The government decided to conserve and officially gazette the Kapurella hot water wetland in Maha Oya, Ampara, which is recognised as the first and only geothermal wetland identified in Sri Lanka.
Deputy Minister of Environment Anton Jayakody and a group of officials visited the 20.1-hectare ecosystem in the Bogamuyaya Grama Niladhari Division on the 12th to observe the site.
While typical hot springs in the country take the form of small ponds, Kapurella features a unique marshy nature spread across a wide area.
Water heated by underground rock layers bubbles to the surface, creating a habitat for specialised bacteria, microorganisms, aquatic plants, and various bird species that withstand high temperatures.
The Ministry of Environment, National Water Resources Board, Central Environmental Authority, and the Department of Forest Conservation are currently making arrangements to declare the area a protected zone.
Before the LTTE asks the world to mourn its dead, it forced Tamil parents to mourn their living children. This is an ugly truth that LTTE fronts overseas can never excuse.
Do we empathize with the thousands of Tamil children taken from their homes, forced into LTTE uniforms, trained to kill, and indoctrinated to commit suicide if captured — or do we continue applauding annual placard campaigns staged comfortably in Western capitals by people who never sacrificed their own children to war?
The international community continues to hear endless slogans about Tamil suffering” and genocide.”
Yet very few ask one fundamental question:
What about the thousands of Tamil children denied their childhood by the LTTE itself?
For decades, Tamil parents in the North and East lived in fear. On the one hand LTTE claims to represent Tamils and yet Tamil parents lived in fear that their sons and daughters would be taken away by the LTTE. Many hid their children. Some stopped sending them to school. Others sent them away to relatives hoping to save them from forced recruitment.
Yet, thousands of Tamil children lost not only their lives, but their childhood itself.
That is the real genocide no one wants to discuss or count.
Reports over the years indicated that children as young as seven were trained as child soldiers, while various wartime assessments and rehabilitation records suggested that child recruits formed a significant percentage of LTTE ranks during different phases of the conflict.
Some estimates placed child recruits at nearly 30% of LTTE cadres at certain periods of the war.
If such estimates are even remotely accurate, then over nearly 30 years of conflict, the number of Tamil children who lost their childhoods to militarization, indoctrination, forced recruitment, displacement, and war could extend into the tens of thousands.
The loss was not merely in battlefield deaths.
It was in stolen education, broken families, psychological trauma, lost futures, lost professions, lost parents, and generations taught to normalize violence before understanding life itself.
A child denied education, denied family life, denied freedom, denied safety, denied the right to dream, denied the right to grow up naturally, and turned into an instrument of war has suffered one of the greatest crimes imaginable.
None of the placard holders in western climes experienced this fear.
What kind of liberation movement prepares children for suicide before preparing them for life?
Yet seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, the loudest international campaigns continue focusing almost exclusively on politically manufactured narratives while the suffering inflicted by the LTTE on Tamil children is deliberately pushed aside.
Where are the international campaigns for Tamil child soldiers?
Where are the annual vigils for children forcibly recruited into war?
Where are the UN reports naming the Tamil children abducted from homes and schools?
Where are the global protests demanding accountability for those who militarized an entire generation of Tamil youth?
Where is the UNHRC calling for accountability for kidnapping children & denying them their childhood?
Why are Tamil child soldiers absent from the placards raised annually in Geneva, London, Toronto, and other Western capitals?
Why are world leaders reluctant to make statements about the genocide of these children’s childhood?
Why are the children the LTTE destroyed not treated as victims worthy of justice?
Instead, every May, enormous effort goes into commemorating LTTE dead while presenting them all as civilians,” even though many died as armed cadres fighting to preserve a separatist militant movement. Let us never forget, the LTTE had a trained armed civilian force – none of these deaths can be categorized as civilian.
At the same time, mothers of rival Tamil militant groups killed by the LTTE are denied equal space to mourn publicly. When was mourning allowed only for LTTE dead?
Why should only LTTE-linked deaths dominate remembrance while Tamil victims killed by the LTTE itself remain politically inconvenient and invisible?
And when Tamil politicians participate in these LTTE annual events it clearly shows whose side they are on.
The truth is uncomfortable.
The LTTE did not merely recruit children. It normalized the destruction of childhood itself.
Children who should have become doctors, teachers, engineers, artists, accountants, scholars, and community leaders were instead:
handed rifles,
taught military drills,
indoctrinated into hatred,
trained for combat,
and given cyanide capsules before they were even old enough to understand life itself.
For decades, Tamil children in LTTE-controlled areas were transformed from students into fighters, from schoolchildren into militants, from sons and daughters into instruments of war.
Traditional Tamil civilization historically valued:
education,
family honour,
scholarship,
religion,
discipline,
artistic achievement,
and social advancement through learning.
The LTTE replaced these aspirations with a cult of armed struggle.
This was not liberation. This was organized child militarization.
A movement that kidnaps children, trains them for combat, and glorifies suicide cannot morally claim to represent freedom.
Many of these children came from poor, vulnerable families and low caste homes. Some were orphans. Some disappeared into jungle camps never to return. Some died anonymously. Some were shot trying to escape. Many families still do not know what happened to their children.
Is it because they did not matter that they were the guinea pigs of a greater separatist agenda?
Was this not why the Eastern cadres separated from LTTE realizing that they were always sent to the forefront knowing their ultimate destiny.
How many Tamil children died inside LTTE training camps?
How many were buried without names?
How many girls suffered sexual exploitation inside LTTE bunekers?
How many children were psychologically destroyed long before they entered battle?
Who speaks for these children today?
Why are the Tamil organizations silent on the human rights of these children?
Why do they blame their deaths to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces yet keep silent about their abduction from their parents & being denied their childhood?
What is this hypocrisy?
The overseas LTTE networks continue romanticizing militancy while raising their own children safely abroad with the freedoms they denied Tamil children in Sri Lanka.
Their children attended the best schools. Tamil child soldiers were denied schooling.
Their children wore graduation gowns. Tamil child soldiers wore cyanide capsules & LTTE uniforms.
Their children built careers. Tamil child soldiers were taught how to die.
This is the hypocrisy at the center of the LTTE narrative seventeen years after its defeat.
The overseas LTTE bandwagon exported emotion. Ordinary Tamil families paid with blood.
Even today, commemorations continue under LTTE flags, LTTE symbols, and imagery glorifying militants. Yet there are almost no memorials solely dedicated to the Tamil children whose lives were stolen by forced recruitment and indoctrination.
That silence itself is revealing.
Where are the flowers for:
the child recruits who never returned home,
the boys forced into frontline combat,
the girls denied safety and education,
the children shot while attempting escape,
the families broken permanently by forced recruitment?
Because acknowledging the scale of LTTE child recruitment destroys the carefully protected myth of the LTTE as a liberation movement.”
A movement that kidnaps children, trains them for violence, and glorifies suicide cannot morally claim to represent freedom, justice, or human rights.
Video Evidence & Testimonies on LTTE Child Recruitment
Seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, Sri Lanka faces not merely the challenge of preserving peace — but the challenge of defending truth against political mythology.
Real reconciliation cannot emerge from selective mourning. It cannot emerge from glorifying militancy while erasing the suffering inflicted upon Tamil children themselves.
The truth is painful but undeniable:
One of the greatest tragedies of Sri Lanka’s conflict was the genocide of Tamil childhood itself.
And until that truth is openly acknowledged, justice remains incomplete.
The public has every right to ask difficult questions about the Easter Sunday attacks and demand answers. Most importantly the victims, their families deserve truth, accountability & justice. In this framework media has an important role to play. Journalists must highlight the failures, expose inconsistencies, question institutions and examine those in positions of authority during the attacks. These are all facets of a functioning democracy. But there are some ethical lines that cannot be crossed.
The media is not the Police
The media is not the CID or the TID
The media is not the Attorney General’s Dept
The media is most certainly not the Judiciary, the Judge or the Jury.
Yet, increasingly sections of Sri Lanka’s media in particular the social media are moving beyond reporting into something far more dangerous – narrative adjudication.
Following Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks, multiple investigations, commissions, intelligence reviews, parliamentary committees, debates, arrests indictments & public debates have been taking place. Successive governments began opening separate investigations too. As such conflicting theories, different narratives competed for dominance. Facts were often pushed aside, while sensationalism replaced restraint.
Considering the legal complexities, it is unfortunate that even members of the State legal apparatus are playing politics in the manner of their submissions to Magistrates whereby they too are seen advancing narratives that influence the public without justifications.
Moreover, it is equally troublesome to see how certain members of numerous social media channels have in their hands key data pertaining to cases wherein no sooner they are taken up in courts they issue commentaries as hot news”.
How have they secured insider information”?
The issue becomes even more serious when examining how sections of the media are treating Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay.
Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay was reportedly arrested without a warrant. Questions have also been raised regarding denial of immediate access to legal counsel, concerns relating to his treatment while in custody, and the broader implications for due process and fundamental rights. Yet, how many media institutions treated these issues with the same urgency and outrage repeatedly displayed when amplifying allegations against him?
How many media channels seriously questioned whether allegations alone are sufficient to publicly portray an individual as the mastermind” of the Easter Sunday attacks before evidence has been tested in court?
How many questioned the evidentiary basis of claims made to foreign media platforms, including whether those making allegations could even establish key factual assertions regarding meetings, timelines, locations, or operational links?
How many questioned how an individual could be publicly framed as a central conspirator in matters relating to periods during which he was allegedly outside the country or not serving in operational command, intelligence oversight, or military decision-making capacities connected to the attacks?
Instead, portions of the media have allocated extensive airtime and emotionally charged programming towards constructing psychological certainty in the minds of the public — repeatedly presenting implication, suspicion, and narrative framing in ways that encourage audiences to emotionally conclude guilt long before any court of law has established it through tested evidence.
This is not responsible journalism.
This is the danger of narrative conditioning replacing due process.
Unknowingly the public are the subject of experimentation.
They are repeatedly fed speculations that turn to assumptions.
Before legal standards are applied, the storyline sold to the public becomes perceived as ‘evidence’.
This is where journalism has transformed into trial.
The process is not only dangerous it is political & psychological.
One of the most recognized psychological phenomena applicable here is the Illusory Truth Effect — the tendency for people to gradually believe a claim simply because they hear it repeatedly.
This becomes accepted as truth inspite of evidence disputing such.
When national tragedies occur the effect is devastating.
The public is repeatedly exposed to:
the same names,
the same theories,
the same imagery,
the same emotional framing,
and the same narrative emphasis.
Over time, repetition itself begins creating psychological certainty.
Not surprisingly, the same persons are masters at spreading these narratives.
Framing Effect is another concept used widely by media – by manipulating the information presented to influence audience to interpret what media wants audience to accept. Media does this by playing on the emotions of people and their personal hate or envy.
For example – describing an individual as a suspect” mastermind” creates very different psychological responses especially when media links it to a political party / politicians people are made to hate. This perception is built long before a court has reached final conclusions.
Another feature that media manipulates is the Confirmation Bias that human mind is vulnerable to – tendency to favor information that reinforces existing beliefs while unconsciously filtering out contradictory information. Audiences are repeatedly exposed to one dominant narrative framework, alternative interpretations or evidentiary complexities are given less or no space. The manner the media presenter address individuals is another giveaway. Emotion alters judgement.
Psychological studies on Priming show that emotionally charged exposure affects later interpretation and decision-making.
Easter Sunday has had people emotionally charged with narratives that borders on hate & emotion not logic and evidence.
This is why democratic societies created courts of law.
Courts exist because human beings are emotional. Courts exist because repetition is persuasive. Courts exist because public opinion is vulnerable to psychological influence.
If media were the Courts – many innocent people would have received death sentence.
A criminal court requires evidence tested under law. It requires admissible material, cross-examination, procedural safeguards, and proof beyond reasonable doubt.
Media operates differently.
They function through speed, emotional engagement, narrative coherence, audience retention, repetition, public reaction and hyped sensationalism.
That does not automatically make journalism irresponsible or ethical.
But it becomes dangerous when unresolved allegations are amplified so persistently that public familiarity gradually replaces evidentiary caution.
Repetition is not evidence.
Public exposure repeatedly to a theory media and other parties wish to promote does not transform it into judicial fact.
Emotional conviction is not legal conviction.
Sri Lanka’s media and vested parties are using Easter Sunday terror attacks to generate public demand for a singular villain, a hidden mastermind, or a simple explanation capable of emotionally resolving collective trauma erasing all the factual evidence in place.
When media compress investigation complexities into singular emotionally dominant narratives before legal finality exists, they risk distorting public understanding itself.
The danger is not merely reputational harm to individuals. The deeper danger is institutional.
If extremist networks continue to exist, national attention cannot remain fixated solely on constructing politically convenient narratives around individuals while ignoring the broader security realities that may still pose danger.
When media begin constructing public guilt independently of judicial process, the line between journalism and adjudication begins to erode.
This weakens public trust not only in the courts, but in the concept of due process itself. We can see this happening.
Sri Lanka does not need less journalism. Sri Lanka needs more responsible journalism.
Journalism must investigate fearlessly — but it must also respect the distinction between raising questions and delivering verdicts.
A terrorist threat that was ignored resulted in catastrophic loss of life. If extremist networks or operational structures continue to exist, national attention cannot remain fixated solely on constructing politically convenient narratives around individuals while ignoring the broader security realities that may still pose danger.
The Easter Sunday tragedy should not become a permanent theatre of speculative conviction based on biases of media owners or funding parties, where repetition substitutes for proof and emotional saturation substitutes for judicial determination.
Courts exist for a reason.
Because in any democratic society, guilt cannot be established through volume, repeated airtime, emotional persuasion, narrative dominance or building hatred for individuals.
Sri Lanka’s media has a vital role in protecting democracy. But democracy is not protected when journalism begins functioning as prosecutor, judge, and jury simultaneously.
Justice must ultimately rest on evidence tested under law — not on whichever narrative is repeated the loudest.
If media must act responsibly – the people watching/listening to media must act equally responsibly as well.
by, Professor Nishan C Wijesinha of the German School of Medicine
Kachchatheevu Islands are a 285-acre island located in the Palk Strait; which was recognized as Sri Lankan territory under the 1974 and 1976 maritime boundary agreements signed between India and Sri Lanka; in 1974 and 1976.
According to political scholars this was seen as a deliberate political move to unrest Tamil Nadu political powers: in fear of itself demanding independence.
This resulted in the curbing of the Tamil Nadu fisherman’s longest legitimate fisherman’s fundamental territorial rights; with the Kachchatheevu islands two agreements; signed between the then Prime Ministers Mrs. Indira Gandhi of India and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike; in 1974 and 1976.
This system change unfortunately is causing humiliation to the Tamil Nadu government as the Sri Lanka Navy’s operations are made to forcibly take into their custody these Tamil Nadu fisherman who enter into the territorial waters within the Kachchatheevu Islands.
I must also point out here that the long lasted Jaffna Peninsula and it’s Kingdom before it’s Dissolution by the Portuguese in 1619; was an exceptionally authentic Tamil Empowerment of South India.
Therefore I strongly point out to the facts straight and directly, “that what is historically evidential must not be made to be abrogated by the manipulation of political parties for their self recognition and governance”.
This short film is AI-generated for educational and memorial purposes. It was created with deep respect for the soldiers, civilians, and communities of Sri Lanka who suffered through the long civil conflict. This is not political content. It is a digital remembrance — meant to educate, honor, and never forget.
The Year: 1818. Sri Lanka’s first islandwide rebellion ignites. Kandyan chiefs, Sinhalese farmers, Buddhist monks, and villagers rise up against British rule. This is not just a battle of weapons — but of identity, land, and freedom. ⚔️
British troops march into Uva-Wellassa. 🏞️ Villages are burned. 🛖 Harvests are seized. ☠️ Thousands perish. But still, the spirit of rebellion burns. 👑 Keppetipola Disawe — a Kandyan Sinhalese noble turned rebel leader. 🧠 Monks of resistance — preaching freedom in the temples. 🌾 Peasants turned patriots — defending their soil with bows, blades, and bravery. 📽️
This is the story of the 1818 Uva-Wellassa Rebellion. Told through AI-powered cinematic recreation, deep historical memory, and respectful visual storytelling. Not fiction. Not propaganda. Just Sri Lanka’s past — preserved in motion. 🕯️
Who were the heroes history forgot? 🏹 Kandyan Sinhalese warriors ambushing redcoat patrols 🧒 Villagers sheltering rebels at night 🧘 Buddhist Monks inspiring hope through sacred verse 🔥 A nation refusing to kneel — even as it burned They fought not for empire… But for freedom of the people of Sri Lanka.
For identity. For Sri Lanka. 🇱🇰 📌
Disclaimer: This short film is AI-generated for educational and memorial purposes. It was created with deep respect for the soldiers, civilians, and communities of Sri Lanka who suffered through the long civil conflict. This is not political content. It is a digital remembrance — meant to educate, honor, and never forget.
The emergency intervention comes directly after the entire Executive Committee and President of SLC resigned on April 29, 2026. Following the mass resignation, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports established a Transitional Interim Committee. The visiting ICC officials are tasked with: [1, 2, 3]
Assessing Fairness: Evaluating if the new Transitional Interim Committee was appointed properly and fairly.
Reviewing constitutional changes: Checking proposals from the Ministry of Sports regarding vital amendments to the SLC constitution.
Setting election timelines: Establishing a strict time frame for fresh, democratic SLC elections if the interim guidelines meet ICC standards. [1]
The ICC has yet to issue an official public statement, and formal recognition of the new governance structure hinges entirely on the report submitted by this visiting delegation. [1]
Decision Review System (DRS)
The new Cricket Reforms Committee must raise the issue of the Intellectual Property Rights of Sri Lanka with respect to the unauthorized use of the Player – Referral system invented by Sri Lankan lawyer Senaka Weeraratna (1997) and nine years later (2006) rebranded by ICC as DRS (Decision Review System). The Foundational concept of DRS has roots in Sri Lanka. ICC must acknowledge this undisputed fact and pay due compensation to the author of DRS for use of his brainchild without a license, in the true Spirit of Cricket.
Recommended Strategic Actions for the Cricket Reforms Committee
To effectively elevate this dispute beyond a deadlocked intellectual property claim, the newly formed committee could pursue the following avenues:
Demand a Formal Commission of Inquiry: Use Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) voting leverage at ICC Annual General Meetings to demand an independent commission to investigate the true authorship and timeline of the player-referral system.
Escalate to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS): Push for a mutual agreement with the ICC to bypass corporate technical defenses and submit the compensation and naming rights dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Seek State-Level Diplomatic Intervention: Partner with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports to elevate the issue as a matter of national heritage protection, lodging formal representations with global bodies like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Establish Local Recognition First: Lead by example within the country’s borders. The committee can mandate that Sri Lanka Cricket erect a permanent plaque at its headquarters honoring Weeraratna to establish formal institutional backing. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Sri Lanka has recorded 27,754 dengue cases and 14 deaths so far this year, with infections reported from all 25 districts, health officials said on Wednesday.
ri Lanka has recorded 27,754 dengue cases and 14 deaths so far this year, with infections reported from all 25 districts, health officials said on Wednesday.
The National Dengue Control Unit said the number of confirmed cases has increased compared with 2025.
According to the officials, the highest number of infections has been reported from the Western Province, while Matara, Galle, Ratnapura, Kalutara and Kandy have also recorded significant case numbers during the first four months of 2026.
Community Medical Specialist Priscilla Samaraweera of the National Dengue Control Unit said at a media briefing held at the health ministry that the start of monsoon rains could further increase transmission.
Officials said that breeding has increased more in schools, workplaces, religious institutions, government and private institutions than in households.
While improper waste disposal was identified as a key factor contributing to the spread of dengue, emphasising the need for strict public cooperation in prevention.
The public has also been advised to seek medical attention without delay if fever is accompanied by at least two symptoms such as muscle pain, headache, vomiting, and nausea or skin rashes.
Colombo, May 13 (Daily Mirror) – Over 10,000 patients are currently on waiting lists for heart surgeries in government hospitals, while the soaring cost of private sector treatment has made lifesaving procedures unaffordable for many Sri Lankans, according to the Medical and Civil Rights Doctors’ Trade Union Alliance.
Alliance Chairman Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa said the basic cost of bypass surgeries and stent procedures at private hospitals has now exceeded Rs. 1.5 million, with the total expense increasing further depending on the duration of hospitalisation and intensive care treatment.
He said nearly 10,000 patients are awaiting heart surgeries and related diagnostic tests at major state hospitals including the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Teaching Hospital Kandy, Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura, Teaching Hospital Jaffna, Teaching Hospital Batticaloa and the Teaching Hospital Karapitiya.
Dr. Sanjeewa alleged that some patients have been forced to wait up to 29 months for surgeries, leaving many in distress and uncertainty.
He further claimed that although the President’s Fund had announced financial assistance for heart surgeries, there has been little evidence of such support being implemented in practice.
He also said that the absence of an effective national health insurance system has placed an additional burden on the public, especially those seeking treatment in the private healthcare sector.
Dr. Sanjeewa said shortages of essential surgical equipment in certain government hospitals and the need for patients to obtain some laboratory tests from private institutions have further worsened the difficulties faced by low-income patients seeking cardiac treatment.
Before the LTTE turned its guns on the Sri Lankan State, it turned them on Tamils.
Yet, even 17 years after LTTE defeat there are attempts to continue to portray LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people”. This is deliberately suppressing an ugly truth: the LTTE’s first victims were Tamils themselves. Any Tamil who openly opposed, questioned or challenged the LTTE risked intimidation, isolation or elimination. Over time, fear replaced free expression. It became a case of either openly supporting LTTE or silently pretending to support them in order to survive. An entity seeking a separate state: self-determination for Tamils gave no democracy to Tamils. It was dictatorship and obedience based on fear.
LTTE began the systematic elimination of Tamil politicians, Tamil policemen, Tamil intellectuals, rival leaders of Tamil movements, ordinary Tamil civilians who refused to submit to its ideology. These killings were carried out even abroad. LTTE’s first killings overseas was not the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 but the 19 May 1982 assassination of Uma Maheshwaran in Pondy Bazaar, Madras in broad daylight. Fear replaced dissent. Assassinations replaced debate. Armed absolutism replaced democracy for Tamils. These facts have a way of being kept hidden from public discourse.
The 1st political assassination by the LTTE was that of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah. His assassination marked the beginning of a dark transformation within Tamil politics: disagreement would no longer be answered with debate but with bullets.
Thereafter, LTTE guns turned on Tamil policemen on duty in the North. Soon after it became moderate Tamil leaders, rival Tamil militant group leaders, public servants, academics & civilians. The LTTE gradually eliminated every independent Tamil voice that stood outside its control. By the time the war intensified Tamil society’s democratic and intellectual leadership was decapitated. Only those willing to be mouthpieces or pawns of the LTTE remained. Ironically, majority of the LTTE fronts operating overseas were created only after Prabakaran’s demise in May 2009.
The international media speaks volumes on Tamil suffering during the last phase of the conflict, but few speak of how Tamil society itself was internally terrorized for decades by the LTTE.
How many knew that parts of the North were denied electricity or any means of communication because the LTTE wanted to keep the people ignorant from what was happening outside their terrain. Many who saw the Sinhalese for the first time later were to tell how they were made to hate the Sinhalese.
This was how a movement claiming to fight for liberation systematically silenced the very people it claimed to represent.
The LTTE did not unify Tamil society. It monopolized it through fear & united those that had selfish agendas and ulterior motives.
This is why LTTE created TNA in 2001 and why TNA included LTTE was their sole representative” in their election manifestos. Any TNA leader going out of script knew his / her fate.
What kind of self-determination movement for their own people carries out assassination campaigns against fellow Tamil militants? How many are aware that the so-called Mullaivaikkal Commemorations as well as the Mahaveera Naal celebrations are only for LTTE dead and not for the Tamil men & women from EPRLF, PLOTE, TELO, EROS etc. The mothers of these movements are not allowed to openly mourn their children. Why should only LTTE mothers be allowed & not other mothers?
The LTTE understood that to dominate Tamil politics, all competing centres of influence had to be neutralized. There was no room for moderate politicians, Tamil intellectuals. They were all regarded as obstacles to the cause. How many of the Tamil elite can tap their conscience and admit that they too lived in fear.
Thus, seventeen years after LTTE defeat, one uncomfortable question remains unanswered by LTTE supporters worldwide: If the LTTE truly represented the Tamil people, why did LTTE fear Tamil dissent more than anyone else?
The LTTE’s brutality against Tamils extended far beyond assassinations.
Tamils lived under intimidation, forced taxation and extortion. They could not leave the North without some form of proof they would return.
Parents hid their children to prevent forced recruitment. Young boys and girls were taken into militant camps – some never to return.
Yet another ugly fact is kept hidden. These kidnapped children came from low-caste & poor homes. Some were orphans kept in orphanages in the middle of the jungles and administered by those in cloaks. No one has counted how many children were taken to be turned into child soldiers. No one has counted how many Tamil children died in these terror training camps. No one has counted how many Tamil children were shot dead trying to flee & return home. No one has counted how many female child soldiers also functioned as comfort women for men inside bunkers.
All those displaying placards in Geneva and the worlds capitals never ask these questions on behalf of their Tamil children. Why not? Why are Tamil child soldiers omitted from human rights slogans? Weren’t these Tamil children denied their fundamental rights to live as children, to study, to play, to be loved by their parents to dream of becoming somebody one day instead of being confined to the thick jungles and killing for a living. One of the greatest tragedies of the conflict was the destruction of Tamil childhood itself. What could these generations of youth become if they did not hold a gun?
They would have been doctors, teachers, engineers, accountants, artists and scholars. Instead they were kidnapped, handed rifles, a tiger uniform, sent to the jungles, taught to kill & commit suicide biting cyanide capsules.
This was not liberation. This was the militarization of an entire generation.
The so-called liberation movement transformed Tamil civilian life into a militarized existence – obedience became their survival. The LTTE supporters overseas did not mind so long as this suffering enabled them to obtain asylum and refugee status.
The relief that came in May 2009 understandably was not vocalized. LTTE ground forces was eliminated but the LTTE political force remained. The remnants continue glorifying the movement from foreign shores, happy to come out for anniversary dates in their numbers, make profits selling their LTTE souvenirs, hold events charging entry fees – continuing LTTE campaigns is another lucrative market. As in all cases someone has to foot the bill while others benefit.
