Yes, Denmark really wants to strip refugees of jewellery

It's not a hoax: the Danish government really is legislating to search refugees and confiscate jewellery and other valuables.

FRIDAY 18 DECEMBER 2015

Reports first emerged last week that Denmark was planning to search refugees trying to claim asylum in the country and confiscate valuable items to pay for their living expenses.

Yes, Denmark Really Wants to Strip Refugees of Jewellery by Thavam Ratna

The hospital at the center of a Muslim-Christian war in Africa
Men pray in a mosque in PK-5. (William Daniels/For The Washington Post)

Patients at Hôpital Général in Bangui, Central African Republic, on Dec. 3. (William Daniels/For The Washington Post)

By Kevin Sieff-December 19

BANGUI, Central African Republic —When he awoke after the surgery, the bullets had been removed from his legs, and Saddam Abdul Rahman was lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by men from the other side of the war.

The Hospital at the Center of a Muslim-Christian War in Africa by Thavam Ratna

The employees shut inside coffins

By Stephen Evans-14 December 2015

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and workers often report feeling stressed. So in order to make people appreciate life, some companies are making employees take part in their own pretend funerals.

In a large room in a nondescript modern office block in Seoul, staff from a recruitment company are staging their own funerals. Dressed in white robes, they sit at desks and write final letters to their loved ones. Tearful sniffling becomes open weeping, barely stifled by the copious use of tissues.

And then, the climax: they rise and stand over the wooden coffins laid out beside them. They pause, get in and lie down. They each hug a picture of themselves, draped in black ribbon.

Steve Evans reports on the companies holding pretend funerals

As they look up, the boxes are banged shut by a man dressed in black with a tall hat. He represents the Angel of Death. Enclosed in darkness, the employees reflect on the meaning of life.

The macabre ritual is a bonding exercise designed to teach them to value life. Before they get into the casket, they are shown videos of people in adversity - a cancer sufferer making the most of her final days, someone born without all her limbs who learned to swim.

All this is designed to help people come to terms with their own problems, which must be accepted as part of life, says Jeong Yong-mun who runs the Hyowon Healing Centre - his previous job was with a funeral company.

The participants at this session were sent by their employer, human resources firm Staffs. "Our company has always encouraged employees to change their old ways of thinking, but it was hard to bring about any real difference," says its president, Park Chun-woong. "I thought going inside a coffin would be such a shocking experience it would completely reset their minds for a completely fresh start in their attitudes."

It's hard to know what the employees make of it - South Korea is a very paternalistic society and they are unlikely to criticise company policy but it seems to have an impact.

"After the coffin experience, I realised I should try to live a new style of life," says Cho Yong-tae as he emerges from the casket. "I've realised I've made lots of mistakes. I hope to be more passionate in all the work I do and spend more time with my family."

As the company's president, Park Chun-woong believes an employer's responsibility extends beyond the office. For example, he sends flowers to the parents of his employees simply to thank them for bringing his workers up.

He also insists that his staff engage in another ritual every morning when they get to work - they must do stretching exercises together culminating in loud, joint outbursts of forced laughter. They bray uproariously, like laughing asses together. It is odd to see.

"At first, laughing together felt really awkward and I wondered what good it could do," says one woman. "But once you start laughing, you can't help but look at the faces of your colleagues around you and you end up laughing together.

"I think it really does have a positive influence. There's so little to laugh about in a normal office atmosphere, I think this kind of laughter helps."

Certainly, some laughter is needed in the South Korean workplace. The country has the highest rate of suicide in the industrialised world. There is a constant complaint of "presenteeism" - having to get to the office before the boss and stay until he - invariably he - has gone.

The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association found that a quarter of those it questioned suffered from high stress levels, with problems at work cited as a prime cause.

Last year, the Seoul city government tried to alter the work culture by instituting a siesta, allowing employees to nap for an hour during the day - although there was a sting in the tail and they had to get to work an hour earlier or leave an hour later to compensate.

