In June 2022, the Sri Lankan Government declared a ‘four-day week’ for Public Sector workers for three months, except for the essential services. It started on Friday, June 17th, giving a holiday to public sector employees. Critical services are categorised as the public sector for employees in the health, water supply, power and energy, education, and security; such essential services were exempted from the regulation.
The decision to make the four-day week was not in line with the list of other countries in the world that are experimenting with a shorter week following the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sri Lanka, of course, it is due to fuel shortage in the country and to restrict the usage of fuel by millions of public service employees to cut down on the transport and other costs during commuting to work during this period of uncertainty.
When one considers essential services, one that comes to mind is whether the dollar earners were exempt from the urgent category, such as the textile trade workers.
On June 29th, on TV Derana, a few ‘factory workers’ (women) protested about fuel supplies. They maintain they are the only category of the major contributors in bringing dollars to the country. Their fear is about losing future contracts, which are in the pipeline. If they do not get adequate fuel to take the finished orders to the airport or harbour for completed export purposes, supplies cannot ship to the appropriate countries within the time frame that the importers have. Such a situation would be going to affect their lives amidst such distress and pain they undergo at present.
Shorter working hours
When Sri Lankans go abroad on work permits to European countries or for labour work in the Middle-Eastern countries, they have to work endlessly with only ten minutes on a tea break and a one-hour lunch break. They are prepared to engage in any ‘unworthy’ job as they need weekly wages to live. But when they return to Sri Lanka, they tend to relax and take a negative attitude, which is very strange. Does it mean their supervisors are not strict enough to discipline the workforce? Same with politicians and Ministers of the Sri Lankan Cabinet; don’t they see enough development in foreign countries, but they do not execute what they experienced!
England has only eight public holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Because of the Queens Platinum Jubilee, the UK declared an extra bank holiday in 2022. In Sri Lanka, it is quite a different kettle of fish. The island nation is known to be a country with too many holidays. Every month there is Poya, and whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday is declared a holiday; Sinhala New Year celebrations have more than a week’s holiday; then comes Vesak and Poson holidays. In addition, February 4th was declared a National Day. Others include Msahashiva Ratri, Deepavali and Eid-Ul- Adha (Hadji Festival). There is hardly any time to concentrate on real work as there are 104 days, including weekends, for public servants. So how can a country progress?
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a change the world over with a different outlook entirely. People as well as Managements were affected by their economies. The UK has become the leader in accepting this new pattern of shorter weeks. Generally, approximately three thousand three hundred employees commenced working on a four-day week without losing their salaries. But they are supposed to work from home. Working From Home is not the same as working from an office. One tends to relax much more in a home environment unless one does perform sincere work, and it depends on the responsibility one carries on behalf of the institution he works.
Essential Services
A TV showed a sample of ‘Textile factory workers’ protesting fuel supplies. They maintain they are one of the significant contributors to bringing dollars to the country. When one considers essential services, the straightway that comes to mind is whether the dollar earners to Sri Lanka are exempt from this category? Suppose they do not get adequate fuel to take the finished stocks to the airport or harbour, which delays shipment to the appropriate countries. In that case, there is a likelihood of losing future contracts in the pipeline, affecting their jobs in the present scenario.
There is a discrepancy in the Sri Lankan Government’s proposals for a four-day week. The Minister of Public Admiration stated that the idea to implement a shorter week was due to the current fuel crisis. However, the Department of Government Information had to come out with a Cabinet Decision, which declared that Public Sector employees to engage in agricultural activities in their gardens to eliminate a food shortage is expected soon. That coincides with the Prime Minister’s warning of an acute food shortage by August 2020 unless Sri Lanka receives US$ 600 (Six hundred million) to import fertiliser for the next Kanne. The Prime Minister gave this briefing to the representatives.
The Sri Lanka Government’s controversial decision to ban poisonous agrochemicals in Sri Lanka was a terrible mistake as it caused lower yields of staple diets of Sri Lankans, such as rice and vegetables. No public servant has been trained or given the basics of growing systematically in their gardens before declaring a shorter week. How can public service employees manage home gardening without understanding when even the farmers have not received formal training in fertiliser use?
Api Wawamu was supposed to be the latest campaign across the country. Still, a campaign named Api Wawamu- Rata Nagamu was launched under the Ministry of Agriculture’s Development programme in 2011 and allocated Rs1.858.5 million. Previously from 2008 -2009 – 2010, and 2011 a total of 34.2 million has been used on Api Wawamu-Rata Nagamu on publicity campaigns.
It is not a new theme to propagate home gardening projects throughout the country. Expecting a food scarcity in the future, as prominent learned people in Sri Lanka say, makes people hoard essentials unnecessarily, which causes supermarkets and Sathosa food lines to quickly become exhausted, akin to petrol, diesel and kerosene hoarders. But there is no way of detecting how the public stockpiles essential food items unnecessarily.
Ranil Wickremesinghe is no longer president in an acting capacity. He is the president, period. Did someone say ‘I don’t know whether to laugh or cry?’ I am pretty sure someone did. Did someone say, ’who wudda thunk?’ Well, if two or three years ago, if anyone suggested that in July 2023 Ranil Wickremesinghe would be the president of this country, there would have been laughter and tears, if at all, would have been of mirth.
But get this: he is legit. Yes, he barely got into Parliament. Yes, his party returned just a single member and this only through the National List. And yet, as per constitutional provisions, he was legitimately elected President. Interestingly, his ascension is similar to that of his uncle, J R Jayewardene in 1978. There was no Presidential Election in 1978. The newly elected United National Party, with JR as Prime Minister enacted a new constitution with a provision for Parliament to elect a president with executive powers. It was only in 1982 that JR actually faced a presidential election; one which was fraught with allegations of widespread malpractice over and above the fact that his government stripped Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the individual with the best chance of defeating him, of her civil rights.
2022 is a different kind of year/situation. Wickremesinghe was appointed Prime Minister by the politically beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe’s legitimacy came into question. That was in May. Today, he is the president as per the majority will of Parliament. Today, however, there are still people questioning his legitimacy on account of his party’s and the number of votes garnered at the last General Election. However, until such time an election is held, parliamentary or presidential, there’s no other mechanism to test the legitimacy of the illegitimacy-claims.
How did we get to this, some vociferous ‘Aragalists’ are asking themselves and anyone willing to listen. Interestingly, that question betrays a curious and all things considered irresponsible understanding of political processes, including provisions for change enshrined in the constitution. Let’s elaborate.
If ‘single-minded’ was what the Aragalaya was about then it was apparent in one thing alone: the slogan #gotagohome.” Aragalists, for the most part, pooh-poohed those who asked ‘and afterwards, what/who?’ First things first, they said. In other words, they deliberately back-shelved the question pertaining to post-Gotabaya Sri Lanka.
As it might have been expected, the protest lost must vim and vigour the moment the demanded outcome materialised. Some even posed, first cautiously and later quite vigorously, that the aragalaya (in other words, the aragalists) should go home. It looks like some were happy to take home a consolation prize while for others it was THE prize, i.e. evicting the Rajapaksas from the political stage. In all this, one thing is startlingly conspicuous by its very absence: zero effort to address the systemic flaws that pushed Sri Lanka over the brink, flaws that were deliberately created, sustained and made worse over almost half a century. So it was just a power game, nothing more, nothing less.
At the end of the day, Ranil Wickremesinghe has become the de facto leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna or, as someone might say, he has skillfully taken over that party. How he deals with the SLPP and how he performs as president is of course left to be seen, but that’s for later. Right now, his detractors within and without parliament (and these probably include many who supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa) are left to rue what may have been. How they regroup, re-imagine Sri Lanka and re-think strategy, is also left to be seen.
These turn of events have produced many questions. First and foremost, while there’s no denying the widespread displeasure and anger at the previous government (opposition which congealed naturally into an anti-Gotabaya riot of sorts or rather a ‘bread-riot’ wrapped in the #gotagohome streamer), it also provided fertile ground for all manner of political racketeers. They were essentially peddling their wares at Galle Face. Some had axes to grind. Some were far more devious, far better organised and focused. It has come to light that the US Embassy was thick in its involvement, funding directly and indirectly media outfits, ‘research’ institutes, think-tanks, NGOs, activists and social media operatives, many with pretty sick histories. Twitter feeds, instagram and Facebook posts leave trails. Makes for interesting reading. More will be known soon.
However, it is left to be seen whether such movers and shakers thought beyond #gotagohome. Is Ranil Wickremesinghe the desired ‘outcome’? It’s hard to tell. The aragalists, after all, began targeting Wickremesinghe the moment he was appointed as Prime Minister. The US Ambassador, perhaps covering all bases, exposed the JVP leader to endless vilification from left circles with endorsement that stopped just short of cuddles and kisses. She however tweeted that Wickremesinghe’s appointment as premier was a necessary first step. The JVP, after pooh-poohing the aragalaya in early April, attempting to hijack it later on by saying it needed a head (essentially ridiculing aragalists for being airheads, at best), later claiming outright ownership and on Wednesday putting forward Anura Kumara Dissanayake as presidential candidate and losing, now stands in opposition to the new government. Friends inside and friends outside. Happy times, certainly.
Reality check all around, though. The aragalaya is now positioned to shed the instigators with shady agenda who were living in the pockets of foreign governments, religious organizations and such. The nationalists have got rid of the Rajapaksa dead weight that had in effect crippled them. The Kolombians have distanced themselves from wannabe Kolombians. Wannabe Kolombians have been rudely awakened to the fact that in the face of Kolombians they are just another set of rowdies whose only redeeming feature was that at a particular moment in history they stood against their longtime nemesis, the Rajapaksas.