The loudest voices demanding separation of Sri Lanka ironically come from individuals and organizations safely living abroad. They were always away from the battlefield. They never sacrificed their children, they never cared that the child soldiers had no education, no right to live as a child – but they sent their children to the best of schools, dressed them in the best of clothes and now get them to do social media reels.
Ordinary Tamil families lost their children. Did the LTTE fronts overseas send a penny to these families who lost their children from the LTTE kitty? Did these LTTE fronts send monthly stipends to the LTTE members injured or maimed for life? Yet they are happy to take flight to Geneva, hold placards, romanticize separatism overseas but they never sacrificed their own sons or daughters except for media lens.
The LTTE fronts overseas are guilty of exporting emotion
Ordinary Tamils paid with blood.
Another truth rarely discussed is how LTTE emerged – within long-standing internal social frustrations inside Tamil society itself. What was originally acts of violence against their own was quickly repackaged into a militant outfit & branded anti-Sinhalese and for a separate state. This served the numerous co-partners to the cause that propped LTTE and its leadership. LTTE however did not reform society, LTTE destroyed its internal balance altogether. One-man authoritarian rule was centred around fear, martyrdom and militarized obedience. The only plus point of this was the manner Prabakaran was able to keep geopolitical hawks out of the North and Eastern terrain for 30 odd years. Considering the manner geopolitics are creeping and taking over Sri Lanka’s national assets and natural resources post 2009 in these areas – if Prabakaran was not around we may not even have a North or East by now.
Where external actors failed to exploit Sri Lanka’s natural resources/assets, they used this phase to exploit Sri Lanka’s ethnic tensions for political & geopolitical interests.
Regional politics in India, emotional mobilization from Tamil Nadu, foreign lobbying structures, and overseas propaganda networks all contributed to sustaining separatist narratives long after ordinary Sri Lankans desperately wanted peace.
External actors treated Sri Lankan Tamils as geopolitical instruments while ordinary Tamil families carried the suffering.
Even today, seventeen years after the defeat of the LTTE, commemorations continue under LTTE flags, LTTE symbols, and imagery glorifying militants.
Yet one must ask:
Where are the memorials for Tamil victims killed by the LTTE?
Where are the candles for Tamil policemen murdered by LTTE?
Where are the tributes to moderate Tamil leaders silenced by assassination?
Where are the memorials for children forcibly recruited into war?
Where are the flowers for Tamil civilians shot while trying to flee LTTE?
If these commemorations are truly about civilians, why are the symbols always those of the LTTE?
The answer is uncomfortable but increasingly clear.
For many political actors, the goal is no longer mourning. It is narrative control.
Seventeen years after the defeat of terrorism, Sri Lanka faces a new battle — not against bombs and bullets, but against the rewriting of history itself.
The defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 was not the defeat of the Tamil people.
It was the end of a movement that had already turned against the Tamil people long before the conflict itself started or ended.
Tamils should never forget that their own politicians travelled the seas to object to the 1957 Social Disabilities Act that enabled Tamil low castes to enter schools and obtain education. It was not the Tamil political leadership that paved way for low caste Tamils to gain education – it was the Sinhalese.
Real reconciliation cannot be built upon selective memory, political mythology, or the glorification of terror.
It must begin with the courage to tell the truth.
And the truth is this:
The LTTE’s first victims were Tamils and when considering the men, women, children kidnapped to become militants – how much have Tamils lost to a conflict created for whom & against whom?
Former Member of Parliament Udaya Gammanpila addressed the media after providing a statement to the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), outlining a series of claims connected to investigative material arising from the Easter Sunday terror investigations. What he revealed cannot be lightly dismissed because Sri Lanka has already paid the price once for ignoring warnings. The Easter Sunday massacre of 21 April 2019 did not occur because there were no warnings. It occurred because warnings — both internal and external — were ignored, delayed, downplayed, politicized, or not acted upon with the urgency required. That is the core issue now confronting the country once again.
Why is Gammanpila being questioned instead of the claims being investigated?
If the CID can:
arrest the former intelligence head under the PTA,
obtain Presidential approval for 90-day detention orders,
travel overseas to record statements from individuals making allegations to foreign media,
then why are former MP Gammanpila’s warnings being subjected primarily to questioning instead of a parallel national security investigation into the claims he has presented?
Why is the Cardinal & Cyril Gamini silent about these warnings as well?
This is the question the public must ask.
Especially when:
the Easter Sunday Commission already confirmed intelligence failures,
repeated pre-2019 warnings existed,
and Sri Lanka now faces fresh public warnings regarding extremist radicalisation and existing hidden unfinished operational networks.
Warnings existed long before Easter Sunday
Sri Lanka cannot pretend today that concerns regarding extremist religious-radicalisation suddenly emerged a few years before 2019.
Among those who repeatedly raised alarms were:
Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero
who publicly warned for years about rising extremist ideology and foreign-influenced radicalization – the response was to accuse him of creating tensions between communities.
Critics often dismissed these warnings as attempts to create communal tension, resulting in insufficient attention being paid to extremist elements operating within small radicalized circles rather than entire communities.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe who, as Justice Minister in 2016, warned that 32–38 Sri Lankan Muslims together with family members had reportedly travelled to Syria to join ISIS and also raised concerns regarding foreign preachers arriving on tourist visas,
theState Intelligence Service Sri Lanka
which repeatedly compiled intelligence reports and circulated warnings prior to Easter Sunday. They were secret units shadowing targeted individuals – these units were disbanded and the officers imprisoned in 2015 with regime change. Another factor that crippled intel of fundamentalists allowing them to roam without monitoring.
Rohan Gunaratna has recently made public warnings of a likely ISIS attack.
If those warnings had been properly acted upon:
would Zaharan Hashim have remained operational?
would two arrest warrants issued after 2017 have failed to result in his arrest?
would extremist training structures have expanded unchecked?
would Easter Sunday have happened at all?
These are legitimate national questions.
The unresolved questions surrounding the investigation
Serious concerns now arise from the direction of the present investigation.
If:
the 24 individuals facing indictments over Easter Sunday have not implicated this newly targeted third suspect”,
and if earlier TID files relating to Zaharan were not acted upon by the AG’s dept despite the gravity of the intelligence,
then what exactly is driving the current investigative focus?
The public deserves answers grounded in evidence, not political theatre.
What Gammanpila told the media
According to Gammanpila:
Timeline of alleged extremist training network
Operational period allegedly ran from:
November 2017 to 2019
First identified camp:
Rambewa, Medawachchiya (November 2017)
A total of:
17 training camps were allegedly identified through witness statements.
Basis of the figures
The figures cited were allegedly derived from:
witness statements,
terrorism-related testimonies,
and references summarized in the Easter Sunday Presidential Commission material.
Witnesses reportedly:
had no written attendance records,
relied on memory-based estimates.
Thus, the numbers represent approximations, not certified registries.
These were described as part of a broader 17-camp structure.
Total estimated training population
The aggregated witness-based estimate allegedly ranged between:
339–406 individuals.
According to the statement: trainees were allegedly required to choose whether they would function as:
suicide attackers, or
armed operatives/gunmen.
No confirmed breakdown allegedly exists identifying how many selected each role.
However, Gammanpila argued that under a worst-case assessment, the entire pool must be treated as potentially suicide-oriented until proven otherwise.
Alleged Dalada Perahera targeting plan
Gammanpila further referred to affidavit-based material allegedly discussing:
targeting of the Dalada Maligawa / Dalada Perahera.
Individuals allegedly referenced in statements included:
Zaharan
Hasthun
Millan
Mohammad Anwar
Riskan
Rilwan
He alleged that statements described a two-stage attack model:
Stage 1
Suicide bomb attacks in crowded public gatherings
Objective:
mass casualties and injuries
Stage 2
Follow-up attacks using:
motorcycle bombs,
van bombs,
targeting:
injured victims,
hospitals,
responders and rescuers.
He stated these materials were submitted to the CID.
These remain allegations and investigative claims, not judicial findings.
Rilwan and the alleged continuation narrative
According to the press conference:
black robes used in oath-taking videos had allegedly been prepared and recorded prior to the attacks,
materials were allegedly handed to Rilwan,
who later reportedly died in the Sainthamaruthu explosion together with 17 others.
Gammanpila further claimed that prior to suicide, a video message allegedly declared:
Even if we die, our struggle will continue.”
This, according to him, is why present warnings cannot simply be ignored as political rhetoric.
The central warning
The former MP’s core warning was direct:
Sri Lanka may still face:
radicalised extremist remnants,
ideological sleeper structures,
and individuals who were trained but never operationally identified.
He argued that:
no proper rehabilitation framework exists,
no long-term deradicalisation strategy has been implemented,
and successive governments failed to confront the ideological dimension seriously.
The dangerous diversion
Instead of confronting these questions directly, there now appears to be a growing tendency across sections of social media and political discourse to:
discredit,
ridicule,
or character-assassinate
those issuing warnings.
The same pattern occurred when Gnanasara Thero raised concerns years earlier (2011).
The issue is not whether one likes or dislikes the messenger.
The issue is whether the warning itself contains facts requiring urgent investigation.
Those dismissing the warnings must explain why allegations of continuing radicalisation and extremist operational remnants should not warrant serious investigation.
Before Easter Sunday, many of the warnings remained confined within intelligence channels, security reports, ministerial discussions, and internal communications.
The general public did not fully know:
the extent of the extremist threat,
the intelligence alerts,
the foreign links,
the radicalization concerns,
or the operational failures taking place behind the scenes.
That lack of public awareness has allowed many present-day mastermind narrators” to continuously redirect the national conversation entirely toward political theories while avoiding serious attention to the secret extremist infrastructure itself.
However, the situation today is fundamentally different.
Today:
warnings have been made publicly,
names, locations, timelines, and allegations have been openly discussed,
concerns have been formally submitted to investigative authorities,
and the public is now fully aware that allegations exist regarding continuing extremist radicalization and unfinished operational structures.
There are volumes of details in the commission/committee reports.
Therefore, if authorities fail to properly investigate these warnings, and if public figures continue diverting national attention entirely toward politicized narratives while dismissing or trivializing operational extremist concerns, they cannot later claim ignorance in the event of another tragedy.
This is the critical distinction.
Before Easter Sunday:
the public did not know the full extent of the warnings.
After these public statements:
no one can now say they were unaware that warnings existed.
That is why those who continuously push only a political mastermind” narrative while refusing to equally confront the extremist network allegations being publicly raised today must understand the responsibility attached to their conduct.
If future violence were to occur after such public warnings:
the question would inevitably arise whether national attention was once again diverted away from investigating potential operational threats and their secret cells.
This is not an argument against investigating any political dimension.
It is an argument against ignoring, minimizing, or politically overshadowing warnings relating to extremist operational structures and radicalization risks that are now already in the public domain.
Sri Lanka ignored warnings once and paid a price with lives.
The country cannot afford to normalize selective blindness a second time.
A question Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Fr. Cyril Gamini cannot avoid
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Cyril Gamini Fernando have consistently pursued the question of a political mastermind” while downplaying the existing Islamic extremism. They congratulated Asad Maulana’s C4 documentary and even forgave all of the suicide bombers.
But if:
extremist operational networks,
religious-based ideological radicalisation,
foreign linkages,
and unfinished terror structures
continue to exist as alleged, then national attention cannot remain confined solely to political narratives while ignoring the operational extremist nexus itself. Every attack cannot be passed off to a politically-linked mastermind” and then expect investigative agencies to fit or adjust evidence to match that narrative, without first presenting credible material to justify and commence such an investigation.
If another attack were ever to occur after such public warnings were openly made, those who consistently redirected national attention away from investigating secretly operating extremist cells would inevitably face serious public scrutiny when critical warning signs are once again minimized.
Sri Lanka ignored warnings once and paid with innocent lives.
The country cannot afford another failure where ideology, extremism, and radicalization warnings are overshadowed by selective political narratives.
If Norway is truly interested in serving the people of Sri Lanka rather than clandestinely
helping sectarian interests leading to fragmentation and balkanization of the country on a platform of ‘ Divide and Rule’ , as was done in the past, it must shift its role from that of a ‘peace mediator’ toward pursuing colonial reparations from fellow European nations. In other words, it must begin to address the long – term historical grievances of the people of Sri Lanka that suffered heavily during the colonial era i.e., the darkest chapter in Ceylon’s history ( 1505 – 1948).
Norway must take unequivocal steps to obtain reparations from the three colonial western countries namely Portugal, Netherlands and Britain for the crimes against humanity they inflicted particularly on the Buddhist Sinhalese during a period of 443 years (1505 – 1948) of colonial rule. Systemic Repression of Buddhism was the common distinguishing feature of Western colonial rule. All colonial powers were unreservedly united on this score.
Norway must unhesitatingly obtain for Sri Lanka from Portugal, Netherlands, and Britain the following requested items and actions:
Formal Apology and Recognition: A public apology and formal recognition from the governments of Portugal, the Netherlands, and Britain for the destruction of “man-made as well as natural foundations of life” in Ceylon between 1505 and 1948.
Repatriation of Cultural Artifacts: The return of sacred objects, artifacts, and cultural treasures looted or removed from Sri Lanka during the colonial period.
* Restitution for Religious Destruction: Specific restitution or compensation for the systematic destruction of hundreds of Buddhist temples, and Buddhist educational institutions (pirivenas) between 1505 and 1658 by the Portuguese
* Economic Compensation: Financial compensation for the long-term economic consequences of colonialism, which included the exploitation of land, resources, and the imposition of punitive taxes especially on the Buddhist Sinhalese.
· * Restoration of Land and Rights: Action to reverse or compensate for the displacement and marginalization of local populations mainly Kandyan Sinhalese peasantry caused by colonial land policies, particularly in the Kandyan regions. [1, 2, 3, 5, 7]
· * Reparations Committee – Help establish a Reparations Committee to function as the pivot of this endeavour to pursue compensation from Western nations.
· * A Proportion of Museum Revenue: Requests that colonial powers provide a portion of the revenue earned from exhibiting looted Sri Lankan ( Sinhalese made ) artifacts in European museums. .
· It is worthy of note that the Campaigns for Reparations and Apology in former Western colonies in Black Africa, Caribbean and even India (in Asia) are led by lawyers drawn from law schools and the legal profession in the respective countries. Their protest literature and law school conversations reflect a fighting spirit to confront the ‘ bad guys’ from foreign countries who invaded and destroyed the foundation of their civilizations and religions. They are fighting for Restitutio in integrum (often rendered as restitutio ad integrum) which is a Latin legal phrase meaning “restoration to original condition”. It is an admirable fight for Justice.
· In Sri Lanka we are taught Human Rights ad nauseam without any reference to the suffering of our people during the colonial era (1505 – 1948) and our collective right to restitutio ad integrum. A failing of leadership in the past in legal educational institutions on this score since the grant of independence in 1948 is not a viable excuse for not starting the demand for compensation afresh today.
· “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. It emphasizes that having a clear, purposeful direction is essential for progress in educational institutions.
The rise and fall of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar remains one of the darkest chapters in modern criminal history. Escobar did not merely run a drug empire — he built a parallel power structure through fear, intimidation, bribery, and murder. Judges were assassinated. Journalists were silenced. Police chiefs were targeted. Politicians lived under constant threat. Even ordinary citizens became collateral damage in a system where criminal power attempted to overpower the State itself.
Colombia during that era became a frightening example of what happens when organized crime infiltrates institutions and when fear prevents society from speaking openlySri Lanka is obviously not Colombia of the 1980s. Yet recent incidents involving mysterious killings, underworld violence, suspicious deaths, intimidation, political patronage networks, and attacks on media personnel have raised disturbing questions among the public.
People increasingly ask:
Why are certain investigations delayed?
Why do some criminal figures appear untouchable?
Why do witnesses fear speaking?
Why do journalists and social activists sometimes operate under pressure?
Why do suspicious deaths quickly disappear from public discussion?
Whether these incidents are connected or isolated is for law enforcement and the judiciary to determine. However, the growing public perception of fear and impunity itself is dangerous for democracy.
The lesson from Escobar’s Colombia is not merely about narcotics. It is about how criminal influence grows when:
institutions weaken,
political patronage protects wrongdoing,
fear silences honest officers,
and society gradually normalizes violence.
One of the most frightening aspects of the Escobar era was that many ordinary citizens initially tolerated him because he funded housing projects, football fields, and welfare activities. Criminal power often attempts to buy legitimacy through philanthropy while simultaneously destroying the rule of law behind the scenes.
Sri Lanka must be careful not to drift into any culture where:
criminals become celebrities,
political connections override justice,
or violence becomes an accepted tool of influence.
The country has already suffered decades of conflict, terrorism, political unrest, and economic hardship. The people deserve a society governed by transparent laws and accountable institutions — not fear.
The responsibility now lies with:
the Police,
the Judiciary,
independent media,
civil society,
and political leadership
to ensure that no parallel culture of intimidation takes root.
History shows that once organized criminal influence penetrates deeply into governance and public life, reversing the damage becomes extremely difficult.
Sri Lanka must learn from the mistakes of other nations before it is too late.
The USA-owned platform, WordPress, has ‘reinstated’ e-Con e-News (ee) after an almost 2-day suspension. No reasons have been given. ee is seeking alternate platforms, so as not to be subject to the whimsy of some decadent hand. Our latest blog was about who exactly rules the USA, as it seeks to further dominate Sri Lanka. Check it out. It’s intriguing. Perhaps the US wishes to tell ee it already owns Sri Lanka. We are fully aware that the USA seeks to control the internet, as much the waterways that surround us, treating this ‘highway’ much like the English claimed the ‘Kandy Road’ – to push its import-export swindle between plantation and port. ee has sought to use this ‘new’ road, to do something different. We have used the medium as a carriageway to promote a real economy, a modern industrial (machine-making-machine) society. We have sought to promote a real literacy, an industrial knowhow, not the type of innumerate literacy that receives awards for who can disparage a people or a nation best – a people and a nation who have been withstanding, and seek to recover from, a siege of over 500 years. We have sought to enable a national conversation about industrialization, fully aware that a merchant and money-lender and multinational corporation dominated media seeks to prevent such a dialogue and only wish to maintain, at all cost, the colonial status-quo, which is now perpetuated by India, the USA, the EU and its local ‘chamber’ orchestras and think tanks, etc…’
Please keep supporting us, especially with your thoughts and comments
Calls for reducing or removing Security Forces camps in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province in particular the Jaffna & Wanni security forces, are being promoted as post-conflict normalization, reconciliation, and civilian land release. These developments must be read as part of Sri Lanka’s broader transition from sovereign security control toward system-based dependency systematically instigated across Sri Lanka but visibly seen in the North and East strategic arc.
This issue cannot be treated lightly. Such a decision cannot ignore wider geopolitical reality and implications that are being built around regional connectivity.
growing external economic and infrastructure penetration
maritime competition in the Indian Ocean
strategic interest in Sri Lanka’s northern maritime corridor
evolving regional power influence
cross-border logistics links
cross-border people connectivity
The first and most visible pressure points of this transformation are Jaffna and Wanni, where military reduction, land release, and conversion of strategic infrastructure are already being advanced.
This is not symbolic.
It is structural.
It affects Sri Lanka’s:
sovereignty
maritime control
territorial continuity
national security resilience
unity, sociocultural and political integrity
Jaffna and Wanni are not post-war zones.
They are part of Sri Lanka’s most sensitive and vital northern frontiers.
WHY MILITARY PRESENCE WAS PLACED IN THE NORTH – IS REASON WHY MILITARY PRESENCE SHOULD REMAIN
Sri Lanka’s security doctrine (N.Q. Dias era) identified the North as a permanent vulnerability due to:
proximity to South India
illegal maritime movement
illegal immigration
smuggling routes across the Palk Strait
external influence exposure
strategic maritime access
This was never temporary.
It was a security doctrine that was relevant then and is relevant now and crucial in the foreseeable future. This is so because the competition for dominance over the Indian Ocean region is at a crossroads between great powers, shaping the future of our country.
The Northern Areas, especially the Wanni jungles, became more critical during the separatist conflict when:
arms smuggling
offshore logistics
external coordination networks
jungle hideouts and most importantly, terrorist training bases were actively used.
The situation was compounded by short-sighted decisions of the post-Sirimavo government that removed some of the security camps in the Northern areas, enabling a Tamil-separatist movement to cross the shore, hide, build logistics, train and attack the Sri Lankan state.
WHY ARE THE NORTHERN AREAS STILL STRATEGICALLY VULNERABLE AND CRITICAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
Today, the same vulnerabilities continue in modern form:
illegal fishing and resource exploitation
narcotics trafficking across Indian Ocean routes
human smuggling networks
maritime intelligence gaps
external influence activity
competition among external powers for dominance of marine & natural resources within the EEZ.
The North + East form a single strategic arc linking:
Palk Strait
Bay of Bengal approaches
Indian Ocean shipping lanes
Trincomalee deep-water harbour region
This is why the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord referenced both North & East.
Weakening the North+East strategic arc directly impacts Sri Lanka’s:
National security & strategic resilience for the national defence posture against separatism and extremism
maritime sovereignty
trade security
energy routes
national defence posture
Cultural integrity, unity & the safeguarding of vital national heritage sites.
For the island nation of Sri Lanka:
The keys to enter & exit must not only legally belong to Sri Lanka but also be under its exclusive non-negotiable control.
Maritime security = National survival of Sri Lanka.
SECURITY FORCES = NATIONAL RESILIENCE SYSTEM
Security Forces in the North are not just military units.
They provide:
coastal surveillance
anti-narcotics operations
intelligence networking & monitoring
disaster and pandemic response
emergency logistics
humanitarian assistance
dominance & defence of vital national infrastructure and assets
During COVID-19 and floods, they:
ran entire logistics operations
supported isolated communities
maintained essential services
enabled national emergency response – filling a key gap in national civilian capacity & capability.
Security Forces provide – Cultural and Civilizational Security Layer
protection of archaeological sites in North
security for pilgrimage routes
protection of Buddhist theroes under constant attacks
prevention against vandalism of national heritage & ruins
Land encroachment and the prevention of illegal settlements that affect natural population growth & expansion.
Security Forces’ role in safeguarding heritage, civilian rights & religious movements.
These sites form part of Sri Lanka’s civilizational security architecture in the Northern Frontier, one that is constitutionally binding.
Removing them removes more than military presence”.
It removes State identity, erases history and most importantly, the capacity for crisis response & people’s hope for safety.
It threatens and removes state capacity during crisis response & people’s hope for safety and security; if denied, a failure in providing human security for the citizens is an inalienable and undeniable responsibility of a State.
WHAT REDUCTION ACTUALLY MEANS
If Northern military infrastructure is reduced, Sri Lanka will face:
weaker coastal surveillance
slower response to trafficking networks
intelligence blind spots while enabling space for the growth of external & spy/intelligence networks.
reduced disaster response capability
loss of rapid deployment readiness
erosion of state presence in frontier zones
creates gaps in the erosion of national identity, history, heritage and people’s rights to safety and security. Thirty years of separatist conflict and religious extremism have provided an abundance of painful lessons & experiences.
Strategic Loss of Palali Military Air Capability
Palali airbase conversion risk (transferring a military base into a civilian airport expansion pressure)
Loss of rapid military airlift capability
Loss of evacuation and reinforcement corridor
Irreversibility of civilian conversion of military airbases
Impact on Jaffna Security Forces HQ strategic depth
Conversion of Palali airbase into a strategic air transportation hub aligned with Indo-Pacific security frameworks, including QUAD and Indian Ocean Region (IOR) connectivity and logistics architectures, risks progressively reducing Sri Lanka’s independent control over critical northern air mobility infrastructure: more critically impacting Sri Lanka’s traditionally held non-aligned policy.
The Palali airbase conversion is not an administrative upgrade but a strategic reclassification of a wartime military asset into a civilian airport, permanently reducing the State’s rapid military airlift capability, later to be converted into a regional air hub for external use.
Reduction of the Jaffna Security Forces HQ and conversion of Palali airbase must be viewed as interconnected strategic shifts, not as separate administrative decisions and as seriously undermining Sri Lanka’s national security.
More critically:
Once dismantled, operational capability cannot be quickly rebuilt, and what about the cost to rebuild and relocate such infrastructure elsewhere, and the time involved?
What about the security gaps during the transition period?
Does the Sri Lankan government have the fiscal capacity and the will to undertake such a strategic transformation of the existing national defence system, which was built over decades based on battle experience?
A more important question is whether the external powers with vested interests will allow such commitment by the Sri Lankan government to align and restore its defence system strategically, which might undermine their geostrategic and geopolitical interests?
Closure of Security Camps in Jaffna & Wanni results in loss of:
terrain knowledge
intelligence networks
local operational familiarity
logistical depth
Abandoning strategically important defence grounds that were defended at the cost of many young and brave lives.
These take decades to develop, not months, and billions of government money that could otherwise be invested in state capacity building for national development.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCE & SOFT TRANSFORMATION
The North sits at a strategic intersection of:
India proximity
Indian Ocean access
post-war reconstruction flows
infrastructure and connectivity projects
Geopolitical influence today comes in different forms.
Infrastructure
development funding
diplomacy
education networks
cultural & religious transformation
all types of connectivity corridors
The question is not who controls land”.
It is:
Who shapes systems operating on that land?
Sovereignty today is not only about land ownership. It is about who operates the systems that function on that land: logistics, data, transport, energy, and connectivity networks.
Modern sovereignty is determined not by territorial ownership alone, but by control over operational systems running on that territory — roads, railways, airports, and other logistics infrastructure; data, energy, and connectivity networks; and, more significantly and harmful
cultural penetration & externally-led sociocultural reshaping.
This aspect reshapes people’s thinking and realigns them to a foreign-controlled model.
Sri Lanka may well legally control the land, but what happens when systems operating on that land are controlled by external forces, and once outsourced, Sri Lanka has little or no say!
WHO IS PUSHING FOR THE REDUCTION OF SRI LANKA’S MILITARY FROM JAFFNA & WANNI?
Pressure for reduced military presence comes through:
demilitarisation and defence reform frameworks
UNHRC post-conflict reconciliation narratives
devolution advocacy groups
external policy influence networks
diaspora-driven political campaigns
incremental integration based on connectivity, infrastructure, institutional alignment, and people-to-people networks can evolve into structural dependence, reducing Sri Lanka’s sovereign decision-making capacity and ultimately resulting in Sri Lanka’s strategic absorption into a foreign-dominated regional system.
