Colombo, July 18 (newsin.asia): A contract agreement for around US$ 91.26 million to upgrade the railway track from Maho to Omanthai under Indian concessional financing was signed by IRCON International Limited of India and the Government of Sri Lanka here on Thursday.
The contract agreement was signed by Sunil Kumar Choudhury, Chairman & Managing Director, IRCON International Limited and L.P.Jayampathy, Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation of Sri Lanka, in the presence of Hon. Arjuna Ranatunga, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation of Sri Lanka. Mr. M.J. D. Fernando, General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways; S. L. Gupta, ED, IRCON, International Limited; and Suja K. Menon, Head of Economic & Commercial Wing, High Commission of India.
The total length of the track that will be upgraded under Indian concessional financing between Maho to Omanthai would be around 130 km. This includes 12 crossing stations, 7 halt stations and 78 level crossings. This is the first time the track is being upgraded in 100 years. This project would double the speed potential of railway track from the current around 60 km to 120 km per hour, as well as reduce the maintenance costs. It will also improve the travel comfort of passengers, and further contribute to the modernization Sri Lanka Railways.
India has so far committed Lines of Credit worth around US$ 1.3 billion for development of railway sector in Sri Lanka. The restoration of arterial railway lines, connecting the North and the South after decades of conflict, was undertaken under Indian concessional financing. The tsunami-affected Southern Railway line was also upgraded under Indian Line of Credit. India has so far upgraded around 300 km of railway track and provided modern signalling & telecommunication system for around 330 km in Sri Lanka.
In June 2017, India signed a fresh Line of Credit Agreement for US $ 318 million for the development of railway sector in Sri Lanka. Under this Line of Credit, other projects that are underway include procurement of 160 passenger coaches; upgrading of signal & telecommunication system from Maho to Anuradhapura; and setting up of a Railway Workshop in Ratmalana etc. Procurements of rolling stock from India are also underway including 6 DMUs, 10 locomotives, 20 container carrier wagons, 30 fuel tank wagons, 160 passenger coaches, and 500 buses. India has also contributed substantially to capacity building of Sri Lankan railway personnel.
This project is in continuation of India’s efforts to partner with Sri Lanka in people-oriented connectivity projects in Sri Lanka.
There is a considerable degree of anxiety and concern relating to the American ACSA (Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement), SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) projects currently being considered or probably have already been signed off by the govt. in recent times. The trepidation is mainly due to the lack of information on these developments, which supposedly have a detrimental impact on the sovereignty of our nation.
Sri Lankan media needs to be commended for their part in exposing parts of these arrangements for the benefit of the public. The deafening silence of the govt. on the underpinning reasons for these projects and their impacts have left the electorate in a state of shock and confusion. Government platitudes have only aggravated people’s fears, judging from their experience with other government sponsored controversial issues such as bond scams, UNHRC betrayal and lack of elections.
The opposition concerns too have had not much traction, as they appear to have difficulty in obtaining the required information. Some of the TV programs, in particular, the program Balaya, launched by Hiru TV on 13 July 2019, however, presented some credible evidence for concern as the program panel consisted of a well known political analyst and representatives from the Sri Lankan Bar Association, including a legal consultant to the Govt. on MCC projects. Although the Govt. had claimed there was no difference between the 2007 and 2017 ACSA agreements, the panel agreed that a significant difference is the deletion of the 2007 agreement’s clause of the need to have prior approval for American troops to enter Sri Lanka. They maintained that SOFA, supposedly is not ratified yet by the Sri Lankan Govt., is designed to provide facilities, including diplomatic immunity, to all American personnel that would enter Sri Lanka through the ACSA agreement.
The lack of control as to who enters the country for military purposes is indeed a serious security threat to a small country like Sri Lanka to endure, whether the entrants are Americans or any other foreign power. Even Australia that has a defense agreement with America has no open entry stipulation for American or any other army in the world.
The alleged lease of 1.2 million acres of land for 200 years for an ‘Economic Corridor’ extending from Colombo to Trincomalee, for which the Govt. has supposedly already obtained a paltry sum of USD 400 million; and the proposed increase of land market activity for the benefit of multi-national companies are some of the other issues that have driven fear and distress within the community. Their fears are understandable because of the detrimental impact these assertions can have on the future economy and security of the Island.
In an election year, it is for the benefit to the Govt. to publish the agreements in the public domain, so that the electors will not be embroiled in the current rumor mill. Also by publicizing the agreements it would provide an opportunity to all political and civil society leaders to agree on an arrangement that would be of benefit to future generations, as well as safeguard the sovereignty of the country. People and governments can make mistakes, as no one is infallible, but it is prudent to make amendments when it is still possible, irrespective of party affiliations, to put the country first even at this late stage before implementing the controversial agreements.
Time was when this country was known as the Granary of the East. Today, it is apparently on its way to becoming what may be called the Dumpsite of the East. Consignments of foreign garbage are said to be imported. The Customs trade unions have said that as many as 122 containers of waste, brought from the UK, are currently sitting in the Colombo Port. These big boxes are said to contain hospital waste, plant and animal parts, restaurant trash and old mattresses. A lot of waste has been imported since 2013 and dumped in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone area, we are told. The government remains silent.
We are already stuck neck deep in garbage, so to speak. Successive governments have failed to find a lasting solution to the problem of municipal waste, which is being dumped haphazardly in various parts of the country, amidst howls of protest from the public. Mountains of garbage have appeared in some areas, as a result, and the one at Meethotamulla collapsed, burying more than 30 people alive, in 2017. Waste imports are sure to worsen the situation.
One of the main reasons why there has been so much of resistance to the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) is that it provides for dumping garbage here. The government has sought to allay the fears of environmentalists and concerned citizens, but the controversial provision is there and the possibility of foreign garbage being brought here cannot be ruled out. Some of the bitterest critics of the SLSFTA are members of the Joint Opposition/the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. They warn that the SLSFTA may lead to an environmental disaster with shiploads of waste coming from and/or through Singapore. Ironically, it has now been revealed that the door to foreign waste imports was opened while they were in power. They have got badly exposed for their hypocrisy.
The Customs unions have said that in 2013, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a gazette notification to facilitate imports for BOI companies, and a loophole therein has been used by some persons to import garbage sans Customs checks. Fear has been expressed that even nuclear waste can be brought in at this rate—absit omen!
Rajapaksa should explain why he issued that gazette, effecting an amendment to the import regulatory system, and left the loophole at issue unattended until the end of his presidential term.
The grandees of the previous dispensation put through some crooked deals at the expense of the country while wrapping themselves in the flag. But most of what they did could have been undone following the 2015 regime change. If garbage importers have benefited from the aforesaid gazette notification, it must be done away with or amended urgently. Why the present government has not done so defies comprehension. Here is something that it can achieve at the stroke of a pen.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Minister of Environment, never misses an opportunity to make a public display of his environmental concerns and love for the country. He should have cancelled his predecessor’s gazette notification, years ago, putting an end to waste imports. The Ministry of Finance should have brought it to his notice or initiated action, on its own, to scrap the garbage-friendly import regulation.
After all, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have even changed the Constitution to achieve their political objectives. The 19th Amendment is a case in point. Scrapping a rotten import regulation, which helps some racketeers with their efforts to turn the country into an international landfill, should be child’s play for them. Why don’t they get cracking?
By Siri Hettige, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Colombo – Courtesy The Island
There has been considerable public discussion in recent months about the need to find a meaningful and real alternative to the existing two mainstream political formations in Sri Lanka. But, the people in the country are yet to see a clear vision and a cohesive programme of the proposed political alternative. In this brief article, an attempt is made to articulate a possible vision and a programme to be discussed and considered by relevant parties in the next weeks and months.
Against the backdrop of persisting political turmoil, chronic uncertainties and a deep sense of insecurity felt by the vast majority of people, what is urgently needed is to identify a clear path along which the country should move forward to meet the legitimate aspirations of diverse segments of society. Given the serious economic, social, cultural, political and environmental issues that have evolved over a period of time, the country needs to find alternative ways to address various issues that have remained largely unresolved due to past policy failures. In the remainder of this article, I outline some alternative strategies that can be adopted to have a clear break from the past in the five areas mentioned above.
Economy:
As is well known, Sri Lanka’s economy today is highly distorted, tilting heavily towards services. Productive sectors like agriculture, urban and rural industry and artisan production have either stagnated or declined. Many rural people have migrated to cities or overseas for casual employment. Continuous exodus of labour, the decline of productive sectors, a continually widening trade gap and mounting public debts have generated inflationary pressures that make life miserable for an increasing proportion of the population. While income distribution has become highly unequal, rural urban disparities have widened. Meanwhile, the informal sector of the economy has expanded and living and working conditions of people, dependent on the informal sector, remain precarious. The above state of the economy demands a major effort to restructure it in order to diversity all sectors, create productive employment in all parts of the country and reduce inflationary pressures. Both domestic and foreign capital should also be diverted into production oriented ventures outside the major urban centres. The development of social infrastructure such as quality health and education facilities outside major cities is critically important to facilitate decentralised development in the country. What should be noted here is that the concentration of wealth and people in and around urban centres is not socially and environmentally sustainable.
Social System:
Increasing economic and social pressures, arising out of the above economic conditions, have created precarious working and living conditions for a majority of people in the country. Growing spatial mobility of people of all walks of life has weakened family and community life leading to vulnerabilities among children, youth, the poor, the differently abled and the elderly. Increasing significance of privately funded education, transport and health services have given rise to a sense of relative deprivation among low income people. While formal systems of social protection such as pensions and Employees Provident Funds, cover only a minority of economically active people, others are exposed to economic and social risks and vulnerabilities. Many elderly people continue to engage in employment way beyond retirement age due to the lack of old age pensions or productive assets. Many such people also suffer due to the deficient publicly provided health, education and transport facilities.
The conditions outlined above shows that the social system is increasingly polarised and unjust. Emergent social conditions are at variance with the widely held egalitarian values in the country. A range of social policies are needed to address the issues involved and create a sense of social justice and equity among socially marginalised people in the country.
