say so until an Emergency was declared and arrests were made.
Suddenly the Government that had been in a blue funk due to its guilt that made its promise of splendour and prosperity become one of nightmares and bankruptcy, had stood up.,following the example of the present President. Had the BASL taken the place of the judiciary to misdirect the country? Yes, absolutely no force should be used against ‘peaceful’ protesters or a peaceful assembly in SL .However the time was not long past when mounted police in western capitals laid about with swords (Belgium, France?) to disperse unlawful or not, ‘assemblies’.The Jallianwalla Bagh Amritsar (India) massacre of peaceful protesters (it was a religious holiday) may be forgotten by some but not by Indians
Gen Dyer’s orders to the troops led to 1,200 killed and 1,500 wounded in 1919. Winston Churchill called it ‘intolerably monstrous”.In 2019 Britain ‘expressed regret’ but did not apologise to India..Lessons were not fully learned even 50 years on. .The British in Kenya were intolerable again.The Ohio State National Guard on 4 May 1970 shot and killed 4 Kent University undergrads and wounded nine with 69 rounds being fired by 28 Guardsmen in 13 secs when confronting an unarmed peaceful protests against US involvement in Cambodia.
Some of the dead were only observing the protests from 300 yards.Four million undergrads from universities all over the USA walked out in sympathy.. In 1974 the USA with 7,000 troops and press ganged support from six Caribbean countries invaded Grenada.Why? It had a leftist government supported by Cuba. It is 100 miles from Venezuela. Was this an anti left protest launched by the USA? It ended in a farce .
A mental asylum was bombed by the USAF. USA had 25 troops killed and 59 wounded.The inter force communications had not been tested. It ended with US Navy ships having to call back to their command HQ in USA to inform USAF pilots circling overhead in Grenada about opportunity targets. Grenada had 45 killed in action and 337 wounded inaction (not including Cubans)..
Grenada covers an area of 344 sq kms and had a population of 84,000 in 1993. The 7,000 US troops consisted of two Ranger battalions, the crack 82 Airborne Division and the Rapid Deployment Force! In 1919 the British declared martial law in Ceylon.They shot without judicial trial very many national leaders including William Pedris They panicked thinking it was an uprising against British rule. A Brit officer used to have his breakfast watching the executions. Is it not arrant arrogance and stupidity for the US or British envoys whose countries had enslaved Africans, taken native lands by force and attempted genocide of American Indians to preach to SL on how to deal with protesters?
The British action in dealing with ‘protesters’ in Wellawaya in the ‘Great Liberation war’ (1817-18) laid waste the fertile countryside and killed all males above 10 years of age.This was a catastrophy the effects of which were seen in the insurrection of 1971.The survivors swell the ranks of ‘protesters’ yet The SL Police style of operating by first establishing communications with the mobs is exemplary.Their monumental and enduring patience over the last four months is extraordinary.It has to be highly commended. However, except for the Colombo middle and upper middle class originals (generally) ,and the farmers, teachers, unionists etc were there not at Galle Face Green (GFG) peace hating protesters too? Have they been treated differently for being different?
Were they the followers of the terrorists of 1971?; who later together with the then President who had an entente with them, were responsible for 60,000 death in 13 months 1988/9? .Were they the new shock troops, well fed and generously looked after by the original ‘Aragalists with deep pockets, that attacked the police barriers almost daily in 2022 while the poor people were struggling to find food to feed their families among shortages of other bare essentials?
So what were they actually fighting for? (WHO says 6 million – nearly a quarter of the SL population, mainly children and women) are on the brink of starvation? At GFG who would have believed WHO? Food was in plenty and of all varieties, while drink flowed and dancers did the merry baila and other jigs. It looked so western fun, like a song/drug festival in the West whoever funded it. The police always, repeat always, attempted at first to communicate with the ‘peaceful protesters’ and pacify them at every demo..They did not threaten.They ended up using water canon and firing tear gas when the barrier toppling thousands of ‘peaceniks’ breached their defences.Surely this last police response could not be correct if the protests were ‘peaceful’? Who did something wrong? The police or the ‘protesters’?