The language used is:
reconciliation
normalization
development
civilian governance
defence sector reforms, modernization and restructuring
In modern geopolitics, control is exercised not only through territory but through infrastructure, logistics systems, and connectivity networks that operate on that territory.
But missing from the discussion is one reality:
Strategic vacuum will always get filled — it is never left empty.
There are many historical lessons: a state that fails to enforce precise decisions with regard to national security and defence will perish, never to recover for centuries!
This is what should worry Sri Lanka’s political & defence leadership.
THE REGIONAL POWER REALITY
Small states do not operate in isolation.
In South Asia, influence is shaped through:
economics
infrastructure
maritime access
security partnerships
cultural & religion
ethnicity & historical roots of common identity
Sri Lanka’s location makes it inherently strategic.
Therefore: Reducing strategic presence in the Northern areas without a fitting military replacement capability creates dependency vulnerabilities that are difficult to reverse.
MODERN THREATS ARE NOT MILITARY ALONE
Today’s threats include: these syndicates often work in cohesion
separatist and extremist networks
narcotics economies
cyber-financing systems
digital radicalisation pipelines
coordinated destabilisation campaigns
social media influencers / narrative creators (pose the biggest threat)
non-governmental organizations and foreign-funded proxy networks
State weakening does not begin with war.
It begins with:
reduced surveillance
reduced presence
reduced readiness
reduced reinforcements
reduced capabilities and preparedness
increased cultural & educational integration
increased proxy activities and anti-regime intelligence networking
increased external dependence
increased external footprints
increased information warfare shaping national mindset, transforming consciousness
Then the surprise emerges: Sri Lanka was and is not ready, and Sri Lanka is being exploited right in front of our eyes!
HISTORICAL WARNING — WHAT SRI LANKA ALREADY EXPERIENCED
Strategist N.Q. Dias identified the Northern areas as a permanent strategic choke point.
After 1977, weakening northern security architecture contributed to:
loss of surveillance depth
growth of militant networks
offshore arms logistics
expansion of separatist violence
nearly 30 years of war
loss of state control and governance
This created early surveillance gaps in a region already identified as a permanent strategic frontier!
The lesson is clear:
Weakening strategic presence and intelligence creates space for the escalation of elements that will threaten Sri Lanka at every level and at every time.
MODERN LESSON — 2019 EASTER ATTACKS
Sri Lanka also learned that:
Even after peace periods:
threats can re-emerge
networks can evolve
intelligence gaps are exploited
The 2019 Easter Sunday attacks proved that stability is not permanent, peace is fragile, and state armed forces were not ready, and the intelligence network was paralysed.
WHAT IS REALLY AT STAKE
Removing or reducing the Armed Forces from Northern Areas is not administrative reform.
It is a strategic restructuring.
It affects:
sovereignty control
maritime dominance
intelligence coverage
emergency response capacity
territorial continuity and connectivity
restraints on external powers, proxy networks and foreign intelligence activities.
Most importantly:
For the people of Northern areas, military presence is not just security.
It is:
guaranteed assistance (in numerous forms), security & protection
disaster response
emergency logistics
protection of infrastructure
stability during crises
state presence in vulnerable zones
Protection and preservation of heritage & state identity as per Sri Lanka’s Constitution.
Northern areas are strategically important for providing a safety buffer to Anuradhapura, a place that has historically been under constant threat since its establishment as the first Kingdom of Sri Lanka; together they form the central security corridor between the north and the rest of the island.
Anuradhapura, out of all places, is the most sacred and sensitive heritage of Sri Lanka; specially to Buddhist and Sinhalese. Therefore, the continued existence of security camps in the Wanni is critical to safeguard Anuradhapura and not to repeat the kind of heinous massacre that took place at Jayasri Maha Bodhi committed by LTTE.
Wanni functions as Sri Lanka’s central defence buffer zone linking the Northern frontier to the national interior security belt. Giving up this access is administrative & security hara kiri.
For civilians in Jaffna and Wanni, the presence of Security Forces is not an abstract military policy — it is immediate protection during disasters, crises, and instability, and, most importantly, untold numbers of other support networks for civilians by military forces since the end of the conflict in 2009.
No foreigner will look after one’s own like one’s own.
The critical question remains whether Sri Lanka has the fiscal capacity, technological base, and institutional depth to develop and sustain advanced military and surveillance systems capable of replacing the operational gaps that would be created by a reduced Security Forces footprint in Jaffna and Wanni.
Reforming, modernising, and restructuring the national defence system is not a simplistic administrative exercise; it cannot be at the behest of foreign advice or pressure to satisfy their geopolitical and geostrategic interests!
Reforming, modernising, and restructuring the national defence systemrequires long-term strategic foresight – wisdom in national security design, sustained investment, and defence planning that goes far beyond visible political electoral cycles.
National defence can never be in conflict with political interests.
At present, there are concerns regarding uneven regional development and strategic neglect in areas such as Mannar, which already shows signs of limited infrastructure prioritisation, ethnic, cultural and religious divisions and disunity despite its geographic importance to the nation’s survival.
If similar patterns of reduced strategic investment extend to Wanni as a result of removing the armed forces’ presence in a jungle terrain that the LTTE exploited to the fullest, the resulting gaps could significantly weaken Sri Lanka’s northern defensive depth, maritime monitoring capacity, and rapid-response capability while creating more gaps for the expansion of foreign intelligence networking, regional exploitation and subsequent outcomes.
In geopolitical terms, the Northern-Eastern maritime corridor remains one of the most sensitive segments of the Indian Ocean region. Any sustained reduction in state security infrastructure risks gradually alters the strategic balance of the island’s sovereignty and creates vulnerability for strategic resources in the EEZ for exploitation.
For a small island nation situated within a highly competitive maritime environment, the key issue is not only current policy, but the long-term trajectory of sovereignty protection, system resilience, and strategic autonomy.
The real question is not whether camps should exist.
It is: Can Sri Lanka afford to lose permanent state presence and capability in its most sensitive frontier region?
Because once lost, it cannot be easily regained or rebuilt — and in a situation of financial strain, surrendering what little security presence and capacity remains physically, effectively exposes the state to external strategic dominance, a condition that is politically irreversible once it takes root.
Protecting our country demands serious & honest factoring in the past, current & future security threats while maintaining national independence & making national security decisions free from foreign & external pressure.
What is ours must remain ours not only legally but in terms of control as well.
Who will be accountable for the strategic miscalculations (if it is to ever happen) in national security and the defence of our state?
Is there an accountable and sustainable process, a resilient homegrown system of national security policy making, and set of experts who (who are also capable of understanding and navigating amid internal and external pressures and demands) could honestly advise on a critical national survival issue under the current context, while taking into account the states’ national interests, while fulfilling the citizens’ aspirations for a secure and peaceful country that experienced brutal 30 years separatist conflict, two armed insurrection in 1971 and 1988-1990 era and a religious extremism and terrorism in 2019?
These are defining decisions that will shape the future of national security and sovereignty. Any move to restructure the defence architecture must come only after these critical questions are rigorously examined, transparently debated, and responsibly answered. To proceed without such scrutiny is to risk compromising not just strategy, but the very sovereignty we are duty-bound to protect.
After 60 years of continued rule, Dravidian political parties suffered a massive defeat in Tamil Nadu state of India at its state election. DMK, AIADMK and their various offshoots failed to win a sizable number of seats to rule the state. Instead, a newcomer to the political scene – TVK – led by an actor turned politician swept the election. However, his party lacked the majority and had to rely on a rival party’s support to get Joseph Vijay’s claim to the Chief Minister post. His voter card states that he’s a Christian – a fact not lost during the election campaign as BJP-aligned groups used it to discredit him. He has stated he aligns with no religion and that his mother was a Hindu and his father was a Christian. But in India caste and religion are not up for change – these are documented in birth certificate, identity card and voter card.
His party – TVK or Tamilaga Vetri Kalagam – is still a racist party that harps on Tamil identity at the expense of an Indian identity. Therefore, nothing much has changed in Tamil Nadu. Due to its racist politics, clashes with other states, the central government of India and neighboring Sri Lanka are to be expected.
Tamil Nadus has the second largest state economy of India after Maharashtra. Both states could become newly developed countries within a decade if they gain independence from India due to the fact that they pay far more tax to the central government than they get back from the central government. These 2 states have no wars or disagreement with Pakistan or China and not saddled by India’s extremely poor states, war liabilities and other worthless incumbrances. However, laws inherited from the former Soviet Union including anti-sedition laws keep them tied down to poverty and under-development where all major decisions are made by Gujaratis and Uttar Pradesh politicians destining India to collective poverty. Vijay’s criticism of Indian central government’s imposition and management of GST (goods and services tax) contributed heavily to his election success.
Meanwhile Kerala ended its long relationship with socialist parties. Now India has no socialist or communist party rule in any of its states.
West Bengal replaced its own sectarian political party with a BJP alliance ending decades of ethno-racist politics. Following this shift, Tamil Nadu remains the only ethno-racist enclave in India, willing but unable, to fly free towards prosperity and independence breaking 750 years-old shackles of collective poverty.
In his February 2014 article, Senaka Weeraratna argued that a Narendra Modi premiership would trigger a “sea change” in India’s regional leadership, moving away from Western influence toward an assertive, nationalist foreign policy, marked by increased civilizational pride The author questioned whether Sri Lanka was prepared for this transformation, predicting a shift toward a more respectful, culturally aligned partnership rather than previous diplomatic approaches. Read the full analysis on esamskriti.com.
The Indian general election scheduled for May 2014 would, if the forecasts are proved to be correct, result in a sea change in India’s relationship with the rest of the world as well as a revolutionary transformation of her economy, industry and education if the changes introduced in Gujarat by Chief Minister Narendra Modi are an indication. It will also dramatically affect the ongoing ‘blow hot blow cold’ relationship that India currently pursues with Sri Lanka.
India under Narendra Modi as Prime Minister will claim its rightful place in Asia as one of its true leaders, politically, economically and even militarily, and in order to demonstrate these credentials India can be expected to gleefully abandon its current policy of servility and unconditional subservience to the West. It will do so in the full knowledge that continuing subservience to its former colonial masters and their allies i.e. the new sponsors of colonialism, will severely undercut any Indian claim to lead the once colonized but now liberated nations of Asia.
India will discard its junior partner status in any relationship with the USA and retaliate in a more effective manner if the American gaffe we saw in the recent past involving Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade were to be repeated.
India will reclaim its ancient spiritual and cultural heritage and take pride in its civilisational achievements in a way that will put to shame the negative attitudes being adopted currently by the Indian establishment, including its mass media and burgeoning film industry, lacking vision, sense of country’s purpose and more importantly, pride in its own history and heroes.
The upsurge of the view that India has nothing much to offer other that material goods and services and entertainment in this modern age has diminished India’s moral standing in a world long used, particularly in the pre-colonial past, to be the beneficiary of Indian philosophical thought, wisdom and outspokenness that had no equal.
India will mend any strains it has in its relationship with China and will not allow interfering outsiders, particularly from the West, to identify India’s friends and potential enemies and teach India how to conduct itself vis-à-vis imagined foes. India will take comfort from an historical fact that India and China despite being neighbours on the Asian continent had never gone to war with each other for over 5000 years except on one dismal occasion in contemporary history (1962) when it clashed over a border issue that has its roots in British colonial mischief.
India will set its own foreign policy agenda and goals from a central government perspective, rather than from a regional government perspective, which today has unfortunately contributed to India’s almost total isolation from its immediate neighbours in South Asia. This anticipated posture will contribute immensely to improvement of India’s ties with Sri Lanka. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the popular freedom fighter and nationalist leader that India never had as its Prime Minister, will come alive in the form of Narendra Modi and will revolutionise India’s national and international image.
India will no longer be the country that the West, particularly the USA, would take for granted with contempt for both its leaders and people, but a new India conscious of its place in the world and obligations to both humanity and all other living beings. India’s Constitutional provision that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures” (Article 51 A (g)) will gain a new lease of life. This is the vision that India’s great son, Gautam Buddha, had for Bharat and its greatest Chakravarti Emperor Asoka faithfully strove to establish in the form of a compassionate society.
India’s moral voice can be expected to be heard again in the far flung corners of the world in a manner that the Buddha, Mahavira, Asoka, Nagarjuna, Swami Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Mahatma Gandhi and the like resounded to the serene joy and delight of humankind. Idealism will return to India and in turn help to recharge the batteries of a largely spiritually weakened Asia, now increasingly despoiled by unbridled crass materialism.
We must gratefully acknowledge that it was India more than any other country that originally provided the value system for the moral and ethical foundations of Asia, through the spread of the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism. Are we in Sri Lanka ready to meet the challenge of foreseeable radical changes in our closest neighbour, India?
amazed astonished to read a so beautiful blog by a srinkan lawyer who knows everything about india as if shrilanka is a part of india.hats off to the writer.
dabangg hindu February 01, 2014
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Brilliant note, Senaka Weeraratna.
Our civilization ties are so intense and far-reaching, that a renewed Bharat-Srilanka maitri should result in the constitution of an Indian Ocean Community — Hind Mahasagar parivaar — to revolutionise the development opportunities in a United Indian Ocean States. Start with a Colombo-New Delhi Boat Mail. Built the Trans Asian Highway and Railway.
Venerate the Buddha in Sanchi University set up with such joy and hope.
All the best. With the anugraham of tathagata, everything is possible. Dharma-Dhamma are inviolate, eternal.
Kalyan
S. Kalyanaraman February 01, 2014
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very good article.
sanjeev nayyar February 01, 2014
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Narendra Modi is an individual. We should believe in the capacity for goodness and greatness of individuals but not depend on one. Modi has his work, each of us have his or hers, that is the establishment of Dharma, not yours or mine, but the Universal Dharma.
Sri Weeraratna has recalled for us and emphasised the Calling of India that is Bharat. It requires great sensitivity and perspicacity to understand something as indefinable as Character, that too of a country, and what ability is needed to articulate this understanding! I extend my appreciation and gratitude to Sri Weeraratna, and express my hope that his confidence in Bharata is well placed.
Chandra Ravikumar February 01, 2014
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Thanks to the author for his understanding of the inevitable change which is going to happen in India after the May 2014 General Elections.
But as a Sri Lankan National he must articulate more on what his country is going to do, whether the Buddhist clergy will shed its fanaticism and move towards having a healthy, peaceful and progressive relationship with Hindus, and realise the fact that SL needs to assert its Buddhist-Hindu Identity.
I would be thankful if the author answers his own question ( Are we in Sri Lanka ready to meet the challenge of foreseeable radical changes in our closest neighbour, India?) by means of another article here in Vijayvaani.
B.R.Haran February 01, 2014
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Thanks to a Great article, NaMo frequently talks about India leading the world into Gyan Yug, before that he has to focus on reclaiming India’s leadership in Asia. Time demands Hindu-Buddhist countries in Asia come close with increasing economic,cultural and strategic engagement. But the main problem is that China cannot behave like a bully with claims on other territories. If China doesn’t realize the need for a cohesive Asia, west would continuously exploit the fault-lines in Asia and use them against both China and India
krishnarjun February 02, 2014
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I am afraid the writer of the article is reading far too much into the likely elevation of Narendra Modi as PM. Modi has been extremely shy of using the word “Hindu” (the worst swear word in India ever since Nehru was foised on an unwilling nation by the alleged Mahatma). Keen observers (of which there are indeed very few in India) say Modi has been slowly and steadily de-Hinduising himself for the past 10 years, just like Vajpayee earlier.(Remember his needless “Sadbhavana” rally and his equation of “devalaya” (temple) with “shauchalaya” (latrine)) Modi belongs to Gujarat whose people are known for being the most money-minded in India. There is much materialism in Modi’s home state but little culture or spirituality. If the BJP is fortunate to get a clear majority in Parliament, Modi may hopefully (despite jealous colleagues like Advani and Sushma) give the country a much less corrupt government than what the Christian-led Congress has given for 10 years. But that’s about all. Wise readers should expect only this from Modi. Nothing less but nothing more too. To cheat others may be bad but to deceive oneself is worse.
KNT February 02, 2014
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Bharat & Sri Lanka have the same cultural heritage and we are joined by genes,language,Dharmic traditions and the same philosophies towards life,living and the world at large. The dirty role played by self-seeking politicians,false histories written and propagated by the colonizers and taken forward by exploitative historian-‘time-servers’ has resulted in most of the people on either side of the RAMA SETHU to believe that we are different.Definitely not! We share a great,common Samskriti that has given Light to the world and is still lighting the darkest recesses of the world.
One pessimistic reader sadly has poured cold water on the author’s optimism regarding NaMo.He questions Modi’s performance and states that it may be slightly better than the present corrupt Congress. It is indeed very big true that NaMo’s coming to power,becoming Prime Minister of Bharat and setting things on track will be a very very difficult task as this present corrupt government has deliberately destroyed all institutions.This Congress knows fully well that now they can never seize power and so become ‘dog in the manger’! They are trying every dirty trick to stop Narendra Modi from coming to power. This is the very reason why we the people of Bharat have to unitedly support NaMo into coming to power. Nothing is ever easy and he knows this.May Bhagavaan help Bharat.Given the Indian people’s support and the power of ISVARA Sri Narendra Modi will change the face of our Bharat for the better from every angle. He has the will,character,strength and honest determination to bring back our lost glory,respect and dignity and once again make our Bharat a prosperous and happy nation. ??????? ???? !????? ??????!
V.Pant February 02, 2014
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I did not “pour cold water” on the author’s optimism regarding Narendra Modi. I was only pointing to the need to assess people by their performance rather than by our fond wishes. V. Pant’s comment is a good example of the naivete for which Hindus are well known all over the world. “May Bhagavan help Bharat,” says Pant, despite the fact that there is no record of Bhagavan helping Bharat even in the dark centuries of horrendous Islamic oppression. The British rightly say “God helps only those who help themselves”. Pant says “given the power of Eesvara, Modi will change the face of Bharat”. The power of Eesvara has not been seen in the least in the unfortunate land of Bharat for the past 1,400 years. Hindus cannot afford to be so gullible in a world where only the most cunning survive. While I also wish that Modi becomes the next PM, I hope he will not disappoint Hindu patriots as Hajpayee’ and Advani did.
KNT February 02, 2014
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“Asia for Christ” is the clarion call given by the Vatican.It is impossible to convert Muslims and so the whole conversion activity is concentrated in Hindu and Buddhist soceity.Already,South Korea has become Christian majority country with Buddhists getting pushed to second place.The only Hindu kingdom in the world,Nepal was destroyed by the missionaries using their swordarm,the Maoists.Same thing is happening in Odisha,AP,TN and the North-East.Still Hindus want to be ruled by the Catholic mother and son,duo of Sonia and Rahul.
S.S.Nagaraj February 02, 2014
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Very true article
Ajay February 03, 2014
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wonderful article.
In the changed scenario,I wish to know the author’s view as to how Srilankan buddhists would start treating their and our Tamizh brethren and how Srilanka as a country would mend its relationship with Hindusthan. Especially, the way day in day out they arrest and ill-treat Hindusthani fishermen.
Khobragade issue. It’s not the individual but issues requiring importance. The case of the lady diplomat is very weak from her side and she deserves punishment for the wrongs done. But diplomatic relations between Hindustani and USA shall be strictly on reciprocal basis. With proper investigation, there is every possibility that some of the American diplomats in Hindusthan getting punishment under Hindusthani laws.
Namo has openly and proudly articulated that he is a Hindu Nationalist. Sure the Devalaya sauchalaya sort of rubbish could have been avoided. He has proved that he is not another “Hajpayee” by refusing to accept skull cap during the sadhbhavana movement. The likes of Sohrabuddins would see the beginning of their end once Namo comes into picture. Even if not Namo would change the face of Hindusthan in a day, the vily white church would realise that it would not be that easy to harvest souls in Hindusthan anymore.
krishnakumar February 03, 2014
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@krishnakumar I do hope your expectations about Modi are not belied. But, remember Modi rather apologetically said ” I am a Hindu” and then “I am a national”, then “so I am a Hindu nationalist” which is not quite the same thing as saying “I am a Hindu nationalist”. It is good that he did not accept the skull cap during the sadbhavana rally, but why hold a sadbhavana rally at all? Who wants any “sadbhavana” (whatever it means) anyway? The rally seems to have been organised merely to placate the secularist media who are implacable enemies of Hindu society. And I have seen a picture of Modi accepting an award from a denomination of Christians of Kerala, India’s most fertile breeding ground of the world’s most wily missionaries. Why accept an award from a known enemy?
KNT February 03, 2014
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India as it exists today is a colonial system, with a colonial economy.. The real nation is Bharat, which is systematically suppressed on all fronts..
So even if India breaks free from US influence, it will still be a colonial entity and NOT its 5000 year old society.
There are few things to do to reclaim the bharat and the bharata varsha..
1. The current Indian colonial system should be dismantled..
2. The current Indian Judiciary model (which Sri Lanka also uses) should be dismantled. The author of this article is a lawyer and he should first introspect what is the history of this judiciary system (with all those black gowns & hammers) ? Does he want this masonic system to be defacto?
3. The current economic system has to be dismantled.
But the fact is none of the above would happen, and unless this happens, there is no use in getting pride of india being asian leadership..
senthil February 05, 2014
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A profoundly pragmatic analysis and synopsis by Senaka.
His autopsy of the current and past political leaders is worth admiring for he has hit the nail on the head. From 1947 to-date, India has had suffrage and pseudo threats to its populace, boundaries, religion and self esteem.
MODI is the de facto restorer of these cherished and ingrained Indian Values, which will benefit not only the Indians but their neighbours who have been mollified into a perception of enmity by the West.
Let us all hope that MODI will be the next PM and that India as we know to-day will be a totally different and valued Country over the globe and, once again, regain its rightful place in history enshrining the principles of religion, education, humanity and truthfulness.
Ken Popat, London, UK February 07, 2014
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Political changes in India, when they are real, are only movements of the Pendulum. The problem in Srilanka is rooted in the discrimination against Tamils, pure and simple, and it is pointless to blame outsiders or external factors for what is obviously a self-inflicted wound. Powers like the US are merely exploiting it.
If the author- who is obviously biased against Tamils because the merit he sees in a Modi regime is that it would ignore (supposedly) the sentiments of Tamils in india while dealing with Srilanka- looks into himself he would realize people like him are at the root of the problem. It is a problem of ethnic discrimination and hate.
The hope that a new regime in India will enable Srilanka to vicariously get back at a self-righteous USA also is a mere wish. Modi’s party sells religion downward (the ranks), and upward the promises of some redemption for the identity-challenged classes and pseudo-patriotism which appeals to the timid types. In the middle it is a complete sell out to the marauding corporates especially the western (read US) corporates. It is no different from Congress in this sell out. We have seen it already.
This is Sri Lanka. Praised as the paradise island and called, in the history, as the granary of the east. Yes, it is true if one had the means. One can shift away from Colombo and seek refuge in regions where barely people live. It can be in the mountains, at the coast or even in the semi-barren Jaffna peninsula. Nature is reviving despite demographic pressure and random encroachment of virgin land.
In and around cities and towns people commute about trading, practising professions or even be government employees, professions all dream of having.
Population has been surging up since more than a century. The infrastructure, neglected, keeps no pace with it. It lags miserably behind. Infrastructure costs money and that is not available. But if money is work-force, it is excessively available. Stream lining it into the habitat is a different issue.
With the bare hand and palm, a nation as a whole has no ability to channel the muscle force found abundantly to do a reasonable work to improve the infrastructure. Work is: force multiplied by distant moved. Since the work done is nil or near nil, though the force exists increasingly in the surging demography, the distant moved has to be near nil or even nil. It exposes itself in the absence of badly needed infrastructure, especially on the ever important commuting tracks.
However, the force coming out from the surging population cannot be stopped. In populated regions it loses itself in wear and tear and shows position change, implying work is being done. The work-done exposes itself in degradation of the landscape with sapiens’ natural force. A kind of Sapien’s-Brownian motion
It is true because everywhere across the island one sees people sitting, gossiping, straying about and even brooding with the intention of raising themselves up for a revolt or to smash-down everything across the way with a lust for Nihilism. A strange phenomenon which suffocates inhabitants or force them to rampage out to decimate the next nearest or get themselves decimated by a xeno-somatic outsider. It is when the drive to emitting found in the genes of all species, likewise in homo-sapiens finds no tracks, fields or space-volumes to stretch out to preserve and multiply the species as they strive to have some pleasures and fulfil their dreams, intermittently remembering to protect the children and wives at home.
Yet, a few of these people do succeed or get chances to earn some rupees to fulfil their dreams. These people have to travel hither and thither to find the means for survival, as nature demands. One could see the drive in the overflowing packing of the trains with humans, if one is allowed to say so. They take all kinds of risks to find honourably the coins for their rice-kiribath, iddi-ahppa, ahppa and pol-sambol. Or when a favourable day falls dropping few more coins than usual into their palms, they afford exotic bread or Pahn turned indigenous, brought in by the Portuguese, with china-sambol called seeni-sambol to have for breakfast after a good sleep and stretched out muscles without to have the need to cook the over-starched food and what not, without rising up early with the doodle of the cockerels, and hooting of the cuckoos.
The railway compartment is thick packed and tight with people. No room to cough or sneeze without doing it straight on the others’ face. If one is lucky, one gets a finely carburetted and molucularised spray of saliva travelling, as some say, at speeds tending to reach the speed of sound, from the ones having lung muscles strong, straight on to the face. Full of bacteria, virus and all those molecular organisms of the order of billions at one blast.
If one is un-lucky, one may get a saliva spray with the same blasting speed, the molucularised carburation cocktailed with garlic, also straight on to the face. Often it is found that traditions are not lost. Then one may get a spray of Bulath-eatay-cocktail also straight on to the face. Redder than Kabuk and sprinkling the shirts to appear modern art. One should not forget, sneezing mostly follows cold. Then the spray has that carburation with the virus soaked molucularised mucus from the lungs. Then one has it.
All as Minister of Health, Minister of Transport, the President and all the accompanying sycophantic orchestra are busy having conferences to master this problem since decades unknown at grand scales. In guarded mighty halls acclimatised and well served with delicious delicacies with lot of space between one another.
A railway compartment may carry two busloads normally. But at these traffic hours in the mornings and evenings, it comes to more than 3 busloads per compartment, if one had the space to stand and the means to count.
In a railway trip, there are usually about ten compartments. It comes to thirty or more busloads in one swing by the rickety train coming from Colombo Fort and dashing down through broiling-heat, winds and rains with its steal dachoto-phony towards down south Matara.