Culture:
By the time the British rulers left Sri Lanka following nearly 150 years of colonial rule, the country had already become a centralised parliamentary democracy. Yet, the social and cultural policies adopted by the colonial rulers had prevented the emergence of a unified citizenry. Ethnic, linguistic and religious divisions were already part of the social, cultural and political landscape. The highly unequal education system during the colonial period continued to reproduce social and cultural divisions in the country. Poor and basic educational facilities in rural areas did not help transform the largely marginalised rural population into a citizenry with a modern social and cultural outlook. Such people remained wedded to a traditional way of life connected to a largely subsistence oriented rural economic pursuits, and their world views and lifestyles were very much shaped by traditional beliefs and archaic religious and ritual practices. Given the lack of access to modern educational facilities and mass media in rural areas, most rural inhabitants remained cut off from the influence of modern urban industrial cultures. Though a tiny anglicised, privileged post -colonial elite had emerged in urban areas, thanks to the emerging colonial economy dominated by plantation production, import and export trade, service industries, etc. , the vast majority of people remained wedded to parochial, traditional rural cultures of several ethno-religious communities.
This cultural pattern continued after independence due to post- independence cultural policies that prevented the formation of an overarching mainstream national culture suited to a modern, secular democratic society.
Political Structure:
Though Sri Lanka became a centralised parliamentary democracy, under the British rule, vast, remote rural hinterland remained weakly integrated with the Centre due to poor transportation and communication infrastructure. This situation was also conducive for the perpetuation of strong regional, ethnic and religious identities. Following independence, such identities became even stronger due to cultural, language and educational policies adopted by post-independence regimes. It is this situation that paved the way for competition among ethno-religious groups for political power and public resources such as land, employment and business opportunities. Such competition eventually led to anti-state, violent political campaigns including the armed struggle in the north and east for a separate State that ended in 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE.
Though there have been some efforts over the last few decades to institutionalise a more decentralised political structure in the country, mostly centralised nature of the State remains. Provincial and local government institutions remain weak and poorly resourced. Many functions that can be easily and more fruitfully carried out at local and provincial levels remain with the government. The result is a top heavy administration that controls much of the country’s public finances and other resources, often leading to wastage, corruption and inefficiency. The distribution of public resources through political party based networks of patron-client relationships has made the situation worse as this has given rise to political favouritism and discrimination, preventing the emergence of a unified citizenry with equal rights and life chances.
Environmental Resources:
Economic, social and political conditions outlined above have not been conducive for the sustainable management and use of natural resources of the country. Fragmentation of land, unplanned human settlements, implementation of development projects in a haphazard manner, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution and degradation of the environment, etc. have been the result. Natural and human induced hazards such as flooding, landslides, soil erosion, pollution of water resources, human-animal conflict, droughts, etc., pose serious threats to livelihoods and well-being of people in almost all parts of the country. Successive governments that ruled the country, over the last several decades, are largely responsible for the above state of affairs. Their failure or refusal to adopt evidence-based policies to deal with issues in the five areas mentioned above, namely, the economy, social system, culture, political system and the environment, has been the main reason for the deterioration of economic, social, cultural, political and environmental conditions. These governments were led by the mainstream political parties that have not shown any readiness to change their policies and governance styles. Given this situation, people in the country have to opt for a viable political alternative outside the political mainstream. There are already growing signs of a clear readiness on the part of a majority of people to look for such an alternative. Such an alternative path has become critically important today as the economic, social, cultural, political and environmental challenges facing the country demands a holistic and rational approach to development, public welfare and peace in the country. Such an approach is already outlined in the sustainable development vision 2030 policy document prepared by an independent expert committee.
The JVP, who in 1989-90 attempted genocide of the Sinhalese, share similarities with the Nazi’s who actually committed genocide of six million Jews in Germany and occupied Europe in 5 years. In SL there were over 60,000 deaths in a year before the JVP was neutralized. Had they gone on it would have been half a million in five years.
Amazingly, they and not the military, now show sudden and great concern in non GMOA registered doctors working in the Forces hospitals (Island 12 July 19). After all it was not too long ago that the JVP threatened ‘fully’ baked GMOA doctors with death. What do they want with ‘half baked’ ones now? They have asked parliament to look into the question of ‘half baked doctors’. Weird. It is moot whether the GMOA is pulling the strings as it has not publicly stated its position.
The JVP believes that by continuously swamping the people with countless issues, the people will forget its gory year of murdering that dehumanized a peaceful SL. After their first abortive attempt in 1971, they brought the country to a virtual halt in 1989-90 by placing ‘death notice’ chits in work places and murdering innocents all over the South. They attempted to destroy the state by attacking the armed forces and police, the state administrative structure and staff, including the judiciary, health services, education, transport and national infrastructure amongst other things. Apparently this was their way of showing their opposition to the invading IPKF and the LTTE’s campaign of terror. They did not however threaten or attack either of those two organizations ever but turned on the Sinhalese people, exclusively.
SL must never forget how the JVP ordered the closing down of hospitals and made death threats to the doctors and staff if they attempted to work. They threw the entire health system into disarray. It caused the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of seriously ill patients adding to the 60,000 deaths they were responsible for by murder. Their sudden concern now for soldier patients and ‘half baked doctors’, is typical of their proclivity to stir up things for publicity in the guise of showing concern. It is baffling and at odds with its earlier methods of striking terror. Could they be working as usual as a proxy for a shadow organization?
The JVP top leaders then as now from that monster Wijeweera, hid while their cadres, trained and indoctrinated to be murderous hit men, roamed far and wide, killing all and sundry. The JVP paid the price eventually and dearly. The turning point in their battle came when having failed to infiltrate and suborn, they threatened to kill the families of the troops whose doctors ironically are now their supposed concern. While Wijeweera and thousands of JVP finally died in that one terrible year of ceaseless murder, arson and vandalism, some leaders escaped. They and their class progeny got back into society. They pretend to follow democratic politics fooling many but not all, and biding their time. They have survived by cunningly playing one political party against the other in a national culture that nurtures political betrayal.
Curiously and ironically it cuddled up to the UNP and its present leader after 2015, ingeniously overlooking the 60,000 deaths the two together were mutually responsible for in 1989/90. It included the murder of the JVP leader and many innocents while in captivity. They also accused the UNP leaders of running torture chambers. Amazingly, craftily and hazardously for SL the two are now almost conjoined. The JVP often make the difference between victory and defeat and survival for the UNP government in parliament, together with the starkly communal parties.
The JVP brutalized a generation or more, twice. Once in 1971 and then in 1989-90.Their favourite method of murder was by slitting the throat. Their preferred way was not with a knife but with a blade, slowly, enjoying the agony of the victim. They then hanged the head of the murdered on a pole, gate, and fence or placed it on a wall. Those cut throats were JVP, fully baked. It is their unapologetic heirs that now invent ‘half baked doctors’ in the Forces.
Those doctors have qualified in foreign countries whose exams are not recognized by the envious and lucre hunting members of the GMOA who are for this ‘certification’ alone, unashamedly western and colonially oriented. But those foreign qualified doctors are as competent as GMOA certified doctors and far more caring than many. Moreover the Forces have welcomed them. Ask any soldier. They take care of the very troops the JVP tried twice to exterminate: So much for JVP love.
The JVP has a blood soaked, murderous and genocidal history. They are also outrageous hypocrites. They may mystify some with their verbosity and apparent monastic life style, simply as they are without power. But who and what do they represent? One look at their clones protesting and blocking roads and government offices almost daily and making it almost impossible for universities to function, should give more than a glimpse of what will follow if they have even an ounce of power. With their anarchical and brutal history, they are hardly in any position to question anything in this land, including the recruitment of doctors to the forces. Hitler too played the moral card to justify his evil.
The United States Government will not buy, sell, or own any actual land under Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, says the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina B. Teplitz.
Ambassador Teplitz conducted a Facebook live chat on Thursday to counter misinformation and disinformation that has been propagated about US-Sri Lanka cooperation.
The Ambassador responded to public questions on the US-Sri Lanka partnership agreements, Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.
The VFA addresses the status of US military and civilian employees of the US Department of Defense, who may be temporarily present in Sri Lanka for exercises or official duty at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka, clarified the Ambassador. However, the draft VFA is still under negotiation and has not been concluded as of yet, she stated.
According to the Ambassador, the VFA reflects the fact that the US has no plans for a permanent military presence in Sri Lanka and that the US Forces would only come to Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Sri Lankan government and would then depart.
Ambassador Teplitz further assured that no troops – even under a VFA – would enter Sri Lanka without proper documentation and prior approval. Sri Lanka would retain all sovereign rights to approve or deny entry or exit of U.S. personnel, vessels, and aircraft into Sri Lanka’s territory and territorial waters/airspace, she elaborated.
Responding to a concern about the terms of the SOFA (or VFA) on possible immunity US defense personnel seek from the local jurisdiction, the Ambassador said that the two countries would come to an advance agreement on how to deal with such incidents should they arise.
The second agreement between the two countries, Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA), was signed in 2007 and renewed in 2017, and aim to facilitate military cooperation, particularly joint exercises and disaster relief, informed the Ambassador.
The ACSA agreement is designed to provide a legal framework for logistical support between the US and Sri Lankan militaries and to exchange supplies and services, as well as payment for those supplies and services, she stated.
According to the Ambassador, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact is a $480 million development assistance gift designed to promote economic growth in Sri Lanka and is not contingent on the VFA and ACSA.
The MCC is neither a loan nor a military agreement, she added.
The US has no intention to build a military base or establish a permanent military presence in Sri Lanka; similarly, the United States gains no land ownership or control through MCC, she said.
She further stated the MCC Compact would not be establishing an ‘economic corridor’ between Colombo and Trincomalee.
Instead, under the MCC, two projects – a transportation project and a land project – have been proposed to address constraints to economic growth in Sri Lanka.