So, is this some kind of postscript for the aragalaya? Not necessarily. It didn’t start with any talk of bringing Ranil Wickremesinghe to power and it need not end with him becoming president. Time is long. Battles are lost but this doesn’t mean wars will also be lost. Betrayals are part of the story. Disappointments are to be expected. Falling short is not a crime. Some people, mostly youth, with exemplary idealism, courage, determination and innovative rush, decided to fight. It is unfair to ridicule them for not having emerged victorious. The aragalaya, some say gleefully, is dead. Some aragala, i.e. in the plural, did die, some would wounded, some retired hurt and some just quit. There’s another aragalaya that still breathes. Sobered, perhaps. That’s a good thing.
What the Aragalaya (struggle) has finally done was to send home President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was elected through an election, and elect Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was defeated in the election, as the President, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa said today.
He told a news conference that as a result of the struggle on May 9, Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Prime Minister, subsequently became Acting President due to the June 9 struggle and now became the President.
“This is only what the Aragalaya has achieved now. That is why we did not endorse the slogan that the President should go home. I reiterated that such a move will only allow someone worse than him to come to the office of the President. But, these youth protesters were not wise enough to realize that,” he said.
Weerawansa said Ranil Wickremesinghe was able to secure 134 votes in Parliament due to the insecurity of parliamentarians created as a result of the struggle.
He said the MPs thought it was Ranil Wickremesinghe who could suppress the struggle and secure their lives than Dullas Alahapperuma who is more democratic.
“That is why 134 MPs voted for him. As a result of the struggle which sans principle, strategy or purpose, the President who did not shoot at the protesters when they stormed into the President’s House has been sent home and created the situation to elect a President who is going suppress them,” he said.
Weerawansa said they never believe that Ranil Wickremesinghe would be able to rescue the country from the current economic crisis. (Ajith Siriwardana)
Members of Sri Lankan security forces remove a barricade blocking the main gate of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo early Friday
Sri Lankan security forces demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital early Friday and evicted activists hours before the new president was due to name a cabinet.
The raid came a day after veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the crisis-hit country’s new leader, replacing Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled and resigned after protesters overran his palace.
Troops and police Special Task Force commandos armed with batons and automatic assault rifles swooped in on protesters blocking the capital’s Presidential Secretariat hours before they were due to vacate the area.
Hundreds of soldiers removed barricades set up by protesters blocking the main gate of the sea-front building, which demonstrators had partly overrun earlier this month.
An armoured personnel carrier was also seen in the area.
Activists had announced they planned to hand over the building, a symbol of state authority, on Friday afternoon, after a cabinet was sworn in by Wickremesinghe.
The cabinet, which is expected to feature a cross-section of political parties, faces the difficult task of steering the country out of its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.
Sri Lankan security forces tear down temporary structures set up by anti-government protesters at the site of the protest camp in front of Colombo’s Presidential Secretariat
Witnesses saw soldiers surrounding the colonial-era building and removing temporary structures set up to provide logistics for thousands of anti-government demonstrators since early April.
Troops were also seen attacking people, including journalists, with batons as they advanced towards small groups of protesters gathered at what had become known as the “GotaGoGama (village)”.
The head of the influential Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Saliya Peiris, condemned the military action and warned it would hurt the new government’s international image.
“Unnecessary use of brute force will not help this country and its international image,” Peiris said in a brief statement. He said several people, including a lawyer, had been detained by security forces.
The military used loud-hailers as they ordered a few hundred men and women camping overnight to pull back and confine themselves to a designated protest site near the secretariat.
Police cordoned off the main roads leading to the area to prevent more people from joining the protesters.
– Warning to demonstrators –
A handout photo released by the Sri Lanka’s parliament shows president-elect Ranil Wickremesinghe (front R) being sworn in
Supporters of the months-long campaign pressing Rajapaksa to step down had taken over the area after capturing his palace on July 9, forcing him to flee to Singapore and eventually resign.
After Rajapaksa stepped down, six-time prime minister Wickremesinghe took over the leadership temporarily, until he was confirmed as the new president in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday.
Wickremesinghe had warned protesters that occupying state buildings was illegal and that they would be evicted unless they left on their own.
The day Rajapaksa was forced to flee, protesters also set fire to Wickremesinghe’s private home in the capital.
“If you try to topple the government, occupy the president’s office and the prime minister’s office, that is not democracy, it is against the law,” he said, making a distinction between peaceful protesters and “troublemakers” engaging in unlawful behaviour.
The new president has also declared a state of emergency that gives sweeping powers to armed forces and allows police to arrest and detain suspects for long periods without being charged.
-Unity government-
His first cabinet is scheduled to be sworn in Friday and is expected to include opposition legislators to form a national unity government to lead the country out of its unprecedented economic crisis.
A foreign exchange crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and exacerbated by mismanagement has left Sri Lanka suffering lengthy power blackouts and record-high inflation.
The country’s 22 million people have also endured months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.
On Wednesday, a court ordered the protesters to vacate a part of their camp and confine themselves only to a designated area.
Protesters have accused Wickremesinghe of being a proxy of the former president’s powerful family — a charge he has denied.
“I am not a friend of the Rajapaksas,” he told reporters at the Gangaramaya temple. “I am a friend of the people.”
Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers and police swoop in on unarmed activists blocking Presidential Secretariat in the capital after new President Ranil Wickremesinghe is sworn in, according to AFP.
Several activists were seized by troops who smashed tents set up along the main road leading to the presidential office. (AP)
Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers and police have raided the main anti-government protest camp in the country’s capital and started tearing down tents of unarmed activists, the AFP news agency said.
Security forces swooped in on the protesters blocking the Presidential Secretariat in the capital early on Friday before they were due to vacate the area.
Security personnel armed with batons began removing barricades set up by protesters blocking the main gate of the secretariat they had partly overrun earlier this month.
Activists had announced that they planned to vacate the area by Friday afternoon after a cabinet was sworn in by new the president, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Witnesses saw soldiers surrounding the sea-front office and removing several temporary structures set up in the area to provide logistics for thousands of anti-government protesters since April.
Security forces used loud hailers asking a few hundred protesters to pull back and confine themselves to a designated area near the secretariat.
Several activists were seized by troops who smashed tents set up along the main road leading to the presidential office.
Supporters of the #Go HomeGota campaign pressing president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down had taken over the area after capturing Rajapaksa’s palace on July 9, forcing him to flee and eventually resign.
After Rajapaksa stepped down, prime minister Wickremesinghe took over the leadership temporarily until he was confirmed as the new president in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday.
Wickremesinghe, perceived by some protesters as a Rajapaksa surrogate, has vowed tough action against the protesters and warned that occupying state buildings were illegal and that they would be evicted unless they left on their own.
He had also made a distinction between peaceful protesters and “rioters” and said there will be no room for troublemakers.
A tense situation is reported at the Galle Face protest site near the Presidential Secretariat as Police and troops moved in and remove protesters from the area.
The security forces removed some of tents and structures placed around the Presidential Secretariat.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief has held China responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, saying Colombo’s dumb bets” on high-debt Chinese investment have led to the catastrophic outcomes.
The Chinese have a lot of weight to throw around and they can make a very appealing case for their investments,” William Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. Nations should look at a place like Sri Lanka today–heavily indebted to China–which has made some really dumb bets about their economic future and are suffering pretty catastrophic, both economic and political, consequences as a result,” he added.
Burns warned that the situation in Sri Lanka should be a lesson to other countries in the Middle East and South Asia.
That, I think, ought to be an object lesson to a lot of other players — not just in the Middle East or South Asia, but around the world — about having your eyes wide open about those kinds of dealings.”
Sri Lanka has borrowed from several countries, including China that turned out to be white elephant projects.
Back in 2017, Sri Lanka was forced to lease out a facility to a Chinese company for 99 years after the island nation was unable to repay a USD 1.4 billion loan for port construction in the south of the country.
Earlier this year, Burns described China as the single most important geopolitical challenge for the United States in the 21st century. He characterized President Xi Jinping’s China as being in many ways the most profound test the CIA has ever faced.
This warning from the CIA comes a few days after IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva on Saturday warned countries with high debt levels to take lessons from Sri Lanka and said that it is a warning sign for nations with limited policy space.
Countries with high debt levels and limited policy space will face additional strains. Look no further than Sri Lanka as a warning sign,” the IMF chief said.
Emerging and developing countries have also been experiencing sustained capital outflows for four months in a row. They now suffer the risk of reversing three decades of catching up with advanced economies and instead falling further behind,” she added.
Sri Lanka has been facing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, leading to an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and fuel across the island nation.
The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026. Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt is running into billions of dollars.
Yesterday evening, President elect Ranil Wickramasinghe visited Hunupitiya Gangarama Temple in Colombo.
Although this was planned as a private visit, many politicians of the ruling party and journalists from home and abroad who came to know about it also attended the event.
A British sky news journalist asked the President that since the people of this country are expecting a change and how will you, an old Rajapaksa supporter, make that change.
The rest of the conversation is given below;
How can I be a friend of the Rajapaksas?
I am person who has been against them ever since I knew him.
You have come from abroad today and asking me if I am a Rajapaksa supporter.
Ask anyone here, they are Rajapaksa’s friends.
How do you make the change that Sri Lanka is looking for?
I am ready to make the change that the people of Sri Lanka expect.
I would like to tell you one thing.
As a journalist you should do some deep investigations before you ask questions and don’t ask questions like this.
Aren’t you a friend of the Rajapaksas?
I am not a friend of the Rajapaksas, I am a friend of the people.
Let me tell you something else, I have worked with President Chandrika Kumaratunga before… but I have never voted for her.
She belongs to one party and I belong to a different opposing party.
Saying that I work together with the Rajapaksas does not mean that I am his friend.
I am only looking into it to see the opportunities available to me and the opportunities to strengthen my party.