North of Colombo Fort, it is not different whether towards Kandy, Badhulla, A’pura, Jaffna, and the coastal line to Puttlam with spoilt air with a strange perfume with Babynona’s watty having fish remains. One need not speak of the lines to Trinco or Batticoloa as travel past Galoya, horning. The story is the same. Hanging is prohibited by law. Yet one shouldn’t sight it.
What if more than thirty busloads per train that moves at this time of the day, every half-hour, are put on to the roads in buses? It needs no explanation. The perennially discordant country’s economy in time and space will deepen in lagging so much that many machines have to be switched off. Traffic will just not move in the humid disgusting still-standing heat, not to speak when monsoon rain beats down. People deprived of the time saving trip resort to walk home to have pleasant sharing with their families blended with a bit of bragging over the day’s achievements or grudging over the under-cuttings and newly made enemies. Ticket fare gone.
How to settle this problem? In Part Two.
Natural Wealth Generating
Engineering
Paddy, cereal, and vegetable fields have sacrificed over 90% of their Floral Volume.
Nature-emulating methods to activate the unused floral volume are progressing, though sporadically.
Norway’s intervention in Sri Lanka’s affairs is tantamount to a Kiss of Death. Its intervention in the past has always undermined national sovereignty, promoted betrayal of Sri Lanka’s true interest and was always seen as the continuation of the deadly colonial policy of ‘Divide and Rule’. Norway enjoys the reputation of a dedicated Christian theocratic State. Only followers of the Christian Lutheran Church were able to hold high office including the King of Norway, Judges and all senior civil and military officials, county governors, and most cabinet members, under the Constitution of Norway. The Church of Norway remains recognized as the “national church” (folkekirke) and receives state financial support. Though there may have been cosmetic changes in the Constitution in the recent past it still regards itself as a Christian country to the core and thereby ever ready to dislodge the rightful place enjoyed by Buddhism in Sri Lanka under Article 9 of the Constitution. The hidden agenda is a singular determination to undermine and break the millennia old Dharmic civilizational links between India and Sri Lanka.
Norway, first clean your house before trying to clean the house of others. Physician, heal thyself.
Few words in modern political language are as burdened—or as reflexively rejected—as communism. To invoke it today is to invite immediate dismissal, as though history itself had rendered a final and irreversible judgment. The argument is familiar: the twentieth century tried communism, and it failed—catastrophically.
But this argument rests on a confusion so basic that it would be surprising—were it not so convenient. It assumes that what occurred in the Soviet Union, Maoist China, or other so-called actually existing socialist” states exhausts the meaning of communism. It treats a historically contingent set of regimes as if they were the definitive expression of an idea that, by its nature, exceeds any single instantiation.
No one would accept this reasoning elsewhere. We do not reduce Christianity to the Spanish Inquisition, nor liberal democracy to the worst crimes committed in its name. And yet, when it comes to communism, the move is made without hesitation: Stalinism becomes its essence, and the verdict follows automatically. This is not historical analysis but ideological closure.
To claim that communism has been tried and failed” is to assume that history operates like a controlled experiment: a hypothesis is tested once, under specific conditions, and the result is decisive. But political ideas are not laboratory propositions. They are lived, distorted, betrayed, revived, and transformed across different historical conditions.
Consider the Soviet Union. Within a few decades, the USSR transformed itself from a largely agrarian society into a major industrial power. Its role in defeating fascism in World War II was decisive. Its scientific and technological achievements—from early space exploration to advances in education and public health—were significant.
None of this is intended to excuse the immense suffering, repression, and violence associated with Stalinism. But it does undermine the simplistic claim that the Soviet experiment can be written off as a total failure. The point is not to redeem the Soviet experiment, but to reject the lazy conclusion that its crimes exhaust the Idea it claimed to embody. More importantly, it raises a deeper question: why should this particular historical formation be treated as the final word on what communism is—or could be?
To equate communism with Stalinism is not only historically crude; it is philosophically incoherent. It is akin to arguing that because a medical treatment was once misapplied with disastrous results, the underlying principle of healing must be abandoned altogether.
What, then, is communism—if not the regimes that claimed its name?
Here the work of Alain Badiou is indispensable. For Badiou, communism is not first and foremost a state form or an economic blueprint. It is an Idea: a commitment to the possibility of a society organized around radical equality, in which collective life is no longer subordinated to private accumulation or hierarchical domination.
The communist Idea affirms, first, that no human life carries greater intrinsic worth than another—that equality is not an aspiration but a starting point. It insists, further, that this equality must take material form in the way society is organized: in how resources are distributed, how work is structured, and how power is exercised. And it demands, finally, that human capacities—creative, intellectual, affective—be developed in common, not narrowed, exhausted, or deformed by systems that convert life into labor and potential into profit.
At this point, a familiar objection arises: isn’t this precisely what every failed revolution has claimed—that the Idea was betrayed, not realized? The force of the question should not be dismissed. But the objection proves too much. If every historical failure were enough to invalidate the principle in whose name it was undertaken, then no political idea—democracy, rights, even justice—could survive its own history. The issue is not whether past attempts fell short. The issue is whether the Idea itself names a genuine possibility that exceeds the conditions of its distorted realization. To collapse that distinction is not a mark of realism, but a refusal to think beyond the limits imposed by history as it happened.
This is not utopian in the sense of being detached from reality. It is, rather, a claim about what reality itself permits—a claim that history has repeatedly, if briefly, brought into view.
The Paris Commune remains one of the most striking examples: a short-lived but profound attempt to reorganize political life on egalitarian principles, abolishing standing hierarchies and rethinking the relationship between labor, governance, and everyday life. Similarly, during the Spanish Civil War, experiments in worker self-management demonstrated that production and social organization could function without traditional capitalist command structures.
Nor were such experiments confined to moments of revolutionary rupture. In postwar Yugoslavia, systems of worker self-management operated for decades, reorganizing firms around collective decision-making rather than centralized state control or private ownership. These arrangements were uneven, constrained, and ultimately entangled in broader political contradictions. But their significance lies elsewhere: they demonstrate that non-capitalist forms of economic coordination can persist beyond exceptional moments, taking institutional shape within complex, modern societies.
What these examples reveal is not simply that alternatives have appeared, but that they recur—under different conditions, in different forms—whenever the limits of existing arrangements become intolerable. These experiments were fragile, often constrained or ultimately undone by internal contradictions and external pressures alike. But their significance lies precisely in their existence. They show that the communist Idea is not a fantasy imposed on reality from outside. It emerges from within history itself.
If Badiou provides a philosophical framework, Slavoj Žižek offers a diagnosis of our present predicament. For Žižek, the real problem is not that we have rejected communism, but that we have accepted a world in which no alternative to capitalism seems conceivable.
We are told, endlessly, that while the system may be flawed, it is ultimately the only viable option. Attempts to imagine something else are dismissed as naïve, dangerous, or historically ignorant. This is what Žižek calls ideology at its most effective: not the imposition of false beliefs, but the foreclosure of thought itself. We are permitted to critique the system endlessly—so long as that critique never threatens to become an alternative.
In this context, the word communism acquires a paradoxical importance. It is not simply a label for a particular program. It is a way of insisting that the space of the possible has not been closed—that the current organization of society is not the final horizon of human life. To abandon the word is, in a sense, to concede defeat in advance.
There is, however, a further reason to revisit the communist Idea today—one that has less to do with historical memory and more to do with material conditions. For the first time in human history, technological development has created the possibility of abundance on a scale previously unimaginable. Automation and artificial intelligence have dramatically reduced the amount of human labor required to produce essential goods.
Writers such as Aaron Bastani have argued that these developments open the door to what he calls fully automated luxury communism: a society in which the necessities of life are provided universally, and human beings are freed to pursue activities beyond mere survival.
We already live in a world where warehouses operate with minimal human labor while workers remain precarious, where food is produced in abundance while millions remain food insecure, where algorithms perform cognitive tasks once thought uniquely human—and yet the basic conditions of life remain unequally distributed.
Even if one rejects Bastani’s vision, the underlying point is difficult to dismiss. The traditional justification for inequality—that scarcity necessitates competition and hierarchy—no longer holds in the same way. The productive capacities of modern societies are more than sufficient to meet basic human needs. And yet, these capacities are organized in ways that perpetuate scarcity, exclusion, and precarity. The problem is not technological limitation but social form.
If communism is so often rejected, it is not simply because of historical memory. It is because the Idea itself poses a challenge that many find difficult to confront. To take equality seriously is to question not only economic arrangements, but the entire structure of social recognition. It asks whether the privileges we take for granted—of wealth, status, or power—can be justified at all. It demands a rethinking of what it means to live together. It also asks whether the advantages we inhabit are defensible—or whether they persist only because we have learned not to question them.
This is not a comfortable question. It is far easier to dismiss the Idea as dangerous or impossible than to consider what it would require of us. And yet, the alternative is not stability. It is a world increasingly marked by ecological crisis, extreme inequality, and technological systems that intensify rather than alleviate human suffering. To insist that this is the best we can do is not realism. It is resignation. What we call realism today is our learned incapacity to imagine a world in which we no longer benefit from inequality. What passes for realism is often nothing more than the defense of advantage.
The point is not to return to the twentieth century, nor to repeat its mistakes. It is to recognize that the communist Idea names something that remains unresolved: the problem of how to organize collective life on the basis of equality rather than domination.
We may find a different word for it. But any such word will have to carry the same weight—the same insistence that another form of life is both necessary and possible. For now, communism remains the most honest name we have. Not because it is free of history, but because it refuses to let history close the question. That is precisely what makes it so difficult—and so necessary—to think again.
To dismiss the communist Idea is not simply to reject a word or a history. It is to accept that the present arrangement of life is as far as thought—and as far as justice—can go.
Sam Ben-Meir is an assistant adjunct professor of philosophy at City University of New York, College of Technology.
Colombo, May 11 (Daily Mirror) – The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) said today that environment clearance has not been granted for a cable car project at the Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak) site.
Director General of the Central Environmental Authority Kapila Rajapaksha confirmed that no environment clearance has been granted for such a cable car project.
He said this while responding to a question whether any approval has been granted to a cable car project at the Sri Pada site.
It was earlier reported that attention has been drawn to introducing a cable car project at the Sri Pada site as part of efforts to enhance the country’s tourism infrastructure.
Before you study the economics, study the economists!”
The USA Wants to Rule Sri Lanka, Yet Who Rules the USA?
e-Con e-News 3-09 May 2026
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‘Wall Street was tough to get into for us.
Not to be crude but there’s a Jewish Mafia,
& a WASP Mafia, & an Irish Mafia…
…They hire their own; they socialize among
their own.’ – Raj Rajaratnam, ruminates
on his jailing for insider trading, in
Anita Raghavan’s The Billionaire’sApprentice:
The Rise of the Indian-AmericanElite
& the Fall of the Galleon Hedge Fund
Who Rules the USA? – is ee‘s lead focus this week, which seeks to unearth the ‘Hidden Architecture’ of their ‘Ruling Class.’ The USA’s particular penchant for always being at war (even now trying to block, if not destroy and control Asian access to fossil fuels), and its unrelenting pursuit of material wealth and money, has given rise to attempts to explain its voracious viciousness by blaming it on sundry conspiracies, naming particularly bestial or racialized or corporatized or banking cliques as: reptilians, illuminati, cabals, white supremacists, with such subsets as White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs), or Jews (Epstein Class, Zionists), Papists, Masons, etc, or oligarchies of finance (JP Morgan), big oil (Rockefeller), auto (Ford), chemicals (Dupont), and weapons manufacturers (Lockheed), etc.
The USA now acts as the lead gangster of a conglomeration of killer settlers (United Slaves), with international sidekicks including Europe, principally Germany, England, Japan, and a host of lesser pitbulls & poodles. William Murphy (an everyday Irish name which sounds exactly like the innocuous moniker a reptilian may choose to hide behind – ha, ha) sees this Anglo-American ruling class (see ee Focus), as, less mystical, and more coordinated, more ‘structural than conspiratorial’, even as it hides behind institutions, which it claims are neutral & technical & free. It remains:
‘Best understood as a networked formation of ownership
& control over capital, production, & finance. It is
composed of overlapping layers: institutional investors
who control massive pools of assets, corporate executives
who administer production, financial institutions that allocate
credit, & state structures that stabilize the entire system.’
Murphy’s rather staid and sober essay goes on to describe the role & functions of this ruling class – financial investors, asset managers, corporate executives, etc – with the ‘state’ and political networks and its actors, embedded within this system. While offering a bibliography, filled with ‘Marxists’, he offers little insight to how an alternative power (a proletariat) can take over and ‘change’ this machine… Still, he offers an antidote to those analyses who seek ‘a royal road’ to scientific discovery…
We have been attempting a deep dive into Karl Marx’s On the Jewish Question (1844), which makes provocative comments about the Jews as sharks. But Marx’s point is that while Jews may have once dominated finance in Europe, they are no longer the only ones. In a capitalist world, of all against all, there are always new candidates to take over that monopoly any Jews once enjoyed. He points to the Christians of New England, USA, who still claim to have no state religion, and yet carry a cash register on their back, and then, after going bankrupt, open a church…
‘All creatures have been turned into property,
the fishes in the water, the birds in the air, the plants
on the earth; the creatures, too, must become free.’
– Thomas Münzer, 1524
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Some readers may see us experts on the casino known as the stockmarket, to offer advice on their day-to-day financial challenges. A few readers have accused ee of avoiding extended investigation into the alleged murders of key witnesses to the frauds & chicanery of the present ‘Clean’ government: Dan Priyasad (aka Prasad, Containers), Nandana Gunatilleke (JVP), Ranga Rajapakse (Treasury), and Kapila Chandrasena (Airbus)… (see ee Random Notes)
Our primary mission, however, has been to popularize the work of SBD de Silva, about his analysis of a merchant & moneylender class who, regardless of parliamentary part-timers and their petty intrigues, operate on behalf of the dominant colonially imposed import-export plantation economy, and sabotage any endeavour to establish a modern industrial (machine-making machine) society. Colombo’s ruling mobs are more commonly explained as relics of the last 500 years of European invasions by Portuguese, Dutch and English. Below them, many of the 20 or more ‘market minorities’ mostly from India and West Asia, have served to buffer this European misrule. They monopolize certain fractions of the economy as petty merchants & money-lenders: Borah, Chettiar, Memon, Parsi, Sindhi, Bharatha, Catholic, Anglican, et al. Related religious and linguistic fractions occupy layers within the state machinery, in the upper bureaucracy military, police, judiciary, etc. They work through and protect the imperialist banks & multinationals such as Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Unilever, Ceylon Tobacco, CIC/ICI, whose innumerable ‘MSM enterprises’ and fronts, chambers of commerce, thinktanks, dominate media, and cultural discourse.
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‘In 2021, Sri Lanka took a bold & widely noticed decision:
to ban palm oil imports & phase out domestic oil palm cultivation…’
– see ee Agriculture, Palm Oil
A recent lament, ‘Lest we Forget’ (see ee Sovereignty, Belgium), in the Island, by the grounded ‘Guwan Seeya’ (‘Lost in the Clouds’), recalls the butcher of the Congo, King Leopold of Belgium, yet leaves out that he was England’s killer Queen Victoria’s first cousin; that he rode the first ‘official’ train in Ceylon, from Colombo to Ambepussa in 1864; and most importantly that he was financed by William Lever, supplying palm oil to his English factories to produce Sunlight, Margarine & Lux soap,etc.
The corporate palm oil mafia is back in action, demanding it’s un-banning, intimating to the Wijeya Group’s media outlets, they have insider information that the government is about to roll back, that such palms do not really damage the soil. We smell the usual suspects, covertly led by Unilever (Lever’s multinational behemoth, & its fronts Sunshine Holdings, etc, and a dubiously named Solidaridad Network, etc).
How such ‘palms’ are grown and greased, informs this ee Focus on ‘Shea Butter’, where Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of shea nuts, yet enjoys less than 1% of the shea market. Nor does Nigeria gain from value-added processing of shea into cosmetics, food, and pharmaceuticals. ‘Foreign-owned processors, brands & retailers downstream capture the lion’s share of value.’ Warwick Powell offers startling comparisons with coffee, cocoa, olives (though not tea), describing the economic structures that lock nations into raw commodity exports, and where ‘capital & technology remain concentrated abroad’. ‘Decolonising commodity chains’ requires overcoming the fragmentation & atomization of the real producers in Africa, Asia & the non-Anglo Americas.
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‘We need to have a labour movement that asks: why
do corporations have the right to move these plants
in the first place? Why does democracy stop
at the door of corporate property?’
Sri Lanka’s industrial literacy amounts to almost zero, which is why understanding the difference between handicraft, assembly, manufacture and modern machine production remains fundamental. This ee concludes how the USA’s changes in its auto industry affect Canada and the organization of workers, as discussed in this interview with an auto union research director (ee Focus). ee offers this essay, not just to examine strategies to challenge capitalist power, but to also highlight the lack of such organized data & inquiry in Sri Lanka, where every thuttu-dhekay (2-by-3) trade is called an ‘industry’.
‘Outsourcing components like seating or brakes
also outsources potential bargaining power.’
This excerpt also examiners the role played by Japanese corporations in linking to North America’s industrial networks but also undermining all workers’ wages & conditions. We learn of the importance of not just fighting for wages but also for working conditions, health & safety, etc, as well as participating outside the workplace in challenging such national issues as tariffs (they don’t stop job losses) and capitalism’s crises (PM Carney’s fake nationalism). He describes how China has set up a holistic industrial culture, which can offer less expensive industrial products.
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‘Lazy English workers’ was & is a frequent whine, especially by employers and shallow observers, as SBD de Silva examines the provenance of such stereotypes in both English literature and economic commentaries, and how it was carried abroad and amplified to deride African and then Sinhala workers. We conclude de Silva’s most interesting chapters (9) from his classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, tracking such anti-labour sentiments from Europe’s Middle Ages to the present, via the imposition of chattel slavery in the 17th century, coming to the realization that reducing wages was more important than material costs, midst ‘the transformation of independent peasants and artisans into wage labour’. The state begins to protect the boss over the factory worker, mostly women and children, with working conditions becoming worse than they had been for a 1,000 years.
With the extension of chattel slavery in Africa, English employers began to recognize they could bribe English workers with wages, particularly due to use of valued machinery. However, their ‘lazy worker’ ideology was transferred to the world, where through time & white supremacist ideology has become supposed ‘common sense’. Then came the idea that we were quite happy to work for low wages, and have limited wants. Such ideologies were soon transferred by European slavers from Africa to Asia, where whole peoples were looked upon as a class, whereas white proletarians were only looked at as a section of white people (see ee Focus).
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Contents:
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A1. Reader Comments –
• Scottish Tea • Focus, Please • English Gangster • Unions & China • Bashing Renewed • ee Necklace • Too Much ee • Family & War • Carney Circus • Energy & Protection Racket *
A2. Quotes of the Week –
• Psycho Autopsy-turvy • Life After Death • Change of Heart • Central Banker Goes Missing • Hole in the Passport • Hanuman Now • Civic Miseries • ByForce Resignations • Sajith’s IMF Slaves • Public Swindle • Bankers Exposed • Trade Finagle • Harvesting Revenge • IMF Has a Used US Tractor to Sell • Tea for Veggies • Planters’ Newest Whine • Capitalism’s Foreign Police • US Black Vote on Hold Again • Social Democracy Steps to Fascism
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A3. Random Notes –
• Quiet Deaths • Allies under Pressure • Murder Takes Wing • The Tragic Silence of Kapila Chandrasena • Democracy After Hours Only • Deputy Less Forgiving • Base USA Here • IMF Blanks Sri Lanka • Oiling India • Class Fractures • Class Fractures • Oiling Singapore • USA’s Armed Gas Station Robbery • Russia Sticks up USA • China Says No • Canada’s Hitler • Canada’s War on China
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A4. Who’s Who –
• Moon Calendar • Gen Z’s Emptiness • Gold Ring for Babes • Private Passport Makers • Strategic For Whom? • US Guides War on Russia • No Wealth Analysis Yet • Macro Economists • Prima Among Unequals • Privatisation’s Security Guards • Privatizing Port • USA HillyBilly Steel Blues • Watering Colombo • Gen Z Govi Biz • English Home Garden Chemistry • Banking on German Machines • Trump Crashes on Nukes • Fake Insurance • Rugby Sandwich Boys • Indian Golf • EU’s USAID
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B. ee Focus –
• B1. Who Rules the USA? Inside the Hidden Architecture of the Ruling Class – William Murphy
• B2. Reforming the Nigerian Shea Sector – Challenges, Opportunities & Lessons from Global Commodity Value Chains – Warwick Powell
• B3. The Canadian Auto Industry & Dependence: Polarized Options, Part 2 – Sam Gindin
• B4. The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, Chapter 9, Part 6 – SBD de Silva (1982)
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C. Building Blocks –
• Guaranteed Rice Price for Industrialization • Creation of a Home Market for Industry • Japan’s Limits on Industrial Exports • Smallholding & Science • Extraordinary Culture of Machine Tools • Making Central Banks Independent of the People? • On State-owned Enterprises & Privatization
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D. News Index
• Sovereignty • Security • Economists • Economy • Workers • Agriculture • Industry • Finance • Business • Politics • Media
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A1. Reader Comments
ee thanks Readers who send articles of interest. Please excerpt or summarize what is important about any news sent, or your comments, and place any e-link at the end. Email: econenews@gmail.com
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• Scottish Tea – ‘The first planters in Sri Lanka had no connection with the USA. The ‘Father of Ceylon Planting’, Robert Boyd Tytler, had worked on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. However, most planters came straight from Scotland (95% of planters were Scots, over half from Aberdeenshire), recruited mainly through informal networks. They learnt planting on the job, guided by Pierre-Joseph Laborie’s The Coffee Planter of St Domingo, later replaced by William Sabonadière’s The Coffee Planter of Ceylon in 1870.’
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• Focus, Please – ‘ee should remain focused on Sri Lankan matters. Present international readers with a distinctly SL perspective. You should be unflinching in your critique of current politics, of which I now don’t see any. Give a clear, sharp, principled analysis, not an evasive commentary, full of jargon. Be an educator, bold, uncompromising, challenging & exposing. Don’t be a mere raconteur of events that have happened centuries ago, which have no value now to the reader, except for its cosmetic value, making them pedants, not to make them act, and to disseminate new insights.’
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• English Gangster? – ‘ලංකාවෙ ඉංග්රීසි පත්තර ජවිපෙ/ජාජබ ආණ්ඩුව රකින තව ප්රබල කණ්ඩායමක්– ee is another gang of English media, who protect the JVP/NPP government.’
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• Unions & China – ‘ee has missed out on the trade union role in economic recovery in the context of Sri Lanka’s SoEs… China holds the world’s largest trade union body: the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), which reports directly to the ruling party CPC. Don’t trade unions have a role to play in transforming an economy to become a global leader?’
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• Bashing Renewed – ‘ee hasn’t mentioned anything about the inability to properly connect rooftop solar power generation to the national grid due to grid balancing problems. In fact, this is a crime… ee likes to bash Unilever for SL’s industrialization dilemmas, but the renewable energy angels should also explain why they have been unable to enable low-cost energy addition to the grid?’
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• ee Necklace – ‘Gems, gems, of much value…’
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• Too Muchee –‘Lots of good & valuable information as usual. But, ee, too much of a good thing is bad. There is so much to do and so little time. I do understand the dilemma and the urgency that we all face. We all get trapped in trying to divulge too much relevant information that exposes the vast web of the interconnectedness of the deep rot. However, that overinflated exposure clouds the mission and derails the message. In the end, small irrational minds like mine get lost in the information cluster at best &/or completely get overwhelming and confused. Bear in mind that all people are made / socialized unequal by the sociopolitical entrapment environment we were subjected to. So, take it easy on some of our irrational & frail mental conditions. My 2 pence advice would be to zone in on one or 2 of the obviously always invaluable subject matters that would thoroughly drill and educate the vast wretched masses that we all are.’
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• Family & War – ‘What is ee‘s opinion on the impact on ordinary families of the UAE exiting OPEC, the Strait of Hormuz Closure & Energy Crisis, and the US Currency Swap Lines? I am worried about where it’s gonna end.’
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• Carney Circus – ‘What does ee think about Canadian PM Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum? All performance?’ [see ee 31 Jan 2026]
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• Energy &Protection Racket – ‘I’m currently planning to go into the energy sector for career stability. Governments are also investing lot in energy infrastructures too. With the current AI servers’ boom, there will be big demand for electricity also. I want to protect myself & my family (new baby) from the upcoming recession. I already have a mortgage & vehicle lease. Next year renewal coming. Does ee think I should lock it at a fixed rate, or keep it variable?’
