The Sirisena-Ranil Dualism Is A Textbook Case Of Managing Well In Chaotic Times

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –January 10, 2018

Typically, dualist models in governance are hard to work. However, “the Sirisena-Ranil dualism is managing the chaotic situation reasonably well. It is a textbook case of managing in chaotic times.”

Media

Understandably, many criticisms are being made of the Unity Government set up by the UNP and President Maitripala Sirisena. Some of them are fair and some total fabrications and distortions. Ironically, the most vociferous are the print media and TV, which seeing no need to feel grateful for the new freedom they have got, are witnessed lashing at the President and the Prime Minister who are the key architects of the revolution of January 8th. One reason for that, is that the Press finds, at last, some opportunity for enlarged circulation as it creates news and even creates conflict. “Breaking the news,” is always possible and loved by Press people and TV media. The social media has been unaffected as it is free by definition.

 

Why PM-The Target

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is the main target and he is accused off all sorts of bad things. Why? Because, from the Opposition point of view he is the key to the implosion of this government. If he is out, the government falls and President Sirisena will have to beg for mercy at the feet of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda will have to decide if the man is to be sent six feet under ground or be made to be “found missing” in a white van. Ranil out, means Mahinda’s return! Ranil is the main brain behind the YP government and, I tell you, he is hard to beat in the chess game of politics. He happily stonewalls all criticism by a magnificent silence, which I like to call “Ranil’s Silence.” It is somewhat like the Buddha’s silence expressed in the Pottapada Sutra when sixty questions were asked from him by his listeners and he gave only silence. Why,My Lord,” asked a disciple, “ do you not answer my questions?” The Buddha’s responds, “I have answered you.” As a tactician, Ranil is incomparable in contemporary Sri Lankan politics. You never know what he is up to. This is why, the enemies of the yahapalanaya government keep going at him.

Victories Won Cannot be Spirited Away by Distractions

For me, I know where I stand and I know my goal post. I will be honest: I wrote extensively to expose the previous government-as part of the broad civil movement that gathered to liberate the island from the burden of his rule. I will not abandon that ship. Although, I know there are blemishes, I am aware of where I am going. Hence, these imperfections will not distract me. I support president Maitripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the YP government. The government has achieved something substantial in the last three years and it is moving in the right direction. Besides, there isn’t any alternative that can replace it and  further the goal of yahapalanaya. Hence, supporters of the yahapalanaya cause have no option. We must criticise but we must retain the government-both. The victories won cannot be spirited away by distractions.

Return of Democracy

 

Democracy has returned and it is beautiful to see people protesting for their needs, without getting shot like at Rathupaswela. It is beautiful to see journalists writing good criticism and bullshit-both. It is also beautiful to see the Opposition organising itself into an effective force with no-one of them being despatched in white vans. Tolerance is in the air and that is the central triumph of the yahapalanaya government. The British philosopher AC Grayling said: “Tolerance is not only the centrepiece but the paradox of liberalism. For liberalism enjoins tolerance of opposition viewpoints, and allows them to have their say, leaving it to the democracy of ideas to decide which shall prevail. The result is often the death of tolerance itself because those who live by hard principles and uncompromising views… if given half a chance, silence liberals because liberalism, by its nature, threatens the hegemony they wish to impose.”

Government must be mindful of the Grayling wisdom expressed here.

Independent Commissions & Rule of Law

The Independent Commissions are in place in order to ensure a free police, free elections, and  free judiciary. No longer are cases heard at Temple Trees and dissidents assaulted to death there. The judges are free and are seen giving decisions against the government. The freedom of Information Act is law. Thus the second triumph of the yahapalanaya government is the restoration of the rule of law and order

These are mighty things as I love to see my country free of oppression. Ordinary people walking in the streets are not forced to clutch walls and turn their backs until VIP politicos like Gota pass by. with their impressive security entourage.

Bond Case

Much ado is being made over the bond case and the incident has been totally politicised out of proportion but those criticising the government in that regard don’t realise that the very fact that this government has appointed a Presidential Commission in order to investigate the alleged misconduct of its own leaders and officials is an achievement that would never have been dreamt of under the previous dispensation. Self-criticism is permitted as we see Ministers criticising other Ministers.

Constitutional Reform

Besides, the YP government’s top priority for constitutional reform is praiseworthy. It is conducting this major event  in a very consultative way. Constitutional reform is crucial if we are to lift the whole game of our politics by enshrining safeguards for democracy, accountability of political and non-political players in government, bringing in checks and balances to excessive use power, and converting the executive presidency to one of an executive Prime minister accountable to Parliament; ensuring greater women representation, and ensuring better quality of MPs entering Parliament. It is worth protecting the YP government at least until this reform is achieved.

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The bond saga, according to PM

By Saman Indrajith-January 10, 2018, 10:43 pm 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said in Parliament that there had been no transparency in treasury bonds issued during the period of 2008 and 2014 and they too should be investigated.

Making a statement he said that the majority of the bond issuances during the period 2008 to 2014 were done as direct private placements. "There was absolutely no transparency. During this period bonds to the tune of Rs. 5,147,751,210,000 had been issued while of this amount bonds to the tune of Rs. 4,702,232,210,000 had been issued as direct private placements. None of these transactions had received the approval of the Monetary Board."

Prime Minister’s statement: The final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Bond Issuance of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka during the period from February 01, 2015 to March 31, 2016, was handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena on December 31, 2017.

Accordingly, the President made a special statement on January 03. Today I want to clarify further the Committee on Public Enterprises report or the COPE report.

The initial dialogue on the Treasury bond issue was initiated in March 2015. As soon as I informed about this, I appointed a three member committee headed by Attorney Gamini Pitipana. On March 31, 2015, I informed this council. The Pitipana Committee investigated this issue and reported to me. This commission recommended that further investigations were required. This report was tabled in parliament on May 19, 2015. On May 21,2015 we debated this issue in parliament and later it was submitted to COPE.

Thereafter the COPE Committee headed by MP, Sunil Handunnetti, commenced investigations. Through the COPE Committee too, investigations continued into this incident. On October 28, 2016 the COPE Committee report was tabled in parliament. Subsequently, on January 24, 2017 this was debated in parliament.

Meanwhile, on October 31, 2016, this report and the special Audit report presented to the COPE Committee by the Auditor General were both forwarded to the Attorney General by me through the Speaker’s Secretary. Subsequently, through the Prime Minister’s Secretary, I sought the advice of the Attorney General on whether the Central Bank Officers had committed some fraudulent activity and acted beyond their delegated responsibilities, if the Central Bank Governor Arjun Mahendran should be held responsible, and if so what the legal measures are that could be taken against them, based on the recommendations of the COPE Committee.

