{"id":144924,"date":"2024-10-13T16:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=144924"},"modified":"2024-10-13T16:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:16:02","slug":"the-fate-of-sri-lankas-first-last-woman-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/10\/13\/the-fate-of-sri-lankas-first-last-woman-prime-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fate of Sri Lanka\u2019s First & Last Woman Prime\u00a0Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 06-12 October 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Opposition forces are involved in an imperialist conspiracy<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

to make President Anura Dissanayake the 2nd<\/sup>  Gotabaya\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 former Minister Wimal Weerawansa<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Si vis pacem para bellum<\/em> \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want peace, prepare for war\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some like their sutra in punchy praetorian Latin. The Washington-based IMF (Import Mafia Front) is making us an offer we apparently can\u2019t refuse. The US even ordered their Pacific Fleet commander Steve Koehler to go after Sri Lanka\u2019s new President this week. In \u2018Greek\u2019 fashion, they also \u2018gifted\u2019 us some mothballed antiquarian hardware to enable surveillance. But not too much, and not too farther afield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Slit loose skirt soon followed crisp starched uniform. After the US Navy Commander (steeled fist<\/em>), USAID Chief (silk glove<\/em>) Aunty Sam Power called on President AK Kumara virtually. US delegations seem to divide into these 2 sartorial subspecies: uniform & skirt. Though the corporate suits are never far behind\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Although IMF actions are said to be devoid of politics,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they may also be linked to the country\u2019s strategic importance\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 <\/strong>Nimal Sanderatne, Sunday Times<\/em> (see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanderatne, a weekly columnist in an oligarchic newspaper group (he\u2019s also a shareholder in, famed for its anglomania), seems to have suddenly awoken from the hopium of \u2018free trade<\/em>\u2019 \u2013 a policy pushed after England gained a monopoly over modern machine industry and the seas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The New York-based Fitch Ratings Agency <\/strong>said this week they will only erase the stigma of Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018Default Rating (DR)\u2019, <\/strong>after Sri Lanka has normalised the relationship with the international financial community\u201d.  Normalization<\/em><\/strong>? This means: \u2018The sovereign\u2019s completion of a commercial debt restructuring<\/strong>.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/strong>\u2018International financial community\u2019 is an even more inbred subset of that \u2018international community<\/em>\u2019: a humorous euphemism for the IMF\u2019s master \u2013 the USA \u2013 and its armed poodles scampering along. The IMF is promising stability<\/em> if we agree to their colonial number crunching which essentially casts us into forever debt-bondage to fund their forever wars<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     French news poodle AFP referring to Sri Lanka\u2019s President as \u2018Leftist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake\u2019 and an \u2018avowed Marxist\u2019, insists the IMF\u2019s \u2018painful austerity measures for Sri Lanka were \u2018bearing fruit\u2019 and \u2018must be sustained\u2019. All the thinktanks and import mafias feel they can tie any elected government in knots: \u2018Dissanayake has little room to reshape the terms of the IMF deal.\u2019 \u2018There are certain red lines that the IMF will not agree to negotiate,\u2019 declared India regional Borah merchant prince Murtaza Jafferjee, head of the US-funded thinktank Advocata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Perhaps it is this onslaught that has finally inspired the National Freedom Front\u2019s Weerawansa & Democratic Left Front\u2019s Vasudeva Nanayakkara to call for supporting the presently ruling NPP. They have not gone further and called for a \u2018national salvation\u2019 government. The nation however is being subject to another costly and bruising parliamentary election. Local elections will follow, aimed at dividing the country, if the NPP does not go along with NATO\u2019s prescriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     What may we do? India\u2019s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar also dropped in on Sri Lanka this week to deliver their perfunctory amendments to any excessive enthusiasm. This week\u2019s ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> reproduces Kalinga Seneviratne<\/strong>\u2019s Sri Lanka: Home-grown \u2018Color Revolution\u2019 Needs Support Both from India & China<\/em>. <\/strong>He believes it is time China & India form an alternative to the Paris Club<\/strong> dominated by the European & Japanese creditors to assist Sri Lanka\u2019s transformation. India, however, remains a colonial outpost: Jaishankar believes \u2018if<\/strong> India & China can cooperate, they can bail out more countries, not only Sri Lanka<\/strong>\u2019. So then, what\u2019s the problem? There are those pesky colonial borderline hangovers in the Himachal, etc, Jaishankar reminds. Not to mention, Trincomalee\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     But then The Island<\/em> on 8 October offered this happy headline on an essay borrowed from The Conversation<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018UK\u2019s deal with Mauritius will be a win for all<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all?