Sri Lanka pension fund crisis looming

Sep 21, 2015

ECNOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s main state-run pension fund’s assets are not growing as expected with net contributions in danger of turning negative unless the retirement age is extended with the workforce aging, senior analyst at a stock brokerage said. 

Murtaza Jafferjee, Managing Director of JB Securities, said pension fund assets are now about 1.9 trillion rupees with the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), the largest, close to 1.5 trillion rupees.

“Pension fund assets, as a part of the financial system, are actually coming down – it has come down to about 15 percent,” he told an investment fund and asset management forum held by Fitch Ratings. 

“What I suspect is happening is that most people are viewing EPF as a tax and they are collecting a lot of wages as allowances. So the (EPF) contribution is not based on the total wages only.

“That may explain why it is not keeping up with the financial system.”

The Employees' Trust Fund (ETF), a non-contributory benefit scheme where only the employer makes a contribution on behalf of the employee, has assets of about 194 billion rupees compared with 172 billion rupees the previous year.

Most of the growth in assets is coming via returns even for the EPF. 

“Net contributions in 2014 have only been about 25 billion rupees, most of it coming through returns,” Jafferjee said.

“There are a lot of withdrawals - people are coming to 55 years and withdrawing the money,” he said.

“With our demographic aging structure, unless they move the retirement age, you might see net contributions going negative,” he said.

Jafferjee said the whole financial system has about 12 trillion rupees in assets of which 62 percent are with deposit taking institutions like commercial banks, finance companies and rural banks.

Contractual savings institutions like the EPF and ETF and insurance firms have less than 20 percent each.
(Colombo/September 21 2015)

CID Prepares Reports On Lasantha, Prageeth

Sep 21, 2015

The police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) says it is preparing reports to hand over to President Maithripala Sirisena based on the investigations conducted into the murder of founding editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickremetunga and the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

CID sources said that the reports are being compiled following instructions issued by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The CID further said that reports on the investigations into some other high profile cases will also be handed over to the President.

An army Brigadier is still being questioned over the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda and a breakthrough was expected soon, the CID sources stressed.
- http://www.thesundayleader.lk/ -

To be or ‘knot’ to be

Editorial-September 20, 2015, 7:26 pm 

The crime rate continues to rise with no all-out effort being made to curb it. There are public protests against the recent murder of a five-year-old girl. Whenever a savage crime is perpetrated against a child or a woman, all hell breaks loose in this manner but the public outcry fizzles out with the passage of time and nothing is done to address the root causes of the problem thereafter.

All governments react to street protests against heinous crimes in a predictable manner. Instead of taking action to rectify the systemic flaws that have resulted in this sorry state of affairs they adopt the same ruse to pacify the protesting public; they pretend to be mulling over the re-implementation of the death penalty and have the gallows dusted and tested and the paraphernalia for hanging imported.

The incumbent government consists of holier-than-thou individuals who made a hue and cry about the increasing crime rate under the previous government which pathetically failed to bring it down. Today, they themselves are drawing heavy flak for their failure to prevent brutal crimes being perpetrated against vulnerable sections of society.

Meanwhile, the SLFP is reportedly working on its local government election nominations. Its General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake has recently told the media that the politicians responsible for anti-social activities won’t be fielded. He seems to have taken the people for suckers. Among the SLFP politicians rewarded with ministerial positions recently is a person whom the champions of good governance condemned as a drug dealer and extortionist! The yahapalana government worthies have obviously succumbed to political expediency and, therefore, the people cannot expect them, especially the SLFP leaders, to weed out the anti-social elements in the garb of local government politicians. So, it is up to the people to do everything in their power to prevent these monsters from being nominated again to contest polls.

A University of Columbia graduand, Emma Sulkowicz, who was allegedly raped by a fellow student a few years ago, grabbed international media attention recently. She, with the help of some of her friends, carried a mattress to the university graduation ceremony in protest against what she called failure on the part of the law enforcement authorities to bring the perpetrator to justice. It looks as if the people had to react in a similar manner in this country. If the perpetrators of sexual violence against children and women are not dealt with legally because of their power and wealth at least they must be named and shamed in public. People can make use of the upcoming local government polls for that purpose.