Accordingly, the AG has appointed a special committee comprising members of the Attorney General’s Department to act in this regard. The Attorney General had notified us in writing in this regard.

Further the Central Bank Governor notified me that there was suspicion of misappropriation of funds of the EPF. Hence, I notified the Central Bank Governor to seek the advice of the AG and conduct an inquiry. Accordingly, the Central Bank Governor had conducted an investigation and on June 09, 2017, handed over its report to the Auditor General.

In addition, I inquired in writing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on the Treasury bond issuance mechanism and of the losses incurred by the Central Bank bond issuance. However, they notified me that they were not aware of an internationally accepted mechanism to determine a previously issued bond auction loss. They said the losses or gains are determined by the market factors on the particular day that the bond auction was held. I have tabled a copy of the letter sent by the World Bank Sri Lanka Director on December 07, 2016.

Since March 2015, our government has taken appropriate measures regarding this issue. All details have been submitted to the Parliament, COPE Committee and the Attorney General’s Office. In addition the President appointed a special commission, which uncovered further details. Now the report has been submitted to the Attorney General.

Meanwhile, on November 07, 2016 the Monetary Board issued an order limiting the operations of Perpetual Treasures Pvt. Ltd and prevented the company’s funds from being taken out. On July 06, 2017, all their business activities were banned. On January 05, 2018 the ban on Perpetual Treasuries was further extended by six months. Accordingly, Rs. 12 billion of Perpetual Treasuries is being held in the custody of the Central Bank. According to the Presidential Commission report, the loss inflicted on the Central Bank in this transaction is Rs. 11 billion. Now what remains to be done is for the Attorney General to initiate the required legal action in order to recover the losses caused to the government through this transaction. Through this the government too could recover any losses incurred.

This is the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that such an investigation was carried out in a fair, unbiased and expeditious manner. This is a very complex investigation process. This is a special victory for the government we established on January 08, 2015. We were able to once again bring the country’s financial control under the supervision of the parliament, after ten years. During the past, parliament was unaware of any such transactions. To say the least, not even the relevant ministers nor responsible officers were aware of certain transactions. But, fortunately we were able to change that situation.

The President further stated that it was noted in the Presidential Commission report that an investigation was necessary to scrutinise the financial misappropriations of the Treasury bond issuances during 2008 to 2014. I have advised the relevant units to investigate these embezzlement expeditiously and take measures to punish the perpetrators.

The majority of the bond issuances during the period 2008 to 2014 were done as direct private placements. There was absolutely no transparency. During this period bonds to the tune of Rs. 5,147,751,210,000 had been issued while of this amount bonds to the tune of Rs. 4,702,232,210,000 had been issued as direct private placements. None of these transactions had received the approval of the Monetary Board.

The Finance Minister at the time should make a statement in parliament regarding this matter. We the representatives of the people, as well as the general public have the right to know about these transactions.

We continuously worked towards strengthening the financial control of the parliament. We have constantly reported to parliament on the country’s financial status. Following that same policy, I reported all matters to parliament.

I intend to discuss with the Chairman of the parliamentary Public Finance Committee regarding the bond issuances during the period 2008 to 2014. It is indeed surprising that the COPE Committee had approved of the Central Bank financial reports during that period.

Today the Treasury bond issue has become a political issue. This bond issue has become a fine goldmine for the various media, political parties and mudslinging factories. Some claim that due to the Treasury bond issue the country’s interest rates had increased, while others claim that the dollar rate had gone up. But let’s not get mislead by all these mudslinging campaigns and seek the truth. By uncovering the truth let’s take the appropriate measures.

As I have reiterated, the President and I are committed to establishing a new political culture in this country. This is a new experience that is complex and hard for those parties who attack each other in political vengeance, to fathom. As the experience is unfamiliar, there could be inadequacies and wrongs that occur, but we must correct them and move forward.

However, no matter what, we are not prepared to sweep everything under the carpet and trample the rule of law, as the previous regime did. We are not prepared to bury social equality.

On January 08 we inherited a country that was caught up in a debt trap. A country that has no law would engulf in corruption and fraud. A country kept in fear over state terrorism.

President Maithripala Sirisena, myself and our government have steered the country on a different path. That path is arduous and treacherous. But we are committed to establish a just and democratic country evading all potholes and booby-traps obstructing our path. 

WHERE EVERY PROSPECT PLEASES AND ONLY MAN IS VILE

  

2018-01-11

These words were written by no less a personality than the late Bishop Heber, hundreds of years ago, about our country - then it was Ceylon - a much more musical sounding name than its present one, Sri Lanka. The words ring true today, when the cruelty of man to man continues unabated in a myriad ways by words, deeds, lies and more lies.

---

• Yahapalanaya government has kept to its promise of transparency and of bowing to the wishes of the people in more ways than one
• Some mongrels from hell also have the audacity to question the Bond Commission report airing their views in print on the web
• It was also a previous UNP government which was the first to have a Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the 70s
• Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe is the last of a rare breed of gentleman politicians

We hear a ruler of yesterday-famed more for dictatorial deeds and corruption than anything else, berating the government over the SAITM issue. Who started this ball rolling? It is a pity that he continues to suffer from selective amnesia about many sins committed during his tenure of office. Then we have his son; anyone with a zero IQ is aware of how he managed to become a lawyer, now airing his views on the report of the Bond Commission and the President’s statement.

We are aware that during the tenure of the former regime, no Commissions were appointed about any allegations of corruption, violence, murders, abductions or anything at all. Those who robbed the country and milked its coffers dry, all got off scot free and those talking big now, because we are free to talk or write as we want, were too frightened to open our mouths, fearing being taken away in white vans, attacked or murdered as happened to so many during their term of office. A brother of the former ruler, who it is rumoured plans to contest the Presidency is printing photographs of himself in front of a bookcase full of books.

We are aware that during the tenure of the former regime, no Commissions were appointed about any allegations of corruption, violence, murders, abductions or anything at all

As he is better known for brawn and other qualities, rather than academics, one wonders if he is copying a similar pose in a picture taken of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe a few years ago. But then we all know that Ranil is an avid reader, who has facts from history, literature and any given subject at his fingertips and can talk knowledgeably on any subject at any time.

The Yahapalanaya government has kept to its promise of transparency and of bowing to the wishes of the people in more ways than one. We also had the resignation of two Ministers which would never have happened during those horrific Rajapakse years. Would a Prime Minister or anyone in high office have come forward voluntarily to give evidence before a commission? If summoned, one can be sure whoever summoned them would never have seen the light of day again but would have suffered a similar fate as the late Lasantha Wickrematunge and others. A grim reversal of the grandeur enjoyed by them while in power seems to have affected them badly, having never ever having had it so good, and thus words seem to leave their mouths before being sorted out in their brain!