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A2. Quotes of the Week_
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• Psycho Autopsy-turvy – ‘Shiral Lakthilake, Attorney-at-law, former Yahapalanist & NGO bigwig, a member of Dinana Dakuna (Winning Right), at a press briefing called for a psychological autopsy. According to a news item he argued that while forensic medical officers declared the death a suicide, a psychological autopsy could provide deeper insight into the deceased’s mental state & circumstances. Calling for a psychological autopsy instead of demanding a fresh physical autopsy by internationally recognized forensic experts, at this juncture appears illogical, an exercise more academic and cosmetic than practical. This writer views this in the prevailing political climate as a theoretical diversionary tactic – an attempt to deflect mounting opposition pressure on the government. If Sri Lanka lacks the necessary expertise to conduct a physical autopsy, he should suggest inviting specialists from abroad. In my view, this proposal is nothing more than an attempt to wrest attention from the ‘Free Lawyers’ – water down their achievements – who first exposed the scandal and who continue to wage an unyielding struggle against the Minister of Finance, Secretary-Finance, Governor of the Central Bank and other power-holders. This amplifies the contrast between the opportunism of the proposal and the principled stand of the Free Lawyers.’ – Sena Thoradeniya (see ee Security, Alleged Suicide & $2.2min Treasury Scam: Conspiracies, Autopsies, & Public Distrust)
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• Life After Death –‘The Judicial Post Mortem (JPM) report is still not in the public domain. Whether it would remain a privileged communication limited to the judiciary remains to be seen. Hence, none can come to definitive conclusions on the JPM findings – except judicious, informed speculation.’ – Susirith Mendis (see ee Security, Postmortem reports & the pursuit of justice)
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• Change of Heart –’Later that day, Treasury Secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma underwent a dramatic change of heart. Changing his previous No to a Yes at the 11th hour, he willingly appeared before COPF Chairman Harsha de Silva to be questioned on the Treasury’s payment of $2.5mn to a mystery figure that had vanished into thin air. ‘It was during this amicable meeting’ – as Harsha told the media – that we got the news that one of the Finance Ministry officials who had been interdicted yesterday had been found dead in the back garden of his home. We went into a state of shock.’ – see ee Security, Search for Treasury’s missing $millions takes sinister turn
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• Central Banker Goes Missing – ‘The source also questioned the ‘curious silence’ of the CBSL in the aftermath of the incident. ‘We have not heard publicly from the CBSL Governor about this matter. It might be that the CBSL, which relinquished responsibility for debt management operations to the PDMO under the Treasury, would prefer not to get involved in this fiasco. That seems to be its mentality.’ If this is indeed the CBSL’s attitude, it is misguided, the former official insisted. ‘These are public funds. The CBSL cannot wash its hands of the entire thing on the grounds that it is the Treasury’s debacle. They should at least have the courtesy to reach out & offer whatever assistance they can give’.’ – see ee Security, Cyber heists mar NPP’s clean-Govt image
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• Hole in the Passports – ‘An Australia-based IT engineer has identified a security hole in the Department of Immigration & Emigration’s (DIE) electronic travel authorisation (ETA) visa page, which allows the mere entry of a confirmation code – with no additional layer of protection – to access information such as passport numbers, full names, nationality & dates of birth… In October last year, these concerns were brought to the attention of Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Digital Economy and, in turn, the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of SL and the SL Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT), the Sunday Times reliably learns. However, no feedback was received & the security issue remains, many months after it was highlighted.’ – see ee Security, IT expert warns of major security hole in DIE’s ETA visa page
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• Hanuman Now –’India wants to upgrade the India-SL Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2000 during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s presidency. Declaring that more than 65% of Sri Lankan exports use FTA benefits whereas only 5% of Indian exports use the same, Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, Santosh Jha, emphasised the urgent need to transform the FTA into amodern frameworkthat delivers the full potential of the bilateral economic partnership. Jha was addressing the Global Innovation & Leadership Summit ‘SL & India Ties: a Civilisational Bond,’ organised by Z Media & WION, in Colombo, recently. Jha said: ‘We have spent too long talking about it (FTA); sometimes renaming it; but not actually moving with purpose and required political will to forge a new framework. I say this not to assign blame – but to note that every year of delay is a year of opportunity lost. Think of it, in the last 6 years, India has signed 9 FTAs, covering trade with 38 countries’.’ –see ee Sovereignty, India pushes for direct link between Rameswaram & Talaimannar, FTA upgrade
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• Civic Miseries – ‘In his resignation letter, NPP Municipal Councillor BW Premachandra cited several issues, including illegal trading, unauthorized constructions, irregular fuel usage, irregular overtime payments, officials reporting for duty and leaving early, the inability to maintain cleanliness in the city and various other concerns as reasons for stepping down.’ – see ee Politics, NPP councillor resigns from Kurunegala Municipal Council
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• ByForce Resignations – ‘As you recall, an industrial dispute broke out last week between the employees of Hela Clothing Pvt Ltd (Thihariya) and the Company. Workers walked out of the factory, in an act of strike because the Management was attempting to obtainforced resignation from the workers. After engaging with workers and the Labour Department for one week, the Commercial & Industrial Workers’ Union negotiated an agreement with Hela Clothing Pvt Ltd and Emerald Clothing Pvt Ltd, the new Company taking over the production facility of Hela Clothing. All workers of Hela Clothing were guaranteed employment in the new Company which included continuation of their service period and all benefits which they enjoyed while they worked at Hela Clothing. A 12(1) Agreement was signed between Leon Joseph, Deputy General Secretary of the CIWU, workers representing the leadership of the Branch Union of the CIWU in Emerald Clothing representing the workers of Hela Clothing/ Emerald Clothing and representations from the Managements of the Hela Clothing and Emerald Clothing in front of the Deputy Commissioner of Labour – Gampaha Labour Office. The CIWU also formed a Branch Union in the Emerald Clothing. The Management of the new Company is yet to recognize the Union. However, we are hoping that the new Company will respect the rights of workers to join a Trade Union of their choice and engage in collective bargaining.’ – Swasthika Arulingam, FB
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• Sajith’s IMF Slaves – ‘The high point of the SJB May Day was Sajith Premadasa’s speech. In it, he attacked the previous administration for raiding the EPF-ETF while abjectly following IMF instructions; savaged the Anura administration for failing to rectify that injustice as it had pledged during the 2024 election; promised to do so under an SJB Government; and indicted the JVP-NPP for being ‘slaves’ of both the IMF & the local big bourgeoisie.’ – see ee Politics, Political picture clears: Sajith’s social democratic centrism emerges, SJB impacts
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• Public Swindle – ‘Both the Employees Provident Fund [EPF] (9.46%) & the Employees’ Trust Fund Board (3.38%) are among the top 10 shareholders of National Development Bank (NDB). These 2 funds constitute key components of country’s social security framework, providing financial security to employees upon retirement. As such, since both funds represent the retirement savings of the national workforce, the implications of this fraud extend beyond the institution itself and affect salaried employees and their long-term retirement savings, thereby raising broader public policy concerns. In addition, state-linked institutions such as Bank of Ceylon & SL Insurance Corporation are also among the major shareholders.’ –ee Finance, The Enemy within: the internal fraud at NDB
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• Bankers Exposed – ‘What is remarkable about the NDB case is not the method nor the quantum but what it reveals about SL’s capital markets. The banking industry has long been perceived as operating under the highest standards of governance & regulatory supervision. This fraud exposes the most consequential simultaneous breakdown of statutory supervision, professional auditing, and independent market scrutiny in recent financial history, 3 pillars each independently incentivised to prevent exactly this kind of fraud, failed spectacularly… A Performative Culture – How does a single balance sheet line item that increased significantly and materially over 12 months and was disclosed in a published audited annual report, available to thousands of investors, board committees, an external auditor, and a central bank supervisor, yet trigger no inquiry whatsoever? Detecting this fraud required no sophisticated analysis. A single year-on-year comparison of one line item in a published balance sheet was sufficient. That this elementary observation eluded every layer of oversight: internal audit, board committees, external auditors, institutional investors, and the regulator, is not merely a governance failure, it reveals a somewhat performative financial oversight culture. The fraud was not undetectable. It was visible, disclosed in the financial statements themselves. This oversight reflects a collective failure of professional competence, institutional independence, & regulatory vigilance of the gravest kind. That is the true scandal: not that a fraud occurred, but that every system designed to intercept just such a fraud, failed completely.’ – ee Finance, Fraud at NDB: Suspense & Scandal in the Sector
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• Trade Finagle – ‘The greatest risk is not always the original act of fraud. It is the ease with which it can be concealed. Money can be shifted through settlement accounts, collateral balances, nostro accounts, suspense entries, receivables, payables, and other temporary categories that rarely attract public attention… Trade finance creates another opening. False invoices, duplicate financing, circular shipments, shell entities, and related-party accounts can all create the appearance of legitimate business while masking the movement or extraction of value. Once such transactions pass through connected institutions, what began as one bank’s problem can quickly become a system problem.’ – see ee Finance, Where Banking Fraud Hides
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• Harvesting Revenge – ‘If the current fertiliser shortage persists, it could lead to an ironical turn of events, with the farming community having to adopt biological soil amendments, such as compost, farmyard manure, etc, as they did during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency for want of a better alternative. Gotabaya’s ill-planned organic farming experiment created a situation where the JVP was at the forefront of farmers’ protests, demanding fertilisers. Some JVP seniors were seen clutching clumps of withering paddy seedlings and urging the SLPP government to make fertilisers available. They made the most of farmers’ resentment and gained a turbo boost for their political campaigns to win elections. Today, the boot is on the other foot.’ – see ee Agriculture, Deliver or perish
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• IMF Has a Used US Tractor to Sell –‘Sri Lanka’s rice industry is charting a path to recovery. For the upcoming 2026/27 marketing year (Oct-Sept), milled rice production is forecast to reach 3.45mn metric tons (MT), representing a solid rebound from the revised estimate of 3.25mn MT recorded during the 2025/26 period, according to the latest report published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service… This comes from a higher planted area of 1.19mn hectares, with yields expected to be steady at 4.26 MT/hectare (rough rice)’. This anticipated growth is supported by a broader economic stabilisation, bolstered by a $2.9bn Extended Fund Facility from the IMFalongside increased tourism and remittance earnings. Highlighting the impact of this financial backing, the report states, ‘This provides the foreign currency liquidity to import agricultural inputs & fuel that have been curtailed since mid-2022.’ – see ee Agriculture, Sri Lanka’s rice production poised for recovery…
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• Tea for Veggies – ‘This shift [from tea to vegetables] is largely driven by Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) and individuals seeking higher short-term profits from vegetables compared to the volatile & often low returns of tea. Many RPCs are sub-leasing ‘marginal’ lands those with old tea bushes or low yields to private individuals for 5-10-year periods to grow vegetables, President of Farmers Alliance Thrindu Rathnayake told Sunday Times Business… The uprooting of tea plantations from the hills causes severe soil erosion and results in landslides. This problem is bound to occur in the Mahaweli River Basin, an area that greatly affects the generation of electricity and irrigation across the nation, he disclosed. Nuwara Eliya has the highest soilerosion rate in Sri Lanka, largely due to potato cultivation on steep slopes, losing up to 15 tons of soil per hectare per year. This siltation impacts major reservoirs like the Upper Kotmale… There are reports of ‘land sharks’ & politically backed groups using loopholes to grab or sub-lease estate lands for non-tea crops, often in violation of long-term lease agreements. Some RPCs have been criticised for ‘asset stripping’ and failing to meet mandatory replanting requirements (the target is 2.5% annually, but actual rates are much lower).’ – ee Agriculture, Nuwara Eliya estates sublease tea land for vegetables
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• Planters’ Newest Whine –‘45% of Sri Lanka’s total annual tea exports – equivalent to approximately $680mn of Sri Lanka’s total $1.5bn tea export revenue – is generated from West Asian markets across Iran, Iraq, UAE, & Saudi Arabia, the Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA) claims… Wages account for nearly 70% of the total Cost of Production (COP) in tea & rubber. Input material costs such as Fuel, Fertiliser, Chemicals, Firewood, Packing Materials and other physical goods account for the rest of the COP. Until the most recent wage hike which came into effect from Jan 2026, plantation sector wages had been a perennially contentious challenge for the industry.’ – see ee Agriculture, Plantation industry seeks urgent attention to tackle current problems
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• Capitalism’s Foreign Police – ‘The struggle for peace has today become the major struggle to determine the future of humankind. How can anyone active in this struggle forget that Marx was the 1st to demonstrate that the social roots of war lie in the system of exploitation, that the struggles for social progress & for peace are indivisibly connected? Was it not Marx who first pointed out that capitalism is responsible for ‘a foreign policy that pursues aggressive aims, that plays with national prejudices, and wastes the blood and treasure of the people in piratical wars’? Are we not seeing this happen once again in US imperialism’s preparations for a nuclear war under the slogan of fighting an imaginary ‘Soviet threat’? Does not the continuous & determined struggle for peace by the socialist countries confirm Marx’s assertion that peace & socialism are one, because under socialism there is no class or person who stands to gain from war? Is not today’s peace movement, which has taken on proportions hitherto unknown, fulfilling Marx’s behest that, the working people should be ‘conscious of their own responsibility and able to command peace where their would-be masters shout war’.’ – Pieter Keuneman on Marx & Peace, 1983 (from Shiran Illanperuma, FB)
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• US Black Vote on Hold Again – ‘On 29 April 2026, the US Supreme Court gave state legislatures a green light to break up Black & Native voting districts – an attack on Black self-determination, Native sovereignty & basic democratic rights… 1877 again – This is not the first time Black democratic rights have been traded away in a ruling-class crisis. In the Compromise of 1877, Northern capital and the Southern ruling class struck a counter-revolutionary deal that ended Reconstruction. Control of the South was returned to the old slaveholding order and its successors – the planters, merchants, politicians and railroad magnates who ruled the ‘redeemed’ South. In practice, ‘home rule’ meant white-supremacist rule over the Black masses of the South, enforced by a reign of terror.’ – ee Politics, Supreme Court attacks Black voting rights, Native nations
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• Social Democracy Steps to Fascism – ‘Is preserving parliamentary democracies sufficient as a ward against the rising tide of fascism in the political west?… After 1945, the West German SPD drew a different lesson. In the 1959 Godesberg Program, it formally abandoned Marxism, embraced the social market economy, and declared itself a Volkspartei of liberal capitalism. The Bernsteinian path, once a heretical revisionism, became the uncontested foundation of postwar social democracy – embedding socialism into parliamentarism not as its antagonist, but as its loyal leftwing. Elsewhere the end of WW2 saw the consolidation of a moderated capitalism – ordoliberalism, Keynesian-welfarism, social democratic mixed-economies – in the political west, buttressed by an international political economy that preserved the extractive substrate of pre-war imperialism but, this time, dressed up with a de-colonialisation gloss. The Bretton Woods settlement reflected the dominance of war’s victors; the IMF and World Bank did little to alleviate global imbalances. They often made them worse, usually compounding poverty in developing countries rather than alleviating it, and prosecuting policies and prescriptions that amplified western-cum-US power.’ – Warwick Powell (seeee Politics, Bernstein v Kautsky Redivivus)
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A3. Random Notes (‘Seeing Number in Chaos’)_
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• Quiet Deaths –’4 US men participated in the chain of command through which these 2 strike orders were requested; decided; transmitted; executed: They are Commander Thomas Futch, commander of the USS Charlotte; Captain Jeffrey Fassbinder, chief of the Submarine Squadron 7 of the US Pacific Fleet; Admiral Stephen Koehler, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet; and Peter Hegseth, the US Secretary of War (Defense). Hegseth announced in a Pentagon briefing on March 4 what he wanted the public to believe he had done. ‘Yesterday in the Indian Ocean, a US submarine sunk [sic] an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. The 1st sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since WWII.’ Hegseth was deceiving. He knew 2 torpedoes had been fired; it was the 2ndwhich sank the Dena. He knew the Dena did not ‘[think] it was safe in international waters’. This was because US intelligence had been reporting to the Pentagon & the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet command that the Iranian Navy had been requesting safe haven for the Dena and its 2 escorts, IRIS Lavan & Bushehr, in Sri Lanka, then India, for more than 7 days before the March 4 attack. Admiral Koehler knew because he had met with Sri Lankan officials in Colombo between Feb 19-21 to deter them from taking Iran’s side. ‘We stand with Sri Lanka in facing shared security challenges – from maritime domain awareness to countering transnational threats’, the US Embassy announced. On March 4, SL newspaper Tamil Guardian editorialized: ‘Did Washington’s Sri Lanka visit precede a secret naval strike? Questions grow after Iranian frigate sunk.’ – John Helmer (see ee Sovereignty, Not So Quiet Death – the USA’s Order to Kill the Iranian Navy’s Dena & Its Crew)
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• Allies under Pressure – ‘Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath has acknowledged strong US pressure to block repatriation, including threats involving trade concessions & tariff relief. Reuters has also reported that Washington opposed the return of the survivors & coordinated closely with Israeli diplomatic channels. Meanwhile, India has faced criticism for appearing to align itself with US & Israeli strategic objectives against Iran, abandoning its long-standing policy of non-alignment.’ – John Helmer (ee Sovereignty, Dena sinking: Survivors testimony, diplomatic delays, & US-India-SL role
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• Murder Takes Wing – The extensive coverage and disquietude displayed for the alleged murder this week of engineer Kapila Chandrasena (former CEO of SriLankan Airlines & Mihin Lanka), by the US Embassy’s lip services such as EconomyNext, the Wijeya Group’s Daily Mirror, and the World Bank-related Transparency International, reminds us we are rather ill-equipped to investigate such shenanigans though we are intrigued by certain aspects of the case, unexplored by the media in Sri Lanka. Chandrasena’s demise seems to have left the USA & their agents frothing & salivating much like running dogs denied their share of the hunted flesh. The prize morsels being the Rajapakses, whose singular sin appears to be that they sought to have limited relations with free China as well. We say limited, because real relations would involve learning from China’s road to industrialization.
Meanwhile, the latest US regime has yet again legalized the bribing of foreign officials, just as they did in 2017 (ee 10 Jan 2026), proudly intimating how they profit off playing the stock market prior to their announcements of wars & peaces.
Chandrasena served as SriLankan Airlines CEO, during former President Rajapaksa’s second term, eventually placing him at the centre of an international corruption investigation .In 2013, SriLankan Airlines agreed to purchase 6 Airbus A330-300 & 4 A350-900 aircraft, alongside leasing another 4 A350-900s for US$2.3billion. Airbus allegedly bribed Biz Solutions Inc, a Darussalam Brunei shell company owned by Priyanka Niyomali Wijenaike, the wife of then-SLA -CEO Chandrasena, with the European Aeronautic Defense and Euro 1,454,645 ($2mn) as bribe money to Biz Solutions’ account in Singapore in December 2013. Chandrasena then transferred the bribe to his own account at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and to several other individuals, including the then Director General of Sri Lankan Airlines.
The scandal came to international attention in January 2020 when Airbus ‘settled’ corruption probes with the USA, England, and France, agreeing to around 3.5 billion Euros in fines. This settlement included admissions of bribery by Airbus in several countries, including Sri Lanka. Until the English courts claimed to have confirmed evidence of fraud, Sri Lankan authorities could not arrest anyone connected to the deal. Rajapaksa’s successor, Maithripala Sirisena, investigated the deal, but nobody was held accountable until his tenure ended in 2019. Sri Lankan authorities then launched investigations, detained Chandrasena and his wife in February 2020 for money laundering related to the Airbus deal, as revealed by documents filed in an English court, which claimed his wife acted as an agent for the procurement of Airbus aircraft, and Airbus offered a bribe of $16mn.
The US State Department had imposed travel sanctions on Chandrasena and his family over the Airbus deal. Then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered a full inquiry into allegations that a former SriLankan Airlines executive’s wife received the $2mn payment. Chandrasena & his wife were let out on bail in March 2020.
In March 2021, SriLankan Airlines sued Airbus for $1bn in damages, loss of reputation, reimbursement of costs, and interest. SLA also demanded cancellation of the A350-900 Purchase Agreement for 4 A350-900 aircraft, seeking the return of the $19mn advance payment made for those aircraft. However, progress on this legal case remained undisclosed, even under the new government.
Chandrasena was arrested again in March this year. In an affidavit that was somehow shown to EconomyNext, Chandrasena said a top CIABOC official requested him to take the opportunity to reveal the 2 politicians behind the Airbus deal. Chandrasena also said a top CIABOC official threatened him that he ‘will be forced to hang’ if he did not use the opportunity.
And here’s another related factoid: Peter Thiel, a major operator behind Donald Trump’s US Presidency, co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, was an early investor in Facebook, and a mentor to Vice President JD Vance, donating record funds to his US Senate campaign, and nomination to the US Presidency. Thiel is a co-founder of software & data analysis company Palantir that provides services to France’s General Directorate for Internal Security – the French equivalent of the FBI – and the European aircraft-maker Airbus…
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• The Tragic Silence of Kapila Chandrasena: a Failure of Police & Protection – ‘The sudden and tragic death of Chandrasena is not merely a headline; it is a profound indictment of our legal, investigative, and political systems. As the former head of the national carrier, Chandrasena was no ordinary suspect. He was a central figure in high-stakes investigations involving international aircraft procurement – a case tied to the very core of national integrity. The Mystery of the Bail Application – The events leading up to his death were marked by chilling irregularities. When bail was granted, the absence of recognized family members or socially established guarantors was highly unusual for a man of his stature. Instead, the presentation of 2 unknown individuals as bail bondsmen was a move that reeks of desperation or coercion. It is deeply shameful that a professional of his standing was reduced to such a position, and the truth behind who orchestrated those ‘unknown’ guarantors remains buried. A Fatal Delay in Law Enforcement – The timeline of events between May 6-7 raises harrowing questions about the efficiency of our police force. On May 6, bail was granted. By May 7, the court – recognizing the gravity of the situation or perhaps the deception involved – recalled the case and issued a warrant for his immediate arrest. However, there was a catastrophic gap in action. The police failed to execute the arrest until the moment his lifeless body was discovered. Had the authorities acted with the urgency the court warrant demanded, this death might have been prevented. This delay is not just a procedural lapse; it is a grave negligence that allowed a key witness in a national corruption scandal to perish. The Witness at the Crossfire – Kapila Chandrasena was a ‘special suspect’ because he sat at the intersection of powerful political interests. His initial confession regarding the Airbus deal directly implicated former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Subsequently, his retraction – via an affidavit claiming he was coerced and threatened by the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) – flipped the script entirely. By accusing the head of a major investigative body of intimidation, Chandrasena became a liability to multiple factions. Whether his confession was the truth or his affidavit was the correction, he held information that was vital to the public interest. AnAccountable Government? – When a suspect of such high profile, who has publicly alleged state-level intimidation, dies under such mysterious circumstances, the responsibility falls squarely on the government. The failure to protect a witness whose testimony could have reshaped the understanding of national corruption is inexcusable. The public deserves to know: Why was he not under surveillance given the volatility of his statements? Why was the arrest warrant not executed immediately? And most importantly, who stood to gain the most from his silence? The death of Kapila Chandrasena is a dark chapter in our pursuit of the government. We must demand a transparent investigation, not just into his death, but into the systemic failures that allowed a key witness to slip through the fingers of the law and into the grave.’ – Philip Shantha
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• Democracy After Hours Only –’ Labour Ministry has begun discussions to amend the labour law to update it in line with new trends in employment as well as the prevailing situation… Labour laws are being amended. But since it is a herculean task, Labour Commissioner General Nadeeka Wataliyadda was unable to specify a time frame. There are laws to be included, amended, and nullified, while contradictions need to be rectified … We see that people are reluctant to bring up their work-related issues while they are working due to the concern of job security. They wait until they quit or retire, and they rarely check their EPF. Whenever there is an issue, they turn up at the Labour Department offices… She had witnessed gaps in compliance by employers who look into matters of outsourced employees, such as workers recruited through manpower agencies… ‘platform workers, gig workers and online workers are new trends of work; therefore, it is difficult to outline such labour-related work or businesses. We plan to address this matter by amending the code… this year, the minimum daily wage was raised to Rs1,200 and minimum monthly salary to Rs30,000. However, she pointed out that improving the living conditions of estate workers should be handled by the relevant ministry, as the department only handles payment-related issues. She said that within the estate sector, some workers are given land where the worker cultivates, and an amount is paid to estate owners. Such workers do not fall under the employee category. Labour Department statistics reveal that the female employee rate has dropped slightly. The commissioner explained that the nuclear family system, where there are fewer people to look after children, and male-orientated work, as well as restrictions on women working at night, have led to the drop. She added that social norms as well as cultural beliefs are also contributory factors.’ – Kasun Warakapitiya (see ee Workers, Labour laws to catch up with employment changes )
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• Deputy Less Forgiving – ‘Central Bank Deputy Governor Chandranath Amarasekara’s keynote speech at the International Conference on Poverty & Development in Times of Crisis organised by Germany’s Centre for Poverty Analysis: ‘The global environment today is less forgiving; monetary conditions tighten rapidly and synchronously; Capital markets reprice risk abruptly; supply-side shocks are more frequent; and geopolitical fragmentation constrains policy choices’.’ – ee Economists, SL cannot mistake calm for economic strength: CBSL cautions
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• Base USA Here – ‘As the conflict in West Asia threatens the global hub status of places like Dubai and Doha, Sri Lanka could position itself as a safe haven for capital & talent in the Indian Ocean with the proper reforms, an economist has said. ‘If they’re being hit, then others may be attracted for capital & people… Can we be some kind of centre…in the Indian Ocean?’ Ganeshan Wignaraja, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at ODI Global, London & a former Director of Research at the ADB Institute, Tokyo, said, ‘We have to continue macroeconomic stability’ – speaking at a forum on ‘A Global Economy in the Shadow of Middle-East War: Implications for SL’s Debt Recovery’ held at the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo. The forum, RCSS Strategic Dialogue – 4, was moderated & presided over by RCSS Executive Director Ambassador (retd) Ravinatha Aryasinha.’ – see ee Economists,SL under compulsion for yet another 18th IMF program
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• IMF Blanks SL – ‘The latest IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) features blank spaces where Sri Lanka’s 2026 GDP numbers should be, placing the country in a ‘club’ alongside conflict-affected places like the Palestinian Territories of West Bank & Gaza, Syria, Lebanon & Afghanistan. ‘Sri Lanka doesn’t have a number, you can look at that & there is no number. And I find that absolutely fascinating. Middle-income country, 4,000 plus dollars a head… but no number for Sri Lanka,’ Wignaraja said, suggesting the omission is likely tied to the incomplete debt restructuring process. Data & projections for Sri Lanka for 2025-31 are excluded from publication owing to ongoing discussions on restructuring of sovereign debt, according to the IMF report. Speaking at a recent Strategic Dialogue organized by RCSS, Wignaraja noted that while the IMF is ‘very happy’ with Sri Lanka’s progress the real economy tells a more complex story. While the immediate fires have been put out, the path toward sustainable growth remains obscured, he said. Ganeshan warned that the cost of living remains the primary pain point for citizens. The current economic uptick, he said, is largely a ‘cyclical recovery’ driven by the ‘base effect’ of a collapsed economy and the relaxation of import controls, rather than new investment. ‘When we congratulate ourselves on recovery, it is certainly a congratulatory moment… however, it is a cyclical recovery on the base effect with relaxation of import controls and some return to some confidence’. The country still lacks the ‘stable economic foundation’ needed to meet massive debt repayments starting in 2028, he said. The path to growth is further hindered by domestic governance failures and ‘unproductive’ habits, Ganeshan said pointing to recent issues at the Treasury and internal frauds in the banking sector as significant blows to investor confidence. ‘Why would anyone want to invest in a country that has a cyber issue in their treasury?’ he asked, noting that as a country in default, Sri Lanka is under intense scrutiny from rating agencies & global lenders. To escape a cycle of being trapped in low economic growth Ganeshan argued that Sri Lanka must move beyond ‘off-the-wall’ monetary experiments and commit to hardcore reforms in factor markets, specifically land & labor. He noted that the country’s high number of holidays & outmoded labor laws continue to act as a deterrent to manufacturing hubs. ‘We’re still in the recovery room in terms of hospital analysis, where we have to start thinking in terms of building up those reserves to a level where we have a much more stable economic foundation,’ he warned. Without more ‘growth-enhancing’ economic reforms and a strategic shift toward supply-chain integration with India, Ganeshan suggests the island risks a return to the ‘hospital’ once the current cushion of borrowed time runs out.’ – Ganeshan Wignaraja(ee Economists,IMF omission of SL GDP projections signals fragile recovery)
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• Oiling India – ‘India imports nearly 90% of its crude oil and 50% of its natural gas requirements. Conflicts in the Middle East, such as the disruption in Strait of Hormuz, pose a severe risk to this energy supply, potentially creating high inflation & hindering economic activity.’ –Mike Roberts (ee Economists, India: a further swing to the right)
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• Class Fractures –‘Why do governments of the Global South agree to such unequal trade treaties and the recolonisation that such treaties typify? The answer lies in the fact that while the working people, the petty producers and even the small capitalists in the Global South would suffer because of such recolonisation (Indo-USA trade treaty, eg, would be particularly harmful for the Indian peasantry), the monopoly bourgeoisie that is closely integrated with metropolitan capital will not. On the contrary, it is likely to be a beneficiary; and governments in the Global South, including and in particular the neo-fascist ones, cater to its interest. The project of recolonisation, in other words, becomes possible because of a fracturing of the earlier anti-colonial class alliance that had brought about decolonisation.’ – Prabhat Patnaik (see ee Economists, Imperialism’s Strategy to Escape a Dead-end)
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• Capital’s Shares –‘The labour share of GDP is a measure of how much economic value goes to workers. Globally, labour share as a percentage of GDP has declined by 0.4 percentage points since 2019. If labour share had stayed at 2019 levels, workers would have been $469bin better off in 2025. Since 2019, productivity has increased by 9% while real wages have fallen by 12%. The share of US national income going to capital has rocketed in the 21st century.’ – Mike Roberts (see ee Economists,Shortages, inflation & stagnation)
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• Oiling Singapore – ‘Nowhere is this scramble more acute than in Singapore, with flow-on implications for those national economies tethered to Singaporean refiners. The city-state’s 3 main refineries on Jurong Island – ExxonMobil, Singapore Refining Co & the integrated petrochemical complexes – were built for a diet of Middle Eastern light-sour crudes. These barrels possess exactly the API gravity, sulfur content and contaminant profile that maximise yields in the complex hydrocrackers, reformers and desulfurisation units that define Singapore’s competitive edge. Talk of ‘simply sourcing more crude from the USA’ ignores basic chemistry and engineering. It also ignores the reality that the USA is a net importer of crude in normal conditions, as I have discussed elsewhere, with present exports taking place through draw-downs in the nation’s strategic reserves… Singapore is not an isolated victim. It is the pivot of Asia’s downstream supply chain. The island refines & exports gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, bunker oil & chemical feedstocks that keep planes flying, ships bunkering and factories running from Southeast Asia to Australia and beyond. When Singapore runs short, regional prices spike, availability thins and supply chains fracture. Australia, which sources roughly one-5th of its refined products from Singapore, feels the pain immediately. But so do Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and India’s coastal markets. There are no quick substitutes. New tankers take weeks to arrive; alternative crudes require months of trial-and-error reconfiguration; and no other Asian hub possesses Singapore’s scale & integration.’ – Warwick Powell (ee Sovereignty,Power, Not Paper: How Iran’s Control of the Strait of Hormuz is Rewriting the Rules )
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• USA’s Armed Gas-station Robbery – ‘US military’s global energy operations – Arctic Sentry, Southern Spear, & Epic Fury – are coordinated to secure the Petrogas-Dollar by controlling oil & gas trade routes from the Arctic to the Persian Gulf… In just 90 days, the USA have executed an energy-blitzkrieg decades in the making: 100s of strikes on Russian tankers & refineries; Disrupting a third of China’s oil & LNG supply; Capturing the largest oil reserves on the planet; Establishing a global naval blockade from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean. And in the process, kidnapped & assassinated 2 heads of state. We are witnessing the transition of the USA from an empire into a lawless Pirate State, and the birth of what I call the Petrogas-$ or LNG-$… In total, the entire Levantine basin is worth over half a trillion dollars – surpassing the combined profits of BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil & TotalEnergies from the entire Ukraine war. These untapped reserves have been kept on ice by the Israeli military, effectively acting as private mercenaries for Corporate USA. It’s no coincidence that all the ports along this coast have been destroyed except Israel’s. By blockading Gaza and crippling the ports in Beirut & Syria, they have ensured Levantines cannot touch their own inheritance – while holding the door open for Chevron to collect.’ – Richard Medhurst (see ee Sovereignty, How the US Pulled off an Armed Robbery of the World’s Energy Supply & Created the Petrogas-$)
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• Russia Sticks up USA – ‘This eastward pivot has strengthened Russia’s position in Asia. China has consistently ranked as the top buyer, with significant year-on-year growth in imports of discounted Urals and ESPO blends. India continues large-scale processing in its refineries. Singapore has emerged as a key hub, recording sharp increases in Russian fuel oil imports for bunkering & transshipment, while Malaysia’s Petronas has negotiated direct crude purchases. Broader Southeast Asian interest from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam & Thailand has also risen. These developments enhance Russia’s economic and diplomatic ties in key growth markets, even at discounted prices.’– Warwick Powell (ee Sovereignty Will Global Oil & Gas Disruptions Enable US Energy Domination? – Does US Triumphalism or ‘Hegemony Chess’ Hold Water?)