But to watch cricket, there has to be a country left for us to watch it in, no?” A fan at the Galle Test Match that ended with an innings victory for Sri Lanka. July 11, 2022
Spirits were high on July 11 when the Sri Lankan cricket team beat the visiting Aussies by an innings even though the country was in its worst economic crisis ever, due to a lack of Dollars to buy fuel caused by an international Sovereign Bond (ISB), debt trap and Staged Default.
The cricket victory followed a magical weekend in which the Aragalaya, or peoples’ struggle, exceeded all expectations, staging multiple coups to peacefully claim both the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister’s official residence. The island’s President and PM were unseated by massive waves of protestors without a single person killed in gunfire. Later the protestors cooled off in the Presidential pool and had impromptu concerts celebrating what appeared to be a successful regime change operation.
There’s never a dull moment in this strategically located emerald island that is perpetually in the cross hairs of big power rivalry! Even though the confrontations in Colombo were replete with barricade breaches, water cannon charges and tear-gas sprayed, the police and military conceded to peoples’ power after brief stand-offs with unarmed protestors.
This was also on the urging of an eminent group of religious leaders in this multi-faith land of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and myriad local gods, spirits, and sentient beings.
Fewer people have died in a 100 days of massive protests in Sri Lanka than in a single day of gun violence in the United States, although the island is invariably portrayed as a space of (ethno-religious) violence in media, expert analysis and ethnography. This speaks volumes about where violence springs from in the global military business industrial complex.
The bright spot was that the Sri Lankan armed forces had demonstrated that they had little interest in military takeovers for foreign-backed dictators despite being trained in inter-operability” by various Big powers fishing in the Indian Ocean! This was another cause for hope, peace, DEBT JUSTICE, debt cancellation and victory in International Monetary Fund (IMF) talks– if only the external actors staging the crisis would let up!
Although no one has been killed during protests, the new acting President came to power in a lightening-strike Arab Spring regime change operation on May 12th during an island wide curfew with military was on the streets. Some of the big powers fishing in Sri Lanka’s troubles waters have a bad habit of installing chosen Dictators in strategic countries.
Ranil Wickramasinghe who lost his parliament seat and decimated his own political party at the last elections, and whose house was partially burned by protestors, is now Acting President! He is the Chief architect of the Central Bank Bondscam in 2015 that opened the door to vulture funds like Blackrock that engage in reckless lending and odious debt that has cause the Debt trap, and has never made a secret of his fondness for the West.
Wickramasinghe termed the protestors who want him out, fascists” and gave all power to the military to do whatever it takes to maintain law and order and protect the Constitution! So, the scene is now set for a deadlier turn as an Indian Ocean war game heats up.
Three layers to the Crisis: Political, Economic and Geopolitical
It is clear that there are three layers and dynamics– economic, political and geopolitical– to the Crisis in Sri Lanka.
Although least discussed, geopolitics would likely determine the outcome of compounding crises in the country as a new Cold War hots up: Last week, Vlodimir Zelinski, Ukrainian President beloved of the Corporate Media that crafts the narrative weighed in on Sri Lanka at a Global Leadership meeting in Seoul, Korea, where he claimed that Russia was the cause of the island nation’s unrest!
Zelinski did not mention Covid-19 lockdowns, economic and institutional debilitation over two years as part of Shock Doctrine” and Digital Colonialism to enable what Naomi Klein has termed humanitarian disaster capitalism” or the fact that the Weaponization of the US dollar with sanctions had ruined many countries. But this may be back firing as London-based economist Michael Roberts noted: the dollar’s decades-long dominance has placed America in a strong position to dictate the terms of trade and finance for the last 70 years, but its dominance has been waning gradually”. More countries are de-dollarizing at this time.[i]
Zelinski obviously had no idea that Sri Lanka’s biggest problem was a shortage of exorbitantly privileged’ US dollars due to International Sovereign Bond (ISB) debt trap– result of odious debt owed to US-based vulture funds like Black Rock that received huge US-Government Covid-19 bailout funds to debt-trap and asset strip in countries like Sri Lanka. This is what has triggered the Default and fuel shortage in strategic Sri Lanka at the center of Indian Ocean Sea Lanes of Communication– so the IMF could enter the fray.
The Financial Times noted recently that Western nations have introduced unprecedented financial sanctions on Russia, including on the country’s central bank, which have the potential to decimate its economy. Experts say they amount to full-scale financial warfare of an unheard-of nature and scope.[ii] While the dollar has been weaponized against sanctions hit Russia, Sri Lanka too is starved of Russian oil seemingly to deepen the crisis ex poste facto the default?!
Indeed, as a number of analysts have noted, US-led NATO sanctions on big oil producing countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela and speculation by traders in commodities futures are the main source of the current global fuel trade disruption, related food shortages and soaring oil prices! Oil companies meanwhile have never made more profit, just like big Pharma companies did during Covid-9 lockdowns and mass injection campaigns.
QUAD, Cricket and Disinformation
Who said Cricket is the Opiate of the masses of South Asia?” QUAD cricket teams from India, Australia (and now Pakistani), have played flood-lit matches despite power outages in Sri Lanka in the past two months to keep the natives entertained and distracted from the Big Picture – geopolitics and great power contest in the strategic Indian Ocean island as the crisis unfolds! Of course, the corporate media that crafts the narrative also helps.
The last ship bringing Russian oil to the Sapugaskanda oil refinery docked in the Colombo Port, South Asia’s busiest, at the end of May, after which the US Marines have been conducting Sea Vision training in Sri Lanka, as oil tankers that were due in the months of June-July in the oil staved country disappeared into thin air like the dollars paid for them via cyber hacks of data on the Government Cloud, as happened to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority during a Covid-19 injection purchasing spree in 2020?!
The Eagle had landed with the IMF team and special US Advisors” in town with Lazard, Clifford and Chance representing bond traders to bailout ISB holders? Was the disappearance of ships bring Russian oil and gas to the strategic island for 6 weeks in June-July and compounding ex post the staged default linked to the fact that US Department of Defense Sea Vision” operations were on-going with the Sea Vision Technical Assistance Field Team [iii]?
A Russian Aeroflot Airlines plane was also mysteriously grounded at the BIA International Airport in a scenario of Lawfare. Aeroflotsuspended all flights to Sri Lankaafter a court ordered the seizure of one of its Airbus A330s on June 2nd. The case was dismissed a month later but the episode seemed designed to disrupt relations between the two countries and impede the possibility of fuel deliveries from Russia which has de-dollarized and does not take US dollars.
As citizens died in petrol queues, Prime Minister Wickramasinghe stated on June 10th: If we can get oil from any other sources, we will get from there. Otherwise [we] may have to go to Russia again”.[iv] Wickramasinghe was clearly waiting for the IMF and Washington’s permission to buy oil from Russia!
Thus, the staged fuel-crisis, a policy choice of the pro-US regime in Colombo reached another milestone: In the first week of July 120 flights to the island were diverted to India, effectively islanding” and marooning the strategic country from the rest of the world in the midst of a news blackout![v]
While Indian media carried the story about planes diverted to Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram airports to help Lanka, the media that crafts the narrative in the island were silent about this. Failure to publish geopolitical analysis is often attributed a shortage of paper and news print! The elephant in the room of Sri Lanka’s spiraling crisis appears to be balanced analysis and news of Geopolitics in the IOR and the Covid-19 induced ‘Global Reset’ to benefit the global corporates backed by the NATO-QUAD military bus
JVP was allowed to register as a political party in 1981. The first elections the JVP contested were District Development Councils elections. JVP contested four seats in the District Development Councils election in 1981, and won two. The seats were Colombo, Gampaha, and Galle. I was unable to find out what the fourth was, probably Matara. JVP participated in the District Development Council (DDC) elections of 1982 too.
JVP then started to regularly contest the two major national elections, General and Presidential.JVP made sure that it had a presence, however small, in each election. Rohana Wijeweera contested the Presidential Elections in 1982 and obtained 4.16% of the votes cast. He received more votes than Colvin R. de Silva.
JVP got one seat in Hambantota district in the general election of1994, under the name of the National Salvation Front. The next significant election, for the JVP, was the General election of 2000. JVP won 10 seats in the parliament, and recorded 6 per cent out of the total valid votes.
JVP further broadened its voter base at the following election in 2001, with 16 seats and 9.10% per cent of the vote. There was every sign at this juncture of JVP emerging as a serious threat to the existing two-party system, especially with its growing ability to attract the support of the semi-urban middle classes, said Nirmal Dewasiri.
The JVP’s best performance in terms of Parliamentary representation was in 2004, when it contested in coalition with the SLFP-led alliance. Using the tactic of nominating only a few candidates in each electoral list, it secured 39 Seats in Parliament and became a crucial partner in the government. This was possible because of its alliance with the SLFP. The number of its seats plummeted when it chose to go it alone at subsequent elections.
Somawansa Amarasinghe retired as JVP leader in 2014, following a series of internal disputes in the party and Anura Kumara Dissanayake took over. Dissanayake has however failed to elevate the JVP’s standing.
At the 2015 general election JVP only got 4.87 % and six seats. One reason was the rush to Hansaya. JV P was there to support the Yahapalana government, said the Opposition. The Joint Opposition called them ‘Rathu Ali’. Verité Research however had ranked four of the six JVP MPs among the top five MPs for their work ethic.
JVP did not come forward at the 2015 presidential election in a strategic move that enabled Maitripala Sirisena to win the poll, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake contested the 2019 election. He polled over 400,000 votes At a media briefing it was said that he was supported by 29 organizations including civil society organizations,. However, he only got 3.16% of the total votes. This is the lowest percentage JVP has got so far, commented analysts. It was less than what Wijeweera polled in 1982.
In the 2020 general election JVP got only three seats as opposed to six it had in the last Parliament. For the 2020 general election, the JVP formed a new party, the Jatika Jana Balavegaya or National People’s Power (NPP). This is nothing more than an ‘alias’ for the JVP said critics.