Opinion is divided on the call for re-implementing the death penalty with one school of thought claiming that it constitutes a deterrent. Others pooh-pooh this claim. The present government has craftily revived this debate again and distracted the attention of the irate public from its failure to combat crime the way it should. While declaring in Geneva that the capital punishment won’t be re-introduced, it pretends at home that it is planning to resume judicial hangings. Ironically, politicians who do not want to sully their hands with the reimplementation of judicial executions have no qualms about turning a blind eye to extra-judicial executions!

Judicial executions can wait and what needs to be done urgently is for the government to concentrate on crime prevention and make the justice dispensation system efficient. It is no exaggeration that the best way for a criminal to get away with his offences is to get caught. For, thanks to the inefficiency of the long arm of the law and the state prosecutors, the conviction rate remains as low as four percent. This may explain why the country has become a criminals’ paradise.

It is high time the government was asked to grasp the nettle in trying to protect the citizenry against criminals without pulling the wool over the eyes of the public.

Part II: Delivering Economic Democracy will lead to controversy unless it is defined properly 

 Economics Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman

 Monday, 21 September 2015

Promise of economic democracy to people
As mentioned in the previous part of the article in this series under the title of ‘The Promise of a Social Market Economy: What does it herald for Sri Lanka?’ (available at: http://www.ft.lk/article/469707/Part-I-%E2%80%93-The-promise-of-a-Knowledge-based-Competitive-Social-Market-Economy--What-does-it-herald-for-Sri-Lanka ), the manifesto of the United National Party has promised to deliver “economic democracy” to the people by widening the frontiers of the open economy policy being in place in Sri Lanka since the late 1970s.

Part II Delivering Economic Democracy Will Lead to Controversy Unless It is Defined Properly by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka: Rajapaksa the Looters ( New booklet)

( September 21, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka) The Rajapaksas are a rural land-owning family from the village Giruwapattuwa in the southern district of Hambantota. The family owned paddy fields and coconut plantations.[8] One of its members, Don David Rajapaksa, held the feudal post of Vidanarachchi in Ihala Valikada Korale. The family entered the political scene when Don David Rajapaksa’s son Don Mathew Rajapaksa was elected in 1936 to represent Hambantota district in the State Council. Don Mathew died in 1945 and at the resulting by-election his brother Don Alwin Rajapaksa was elected without a contest. At the 1947 parliamentary election two members of the family were elected to represent both of the constituencies in Hambantota district. Don Alwin Rajapaksa was elected MP for Beliatta and Lakshman Rajapaksa (Don Mathew’s son) was elected MP for Hambantota. The Rajapaksas continued to dominate politics in Hambantota district for next three decades with two other members of the family (George Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa) also entering parliament. The Rajapaksas were represented in the country’s legislatures continuously from 1936 till 1977. The family wasn’t represented in parliament after the UNP landslide at the 1977 parliamentary election.

The family re-emerged as the dominant political force in Hambantota district when Mahinda and his brother Chamal Rajapaksa were elected in 1989 Parliamentary election to represent Hambantota Electoral District. They were later joined by Nirupama Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa.

The following booklet exposed how the Rajapaksa family engaged in fraud and corruption in its decade rule, 2005-2015, of Sri Lanka;

Download (PDF, Unknown)

The Caliphate: What Does It Mean To Muslims Of Today?

By Ameer Ali –September 21, 2015 

Dr. Ameer Ali

Since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or IS in short named its captured territory and polity as the Caliphate there had been a chorus of admonition, condemnation and denigration of the institution of the caliphate from political leaders, journalists, Islamic organizations and even academics. They all seem to have agreed quite justifiably that the IS’s caliphate is neither a replica of its medieval predecessor nor a modernised version of it but an artificially concocted moniker adopted for convenience to win popular legitimacy for its criminal enterprise.