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• China Says No – ‘China’s Leadership has said ‘No’ to a global order issued by US President Trump – and today analysts worldwide are holding their breath to see if the mercurial leader will back down. The Trump administration last week again ordered the world, including specific firms in China, to stop trading with Iranians – the latest in a long series of similar instructions issued since early 2025. But China said on Saturday that it will not comply – and ordered 5 named major Chinese oil traders to carry on, ignoring Washington’s threats. Technically Illegal–The USA’s global orders are technically cases of illegal transnational economic coercion. But the USA’s huge economic and military power has meant countries normally obey, in fear of US secondary sanctions. Not this time. A defiant statement from China’s commerce ministry pointed out the obvious, which is that the US measures unlawfully restrict normal trade with third countries. ‘The Chinese government has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack authorization from the United Nations and a basis in international law,’ the department said on Saturday. The Chinese also said the US action ‘breaches international norms’—a reference to US long-held defiance of World Trade Organization rules. Playing Hardball – To protect its firms, China also used the law. It deployed a blocking measure it had introduced in 2021 to shield Chinese companies from the unfair transnational techniques favored by the USA. It issued an order banning recognition, enforcement, and compliance with US sanctions aimed at the Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co & 4 other firms in the same trade. That means the Chinese firms, and the banks and other organizations which deal with them, have to stand together. What will happen next? Trump could issue additional repressive secondary sanctions on the Chinese banks and others: this would be a major escalation in the US assault on world’s free trade. Or the unpredictable US leader could fail to move ahead, and then just shift to something else—such as relaunching the US attack on Iran. You Can Say No – Either way, China’s pushback is significant. The world normally obeys US extraterritorial orders out of fear of secondary sanctions. But China has shown that you can say no. The friction comes just weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to have a summit with US President Trump.’ – Nury Vittachi, FB
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• Canada’s Hitler – Canada’s New Governor General: ‘Someone who enabled the ‘Hitler of Africa’, backed bombing Libya and has stayed mum on Gaza has been appointed governor general. Still, many ‘human rights’ advocates are celebrating Mark Carney’s selection to represent the King in Canada. On Tuesday PM Carney announced that former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour will be Canada’s next governor general. Arbour was a leading architect of the liberal imperialist Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, which was used to justify overthrowing Haiti’s elected government in 2004 & destroying Libya 7 years later. As President of International Crisis Group, Arbour backed the NATO war on Libya, calling on the UN Security Council to act to protect civilians in Libya. (Alongside Barrack Obama & others, she later criticized the disaster in Libya.) During her time as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2008, Arbour criticized the Arab Charter on Human Rights for categorizing Zionism as a form of racism when pressed to do so by racist UN Watch. The next year she signed a petition launched by Zionist fanatic Irwin Cotler, titled ‘The Danger of a Nuclear, Genocidal & Rights-violating Iran: the Responsibility to Prevent Petition.’ During the past 3 years of genocide in Gaza Arbour doesn’t appear to have found a single opportunity (petition, public letter, op-ed, rally, etc) to have criticized the Jewish supremacist state’s horrors. But Arbour’s most egregious concession to power took place when she was chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) between 1996-99. She indicted then-Serbian President Slobodan Milošević for war crimes but refused to investigate any potential war crimes NATO committed during its illegal 78-day bombing campaign. Arbour stated, ‘I accept the assurances given by NATO leaders that they intend to conduct their operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in full compliance with international humanitarian law.’ In another important contribution to power serving ‘victor’s justice’, Arbour wasn’t interested in evidence suggesting murderous dictator Paul Kagame’s RPF was responsible for assassinating Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira, and most of the Rwandan military command, which sparked the 1994 genocide. According to French government investigators & National Post, she refused to investigate evidence implicating the RPF in shooting down Habyarimana’s airplane. In 1996 former ICTR investigator Michael Hourigan compiled evidence based on the testimony of three RPF informants who claimed ‘direct involvement in the 1994 fatal rocket attack upon the President’s aircraft’ and ‘specifically implicated the direct involvement of [Kagame]’ and other RPF members. But, when Hourigan delivered the evidence to her in early 1997, Arbour was ‘aggressive’ & ‘hostile,’ according to Hourigan. Despite initially supporting the investigation surrounding who shot down the plane, the ICTR’s chief prosecutor now advised Hourigan that the ‘investigation was at an end because in her view it was not in our [ICTR] mandate.’ According to Anthony Black, ‘What Hourigan didn’t know at the time is that Arbour, after having launched the investigation, had been directed by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (who had handpicked her for the job) to quash the inquiry. And so she did. Arbour would later (again under the aegis of Albright) be promoted to Canadian Supreme Court Justice & thence as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.’ (When ICTR prosecutor who took over from Arbour, Carla del Ponte, began to investigate the RPF’s role in shooting down Habyarimana’s plane, the British & Americans had her removed from her position. Del Ponte details her ordeal and the repression of the investigation in The Hunt: Me & the War Criminals.) When the Globe & Mail confirmed that Kagame was responsible for the act that unleashed the genocidal violence, Arbour sought to shift the blame for failing to fulfil the court’s mandate onto ‘Africa’s Hitler’. She admitted there were ‘very credible allegations’ of RPF crimes but said they couldn’t investigate them due to their dependence on the Rwandan regime. But why wait 20 years to tell the world? In 2016 the Globe drily noted, ‘Ms Arbour’s revelations about her 3-year stint as the tribunal’s chief prosecutor came after Globe obtained 2 documents – a deposition by one of Mr. Kagame’s former top aides and an earlier report by investigators at the UN Rwanda tribunal – pointing to the involvement of Mr Kagame’s forces in the death of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana.’ In practice, Arbour’s actions legitimated Kagame’s repeated invasions into Congo. Justified as targeting genocidaires 30 years of Rwandan violence has killed several million Congolese. Ignoring Louis Arbour’s role in facilitating imperialism, Alex Neve, Mark Kersten & Paul Champ have all gushed over her appointment as governor general. They demonstrate the liberal imperialist character of Canada’s dominant ‘human rights’ & ‘international law’ rhetoric.’ – Yves Engler, FB
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• Canada’s War on China – ‘According to Canada’s mainstream media, intelligence agencies & politicians, China is threatening Canada. But it is Canada’s military that is engaged in a highly provocative exercise targeting that country. In response to a CSIS report claiming China is spying/interfering in Canada, and rightist forces pressuring the Liberals, there have been a slew of stories hyping the China threat over the past week. These include: ‘Former spy reveals how China hunts down targets in Canada & abroad’ (CBC); ‘Canada Flags Beijing Interference as Most Serious Threat Since the Cold War: Report’ (Vision Times); ‘China – our ‘strategic partner’ & greatest security threat’ (Toronto Sun); ‘India, China among main perpetrators of foreign interference, new CSIS report says’ (National Post); ‘China espionage threat persists as CSIS flags political interference concerns’ (Weekly Standard). Perhaps coincidently, as CSIS, politicians and the media scaremonger, Canadian forces have been participating in a provocative US-led military exercise targeting China. Over the past 3 weeks Canadian forces have been part of Exercise Balikatan in the Philippines. This is the first time Canada has participated directly in the annual exercise, which includes 10,000 US troops. Several 100 Canadian soldiers are part of the 7-country – including France, Australia, Japan, New Zealand – live-fire exercise across the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Their efforts are designed to rally a coalition against China, explained Wall Street Journal article ‘In the Philippines, Pacific Allies Train for China Threat’: ‘For Washington, that show of force is the culmination of a years-long effort to get its allies in Asia & the Pacific to work more closely together in the face of China’s military & territorial ambitions.’ But China isn’t sending war ships & personnel 1000s of kilometres away to the US, France or Canada. And it’s not China testing highly threatening weaponry. As part of the Balikatan Exercise the US fired a Tomahawk missile 600km on Tuesday from its new Typhon launcher for the first time. Capable of hitting targets deep inside mainland China from locations in the Philippines, the move is highly provocative. According to Dave Camp at Anti War, ‘The Typhon, also known as the Strategic MidRange Fire System, was developed by the US after it withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. The INF prohibited the US and Russia from possessing ground-based missile systems that had ranges between 310-3,400 miles, limits that China was not bound by.’ Alongside the USA’s belligerent missile test, Japan launched an ‘offensive’ weapon abroad for the first time since WWII. In a drill with the US viewed by the Filipino president and defence minister, Japanese forces fired type 88 surface-to-ship missiles on Wednesday. According to the South China Morning Post, ‘China condemned what it called Japan’s first ‘offensive missile’ test overseas in 8 decades, saying Tokyo’s ‘neo-militarism’ and intensified arms race had gained momentum and threatened regional stability.’ The spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Lin Jian, bemoaned ‘Japan’s right-wing forces are pushing for an accelerated ‘remilitarisation’ process.’ He complained that Tokyo was overstepping its ‘exclusively defence-oriented’ policy, which was established at the end of WWII after Japan killed millions occupying China & other nations in SE Asia. Last week China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, told Globe & Mail he was optimistic about improving ties between the 2 countries. But Beijing’s envoy criticized Ottawa for sending warships through the Taiwan Strait, which Ottawa has done 11 times since 2018, and Canada weakening its ‘One China’ policy by growing ties with Taiwan. Rightwing commentators and Conservative party officials condemned the statement saying Canada should double down on its provocative moves and send more warships through the Strait & officials to Taiwan. But, why stoke conflict with China on behalf of a US hegemon threatening to annex Canada? The public doesn’t support it. Disapproval of the US is at unprecedented levels with the Globe recently reporting, ‘more Canadians view the US unfavourably than ever.’ A recent Politico poll also found that Canadians prefer to depend on China over Trump’s US by a margin of 57% to 23%. As I [asked] 2 weeks ago, ‘Will any politician condemn Canadian participation in Exercise Balikatan?’ – Yves Engler, FB
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A4. Who’s Who
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• Moon Calendar – ‘From Jan 1966 to Sept 1971, Ceylon replaced the Saturday-Sunday weekend with the Pre-Poya and Poya days, which marked the 4four principal phases of the moon. This dramatic shift from the Gregorian to a lunar calendar was enacted through the Holidays Act No 17 of 1965. The new calendar reshaped the rhythms of work, worship, and everyday life across the island.’ – see ee Media, ‘Just a Phase’ the Forgotten Lunar Calendar
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• Gen Z’s Emptiness – ‘Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay, a major star in Tamil films, launched his party (TVM) through his 85,000 fan clubs, drawing on a long tradition in Tamil Nadu of film stars, fan clubs, and the political establishment. But there was something novel about his campaign. His entire mood was driven by digital fluency, awareness of social issues that captivate online audiences, & impatience with traditional hierarchies. The excitement of his campaign, the unwillingness to accept party loyalties, and the care with which Vijay’s team crafted political messages to induce cultural rather than political appeal stretched his popularity beyond the lines of the polarized electorate. Born in 1974, Vijay reached out to younger voters in a way that eclipsed the otherwise popular administration of Stalin (born 1953) and the other principal opponent, Edappadi Palaniswami (born 1954). But the Vijay phenomenon is strong on imagery and weak on policy or administrative competence. It carries forward the Gen-Z protests of Bangladesh, which resulted in a right-wing victory at the polls, and the Gen-Z protests of Nepal, which resulted in a government characterized by right-of-center incoherence.’ – Vijay Prashad (ee Politics, Regional Elections in India & the Growing Myth of Gen-Z)
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• Gold Ring for Babes – ‘Among Tamilnadu politician Vijay’s campaign promises that helped him garner enough popular support to win the recent election are a 2,500-rupee monthly allowance for women heads of households, 6 free cylinders of LPG a year for families, one sovereign gold ring each for all newborns, a 15,000-rupee education assistance allowance for mothers of schoolchildren, a 4,000-rupee monthly allowance for unemployed graduates, Rs 5 lakh as new start-up loans, and Rs 25 lakh for biz launch loans. These promises, if ever implemented, will cost Tamil Nadu more than 50% of its annual tax revenue.’ – see ee Sovereignty, The Vijay factor
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• Private Passport Makers – ‘Bidding officially opened on April 27, 2025, attracting 8 major international & local bidders; Tahaluf Al Emarat Technical Solution & VSIS; United Printing & Publishing (E7) /Toppan Forms (Colombo) Ltd; Madras Security Printers / Blue Chip Technical Services; IN Continu ET Service SAS (IN Group) / Epic Lanka; Veridos GMBH / Informatics; IRIS Corporation Berhad / Hayleys Fenton Limited; PWPW SA / South Asian Technologiesand Thales DIS Finland Oy / Just in Time Technologies.’ – see ee Security, Daily Mirror report on e-passport contract draws Govt attention
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• Strategic For Whom? – ‘Deepika Udagama and Ambassador (Retd) Esala Weerakoon have succeeded former Secretary to the PM, M. D. D. Pieris, and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank (CB) and member of the Monetary Board of the CB, Ranee Jayamaha. Current members comprise Amal Jayawardane, (Prof of International Relations, University of Colombo), Chulani Kodikara (Feminist Researcher), Dilip Kodikara (a founding Director of the RCSS), Nazir Hussain (Prof of International Relations & former Dean, of Faculty of Social Sciences at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan), and Varun Sahni (Prof of International Relations at Ashoka University, India). Co-founded in 1992 by Prof Shelton Kodikara – its first Executive Director, Ambassador (Retd) Ravinatha Aryasinha, former Foreign Secretary, is now the Executive Director of the RCSS. Weerakoon was the 14th Secretary General of SAARC, 2020-23, Foreign Secretary of SL (2016-17), Senior Additional Secretary to the President of SL (2018-19 & from 2023-24). He was High Commissioner to India, Ambassador to Norway, Deputy Chief of Mission to the USA and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs; Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing, and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Economic Development.’ – ee Security, Deepika & Esala join Regional Centre for Strategic Studies Board
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• US Guides War on Russia –‘When Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky offered his country up as a testing ground for Western weapons, he wasn’t just talking to Boeing and Lockheed Martin: he was handing Ukraine’s sovereignty to Silicon Valley on a platter… Palantir is not the only Silicon Valley corporation that smelled opportunity in Ukraine. SpaceX provides satellite internet to the Ukrainian military, which is used for communications and drone guidance. Maxar Technologies, Planet Labs, and BlackSky Technology supply satellite reconnaissance. PrimerAI and Recorded Future provide intelligence analysis tools. Clearview – funded by Palantir founder Peter Thiel – supplies facial recognition software that the Ukrainian military uses to identify Russian soldiers & alleged ‘collaborators’ – see ee Security, Silicon Valley (Palantir, SpaceX, Maxar) & NATO’s Delta Are Guiding, Controlling, Enabling US, England, NATO, ‘Ukraine’ attacks on Russia
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• No Wealth Analysis Yet – ‘Centre for Poverty Analysis stands as SL’s leading independent thinktank on poverty & development, with a team of 30 researchers & a portfolio that spans 6 thematic areas… On the international stage, CEPA has worked with the Asian Development Bank, UN Women, the International Labour Organization, UNDP, the World Bank, and ODI Global.’ – ee Economists, CEPA, 25 years of not looking away: Rebecca Jayatissa
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• Macro Economists – ‘The Gamani Corea & SL Economic Association (SLEA) lecture on ‘Sri Lanka’s Current Macroeconomic Policy Directions in the Context of Global Volatility’ was delivered by Central Bank of SL Deputy Governor Chandranath Amarasekara… followed by a panel discussion involving University of Peradeniya Senior Prof in Economics OG Dayaratne Banda; GCF Honorary Board Director Manjula de Silva, and The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Economist Arani Rodrigo. It will be moderated by Daily FT Editor/CEO Nisthar Cassim. The Q&A session will be coordinated by GCF Honorary Chairperson Dr Harsha Aturupane. SLEA President and GCF Honorary Deputy Chairperson Prof Sirimevan Colombage and SLEA General Secretary Nihal Rodrigo.’ – ee Economists,GCF-SLEA on ‘Current Macroeconomic Policy Directions in the Context of Global Volatility’
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• Prima Among Unequals – ‘Large mills like Prima receive duty concessions for grain, allowing them to produce flour cheaper than traders who must pay high duties for imports. This has led many traders to stop importing wheat flour because they cannot compete with this monopoly… Large importers offer credit to retailers, which smaller importers, who need immediate cash to survive, cannot afford to do, further squeezing small businesses out of the market.’ – ee Economists,Goods importers & households weighed down by price pressures
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• Privatisation’s Security Guards – ‘World Bank Country Manager for SL Gevorg Sargsyan, Senior Economists Richard Walker &Anthony Obeyesekere; and Governance Specialist Till Hartman met with the Secretary to the President Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. They drew attention to the Revenue Administration Reform & Modernisation Bureau established under the Presidential Secretariat and programs linked to the Internal Affairs Units established to safeguard the integrity of officials in state institutions.’ – see ee Economy, Multilateral assistance: World Bank backs state-revenue agencies reform
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• Privatizing Port – ‘Joint Alliance of Port Trade Unions has informed the Chairperson of the Ports Authority and the relevant authorities, including President AK Dissanayake, in writing that the senior management of the Authority has confirmed that it is more advantageous to operate the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port & the South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) under the Ports Authority. They have also stated that they would oppose any attempt by the Government to privatise the ECT or to re-privatise the SAGT… The letter, signed by the heads of the Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, Podujana Progressive Employees’ Union, National Workers’ Union, Samagi Workers’ Union, and the Eksath Workers’ Union — organisations affiliated with the Joint Alliance, which represents a majority of the employees of the Authority — has been addressed to the Chairperson of the Authority, with copies forwarded to 10 parties including the President, the Prime Minister (PM), and the Opposition Leader.’ – ee Workers, Port TUs warn Govt: ‘Hands off East Container Terminal & SAGT’
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• USA HillyBilly Steel Blues – ‘Appalachia infamously fueled industrial capital expansion with its coal, timber, & iron resources, while Alabama, as Birmingham’s ‘Steel City’ nickname hints, has been one of the nation’s leading producers of iron & steel since Reconstruction. Atlanta is the headquarters of Georgia’s largest employer, Georgia-Pacific, the company responsible for the Peach State’s title as the number one state for paper & pulp production in the USA. As Scalawag’s extensive coverage of the Gulf South frequently notes, the USA’s position as the world’s leading oil producer is so because of the sprawling petroleum extraction and chemical processing infrastructure that pollutes Texas & Louisiana. The urban South – Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, Oklahoma City—are all booming and emerging tech hubs. Yet, despite being the historic home of NASA, Disney, SpaceX, Texas Instruments, Coca-Cola, FedEx, and Delta Airlines, the South and its labor force remains unthought in conversations about tech and corporate fascism.’ – ee Workers, May Day: Exporting the Southern Plantocracy
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• Watering Colombo – ‘The Labugama & Kalatuwawa reservoirs were constructed between 1882-86, when the population of Colombo and its suburbs was approximately 120,000. Today, Greater Colombo supports over 2million people, alongside a growing industrial base…Colombo’s water supply depends on a delicate balance between river abstraction & limited reservoir storage. The Kelani River, via the Ambatale intake, provides nearly half of the city’s daily requirement, approximately 550-590,000 cubic metres per day. In contrast, the Labugama and Kalatuwawa reservoirs function primarily as supplementary buffers rather than reliable long-term storage.’ – see ee Agriculture, Urban water crisis in Greater Colombo
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• Gen Z Govi Biz – ‘ICT Lawyers’ Guild President Sunil Abeyratne at the Agro Harvest Cultivation Group of Companies… International Chamber of Agricultural Plantation Industry & Farmer Producer Organization… Guests included Nalaka Silva, Jitendra Joshi, G.D. Singh and H.E.M.N. Sardar Ali.’ – ee Agriculture, Gen Z turning away from farming raises alarm over future of agriculture
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• English Home Garden Chemistry – ‘CIC / ICI Senior Professor of Crop Science at the University of Peradeniya, Buddhi Marambe struck the keynote at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science Forum on Food Security – ‘Facing Agriculture Crisis – Home Gardening as a Tool’ organised by the Media & Event Management Division of NSF under the purview of the Ministry of Science & Technology: ‘Home gardens cannot substitute systemic solutions required to address structural weaknesses in the country’s food production sector…’ joined by Shiromi Perera, DG, NSF; Renuka Silva, Wayamba University; Thusitha Malalasekara, Member, NSF Media Committee; Sudath Samaraweera, Chairman, NSF; KKDS Ranaweera, Emeritus Professor, University of Sri Jayawardenapura; Hiranya S. Jayawickrama Consultant Community Physician, Family Health Bureau.’ – see ee Agriculture, Home gardening must shift from production fix to nutrition strategy – CIC/ICI Prof Marambe
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• Banking on German Machines –‘The initiative promotes equipment from internationally recognised manufacturers including BOMAG rollers, Kaeser compressors, Everdigm breakers, Gehl skid steer loaders, Car Mix self-loading concrete mixers, along with an extensive portfolio of Komatsu construction & earth-moving machinery. These technologies play a vital role in construction, infrastructure development, manufacturing & industrial operations across the country.’ – ee Industry, HNB-DIMO introduce leasing solutions for heavy machinery
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• Trump Crashes on Nuke Fams –‘Scores of energy campuses and new power plants are planned to be built quickly across the USA, aiming to provide the energy that companies such as Google, Microsoft & OpenAI say will be needed to power the data centers underpinning their future AI services… Fermi’s co-founders include Rick Perry, energy secretary during President Trump’s first term, and his son Griffin…Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s son Kyle Lutnick is executive vice chairman at Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm formerly led by Howard Lutnick. Regulatory filings show Cantor & a subsidiary were paid $6mn in cash for work on Fermi’s IPO. Another of Lutnick’s sons, Brandon, is Cantor’s CEO… Former Fermi CEO Toby Neugebauer is the son of former congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), still sits on Fermi’s board. His family & other Fermi insiders fired in the shakeup that began on April 17 still own 40% of Fermi stock.’ – ee Industry, A Trump-branded nuclear power project thrilled investors, then came the crash
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• Fake Insurance – ‘Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC) said the transactions were executed through 5 Central Bank-appointed primary dealers, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, HNB Securities Ltd, First Capital Treasuries PLC, Capital Alliance PLC and WealthTrust Securities PLC, without transaction fees, in line with market practice.’ – ee Finance, SLIC rejects ‘false’ bond claims
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• Rugby Sandwich Boys – ‘The biggest fear is that school rugby is now engulfed by a new breed of promoters calling the shots while sportsmanship has been flung out of the window with 16- or 17-year-olds becoming the sandwich boys of corporate companies jumping on the bandwagon to advertise their products.’ – ee Business, Sandwich boys exploited by sadism at schools rugby
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• Indian Golf – ‘V. Puthirasigamoney was appointed to chair the session and oversee the electoral process. Senior Attorney-at-Law K. Vivehanandar was subsequently elected as President of the club, while Senior Attorney-at-Law Reinzie was elected Secretary. The newly appointed working committee comprises V. Puthirasigamoney, A.P. Kanapathipillai, Rev. L.L. Joshua and J. Kummaresh.’ – ee Business, New leadership elected after dramatic AGM at Nuwara Eliya Golf Club
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• EU’s USAID – ‘The EU channels resources toward this agenda, reconstructing a vast system of programs, funding schemes, and projects through which ‘100s of millions of euros are allocated annually’ to various actors within so-called civil society—universities, newspapers, thinktanks, news agencies, & NGOs—which contribute to reinforcing the legitimacy of European policies. ‘These are public programmes that can be traced online’’ – see ee Media, Inside Europe’s propaganda apparatus: How the EU influences media, NGOs, & universities
B. Special Focus____________________________________________
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• B1. Who Rules the USA? Inside the Hidden Architecture of the Ruling Class – William Murphy
Power in the USA is not located where it is performed.
