{"id":137397,"date":"2023-10-01T17:26:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T00:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=137397"},"modified":"2023-10-01T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T00:26:49","slug":"sri-lankas-lost-middle-class-debts-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/10\/01\/sri-lankas-lost-middle-class-debts-in-the-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Lost Middle Class: Debts in the\u00a0Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News 24-30 September 2023<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I was there at Torrington Square when we received Independence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched with contempt our PM arriving there in top hat & tailcoat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was there at the Town Hall when Bandaranaike formed his party.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was on the streets of Kandy cheering away when the \u201956 victory<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

was announced. I was in depths of despair when JR Jayewardene<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

hoodwinked the entire nation with his Dharmista slogan and pushed<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

his neoliberal economic policy on us which resulted in 2 insurrections,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

one in the South & one in the North.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Gunadasa Amarasekera<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Gamanaka Mula to Gamanaka Aga \u2013 the Wayward Journey of the Middle Class <\/em><\/strong>gathers Gunadasa Amarasekera\u2019s reflections over the last 75 years, in the home, on the street, across the seas, and on the page. As Colombo\u2019s anglomaniacs prepare to launch yet another \u2018international\u2019 (minus Sinhala, actually a white) literary farce at a colonial Southern fortress, only open to what the sea drags in, for whom Booker is a delicious prize not another Caribbean (oops, West Indian) slave plantation owner, here is the real story, and it ain\u2019t novel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Politics as such has been outlawed from our serious fiction\u201d, Amarasekera declares. He places today\u2019s modern fabling in dire perspective: His novels forecast Sri Lanka\u2019s trajectory into \u2018a colony of India or USA or of both!\u2019 <\/strong>It is important to remember, World Bank (and IMF) interference in the world and Sri Lanka precedes and prepares for \u2018independence\u2019 (see 10 August 2019, Central Bank Special<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Here then is 1977 times 10: JR\u2019s media & other strategies, carrot&stick \u2013 and more. Such tactics are usually credited to the \u2018Old Fox\u2019, yet we know those games too were and are prompted by the USA\u2019s IMF, seeking to bribe and fatten certain fractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Here then is the saga of those who sought a \u2018Socialism with Sinhala Buddhist Characteristics\u2019. A tale also of a narrow \u2018middle class\u2019 who lost their way on the journey from village to town, to university & abroad. Their attempts to recover their roots & their Buddhist civilization through white foreign-funded institutions returns them as strangers in their own land: Alienated & marooned abroad, then disillusioned at home, a colonial mentality still imprisons them\u2026and not just them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee<\/em><\/strong> also examines \u2018The Common Dream\u2019 <\/strong>of the present President and a secessionist Tamil leadership, forged and massaged by colonialism. A dream that remains unchanged. ee<\/em><\/strong> has recalled the international merchants of rice and money who have underwritten this leadership process (see ee <\/em><\/strong>07 July 2021, Maharaja\u2019s MTV, Chettiar Bankers & Killer Import Mafia<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Some recall \u2018Sir\u2019 Ponnambalam Arunachalam\u2019s call to the Ceylon Tamil League in 1922 to propagate \u2018precious ideals throughout Ceylon, Southern India and the Tamil Colonies, to promote the union and solidarity of Tamilakam, the Tamil Land\u2026we have been proud to call Tamil Eelam<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Kalyananda Thiranagama examines the founding of the ITAK from 1949. Called the Federal Party in English, \u2018the name of the Party \u2013 Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (or Tamil State Party of Ceylon) itself reflects this dream\u2019 A dream \u2018reiterated in various resolutions passed at their conferences and public declarations at different times.\u2019 It is no surprise therefore that the President, most aware of English and its dissembling histories, has spoken of a \u2018final solution.\u2019 \u2013 a dream to annihilate us all (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Seeking a real Way Forward<\/em><\/strong>, an alarm is being sounded by the Communist Party of Sri Lanka<\/strong>. They point to auguries of \u2018an ungovernable state of anarchy\u2019. \u2018Rightwing forces will not hesitate to allow extra-legal or even military intervention.\u2019 The CPSL is calling on all \u2018progressive, Left & patriotic forces\u2019 to urgently fulfil \u2018their historical responsibility\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     There are organized interests and forces pushing this \u2018anarchy.