Even before IS, Osama bin Laden, called for an Islamic caliphate in his public messages to the umma. Likewise, one of the primary objectives of Hizb al-Tahrir, a non-violent Islamist organization founded in 1953, is to resurrect the caliphate and return to the rule of shariah. Earlier to that, the Muslim Brotherhood fathered by Hassanal Banna of Egypt in 1928 also envisioned the caliphate as the final destiny of political Islam. In short, although as a multi-ethnic and transnational empire the Islamic caliphate disappeared after 1924, as a concept and vision it has outlived that historical institution and since IS’s declaration that concept has entered into the popular political lexicon raising much anxiety and heat.

In reality the spirit of nationalism and creation of the nation-states in the wake of decolonization and liberation movements have divided the Muslim umma now more than ever before. Religion has proved again and again a failure to unite the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual umma. The break-up of Pakistan into Bengali speaking and Urdu speaking countries and the political turmoil and division in Iraq and Syria along ethnic and sectarian lines are glaring illustrations of the failure of Islam as a religion to unite Muslims. In this context even to contemplate a project to bring the fifty-seven countries that form the OIC under the umbrella of a transnational caliphate is impracticable in the extreme.

Yet, in the weekly sermons on Fridays the imams of practically every mosque rarely fail to pray for the souls of the earliest four caliphs of the seventh century and to remind the faithful of the glories of at least the Abbasid Caliphate. A number of independent surveys conducted internationally show that the belief in a shariah based governance in a politically united umma under a caliphate is widely prevalent not only in majority Muslim countries but also amongst their diaspora elements in the U.S., UK, EU and Oceania. What does keep this belief alive? Does the caliphate today have a different connotation from what it meant in the past?

There is a view that resonates among a group of Muslim intellectuals that the caliphate at present represents not a project for the recreation of the dead medieval polity but a metaphor representing the yearning amongst Muslims to reorder the postcolonial world designed by the former masters of colonialism and managed by today’s imperialism. To be precise, it points out to the loss of a centralized Muslim power and influence in the making and management of the world order.                      Read More     

Should judicial killings be revived?

R. M. B. Senanayake-September 20, 2015, 12:00 pm 

The public seems to be alarmed by the current crime wave in the country as seen by recent incidence of violent crimes such as the kidnapping and killing of children. These incidents seem to be more common now than earlier. The ordinary public is demanding the implementation of the death penalty which has been suspended. It may be true that there is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. But, the public perceptions do matter in a democracy and it is better to restore or revive it at least to satisfy the public conscience.

Research has been carried out in other countries about the deterrent value of the death penalty. But, we cannot extrapolate their results here. I am not aware of any similar statistical survey being done in our country and we cannot extrapolate statistical results across countries in the case of social issues. Surveys of the opinions of police chiefs abroad were also evenly split. Some though the death penalty was a deterrent, but the majority thought otherwise. There may be more than one cause for the increase in crime and the lack of deterrence is only one factor.

Other areas which were cited as major problems included crowded courts and slow justice. On the other hand, ineffective prosecutions are also a factor which enables criminals to escape punishment. The death penalty may not be the deterrent that the public needs. But, at least it has a psychological effect as it affects the perceptions of the people. The would-be criminal may not take a rational count of the chances of getting caught. But, he certainly has a perception of the possibility of getting caught. Perhaps, we should strengthen this perception by re-introducing the death penalty.

The main objection to the death penalty is that an innocent person may be executed and then there is no way to rectify the mistake. Yes, but other factors too should be taken into account. Just as an innocent person should not face the death penalty there should be no leniency towards criminals who kill people. Law enforcement officers believe that the most effective deterrent to crime is swift and sure punishment. But, our dilatory legal procedures mean that the punishment is meted out long after the crime and in the meantime the suspect may be out on bail. Naturally, the death penalty in such a case is of no deterrent value.