Some mongrels from hell also have the audacity to question the Bond Commission report airing their views in print on the web. To my mind, this is contempt of court, for which he should be dealt with severely. These mongrels have been sued earlier, by distinguished Sri Lankans and even for contempt of court. It is rumoured that they tried to settle their lawyers fees with gifting cakes instead of paying the fees! Such men should be left to rot in the drivel they write, as they are not known for their ability to get on with others, even their nearest and dearest! Perhaps their inability to get anywhere in life and earn respect from their fellow beings has affected them.

We also have those trying to lead parties, who are unable to discipline their children and protect them, instead of allowing them to be punished for blatant breaking of rules, in incidents in which the innocent lost their lives. How can they lead parties when they cannot control their own children from going against the rule of law? Young politicians must realize that loyalty to leadership of the party they belong, is a must.

They have to learn to walk before they try to run or march, learn to follow before they try to lead parties, even mushroom ones! We have candidates who have made no contribution in any sphere at all coming forward including some who are trying to ride piggyback on the names of distinguished ancestors. Their behaviour to their own father’s, siblings and spouses cannot earn them the respect of anyone with the correct values and principles! 

Let it not be forgotten that It was this government which kept to its pledge to increase the representation of women in all decision making bodies of government, as can be seen by the many women contesting the local government elections. It was also a previous UNP government which was the first to have a Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the 70s.

The UNP by its very name itself, is for all nationalities in our country. It has never been only for one ethnic group. In its journey throughout our political history, it has embraced all our ethnic and religious groups, which is how it should be. Inciting religious or racist enmity is not part of its political agenda. UNP leaders then and now, have always worked for the preservation of our architectural and cultural heritage and this government has created an oasis of cultured civility among communities.

Some mongrels from hell also have the audacity to question the Bond Commission report airing their views in print on the web. To my mind, this is contempt of court, for which he should be dealt with severely

A Sri Lankan who lives abroad and comes back every few months told me recently that he saw many improvements in every sphere, since he was here last in June. People must see this and not continue to nitpick on issues all the time. We have to be thankful for the freedom that is now ours, devoid of the constant fear of being picked up in a white van, and the rampant corruption during the last regime.

In Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, the last of a rare breed of gentleman politicians, we have a Leader who throughout his tenure as UNP leader, was the fulcrum of the struggle to restore democracy and freedom and was able to achieve it together with President Sirisena. Mongrels from Hell can continue to bark and howl, but the caravan must move on at any cost, to prevent a return to the dictatorship which we had to endure till 2015.The only thing I fault the government with is that they did not speed up the process of dealing with those who robbed the country. This has to be done promptly without further delay.    

Poll: Reader Reactions to CoI report on Central Bank bond issue

GROUNDVIEWS-01/10/2018

On January 10, Parliament will convene for a session to discuss the report released by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Bond Issuance of the Central Bank, which was handed over to the President on December 30, 2017.

President Sirisena released a statement discussing the findings of the report on January 3, 2018. In what was described as a hard-hitting statement, Sirisena said that legal action should be taken against wrongdoers, including Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palihena. Sirisena also said that action should be taken against MP Ravi Karunanayake for revelations made during Commission hearings, to the effect that a penthouse apartment he and his family were occupying was paid for by Arjun Aloysius.

Karunanayake denied the allegations and said that some members of the Government and the Opposition were indulging in character assassination.

In light of this, Groundviews conducted an online poll in order to gauge reader’s reactions to Sirisena’s statement, which discusses some of the content of the final CoI report. President Sirisena said the final report itself would be made public once it was discussed in Parliament. The mainstream media has reported questions around the effectiveness and utility of a Parliamentary debate without the report made available to MPs and in the public domain.
The poll asked the following questions:

1. How confident are you that civil or criminal action will be taken against those implicated in the final report of the Commission of Inquiry?
2. How confident are you that action will be taken against MPs implicated in the report?
3. How efficient do you think the Bribery Commission will be in taking legal action against those implicated in the report?
4. How efficient do you think the CID will be in investigating into the allegations of those implicated in the report?
5. Do you want the full contents of this report to be made public?
6. Do you want the full contents of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Fraud and Corruption to be made public?
7. How confident are you that the CoI reports will be made public, as promised?

130 people took the poll, with the results showing that most were uncertain or simply not confident that any concrete action would materialise from the CoI report, despite Sirisena’s hard-hitting statement.

Most were not confident that any civil or criminal action would be taken after the revelations made in the report.

An even larger number (49% of those who took the poll) were not confident that there would be any action against any MPs named in the report.
There was also uncertainty and some pessimism on the perceived effectiveness of independent Commissions and the CID.

Edit: This piece has been edited to note that the CID will investigate, rather than take legal action against those implicated in the report – legal action will be initiated by the Attorney General’s Department. 
Only a few respondents thought these bodies would be able to operate in an effective manner.
A majority of those who took the poll (over 90% in both cases) said they wanted the full contents of the CoI report on the Bond Issuance, as well as the CoI report into Fraud and Corruption to be made public. Only 20% were somewhat confident and 14% very confident that these reports would be made public at all.



The CoI report and the Commission hearings have been one of the most controversial issues faced by the current Government – during the hearings, allegations were made that MPs phones were being tapped as information on phone calls and even WhatsApp and Viber callswas leaked to the media. This was referred to the Privileges Committee as House Leader Lakshman Kiriella said the MPs privileges had been breached.

Several of the MPs also denied that they had spoken to Arjun Aloysius. Meanwhile, Anika Wijesuriya, who testified before the Commission about Karunanayake leasing the penthouse, fled the country in October following death threats leveled against her. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also testified before the Commission, saying he had nothing to hide. Conversely, and in a somewhat farcical turn of events, Aloysius claimed he did not remember his username and password for his Apple Account, but later tried to delete backup data from his account with his wife’s phone in August.

In a bizarre turn of events, General Secretary of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Udaya Gammanpila said the President had not used his sword to trap the real culprits behind the Bond Issue. He chose to make this statement at a press briefing holding a real sword to make this point, flanked by fellow party members Dammika Rathmale and Madumadawa Aravinda.

The controversy around the issuance of Central Bank bonds dates back to February 27, 2015 when allegations were leveled against Arjun Aloysius and Perpetual Treasuries for insider trading.
January 8, 2018 marks three years since Sirisena was elected. There is increasing evidence of disillusion as President Sirisena falls short of the ambitious promises made in his manifesto. This disillusionment is mirrored in our online poll results, which show that respondents are not confident any meaningful action will be taken as a result of the debate. This is important to keep in mind as Parliament debates the report.