This idea hasn't caught on elsewhere. Competition starts early in life and and it's hard for adults to switch off the competitive urge that they developed as children.

Last week saw one of the most bizarre displays of South Korea's competitive nature. More than 630,000 students in their late teens simultaneously took an exam to determine whether they go to a top university, a less prestigious one or no university at all. As they arrived at the test at 08:00, they were greeted by cheering schoolmates and an amazing hoopla of hugs.

Some adults started work an hour later than usual so there would be no morning rush hour to hold up candidates. Any student who was delayed could call a helpline and police motorbikes would come to carry them in. Flights were halted for 35 minutes in the afternoon during the aural section of the English exam.

In Seoul, parents of candidates climbed to a Buddhist temple on a mountain to pray for success. Every day for 12 weeks, mothers and grandmothers had stood, knelt and bowed repeatedly in a ritual of prayer. Above them hung lanterns with the names of the object of those prayers - the pupils sitting the test.

With that kind of pressure to get the grades that lead to good jobs, it's no wonder stress is high in South Korea.

It may take more than pretend funerals to make pressurised workers relish the good things of life. And forced laughter is not real, joyous laughter. It is laughter which is forced!

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Sri Lankan government has failed to uphold promises on Tamil political prisoners – CTC

19 December 2015

The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) said the Sri Lankan government had failed to uphold its promise to release Tamil political prisoners by December 15, in a statement released this week.

Stating that the organisation was “dedicated to working towards the fulfilment” of a UN Human Rights Council resolution that Sri Lanka had co-sponsored, CTC said “the Sri Lankan government must first take meaningful confidence-building measures to address ongoing human rights violations in order to gain the trust of the Tamil people”.

“One such urgently needed confidence-building measure is to address the situation of Tamil political prisoners,” it said.

Earlier this year, Tamil political prisoners who were being detained in jails across the island launched large scale protests and hunger strikes, drawing wide support across the North-East. The issue had also drawn international attention with the British governmentstating it would “continue to monitor closely the situation of detainees”.  A Jaffna University student also committed suicide over the crisis last month, prompting hundreds of demonstrators on to the streets, demanding justice.

The government had pledged that the cases of political prisoners would at least be reviewed by December 15, but that deadline has since passed with no significant action having taken place.

“While the government has made certain statements regarding political prisoners in the interim, December 15 has come and gone and the Sri Lankan government has yet to follow through on this promise in any concrete manner or present a clear plan on how they intend to address this issue” said CTC.

Raj Thavaratnasingham, president of the Canadian Tamil Congress, stated:

“It is critical that the Sri Lankan government take legitimate action on this issue if they are to build confidence in the Tamil community towards real accountability and reconciliation.”

See the full text of the statement here.

The next frontier in constitutional voyage

by Rajan Philips-December 19, 2015

Time will tell if Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Lecture, on December 11, 2015, will become a historical companion to JR Jayewardene’s December 1966 address to the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science (CAAS, now SLAAS), and Dr. Colvin R de Silva’s December 1969 talk to the Socialist Study Circle. Those familiar with Sri Lanka’s seemingly never ending constitutional voyage will know that it was at the CAAS, in 1966, JRJ first made the proposition for a presidential system of government. Three years later, at the Socialist Study Circle, Colvin R de Silva outlined the method and the makeup of the first Republican Constitution. Now 50 years on, Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced another constitutional makeover, purportedly to implement devolution of power, introduce a new electoral process, and find, as the Prime Minister put it, "an alternative to the executive presidential system".

The Next Frontier in Constitutional Voyage by Thavam Ratna

Bad laws and the good governance ethos

• Sunday, December 20, 2015

Close to one year since the change in political leadership in Sri Lanka, glaring peculiarities of bad law-making decisions have begun to cling to this Government much like an unpleasantly persistent odor.

Almost without exception, each and every draft law presented to the House displays a manifest lack of clear-headedness. Such laxity may be excused in respect of a singular instance or two. But when this becomes a matter of general habit, it is exceedingly worrying even with all the good will displayed towards an administration inheriting a decade of Rajapaksa misrule as an unenviable legacy.