The $350 million transportation project will upgrade physical roadway networks, modernize traffic systems, and introduce policy and regulatory reforms. With an estimated economic rate of return of 19%, the project will focus on the Western, Central, Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces.
The $67 million land administration project has an estimated economic rate of return of 30% and aims to expand and improve the existing initiatives of the Sri Lankan government to increase the availability of spatial data and land rights information. The project will initially focus on districts in the Central, North-Western, North-Central and Eastern Provinces.
The US Government will not buy, sell, or own any actual land – or take control of any actual land – under this agreement, affirmed Teplitz.
Responding to a query on US’ involvement in Sri Lankan judiciary and protocol, the Ambassador said that the US has not and will not interfere or become directly involved in Sri Lanka’s judiciary.
However, the US has sponsored training for Sri Lankan judges and lawyers at the request of the Sri Lankan government, she stated.
The American Bar Association has no intention to establish a branch in Sri Lanka, said Teplitz.
The Ambassador reiterated that when the US extends support and assistance to the people of Sri Lanka it is only at the invitation of the Sri Lankan government.
Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya Courtesy The Daily Mirror
The National Police Commission (NPC) has called for a report from the Acting IGP over the possibility of removing the CID from investigating Dr. Mohammed Shafi’s case and hand it over to the Police Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera said an attorney had lodged a complaint with the NPC stating that investigations carried out by the CID against Dr. Shafi should be withdrawn.
The lawyer had requested in the complaint that the investigations should be handed over to a Special Investigation Unit which should be comprised of police teams from the CID, the Kurunegala Police and the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD),” SP Gunasekera said.
Accordingly, he said the NPC had inquired from the Acting IGP about the possibility of handing over the investigations to the SIU.
The Acting IGP in return had called for a report from the SIU to inform him about the possibility.
The spokesman said the police will inform the NPC about their decision tomorrow (19).
The 42-year-old doctor attached to the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital was arrested on May 24 and was later handed over to the CID to conduct an investigation into illegal sterilisation surgeries allegedly performed by him. He had been remanded till July 25.
Power outages due to the adverse weather conditions have been reported from several areas in the island including Matara, Galle and Ratnapura today (18).
Deputy Director of theDisaster Management Centre (DMC), Pradeep Kodippili advised the public not to proceed to the sea and to avoid travelling to the mountain areas due to the current adverse weather.
Also, as a result of the torrential rains in the mountain areas, the water levels of the Laxapana, Maussakelle and Castlereagh reservoirs have been risen and due to this situation two spill gates of the Laxapana reservoir have been opened today (18) morning.
The DMC has issued a red notice to all the residents living down-stream close to the Kelani River to evacuate from the area.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) yesterday (18), informed Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratna that they were currently probing how a sum of over US$ 100 million had been sent from Saudi Arabia to the Batticaloa Campus Private Limited and the Bank accounts from which that sum had been withdrawn, to construct a University in the Poonani area of Batticaloa.
They said, Parliamentarian Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera had lodged a complaint in this connection at the IGP’s office on 12 July, after which the complaint had been handed over to them by the Acting IGP.
They added that after receiving the complaint, they had summoned the monk to record a statement from him.
The FCID informed the Court that in the complaint, the monk had claimed that the land which had been provided for the construction of the University had belonged to the Maheweli Development Authority (MDA).
They added, the monk had stated that the MDA had given the land to the Hira Foundation for the construction of a technical college and the Hira Foundation had been registered with the Social Services Department.
The FCID told Magistrate Jayaratna, the monk had further mentioned in his statement that after obtaining the land, the Foundation had used it for other activities.
They added that the monk had stated in his complaint that a sum of over US$ 100 million had been sent from overseas to this University and that the sending of such a staggering amount of money had been suspicious.
They also told the Magistrate that Ven. Rathana Thera had stated that 24 hours after the 21 April Easter Sunday terror attack, former Eastern Province Governor Hizbullah had gone to meet three Muslims residing at the Karmy Hotel situated in Passikuda, despite a curfew being imposed throughout the country.
The FCID informed the Court that the monk, in his complaint, had stated that it was suspicious as to why Hizbullah had gone to meet the three Muslims who were residing in the country sans visas and such incidents have to be probed for the safety of the public here.
The FCID said that they had also recorded a statement from Nagaraja Kanthan, a resident of Valachchanai connected to the same incident.
They added that in his statement to them Nagaraja has stated that development work was being carried out on a land owned by the State in this area and upon further inquiries it had come to light that a 35-acre block, owned by the MDA, had been provided to the Sri Lanka Hira Foundation.
In spite of the ambiguities embedded in the Constitution over the next date of the Presidential Poll, there is no doubt that it should be held prior to May 2020, the latest. From the perspective of the people in the country, it is pertinent to rethink about the decision that they made on 8 January 2015.
As 6.2 million people voted on 8 January 2015 to oust the existing regime and to elect a new Government, it is not unfair to assume that these voters might have done although unconsciously some kind of scenario development for next five years on the performance of the new regime.
Scenario development and planning is a scientific exercise deployed by actors such as business firms, environmental organisations. However, we laymen also engage in the same exercise in our day-to-day lives. It is neither a prediction nor a projection, but a more flexible reading of the future that is unvaryingly uncertain.
The 6.2 million people who voted on 8 January 2015 to oust the existing regime might have had compared two scenarios prior to casting their vote. The first would have been the envisioned situation that would be created in case the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa got elected.
The second would have been Sri Lanka in 2020 under Wickremesinghe-Sirisena regime. The 6.2 million people would have thought that the second was the better option even though it was not one hundred per cent perfect.
Nonetheless, now it is clear that the scenario that had been developed with regard to the second option is incorrect and the Wickremesinghe-Sirisena regime has finally ended up being the worst regime in the seventy years since Independence. Let us first see how this mental exercise is performed.
Scenario Development
What is meant by scenario development? Philip van Notten defines scenarios”
as: consistent and coherent descriptions of alternative hypothetical futures that reflect different perspectives on past, present, and future developments, which can serve as a basis for action.” Hence, the method of scenario development and planning combines known facts about the present and the future with key driving forces identified by considering social, technical, economic, environmental, and political (STEEP) trends. As adequate information is available with regard to the present situation, it is much easier to develop scenarios because the drivers that would determine the future may easily be recognised.
By 2015, Mahinda Rajapaksa had been in power for ten years. Under his leadership, the internal armed conflict came to an end when security forces were able to defeat the LTTE comprehensively, decimating its principal leadership.
This helped him to come to power for the second time in 2010. The steps taken after the election were hard to be defended. The 18th Amendment was added to the Constitution repealing the constitutional limit of presidential tenure to two terms and placing the independent commissions set up by the 17th Amendment under virtual presidential control.
There were allegations about the regime’s involvement in killing and harassing its opponents and corruption associated with huge infra-structure projects. There appeared to be multiple drivers working towards more and more authoritarian rule. In spite of some positive results in the economic front, for a citizen who preferred more democratic and corruption free country the argument that the existing regime should go was a convincing one.
What Went Wrong?
The academics, professionals and the Colombo civil society who led the campaign against the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime prior to the 2015 Presidential Poll had presented a convincing argument over the necessity of regime change. Of course, some of these groups did not base their action on situational analysis but based on their own political agenda.
Many Colombo civil society organisations are heavily depended on the contributions by Western nations.
In a context when the USA and its allies and India, badly, wanted to oust Mahinda Rajapaksa, for its close links with China, they used Colombo civil society organisations to lead the campaign not specifically on the issue of Chinese involvement but on the issue of democracy and human rights. In the present world context both democracy and human rights are being used as what Michael Foucault said, the technology of governance by the imperialist powers.
In my view, the Government that came to power in January 2015 may be described as the worst Government in the last 70 years whatever the measure being used. In other words, Sri Lanka is experiencing today its first generalised crisis since independence. A generalised crisis is a crisis that occurrs simultaneously in every field, economic, political, social, and cultural. Both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are being steered by visible and invisible foreign hands. Human security is at its lowest. This has extended even to the field of sports.
Let us confine ourselves to people who were really concerned about democracy, human rights and all those goodies and followed wittingly or unwittingly the Western plan of regime change in 2015. I must emphasise I do not put all those people into one basket. What went wrong as far as they were concerned? If they make a retrospective assessment of the 2015 decision, what would be their verdict?
Scenario Development, Test 2
As I argued above, these multifarious groups had correctly understood the prevailing situation and the drivers that would be in operation under a future Rajapaksa regime, namely Test 1. Nonetheless, they have failed in scenario development Test 2. Their situation analysis was incomplete and inadequate, and they failed totally to understand the drivers that would be at work after the election. A critical point they missed in the situation analysis is the developing tension in the Indian Ocean region. Secondly, the coalition that was formed was not more than a hotchpotch with opposing intentions and conflicting policies.
When the honeymoon is over, and the issue of succession of power comes to the fore, such a coalition may not be maintained. The neoliberalist economic policies and the Western leanings of the main partners of the coalition drove the country eventually for an economic collapse on the one hand and the security collapse on the other. Hence, scenarios” as consistent and coherent descriptions of alternative hypothetical futures that reflect different perspectives on past, present, and future developments, which can serve as a basis for action” were developed with wrong assessment of the situation and the failure to identify the drivers and their directionality. The outcome is the first generalised crisis in the country since its Independence.
(The writer is a retired teacher of political economy at the University of Peradeniya.
It is apt to revise the indictments filed against former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa if they are in a state of being revised, the Supreme Court told the Attorney General.
The Attorney General had filed indictments with the Permanent High Court-at-Bar against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, accusing him of misusing state funds when constructing the D.A. Rajapakse museum in Hambantota.
Rajapaksa’s attorneys had submitted an appeal to Permanent High Court-At-Bar seeking to amend the indictments against their client, however, it was rejected by the court.
Meanwhile, the former Defence Secretary’s attorneys once again filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against it.