To say that only ‘some’ trouble makers have ‘infiltrated the current’ protesters’ as in one newspaper, is hypocrisy..Were the ‘some’ of those ‘peaceful’ thousands who with years of experience in terrorising especially freshers with savage ragging in all except the Northern and Eastern universities ,(they would not have dared) switched from site to site to challenge and overrun, outnumbered, neutered and emasculated police/military (POLMIL) that had their hands/batons/weapons tied?.When the Presidential Secretariat was taken back in July after illegal occupation, the numbers game was reversed. That took the obstinate ‘peaceful’ protesters completely by surprise.
The ‘some’ trouble makers knew the police would only use tear gas and water canon while the troops sadly acted like dummies. Few doubted that a state of near anarchy prevailed. It grew in intensity with every protest. The law was openly flouted (to the delight of many) by these ‘some’ trouble makers.Was it not their actions in 1988/89 that resulted in 60,000 deaths in 13 months? Does Ms Chung know?.
The killings were limited only to the Sinhalese while massive damage was done to govt. property, administrative machinery and national infrastructure. .The country was nearly shut down by the then ‘aragalists/terrorists’ distributing ‘chits’ and slaughtering anyone who disobeyed them even for keeping lights on in one’s home? Is this their third and final attempt?
However there are laws that protect the citizen’s body and his property and also public property.The police are there to see that these laws are enforced. Sadly they did little if nothing instead during these ‘peaceful’ protests due to poor leadership at national level including some of the top brass of the police. Was this due to ignorance or fear and possibly due to Western interference and influence Or was it due to threats such as the visit to MOD by the western envoys? There was also the fear of a Geneva backlash.
Ironically it was the new elected by parliament President,hardly a Sando, (but much reviled by many of his former friends, sycophants and beneficiaries). who decided to invoke these laws, now called harsh.If these only knew the provisions of the US Patriot Act they would throw up.The new President during most of his over 40 years as a politician was the knight in shining western dress for the elite in Colombo, especially the middle aged women. Where are they now? Have they not done the SL thing? Desert and abandon when the going turns bad.
The former ex-military Prez disappeared. It may have been out of guilt for the horrible state of the nation under him or by being ill advised as usual..Did they all forget the Penal code? Who advised him on his course of action? Were they the same rotters of boastful academic (Viyathmaga) fame who are now deserting like rats?
The past president had a heroic choice when the final push came to overrun the near naked and ordered to be spastic, defenders of President’s 250 year old House (not ‘Palace’ as the western media likes to dub all non western leader’s houses) .Like General Gordon, vastly outnumbered , he could have faced the mobs alone. Gordon with his Egyptian and British troops near starvation after many months of encirclement, faced the Madhi of Sudan and his Dervish army at Khartoum.Gordon had often said that when God distributed fear he ran short of it when he came to Gordon.
Unfortunately for him the Dervish attackers had dodged God too.They were devilishly brave too They hacked off his head. Gota had probably not heard of Gordon who had a steamer on the Nile just behind his house (not Palace) to evacuate him.He refused. Ironically Gota had a SLN ship ready. He used it, fortunately. It is now rumoured that Gota may come back to SL. Whenever he does, he may be compared by the fanciful SL media that likened him earlier to Hitler,(SL is a sucker for western imagery) to Napoleon coming back from Elba.Would the Western powers then contrive to send him to Guantanamo instead of St Helena even before a 100 days pass?
As for defending not only Presidents but all citizens Penal code Sec 25 para 89 clearly states that ‘nothing is an offence which is done in the exercise of private defence. Why then did the police not use force to defend the President’s life? Where does it say force cannot be used?. Self defence does not cease as long as the threat to life exists.
This important if not vital aspect of law is skillfully or cunningly not elaborated to the lay person by the countless BASL bulletins .The use of force causing even death is within the law in self defence. Six offences are specified.Who judges what is justifiable or proportionate? Is it the BASL, the media, western envoys ,or the individual (s) in danger?
The security forces (police) opened fire only at Rambukkana after a long, hot, whole day of protests that included stone throwing and attemped arson.The protesters hail from a long established JVP hotbed. Their activities included an abortive attempt at setting fire to the only petrol shed and a lone fuel tanker because there was no fuel!. If a person is killed or injured while the person is exercising his right of self defence he may still be arrested until the case is heard and extenuating circumstances if any are proved.This is not the law of the jungle or of asses .The police and others knew but were not convinced there was a level playing or fighting field. prevailing.