Of the six seats JVP had in the 2015 Parliament, JVP could retain only three of them in 2020.These were in Colombo and an ]adjoining urban centre’ at Gampaha. JVP lost badly in the areas that constituted the heartland of its militancy such as Matara, Galle, Hambantota and Moneragala. The present-day JVP leaders have lost their hold on the Wijeweera belt, which stretches along the southern littoral, said the Island editorial.
JVP only obtained 3.84% of the total vote at the General election of 2020. This election showed that the JVP support base was shrinking said the Island editorial. Analysts observed that a sizeable segment of UNP votes had gone to the JVP, which means the true JVP vote is less than even 3.84%.
JVP was not upset. We are not a party that judges our popularity based only on votes,” Dissanayake remarked when questioned on the disappointing results. If an election was held under normal circumstances, we think we would receive far more votes. We, of course, do want to attract more voters and improve our performances,” he observed.
JVP said we are far ahead of the rest. We fielded the best qualified candidates with unblemished records”. Our movement is honest, free of corruption and committed to working for the betterment of the country. The people know that, but that is still not enough for them to vote for us.
Island editorial did a quick survey of JVP votes. one MP (elected on the Sri Lanka Progressive Front ticket) in 1994; 10 MPs in 2000; 16 MPs in 2001; 39 (from the UPFA) in 2004; four MPs (from the Democratic National Alliance) in 2010; six MPs in 2015 and three MPs in 2020.
JVP has contested Presidential and General Elections and has had mixed results, said analysts. While it has been able to maintain its status as the third largest political party in the country after the two major parties, the UNP and the SLFP, it has never had a real prospect of forming its own Government.
JVP’s performance at elections is not impressive. The number of its MPs in Parliament declined at every election since a high of 39 MPs in 2004 (when it contested under the UPFA. This showed that that voters still haven’t forgiven the JVP for atrocities during the 1971 and 1987-89 insurrections, said critics.
The JVP is known for its policy inconsistencies, contradictions and about-turns, said an Island editorial. It contested the elections for the Provincial Councils, which it had initially bitterly opposed. Having once bombed Parliament, it contested Parliamentary Elections too.
On the political front, JVP has made alliances with parties it continues to call enemies.” In 1970, it backed the SLFP-led United Front, which consisted of progressive left-wing parties. The following year, it took up arms against the government formed by that coalition. In the late 1970s, it went politically steady with the UNP under J. R. Jayewardene, who released Wijeweera and others from prison, so much so that its critics called the JVP ‘Jayawardene Vijeweera Peramuna’.
A few years later it turned against the JRJ regime, which banned it, and caused another bloodbath by embarking on its second campaign of terror.
Victor Ivan said that in his opinion it was the violent political atmosphere after the JVP insurgency that helped Premadasa to win the Presidential election in 1989. JVP boycotted the election and killed those who worked for the election. They attacked polling centers and killed several election officers.
JVP became part of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government of Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004. In 2004, it closed ranks with the UPFA led by Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, and left her administration over a government move to share tsunami relief with the LTTE. In 2005, it backed Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential fray, making a tremendous contribution to his victory; thereafter, it fell out with him and tried to topple his government.
JVP offered implicit support to common candidate Maitripala Sirisena during the 2015 presidential election. It was also accused of backing the Yahapalana Government behind the scenes.
In 2015, it threw in its lot with a UNP-led coalition, which fielded Maitripala Sirisena as its presidential candidate and captured power in Parliament following his victory. Its honeymoon with the UNP lasted several years before it took on the UNP-led government and Sirisena both when they became extremely unpopular.
The General elections of 2010 and 2015 showed a link between JVP and UNP. the UNP-led coalition, that backed former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka and Maitripala Sirisena at 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, respectively, included the JVP.
JVP cuddled up to the UNP, said critics. The UNP and JVP are now almost conjoined. JVP often provides the crucial support to decide between victory and defeat and survival for the UNP government in parliament, concluded one critics.
This kind of political promiscuity has cost the JVP dear both politically and electorally as can be seen from the number of seats it has secured at the general elections over the years.
It did win many Parliamentary Seats while in a partnership with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), but once it entered the fray on its own, it has generally fared very badly. In fact, it could only gain around 3 percent of the vote at the last two national elections, said a Daily News editorial in 2019.
JVP has not yet been able to position itself precisely on the political spectrum. What made it attractive to the youth was its radical ideology as well as the mystique surrounding it. Today, it is devoid of any mystique and its ideology has been diluted.
JVP has shown promise of becoming the ‘third force’ in Sri Lankan politics from time to time but has not lived up to that promise. The problem for the JVP was that it could not quite efface its dark past, even if the transformation itself was impressive. JVP has never really acknowledged that its actions in 1971 and 1989 were flawed and apologized to the nation.
The JVP has managed to survive as a political party with parliamentary representation only because of the proportional representation system. JVP would not have had a snowflake’s chance in hell of making it to Parliament under a first past the post system, said Chandraprema, bluntly.
JVP is not a popular party. The JVP have huge floats Karl Marx and Lenin in their May Day processions to hide the fact that they have very few supporters marching with them. Bu it is determined to keep going.
Looking back, it appears that Sri Lanka has instinctively realized what JVP is: a brutal political entity. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Underneath its flowery rhetoric of democracy, liberty, secularism and freedom of the press and speech, the JVP remains true to its origins fifty plus years ago. Its insatiable appetite for violence as a means to achieve power was vividly shown in the late 1980s. This may be the reason that JVP was never able to break the four-percent barrier – the percentage of votes it has consistently received since it entered parliamentary politics, said former JVPer Indrawansa de Silva.
Over the past fifty years, the JVP had many opportunities to come clean of its sins but it hasn’t even tried to pretend it will do so. The JVP has done nothing wrong, the argument goes. All the carnage it created was the results of reactionaries” traitors” and the class-enemies” who infiltrated the party to destroy it. At a forum in Europe, when faced with the question of atrocities committed during the so-called second uprising in the late 1980s, the current leader of JVP sought the cover of Mao’s rhetoric again: revolution is not a dinner party, he answered, added Indrawansa.
JVP admirers are in a minority. One commentator summarized what most of the public think of the JVP . The JVP has a blood soaked, murderous and genocidal history, he said. The JVP brutalized a generation twice, once in 1971 and then in 1989-90.
But JVP has its admirers. The JVP has come a long way since its two armed insurrections and the passing of the leadership from the old school and discredited past of Somawansa Amarasinghe to the younger generation of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said JVP admirers.
JVP bashing should end said K Siriweera. In parliament, at political meetings and in many other for a present JVP members are criticized for incidents that took place in 1971-89 period. Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his group were not involved in these criminal acts. Further they have shown excellent behavior since they came into the political scene. It is sickening to see politicians who are involved in anti social activities shout about events that happened decades ago to demonize a group who are thousand times better than them.
A set of University academics got together and urged the public to vote for the JVP Balavegaya at the 2020 election. Several of them came from leftist parties and were open supporters of Separatism.
These academics made a strong appeal for the JJB which they called NPP. Only the NPP has a sound plan to save this country, they said. The NPP was formed with the hope of saving the country from its present predicament and people should extend their support by voting for it.
The academics stressed the need for electing honest, capable candidates as MPs to solve the problems and threats the people were faced with. . The NPP has experts and academics who have drafted a credible programme for Lanka’s economic future. NPP has the only Parliamentarians with an unblemished record of financial integrity, incorruptibility and devotion to their tasks in the last three decades have been MPs elected from the JVP, they chorused. The academics said that The NPP will be a strong voice and the only real force standing both inside and outside parliament for a democratic polity and against dictatorship, they said.
Isn’t it time to embrace the JVP as the third force and enable them to lead the people asked Camillus Fernando in April 2021. I was frankly struck by the manifesto issued by the JVP. It is reflective and thought provoking. A candid statement, aware of the needs of the people and aimed at achieving the sincere progress of the nation. It redefines the definition of conscience. Its primary objective is unity among diversity of classes, broken and divided by religion/caste/creed/ethnicity.
Practical solutions for the economic prosperity of the people are offered. The candidates are men of education and experience, drawn from all walks of life and professions. Integrity, honesty, sheer hard work are some of their traits. There seems no room for corruption. Reconciliation with the people seems to be their goal – they denounce revolution. With humility they seek forgiveness for the lapses of the past in 1971 and 1989.Can’t we forgive them and accept and embrace them as this third force in politics to enable them to lead the country and its people asked Camillus Fernando.
Why did the two JVP uprisings happen precisely in 1971 and 1987, asked commentators. The answer is that they were both linked to the Eelam war.
JVP insurgency and the Eelam Wars both started around the same time. The first JVP insurgency started in the south in 1971. LTTE activities also started in the 1970s. The JVP activities are well documented. Here are the parallel activities of the LTTE for the same period.
Senior DIG (Retd) Edward Gunawardena pointed out that terrorism in the north started in the early 1970s. The militant youth groups in the north engaged in many criminal activities in that period. There were robberies of banks, co-operatives, petrol filling stations and also passenger bus collections. There were many bank robberies and attacks on businesses in Jaffna in the 1970s corroborated General Cyril Ranatunge.
There were attacks on police stations in the north in the 1970s. 34 police stations in the north were attacked. Police officers including retired officers and police informants were brutally killed, said Gunawardena. LTTE attacked police stations in the late 1970s said Gen.Ranatunga.
A majority of the attacks on police stations in north were master-minded by the LTTE, observed Gamini Samaranayake. PLOT, TELO, EPRLF, EROS and other groups, also launched attacks on police stations. Large guerrilla units numbering between 50 to 250 participated in these attacks, added Gamini.