The appeal was taken up before the Supreme Court judge bench consisting of Justices Sisira de Abrew, Priyantha Jayawardene, Prasanna Jayawardene, Vijith Malalgoda and L.T.B. Dehideniya today (18).
Speaking on behalf of the former Defence Secretary, President’s Counsel Ali Sabry told the court that two of conspiracy charges are in the indictment filed against his client and that it is against the law.
Hence, Justice Sisira de Abrew told Additional Solicitor General Priyantha Nawana, who appeared on behalf of the Attorney General, that it is apt to revise the indictment filed with the Special High Court, if necessary.
Justice Sisira de Abrew pointed out that the defendant of a case should have a comprehensive understanding of the charges laid against him.
The five-judge bench subsequently moved considering the appeal to November 9th and ordered the prosecution and the defence to present submissions in this regard on that day.
The case was filed by the Attorney General alleging that former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and six others for misappropriating state funds accumulating to Rs 33.9 million during the construction of D.A. Rajapaksa Museum at Medamulana area in Hambantota.
The Attorney General today filed a revision application before the Colombo High Court against the Colombo chief magistrate’s order granting bail to IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando.
The appeal requests the Colombo High Court to issue an interim order against the granting of bail by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court to the suspects, who were arrested for their failure to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks.
Jayasundara and Fernando were informed to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 02. However, the IGP was admitted to the Police Hospital in Narahenpita while the former Defence Secretary was admitted to the Coronary-Care Unit (CCU) at the National Hospital Colombo that morning over sudden illnesses.
A group of CID officers visited both hospitals later and arrested the duo in the evening of the same day while they were placed in remand custody.
Jayasundara and Fernando were released on bail by the Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on July 09.
Announcing the bail order, the chief magistrate stated that the information presented at the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the terror attacks on Easter Sunday cannot be considered at the magistrate’s court proceedings.
Secretary of the National Police Commission Saman Dissanayake has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in connection with the Avant-Garde floating armoury case.
The NPC Secretary was reportedly arrested while he was at the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital.
The Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by Dissanayake, requesting to release him on bail if he was arrested over the Avant-Garde floating armoury case.
Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake said that the court has no jurisdiction to grant bail to Dissanayake, who was named as a suspect in the Avant-Garde floating armoury case, as indictments are to be filed against him under the Firearms Ordinance.
On July 05, the Attorney General had instructed the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) to immediately arrest Chairman of Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Ltd Nissanka Senadhipathi and 7 others including the secretary of the NPC.
The Acting IGP was further instructed to file charges against them under the Firearms Ordinance and to produce them before the court.
The Acting IGP has later directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to act on the instructions of the Attorney General.
On the 8th of July, the secretary of the NPC had filed an anticipatory bail order seeking the Colombo Fort Magistrate to release him on bail if the CID arrests him over the Avant-Garde floating armoury case.
The World Bank will increase assistance to Sri Lanka under three of its new operations, the World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region, Hartwig Schafer said today (18).
The three World Bank operations include assisting the agriculture sector faced with climatic vagaries, irrigation, renewable energy, climate resilience operations and renovation of tanks in rural areas.
Mr Schafer stated this when he called on President Maithripala Sirisena at the President’s Office today. Referring to the Easter Sunday terror attack and its impact on the economy, he has said that the World Bank would provide monetary assistance to reduce the budget gap so that Sri Lanka could continue global borrowings with a sound economic footing, the President’s Media Division (PMD) reported.
President Sirisena has expressed his gratitude to the World Bank for the long-standing financial support given to Sri Lanka. He has made a special mention about the World Bank’s support extended to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the challenges faced due to the April 21 terrorist attack, the PMD said.
Expressing his pleasure over the quick recovery made by Sri Lanka after the terrorist attack, the WB Vice President commented that the global community stands by Sri Lanka at this moment of need.
Mr Schafer, who is in Colombo to chair the World Bank Senior Regional Managers Meeting, stated that the World Bank decided to hold its annual session in Colombo to show solidarity with Sri Lanka as the country is trying to restore normalcy after the terrible terrorist attack on Easter Sunday.
He congratulated Sri Lanka for rising to the level of Upper Middle Income Country and said it is a testimony of country’s resilience.
WB Country Director Idah Z Pswarayi-Riddihough, IFC Country Manager Amena Arif, Senior Operations Officer Anne-Kartin Arnold and Additional Secretary to the President, Esala Weerakoon also took part in the discussion.
It has been reported that the State Land (Special Provisions) Bill, tabled in Parliament on 28 June, sought approval for passing necessary provisions for awarding the sole right to state land held by citizens.
The government is reported to have said that the Bill will benefit the people who have only been residing in lands with a permit and unable to submit it as collateral in obtaining a bank loan. The Bill also aims at allowing the people have been living on permit lands since the 1920s to obtain the absolute right to their lands and also to pass them to their children”.
Changes to Sri Lanka’s land laws introduced through the State Land (Special Provisions) Bill is one of the key programms conducted by the grant of $480 million given through the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC)”.
THE BILL
The Bill is “AN ACT TO GRANT ABSOLUTE TITLE TO STATE LAND HELD BY CITIZENS WHO ARE HOLDERS OF GRANTS OR INSTRUMENTS OF DISPOSITION; AND TO PROVIDE FOR MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH OR INCIDENTAL THERETO”.
The Act is to be in operation for seven years.
According Part I Section 3, the provisions of the Act shall apply to persons who are holders of (i) a grant under the Land Development Ordinance; (ii) an instrument of disposition under Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act; (iii) an instrument of disposition under Crown Lands Ordinance for agricultural purposes provided that they have held the Land “for more than ten years immediately prior to the appointed date of this Act.
However, according to Section 4, the Act shall not apply to Land (i) over one thousand five hundred and twenty-four meters above mean sea level; (ii) declared as development areas; (iii) within reservations or protected areas; (iv) vested in any Local Authority; (v) declared by the Minister; (vi) any settlement programme.
According to Part II, applications for eligibility would be reviewed by a Committee made up of fifteen Secretaries of related Ministries and five ex-officio Members such as the Land Commissioner who shall be the Chairman of the Committee, the Surveyor General, the Registrar General of Lands and nominees of the President and the Prime Minister. The Committee would be assisted by administrative arrangements such as Sub-Committees and Boards to review objections that are normal to finalizing the report of the Committee for submission to the Minister for Lands who in turn is expected to forward it to the President for issuance of the Absolute Land Grants.
IMPACT of the BILL
The procedure outlined above enables the identification of persons who are entitled to receive Absolute Land Grants. Since it applies only to recipients of Lands already granted under existing provisions of Land Development Ordinance, Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act and Crown Lands Ordinance, records as to how many would be eligible to apply for Absolute Land Grants are available to the government.
Of this total, a certain proportion would have benefitted from existing schemes, while others could find the asset a burden due to personal reasons. Therefore, while the proposed Bill would benefit both groups, the latter group would likely be inclined to sell the asset and be relieved of the burden. Since such an opportunity does not exist under existing provisions, the Bill would prove to be a pleasant windfall to the latter group because an Absolute Land Grant would now entitle them to use the Land Grant as collateral to raise a loan or sell it outright.
Of the two groups, if the group that finds the asset a burden is proportionately larger than the group that benefitted from the asset, there is a strong possibility for investors to exploit the situation. The argument advanced in favour of the Bill is that access to Land by investors would enable hitherto unproductive Land to be made productive. However, a counter argument that is compelling is that since State Land belongs to the Republic and therefore to the People, the Bill would privilege those that are granted Absolute Title at the expense of others and therefore would be discriminatory (Article 12). However, the most compelling counter argument is that it would violate the sovereignty of the People (Article 3; an entrenched Article whose amendment requires a special majority) because ALL LAND and ALL its RESOURCES BELONG to ALL the PEOPLE of SRI LANKA as part of their sovereignty that is inalienable, and that governments hold Land in TRUST as determined by the Supreme Court in several instances.
Therefore, Land cannot be granted to anyone outright without a two-third approval of Parliament and approval by the People at a Referendum. Until such approvals are secured it is imperative that unproductive Land is leased to investors on the same basis that currently exists.
SUPREME COURT JUDGMENTS RELATING to LAND
S.C. 884/99 BULANKULAMA AND OTHERS v. SECRETARY, MINISTRY OFINDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND OTHERS (EPPAWELA CASE
AMERASINGHE. J.
Jurisdiction
“The Constitution declares that sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable. (Article 3). Being a representative democracy, the powers of the People are exercised through persons who are for the time being entrusted with certain functions. The Constitution states that the legislative power of the People shall be exercised by Parliament, the executive power of the People shall be exercised by the P resident of Sri Lanka, and the judicial power of the People shall be exercised, inter alia, through the Courts created and established by the Constitution (Article 4)”.
“The organs of State are guardians to whom the people have committed the care and preservation of the resources of the people. This accords not only with the scheme of government set out in the Constitution but also with the high and enlightened conceptions of the duties of our rulers, in the efficient management of resources in the process of development, which the Mahavamsa, 68.8-13, set forth”.
“Paragraph 1.3 above, deals with alienation or disposition of “State Land” within a province upon an advice made by such Provincial Council. It cannot be construed that the advice tendered by the Provincial Council binds the President. However, it must be emphasized that if the President after an opinion or advice given, decides to dispose of the State Land, such disposal has to be in compliance with the laws enacted by Parliament” (p. 10).
“Shirani A. Bandaranayake, J. too in the Determination of the Bill titled “Land Ownership” [S.D. No. 26/2003 – 36/2003 Determination dated10th December 2003] noted as follows: “With the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, such Constitutional power vested with the President was qualified by virtue of paragraph 1:3 of Appendix II to the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution. By such provision the authority for alienation or disposition of the State land within a province to any citizen or to any organization was yet vested with the President…….. In effect, even after the establishment of Provincial Councils in 1987, State land continued to be vested in the Republic and disposition could be carried out only in accordance with Article 33(d) of the Constitution read with 1:3 of Appendix II to the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution” (p. 11).