Editor’s Note: For more coverage on this issue, also read “The Bond Issue Controversy: An Analysis” and “The Central Bank Bond Controversy Revisited“. 

Sajin Vass and that thousand rupee fine

 Thursday, 11 January 2018

Sajin Vass Gunawardena was many things to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. As occasion required, confidant, point man, trouble-shooter, go-between, trusted family aid and general factotum. When the Sri Lankan Government was conducting sensitive negotiations with the LTTE in Europe, it was Gunawardena who was the President’s eyes and ears, not his official delegation comprising several distinguished personalities. The President’s character – common, parochial – shaped the style of his Government, gossip and tale carrying valued while distrustful of the independent and objective approach of the professionals.

There are many budget airlines operating in the world. Since so many countries are running budget airlines, it cannot be too difficult. Why don’t we try our hand at it? Perhaps, a case can be made that a budget airline would be a boon for our immigrant workers in the Middle East, an argument that ought to go down well with the voters.

Since no local company will venture into unknown territory; even if they ever had entertained the idea, the bitter experience of SriLankan Airlines would have dispelled any illusion of going into such a grandiose project, especially, if it meant a partnership with the Government. It has to therefore be the Government alone that must take on the job. And, who will question the wisdom of a war-winning President when he recommends a budget airline for the struggling country?

Only there is the small matter of setting up the airline and running it profitably thereafter. Unlike with other airlines such as Singapore, United and Cathay, which needed multi-disciplinary teams of top grade professionals and experts to do feasibility, planning and then setting up, we will simplify the process.

Fortuitously, in the charmed circle of Presidential favourites, is the right man for the job, with a long entrepreneurial record and judged by the President as possessing strict rectitude, so essential when dealing with public money. Again, the judgment of a victorious President is not to be challenged.

In another culture, the Mihin Air saga (named after the then President, who else?) would have been condemned as frivolous dilettantism. But here in this country, it is possible to invest billions of rupees of public money, on a venture, which crash-landed only in a few years; without any accountability.

The then President saw much more than a pioneering entrepreneur and snitch in Gunawardena. Rajapaksa, who boasts many decades of experience in men and matters, thought Sajin Vass would make an ideal people’s representative, conceivably in his own rough and tumble image.

Unmistakable Presidential patronage created a new career path for this man of unbound talent, bringing him into the Southern Provincial Council and then subsequently to the National Parliament. Not stopping there, President Rajapaksa even judged Sajin Vass Gunawardena to be ministerial quality, creating a new post for the young man – Monitoring Minister for External Affairs, the twin of the eminent Duminda Silva, the Monitoring Minister for Defence, under the Rajapaksa presidency.

Now we discover to our amazement that this very public man, had not even filed the mandatory declaration under the Assets and Liabilities Law; in other words, a clear case of a law maker not following the law! Such integrity laws are now a standard feature of the legal framework of most countries.

Generally, a holder of public office, spouse and children, are obliged by law to declare their assets and liabilities. This information is available for public scrutiny under the right to information. In certain countries there are permanent and independent bodies tasked with the function of monitoring the assets (and liabilities) of holders of high office on an on-going basis. The obvious reason for such heightened scrutiny is that good governance demands integrity of public office. For there to be good governance, those who govern must win the confidence of the governed, day after day.

The importance of knowing the extent of the assets and liabilities of our parliamentarians, especially at the start of their career of so-called service, cannot be overemphasised. Unexplained enrichment or asset betterment can only point to corrupt practices or windfall luck from regular visits to Las Vegas; a prospect not too farfetched in Sri Lanka , as very many of our saviours have themselves found salvation in US citizenship.

As a people, we seem to have misunderstood, or have no comprehension of honourable service; a public career considered like any other livelihood, a life-long opportunity to squeeze out anything and everything from it. There is hardly any politician in this country whose financial status has deteriorated on account of a public life.

On the other hand, by becoming a Member of Parliament he acquires comforts and privileges which were way outside of his social strata; foreign travel, vehicles, perks, pensions, government jobs for all near and dear ones; now become standard features of his life. From the day of his election the masses behold a “Sir” and in his wife, a “Madam”. That even the honorific is in the English language form, and not in the much-acclaimed native tongue, is a pointer to the mindset of both the leader, and his following.

It is not as if the man comes equipped to be a parliamentarian, leave alone a minister of the Government deciding on matters amounting to billions of rupees of people’s money. Many of our leaders have known no other employment than politics. Even if they had looked for productive employment at some stage of their lives, it is difficult to imagine a sensible employer wanting to employ persons of such doubtful nature.

This obvious mismatch between the country’s desperate need for good Parliamentarians and the appalling lack of quality in those elected, leads to more money being spent on personal development and education; an amazing number of study courses, seminars and training at universities and other institutions, mainly foreign, are held for them. Later, they hold out a short stint at prestigious universities like Harvard or Cambridge as a qualification, implying they won it through the richness of their minds! Through endless social bloopers and gaffes the man polishes up his act, grooming himself and gaining social confidence with the years.

This does not mean that at the end of the day we gain competent legislators. Nothing produced by the Government today; a piece of legislation, a gazette notification or even a simple Government printed application form can be considered effective or complete. These will be so full of errors, confusions and contradictions that most times the very opposite of the purpose is conveyed. Acts of Parliament need many subsequent amendments to make sense and then ends up so convoluted that it is of no practical use to anybody. A budget speech made with a lot of fanfare ( including a red bag, high tea – just like in England!) ends up with so many amendments and changes that sometimes only the opening line of the speech remains unsullied, the rest of the proposals given the short shrift in the confusing din.

The Act of Parliament which insists on a declaration of assets and liabilities under which Sajin Vass Gunawardena was prosecuted appears no different. Having ignored the legal requirement while he was monitoring the work of the External Affairs Ministry, Gunawardena pleaded guilty to the offence of failure to file such a declaration. Based on his plea, the former Minister gets away with a measly fine of Rs. 1,000, the maximum possible fine under the Act! Since he is no longer a person to whom this Act applies, it is unclear as to whether he needs to ever file his assets and liabilities for the period when he held high office.

Had the law truly appreciated the philosophy behind this Act, surely such a ridiculously low fine would have not been prescribed. In some countries, failure to file assets and liabilities will result in dismissal from office while in certain countries a person cannot hold office until this declaration is produced. Furthermore, it should be noted that children (of politicians) of over 18 years of age are not covered by the Act. This is perhaps the reason why many such youngsters (no longer in their teens) have developed a taste for short flights to international banking hubs like Singapore and Dubai!