Interjection of bad laws into the mix

And when confusion is evidenced in relatively uncomplicated matters, more complex processes of accountability attract greater doubts. Even as the Minister of Foreign Affairs talks winningly of special judicial mechanisms ensuring justice for war-time abuses, the dissatisfaction of the Northern polity increases day by day. The Witness Protection law remains largely confined to theory. Policy makers have expressed little willingness to amend its more obvious flaws, such as the lack of independence of its Protection Division. In the alternative, it is a mystery as to how one can talk of effective truth and reconciliation processes?

Beset on all sides, the fear is that before long, this Government will be caught pincer-like between the rumbling discontent in the North and the seemingly dormant but simmering Rajapaksa-tide in the South, with much of the ‘peoples’ power’ movement being diluted through the co-option of its members into government ranks.

The interjection of bad laws into this unhappy mix, conceived of without public consultation by a few misguided spirits makes matters even worse. I must stress that this concern is not confined to the Government’s proposed hate speech amendments to the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, though that example is bad enough. Tabled in the House by the Government with grandiose ceremony this week, the amendments were hastily postponed immediately thereafter with far less grace. The spectacle of a government presenting and postponing Bills with the disconcerting rapidity of a boomerang is not a pleasant sight.

Attracting unlikely partners in dissent

The storm of protests provoked by the Bills included incongruous partners, each on the extreme far end of Sri Lanka’s religious and ethnic divide. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the radical Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) protested unsurprisingly from directly divergent perspectives. The TNA expressed strong concern that the proposed amendments replicated feared provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) under which journalists, politicians and dissenters had been summarily jailed through a subversion of the judicial and legal process. The fact that the Bills would have permitted arrests without a warrant in respect of new offences buttressed these concerns.

On its own part, the BBS objected to the proposed laws evidently fearing their impact on inflammatory statements inciting religious and racial hatred which it excels in. The point, of course, is that sufficient legal provision, including the Penal Code and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act (ICCPR Act, 2007) exists to quell such incitement. The BBS was allowed to dance unrestrained under the Rajapaksa Presidency not due to the lack of law but according to a political decision of that Presidency to use hate mongers for political gain. In any event, the ICCPR Act has been virtually unused since its enactment in regard to its other provisions as well.

In the midst of the melee, constructive interventions took place through an exceptionally well timed statement by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) as well as a letter signed by members of the public, drawing attention to the ill wisdom of these amendments.

Greater coherence needed in government

The fact that the parliamentary debate on the Bills was postponed could perhaps be taken positively in that it is responding to public scrutiny. But a larger and far more obstinate question looms large. Why is greater care not taken before such laws are presented to the House in the first place? Indeed, it is a mystery as why the Government insists on cluttering up Sri Lanka’s statue book even as prevalent law is treated as if it is non-existent to all intents and purposes.

Undeniably there must be greater coherence in government as well as in law-making. The draft Right to Information (RTI) law, approved by the Cabinet this month, is perhaps one exception to what is fast becoming a general rule of ‘yahapalanaya’ (good governance) law-making disarray. But those associated with the drafting process will be aware of the difficulties that emerged when it was sought to bring the draft into consonance with modern RTI standards in the region and across the world.

Even so, the drafters of the 19th Amendment, now a part of the Constitution, included a retrograde constitutional provision on RTI which significantly contradicted the RTI Bill, also being drafted in parallel processes at the time. Ironically even though government lawmakers congratulated themselves in enacting a constitutional RTI, the simple fact was that this detracted from the strength of the separate RTI law. Denials to information in the constitutional RTI provision were archaic, overbroad and vague, as pointed out editorially in this newspaper and these column spaces. If this constitutional provision is not amended, a conflict may well emerge in the interpretation of dual RTI regimes. Lacunae in other respects in the 19th Amendment have been dissected at length. At that point, the excuse was that an uncertain interim government was in power. But the sympathetic leeway which one gives a honeymoon coalition is fast yielding to a far harsher assessment that does not bode well for the future.