The ‘peaceful’ protesters destroyed 91 (MP Welgama in parliament in July 2022) houses of Govt MPs by arson on 9 May 22 and murdered nine(9) people including one MP whose naked body was dragged along the street .Did Mrs Chun see this? What would the BASL and media have stated if the law as given above was acted upon when the threat manifested itself? Would it be called an exhibition of brute force? Have they seen the very same activists displaying different slogans periodically attacking university students who disagree with them?
Para 90 states self defence covers ‘his own body or that of any other person against an offence affecting the human body.’….. and ‘property’. Any citizen, not only the police can act under that law .The police ordinance too provides legal cover.But the police it would appear were ordered to ignore the law.What was the IGP thinking and why?
Para 95 states the right to private defence ‘commences as soon as a reasonable apprehension of danger to the body arises from an attempt or threat and continues as long as apprehension of danger to the body continues’…So when does reasonable apprehension manifest itself and end? Is it after killing(s) and stripped bodies are dragged along streets or when a threat with paving stones, clubs and steel rods is apparent?
Para 96 covers mischief by fire or explosion … where ‘death or grievous hurt’ may result while para 99 covers Mobs.The same rights of defence applies. Clearly the police are fully aware of all this as are the Forces when trained for duties in Aid of the Civil’ power .The principles followed are prevention,necessity, impartiality and minimum force..Impartiality is required when 2 mobs confront each other..Red shirts only cannot be the targets! Minimum force is the force applied immediately to stop danger to body or property and not after any bargaining as at the Presidential Secretariat in July 22..It normally starts after non lethal methods have failed. A single live round may be fired at a law breaker.If the danger continues 2 rounds may be fired.If the danger persists, heaven forbid but the aggressor may force the issue, a volley may be fired! The last has never happened in SL The worst example was at Amritsar during British rule in the late 1910s when machine guns were used under the orders of Gen Dyer Hundreds of Indians were killed.Dyer was killed in revenge much later in England.
The original protesters were organised, smartly dressed, well fed and wined, educated, witty, tech savvy They were the people who fashioned the ‘aragalaya’.No one else can claim to have done so . .They were the darlings of the media and an inspiration to the youth in particular. They were generous, helpful and kind to all who joined them. .They were not compromised and used for ulterior ends. People may recall their laudable efforts during the December 2004 tsunami and many candle light and other peaceful protests over the years.
Originally the cry was amusingly Go Gota Go which is a rallying cry at rugby.That was mistaken wit..This changed to ‘Gota Go Home’ even after he had been advised or forced to leave his home, and then ‘Ranil go home’ when Ranil wise cracked ‘I am at home’ .However those who confronted the police (and the military later) in many instances were dangerously violent.They were not representative of the original Aragalists.
The Mirihana protest, peaceful at first ,became violent and then certainly intimidating and threatening when a violent group infiltrated the original protesters, turned off the main road and onto the private road that led to the residence of the former President.Their intent was clearly unlawful and violent and could have included murder ,abduction and arson as subsequently happened with increasing frequency and boldness of the ‘protesters’ ..
What is the response of a house holder if a mob carrying poles, clubs and iron rods assembles by his perimeter wall, baying for his blood? Is he to wait until they scale his wall or should he act in self defence according to the law especially if it is at night? The former course appeared to be the response of, and temporary interpretation of the law by the police.It made the mobs lose fear of the law and its guardians and become reckless.