At least, the providing of their particulars (children over 18 – their names, addresses, if holding foreign citizenship, etc.) should have been made mandatory and these particulars referred to other authorities such as the Inland Revenue Department for further investigation. As it is, the current Act seems only a weak response to similar laws in other countries, a meaningless exercise purely to claim the respectability such laws give the status quo.

The mere existence of an Assets and Liabilities Act will not stop corruption. If these are to have any meaning, the drive against corruption must come from the body and soul of the people. Where there is no seriousness, any law will remain a toothless tiger, only an ineffective ornament. Today, with a simple fine of Rs. 1,000, an offender can mock the law, making it only another gimmick played on a people bound and tricked all their lives.

UN CHILD RIGHTS COMMITTEE: LIST OF ISSUES FOR SRI LANKA TO RESPONSE

10/01/2018

United Nations Child Rights Committee will consider fifth and sixth periodic reports of Sri Lanka on 15 and 16 of this month in Geneva.

The list of issues the committee has requested the government of Sri Lanka to respond in relation to its fifth and sixth periodic reports to the committee follows:

List of issues in relation to the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Sri Lanka.

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 October 2017. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

1. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendations (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 57) and to paragraph 148 of the State party report (CRC/C/LKA/3-4), please provide information on the efforts undertaken to amend national legislation, in particular Muslim and Kandyan law, regarding the minimum age of marriage and the right to non-discrimination between girls and boys, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. Please provide information on the application of the law on statutory rape to girls under 16 years of age who are married under Muslim law.

2. Please inform the Committee of the outcome of the National Plan of Action for Children 2010-2015, including with regard to addressing geographical disparities and providing for the needs of children in conflict-affected areas. Please provide detailed information on the new National Plan of Action for Children 2016-2020, the action plan on early childhood and the status of the draft national child protection policy for 2013, including their budgets and monitoring mechanisms.

3. Please provide information on the National Monitoring Committee on Child Rights, created under the national Charter on the Rights of the Child, in particular its mandate, structure, functions and activities.

4. Please provide information on social and environmental policies and regulations applicable to businesses and industries, in particular those relating to tea plantations and the textile, construction and tourism industries, in order to ensure the safety, well-being and development of children.

5. Please provide information on efforts to ensure the participation of children in the reconciliation process.

6. With reference to the draft national plan of action to address sexual and gender-based violence in Sri Lanka and the National Policy on Disability, please provide information on the specific and targeted actions planned to combat discrimination against girls and against children with disabilities. Please provide information on the adoption status of the Plan and the resources allocated for its implementation.

7. Please provide detailed information on the State party’s reasons for not prohibiting by law the corporal punishment of children in all settings and information on the status of the recommendation to prohibit corporal punishment in schools contained in the draft National Child Protection Policy (2013).

8. With reference to paragraphs 84 and 85 of the State party report, please provide information on the impact of social protection services on reducing child poverty, in particular in rural areas and on plantations, in accordance with the evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Social Services.

9. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendation (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 47), please provide information on the measures taken to deinstitutionalize children and to decrease the number of children committed to institutions by court orders and due to economic difficulties. Please provide detailed information on existing mechanisms to regularly assess the situation of institutionalized children, including how individual care plans address a child’s well-being and aim at his or her deinstitutionalization.

10. Please provide information on the measures taken to increase the availability of confidential and youth-friendly services and the availability of contraceptives, as well as on measures to promote sexual and reproductive health education in schools, in order to prevent early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Please inform the Committee of the steps taken to review legislation on abortion in order to guarantee respect for the best interests of pregnant teenagers. Please also provide information on efforts to address suicide among children.

11. With reference to the Committee’s previous recommendation (CRC/C/LKA/CO/3-4, para. 68), please provide detailed information on the measures taken to assess and evaluate the living conditions of children in street situations, to develop and implement actions to address the root causes of and prevent this phenomenon and to provide affected children with protection and support.

12. Please provide information on the measures taken, and the impact thereof, to decrease pretrial detention periods and to provide legal assistance to children during judicial procedures. Please provide specific examples of cases involving children where judges have taken into consideration the best interests of the child in their sentencing.

13. In the light of the information contained in paragraphs 214-226 of the State party report, please provide updated information on the measures taken to implement the Committee’s recommendations on the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/LKA/CO/1), in particular regarding the killing of children (para. 13), missing children (para. 15), dissemination and training (paras. 9 and 11), landmines (para. 21), the effective investigation and prosecution of perpetrators who engage or recruit children for use in armed conflict (para. 23) and small arms (para. 45).

Part II

14. The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report with regard to:

(a) New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b) New institutions (and their mandates) or institutional reforms;

(c) Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d) Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

15. Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and social sectors, in particular education, health and child protection, by indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographic allocation of those resources. Please further provide information on the resources allocated over the past three years to:

(a) Building capacity and training staff on child welfare;

(b) Improving the supervision and infrastructure of children’s homes;

(c) Developing the vocational skills of adolescents;

(d) Implementing scholarship programmes for indigent children and children with disabilities;

(e) Establishing village-level committees on the prevention of child abuse.

16. Please provide data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, disability, ethnic and national origin and geographic location regarding the situation of children deprived of a family environment, for the past three years, on the number of children:

(a) Living in institutions;

(b) Living in alternative care settings;

(c) Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoption.

17. Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic and national origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities:

(a) Living with their families;

(b) Living in institutions;

(c) Attending regular primary schools;

(d) Attending regular secondary schools;

(e) Attending special schools;

(f) Out of school;

(g) Abandoned by their families.

18. Please provide, if available, updated statistical data disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographic location and socioeconomic status, for the past three years, on children in conflict with the law who have been:

(a) Arrested;

(b) In pretrial detention;

(c) In detention;

(d) In diversion programmes.

19. Please provide detailed and disaggregated information, for the past three years, on the number of individual communications on children’s cases received by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and their outcomes. Please specify which cases were reported to the Commission in writing, by phone and as a result of visits to children’s homes and detention facilities.

20. Please provide updated and detailed information, for the past three years, on the calls received by the 1929 child helpline operated by the National Child Protection Authority, disaggregated by type of complaint, whether an investigation was launched, the authority to which a referral was made, the sanctions issued and the protection afforded to child victims.

21. Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

22. In addition, the State party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.

Sri Lanka government responses are here:A_HRC_WG.6_28_L.14_Sri Lanka

A_HRC_WG.6_28_L.14_Sri-Lanka.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Some reflections on the cultural bourgeoisie

  

2018-01-11

The cultural bourgeoisie is a curious creature. But then the Colombans, or the Kolombians as Malinda Seneviratne calls them, usually are. They live within municipal limits of the city, failing which they live in one of those suburbs which give the impression of being closer to the neighbouring rural hinterlands that the likes of me have lived throughout our lives. The latter subset, by the way, are the bourgeois bohemians, or bobos as David Brooks called them, and as Malinda described them some time back, they surround themselves with cultural artefacts that are supposed to indicate that they are purveyors of culture, local and/or foreign.
Now the area around Race Course and the Lionel Wendt subsists on a dichotomy, between eateries on the one hand and shops selling such artefacts on the other. It’s interesting to note the demographics that patronise each; the young usually eat, the old usually buy. The Kolombians, in other words, become or think they become bobos as they mellow. 