CONCLUSION
If, as stated by Amerasinghe. J. “The organs of State are guardians to whom the people have committed the care and preservation of the resources of the people…” and State Land is vested in the Republic as determined by other Justices cited above, it is crystal clear that State Land is an inalienable right of the sovereignty of the People. In view of this undeniable and uncontestable fact, it is a violation of the inalienable rights of all the People for any government to legislate granting Absolute Land Grants to some of the People, an asset that belongs to all without due process of two-third approval of Parliament and approval of the People at a Referendum.
Whether the need to initiate a Bill for approval by Parliament was motivated by the agenda of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact or not, is not the issue. The issue is that an Act that affects an asset that is an integral part of the sovereignty of ALL the People and held in trust by elected representatives of governments should not be passed by a simple majority but ONLY by a special majority of two-third approval of Parliament and approval by the People at a Referendum.
The yahapalana government is a contradiction in terms in that it consists of politicians who have a history of practising the very antithesis of good governance. Some of the recent utterances of its leaders and their soul mates show how fraught it is with internal contradictions.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has gone on record as saying that the armed forces and the police, acting on his instructions, in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Sunday disaster, eliminated the local agents of the ISIS root and branch, in record time, much to the astonishment of the entire world. All the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) cadres have been either killed or taken into custody, he says. He would have us believe that the credit for the jaw-dropping performance of the police and the military should accrue to him, for President Maithripala Sirisena was not in the country, at that time.
Not to be outdone, President Sirisena insists that he ordered the anti-terror operations, from Singapore, where he was holidaying, at the time of the carnage, the implication of his claim being that he alone deserves the credit for the success of the blitzkrieg, as it were, which brought the situation under control. Both these yahapalana leaders, however, deny the responsibility for the government’s failure to act on an intelligence warning of impending terror strikes. Success has two fathers and failure is an orphan!
Former war-winning Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka has struck a discordant note. He insists that the new form of terror is far from over. The ongoing operations to prevent further terror strikes will take at least two to three years, and a campaign to wipe out the entire terror network will last about eight years, he says. His statement runs counter to the claims made by the President and the PM. His detractors accuse him of raising a bogey in a bid to secure the Law and Order Ministry, but the fact remains that he is au fait with anti-terror operations and national security.
The Prime Minister has declared that the State Intelligence has cleared former Minister Rishard Bathiudeen of any wrongdoing as regards the Easter Sunday terror attacks. He is flaunting a police investigation report in support of contention. But the UNP backbenchers have opposed moves to reappoint Bathiudeen a minister. They seem to have doubts about their leader’s claim of Bathiudeen’s innocence. Has the government failed to sell the police reports concerned to its ginger group? It wants police investigations and reports taken seriously lest the people should lose faith in the long arm of the law, but its leaders challenged the results of police investigations into Thajudeen’s death, under the previous government, and subsequent probes proved that it was a murder. So much for the accuracy and credibility of police investigations!
TNA Leader R. Sampanthan, explaining why his party had leapt to the defence of the government when a no-confidence motion was moved against it, the other day, has said that if the UNF administration had fallen, a dictatorship, led by those who committed war crimes, would have emerged. This statement may be considered a damning indictment of the JVP, which moved the no-faith motion. It may be recalled that the JVP joined the TNA in thwarting an attempt to dislodge the present dispensation, last year. The TNA’s latest claim implies that the JVP sought to pave the way for a dictatorship by moving a no-confidence motion against the government, albeit in vain.
The JVP says it will never allow the SLPP to capture power. If its no-confidence motion had been passed, the government would have collapsed or a situation favourable to the SLPP would have arisen much to the detriment of the yahapalana camp. Are the critics of the JVP justified in claiming that it moved that no-faith motion as it wanted to provide the government, divided on the issue of the Easter attacks, with a rallying point?
Meanwhile, the TNA has contradicted itself on the question of war crimes. It says that it is all out to prevent those who are alleged to have committed war crimes from capturing power. But while accusing the army of having harmed civilians intentionally during the closing stages of the Vanni war in 2009, it threw in its lot with wartime Army Commander Fonseka in the presidential fray, in 2010. It had no qualms about trying to make him the President while calling for action against the perpetrators of war crimes! It either acted out of expediency and not principle or did not believe in its own allegation that the army had committed war crimes under Fonseka’s command.
The vast colonization schemes of the Dry Zone, the peasantry, in
thousands that enjoyed the land, earning bountiful crops were all due to the
great achievement of our Leader, DS Senanayake, all achieved during his days as
the Minister for Agriculture and Lands. It was his dream to uplift the life of
the rural masses and for that purpose he
initiated a policy of granting land to the landless poor, making them partners
in production and national development. His avowed aim was “not only to
see that they are free from hunger an starvation but to see that they are
established on land and become self
reliant and selfdependant”(Hansard: 26/2/1932:State Council of Ceylon)
His plan was not the haphazard alienation of Crown land. He went to the extent of appointing a Select
Committee of the State Council, to make any recommendations which they
consider expedient and practical for the
establishment of a Scheme whereby land may be settled on villagers and small holders and Crown land
alienation or leased to villagers or small holders can be prevented from passing into the hands of persons other than villagers or small
holders”(Hansard: 14/03/1933:Land Development Ordinance). A Committee was duly appointed . The Committee
had sittings for two years and made
submissions to the Council which were accepted. Referring to the Land
Development ordinance provisions he said
that in this Ordinance we have made provision for the protection of holdings that is we have considered it necessary..
that when land is alienated to a class
of people to see that the land is possessed and it is very necessary that protection should be continued for all time.
It was necessary to see that not only in
the first instance the person who
got the land belonged to the class to which we want the lands to go , but that
the successors too belonged to that class. We felt that if we gave out right
transfers it will not be possible to
protect such lands.”(Hansard: 14/3/1933” State Council of Ceylon)
He said that it was necessary to avoid what happened when freehold
land was given out under British rule:”
But what happened to the jungle land up country under the British Government with its unfortunate laws and practices.
Today owing to the freehold given by the
Government … all that land has passed
out of the possession of the people of this country.”(Statement in the State Council
of Ceylon:(19/10/1933: Hansard)
He not only provided them with land, but also created the
development infrastructure to enable the peasants to sell their produce by
creating the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing, which
implemented the Vegetable and Fruit
Marketing Scheme and the Guaranteed Price Scheme which offered a premium price for paddy and other cereals
in short supply. The aim was to make Sri Lanka self sufficient.
It is sad that our present leaders have due to the influence of
the IMF and other foreign advisors have abolished the Department for
Development of Agricultural Marketing, thus depriving the peasant farmers the
chance to obtain a premium price for the vegetables produced. The Guaranteed
Price Scheme run first by the Marketing Department was later enlarged to the
Paddy Marketing Board. The Government today purchases paddy from anyone- mainly
traders, while in its heyday till 1977 purchases were made only from genuine
producers. Today, the premium price offered go to the traders and not to the
genuine producers. The entire purpose of
offering a premium price is lost.
Today we are seeing in progress the death knell of the
colonization schemes and the bold peasantry that was built up by our leader DS
Senanayake.
Our Prime Minister has come up with a programme to give
freehold on State lands that will enable
the holders of the land to sell as they wish.
This is an area that was carefully looked into by Leader DS
Senanayake. as quoted above.
I hope that the ideas of our founding father DS Senanayake will be
kindly considered by our current leaders.
His intention was to build up a bold prosperous peasantry and having
worked in the agriculture sector from 1955 to 1973 I can assure anyone that a
bold peasantry was born, mainly on State colonization schemes.
Let us not destroy what we have achieved. Let not the dreams of our founding father DS
Senanayake, which brought about prosperity to the peasantry and to our country
be sacrificed. This involves the vast
extents in the colonization schemes as well as allotments alienated to the
landless in every district..
The problem of today is that with the abolition of the Marketing
Department producers cannot get a good price for their produce. In the paddy
producing areas it is the traders who collect paddy that hand over to the State
under the Paddy Purchasing Scheme. Farmers have to face heavy costs for tractor
ploughing and for harvesting machinery. Due to these constraints paddy
producers hardly make a profit. Further there are very few avenues open for
employment to the young and if freeholds are granted the holders will opt to
sell their allotments. Then they will move to the shanties in the cities and
become daily wage employees. There will inevitably be large scale displacement
of people and ultimately a tremendous increase in poverty.
Instead our leaders should
consider the copious reasons why our founding father DS did not give freeholds
on crown land. Our leaders will gain great credit if they can re establish the
Marketing Department(MD) with its vegetable and fruit purchasing scheme and its
Cannery. This will be a boon to the producers as well as the city dwellers
because the MD had small retail shops in the cities where the vegetables were
sold at rock bottom prices and thus inflation was stopped effectively. The MD
Cannery even built up a trade exporting pineapple.The author was in charge of
the Vegetable & Fruit Marketing Scheme for a full year based at the Tripoli
Market. In addition using the existing
staff in the Land & Agricultural Deparments and the katcheris a production
aimed programme can easily be implemented to produce and make what is being
imported. This is something that can easily be done and this will bring great
credit to the Government.
It is in the interests of the Developed Countries specially the
USA to destroy our agriculture so that we will be caught in the bread trap and have
to buy wheat from them. The land issue- giving freehold so that ultimately
international multinationals may get hold of our productive land is another
similar trap. .Let our leaders not fall
into this trap. This trap will create immense poverty in Sri Lanka. Our country
is caught in a debt trap created by the IMF
which advised us to import freely, spend foreign exchange freely and
fill the gap with loaned money. My publication: How the IMF Sabotahged Third
World Development details what
happened. We were unknowingly led to become indebted. If we give out freeholds on State alienated
land we will be inevitably caught in a poverty trap. .
It is reported that the freehold system has had the vision of
foreign specialists. I have quoted ideas from our founding father DS
Senanayake, the personage who created the United National Party. Reading
through the speeches in the Hansard I find that he had done painstaking work to
care for the poor. If further details are required the Government can call on
the services of Government Agents who earlier worked as District Land Officers
and they hold a wealth of expertise.