In other countries when asked which societal or legal changes would have the greatest impact on reducing violent crime, police chose strengthening families and neighborhoods, along with swift and sure punishment for offenders as the means that would bring about the most significant effects.

The Police should be given more control over illicit drugs, greater latitude provided for judges in criminal cases, to hear and dispose of criminal cases speedily.

Over two-thirds of the police chiefs did not believe that the death penalty significantly reduced the number of homicides. About 67% said that it was not one of the most important law enforcement tools. And well over 80% of the respondents believed that murderers did not think about the range of possible punishments before committing homicide. The figures below illustrate the lack of confidence which police chiefs place in the death penalty as a deterrent.

The death penalty by itself may not be the deterrent the public expect. But, when combined with other measures such as speeding up of trials, better prosecutions and training of law enforcement officers in modern methods of detecting crimes should certainly help.

R. M. B. Senanayake

A tree does not, a forest make

One species of a tree even if repeated a million times does not make a forest.

• by Ranil Senanayake 
• - on 09/21/2015 

Today  September 21st has been declared the International Day of Struggle against Tree Monocultures , people around the world will come out, write or otherwise question the wisdom of creating tree monocultures in the name of development. In Sri Lanka we have gone even further, we create tree monocultures in the name of forestry.

It is time to recognize the fact that much of the investment in “forests” up to date, have missed the forest for the wood. We have engaged ourselves in actions that addressed only one aspect of a forest, its wood.  This myopic vision has allowed the massive discounting of all other values of a forest. While the value of a forest in biodiversity conservation is just being appreciated, its value in acting as a buffer for problems wrought by climate change is still poorly understood.  It is urgent that we re-evaluate a forest, so that the institutions of ‘forestry’ act effectively within their mandate ‘the art and science of managing forests’

In Myanmar, there has been a long tradition of forest knowledge. In fact the development of ‘Agroforestry’ was based on the Myanmar traditions of ‘Taungya’ where the king allotted land for use in agriculture where teak trees would be grown alongside the crops and protected by the farmers.

The report on Biodiversity by the UNEP to the CSD has highlighted the massive problem inherent in the current discussions on forest, by pointing out that   “Forests can only be sustained if you sustain the richness of forest ecosystems.” they demonstrate the need to have forests as an issue managed by a multi-agency consortium rather that placing it under a single institution.  It is a fact that none of the so called ‘forestry’ practices has been able to sustain the richness of natural forest ecosystems, yet there are innumerable claims that ‘sustainable forestry’ is being practiced.

Studies on biodiversity indicate that trees account for 1 % of the biodiversity or less. What is known by science reveals the forest as an ecosystem of tremendous complexity.  The trees, while providing an essential framework of a forest constitutes only a fraction of the total biodiversity.   A forest contains a huge array of organisms, that continually change in form and function.  Thus biodiversity is what gives a forest its identity.  It should also be borne in mind that, from the small bushes of an area after a fire to the tall growth fifty years later, the species and architecture goes through many changes, and all these ecosystems are expressions of the growing, maturing forest. The international response to the loss of natural forest ecosystems can be seen in the massive global investment in forestry.  However, a great majority of these tree planting programs around the world do not seem to provide an environment that is hospitable for sustaining local biodiversity.  A situation brought about by neglect of the ecological and biodiverse reality of a forest.  There is no excuse to be found in the argument that there was no information.  Forest Ecology has a long and distinguished history in the scientific literature.  The result of this neglect was that institutional forestry activity was centered around the growing of even aged monocultures of fast growing trees with no requirement to attend to the rehabilitation of forests.

It seems that the Forestry administration of Sri Lanka was following the dictum of Fenrow  the Head of US Forest Service. who pointed out in 1920 that;

‘The first and foremost purpose of a forest growth is to supply us with wood material; it is the substance of the trees itself, not their fruit, their beauty, their shade, their shelter, that constitutes the primary object’

We, as Sri Lankans who respect the vision of the Buddha, still cannot follow the vision of the Buddha, who sitting under a tree said :

“The forest is a most benevolent organism, offering freely of its life processes.  It even provides shade to the axeman who would fell it”

Thereby uttering the first recognition of ecosystem services in the historical record. But we seem to have lost the forest for the trees.