It is located where ownership, credit & production are organized.
Every few years, US politics turns into a spectacle of moral theater. Elections are framed as existential battles, presidents are cast as saviors or villains, and the public is encouraged to believe that history pivots on the outcome of televised debates & campaign slogans. But beneath that surface choreography, something far more stable operates.
Policies shift, personalities rotate, and rhetoric intensifies – but the structure that organizes economic life remains remarkably consistent. The same corporate giants expand. The same financial institutionsconsolidate control. The same geopolitical priorities persist regardless of which party occupies the White House. This stability is not accidental. It reflects the deeper architecture of power in the USA: a system in which real authority is rooted not in electoral office, but in the ownership & control of capital itself.
To understand who rules the USA, one must move beyond personalities & institutions as they appear on the surface and instead examine the material structure beneath them. What emerges is not a conspiracy in the cinematic sense, but something more durable and far more impersonal: a class system organized around capital accumulation.
The Ruling Class as a Structural Formation – The first misconception to discard is the idea that ‘the ruling class’ refers to a small, easily identifiable group of individuals sitting in coordination. This image is comforting because it simplifies complexity into intent. But the reality is more structural than conspiratorial.
The ruling class in the USA is best understood as a networked formation of ownership & control over capital, production, & finance. It is composed of overlapping layers: institutional investors who control massive pools of assets, corporate executives who administer production, financial institutions that allocate credit, and state structures that stabilize the entire system.
What binds these elements together is not personal unity but shared class position. They are connected by the fact that they depend on the reproduction & expansion of capital accumulation. Their decisions, whether made in boardrooms or regulatory agencies, tend to converge because their material interests converge.
This is why power in advanced capitalism often appears decentralized while functioning in a deeply coordinated way. It is not that someone is issuing orders from a hidden center. It is that the system itself produces alignment through its structure.At its core, the ruling class is defined not by wealth alone, but by control over the strategic levers of economic life: investment, credit, production, and enforcement.
Finance as the Central Nervous System of Capital –If one searches for the densest concentration of power within this system, it is not immediately found in industrial production or even corporate headquarters. It is found in finance.Modern finance does not simply facilitate economic activity; it organizes it. Large institutional investors & asset managers sit atop vast portions of the economy through complex ownership structures that are often invisible in everyday perception. What appears as dispersed ownership across 1,000s of companies is, in reality, increasingly coordinated through centralized financial institutions.
The significance of this arrangement is not merely that a few firms are large. It is that capital allocation itself has become highly centralized, even while formal ownership appears widely distributed.This produces a distinctive form of power. Financial institutions do not need to directly manage companies to influence their behavior. They shape the conditions under which companies must operate. Investment flows, shareholder expectations & credit access determine strategic direction long before any product reaches the market.In this sense, finance operates as a kind of silent coordination mechanism for the entire system. It does not issue political commands. It sets the parameters within which economic life becomes possible.
Corporate Management & the Discipline of Production – Below the financial layer sits the corporate executive class, which translates abstract financial imperatives into concrete organizational decisions. These are the individuals who manage global supply chains, oversee labor regimes, and determine the geographic distribution of production.Their role is often misunderstood as one of autonomous entrepreneurial leadership. In reality, it is closer to systemic administration. Corporate executives operate within constraints defined by financial markets, shareholder expectations, and competitive pressures that are themselves structured by capital accumulation.Their decisions about automation, outsourcing, wage suppression, or expansion are not merely business strategies in a neutral sense. They are mechanisms through which surplus value is extracted and redistributed.
Major corporations in technology, energy, pharmaceuticals, logistics & defense do not function as isolated entities. They function as nodes in a global system of production. Their internal hierarchies mirror broader class relations: command flows downward, surplus flows upward, and labor is organized as a cost to be optimized.What makes this layer significant is not simply its size, but its function. It is the operational interface between financial capital & material production. Without it, accumulation remains abstract. Through it, abstraction becomes material reality.
The State as Structural Stabilizer – The role of the state in this system is often mischaracterized as either neutral arbitration or direct corporate capture. Both views miss the deeper structural function.The state in advanced capitalism operates as a stabilizing apparatus for the reproduction of the system as a whole. It does not simply enforce laws; it manages the conditions under which capital accumulation remains viable over time.This includes monetary policy, fiscal intervention, legal frameworks for property rights, and, crucially, the capacity for coercion through military & policing institutions. In moments of crisis, whether financial collapse, social unrest, or geopolitical conflict, the state absorbs shocks that private capital cannot manage alone.
Far from standing outside the economy, the state is deeply embedded within it. It provides the institutional continuity that allows capital to survive its own contradictions. Importantly, this does not require conspiratorial intent. It emerges from structural necessity. Any modern capitalist state that failed to stabilize accumulation would cease to function as a viable state within that system.
Political Leadership as Managed Representation – Within this architecture, elected officials occupy a specific and limited role. They are not sovereign decision-makers in the full sense often implied in public discourse.Political leadership functions primarily as a mechanism for managing legitimacy, mediating competing interests within capital, and translating systemic imperatives into publicly acceptable language.Campaign finance structures, lobbying networks, thinktanks & revolving-door employment patterns ensure that political actors remain embedded within the broader field of elite economic interests. Even when individual politicians express personal convictions, their institutional environment constrains the range of viable action.This is why political change often appears dramatic in rhetoric but incremental in substance. Administrations shift, but the underlying policy orientation toward property rights, financial stability & global capital flows remains remarkably consistent.The political sphere is therefore not the center of power but its administrative surface. It is where systemic decisions are narrated, not where they are primarily made.
Ideology & the Production of Consent –No system of domination survives through coercion alone. It must also generate legitimacy.In the USA, this function is carried out through a wide constellation of ideological institutions: media organizations, universities, philanthropic foundations, and cultural industries. Their role is not to coordinate propaganda in a crude sense, but to define the boundaries of what can be considered reasonable thought.Through these institutions, certain questions become thinkable while others are quietly excluded. Debates are structured in ways that assume the permanence of existing property relations. Critique is often redirected toward cultural or interpersonal conflicts rather than systemic ones.The effect is not total ideological control, but structured limitation. People are not simply told what to think. They are guided toward frameworks that keep deeper structural questions outside the field of everyday political discourse.This is one of the most effective forms of power: not suppression of thought, but the organization of its horizons.
A System Without a Conspiracy, But Not Without Coordination –One of the most common misunderstandings about this system is the expectation of centralized coordination. There is no single council directing all decisions. Yet the absence of a central command does not imply the absence of coherence.What produces coherence is shared material interest & institutional interdependence. Executives move between corporations & government agencies. Financial institutions advise regulators who later join those same institutions. Policy experts circulate through thinktanks, universities, and administrative roles.This circulation creates a dense network of alignment. Decisions made in one part of the system resonate through others because they are structurally connected. What appears as coordination is often the emergent behavior of a tightly integrated class system.
Contradictions & Instability Within Stability – It would be a mistake to interpret this system as static or omnipotent. It is, in fact, deeply unstable in its own way.Capitalism reproduces itself through constant expansion & periodic crisis. Inequality, geopolitical competition, environmental limits, and technological disruption all generate tensions that cannot be fully resolved, only managed.Each crisis forces restructuring. Sometimes this leads to greater centralization, sometimes to fragmentation, but always within the same underlying logic of accumulation. The system survives not by eliminating contradiction but by metabolizing it.
Conclusion: Seeing the Structure Beneath the Surface – To understand who rules the USA is not to identify a hidden cabal. It is to recognize a structural reality: that economic power is organized through ownership of capital, control of finance, & institutional management of production.The ruling class is not invisible. It is simply embedded in institutions that present themselves as neutral or technical. Its power is not exercised through constant explicit commands but through the everyday operation of systems that determine investment, production, and policy constraints.Once seen clearly, the illusion of political sovereignty dissolves. What remains is a more sober picture of power: not personal, not mystical, but structural.And structures, unlike myths, can be analyzed—and eventually changed.
Sources & Further Reading:
• Arrighi, Giovanni, The Long 20th Century: Money, Power, & the Origins of Our Times. Verso, 1994.
• Baran, Paul A, & Paul M Sweezy, Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic & Social Order. Monthly Review Press, 1966.
• Duménil, Gérard, & Dominique Lévy, The Crisis of Neoliberalism. Harvard University Press, 2011.
• Harvey, David: A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, 2005; The New Imperialism, OUP, 2003.
• Marx, Karl. Capital: a Critique of Political Economy.
• Miliband, Ralph, The State in Capitalist Society, Verso, 2009.
• Robinson, William, Global Capitalism & the Crisis of Humanity, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Sassen, Saskia, Expulsions: Brutality & Complexity in the Global Economy, Harvard UP, 2014.
• Wright, Erik Olin, Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis, Cambridge UP, 1997.
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• B2. Reforming the Nigerian Shea Sector – Challenges, Opportunities & Lessons from Global Commodity Value Chains: Warwick Powell
Nigeria stands as the world’s largest producer of shea nuts, contributing nearly 40% (& in some estimates up to 45%) of global output with annual production between 350,000-500,000 metric tons. Yet despite this dominance, the country captures less than 1% of the estimated $6.5bn global shea market. Official export earnings from raw shea nuts have often hovered around or below $65mn annually, while the potential for value-added processing could generate 100s of millions – & ultimately billions – in revenue through shea butter and derivatives used in cosmetics, food, and pharmaceuticals. This stark disparity exemplifies postcolonial economic structures that lock developing nations intoraw commodity exports, while foreign-owned processors, brands & retailers downstream capture the lion’s share of value. As economist Fadhel Kaboub has powerfully documented in his analyses of ‘cocoa colonies’ and Tunisian olives, these patterns are not accidental but systemic features of global value chains shaped by colonialism, unequal trade rules, and concentrated corporate power.
The Commodities Development Initiative (CDI) of Nigeria, working in tandem with government policy, is spearheading reforms to shift this dynamic. A key pillar is digitalisation: platforms enabling coordinated ‘single-desk’ selling through the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX), enhanced traceability for buyers and financiers, and better producer bargaining power. Recent policies, including the 2025 ban on raw shea nut exports (extended through 2027), mandate that all shea trade routes through the NCX, aiming to curb informal cross-border losses and force domestic processing. This essay examines the challenges & opportunities of reforming Nigeria’s shea sector, situating it within the broader struggles of agricultural commodities in the developing world – cocoa in West Africa, olives in Tunisia, and coffee in East Africa to name but a few. While formidable barriers remain, strategic digitalisation, industrial policy & regional solidarity offer pathways to greater local value creation & economic sovereignty.
The current state of Nigeria’s shea industry reveals deep structural weaknesses rooted in its upstream position in the global chain. Shea trees grow wild across a vast belt spanning over 5 million hectares in 20+ states, primarily harvested by rural women collectors who gather fallen nuts seasonally. Production remains fragmented among millions of smallholders with minimal organisation, leading to inconsistent quality, high post-harvest losses (up to 90,000 tons lost annually to informal trade), and vulnerability to middlemen. Domestic processing capacity stands at around 160,000 tonnes but operates at only 35-50% utilisation due to unreliable power, poor infrastructure, inadequate technology, and limited access to finance. Most nuts are exported raw to Europe and Asia for refining into shea butter (which commands 10-20 times the price of raw kernels), where multinational firms control fractionation into stearin and olein for high-margin applications.
The 2025 export ban, while visionary in intent, exposed immediate challenges: nut prices plunged by up to 33% initially, disrupting established trade networks and hitting women collectors hardest. Processors lacked capacity to absorb the surplus, underscoring the gap between policy ambition and implementation readiness. Broader issues include meeting international standards for cosmetics and food-grade products, climate variability affecting tree yields, and gender dynamics – shea is often a critical income source for women yet receives little investment in training or credit. These mirror systemic postcolonial traps: capital & technology remain concentrated abroad, while producers bear price volatility and environmental risks.
Kaboub’s framework illuminates why such imbalances persist across commodities. In Tunisia – the world’s second-largest olive oil producer in good years (up to 500,000 tons) – producers export the vast majority in bulk to EU countries like Spain & Italy. European firms (Deoleo, Sovena, Acesur) blend, bottle, brand, and distribute under premium labels, capturing value in marketing and retail while Tunisia earns commodity prices. EU quotas (eg, 56,700 tons duty-free annually, often exhausted quickly) enforce ‘managed access’ rather than free trade, locking Tunisia at the bottom of the hierarchy despite producing the raw value. This is no market failure but a ‘well-oiled colonial machine’ of global value chains.
Cocoa offers an even starker parallel. West Africa produces 71-74% of global beans, with Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana dominant. Yet farmers receive less than 9% of the final chocolate bar’s value; supermarkets in Europe capture ~42%, while multinationals like Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Olam (grinding), and Hershey, Mondelez, Nestlé (branding) reap high margins (17-26% operating profits). Even local grinding capacity – now ~30-50% in these countries – often remains foreign-controlled, with profits repatriated. Price risks & climate impacts (eg, swollen shoot virus) fall on smallholders. Kaboub terms this ‘cocoa colonies vs chocolate empires.’
Coffee in Ethiopia & Uganda follows suit: 1.7-1.8 million smallholders dominate production, yet quality premiums rarely reach farmers due to fragmented aggregation, weak cooperatives, & buyer-driven chains controlled by global traders. Local roasting & branding remain limited; most value accrues in consuming countries through roasting, packaging, and retail. Common threads across shea, cocoa, olives & coffee include tariff escalation (higher duties on processed goods), sanitary-phytosanitary barriers, and corporate concentration that stifles upstream bargaining. Colonialism-introduced cash crops, extractive trade pacts, and lack of downstream infrastructure – perpetuates dependency.
Reforming these sectors faces multifaceted challenges. Economically, scaling processing requires massive capital for factories, energy & logistics – Nigeria’s installed shea capacity illustrates the underutilisation trap. Politically, policy consistency is elusive; the shea ban’s short-term disruptions sparked calls for review amid livelihood concerns. Socially, organising millions of dispersed smallholders (especially women) for collective action is difficult amid low literacy and trust deficits. Technically, achieving traceability and certifications (eg, for EU deforestation rules or organic claims) demands technology many lack. Globally, entrenched buyer power and competition from established processors resist change. Climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities across all crops: erratic rains for shea and olives, pests for cocoa, and shifting suitability for coffee. In Kaboub’s view, incremental reforms (larger quotas, niche branding) fail without confronting the structural hierarchy.
Yet opportunities abound, particularly through digitalisation and coordinated policy. Nigeria’s NCXmandate for shea exports creates a de facto single-desk mechanism, enabling price discovery, warehouse receipts, grading, and aggregation that strengthen producer negotiation. Digital platforms – to be advanced via the CDI – facilitate traceability from farm to fork using blockchain or mobile apps, delivering the transparency buyers and financiers demand for premiums. This leapfrogging technology reduces middlemen, links smallholders directly to markets, and unlocks credit against verified stocks. Local value addition to shea butter could multiply earnings while creating jobs, especially for women, in refining, cosmetics formulation, and packaging. The ban, paired with government financing schemes & industrial incentives, aims to expand capacity rapidly.
Broader lessons from peers are instructive. Ghana has modestly increased cocoa processing shares and shea exports through targeted support; Ethiopia’s coffee cooperatives demonstrate how organisation improves quality premiums. Tunisia could pivot via African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to intra-African and South-South markets, bypassing EU quotas. Kaboub advocates regional blocs for collective bargaining, sovereign development finance for downstream plants, and strategic industrial policy to own grinding, bottling, and branding. For shea, Nigeria could target cosmetics giants with certified, traceable supply while building domestic and regional demand for shea-based products. Sustainability angles – biodiversity in shea parklands, ethical sourcing – align with global ‘clean label’ trends, commanding premiums.
Digitalisation is transformative across commodities: coffee traceability apps in Uganda, cocoa blockchain pilots in Côte d’Ivoire, and olive oil platforms in Tunisia all enhance coordination & value capture. In Nigeria, integrating NCX with farmer apps and CDI support could coordinate selling at scale, attract investment with certainty, and enable financing innovations. Combined with the export ban’s push for processing and AfCFTA market access, this positions shea as a model for decolonising commodity chains.
In conclusion, reforming Nigeria’s shea sector is fraught with challenges embedded in postcolonial structures – fragmentation, capacity gaps, foreign dominance – but the opportunities are profound. Through CDI-led initiatives, digital single-desk platforms, traceability, and value-addition policies, Nigeria can move from raw exporter to processed powerhouse, potentially multiplying earnings from tens to hundreds of millions (and beyond). Parallels with cocoa, olives and coffee underscore that success requires more than isolated reforms: sustained political will, gender-inclusive organising, climate resilience, and Global South solidarity to reconfigure value chains. As Kaboub argues, true sovereignty demands repositioning from colonies to empires of one’s own making. Nigeria’s shea renaissance, if realised inclusively, could inspire a broader agricultural transformation across the developing world, fostering jobs, forex stability and equitable development in an era of global economic rebalancing.
(‘Tackling global development challenges is a key theme’ of Powell’s work, ‘as a researcher, analyst & practitioner. In line with the core themes of the research, much of this focus is on supply chain reform, orchestration and transformation so as to deliver tangible transformations in the production, circulation & retention of value. The conceptual foundations of this approach is found in my recent book Thermoeconomics in a Time of Monsters, and its practitioners’ companion handbook, The Provenance Economy. This essay focuses on the Nigerian shea butter supply chain, where my colleagues at Smart Trade Networks and I have been retained to provide strategic enabling assistance to deliver long-term transformations.’)
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• B3. The Canadian Auto Industry & Dependence: Polarized Options, Part 2 – Sam Gindin
Andrew Elrod (AE): How has the transformation of the industry in the USA affected Canada?
Sam Gindin (SG): The Canadian industry is even more dependent on Asian-based auto assemblers than the US is. For example, GM used to have 3 assembly plants just in Oshawa, which alongside its component facilities once made it the largest auto complex in North America and perhaps the 2nd largest in the world, after Volkwagen’s complex in Wolfsburg, Germany. It now has one vulnerable assembly plant left in Oshawa. Its Quebec plant is long gone, and its CAMI facility, which was assembling electric vans, recently closed.
Stellantis had a big operation in Brampton, which they also just closed since Trump’s tariffs. So, Stellantis’s assembly operation is now reduced to the plant in Windsor. Ford closed 2 of its 3 assembly plants over the years, leaving it with only the Oakville plant, which is in the process of converting into large pickup truck EVs and seems safe for now. We still have significant engine plants at GM (St Catharines) and at Ford (Windsor).
We used to have maybe 80% of the parts industry unionized. Today, it is perhaps half that. Unifor has had some success in organizing large component plants. Before the financial crisis, eg, in the course of an organizing drive at a Magna seat plant, with the company carrying out a vicious anti-union campaign, we used our strength at the Chrysler assembly plant receiving the seats to tell Chrysler we would not install the seats unless Magna left workers free to choose who would represent them without the company’s interference. We ultimately got a neutralityletter from Magna stating that it would no longer fight the unionization efforts at that site. Unifor has continued these gains, but not in breaking through at Toyota’s 3 assembly plants and at Honda’s assembly facility.
One of the changes that has been underdiscussed is the strategic power that used to reside in assembly plants has now shifted to parts producers. This is the result of the outsourcing of work from the companies to independent parts suppliers, often in rural areas, supplying both Japanese & US assemblers. Outsourcing components like seating or brakes also outsources potential bargaining power. One seat plant might, eg, supply 5 different assembly plants. Shutting down that seat plant would significantly impact the industry.
The non-union sector obviously weakens the unionized sector, but the problem goes deeper than competition in the product market from non-union producers. Canada’s unionization rate is nearly 30% – 3 times as large as the US, yet this doesn’t translate into the Canadian labour movement being that much more dynamic than the unions in the USA. It’s the quality of unions, and not just their density, that is decisive. A union movement that isn’t fighting for working conditions is going to have a problem organizing Japanese plants because the Japanese companies can easily equal the wages to maintain control of the workforce. If the unions don’t argue over working conditions, health & safety, and so on, they cannot point to these workplace gains that bring leverage against the employers. These are what win over workers in unorganized plants.
AE: How do you see these different parts of the industry trying to shape the trade negotiations between the governments in the US, Canada, & Mexico?
SG: Corporations in Canada will use the uncertainty arising from Trump’s tariffs in collective bargaining with workers. eg, it gives them an excuse to ask workers to open their collective agreements early and agree to concessions in order to save jobs. This is par for the course for employers, and their promise of job guarantees in exchange for concessions on wages, work rules, and benefits are not to be trusted. For one, corporations can’t promise anything in the present context. For another, they will cut jobs no matter the promises if it serves corporate interests.
The point is not to fall into the trap of trying to solve large issues like tariffs and economic crises through collective bargaining. These demand political responses – a government ready to mobilize Canadians to forcefully challenge Trump in spite of the risks, since giving in will only encourage him. Since Americans are themselves critical of the tariffs and a significant number of US states are concerned with the tariffs and Canada’s response impacting them negatively, Canadian resistance can reinforce resistance within the USA, too.
The UAW has an important role to play here. Shawn Fain has been a progressive trade union leader. Fain’s commitment to organizing has put a healthy pressure on Canadian unions. But he supported the tariffs on Canada. Historically, Canadian & US auto workers were always very careful about being played off against each other this way. But Fain got elected on a narrow margin and is wary about the fact that a good number of his membership believe that tariffs protect jobs. In some cases, tariffs can be positive. But to really matter they would have to be combined with far more regulations and serious planning that challenge corporate control over the industry – the failed transition to EV’s is an example. No such regulations or planning is on Trump’s radar. USA’s workers also have the history of the impact of tariffs; it is worth recalling that the end result of Reagan’s quotas, as emphasized earlier, did not help the workers facing job loss (the Japanese companies invested elsewhere) and the new plants ending up undermining standards for all workers.
Something that the union & its workers – not just Unifor but the UAW also – are not confronting is the limits of auto being the job producer it was in the past. Saving existing jobs is, of course, vital. But the industry as a whole is not going to expand much. Let’s go back to EVs: the USA’s companies looked at the short term and tried to delay moving to EVs as long as they possibly could so they could make a fortune off of internal-combustion engine vehicles. And the US federal state, because Trump has been completely supportive of expanding the oil industry, has essentially undermined the shift to EVs. China is not just ahead here but miles and miles ahead. And it’s not just because of lower cost labour. China subsidized research, subsidized consumers buying vehicles that were socially more beneficial, built the recharging infrastructure, and as the industry grew, benefitted from spreading the costs across large volumes – to the point that Chinese EVs are now offered at less than half the price charged for North-American-made EVs.
Trying to save the USA-based companies has failed as a strategy. The crucial focus should be how we save the productive capacities the auto companies are rejecting – the machinery, tool & die, the engineering and skills in the components sector – and apply this potential to addressing private & social need. For example, if we are serious about addressing the environment, this will mean changing everything about how we live, work, travel, enjoy leisure – we will have to reconstruct offices and homes, rebuild and expand mass transit infrastructure, modify equipment, radically expand solar & wind power. If we take all this on, we’ll find that we actually have a labour shortage.
AE: Would a former internal-combustion engine auto plant provide a basis for producing this great variety of new energy products & materials that you’re talking about?
SG: During COVID, General Motors produced masks at a Michigan assembly plant because they didn’t have enough masks for their own employees, not because of some concern about everybody else. The equipment & skills in assembly plants might not be the best place to make mass transit vehicles, but converting a factory making warplanes might. And, if converted to addressing energy systems and the environment, military equipment and technological expertise offer important fits. In auto, the conversion to EVs is one waiting project, but the larger question is: what do we need? Can we meet those needs in existing facilities? Can those facilities & their machinery, tooling, engineering, management expertise be adapted as they have been throughout history? And, if not, can we build new facilities that can meet those needs and are located in communities where they can employ workers otherwise threatened by job loss?