At the entrance to the Naval Dock Yard Trinco on 10 May 22, TV showed a young woman standing in front of a baying mob , surprisingly in a very mellifluous voice, singing out the refrain, ‘kapapang kapapang’ (cut cut ) and then ominously ‘kayli kayli (pieces pieces).A Sinhala Madame Defarge? The mob were not at a fish market looking to skin fish but were attempting to rush the gates of the Dock Yard, the premier base of the SL Navy and kill the former Prime Minister ..They knew it would have been a step too far had they challenged the Navy.Instead they taunted the Naval guards to entertain the easily cowed and cheap thrilled media instead. The mob attack to storm parliament did not appear to have a single peaceful intention. One JVP leader (not drunk and driving this time) did say they would surround parliament and not allow anyone who did not do what the JVP wanted done,to leave parliament. The stealing of 2 automatic rifles from badly battered troops showed that peace was furthest from their intentions..That was the turning point.The worm had turned. .Have the peaceful protesters now gone underground?Are they cutting off their beards and trimming their hair styles?Are they regrouping? Those 2 rifles must be found quickly. .
That woman in Trinco was not an exception but one of a kind of thousands of unemployable and unemployed rather elderly ‘students’ that launched attacks all over Colombo Fort and surrounding areas, transporting themselves almost magically over long distances while the rest queued 2-4 days for fuel.Who cared whether or how the people got petrol or food or cooking gas?
Why they are/ were called ‘peaceful protesters’ stuns the imagination .They are the same people who switched from one to another barricade encounter.Their leaders remained in the rear, as in 1988/9 when they attempted genocide of the Sinhalese .They have blood on their hands and their thinking is bloody but they masquerade as ‘peaceful’ protesters especially when western media is around. Local media laps them up in mortal fear 24 x 7.So did a western envoy, looking for a political stooge.There are many in SL, if dollars flow.
Were they not screaming obscenities and murderous threats while armed with iron bars and clubs well hidden? Did they at GFG not use force on the leader of the Opposition (9 May 22 – he subsequently dodged contesting the Presidency?!) and gave a former minister, who had produced 2 IRCs at a TV interview in 2019, a taste of the same on 9 July ?
RW correctly asked the US envoy,who declared her admiration if not undying affection for the JVP, whether force was not used by US security officials on the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building .He also asked where else in the world would attacks on a President’s office take place without a law enforcement response..He should have also asked what level of force was used on Sadr city protesters in Iraq who were confined in Abu Graib prison and what type of protest the villagers of Mai Lai were doing when Capt Calley (who was never incarcerated as a consequence) and his men murdered and raped the entire village.They killed all the dogs and cats too. South Korean troops were allied to the US forces then to fight the Vietnamese. Or he might have asked why tanks, helicopters and 2 battalions of Air Mobile troops were used to murder hundreds and wound thousands in Gwanju South Korea in 1980. Chung added a caveat.,She said the time was not right just now for strong arm tactics.So when will that correct time be and who will say so ? Is she trying to outdo Mr.Dixit?
Unsurprisingly no regional country criticized SL Thank you brothers and sisters.· The SL Police have acted with sufficient if not overwhelming restraint quoting law and doing their best to solve the continuing impasse, peacefully.They, after negotiating and pleading with the recalcitrant ‘protesters’ for 3 days, used only minimum if any force to execute a written order of the Fort magistrate to vacate the Presidential office which they had trespassed .That was their duty. Brutal force by police is most evident not in SL but where ‘Black Lives matter’ as the whole world knows.
Who set fire and destroyed RW’s house together with those of his brothers and his library and the dogs? Why were RWs brothers’ houses termed ‘neighbours’ houses by the media? Was the whole family a target . Were the attackers a foreign legion or the spearhead troops of the protesters?.Why does the JVP deny gleefully that it was they that did it? Are they pointing fingers at the FSP as everyone else does? Which lunatic calls the FSP ‘peaceful’? What was a leading opposition politician’s sister adding to the the baying by the mob?
How does one distinguish between ‘peaceful’ and violent’ in these circumstances? Has one to wait until foul deeds including murder and arson take place? The law clearly states that once a threat manifests itself, action according to the law, including use of force, is permissibleThe most important question is whether,after a corrupt, ineffective, weak, disgraced etc Govt fails, even as a global recession sets in,and the Ukraine war continues ,is it to be replaced, out of fear of retaliation, by local experts in terror ? Where is the cash coming from to steady SL? According to Sajith P in May 22, Saudi Arabia promised him oil.He has not repeated this very silly statement.The IMF is the only hope SL has. SL should ensure China chips in by restructuring her loans and with out right grants in addition to what India has unhesitatingly and generously given. SL has a very delicate balancing act to perform to ensure our historical Asian benefactors continue to help.She has to be sincere in all she does She should never try to play one against the other.That would be suicide . It will however be difficult for the West not to try to exploit SL at this time.