In many non-European societies throughout the world the protection or growing of forests often took on different social or religious meanings.  The example of Sacred Groves or Deorais exist in many traditions.  In India, these forests are usually located at the origins of fresh water springs.  They are associated with spirits, often a mother-goddess, deity.  Their belief system, in the swift and immediate retribution meted out by the deity if the forest is disturbed, has served to protect these forests even today.  The forest in turn provides the social functions by having a place of religious focus and community activity, as well as economic functions such as providing medicines or famine food or the ecological functions of stabilizing water and protecting genetic diversity.  A study of various forest formations in north-east India suggest that sacred groves may be the last refuge for remnant populations of certain species.

A similar concept of sacred grove was seen in the Trobriand Islanders.  This tradition was seen as the only force protecting the kaboma or sacred groves that were the only areas of uncut forest remaining on the Islands. To cut the rainforest species of trees that compose such sacred groves was believed to be dangerous because the angered sprits would bring human illness or crop failure.  The highly evolved traditional responses to forest management as seen in the forest agriculture of Papua New Guinea, where the taller structure of the forest was recognized as a feature to be retained, while the smaller growth was cleared for agriculture.  Further, the social and cultural recognition of the differential planting patterns of village tree gardens in west Java suggest that cultural responses to forestry may contain useful design elements for modern application. In Sri Lanka , the concept of sacred groves has generally been associated with Temples or Shrines.  The Temple Forest or Aranya has been referred to in Buddhist texts as far back as 200 A.D.

Forestry has to be developed within the local context.  Both social and biodiversity needs have to figure prominently in its design, otherwise we will only perpetuate the tyranny of the ‘Monoculture As Forestry Implementation Authorities’.

Israeli Terrorists, Born in the U.S.A.

 

A photograph of Ali Dawabsheh, the Palestinian toddler killed in an arson attack on his home in the West Bank village of Duma in July. CreditAlaa Badarneh/European Pressphoto Agency

By SARA YAEL HIRSCHHORNSEPT. 4, 2015

Jerusalem- ON July 31, in the West Bank village of Duma, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in a fire. All available evidencesuggests that the blaze was a deliberate act of settler terrorism. More disturbingly, several of the alleged instigators, currently being detained indefinitely, are not native-born Israelis — they have American roots.

But there has been little outcry in their communities. Settler rabbis and the leaders of American immigrant communities in the West Bank have either played down their crime or offered muted criticism.

It’s worth recalling the response of the former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to another heinous attack two decades ago, when an American-born doctor, Baruch Goldstein, gunned down dozens of Palestinians while they prayed in Hebron.

“He grew in a swamp whose murderous sources are found here, and across the sea; they are foreign to Judaism, they are not ours,” thundered Mr. Rabin before the Knesset in February 1994. “You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out.”

The shocking 1994 massacre was, at the time, the bloodiest outbreak of settler terrorism Israelis and Palestinians had ever seen. Less than two years later, Mr. Rabin himself would be dead, felled by an ultranationalist assassin’s bullet.       Full Story>>>

UAE Likely to Pull out of Saudi-led Coalition

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Alwaght- Fresh news reports suggest that the UAE forces in Yemen would likely pull out soon. The retreat decision could heavily shock the Saudi regime as it is known as the pillar and organizer of the campaign of aggression against the Yemeni people.

An Emirati news website has told of UAE’s decision of withdrawal from Yemeni territories. According to Emirates 71 news agency Emirati people called for an immediate halt to assaults on Yemen and withdrawal of UAE forces, a demand rising after deadly missile attack on Emirati forces camping in a military base in Yemen’s Maarib province in the “black Friday” last week, in which 47military forces were killed.  This loss convinced UAE's authorities not to deploy any more to Yemen.