Let our leaders kindly think again
before it is too late.
Garvin Karunaratne Former Government Agent Ph.D. Michigan State University
13/07/2019
Author of:How
the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka(Godagfes:2006)
& How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (2017:
Godages/Kindle)
His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena President of Sri Lanka
Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
Your Excellency Maithripala Sirisena and Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe,
Please see the annexed video discussion with two representatives of the GMOA with one Chapa Bandara relating to serious wrongdoings in procedure and harm done to the health of the people through the corrupt practices of the current Minister of Health, and corrupt deals incurring huge losses to the state by the same person, namely Rajitha Senaratne, when he held the post of Minister of Fisheries.
Such corrupt activities cannot be pushed under the rug and forgotten as a colossal amount of public funds have been misappropriated and wasted under the direction of this individual who is currently the Minister of Health in your government.
Please take some positive steps to investigate the alleged wrongdoings and take appropriate action at least at the present stage to penalize those responsible for the high handed acts of corruption causing immense losses to the public purse.
Yours sincerely,
Mahinda Gunasekera Dated: July 16, 2019
Please watch this very interesting discussion with two GMOA representatives where they talk of importation of outdated drugs by the Ministry of Health which are outside the approved list and proven to be less effective. They spoke of harm done to pregnant mothers, new mothers and new born babies by providing them with outdated and less effective iron pills and folic acid, plus several other drugs at exorbitant prices. They quoted from the Auditor General’s Report on the wilful actions of the ministry that failed to carry three months buffer stock as required, and thereafter proceeding to bypass the normal tender process and order unknown drugs outside the approved list as an emergency measure, costing in some cases 100 times more. The Minister of Health and responsible officials should be taken to task for the waste of funds and serious harm done to the people’s health. They placed the losses to the country well above that of the Central Bank fraud.
It appears as though a Presidential Commission of Inquiry has been established to look into the irresponsible and fraudulent acts of the Minister and high officials. The LINK to the discussion is given below.
If funds are required to duly proceed with the investigation and court trial, we should willingly contribute towards the costs in order that justice may prevail.
Mahinda Gunasekera
Rajitha Off The Hook In
Fishy Deals
Posted on May 23rd, 2016
by
Camelia Nathaniel Courtesy The Sunday Leader
Evidence
has surfaced that a prominent minister and former fisheries minister had been
engaged in bribery and corruption during his tenure at the fisheries ministry
depriving the country of millions of rupees in tax revenue and depriving the
fishing community of many opportunities.
Despite his tarnished track record, this
minister jumped ship from the Rajapaksa camp and joined the Maithri-Ranil
bandwagon in order to safeguard himself and avoid being taken to task over the
corrupt activities he had been engaged in.
During his tenure, a Chinese firm which
wanted to engage in fishing within Sri Lankan waters had approached the
minister through its local arm Arugambay Fishery (Pvt) Ltd. Under the pretext
of having further discussions on the matter, the then Fisheries Minister Dr.
Rajitha Senaratne visited China on two occasions at the expense of the Chinese
company. He left Sri Lanka aboard a Sri Lankan Airlines flight on sixth June,
2013 and returned on June 12,2013.
As a result of this visit, the minister
laid down conditions that the deal could go through only if the local company
Arugambay Fishery (Pvt) Ltd, would be replaced by a company that would be
created with his secretary Don Lalith Anuradha Seneviratne as the major
shareholder. Subsequently Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd was registered under N/A
176433 with his secretary Don Lalith Anuradha Seneviratne holding 60 per cent
of shares. Misusing his privileges as a minister, Rajitha Senaratane set up
this company knowing full well that it was illegal and appointed his secretary
as the major shareholder in a bid to hoodwink the people. In addition, Blue
Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd, imported eight ships worth Rs. 400 million, but to
date there is no mention of the duty that was or was not paid to the country.
To date the investment of Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd is around Rs. 1000
million and the investment of Anuradha Seneviratne would have to be around Rs.
600 million. How a minister’s secretary could invest such a colossal figure is
still a mystery.
According to the agreement
between Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd and the fisheries ministry, 10 per cent of
the catch of the eight vessels should be sold to the fisheries ministry at $ 1
per kilo, before the rest can be exported.
The Chinese company was earlier granted
permission to engage in fishing under the Sri Lankan flag beyond the exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) of Sri Lanka. The company had entered into an agreement
with the Board of Investment to carry out fishing in international waters.
According to an official of the Ministry of Investment Promotion, although the
Dikovita Port was constructed as the biggest port in Asia, it was the
minister’s son who got the contractors and handled the construction and the
expenditure incurred for the construction of this port should be investigated
separately.
However although the previous regime and
Minister Senaratne claimed that this was the biggest port in Asia, the depth of
it is just 5 metres.
Let alone accommodating large commercial
vessels, even the Chinese trawlers could not be berthed there as it was not
deep enough.Under the agreement, 90 per cent of the catch would be exported to
China and 10 per cent given to the fisheries corporation at one dollar a
kilo, the official said. The Chinese vessels were to be docked at the Dikovita
fisheries harbour where the processing for exports would be carried out.
The operation was expected to
generate US$ 11 million (Rs. 1.3 billion) in the first year.
According to the official, the company started operations with four vessels and
thereafter deployed 16 more 150 ft vessels.
However in spite of the profits made by
this company, the minister had used his powers and obtained nine years of tax
exemption for Blue Ocean Fishery (Pvt) Ltd. Moreover there is no declaration as
to how this company obtained the funds to start up this investment.
This company has also not made any payment
to the fisheries harbour corporation for the use of the Colombo or Dokovita
harbours. Further, it is leant that in spite of a clause that has been inserted
to the agreement with the cunning intention of obtaining tax concessions, that
10 per cent of the catch of these vessels will be sold to the Fisheries
Corporation at $ 1 per kilo, this company had not supplied any fish to the
fisheries corporation. This corrupt minister also used his powers in order to
silence any official who dared to raise this issue.
According to the official, unsuitable appointments
were made during the minister’s tenure further aggravating the situation at the
fisheries corporation and contributed to its ruin.
According to fisheries ministry sources,
During Senaratne’s tenure as the Minister of Fisheries, the younger brother of
Rajitha Senaratne, Mahil Senaratne was appointed as the chairman of the
fisheries corporation.
At the time Mahil Senaratne was
appointed as chairman, he did not even own a house, but shortly after, he had
constructed a luxury house in Nugegoda and also purchased a BMW motor vehicle.
Workers claim that this was due to the fact that he was importing fish to the
country at high commissions.
He was said to be receiving commissions
from everything that was purchased for the fisheries corporation including the
shopping bags that were used.
They claim that having worked as a store
keeper at Bata, Mahil Senaratne had no knowledge on how to run the fisheries
corporation and as a result the institution was ruined.
The workers also claim that a former police
officer Ruwan Lankeshwara was appointed as the managing director and he too
joined the minister and his brother in destroying the fisheries corporation.
Hundreds of thousands of rupees were also taken claiming that the money was for
the minister’s bodhi poojas. Further the workers claim that during the period
under Minister Rajitha, the staff of the fisheries department was set at 745,
of which 600 were permanent employees. However the workers charge that Rajitha
Senaratne and his group had recruited a further 700 workers on contract basis
and this had put a huge strain on the institution. In addition these workers
were obliged to agree and cater to all the demands of the management.The
workers also charge that around 20 kilos of small fish had to be delivered to
Minister Senaratne’s residence supposedly to feed the dogs and cats. There were
no bills or payments for this. According to the regulations of the fisheries
department all goods purchased should be done after calling for tenders. But in
spite of these regulations, the minister and his group had purchased used
furniture and utensils for the main office from a hotel in Beruwela and these
items were subsequently discarded due to being unusable. Part of these
items have also ended up at the residence of the chairman, managing director
and the trade union president, it is alleged.Meanwhile, the cleaning contract
for the Peliyagoda Fish Market at the time was given to one of Senaratne’s
friends, one Kabir from the Minuwangoda without following any tender procedure.
The contract was granted at Rs. 1.5 million monthly and of this, around Rs.
500,000 was the minister’s commission.
In addition, the manufacturing of life
jackets was also given to another friend of the minister. The workers also
claimed that in addition to their wages, special allowances ranging from Rs.
5000 to 25,000 were paid as allowances to the management friends of the
minister. Moreover while practically all ice machine plants were in a
dilapidated state, these too were sold as scrap metal with commissions.
Further, former Chairman of the Ceylon
Fisheries Corporation branch in the SLFP affiliated Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya,
T.W. K. Dhammika who was accused of fraud of 2.8 million of NSS funds,
imprisoned and later released on bail, was then reinstated by the minister
without any proper investigation regarding the fraud.
While many crooks of the previous regime
are being carted before commissions of inquiry and the bribery commission,
those such as Rajitha Senaratne have cleverly switched allegiances and managed
to avoid these investigations. According to the former president himself,
Senaratne had made billions together with the Chinese and they too were unable
to do anything about it because of their close relations with China. The
JVP had filed a complaint at the Bribery Commission through the fisheries
ministry regarding the misdeeds of Minister Senaratne, but since the minister
has now switched sides and joined the Good Governance regime, so far no action
has been taken. Voice Against Corruption (VOC) Convener and JVP North Central
Provincial Councilor Wasantha Samarasinghe who was instrumental in filing this
complaint said that as far as he knew no action was taken against the minister.
When contacted by The Sunday Leader
Minister Rajitha Senaratne refuting these allegations said that although there
had been a complaint that had been lodged against him at the Bribery
commission, so far he had not been called for any investigation.
This is done by Wimal Weerawansa’s people
and although I heard about it, so far I have not been informed of any
investigation that has been initiated.”
With regard to the allegations that then
minister had engaged Chinese vessels illegally to fish in local waters he said
it is not only the Chinese but Japanese vessels were also used. If we had not
met our target of 362 metric tons we would have lost our quota.”