Pray for SL less the politicians, media, BASL and western imperialists who think they are the reincarnation of Gods.
Diehard critics of the government ignore the impact of Corvid 19 on the foreign exchange earnings of the country. In 2020 worker remittances were 7.1 billion dollars and Tourism earnings in 2018 was 4.4 billion dollars. If we had this revenue even without an increase, we would have 11 billion dollars. Even with a trade deficit of 7 billion dollars we would have a surplus of 4 billion dollars which is the outstanding debt this year. If Corvid was not there, we would have got an increased export value and a higher tourist income as well. The current trade statistics show that imports could have been reduced by at least by 3 billion USD which would have given the county a USD surplus of 7 billion. (This does not take into account the increase in oil prices). Only mental retards will deny the impact of Corvid19 on the present crisis.
Borrow more to import more
I am glad to read the CBSL report that the value of imports during the first 6 months of this year has been limited to below $ 4 billion. If this trend continues the annual import value may not go beyond 10 billion USD. End of the year export would hopefully reach USD 12 billion leaving a positive trade balance of 2 billion USD. If we had limited our imports to match with export revenue, the country would not be facing the present dollar crisis. But our imports during 2017 was 20.9 billion USD, in 2018 it was 22.2 billion USD and in 2019 it was 19.9 billion USD. At the same time our borrowings on ISB as given below were USD 8400 at high rates of interest.
1 May 2017 11 May 2027 SRILAN 6.200 05/27 US85227SAT33 USY8137FAH11 6.2000 1,500.00 18 April 2018 18 April 2023 SRILAN 5.750 04/23 US85227SAV88 USY8137FAK40 5.7500 1,250.00 18 April 2018 18 April 2028 SRILAN 6.750 04/28 US85227SAW61 USY8137FAL23 6.7500 1,250.00 14 March 2019 14 March 2024 SRILAN 6.850 03/24 US85227SAY28 USY8137FAN88 6.8500 1,000.00 14 March 2019 14 March 2029 SRILAN 7.850 03/29 US85227SAZ92 USY8137FAP37 7.8500 1,400.00 28 June 2019 28 June 2024 SRILAN 6.350 06/24 US85227SBA33 USY8137FAQ10 6.3500 500.00 28 June 2019 28 March 2030 SRILAN 7.550 06/30 US85227SBB16 USY8137FAR92 7.5500 1,500.00 Total 8,400
The value of imports rose mainly due to the import of motor vehicles to recover high customs duties to earn revenue to balance the budget and to pay for the increase of unproductive employment in the public sector and to reward MPs. This was the work of the financial wizards of the Ministry of Finance and the CBSL. You know who.
All party government
The All-party government or sarvaloka pootuwa” proposed by the President is not likely to be realized as the main opposition party SJB is against it. Every political party in the Parliament looks at the proposal not in the national interest but from pure partisan interest of what is there in the proposal for them. SJB feels that they have a good political advantage in an early election and does not want to be a party to salvage the government. JVP feels that they have a good chance of getting a majority or a remote controller status if there is a general election now. Of course, the burning of houses of government politicians which they vehemently deny has not improved their political image.
The position of the minority parties is not clear. Their stand as usual will be ‘Vasi patthata and or kasi patthata hoyya.’ Ranil wants a stable government to get back to his lost glory and prove his ability. His performance will determine the conduct of many SJB members who would go back to Ranil making SJB disappear.
The tragedy is that the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution and the All-Party proposal have diverted the attention of both the Executive and the Legislature and the public away from the dollar crisis and an action plan to recover from the predicament.
This is not cricket
What made the SL Cricket Board surrender the Asian Cup to the UAE. Cricket brings in tourists. Holding international cricket tournaments in the country gives publicity to the country. SL held series of matches against Australia and Pakistan under worse law and order conditions. Holding the Asia Cup here would have given a boost to tourism which is picking up. There must be a law to prevent sports bodies acting against national interest.