Police informers were also killed in the north, said Gamini. The guerrillas branded informants as traitors to the Tamil cause for an independent state. These killings came to be known as `lamp post’ killings because most of the victims were tied to lamp posts before they were executed. A note was pinned to each of the bodies identifying them as collaborators.
Edward Gunawardena observed that In May 1972, militant youths tried to topple a key high-tension electricity tower and also kidnap the children of a Tamil cabinet minister, Chelliah Kumarasuriyar.( Island 18.7.21 p 12 ) in 1975 Alfred Duraiappah was assassinated by a group which included Prabhakaran.. Duraiappah had a significant vote bank among the Sinhalese, Muslims, the business community and the urban poor of Jaffna.
LTTE and JVP left each other alone. JVP had avoided mobilizing youth from Tamil villages, observed K.C.Logeswaran. JVP never killed a single Tamil or Indian soldier, said Chandraprema. There is not a single confirmed account of a JVP attack on the LTTE or IPKF. JVP instead, used their arms on the Security forces, and on the JVP’s Sinhala opponents. JVP killed more Sinhalese than the LTTE he said. JVP only killed in Sinhala areas.
The 1971 insurgency affected all districts except those in the north and east. JVP attacked police stations in the entire country except in the north and east. JVP attacked 92 police stations. They were all in ‘Sinhala’ areas, said Indradasa Godahewa. In Vavuniya, JVP had penetrated deep into Vavuniya south which was Sinhala. Vavuniya south was a part of the 1971 insurgency.
There is evidence to show that the JVP was actively collaborating with the LTTE to chase the Sinhalese out, said Chandraprema. The JVP, though armed, never tried to defend the Sinhalese, in the border villages, he said. There was evidence to show that JVP was supporting the separatist Tamils, agreed Godahewa.
There were allegations in 1987 that JVP was in collusion with LTTE in Trincomalee. This appears to be correct, said Chandraprema. There was an instance when an armed JVP contingent had met an LTTE contingent in the Trincomalee jungles and JVP warned the LTTE not to proceed as the army was in that area.
In December 1987, JVP had entered Sinhala settlements in Aluth oya where settlers were armed, threatened them and took away 20 shot guns. Sinhala refugees from Trincomalee, escaping after an attack on their village, said they were absolutely certain that their attackers were Sinhala. One had shouted obscenities in perfect Sinhala which showed that he was Sinhala not Tamil.
LTTE reciprocated. No member of the JVP was ever harmed when the LTTE attacked Sinhalese, said Chandraprema. JVP had established JVP cells in the Sinhala border villages by the end of 1987. When LTTE swooped down on a Sinhala village they avoided going to the homes of JVP activists in the village.
JVP received training and ammunition from Jaffna. PLOTE and LTTE were reported to have sold weapons to the JVP. The intention was to create a second front against the Sri Lankan armed forces. EPRLF had provided training for JVP‘s Vikalpa Kandayama in north east Sri Lanka and in India. Gunaratna was told that they had received the training first and joined JVP after.
There may have been a transfer of explosion technology between the LTTE and JVP, as well, said doctoral researcher A.J. Behra. JVP had used powerful land mines similar to those used in the north by the LITE. Intelligence reports had indicated that JVP was receiving regular supplies of explosives from overseas, he added.
PLOTE had trained JVP in land mine attacks. The first was in 1988 at Kapparathota in Weligama electorate, said Shamindra Ferdinando. In 1989 PLOTE was seen in Akuressa training JVP in land mines, reported Chandraprema An explosive expert from PLOTE had given JVP training in improvised land mines in the jungles between Matale and Batticaloa, as well.
The first landmine of JVP was the work of a PLOTE operator, said Gunaratna. JVP exploded its first experimental land mine in Kumbiyangoda in Matale. A Tamil instructor had been present. JVP carried out a series of land mine attacks. Landmines in Weerawila and Hungama killed six policemen.
The JVP did not fade away after April 1971 as it would have done, had it been a purely local affair. Instead, JVP met secretly and reorganized. They launched a second insurgency in 1987. The second JVP insurgency of 1987-89 ran parallel to Eelam War 2. Nalin de Silva pointed out that the JVP insurrection of the 1987-1992 period should also be investigated, not only the Eelam war.
The timing of the second JVP insurrection was significant. 1987 was the year of the Vadamarachchi campaign in Jaffna. This campaign, set for May and June, was certain to succeed. 1987 was also the year when JVP started its second insurgency in the south. The 1987-1989 JVP insurgencies forced the army to fight on two fronts, up in the north against the LTTE and down in the south against JVP. This, it was hoped, would enable the far weaker LTTE win the Eelam war.
In April 1987, JVP attacked Pallekelle Army camp in Kandy and took away a quantity of automatic weapons. A trained ex army man, led the operation. On June 7, 1987 three days after the Indian parrippu air-drop of June 4, 1987, the JVP’s Armed Wing, the Deshapremi Janatha Vyapaaraya stormed the Katunayake Air Force Base and the Kotelawala Defence Academy, Ratmalana and seized 14, T-56 assault rifles, 53 sub-machine guns, two light machine guns, six pistols and 3,300 rounds of ammunition.
In October 1987 JVP attacked Kallar army camp in Trincomalee and after a 20 minute gun battle, took away a huge amount of weapons, including six T56 and three LMG spare barrels. This was JVP‘s largest haul of weapons. JVP attacked Kallar camp at the height of the IPKF sponsored LTTE attacks on Sinhala peasants in Trincomalee, observed Chandraprema.
In 1988, JVP attacked Katunayake air force base a second time and took away weapons and ammunition. In the same year, JVP also attacked Pannala National Air Force training camp and the army training camp at Kumbukke in Horana. There was also an unsuccessful attack on Panagoda army camp.
JVP tried to ruin Sri Lanka‘s economy. JVP hit economic targets in Sinhala areas in 1971 and 1987. A cotton processing factory had been set up in 1956 at Mirijjawila near Hambantota, to encourage cotton cultivators in Hambantota and Monaragala. During this period cotton was a popular crop in the Eastern part of Hambantota and Monaragala, and cotton was cultivated under rain-fed conditions. This factory functioned satisfactorily and it started processing their home grown cotton. It was set on fire in 1971. It was never re-started. JVP burnt down 245 out of 545 agrarian service centers in the country along with paddy stocks and storage facilities in 1987-89.
Garvin Karunaratne, who was GA, Matara during the 1971 insurgency observed that the insurgency affected the economy of the south. Many well to do people from the rural areas, immediately transferred themselves and their moveable possessions to the towns.
Thanks to the JVP, the well to do people in the rural areas, the estate owners, the rice millers, lorry owners and traders all left the rural areas for the cities. In my subsequent visits to Matara I met many a rice miller and many a merchant who were the live wire in their rural habitat in Kamburupitiya, Hakmana etc. They had got rid of their rural possessions and migrated to the Matara town.
The development of the rural areas requires the services of every entrepreneur and entrepreneurs come from the rich families with enough money to invest. They are not in the rural areas now. That was the legacy left by JVP with their two insurrections, concluded Karunaratne.
JVP also planned to eliminate the local administration at village level. In 1971 JVP killed government representatives in the village, such as grama sevaka, postmaster, station master, and co-op manager. The first killing took place in Tangalle. In 1987 insurgency, grama sevaka were not welcomed in the villages. In April 1989 an unprecedented number of government officials, grama sevaka, were killed, said Gunaratne.
JVP was firmly anti- Buddhist. Ven.Ellawela Medhananda was engaged in locating the ancient Buddhist monasteries in the north and east, despite objections from the LTTE .JVP set out to kill Ven. Medhananda. JVP’s Kirti Vijayabahu had sent Ven. Medhananda a letter threatening to kill him. His temple also received a letter telling Medhananda and his assistant to leave the temple. Medhananda had slept the night in the school, hidden in a mezzanine. JVP came to the school in the night and searched for him, while Medhananda watched fr0m his hiding place.
The very first attack on the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, was by the JVP not the LTTE .JVP attacked the Dalada Maligawa, Kandy on 8 February 1989. Eyewitness accounts, including a former JVP member who took part in the attack, describe the incident in detail. Former JVP member, Adhikari alias Kosala, had participated in the attack. A fully-fledged member, Adhikari had received arms training, and participated in several operations on behalf of the party, including the 1987 Pallekelle Army camp attack, 1987 Bogambara prison attack and Digana bank heist.
According to Adhikari, the first meeting to plan the attack was held at the house of a JVP co-ordinator named Sunanda, in Kandy. In that meeting, Sunanda explained the motivation behind the attack. He said that if they stole the Tooth Relic, which had been residing in the country for at least 1,700 years, would have made the people to rise up against the government which couldn’t even protect the sacred property.
Next week, another meeting was held at the same place, with the presence of D.M. Anandaalias Kalu Ajith, the JVP leader of Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces, and Somawansa Amarasinghe alias Sanath, In that meeting, Adhikari proposed a place in Medamahanuwara, to hide the relic after getting hold of it. He was asked to be present near the Queen’s Hotel, Kandy around 2.00 – 2.30 pm the next day.
There Sarath, one of his colleagues in Digana bank heist, introduced him to 4 boys and 2 girls. The girls, dressed in white lama saris were carrying two trays filled with flowers. Adhikari’s task was to bring the group to the entrance to the Maligawa. There he would meet two gentlemen, who would be carrying pens attached to their pockets. After that he was to proceed to Kundasale where he would receive the casket which contained the tooth relic.
But the plan went wrong. The two girls had gone past the checkpoint near the entrance, without being properly searched, and waited for the others to follow. A guard had become suspicious and had come forward towards the girls. The other members of the group then arrived. They had snatched the guns hidden inside the flowers on the tray; and shot at the guards. Guards had returned fire. The following firefight left at least two attackers dead.