There is a social value to repurposing our existing infrastructure toward new aims. In every community there should be hopes of engineers who can convert infrastructure to suit the changing needs of those communities. There are all kinds of things that people need or that could replace imports or that could be used for the environment. Every municipality has projects that they want to run that are sitting on their shelf. We need to be asking ourselves whether the facilities can be adjusted and people trained to support changing needs.
If we don’t seriously take on such questions, restructuring will continue to take place in an undemocratic, unplanned way geared toward profit maximization.
AE: You said this is ultimately a political question, but the kind of politics that would involve converting existing manufacturing facilities into alternative uses seems like a very different kind of politics than where we began this conversation – about what the Canadian government can do vis-à-vis the USA in terms of trade negotiations.
SG: The kind of politics that has to be developed in the Canadian case is to say: we tied our wagon to the USA because it was the dominant power, but there has been a cost to that. That cost is becoming evident. The problem isn’t tariffs; the problem is that the Americans can do whatever they want to intimidate Canada. Canada has to reduce this dependence. What will its manufacturing industry produce to facilitate this? That question forces us to think about how to restructure our industries to serve other needs and other markets. So, the 2 things are related.
But this demands building a social force that can fight to make good ideas a reality. The problem isn’t primarily developing good policies but an alternative politics. What happens in the absence of that alternative is the politics of Carney. A liberal central banker, Carney has a sense of the importance of responding to this dependence in some way. But his alternative is to go whole hog on exporting our raw materials. His program for independence is to support and build up our oil exports. His position on manufacturing is that we have to subsidize purchases of EVs. But if China’s offering a $22,000 EV and North America is offering $50,000 one, consumers are going to import it if they can.
This means you need a policy for domestic EV manufacturing. But this gets complicated if you lack the technology. Canada has just agreed to let 50,000 EVs in. It’s nice to have 50,000 EVs as a gesture, but it’s a tiny part of the market and doesn’t address our capacity to make things here. They could demand that the Chinese build in Canada in order to sell to the Canadian market, but even then, we would still not reach those economies of scale. These are difficult questions, but ignoring them or being overwhelmed by them is giving up.
AE: Presumably the Chinese firms would want to be able to sell into the US consumer market.
SG: That would be the first thing that China would say. The first thing the USA would say is if Canada’s making a deal with China to ship cars into the USA, we’re gonna put a 100%, 200% tariff on it, or we’ll just ban it. Trump could have come to office and immediately said: we want TVs, China’s making them, we want them to make them here. If China comes and makes them here, we’re happy. If they don’t, we’ll keep them out.
AE: Which is what Reagan did.
SG: Which is what Reagan did with the Japanese. But what kind of a Chinese company would risk coming to the US and investing a billion dollars? The politics is crucial because, when you’re thinking small, you’re always stuck. You’re defensive. If you don’t actually act at some moment so that you can start changing your options, nothing happens.
AE: The last time Trump was president, the orientation of the Canadian government to China seemed to be very different than it is today. How do you interpret Carney’s trip to China & the changes underway?
SG: What Carney really wants, above all is to go back to the old status quo. He is resisting Trump because of obvious economic interest and popular pressures. His nationalism is quite politically appealing, and he is using it to his advantage. He is not, however, truly challenging the politics that Trump stands for, or the structure of the Canadian economy. Ultimately, we do not want to be dependent on the USA or China. But Carney is walking a delicate line that doesn’t challenge key aspects of these economic relationships, in part because of how reliant on the USA we really are.
Part of the deal with China getting 50,000 or so EVs to come into Canada was that China would import more agricultural products from Canada. It was a gain for the farmers who were selling those agricultural products. And the Canadian auto workers thought that letting in the 50,000 vehicles was a loss. Those kinds of divisions certainly exist. You are always dealing with competition between farmers in the agricultural sector because there are all kinds of subsidy programs on both sides of the US-Canada border.
But everything is more complicated than it appears. Farmers in the USA are finding out that some of the components that they need, equipment or components for equipment, is costing more. They’re starting to lose their market. So, Trump is having a lot of problems in the rural areas because just protectionism isn’t enough – you have to really think about how you restructure rural life in the US, which has been in crisis for decades.
AE: While China can provide a consumer market for Canadian agriculture, it doesn’t seem like it will be a major consumer of Canadian automobiles.
SG: Yes, and Canada is still part of NATO. The Cold War mindset is still there, and we would prefer to have an ally next door. So, the government is just hoping that Trump goes away and is catering to nationalist sentiments in the meantime. They are also tripling our defense spending. Who is going to pay for that? Down the line, we are headed for a big deficit driven by defense spending that will trigger cuts to other parts of the public budget. Canada can’t just increase its deficits without harming the Canadian dollar and having to increase interest rates to borrow, the way the USA can. Ultimately, workers will pay for this.
We cannot just be responding moment by moment – we need a broader and more long-term vision. What was so striking about the 1960s was that the mood in society generally had a major impact on what was happening in the plants. With the Civil Rights Movement and the events of 1968, there was a sense of a broader political fight that challenged authority. This encouraged people in the auto plants. So, the external climate is very important, and at the moment, it does not seem to be there.
AE: What would you say to someone who argued that, in the upheavals of the 1960-70s, it was the weakening of company discipline that promoted companies to restructure & outsource labour?
SG: I would be impressed that they asked that question, which is a very good one. One of the lessons from the ’60s is that popular militancy is necessary, but it is not enough. We need to have a labour movement that asks: why do corporations have the right to move these plants in the first place? Why does democracy stop at the door of corporate property? If you’re not ready to ask those larger questions, the result is the restructuring we saw in the late ’70-80s. People eventually become exhausted of the militancy, allowing the state to step in under other leadership – in that case, neoliberalism. When… I worked on The Making of Global Capitalism, we interviewed the head of General Motors North America and asked him why they remained silent when Volcker raised interest rates to 18%. The Volcker shock meant that people stopped buying cars, because they couldn’t buy them on credit. It had profoundly injured the industry. He said they didn’t object because they learned it was necessary.
What he meant was that there was a crisis which had to be solved. And if breaking the labour movement required a period of pain for the firms, they were ready to take it, because it was a solution in permanently breaking workers’ expectations of constant improvements. So, we should admire the militancy of the 1960s – and recognize that it wasn’t enough. If we are not joining with workers around the world to ask who gets to make economic decisions and why, we will always be left on our back feet. The whole point of class politics is to broaden our choices for action.
Today, we are in a political moment in which capitalism is facing a deep crisis of legitimation. People don’t trust governments, they don’t trust political parties, they don’t trust political institutions at all. The challenge this poses is first to appreciate that this is a moment of polarized options; the middle ground has failed. 2nd, to channel this into organizing & building a social force up to the task. These are intimidating but absolutely essential.
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• B4. The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, Chapter 9, Part 6 – SBD de Silva (1982)
Chapter 9 Problems of Labour Supply & the Recourse to Migrant Labour, Part 6
II. The Response of Indigenous Labour to the Plantation System
A growing impatience with labour and their supposed indifference to work was felt by the employer class at various times in history. Daniel Defoe [author of Robinson Crusoe – ee] was just one of the many publicists to express such beliefs during the half century which preceded the industrial revolution. He ‘castigated the worker for the sloth that made him waste his time in idleness and low diversions, and the vice that led him to squander his scanty resources in alcohol and debauchery’ (D.S. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus, 1969, p60). Arthur Young regarded the pernicious effect of high earnings of workers on their readiness to labour as axiomatic that it was ‘idle to think of proving it by argument’; Mandeville had shown that ‘there were riches… in the poverty and necessitous state of the masses’ (OC Cox, Caste, Class & Race, 1959: 339; based on Edgar Furniss, The Position of the Labourer in a System of Nationalism, 1922: 19-20; Mandevllle, Brittania Languens: 153). English workers were thought of in the same character and tone which was later reserved for coloured workers only. ‘British employers then, like South Africans now’, Hobsbawm pointed out, ‘constantly complained about the laziness of labour or its tendency to work until it had earned a traditional week’s living wage and then to stop ‘ (EJ Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1964: 70). Tawney had noted earlier: ‘The denunciations of ‘luxury, pride & sloth’ of the English wage-earner of the 17-18th centuries are, indeed, almost exactly identical with those directed against the African native today’ (Religion & the Rise of Capitalism, 1926: 269, quoted in W E Moore, Industrialization & Labour, 1951: 37). Poverty was evidence of ungodliness, and workmen had to be forced into virtue (Moore, ibid). A comparable change during the development of bourgeois civilization is in society’s attitude towards mendicancy. The mendicant was stripped of the aura of sanctity that was attached to him throughout the Middle Ages, and he began to be regarded as a vagabond, a ‘professional loafer’. Governments in Europe from the beginning of the 16th century passed legislation and established institutions to set the poor to work. This change in attitudes was most evident in regions where the development of capitalism and manufactures had proceeded farthest (Henri Pirenne, A History of Europe, 1961: 529 ff).
The manpower situation and the significance of a cheapened labour supply was a leading concern in Mercantilist thought; Sir Josiah Child, even before becoming Governor of the East India Company, had rejected the settlement of white labourers in the colonies, on the ground that emigration deprived England of workers and consumers (D.B. Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, 1971, p.208). Davenant clearly suggested that aliens be encouraged to settle in England so as to make up for any emigration of Englishmen. By the end of the 17thcentury, with the intensification of commercial rivalry in Europe, a new cost-consciousness developed, in which the cost of labour was more important than that of raw materials. Wage costs could be lowered by increasing the labour supply and reducing wages, and some of the Mercantilists, including Mun, even put forward a subsistence theory of wages (JF Rees, Mercantilism & the Colonies, Cambridge History of the British Empire, 1, 1929: 563). Low wages as a means of stimulating exports became a matter of such concern as to lead to a change in the conception of England’s demographic status – from an over-populated country, which she was thought to be in the 16th century, to a belief in the 17thC that she was underpopulated. ‘The desideratum was a population as large as possible, as fully occupied as possible, and living as near as possible to the margin of subsistence’ (‘In the case of a few later writers, the employment argument gave rise to a new balance-of-trade concept, in which the amounts weighed against each other were not the values respectively of the exports and the imports, but the respective amounts of labour or employment they represented, ie, the ‘balance of labour’ or the ‘balance of employment’ (J Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, 1955: 52). While Englishmen emigrated to Americas, England’s chief commercial rivals, Holland & France, it was alleged, had a ‘greater output at lower costs because they were well populated’ (Rees: 564).
Thus the curbing of wages was first applied to labour in Europe. The disintegration of the precapitalist economy had caused the transformation of independent peasants and artisans into wage labour, leaving no option to those involved; and society as a whole was conditioned into condoning and accepting the wage levels and working conditions which resulted. In the early stages of capitalism, as labour became an important item of cost, influencing profits and the competitiveness of the national economy, the extraction of the last ounce of effort from labour was the concern of both employers and the state. As Eli Heckscher explained, ‘By forcing down wages… the export of such goods as-contained relatively more human labour could be increased. The corollary was that efforts had to be made to obtain an abundant supply of labour at as low a price as possible’ (163). With increased competition in world markets, the state arraigned itself on the side of employers to maintain a pressure on wages. Its intervention was invariably in favour of the employer and official wage-fixing as a rule proscribed maximum wages. The state now began to protect the employer against actions taken by labour in defence of its interests. Women & children were employed, especially in the manufacture of textiles, with a view to cutting down costs. To pay them lower wages, the employers even explained that the factory system gave children disciplined habits and allowed them to support their parents, and that children and most females who were not taken into the factory would be exposed to vice and immorality (Edith Abbott, Women in Industry, 1910: 58 ff, quoted by J. Kuczynski, The Rise of the Working Class, 1967: 61). In England the living standard of large numbers thus declined during the first period of industrialization (JT Krause, Some Neglected Factors in the English Industrial Revolution, Journal of Economic History, 19, 1959). ‘Without any alteration in the juridical relationships prevailing in society, the working regime acquired characteristics of duress such as had not been known in Europe for the entire preceding thousand years’ (Celso Furtado, Development & Underdevelopment, 1967: 105).
However, a low wage ideology in the West proved to be only a transitory phase. The ‘virtuous indignation’ Landes spoke of, and which hardened the employers’ attitude towards the labouring poor in the late 17th & early 18th centuries, seemed ‘to have softened’ from the middle of the 18thC, and thereafter it was argued that ‘labour was not incorrigibly lazy and would in fact respond to higher wages (Op.cit., p.60). The manpower problem in both its aspects – ie, inadequacy of the total supply, and the employer’s lack of control over the worker – was being overcome by a change in the technology of production. This, according to AW Coates, provided a definitive solution to the labour problem (Changing Attitudes to Labour in the Mid-18thC, Economic History Review, 1958: 46-8). Though the exact circumstances in which this occurred cannot be discussed here, the pivotal element in it was the use of machinery and the adoption of capitalist production relations. There was in consequence an improvement in the quality of labour, and a rise in productivity.
The widespread belief among employers regarding the unresponsiveness of the labouring class to higher wages, having originated in the West, acquired a universality as the Europeans established their dominance over the economically less developed regions. An early recognition of this was by James Stephen, Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office in 1841. When Lt Gen Colin Campbell, the Governor of Sri Lanka, referred to ‘the great advantages likely to arise from the reduced wages of labour’, Stephen minuted:
So the rich invariably argue in all parts of the World. Whatever gives them a greater command of the labour of the poor on lower terms, they, who hire such labour, will always regard as a public benefit… One would think wages were low enough in Ceylon where you can hire a day labourer for 3 pence, and men live in Wigwams with clothing and food not much better than those of an Aboriginal New Hollander (Colonial Office 54/190, Stephen’s Minute of 16 Oct 1841 on Campbell’s despatch of the Annual Blue Book).
The more or less conscious development of an idea, even supported by audacious claims, is necessary only in its formative stages, after which it acquires a credibility that is independent of any conscious element. Thus do ideas acquire a life of their own. Human attitudes, conditioned as they are largely by social factors, are prone to accept what is advantageous to the dominant groups in society, although it is true ideas do not visibly appear in the garb of sectional self-interest. The moulding of society as a whole by the ideology of the ruling interests is doubly easy with regard to doctrines which are not verifiable without systematic evidence or study. Or else, what is demonstrable in some situations, as, for eg, the ‘backward sloping supply curve of labour’, is seized upon & applied indiscriminately to other situations.
One element in the conventional characterization of coloured labour, that it is used to a customarily low standard of living, leads quite easily to its central tenet that such labour accepts such a standard and even welcomes it – preferring to work less if wage rates rise. This theory of the insensibility of ‘natives’ to monetary inducements is said to have 2 aspects. One is that given the opportunities ‘natives dislike spending money; the other is that though not averse to spending money they will not earn it’. The former is a crude version of the theory of limited wants which IC Greaves thought not even its rashest exponents now hold (Modern Production among Backward Peoples, 1935: 196). The distinction she makes between the 2 aspects of the ‘theory’ is, however, not always appropriate, since one follows closely on the other. The central premise in the theory as a whole as applied to peasant societies is that the consumer aspirations of the peasant are transfixed on a traditional horizon, limiting the attractiveness of earnings through work. Though widely discredited in recent times, this view of peasant behaviour even in its crude form has been remarkably tenacious among administrators and planning officials when explaining the failure of peasant agricultural programs. ‘In the observation by James Stephen, which I quoted, on the ethics of low wages what is most pertinent is the indication it gives of the ‘prime mover’ which underlies this social attitude.’ In the crisp comment of Ludowyk, ‘Those who preach the virtues of work have tended to profitfrom the labour of others’ (67).
The application of such ideas, which in the case of capitalism in the West proved limited in the long run, persisted more firmly in the colonial lands where domination proceeded on racial lines. The refusal of people to accept wage labour on the terms and conditions imposed by the employers was attributed to drawbacks in their outlook and personality. The image of the Africans as a set of ‘indolent, berry-picking natives’ conformed to this notion, as much as did the later characterization of the peasants in Sri Lanka and Malaysia when they failed to offer themselves as wage labour to the owners of plantations and mines. Compulsory labour on European enterprises was invested with an educational value – a view even accepted by the English Colonial Office. The African, it was said, must be ‘convinced of the necessity and dignity of labour’ and that the European’s task was to teach him to work! These attributes of colonial labour as seen by employers were also the basis of its thoroughgoing and more intense subjection long after the degradation of the European working class had declined to tolerable limits. Various forms of compulsion and fraud were adopted by the plantation employers to avoid paying such wages as the state of the labour market would have required. The disdain in which the labourers were held aggravated the injustice & cruelty inflicted on them. ‘Besides the clash of interest under most trying circumstances’, wrote DH Buchanan in regard to the tea plantations in Assam, racial & social antipathy were ever present’ (63).
At one time the feelings of the planters as a body towards their imported labourers was most deplorable… Among the worst sort of planters this feeling of aversion deepened into a mingling of hatred & contempt that led… to systematic & gross ill-treatment (Edgar, Report on Tea Cultivation in Bengal, British Parliamentary Papers, 1874, vol XLVIII, Cd Paper 982, cited earlier: 22)
Such feelings were not confined to labour in mines and on plantations. Racial discrimination, as I have mentioned elsewhere, was also applied to skilled or educated labour and to those in technical, administrative and managerial positions. As OC Cox (334) stated, ‘the whole people is looked upon as a class – whereas white proletarianization involves only a section of the white people’. The process of rationalization of the relations between the colonizers & the colonized was so extensive in its scope as to involve what he termed the proletarianization of the coloured races. (Next: Chapter 10)
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C. Building Blocks
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Every ee carries these extracts below to counter: 1) The constant harangue about exports, when they must at all times serve to advance or recapture and control of our home markets to develop modern industry. 2) We need to learn about machine industry versus handicraft, assembly and manufacture 3) The rules of the Sangha require constant interaction between people.
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• ‘The biggest handicap to industrial development is not the lack of capital but the absence of external economics, such as cheap power, cheap transport, technical and managerial ability, and above all the lack of a home market. The home market in an agricultural country is essentially the rural market. It is only a prosperous peasantry that can provide the home market for our industry. This is the connection between a guaranteed price for paddy and the industrialization of our country’ – Philip Gunawardena
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• ‘The Creation of a Home Marketfor our Industry is the pivot on which the future industrialisation of our country rests. In Ceylon’s context The Home Market essentially means The Peasant Market. To create the home market therefore we must substantially raise the living standards of the mass of the peasants so that they will be able to buy the goods produced by our industry. This demonstrates clearly the necessary connection between Industrialization & Agrarian Reform.’ – Policy Statement of the Ministry of Industries, 1956
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• ‘Their field of production, the smallholding, admits of no division of labor in its cultivation, no application of science and, therefore, no diversity of development, no variety of talent, no wealth of social relationships. Each individual peasant family is almost self-sufficient; it itself directly produces the major part of its consumption and thus acquires its means of life more through exchange with nature than in intercourse with society.’ – Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, p124
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• ‘Japan will retain and encourage the branches of the machine industry that yield high added value, but production facilities that involve a low degree of processing and generate low added value should be moved to developing countries… so that Japan can concentrate on high technology & knowledge-intensive industry.’– Japan’s Council on Industrial Structure, 1977 (in SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment)
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• Economics Not Taught – The Machines Nobody Knows – The Extraordinary Culture of Machine Tools – If we were a truly ‘developing’ country, here are the questions a national media would need to ask: A plan requires a political, economic & military strategy, which will first assess peasant & worker power, land (including natural resources), & capital, that the nation possesses, and the time needed to transform these powers into material reality:
Here’s ee’s Index of a Real Economy or, at least, how a real economy would be measured:
1. The index of a strong economy is modern industry.
2. The index of modern industry is the production of machines.
3. Machine tools (MT) are the most important of all machines.
4. MT is needed for huge diversified metal fabricating industries (auto, electrical, etc.)
5. MT is essential for production of machines for all other industries.
6. Full data on machinery production is needed:
7. What portion of our machinery needs are supplied by machines built in Sri Lanka?
8. What is the trend? Are we producing more or less machines than we did before?
9. Data on imports & exports of machinery is needed (esp shipments of MTs & other Industrial Machinery)
10. MT production vs imports, must include: Mining & Metallurgical Machinery, Pulp & Paper Machinery, Textile Machinery, Woodworking Machinery, Logging Machinery, Sawmill Machinery, Office & Business Machines (adapted from: ee 20-26 Sept 2020).
D. News Index______________________________________________
• ee News Index provides headlines & links to make sense of the weekly focus of published English ‘business news’ to expose the backwardness of multinational, corporate controlled ‘local media’:
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D1. Sovereignty
(ee is pro-politics, pro-politician, pro-nation-state, anti-corporatist, anti-expert, anti-NGO)
ee Sovereignty news emphasizes sovereignty as economic sovereignty – a strong nation is built on modern (machine-making) industrialization fueled by a producer culture.
• Not So Quiet Death – The USA’s Order to Kill the Iranian Navy’s Dena and Its Crew – Helmer
• India trade push could boost Sri Lanka exports by half: ADB
‘South India, particularly Tamil Nadu, is emerging as a manufacturing hub, creating demand for intermediate goods and services that Sri Lanka is geographically well placed to supply’
D2. Security (the state beyond ‘a pair of handcuffs’, monopolies of legitimate violence)
ee Security section focuses on the state (a pair of handcuffs, which sposedly has the monopoly of legitimate violence), and how the ‘national security’ doctrine is undermined by private interests, with no interest in divulging or fighting the real enemy, whose chief aim is to prevent an industrial renaissance as the basis of a truly independent nation.
• Live bomb found In Weerakodithola reserve in Puttalam
D3. Economists (Study the Economists before you study the Economics)
ee Economists shows how paid capitalist/academic ‘professionals’ confuse (misdefinitions, etc) and divert (with false indices, etc) from the steps needed to achieve a modern industrial country.
• Sri Lanka’s Manufacturing Moment – Milinda Moragoda
‘China also began with labour-intensive exports, including garments, but used them as a transition platform into electronics and advanced manufacturing. Sri Lanka, by contrast, remained anchored to a narrow industrial base.’
• Continuing West Asian war deepens global economic crisis, hits Sri Lanka – Sanderatne
‘We have to find ways and means of coping with these economic difficulties. We have to find ways of curtailing our consumption of imports by using substitutes.’
The Vietnamese President also argued that development should not be measured solely through GDP growth, but by improvements in living standards, jobs, education, healthcare and public trust.’
• Once richer than South Korea, Sri Lanka now eyes Korean dream: Rockefeller Pathfinder
‘In the ‘50s, SL was regarded as the ‘Star of the East,’ boasting a strong plantation economy & literacy rate that was the envy of Asia. Its per-capita income – US $ 200 – was triple that of South Korea.’
ee Economy section shows how media usually measures economy by false indices like GDP, etc., in monetary terms, confusing money and capital, constantly calling for privatization, deregulation, moaning about debt & balance of payments, without stating the need for modern industrial production.
• Sri Lanka’s Poverty Line recorded at Rs. 16,690 in March 2026
ee Workers attempts to correct the massive gaps and disinformation about workers, urban and rural and their representatives (trade unions, etc), and to highlight the need for organized worker power
• Port unions oppose Sri Lanka Ports Authority terminal privatisation
• SLPP leader Mahinda Rajapaksa tribute to Labour Leader T.B. Ilangaratne on May Day
‘The late T. B. Ilangaratne was an active trade unionist who had served as the President of the General Clerical Service Union (GCSU) before taking to politics.’
D6. Agriculture (Robbery of rural home market; Machines, if used, mainly imported)
ee Agriculture emphasizes the failure to industrialize an agriculture that keeps the cultivator impoverished under moneylender and merchant, and the need to develop the rural home market, monetization and commercialization, to produce, rather than import, agricultural machinery.
• Kiridi Oya overflow floods around 30 houses in Wellawaya
• Sri Lanka’s rice production poised for recovery amid lingering climate and global supply hurdles – Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service
D7. Industry (False definitions, anti-industrial sermons, rentier/entrepreneur, etc)
ee Industry notes the ignorance about industrialization (versus handicraft and manufacture), the dependence on importing foreign machinery, the need to make machines that make machines, build a producer culture. False definitions of industry, entrepreneur, etc, abound, and the need for a holistic political, economic and military strategy to overcome domination by merchants and moneylenders.
• Minister of Health of the Russian Federation attends the Sri Lanka– Russia Medical Forum
D8. Finance (Making money from money, banks, lack of investment in modernity)
ee Finance tracks the effects of financialization, the curious role of ratings agencies, false indices, etc., and the rule of moneylenders, preventing investment in modern production.
• Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation rejects ‘false’ bond claims
• Sri Lanka sends largest delegation to SelectUSA, signalling push for US-linked investment
‘Sri Lanka has sent its largest-ever business delegation to the USA for the SelectUSA investment summit, with 14 entrepreneurs and business leaders currently engaging with partners and investors.’
D9. Business (Rentierism: money via imports, real-estate, tourism, insurance, fear, privatization)
ee Business focuses on the rentier diversions of the oligarchy, the domination by a merchant mafia, making money from unproductive land sales, tourism, insurance, advertising, etc. – the charade of corporate press releases disguised as ‘news’
• Sri Lanka urged to include apartment buyers as creditors in bankruptcy law
ee Politics points to the constant diversions and spectacles and the mercantile and financial forces funding the political actors, of policy hijacked by private interests minus public oversight.
• The standard-bearer of human rights campaigns in Lanka – Suriya Wickramasinghe
• Tilvin’s May Day rhetoric sparks renewed fears of one-party rule
‘The JVP General Secretary said that it is the NPP government that is the only government” that would be there to build the country from now on, and there is no room for any other government’
D11. Media (Mis/Coverage of economics, technology, science and art)
ee Media shows how corporate media monopoly determines what is news, art, culture, etc. The media is part of the public relations (corporate propaganda) industry. The failure to highlight our priorities, the need to read between the lines. To set new perspectives and priorities.
2022 අරගලය පුපුරා යාම සඳහා ආර්ථික අර්බුදය පාවිච්චි කිරීම පිළිබඳව අදහස් දක්වමින් මහාචාර්ය ලලිතසිරි ගුණරුවන් මහතා පවසන්නේ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයේ පළමු වගඋත්තර කරුවා කර ආර්ථික අර්බුදයට වගකිවයුතු සැබෑ වගඋත්තර කරුවන්ට බලයට පැමිණීමට අරගලය පාවාඩ එලුවාදැයි ප්රශ්නයක් පැන නගින බවය.