\u2019 Those politicians & thinktanks who have promoted the chaos of further colonial control of the economy, are now acting contrite:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verit\u00e9 Research Head lambasts Government and IMF<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for<\/em> \u2018privatising profits & socialising losses<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verit\u00e9<\/strong>, a US-funded thinktank, is now trying to deflect from their former reports promoting Domestic Debt Restructuring (DDR<\/strong>). US Verit\u00e9 were the first to put out a paper on DDR, note astute observers. \u2018Now that their own advocacy is coming to bite them in the ass, Verit\u00e9\u2019s headman De Mel is trying hard, but is yet to reach any clarity such as Marx\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only part of the so-called national wealth<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that actually enters into the collective possessions<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of modern peoples is their national debt<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Karl Marx, Capital Vol 1<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other US-funded somebodies & nobodies are fiddling the same coy violins as Verit\u00e9. A future SJB government will \u2018refine<\/em>\u2019 Sri Lanka\u2019s agreement with IMF, promises SJB (actually Trans-UNP!) MP Harsha de Silva. President Ranil Wickremesinghe \u2018hints\u2019 that the IMF\u2019s \u2018ways of negotiation are old\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Those who invited the IMF in, are now backtracking as the people\u2019s anger grows. Having declared a fertile & rich country, bankrupt. Having bankrolled an \u2018Aragalaya\u2019 (Rs250billion, the published \u2018advertising spend\u2019 by capitalists in 2022? Advertising what??) to drive out a popular government, accusing it of all the old sins of colonialism. After escalating the intrusion of the USA\u2019s economic war machinery (notice the US\u2019s Fitch & S&P\u2019s generous \u2018ratings\u2019 on the state of the currency). The World Bank is given headlines for providing more aid (loans?) for \u2018welfare\u2019, even as the IMF is throwing even more people out of work! The US is also providing \u2018thriposha\u2019 to combat malnutrition. The USA\u2019s World Bank are funding a National Debt Management Centre, etc, even as they provide loans (bribes) to the country\u2019s political mercenaries to pursue their commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 So-called diasporas, members of a transnational \u2018middle-class\u2019 who have helped the colonial master rob their country\u2019s resources, are those given \u2018permanent\u2019 residency in those lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feeble response by Sri Lanka\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Canada\u2019s revelations about India\u2019s assassination of a separatist Khalistani leader in Canada, only exposes how our capitalist leaders have no interest in truly setting the record straight. Certain \u2018national questions\u2019 are beggars\u2019 wounds<\/em>, meant to fester until amputation. Indeed, some warn the Minister not to interfere in Canada\u2019s affairs, even as they observe Canada\u2019s blatant interference in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week also saw revelations of Canada\u2019s role as a haven for Europe\u2019s & Asia\u2019s fascists & terrorists. It is no surprise that both Europe & their white settler states have become a refuge for this world\u2019s contras \u2013 their \u2018bastard children\u2019 of nondescript shades. Canada\u2019s own great expertise in manufacturing (after decimating) \u2018tribes\u2019 & identities, derives from their genocide of the original peoples \u2013 which contrary to the Canadian envoy\u2019s utterances gulped by Colombo\u2019s supine media \u2013 continues to this day, and has long been a model for the fascists of this world. Canada has also played a lead role in the ousting of such independence leaders as the Congo\u2019s Patrice Lumumba (assassinated), Ghana\u2019s Kwame Nkrumah (couped), Haiti\u2019s Jean-Bertrand Aristide (kidnapped & couped), etc, etc, and opposed anti-colonial struggles (from Korea to Vietnam, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the actual surreal diaspora, the truth of their day-to-day lives, as ultra-exploited & terribly insecure workers, is yet to be exposed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 A recent parliamentary debate on the April 2019 attacks, heard \u2018reports that those who were in the Aragalaya\u2026 are training militarily in remote locations\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At the same time, Madame Julie Chung is seeking to recruit the leadership of sacred Mihintale to lead the \u2018Nava Aragalaya\u2019. Those readers who follow the twitterings & other targeted meanderings of the US Envoy across the country, observe Chung met the Mihintale Thera recently. They were spotted \u2018seated with\u2026 a Galle Face priest<\/em> who was with Omalpe & the Cardinal\u2019. The Thera is as usual, most honest. A few months ago, the Mihintale Thera justified the entry of the IMF, declaring, \u2018It was the IMF that ruled Sri Lanka\u2026 there are financial issues in the country\u2026the government needs to take drastic measures to address them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     These moves make clear that it is the US that is pushing the \u2018anarchy\u2019 from the so-called Left and the Right. They have the rock\u2019n\u2019roll for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No pirates, no digital salesmen<\/em><\/strong>: US Envoy Julie Chung also recently met \u2018Cyber Security Advisor & Educator\u2019 Asela Waidyalankara \u2013 \u2018Technocrat, Cyber Security Crusader, Privacy Advocate, Futurist, Techcelerator, Proud Sri Lankan\u2019 \u2013 on 27 September 2023. Midst all this hoha about \u2018digital economy, disruptive cyber attacks, draft online safety bill\u2019, Chung twittered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u2018Had a good chat w Asela Waidyalankara on the latest cybersecurity law & critical ways the USA can further support Sri Lanka\u2019s proactive steps to develop its digital economy<\/strong> & mitigate disruptive cyberattacks<\/strong>. Also discussed concerns & far-reaching implications of the draft Online Safety bill on citizens & tech companies.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the onset of last year\u2019s \u2018Aragalaya\u2019, on 9 April 2022 Waidyalankara twittered with a purported photograph of: \u2018A high powered Wi-Fi\/GSM jammer spotted near Presidential Secretariat\u2019, hinting at covert state surveillance. On 20 April 2022, \u2018Anonymous Hacker Collective\u2019 launched cyberattacks \u2018against the Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.\u2019 Waidyalankara was quoted as pointing to the \u2018incredibly fragile e-Government system\u2019 (see\u00a0ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s Lost Middle Class: Debts in the Making<\/a><\/blockquote>