<\/em> This \u2018deal\u2019 allows the USA to launch bombardments of Iran. Supposedly, Diego Garcia is the only land base from which they can bomb Iran (5,000km away \u2013 without retaliation from Iran?). The USA can also bomb Sri Lanka (2,000km from Diego Garcia) and India. India too, however, has agreed to this \u2018deal\u2019 that permits the US to maintain for another 99 years at least, an illegal base in the Indian Ocean (which somehow permitted \u2018Sri Lanka Tamils\u2019 to land there and demand refugee status from England, providing for yet another media diversion from the colonial question!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     ee<\/em><\/strong> reported in August, on the US & Australia practicing bombing exercises there. African analysts see this deal with Mauritius (a member of the African Union\/AU & the Southern African Development Community\/SADC) as further evidence of the US escalations of war on Asia & Africa (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). This is also evident in Colorado State University Prof Peter Harris in The Conversation<\/em>\u2019s puffery, stating England coulda simply played da tuff guy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018London could probably have defied international opinion if it had wanted to. Nobody would have forced England to halt its illegal occupation of the Chagos Archipelago.<\/strong> But such a course would have badly undermined England\u2019s global reputation and its ability to criticise others for breaches of international law\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This agreement will give England exactly what it wanted: a continued presence on Diego Garcia that conforms with international law\u2026 The US is another clear winner from the deal<\/strong>. In fact, hardly anything will change for the USA. Washington will continue working closely with London, and not need to negotiate an agreement with Mauritius on its rights to the base or the status of forces. Indeed, Pentagon officials should be thrilled that their base on Diego Garcia has been put on firm legal footing<\/strong>. This is something that England alone was unable to offer. The bilateral agreement with Mauritius will ensure the security of the base for 99 years \u2013 no small feat<\/strong>\u2019 (ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, England claims deal with Mauritius and India to grab Diego Garcia to be \u2018a win for all\u2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018With the support of the non-aligned movement, Sri Lanka introduced a proposal to the United Nations <\/strong>General Assembly in October 1971, on making the Indian Ocean a Zone of Peace<\/em><\/strong>. Although no country openly opposed or voted against it \u2013 that would have signaled support for Cold War tensions & superpower rivalry \u2013 \u2026the major powers \u2013 France, England, the Soviet Union, and the USA \u2013 abstained. In 1972, Sirimavo made a highly publicized and successful state visit to China, where she met with Mao. She described the relationship between the 2 nations as a model of inter-state relations\u201d. By the end of 1976, China had become one of Sri Lanka\u2019s leading trade partners.\u2019 \u2013 Rathindra Kuruwita, Which Candidate Is China Likely to Back in Sri Lanka\u2019s 2024 Presidential Election? (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Sri Lanka had already become China\u2019s largest trade partner outside the East European Economic Common Market, after entering into the 1952 Rubber-Rice Pact<\/strong>, which has remained Sri Lanka\u2019s most successful trade agreement. The Ceylon-China Rubber-Rice Pact was fully opposed by a US-dominated Central Bank. The name Bandaranaike, at least of the elders, still resounds in the most populous country in the world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Comparing present PM Harini Amarasuriya to former PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world\u2019s first female head of government, would be unscientific, let alone unfair. It\u2019s still laughable to hear the tweets in oohs & aahs <\/em>of the so-called \u2018international (read: paleface) community\u2019 about Sri Lanka\u2019s civil-ized gender choice, as if apes had finally learnt to use imported toilet paper. The more apt comparison is between Sirimavo and AKD!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As for Sirimavo<\/strong>, let\u2019s see how they treated that first woman president! They had assassinated her husband after his government attempted to institutionalize investment (a development bank) for industry, and, worse, for establishing relations with the USSR & New China. They attempted to militarily coup her, after she nationalized petroleum distribution. After she kicked out the English military bases and the US Peace Corps, they bribed ministers to split her government to maintain the colonial media monopoly. They lubricated an \u2018insurgency\u2019 of more expeditious utopians to, again, split her government. They removed her civil rights, lubricated another internecine insurgency in the south to prevent her return. And it is unclear how they finally pushed her aside. Who is \u2018they<\/em>\u2019, you may ask? Ask yourself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is (or was) a litmus test to measure the political colors of Colombots by daring to utter the name Sirimavo<\/em> \u2013 even the blackest face turns red, the whitest pales. New names have been added to the pandemonium & pantheon. Rajapakses, for instance. Will AKD minus his AK be next? His family is his cadre party. Does 1962 plus 1971 add up to 2024?  