The EU is taking 52% while the other states
only take 48%, but no one is talking about that,” said the minister.He further
said that it was only a temporary measure and in order to meet the quota, we
need to have larger vessels. Pointing to Thailand as an example the minister
said that they had engaged around 100 foreign vessels, and we would need to
consider that option in the future too. The minister also said that this is not
being highlighted by the media and it was not something that could be
understood by everyone.
This is something to do with international
affairs and ordinary people don’t understand this situation,” added minister
Senaratne.
Need
of the hour is not reducing existing interest rates ,but imposing rules on all
private and public banks to write off loans or postpone repayment and servicing
interest for at least four years ,to overcome the difficulties of
hotel owners ,industrialists ,caused by the Easter bomb blast.
I am
in a boutique hotel for the holiday generally patronised by upmarket
clientele at about 40 000 rs per night ,sold at less than 1/4th of the pice,
They
are unable to service loans taken from banks .Staff is reduced to only a few
.Place is deserted.
Staff
is reduced and chef doubles as front office manager,waiter doubles as bell boy
to cut costs .
Only
one Austrian young couple who have braved to come to this country who stayed in
the hotel.
Occupancy
10 %
I
thanked them for coming to our country in these difficult times.
Such
an industry ruined by the short sighted rulers ,who had no sense of the danger
faced by the country and let the unimaginable happen.
This
is worse than the times during 30 years of war.
Banks
declare hefty profits and toprung mangers drawing thumping salaries.
GOVERNMENT
SHOULD ENFORCE SOME EXTRAORDINARY LAW AND FORCE BANKS TO FREEZE PAYMENTS FOR
AT LEAST FOUR YEARS UNTIL THE INDUSTRY RAISE THEIR HEADS .
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. The party successfully carried out the well-planned strategy to save the United National Party (UNP) from the embarrassment of a defeat at a No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against Rishad Bathiudeen, by tabling an NCM against the Government, and at the same time managed to convince its cadres that the Party still considers the capitalist UNP as enemy number one.
The JVP has deviated from the position of anti-capitalist (read: anti-UNP), and became the most trusted supporter of Ranil Wickremesinghe. While voting with the UNP in all previous No-Confidence Motions against the Government, the JVP suddenly found that the party cadres, especially the young radicals, were not happy about the pro-UNP stance of the Marxist party. As there is a good possibility of JVP cadres crossing over to the more radical Forward Party (Peratugami), the JVP now wants to attack the UNP too, at least in public.
After the Easter Sunday Explosions, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake decided to attack the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe for the ills of the country. At the same time, the party obviously have an understanding with the UNP. The moment the Opposition tabled a No-Confidence Motion against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in Parliament, for his alleged links with Islamist terrorists, the JVP came out with another NCM, this time against the Government. This was a clear tactic to confuse the issue.
The vote of the No-Confidence Motion, tabled by the JVP against the Government, was taken up last Thursday, and defeated by 27 votes. Some of the ardent critics of the Government were among the absentees in Parliament, including Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Duminda Dissanayake, S.B.
Nawinna, Dunesh Gankanda, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Ashoka Priyantha, Douglas Devananda, Shivashakthi Anandan, and V. Radhakrishnan. The NCM was tabled against the Government for failing to prevent the Easter Sunday Bombings. The UNP and TNA voted against the NCM, accumulating a total of 119 votes, while the Joint Opposition and JVP voted in favour of the motion, reaching 92 votes in total.
Last-minute bribery tactic
The JVP Leader said Premier Wickremesinghe deployed his usual last-minute bribery tactic on the TNA, in order to save face, and defeat the No-Confidence Motion brought against his government. According to him, the bribe was the promise to form a separate District Council for Kalmunai. Dissanayake alleged that Minister Mangala Samaraweera has even done the needful, including approving the necessary cadre, in order to set the procedures in motion, to realise the promise made to the TNA, in exchange for their votes.If Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sampanthan took the right decision, this NCM could have been defeated because the Government had only 105 against the motion even by this morning,” Dissanayake said after the NCM defeat.
When President Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister in October 2018, the JVP came out openly in support of the UNP Leader. The JVP Leader’s argument was, his party did not care who will be the Prime Minister, but were troubled about the unconstitutional method used to get rid of Wickremesinghe and appoint Rajapaksa. Without giving a chance to explain the policies of the new Prime Minister, the JVP Leader jumped to the conclusion that this person will not be able to come up with a new plan to initiate a good political culture, or a good economic policy for this country. We do not have faith in any person from either side.”
After extending support to the Government to defeat the NCM, the TNA has proved that it was an ally of the UNP. Thus, TNA Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan indirectly acknowledged that his appointment as Opposition Leader earlier was wrong. All the TNA MPs – barring Shivashakthi Anandan, who abstained – voted against the NCM.
The TNA is using the current political developments to its advantage, with its dual principle of supporting Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNF, while criticising the Government, to appease the North and the East vote base. The JVP-sponsored NCM against the Government was doomed to be defeated, because it was tabled with the intention of safeguarding Rishad Bathiudeen. If there was a vote on the NCM against Bathiudeen, there was a strong possibility of victory, as, in addition to the Joint Opposition members and SLFP members, a fair section of the UNF, TNA and JVP would have voted for the NCM.
UNP and TNA Christian MPs
The UNP and TNA Christian MPs were planning to vote against Rishad Bathiudeen at that time. The NCM against Bathiudeen lapsed with his resignation from the Cabinet. Those UNP and TNA members, who openly said that they would vote for the NCM against Bathiudeen, could not vote for the JVP-sponsored NCM, as it was against the Government. In the debate, the JVP Leader said the Government has failed to ensure the security of the country’s people, as evidenced by the Easter Sunday Terror Attacks. Moreover, it has now been clearly established that the Government failed to heed numerous warnings about an impending terrorist attack by Zahran Hashim and his associates.”
Accordingly, the Government has no moral right to be in charge of the security of the country or its people,” he said, and pointed out that what was in power now was a minority Government, with just 106 MPs sitting on the Government side, while 118 MPs were in the Opposition. He called on Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa to ensure that all UPFA MPs were present in Parliament, to vote for the NCM. He also called on TNA Leader R. Sampanthan to ensure that the TNA votes in support of the NCM.
After the NCM is approved, this Parliament has a duty to pass another resolution by a 2/3 majority, dissolving this Parliament, and paving the way for an early General Election, so that the people can elect a new Government. It is what the people deserve,” Dissanayake said.
Now that the NCM is defeated, one anxiously awaits to see if the JVP would vote against Rishad Bathiudeen, if he becomes a Minister once again, and an NCM was brought against him by the Opposition.
Karachi, July 16 (The Express Tribune): This month a teenage Hindu girl, Payal Kumari, was abducted by her teacher from district Thatta. Police looked the other way as Payal went missing for several days before appearing to record her statement at a madrassa.
Payal joins the thousands of Hindu girls in Pakistan who are either abducted or leave of their own accord and end up converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man. Human rights groups estimate that 20 or more Hindu girls are abducted every month in Pakistan.
Krishan Sharma, Chairman of the Minority Rights Commission, tells me that there is institutional support for these conversions. What we see is that the recurring cases of forced conversion continue to make headlines. But nothing else.
This goes against Article 20 of the Pakistan Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion. The government is under obligation to safeguard the fundamental rights of all without discrimination based on religion, faith, or belief.
Sharma concedes that not all such cases are of abductions and in some instances the girl elopes with the man. This was not the case with Payal, says her family. Her brother Rakesh says if that was the case, his sister would have not left her gold ornaments and her savings. She would also have carried her dresses and they would have produced themselves in the court on the very same day. But she left home wearing ordinary clothes and chappals.
But as Sharma points out, even when it is done out of their freewill, one can only wonder how underage girls convert and marry. Both the lower and higher courts of Pakistan have failed to follow proper procedures in cases that involve accusations of forced marriage and forced conversions. The Islamabad High Court, for instance, declared in April 2019 that it was within the law for Hindu sisters Reena and Raveena to convert to Islam and stay with their husbands even though they were under-age.
The two underage sisters – Raveena aged 13 and Reena aged 15 – were kidnapped by a group of men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. The authorities did nothing for their recovery. Instead, the local police said such cases are common and advised the family to wait and see.
And sure enough, after days of their disappearance, these girls appeared before a madrassa that converted them and solemnised their marriage.
For all practical purposes, Pakistan has failed to fulfil its obligations under Constitutional provision and international treaties to protect the rights of vulnerable minorities from forced conversions and forced marriages. Things would be different if a bill was proposed by members of the minority community.
The Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill has failed to become a law. The Sindh Assembly passed the bill moved by PML-F lawmaker Nand Kumar against forced conversions in November 2016 but the then PPP-led Sindh government asked the-then governor, Justice (retd) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui not to ratify it and send it back for reconsideration following concerns shown by some religious quarters. The bill was, however, never re-assessed or discussed in the Assembly, despite the fact that the ruling party counted it among its achievements towards safeguarding minorities’ rights.
Since then, the bill has been kept blocked by the mobilisation of rightist groups and parties. A group of religious scholars, as well as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), termed the bill against the basic principles of Islam. Religious parties in Karachi launched a campaign against the bill in order to pressurise the Sindh government into repealing it. The Jamaat-e-Islami argues that there could be no age limit on people converting to Islam.
Thus far women rights groups have been focusing on how the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 puts the legal age of wedlock at 18 years. This is a good place to start. In fact, adopting a purely legal perspective serves to take some of the pressure off the Hindu community; which increasingly lives in fear of reprisals or worse.
The way forward must see a concerted effort – led by the political set-up but in collaboration with civil society and right groups as well as moderate clerics — to frame forced conversion within the context of child marriage as not only statutory rape but also ethnic cleansing. It is time the government took a stand.
As troubled Afghanistan moves towards a partial withdrawal of American troops; an end to violence; and a political solution, the presence or influence of China, Russia and Pakistan in that country has increased perceptibly.