During the 2001 Parliamentary election, JVP denied that the JVP was involved in the attack. The politburo of the party issued a statement denying that the attack ever took place. These statements were rejected by the Diyawadana Nilame and Mahanayake theros of Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters .Diyawadana Nilame said “There was blood-letting at the Sri Dalada Maligawa and five persons were killed in the JVP attack”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Temple_of_the_Tooth_attack)
In the early 1970s JVP gave the impression that they were champions of the Sinhala race. This would have been done to capture Sinhala youth for the movement. After 1977 JVP changed its stance. JVP discarded its pro Sinhala attitude. JVP recognized the right of Tamil people for self determination and by 1980 they were supporting the secession of Tamil areas, said Godahewa. DJV had links with the international community which supported devolution, said Sampanthan.
JVP supported Tamil Separatism. JVP has consistently taken a separatist or anti-national stance. For years Ravaya argued that the LTTE couldn’t be militarily defeated and did their best to demoralize troops and sabotage the efforts of the security forces, observed Malinda Seneviratne.
JVP said in 2015 that seats in the new parliament must accommodate fair representation for the ethnic and religious minorities. The Tamil and Muslim minorities in this country have been in distress for decades and been taken for endless rides by the two main parties. JVP/NPP said in 2019. JVP/NPP however was a trustworthy ally.
The JVP/NPP programme calls for devolution of political and administrative power to the regions, said its spokesman in 2019. The NPP demands release of political prisoners, protection of Muslims from injury and insult, establishing a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission, empowering the Commission on the Disappeared to deliver justice to families of victims, releasing military occupied lands, terminating ethnic based colonization and economic upliftment of war affected areas.
Colombo, July 21 (newsin.asia): Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe won the Sri Lankan Presidential election with a thumping majority against Dullas Alapahpperuna and Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In the election held on Wednesday in the Sri Lankan parliament, with its 225 members as the voters, Wickremesinghe got 134 of the 219 valid votes, Alahapperuma got 82 and Dissanayake got three.
Voting was by secret ballot, which allowed members to vote freely.
The post of President had been vacant since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned on June 14, having falling from grace. Pressured by a violent agitation on May 9 and July 9, Gotabaya fled the country to Singapore via Maldives and resigned from Singapore by email on July 14.
As per the constitution, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe assumed office as Interim President and then as Acting President after Gotabaya resigned. Again, as per the constitution, parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena asked parliament to elect a President from among its members. Wickremesinghe will be Sri Lankan President till November 2024 when Gotabaya’s term would have ended in the normal course.
Alignments
Wickremesinghe was supported by the single largest party in parliament, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), an outfit of the Rajapaksa clan. The combined opposition led by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) withdrew from the contest at the last moment and pledged support to Dullas Alahapperuma, a recent SLPP rebel who was expected to split the SLPP.
But Alahapperuma failed to split the SLPP, even though he was backed by the chairman” of the party G.L.Peiris. The SLPP had 145 members out of a total House membership of 225. Out of this, a sizeable number would have voted for the party candidate Wickremesinghe as without those votes, Wickremesinghe would not have got 134. This demolishes the pre-poll propaganda that SLPP MPs would desert the party because they feared the wrath of public agitators who had burnt many SLPP MPs’ houses on May 9 and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s house on July 9.
The agitators who drove Gotabaya Rajapaksa out had threatened to relaunch the agitation (Aragalaya in Sinhalese) if a candidate of the Rajapaksa party won the election. But no agitation took place when Wickremesinghe won. On July 19, trade unions had called for a general strike to prevent nominations being filed. But the call was ignored and all public services functioned.
The extremists in the Aragalaya (Wickremesinghe called them fascists) were demanding the resignation of all 225 MPs and a general election to elect a government which would follow their dictates.
The lack of response to the call for agitation was partly due to the fact that the Chief of Defense Staff Gen.Shavendra Silva had warned that disruptors and violent elements would have to bear the responsibility for their deeds. The peaceful supporters of the Aragalaya, who were the majority, stayed away, isolating the violent elements led by the ultra-leftist Frontline Socialist Party (FSP).
If there was violence on May 9 and July 9, it was mainly because the State machinery had collapsed. The then Head of State and Government Gotabaya Rajapaksa had lost his marbles and failed to activate the law and order machinery. In the absence of orders, the men in uniform were mere spectators, for the most part.
Opposition Took Cues from Agitators
The opposition candidates, Alahapperuma and Dissanayake, on the other hand, had promised the Aragalaya” activists that they would go by their agenda, even though the more vocal section had put forth radical left and anti-IMF demands which cannot be implemented by any government.
On Tuesday, it was reported that many members of the opposition had begun to feel that given the dire economic situation in Sri Lanka, the country needed a stable government under a firm leader who would be in a position to calmly negotiate with the IMF and the international community for emergency forex injection and debt restructuring.
The domestic supply situation had also improved in the past few days with ships with fuel and cooking gas arriving and with the streamlining of the distribution system. As Acting President, Wickremesinghe had imposed a State of Emergency to keep supplies flowing. That worked, giving confidence to a number of MPs who wanted a government which would work with single-minded devolution and also see that its writ ran in the land.
After being elected, Wickremesinghe appealed to the opposition to join him in putting the economy back on track. All divisions should cease and all should work together to pull Sri Lanka out of the woods, he said. As President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, Wickremesinghe also inspected troops on Wednesday. He would be sworn-in on Thursday in parliament, an institution to which he has been passionately devoted for decades. His bible is said to be May’s parliamentary practice.
Independently, the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr.Nandalal Weerasinghe said that an agreement with the IMF is near. Such an agreement should help Sri Lanka negotiate with lenders for re-scheduling loan repayments. The Indian High Commissioner has also assured that India will continue to help Sri Lanka, especially by increasing investments.
Benjamin Norton Courtesy https://towardfreedom.org/
Facing a deep economic crisis and bankruptcy, Sri Lanka was rocked by large protests this July, which led to the resignation of the government.
Numerous Western political leaders and media outlets blamed this uprising on a supposed Chinese debt trap,” echoing a deceptive narrative that has been thoroughly debunked by mainstream academics.
In reality, the vast majority of the South Asian nation’s foreign debt is owed to the West.
These structural adjustment programs clearly have not worked, given Sri Lanka’s economy has been managed by the IMF for many of the decades since it achieved independence from British colonialism in 1948.
As of 2021, a staggering 81 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was owned by U.S. and European financial institutions, as well as Western allies Japan and India.
This pales in comparison to the mere 10 percent owed to Beijing.
According to official statistics from Sri Lanka’s Department of External Resources, as of the end of April 2021, the plurality of its foreign debt is owned by Western vulture funds and banks, which have nearly half, at 47 percent.
The top holders of the Sri Lankan government’s debt, in the form of international sovereign bonds (ISBs), are the following firms:
BlackRock (U.S.)
Ashmore Group (Britain)
Allianz (Germany)
UBS (Switzerland)
HSBC (Britain)
JPMorgan Chase (U.S.)
Prudential (U.S.)
The Asian Development Bank and World Bank, which are thoroughly dominated by the United States, own 13 percent and 9 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, respectively.
Less known is that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is, too, largely a vehicle of U.S. soft power. Neoconservative DC-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which is funded by Western governments, affectionately described the ADB as a strategic asset for the United States,” and a crucial challenger to the much newer, Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The United States, through its membership in the ADB and with its Indo-Pacific Strategy, seeks to compete with China as a security and economic partner of choice in the region,” boasted CSIS.
Another country that has significant influence over the ADB is Japan, which similarly owns 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt.
An additional 2 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was owed to India as of April 2021, although that number has steadily increased since. In early 2022, India was in fact the top lender to Sri Lanka, with New Delhi disbursing 550 percent more credit than Beijing between January and April.
Together, these Western firms and their allies Japan and India own 81 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt – more than three-quarters of its international obligations.
By contrast, China owns just one-tenth of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt.
The overwhelming Western role in indebting Sri Lanka is made evident by a graph published by the country’s Department of External Resources, showing the foreign commitments by currency:
As of the end of 2019, less than 5 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt was denominated in China’s currency the yuan (CNY). On the other hand, nearly two-thirds, 64.6 percent, was owed in U.S. dollars, along with an additional 14.4 percent in IMF special drawing rights (SDR) and more than 10 percent in the Japanese yen (JPY).
Western media reporting on the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, however, ignores these facts, giving the strong, and deeply misleading, impression that the chaos is in large part because of Beijing.
Sri Lankan Economic Crisis Driven by Neoliberal Policies, Inflation, Corruption, Covid-19 Pandemic
This July, Sri Lanka’s government was forced to resign, after hundreds of thousands of protesters stormed public buildings, setting some on fire, while also occupying the homes of the country’s leaders.
The protests were driven by skyrocketing rates of inflation, as well as rampant corruption and widespread shortages of fuel, food, and medicine – a product of the country’s inability to pay for imports.
In May, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt. In June, it tried to negotiate another structural adjustment program with the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF). This would have been Sri Lanka’s 17th IMF bailout, but the talks ended without a deal.
By July, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe publicly admitted that his government was bankrupt.”
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who spent a significant part of his life working in the United States, entered office in 2019 and immediately imposed a series of neoliberal economic policies, which included cutting taxes on corporations.
These neoliberal policies decreased government revenue. And the precarious economic situation was only exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Facing an out-of-control 39.1 percent inflation rate in May, the Sri Lankan government did a 180 and suddenly raised taxes again, further contributing to popular discontent, which broke out in a social explosion in July.
Media Falsely Blames China for Sri Lankan Debt Default
While 81 percent of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is owned by Western financial institutions, Japan, and India, major corporate media outlets sought to blame China for the country’s bankruptcy and subsequent protests.
The Wall Street Journal pointed the finger at Beijing in a deeply misleading article titled China’s Lending Comes Under Fire as Sri Lankan Debt Crisis Deepens.” The newspaper noted that the crisis opens a window for India to push back against Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean region.”