Years ago I attended a classical music concert that was held at the Musaeus College Auditorium (newly built back then) and was led by a prominent German conductor whose name I unfortunately don’t remember now. Before the curtains opened, however, I had to, against my will, keep up with the conversations that were springing up around me, between the ladies and gentlemen, the Kolombians, who were moving from one topic to another in quick succession while keeping to a welter of formality and uniformity with respect to what they really wanted to talk about. They talked of drama, of the movies, of music, but they then talked of how their kith and kin and nephews and nieces and so on and so forth knew each other. 

So Kolombian A was talking with Kolombian B about how her son happened to have been in the same Debating Society that Kolombian B’s son was, how their husbands had attended the same Societies, had even been Prefects in the same batch, and how bloodlines established with respect to schools and other such institutions attended proved that their families were meant for each other. Before this graduated to marriage proposals, though, the show began (to my relief). But as that prominent German conductor impressed me with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (I prefer the Second Movement to the First) and the Overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute, I turned around and saw, to my astonishment, these same purveyors of drama and movies and music sleeping. The music which was supposed to impress them had put them to slumber. These grown up bobos weren’t talking. They were instead snoring. Throughout. 

The Kolombian bourgeois bohemians are a curious bunch because of a contradiction that lies at the heart of their milieu, between their aspirations and their realities. This is as true for their political affiliations as it is for their cultural affiliations. It would of course be crass to brush their society as clueless and indifferent when it comes to the rest of the country, but such crass simplifications exist because, as Gomin Dayasri has pointed out years ago, they believe they know everything because of the inbuilt advantages that the metropolis is supposed to bring; multiculturalism, modernity, privileged education. Such inbuilt advantages are not the preserve of those who live in Colombo only, but because of their defining marks – high fluency in English and lack of fluency in the mother tongue, Sinhala or Tamil – they have been able so far to market themselves as purveyors and promoters of high culture, art, etc. 

The paradox

In whatever cultural sphere in whatever country, there is almost always a disjuncture between the multitude and the elite, between the street-smart and the book-smart, in other words between mass consumption and discriminating tastes. Be it the cinema, the theatre, literature, or art, the tropes the artists resort to reflect that disjuncture. The situation is not much different in Sri Lanka; our playwrights (if it’s an English play), for instance, tend to lampoon the unprivileged as naive, gullible, idiotic, and the privileged as intelligent, able, worthy.

You see this paradox crop up the other way around in our children’s movies: from Siri Raja Siri to Paha Samath, the poor are portrayed as smart, idealistic, while the rich are portrayed as weak, effete. Such dichotomies lack the conviction they require, but they are based on popular views of the rich and the poor and they tend to take in rupees and cents at the box office. 

The Kolombians usually display a culture of condescension towards the rest of the country and, fittingly it would seem, the rest of the country returns that compliment. I believe that’s why Sinhala novelists, playwrights, directors, and scriptwriters resort to that timeless and overused trope of English-speakers-who-relapse-to-Sinhala-when-threatened.

There’s an episode in Bodima in which Buddhi Wickrama is an English teacher to the most intelligent member of the titular bodima (played by Jayalath Manoratne), and this teacher consciously never speaks Sinhala, only high-flown English. When he’s about to be whacked, when he’s about to be thrown out violently, by the most ruffian-like resident of that bodima (I believe he was played by Daya Alwis), though, he stutters, stammers, and begs for mercy using the Sinhala he pretended not to know. They are all pretenders, hence: they know what they want us to think they don’t. That, incidentally, is one of many episodes of tele-dramas I’ve seen which play around the trope. It’s used even in our novels, our films, our plays. 

McDonald’s and India’s Gandhi

But let me get back to that subset of the Kolombians I am concerned about, the bourgeois bohemians, or the cultural bourgeoisie. In the eighties and the seventies, the American corporate sector teemed with advertisements that referred to quotes by Gandhi, the Beat Generation, the Buddha, the Taoists, and Confucius. It was, as David Brooks (who wrote Bobos in Paradise) contended in a New York Times article, a set of “peculiar juxtapositions”, because how on earth could America’s McDonald’s and India’s Gandhi ever come together? In the early decades of the 20th century, it had been relatively easy to distinguish between the bourgeois culture and the bohemian counterculture. It was the bohemians who were behind the sixties counterculture (Godard, in his films, which were parodies of popular American myths, depicted these bohemians as the pop revolutionaries they were). They came from a largely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) demographic, from which the bobos emerged.
 
Colombo is very much a stratified society, and so is the United States, but it was the diffusion of different sensibilities, the sense of being Americano, that led to a culture of bobos to flourish rampantly in the latter. America was never really the Land of the Free (it wasn’t even the bastion of democracy that writers believed it to be: Gore Vidal, I believe at the Galle Literary Festival, observed years ago that the American Constitution doesn’t once contain the word “democracy”) but there probably hasn’t been any other culture, in modern times, where the arts got together so sleekly. The bobos of America could have been bankers or artists, so much so that differences of class disappeared, at least to an extent, and gave birth to a heavily self-parodying society. If Pauline Kael’s assertion that no other country could criticise and satirise itself appears overblown, it’s because there’s a touch of sincerity in what she wrote. 

Malinda wrote a series of satirical sketches, from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, parodying our bobos in 2014 and 2015 (“Notes of an Unrepentant Kolombian”). These sketches instilled some relevance to the January 2015 Election (which thanks to statements by Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and Mahinda Rajapaksa, turned out to be a tussle between the baiyas and the toiyas), and they delved into certain issues pertaining to those bobos: the bursary (they are financially enriched, endowed), their lack of awareness of their language (“Their offspring can barely manage enna, giya, or awa”), their monopoly over commerce (regardless of who’s in power), and the relationships between Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe (“Forget Mahinda and Maithri, the Kolombians want Alastair Cook”). From these sketches the final sketch of our bobos comes out: neither here nor there, wallowing in the cosmetics of a culture they aren’t aware of. There is hence a fatal contradiction, as I mentioned at the beginning, between their aspirations and their realities. 