Despite its accusation that Pakistan is not doing enough to contain terrorism on its soil and also in Afghanistan; despite its trade and strategic conflict with China; and its stand-off with Russia over issues relating to the Middle East, the US has roped in these very countries to help it get out of the mess in Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Afghan troops, militants, and civilians have died every year in the last 18 years of US involvement. Even today, there are 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan either training government troops or participating in commando operations against the Taliban.
US Ropes in Pakistan
The US has roped in Pakistan to help it settle issues with the Taliban because Pakistan and the Taliban have had close historical ties.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be meeting President Donald Trump in Washington on July 22 to discuss a wide range of issues including Pakistan’s present and future role in Afghanistan.
The meeting comes after the seventh round of US-Taliban talks in Doha in which the two sides had reached a draft agreement on four basic issues: counterterrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, a ceasefire, and intra-Afghan talks.
Pakistan won a place in the high table on Afghanistan by being an intermediary between the Taliban and external parties such as Beijing, Moscow and Washington. This, it had been able to do without diluting its basic stand that there could be no lasting peace in Afghanistan unless the primacy of Taliban is recognized and guaranteed by all parties. It took the regional and global powers-that-be a long time to realize this simple truth.
According to former Indian Ambassador, M.K.Bhadrakumar, the US has assigned to Pakistan the role of ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a lab of terrorists” as President Donald Trump put it.
According to the White House, the Trump-Imran talks will focus on strengthening cooperation between the United States and Pakistan to bring peace, stability, and economic prosperity to a region that has seen far too much conflict.” This must be music to the ears of Imran Khan because Pakistan is facing severe financial problems.
It is difficult to say what exactly the White House statement meant when it said that the US will keep in sight the goal of creating the conditions for a peaceful South Asia and an enduring partnership between our two countries.”
Perhaps it means that the US will restrain India if the latter becomes belligerent towards Pakistan and intensifies its policy of isolating Pakistan globally on the plea that Pakistan is the launching pad for cross-border terrorism.
However, what is likely is that the US might step up military aid to Pakistan. Gen Mark Milley, who is Chief of Staff of the US army, told the Senate Armed Forces Committee recently, that Trump had recognized Pakistan as a key partner in achieving US interests in South Asia, including developing a political settlement in Afghanistan; defeating Al Qaeda and ISIS-Khorasan; providing logistical access for US forces; and enhancing regional stability”.
Gen.Milley argued for closer military ties with Pakistan. Former US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, told a gathering in Colombo recently that the Obama Administration under which he worked, had erred by cutting off military ties with Pakistan. As a result of this, the US lost touch with a whole generation of Pakistani military officers,” Blake said.
Accommodating China
In a move welcomed by Islamabad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has kept China in the loop on the Doha talks with the Taliban. Last month, Beijing itself had hosted Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Prior to this, in 2018, China had met Taliban leaders on several occasions.
China’s Economic Route To Afghanistan
China has only recently begun playing a role in bringing about peace in Afghanistan. But it had been quietly making economic inroads into that country since 2006.
According to the latest report of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan done by the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), a Kabul-based think tank, China is now Afghanistan’s largest business investor. Chinese companies have been involved in construction projects.
Beijing has an interest in Afghanistan’s vast deposits of essential minerals such as lithium (used in mobile phone batteries). China has won rights to the Amu Darya Basin oil in the north and the massive Mes Aynak copper mine near Kabul, though work on these projects has suffered because of the bad security situation.
In 2016, China and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding. In September 2016 the first direct freight train from China reached the Afghan border town of Hairatan. An air corridor linking Kabul and the Chinese city of Urumqi was also opened. In May 2017, Afghan officials attended the international Belt and Road Forum in China, and in October Afghanistan joined China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which funds BRI projects.
According to DROPS, China has pledged huge support” for building railways in Afghanistan. In 2017, China convened a trilateral dialogue with Pakistan and Afghanistan to discuss extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan.
China’s Anxieties
However, all these ambitious economic plans would hinge on the assurance of safety and security, which have always been a question mark in Afghanistan. One of the main reasons for China’s increasing involvement in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan is the fear that Afghanistan-based Islamic terror groups might infiltrate into Muslim-majority Xinjiang where there has been continuous resistance to Chinese domination.
Beijing’s anxiety about security started growing when the US began to scale down its military presence in Afghanistan in 2011. To protect itself, China built a base in Badakhshan Province and funded a Mounted Brigade. It launched the Quadrilateral Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism (QCCM) with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Since 2015, China has been involved in a number of multilateral peace initiatives, including the Quadrilateral Coordination Group and, more recently, the Moscow Format”.
Beijing has cultivated good ties with the Taliban, meeting them several times in 2018. It was in early 2015 that China began facilitating talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. But deteriorating relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the Taliban made these efforts ineffective.
Therefore, China arranged talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It set up a Trilateral Crisis Management Mechanism. In December 2017, China hosted trilateral talks where the three countries called on the Taliban to join the talks process.
Pakistan and China played a key role in brokering a ceasefire deal. Interestingly, the Taliban agreed to declare a ceasefire only if Pakistan and China became its guarantors.
Ties With Kabul Regime
While all this was going on, China maintained close ties with the Afghan government as well. It signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborly Relations with Kabul regime in 2006. Two years later, Chinese companies won a US$ 3 billion contract to extract copper from the Mes Aynak mines in Logar province. In September 2017, China gave US$ 90 million towards development projects in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province alone.
In the past three years, China has also extended more than US$70 million in military aid to Afghanistan, according to Ahmad Bilal Khalil, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul.
In the telecommunications sector, China’s role has grown from supplying Afghanistan with telecom equipment in 2007 to the construction of fiber-optic link in 2017.
(The featured image at the top shows a Taliban delegation headed by Maulana Abdul Ghani Baradar in China for talks)
During the last so many years we have
agonized over the unsatisfactory state of affairs in our body politic and the
helplessness of its citizens. If we are to survive this madness, simply
switching off or merely ridiculing the current crop of Parliamentarians will
not deliver. We must actively canvass our good intentions to rectify the gross
abuses of the so-called democracy that we are corralled into. Our reform agenda
should be known to those around us and thereby encourage a vigorous debate about
how we plan to see happen. After almost five years of disenfranchisement we
must seize the upcoming opportunity to educate the public. Mere bleating will
not give us the future we deserve.
Remember the famous words of the French
lawyer and philosopher, Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) that every nation gets
the government it deserves. If we lose interest by giving lame excuses, or wash
our hands off the whole enterprise of politics then we will get the sort of government
that we deserve. It is understandable that many people of good intellect are
disengaged right now because of the parlous state of politics but we are a
resourceful people once and we can do better. The opportunity will come at the forthcoming
elections and hence let us be prepared. To do nothing is to acquiesce.
What then are the steps to recovery? First,
we need to understand current reality with clarity. It must be grasped that it is
not the time to support candidates who are unable to garner a winnable
proportion of votes. We need a candidate who has earned credits through past
performance to be at the starting point. We will not find candidates who are
totally unblemished. Even with certain misgivings we are duty bound to go for a
candidate who has the potential to muster more than 50 precent of the votes,
Therefore the mushrooming, inexperienced new faces have to be cleared out for
the moment so as not to spoil the chances of one who can win.
Second, stated very briefly the need of
the hour is a courageous leader with reasonable intellect, who is willing to
work with professional opinion, who can work according to plans and policies,
with the interests of the suffering people of this nation at heart. That is real democracy at work. We need no
new laws. Such claims are a chimera to dupe the masses. The country has all the
laws necessary for good governance. But you must let the institutions that are
there work without crass political interference. The bureaucracy must be made
to work efficiently. Let not the legislators dictate terms to the bureaucrat. The
heads of departments should set the example by not heeding the politician’s
dictates. If they resign in disgust the whole working population must down the
tools. Let the high end of the professions take the lead. We have seen how the 17th
amendment made matters worse. The Parliament, the role of the Speaker, the
procedures, and the opposition deserve their due place. Do not make the Parliament
a sick joke by getting rejects through the back door. Killing off democratic
institutions is one sure way for nations to fail and we are just standing at
the edge. A law is a law, which has come through correct passage in the
Parliament. Not one that has been crookedly altered half way through. We need a
democracy in the spirit of the law and not in the form of the law. Do not allow
our Nation to Fail
Third, we need to broaden democracy. The
modern state is too complex and Parliament will not have the intelligence by
itself to administer the nation. We cannot get experts to adorn the seats at
Diyawanna Oya. We are not a successful democracy because we have not reached
the kind of economic development coupled with high education and maturity to
have a sizeable middle class. For sixty per cent of the people life is a fight
for basic survival and elections are won through taxpayer’s money offered as bribes
and the country is made poorer after every election.
Constitutional Councils and Police
Commissions fail because they are manipulated to appoint cronies to important places
to do the bidding of the corrupt politician. But broadening democracy means a
senate or council of public men and women, experts not orators, a Council assisting
the popularly elected President. It is given adequate powers to curb
irresponsible talk and action. The one thing that our country, steeped in debt,
needs is financial management by specialists. Britain set an example and
precedent in 1997 when it transferred control over interest rates from
politicians to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) whose advice cannot be
ignored by the politicians. In that MPC are four from the Central bank, an economist,
an academic and two others with specialized knowledge. Vital aspects of our
nation must be given to such Council(s) of excellence. Others like power and
energy, environment, come to my mind.
The Fourth is in the area of Defence and
Foreign policy. A person who has the interest of the country is desperately
needed. We need a patriot who can communicate with the world even without an
interpreter standing in the middle. Sri Lanka’s location is becoming a matter of concern but Sri Lanka need not
build military alliances with new emerging powers. Without compromising our non-aligned
stance we need to keep them all at arms length and stay neutral from a military
perspective. Having the nation’s interest at heart let us pursue economic
cooperation and technological collaboration and maintain multiple links for
military training and joint exercises and be an independent friend in the
Indian Ocean and not a power pawn of any super power. We need a strong
willed patriotic individual assisted by professionals to lead the nation at the
forthcoming contest. Time is of the essence.
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