U.S. media giant the Associated Press also tried to scapegoat China, and its deceptive news wire was republished by outlets across the world, from ABC News to Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya.
VOA accused Beijing of pursuing a kind of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ meant to bring economically weak countries to their knees, dependent on China for support.”
On social media, the Western propaganda narrative surrounding the July protests in Sri Lanka was even more detached from reality.
A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA), Derek J. Grossman, portrayed the unrest as an anti-China uprising.
China’s window of opportunity to one day control Sri Lanka probably just closed,” he tweeted on July 9, as the government announced it was resigning.
After working for U.S. spy agencies, Grossman is today an analyst at the Pentagon’s main think tank, the RAND Corporation, where he has pushed a hawkish line against Beijing.
BBC Reluctantly Admits the ‘Chinese Debt Trap’ Narrative in Sri Lanka Is False
China has funded several large infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, building an international airport, hospitals, a convention center, a sports stadium, and most controversially a port in the southern coastal town of Hambantota.
The UK government’s BBC sent a reporter to Sri Lanka to investigate these accusations of supposed Chinese debt traps.” But after speaking to locals, he reluctantly came to the conclusion that the narrative is false.
The truth is that many independent experts say that we should be wary of the Chinese debt trap narrative, and we’ve found quite a lot of evidence here in Sri Lanka which contradicts it,” BBC host Ben Chu acknowledged.
He explained, The Hambantota port, well, that was instigated by the Sri Lankans, not by the Chinese. And it can’t currently be used by Chinese military naval vessels, and actually there’s some pretty formidable barriers to that happening.”
A lot of the projects we’ve been seeing, well, they feel more like white elephants than they do Chinese global strategic assets,” Chu added.
The British state media outlet interviewed the director of Port City Colombo’s economic commission, Saliya Wickramasuriya, who emphasized, The Chinese government is not involved in setting the rules and regulations, so from that standpoint the government of Sri Lanka is in control, and it’s up to the government of Sri Lanka’s wish to flavor the city, the development of the city, in the way it wants to.”
It is accurate to say that infrastructure development has boomed under Chinese investment, Chinese debt sometimes, but those are things that we’ve actually needed for a long, long time,” Wickramasuriya added.
Chu clarified that, Importantly, it’s not debt but equity the Chinese own here.”
So is the debt trap not all it seems?” he asked.
Mainstream U.S. Academics Debunk the ‘Chinese Debt Trap’ Myth
Mainstream Western academics have similarly investigated the claims of Chinese debt traps,” and come to the conclusion that they do not exist.
Even a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, which is notorious for its revolving door with the U.S. government and close links to spy agencies, acknowledged that the Chinese ‘debt trap’ is a myth.”
Writing in 2021 in the de facto mouthpiece of the DC political establishment, The Atlantic magazine, scholar Deborah Brautigam stated clearly that the debt-trap narrative is a lie, and a powerful one.”
Our research shows that Chinese banks are willing to restructure the terms of existing loans and have never actually seized an asset from any country, much less the port of Hambantota,” Brautigam said in the article, which was co-authored by Meg Rithmire, a professor at the stridently anti-socialist Harvard Business School.
Brautigam published her findings in a 2020 article for Johns Hopkins’ China Africa Research Initiative, titled Debt Relief with Chinese Characteristics,” along with fellow researchers Kevin Acker and Yufan Huang.
They investigated Chinese loans in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Angola, and the Republic of Congo, and found no ‘asset seizures’ and, despite contract clauses requiring arbitration, no evidence of the use of courts to enforce payments, or application of penalty interest rates.”
They discovered that Beijing cancelled more than $3.4 billion and restructured or refinanced roughly $15 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019. At least 26 individual loans to African nations were renegotiated.
Western critics have attacked Beijing, claiming there is a lack of transparency surrounding its loans. Brautigam explained that Chinese lenders prefer to address restructuring quietly, on a bilateral basis, tailoring programs to each situation.”
The researchers noted that China puts an emphasis on ‘development sustainability’ (looking at the future contribution of the project) rather than ‘debt sustainability’ (looking at the current state of the economy) as the basis of project lending decisions.”
Moreover, despite critics’ worries that China could seize its borrower’s assets, we do not see China attempting to take advantage of countries in debt distress,” they added.
There were no ‘asset seizures’ in the 16 restructuring cases that we found,” the scholars continued. We have not yet seen cases in Africa where Chinese banks or companies have sued sovereign governments or exercised the option for international arbitration standard in Chinese loan contracts.”
Benjamin Norton is founder and editor of Multipolarista.
Leader of the House and MP Dinesh Gunawardena is tipped to be appointed as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka under the Presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that his party’s candidate was unable to win the Presidential election in Parliament today.
We presented Dullas. We voted for him, but lost. Somebody has to win,” he told media in parliament.
“He (Ranil) got more votes, so he became the president. That’s what has happened. We are waiting to see what will happen in the future. Whatever the government is, it must work for the people of the country,” he said.
“There are different opinions. Some say this is the opinion of the people. We say this is not the opinion of the people,” he also said.
Commenting about the protesters, the former President said “I think the struggle is over now. The youth who are engaged in the struggle at Galle Face must understand that now. They must now leave and get on with their work,” the former Premier said
Sri Lanka’s president-elect vowed on Wednesday to take tough action against anyone resorting to what he called the undemocratic means that led to his predecessor’s ouster.
Six-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will not bow to violence after winning a parliamentary vote to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country and resigned last week.
If you try to topple the government, occupy the president’s office and the prime minister’s office, that is not democracy, it is against the law,” Wickremesinghe said after praying at a Buddhist temple in the capital Colombo.
We will deal with them firmly according to the law. We will not allow a minority of protesters to suppress the aspirations of the silent majority clamouring for a change in the political system.”
Shortly after his election, he met with elite police and army units guarding the national parliament to thank them for defending key state symbols, his office said.
The overrunning of the presidential palace earlier this month by protesters against Rajapaksa’s handling of the economy saw him flee the premises and then the country. He sent in his resignation from Singapore.
Wickremesinghe is widely seen as a proxy of the once powerful Rajapaksa family, but he denied that he was friends with them.
I am not a friend of the Rajapaksas,” he told reporters at the Gangaramaya temple. I am a friend of the people.”
The new leader earlier invited all political parties in parliament to join him in addressing the country’s unprecedented economic crisis that has led to severe shortages of essentials such as food, fuel, and medicines.
Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe says he is confident that Sri Lanka can come out of this severe economic crisis within a period of 05 months. We have a clear program and a clear path,” he added.
In an interview with CNN, the governor said Sri Lanka will, however, experience a difficult time until then.
If Sri Lanka has a stable administration from tomorrow onwards, we can make strong decisions by the administration, Dr. Weerasinghe pointed out. Sri Lanka parliament voted in acting-President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new Head of State in a vote held earlier today. He will take oaths tomorrow.
Speaking further, the CBSL governor said he is hopeful that people would be patient until Sri Lanka can ride out the crisis situation over the next couple of months.
When asked if he agrees with President-elect Ranil Wickremesinghe’s claims that the previous government was covering up facts about the country’s crippling financial crisis, Dr. Weerasinghe said, as the governor is it not appropriate of him to comment on political matters.
With regard to how concerning the country’s current situation is, the governor said the liquid resources in the central bank are almost non-existent” because these resources had to be utilized to support the import of some shipments of petroleum products and LP gas supplies.
Owing to this, Sri Lanka has managed to secure some shipments of petrol and diesel for the next couple of weeks, Dr. Weerasinghe said further. Beyond that, it is in fact the responsibility of the new government to secure some short-term bridging financing to finance the import of essentials until the country receives the bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.
Starting from the next month, Sri Lanka will negotiate some bridging financing facilities from friendly countries such as India and China, the governor continued. So we need the new administration to start approaching these friendly countries to secure short-term financing so that we are able to supply essential items to the people to continue their day-to-day lives smoothly.”
When asked about the financial support extended by India and China, the governor said he is hopeful that India would continue to support. However, it depends on the new administration’s negotiations and talks with the neighbouring country, he explained. According to the governor, Sri Lanka has also made some requests from China on relaxing some of the conditions in a swap facility.
If India and China agree to continue to support the island nation, the situation can be improved until IMF’s bailout package is made available, Dr. Weerasinghe added.
The International Monetary Fund hopes to complete rescue talks with Sri Lanka as quickly as possible,” Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday, hours before the crisis-hit South Asian nation elected a new president.
Speaking with Nikkei Asia in Tokyo, Georgieva said the fund was very deeply concerned about the well-being of the people in Sri Lanka,” which has been gripped by severe shortages of fuel, food and other essentials after its foreign reserves dried up.
Frustrated citizens have turned their anger on the government, clouding the outlook for debt restructuring and driving once-powerful President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to go into exile and resign last week. On Wednesday, the Sri Lankan parliament elected Ranil Wickremesinghe as his replacement.
Georgieva vowed that the moment there is a government that we can continue our discussions with, our team will be there.” She added that she was very hopeful that based on the good technical work we have already done, and the fact that this technical team of Sri Lanka is there, we can complete program negotiations as quickly as possible.”
Wickremesinghe is no stranger to the IMF, as a finance minister and six-time prime minister who has had a hand in negotiations. But he is deeply unpopular with the public.
Georgieva said that the IMF would work with any Sri Lankan administration as long as the next leader enjoys support and has the longevity to lead the country.”
Sri Lanka is not the only South Asian country facing serious economic pressure. Others include Pakistan, with which the IMF recently reached a staff-level agreement to extend about $1.2 billion in aid, and the Maldives, whose debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood 123.4% last year according to the IMF’s estimate.
It is very important for all countries that have had that burden to stare it in the face and not pretend that somehow the problem can go away,” Georgieva warned. Because it won’t.”