It’s not “our” culture they inhabit, consequently, rather the cosmetics thereof: the mask, the drum, the exotic dances, the archaic music, which we inherited. In an age where finance capital and commerce in themselves are not enough, when the age of information has made obsolete the conventional capitalist, financiers and speculators and executives are playing Gershwin on their pianos, flocking in droves to see our dances and drums being performed and played out at the Lionel Wendt, holding literary festivals which ostensibly advertise the “local culture” but which in reality congeal into a celebration of their narrow circle.

That’s the difference between them and us: we are more content in imitating the American yuppie and bobo, instead of nurturing and fermenting our own culture of yuppies and bobos. In aesthetics as in politics and economics and everything else, we thus remain, to the last drop, imitators. We will talk of how sophisticated we are when we meet at a concert, but the minute the show starts, we will start yawning, shrug indifferently, snore, and finally, snuggle. 

Paris Accord – Applying Six Sigma methodology to solve climate change

Introduction  

Thursday, 11 January 2018

During the last six months, I have written seven articles to Sri Lankan papers criticising (i)Paris Accord for putting the onus of finding solutions for climate change on to the individual countries and (ii) UNFCCC and IPCC for spending 20 years on researching climate change without identifying a single solution which could be applied universally to solve climate change. But today I am happy that UNFCCC and IPCC have accepted their inability to do so and providing opportunities to individual countries to find their own solutions.

My objective for this article is to show how one could arrive at a solution for climate change using Six Sigma Methodology. It is strange that Western corporate leaders who have gained gigantic financial benefits for their companies from Six Sigma methodologies – I am reminded of how Jack Welch, the famous CEO of General Electric came for a Six Sigma meeting dressed like a Karate Black Belt – have not pressed that we use Six Sigma methodology to find a solution for climate change.

In fact, Jack Welch wrote in his much-publicised letter to shareholders in February 1999 that “Six Sigma will be the biggest, the most personally rewarding and in the end, the most profitable undertaking in our history… We have invested more than a billion dollars in the effort and the financial returns have now entered the exponential phase.”

Unlike other more common quality management initiatives, Six Sigma has been developed into a complete array of new techniques leading up to and not limited to Six Sigma DMADV2 (Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify and Validate) methodology with astounding results for the companies using these. Though neither green belts nor black belts, we have been providing Six Sigma consultancy services and one of our recent assignments was to carry out a Measurement System Analysis (also called Gauge R & R Analysis) for de La Rue Security Printers – local outfit of the international currency notes printer at the Biyagama Zone – completing the assignment for 23 instruments in exactly 40 working days as per the project schedule. They had been struggling to find a local consultant to do this for quite some time

Application of Six Sigma methodology

Now I wish to show how we applied Six Sigma Methodology known as DMADV2 methodology to identify a solution for climate change. It started with the first phase called Define phase and here I used that definition provided by International Energy Agency in the first paragraph of the Executive Summary of their Energy Outlook 2009 document.

It said that “It is no exaggeration that future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the following two central “energy challenges” facing us today:

(1) Securing reliable and affordable energy and

(2) Rapid transition to (a) low carbon (b) energy efficient and (c) environmentally benign form of energy”

Then I had to identify the Critical to Climate (CTC) characteristics of this process of providing energy using fossil fuels which form the core of the current day climate change crisis. For this purpose, I depicted the energy generating process as indicated in figure I, identifying Inputs for the process, process itself and outputs from the process.

We identified seven potential CTC characteristics stemming from the statement by the IEA as follows: a) reliability, b) affordability, c) carbon content, d) energy efficiency, e) carbon dioxide generated, f) water vapour generated and g) waste heat generated. Out of these seven, reliability and affordability stem straight from the IEA document and so does energy efficiency as well.

The concern of being environmentally benign was interpreted as not influencing the environmental balance associated with components of the climate system and three climate parameters temperature, precipitation and wind. These CTC characteristics will influence the values of (1) extents and / or (2) quality of atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere, temperature, precipitation and wind. Climate change was defined using these statements.

The CTC characteristics should also stem from the usage of fossil fuels. We then discarded carbon content as it is again captured by carbon dioxide emitted which is a much easier characteristic to measure, monitor and grasp. Furthermore, what influences the seven components of the totality of climate system was not the amount of carbon in the fuel; but how much of carbon dioxide is being emitted.

We also discarded energy efficiency as waste heat generated is also an indicator of the same; higher the energy efficiency, lower the waste heat generated. Then the three parameters which influences the climate system were found to be (1) carbon dioxide emitted – that is the parameter which is over-emphasised, (2) Newly Formed Water (NFW) vapour emitted – the most ignored and neglected although it influences (a) atmosphere by reducing oxygen content in air and being a Greenhouse gas, (b) hydrosphere by ultimately ending up there, (c) cryosphere by enhancing the temperature more than carbon dioxide (d) biosphere by actively engaging in all biogeochemical processes (e) temperature by contributing to its enhancement (f) precipitation by directly leading to precipitation (g) wind by reducing wind shear more than other three gases (O2,N2,CO2) and (3) waste heat given by the fossil fuel while providing energy for an anthropogenic use. The moment we realised this significance of NFW vapour in this approach, we lost all our faith in the research done by climate scientists concentrating on carbon dioxide and temperature.

Then an analysis was carried out on the four sectors – commercial, industrial, residential and transportation – to identify the sector, that needs to be addressed first, in order to speedily bring significant benefits in respect of CTC characteristics. The outcome of this analysis is shown in Table 1. It was found that gasoline-fuelled transportation is the most significant contributor to climate change. Cost of Million British Thermal Units – MBThu – is an indication of affordability of the energy.

Please note that in residential and commercial sectors only natural gas and electricity were used and waste energy given is what corresponds to the waste associated with the electricity used. In the case of industrial sector other fuels are used and the value of waste energy is an estimate on the high side. Because electricity and other fuels are used in these three sectors, NFW emission is given as being less than CO2 emitted. Liquid fuels and natural gas generate one (18kg) and two (36kg) molecules of NFW respectively for each molecule (44 kg) of CO2. In the case of transportation, only oil is used – this was prior to President Barak Obama’s promotion of gas-fuelled transportation – and NFW is based on that while waste heat is taken as 80% of energy in the fuel as per thermal efficiency figures quoted in literature.

Then the process from well to wheel was broken down into different production phases from extraction to the step where energy in the fuel in the tank is converted to energy turning the wheel and this last phase was found to be the one making the most significant contribution to the environmental damage in respect of CTC characteristics.

In the next step the tank to wheel step was studied using Root Cause Analysis where the four aspects Man, Material, Method and Machine were analysed to see which component makes the most significant contribution to the CTC characteristics. (1) Characteristics like mental state of the man, arrogance, etc., (2) material aspects corresponding to petrol Octane 92, Octane 95, Auto diesel and Super diesel, (3) aspects corresponding to driving methods and (4) specifications corresponding to the internal combustion engine – both petrol and diesel – were then considered to find that it is the Machines which influence the CTC characteristics the most.