Actually, with possibly UAE’s forces pulling out of Yemen war Saudi Arabia will lose an essential ally force in Yemen. While in the preliminary days of Saudi aggression on Aden and Sana'a some Arab-coalition countries set to accompany Saudi Arabia in its aggression, but after heavy losses in the following days inflicted on Riyadh and its allies by Yemeni forces, they have begun to slacken their presence in the battlefield. The UAE was almost the only ally standing firmly beside the Saudi Arabia in its atrocious aggression, however after a fatal missile attack carried out by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, resulting in a large number of death among the invading Emirate and Saudi forces, it seems that the Arab state sees no way ahead better than withdrawal to avert more tolls on its forces.

The UAE’s forces could pull out of Yemen for a series of reasons, such as:    

-Unsuccessful Saudi Air strikes against Yemen

Considering the fact that heavy air raids so far could not secure the Saudi objectives in Yemen, and with the recent losses and fatal blows received by the aggressors from Ansarullah, army and popular defensive committees' forces, it is very likely that the UAE will head the countries dropping out of the Saudi-led coalition.

-Risk of surprise attacks on the aggressive coalition’s ground forces by Yemen’s Ansarullah, army and popular forces

The Ansarullah forces’ deadly attacks launched against the coalition’s forces proved that an easy ground assault in Yemen is a mirage. The Persian Gulf Arab states have paid dearly for the aggression. Accordingly, it is expected that the UAE reweigh its plans, and adopt a more flexible, conservative and wise policy in dealing with Yemen crisis. Moreover, UAE’s pullout will create a deep gap in the Saudi-led coalition, perhaps resulting in Saudi Arabia reviewing its hostile policies towards Yemen.

-The 5-month Saudi aggression has failed to reach meet the objectives

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have launched a heavy military invasion of Yemen, however, the assault proved unsuccessful and failed to meet Riyadh’s goals, and despite the fact that the coalition in this period of time has used highly advanced arms against the impoverished Yemen, as it committed grave crimes against the Yemeni civilians, killing a lot of women and children.

-Shaky and unsteady Saudi-led coalition

Since the beginning, due to some signs, it was predictable that Saudi Arabia would face difficulties in advancing on its aggression against Yemen, as there were possibilities that it would crack up, and very likely decompose. Primitively, the Yemeni crisis was heading to be settled politically, however, the Saudi military intervention and its air strikes, and now the coalitions' preparations to launch a ground offensive from Yemeni southern ports, have deteriorated the already-complicated circumstances in the country.

-Yemeni people and Ansarullah movement’s resistance

Obviously, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies within the coalition could not settle the Yemen’s crisis by military solutions especially that the coalition is widely intervening into Yemen, carrying out heavy bombardments and cruelly killing the civilians. In response, the Ansarullah resistant movement has encountered the assaults of the Arab coalition, consistently emphasizing the option of resistance, and proving that it is impossible retreat its geographical and ethical redlines.      

Tens of thousands return home to a destroyed Kobane 

After IS's retreat, locals return to Kobane to find crushed homes and basic infrastructure lacking, but are in no hurry to become refugees again 

Monday 21 September 2015 15

KOBANE - After Islamic State fighters vacated this strategic border town following one of the longest battles in the Syrian war, it took four months for the four Beko sisters and their families to feel it was safe to return from refuge in Turkey. Now the young women, two of them cradling four-month-old babies, stand on the porch of their two-story home surveying a scene of colossal destruction. 

Tens of Thousands Return Home to a Destroyed Kobane by Thavam Ratna

Has the Israel lobby really lost its mojo?

Record military aid for Israel will be Barack Obama’s enduring legacy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as his presidency draws to a close. (Mark Israel/Flickr)

Josh Ruebner The Electronic Intifada 21 September 2015

The Israeli government and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have failed to marshal Congressional opposition to President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Has the Israel Lobby Really Lost Its Mojo by Thavam Ratna