The managing director, who was stopping in the Japanese capital after attending the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Indonesia last week, went on to say: Countries that are faced with severe problems of bad management need to understand that, in this context, markets are jittery. Sentiment is such that there is more anxiety. So if you need to be prudent in good times, you have to be even more prudent in bad times where we are today.”
In the case of Sri Lanka, which pre-emptively” defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time earlier this year after COVID-19 devastated its core tourism sector, the government was due to submit a debt restructuring plan to the IMF by next month.
What we would need for the program is financial assurances that will be sustainable, not immediately, but that we have a credible plan to get to that point,” Georgieva said. She added that the incoming government has a very important role to play, reaching out to both bilateral creditors and private-sector creditors.”
Sri Lanka’s large creditors include Japan, China and India. Georgieva said that she has discussed the situation with the countries during her Asia trip, and was encouraged because there is an understanding that protracted negotiations are simply not viable, that there has to be decisive action as early as the weeks after a [new] government is in place.”
More broadly, on the global economy, Georgieva said that the IMF will further lower its projection for global GDP growth when it releases its latest World Economic Outlook on July 26. This will mark the third downgrade this year alone. In April, the IMF lowered the outlook for 2022 to 3.6% from 4.4% in January.
She said that the new growth projections would remain in positive territory both for 2022 and 2023. But the downside risks, such as the Ukraine war and inflation, remain very present.”
The risk of recession has gone up,” she said.
Georgieva said there will be a quite significant downgrade” for China, from its 4.4% growth forecast in the IMF’s April projections due to the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and real estate problems.
She noted that Beijing has started to use monetary as well as fiscal policy levers, but said the question is how quickly they can produce results.”
When asked about the weakening Japanese yen and the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy, she pointed out that Japan is an export-oriented economy. Hence, the exchange rate is helping Japanese exporters.
The economy is not yet achieving its inflation target [of 2%] in a sustained manner,” she said. And therefore, monetary policy accommodation remains the right choice.”
Ranil Wickremesinghe is to be sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 8th Executive President at the Parliamentary complex tomorrow morning (21 July).
Sri Lankan Parliament today voted acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe as the next President of the country. He won 134 of the total 219 votes that were found valid.
The other main candidate, ruling party lawmaker Dullas Alahapperuma received 82 votes while the third candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, got just three votes.
Following his victory, Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka is in a very difficult situation and that there are big challenges ahead.
While concluding his speech in the House, the President-elect also made a request to the Speaker to allow him take oaths as the President within the parliament premises.
Wickremesinghe became acting president last week after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled on a military plane to the Maldives and then took a commercial flight to Singapore.
Newly elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe invited all parties in Parliament including the opposition to work together on a new strategy fulfilling the aspirations of the people.
Addressing the House after he was elected as President by a majority of votes in Parliament, he expressed his gratitude to fellow presidential candidates MPs Dullas Alahapperuma and Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Wickremesinghe stated that he has been in the Parliament for 45 years and that his life was in this parliament. I am especially grateful to be given this honor from the Parliament.”
The new elected-President also added that, on one hand it is proven that the Parliament could successfully elect a president by holding a fair voting with no problem, and therefore it is his duty to thank everyone who was involved in holding the election within a complete democratic framework.
I don’t need to tell you about the situation in the country today. How difficult it is. Economically. The youth are demanding a change in the system. There are many problems in the world. We have to move forward without getting involved. We have to create a new program. The people are not asking us for old politics. They are asking this parliament to work together,” he said.
He invited all parties in the Parliament including the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, MP Dullas Alahapperuma and the leader of National People’s Power (NPP), Anura Kumara Dissanayake who contested with him in the race for electing the new successor President, to work together on a new strategy fulfilling the aspirations of the people.
Today we must all come together and let’s look at a new system. We need to discuss that.”
He also requested the Tamil political parties including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the leader of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and former President and SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena to join them in working together
Now our time of division is over. Had 48 hours to divide. Now I request everyone to come together and discuss. I would like to star discussions from tomorrow,” he said.
Ranil Wickremesinghe also made a request to allow him take oaths as the President within the parliament premises.
The Parliament today (July 20) elected Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the 8th Executive President of Sri Lanka by majority votes.
In a secret ballot that got underway in the House this morning, the Members of Parliament voted to elect a succeeding President to fill in the post left vacant after the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week.
In the 225-member parliament, 223 had cast their votes and four were declared invalid. Two members namely MPs Selvaraja Gajendran and G.G. Ponnambalam abstained from voting.
Wickremesinghe was elected to the office of President with a total of 134 votes, while MP Dullas Alahapperuma was polled second with 82 votes. Meanwhile, MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured 03 votes.
The procedure for electing a new president by Parliament is provided in the Constitution and the Presidential Elections (Special Provisions) Act (No. 2 of 1981), in the event of a vacancy in the office of the President before the end of the term.
UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe faced off against Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) dissident and former minister Dullas Alahapperuma and leader of the National People’s Power (NPP) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the election.
Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime minister who became acting president after his predecessor resigned, had the backing of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the largest bloc in the 225-member parliament
His main opponent in the vote was Alahapperuma, a former journalist who was supported by the opposition including the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and several independent MPs.
Several other dissidents of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) had also opted to back Alahapperuma.
Meanwhile, MP C.V. Vigenswaran, the former chief minister of the Northern Province and the leader and the only parliamentarian of the Tamil People’s National Alliance (TMTK), as well as the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) also backed Wickremesinghe in the vote.
Wickremesinghe embarked on active politics in the mid-1970s representing the United National Party (UNP) and entered the parliament in 1977.
He has been the leader of the UNP since 1994. The 73-year-old has held the office of prime minister six times although he never completed a term.
His latest and shortest term in office as the prime minister was when former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him to the position on July 13 this year, after his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to step down amidst growing public agitation over economic mismanagement and corruption allegations.
After the former President resigned from his position effective from July 14, the parliamentary session was convened on the 16th, during which the Secretary-General of Parliament announced that the office of the President has become vacant.
The presidential race was initially supposed to be a four-way contest before Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa withdrew his candidacy to support Alahapperuma in the presidential race.
Subsequently, the parliament met again yesterday to accept nominations for the election. Accordingly, the names of Wickremesinghe, Alahapperuma and Dissanayake were proposed.
The vote to appoint a succeeding President commenced earlier today after the parliamentary session began at 10.00 a.m. The Secretary-General of Parliament acted as the Returning Officer in this secret ballot.
Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena cast the first vote, followed by Acting President Wickremesinghe.
Presidential candidate Dullas Allahapperuma and his prime ministerial candidate Sajith Premadasa have agreed to fulfill demands put forward by the TNA in a meeting held today evening which included the release of all political prisoners and the release of all private lands, including those occupied by the army and archeological sites in the North and East.
A senior TNA source who attended the meeting said that some of the other demands put forward included the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) restarting inquiries into missing persons, the Sri Lankan government must cooperate with the UN Human Rights resolution and a process must start to resolve the Tamil national issue.
Both Dullas and Sajith had agreed to the demands laid down by the TNA and only after this was accepted that the TNA said they would support Dullas in the presidential race tomorrow.
SLPP MP G.L. Peiris also attended the meeting. (Jamila Husain)
The objective of this posting is not to cause alarm but to warn the Sri Lanka authorities to take preventive action before the Nation already imperiled by the Rajapaksa debacle takes another unexpected hit from an unlikely source which in all probabilities has been planning for exactly such a situation.It is not mere speculation that organizations like the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and their allies from Tamil Nadu et al would truly relish such a situation to manifest itself where the facts presented seem very much aligned to their ultimate mendacious objectives. They have in all probabilities been waiting in the wings for exactly such a situation to present itself and the Nation could be caught unguarded and unawares.
There is very credible information from a very reliable source that given the situation in Sri Lanka, some of the LTTE in Sri Lanka as well as Expats are re-grouping to launch action to separate out and re enact their failed bid which was thwarted by the Rajapaksa Regime and FM Sarath Fonseka and put down effectively. Presently it is no understatement that the Sri Lanka Government is very weak, and at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund. This has been interpreted by some analysts as one of IMF’s veritable conditions. Similar things happened in Sudan, and Surinam and elsewhere, when they broke> up the country before “helping”. Relative to the IMF, Some of the countries supporting the move are Norway, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, et al. Tamil social media is humming with the possibilities.And the Sinhala Nation could be caught napping.
As Sinhalese have got together and removed Gota, & Mahinda, as well as distanced themselves from Sarath Fonseka, Tamils are sure they can do it this time, as the SL Govt. they presume is very weak. Removal of all three (Fonseka, Gota & Mahinda) is not a situation Tamils even dreamed of. Ranil Wickremasinghe who is known for his once intended covert collusion with the LTTE could easily hand over the partitioned part of the country and even more, so that he can be the head of Sri Lanka which is one of his impassioned ambitions.
Now that the Sinhalese leadership in the GOSL is politically & financially bankrupt where it does not have fuel or ammunition for the armed forces or any resources for that matter which makes them a non contending force to thwart any threat (or so So LTTE thinks) so this could be the time to move. The understanding is that Wigneswaran
– ( being a former supreme court judge who gets a lot of traction with the west) – is the figurehead or political front of the proposed Tamil govt. and is getting a lot of support and aid from the west.
Trans national govt of the Tamils, based in US, & Norway is purported to be heading the drive.Tamil social media is abuzz with this story.
Money is being collected by personnel in Norway, Toronto, US, Canada and the UK, activists according to information received..
Hopefully this may not be the case if the New Government of Sri Lanka acts prudently, wisely and in time where Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty and Territorial integrity remains intact and the new leadership with the administrative team stand resolute towards defending them in addition to the task of rebuilding the Nation from the recent crisis brought on most ironically by the sources that once put down the present anticipated oppressors the LTTE.