Then we got into the design phase and we started reviewing designs available to replace the ICE powered vehicles and the corresponding fuel combinations using the same CTC characteristics and it was found that Battery Electric Vehicle-Renewable Energy combination to be the most advantageous combination.

Please see Table 2 – This table is based on data given in World Energy Council’s document called ‘Transport Scenarios in 2050,’ Ph.D. Thesis at MIT titled ‘On the Road in 2035,’ the three objectives pronounced at UN Climate Summit in September, 2014 and current prices in Sri Lanka. Row corresponding to Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (HFCV) was not completed due to uncertainties associated with the path to obtain the hydrogen. There are two ways of obtaining hydrogen; namely by electrolysis of water and by steam reforming of natural gas. Both do have inefficiencies as follows:

If electricity is available from renewable sources, it could be used to power Battery Electric Vehicles at 95% efficiency while HFCV will give us an efficiency of 48% only. If natural gas is to be used to get hydrogen, then it could power an ICE vehicle directly generating CO2 and NFW, without first converting gas to hydrogen using steam and then converting it in fuel cell. Both processes will generate CO2 and NFW at least to the same extents; but the second is less efficient.

Of course, renewable energy sources themselves have so many options like hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, etc. and solar is the most favourable in respect of the extent of availability and reliability. Even in respect of solar, there are different technologies like photovoltaic solar and concentrated solar thermal, etc. For concentrated solar thermal one needs a minimum level of solar radiation and PV solar would be the preferred solution for Sri Lanka.

The question which arises then is where the required PV solar panels could be installed and Dr. Marc Jacobbsson of Stanford and Dr. Mark Dalucci of California at Davis in their Wind, Water and Solar (WWS) infrastructure have suggested rooftops and solar parks to provide energy for vehicle electrification and other energy uses. They have even calculated land area that would be required for the same. The issue with solar parks is that you need to carry out deforestation at the rate of about 1.8 hectares per megawatt and this would reduce (a) possible reflection of shortwave radiation (b) absorption of carbon dioxide by vegetation and (c) conversion of solar radiation to chemical energy during photosynthesis – all three enhancing climate change.

What we propose is laying PV solar panels along and above the highways – we call it highway solarisation – and use that electricity to power Battery Electric Vehicles. This particular solution has many significant advantages in addition to giving the best possible values for the CTC characteristics.

The solution

As such this most powerful technique of Six Sigma DMADV2 has provided us a very good solution for climate change in Battery Electric Vehicles associated with highway solarisation. It would completely eliminate generation of carbon dioxide, NFW vapour and waste heat currently associated with vehicular transportation

We have carried out the first five phases of DMADV2 methodology (Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify phases) to solve this issue of climate change and has arrived at this solution of highway solarisation and yet to carry out the validation of the solution. We are awaiting approval from related government agencies for the validation phase and once it is completed, highway solarisation will become a completely proven and confirmed mitigation solution which will eliminate climate change due to fossil fuel driven transportation – the most significant source of greenhouse gases as at today.


Implementation issues

When one looks at the situation in the proper perspective, one would notice that PV solar’s capability to assist in generating energy for mankind and make fossil fuel oil usage obsolete was a known thing for quite some time. But at the beginning it was conceived to be a small scale or rather domestic phenomenon and the changeover rates and duration were calculated based on the same. That is why oil company executives were scoffing that even after 30 years, the penetration of PV solar would be only about 5%.

Then the concept of PV solar parks and megawatt installations became common. Even then the large areas required and deforestation required were adequate deterrents to prevent large-scale proliferation of the same and the possibility of mankind quenching its thirst for energy using renewables was in doubt. Concept of WWF infrastructure mentioned above cleared those doubts and its authors managed to convince everybody that the global energy requirement could be fulfilled using the WWS infrastructure. Still getting so many rooftop solar panels installed and so many solar parks installed in different countries with different forest cover regulations appeared to be somewhat difficult to achieve and the oil companies did not see a possibility of them getting into that small-scale business.

Highway solarisation – with so many highways available across the world and no special approvals being required – could become an industry which oil companies would readily invest in and reap benefits in line with Investments. What they need to remember is that they should develop a new business model for the operation and they don’t need to dig thousands of meters down to get energy when the sun bestows upon them millions of kilowatt hours every day to quench the thirst for energy.

Highway solarisation could be implemented very fast even up to a few TerraWatt hours and it would bring significant revenue very fast. As they establish generating capability to this level they can manipulate prices to match their targets for return on investment. They need to remember that the price paid by an I C E vehicle owner for unit energy actually used is very high and the oil companies can charge significant prices for the energy they develop and the users should not be complaining bearing in mind the fact that the oil companies are doing a great service to mankind by saving them from the imminent travails of climate change.

How well they carry out that task will determine whether they would remain at the same positions in the Fortune 500 listings or they would move out just in the same fashion many other corporate giants have moved out in the past.

New York Times recently carried a news item about a statement from the reinsurer Munich Re to say that insurers lost nearly $135 billion in 2017 due to the natural disasters attributable to climate change. The news item also mentioned that the overall loss was about $ 330 billion. Generally, insurers invest the premiums received in profitable ventures to generate funds to pay for the losses incurred by the insured.

So, does it not mean that reinsurers like Munich Re stand to gain a lot by investing in Highway Solarisation. On one hand they would obtain the normal returns arising from the projects and they would be eliminating a significant portion of the insurance claims and they would be making our Loved Planet Earth a better place to live. This would be the finest example of demonstrating their dedication to the Triple Bottom Line.

If we in Sri Lanka invest a billion dollars – equivalent to what G E under Jack Welch invested in Six Sigma – in highway solarisation – again a Six Sigma initiative – and establish about 700 megawatt of PV solar power on Southern Expressway and the energy generated – 1050GWHrs per year – is used to power 400,000 BEVs at 15000 kms per year, we would be saving $170 million per year on our oil bill and after six years that power will be almost free – the exponential phase Jack Welch spoke about - for our small island nation with so much of development plans like tourism industry, Port City project, etc. This of course is on the assumption that oil prices don’t go up in the interim.

May this be my gift to mankind for the year 2018.

What is better: Lighting this lamp or keep on cursing the darkness of climate change?
(The writer is Managing Director of Somaratna Consultants Ltd.)

Footnotes

Reference: Design for Six Sigma for Green Belts & Champions by Dr. Howard S. Gitlow, Dr. David M. Levine and Dr. Edward A. Popovich.