Or 1965, that year Hollywood claims was dangerous for living?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It is strange that Sirimavo (if readers will forgive the familiarity) appears to have left no diaries \u2013 diaries we are told is a quintessential feminine art \u2013 and there is little scholarship about her statecraft, unlike about her husband, or her leading nemesis, JR Jayawardena. Instead, we are treated to the diversionary diaries of some of Sirimavo\u2018s secretaries, some of whom offer other readings of her \u2018anti-imperialism\u2019 \u2013 undermined as usual by political, military and economic warfare, overt and sotto sotto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

So here we are, still in the midst of colonial warmongering and media fog. The whites keep blocking access to energy sources, and seek to maintain control over trade, hindering relations with the East. This ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> therefore reproduces Garvin Karunaratne<\/strong>\u2019s scan of the history of Sri Lanka\u2019s Divisional Development Councils Program (1970-77<\/strong>): \u2018The DDCP<\/strong> addressed rural unemployment by encouraging cooperatives for agricultural, industrial and infrastructural projects<\/strong>.\u2019 He believes, the DDCP is a blueprint that can be immediately implemented almost entirely with existing staff and can get into production mode within months. The DDCP was \u2018a socialist concept\u2019, engineered & promoted by \u2018the Marxist group of ministers in the Cabinet\u2019, until they were forced to leave the government in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This 6-year-old ee<\/em><\/strong> blog is dedicated to SBD de Silva<\/strong>. De Silva was a secretary to the Minister of Industries<\/strong> during a part of the early 1970s. He believed the then-government underestimated the enormity of the effort involved in the setting up a modern industrial state, and the power of the import mafia. He concluded the country needs a coordinated political, economic and military program to overcome underdevelopment. Karunaratne himself notes that the DDCP had to weed out \u2018people who pretended to have industries in an attempt to secure allocations of foreign exchange, import and sell the goods in the market instead of engaging in production\u2019. But it appears to have been even worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     SBD de Silva recalled how a rentier capitalist class<\/strong> arose during the \u2018exchange controls regime\u2019 from 1972-77. This stands as a warning to the present NPP. These rentiers solidified their economic rule by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Evading exchange controls<\/strong> through bribery<\/strong>, deception<\/strong>, corruption<\/strong> & illegal smuggling<\/strong> in of foreign goods. Acute shortages of goods in the domestic market stemming from world oil price increase<\/strong>, world food shortage<\/strong> and dearth of domestic foreign reserves<\/strong> created stupendous margins for smugglers<\/strong> and traders of foreign goods<\/strong> whose rate of profit surpassed the industries operating within the legal framework and thereby increased their financial dominance over weakly constituted merchant-manufacturing interests\u2019 <\/strong>(see Dhanusha Pathirana & Chandana Aluthge\u2019s A History of Underdevelopment & Political Economy of Inflation in Sri Lanka<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weak exchange controls ended up reinforcing the dominance of rentier capitalist class that arose after 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2022 There seems to be an overproduction of economic commentators offering Sri Lanka advice<\/em><\/strong> on how to deal with its economic challenges. All talk about numbers alone. From Harvard to Oxford to Gothenburg, none dare even come close to talking about the need for industrialization, let alone the types of modern industrialization we need<\/strong> to unshackle ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Sri Lanka needs to prioritize our own industrialization<\/strong>, notes Radhika Desai & the Nicholases, no other country can do that for us (see Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). This requires an enormous amount of state intervention \u2013 large-scale planning<\/strong> is required to break from underdevelopment. \u2018It\u2019s not going to happen via the free market.\u2019 A new international division of labor based on export-oriented industrialization has been incubated at innumerable imperialist thinktanks. The IMF has also set a minefield for this government. A rather unique Central Bank Act<\/strong> now prohibits them from buying any government debt<\/strong>, inhibiting any type of activist intervention. They\u2019ve tied the hands of this government<\/strong> \u2013 \u2018virtually all the foreign exchange that\u2019s going to be earned is going to be used to repay debt in the future and our debt burden is massive<\/strong>\u2019. (see Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

A1. Reader Comments<\/strong> \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The Fate of Sri Lanka\u2019s First & Last Woman Prime Minister<\/a><\/blockquote>