These should not be choices before us

Where former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was concerned, one did not expect such niceties. The Bills presented during that time were pushed through with the force of a sledgehammer, directly or indirectly aggrandizing his stranglehold on power. Then we had abuse of power. Now we appear to have what some may uncharitably label as incoherence in power.

It may be debated by those inclined towards the nonsensical that incoherence in government is better than abuse of government.

Certainly however, these should not be the choices put before us by a Presidency and a Government elected to office on vastly different expectations.

PM Wickremasinghe on Constitutional Reform, Second Chamber, Media Freedom etc.,

(Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe delivered the Sujata Jayawardena memorial oration 2015 at the BMICH on December 11.)

19/12/2015

Here are excerpts:

“Let me first thank the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo for inviting me to address the Annual Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration 2015. I consider it a great pleasure to deliver this oration on behalf of a personality who made an outstanding contribution to our culture and our University, and of whom I have many personal recollections.

PM Wickremasinghe on Constitutional Reform, Second Chamber, Media Freedom Etc., by Thavam Ratna

Understanding Islamic terrorism – 3 

By Izeth Hussain-December 18, 2015

Todd noted that to everyone’s surprise, and the refusal of the Americans to face up to the facts, a process of democratic stabilization was taking place in Iran – that is at the time he was writing his 2002 book. The elections were not quite free, but the political system was definitely pluralist, with a left-wing and a right wing, reformers and conservatives. The sequence of literacy-revolution-lowering of the birth rate which applied in the case of the Iranian Revolution is not an invariant law that is universally applicable but it is a normal process. Todd argues therefore that the violence that is going on in parts of the third world should be seen not as regression to the past but as part of the politics of transition to modernity. Todd reminds the reader that his 1976 forecast of the demise of Soviet communism was based on demographic factors.

Todd acknowledges that while violence was widespread in the world there did seem to be a concentration of violence in the Islamic world, more violence there than anywhere else. That led to the notion that violence is integral to Islam, a consequence which flowed from the fact that the Prophet himself was a warrior. The notion that Islam posed a threat to the West gained currency. Todd notes that although Huntington saw China as the principal rival of the US, it is the virulence of the world of Islam and its supposed conflict with the Christian West that underlies the argument in the Clash of Civilisations. It is an interesting fact that Khomeini also thought in terms of a clash of civilisations.

But what facts are there to sustain the charge that Islam and terrorism go together? Todd notes the case of Algeria where fundamentalists had wide support, in fact majority support in the ‘nineties, but the military put them down and since then Algeria has been peaceful. He notes the case of Turkey where fundamentalism was popular but never strong enough to challenge the secular basis of the State established by Kemal Attaturk. The case of the Central Asian Republics has been particularly instructive. There was a civil war between fundamentalist groups in Tajikistan, but a feared fundamentalist take-over in Uzbekistan never materialized, and the rest of the Central Asian Republics was remarkably peaceful. Why? Todd’s explanation is that the Soviet Union had given the peoples there universal literacy, enabling them to make the demographic transition to modernity between 1975 AND 1995.

Todd points out that a good part of the Islamic countries had completed the process of literacy-revolution-lowered birth rate and were therefore peaceful places. But two of the most important Islamic countries, namely Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, had only just started the process. Both were parts of the American imperial system, and significantly in both of them there had been a steep increase of anti-American sentiment – which had to be expected because of the freeing of the mind that goes with literacy. The same steep increase in anti-American sentiment had been seen also in Iran before the 1979 Revolution, corresponding there also with a period of expanding literacy. It is significant that the main actors in the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center were from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Todd wrote, "Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will be, for at least two decades, dangerous zones, where instability will keep increasing in significant proportions". How do we assess this prediction from the perspective of 2015? There is no revolutionary turmoil in Saudi Arabia of course, mainly perhaps because the oil billions have enabled a welfare system from which all citizens benefit.. But the appeal of fundamentalism remains strong, even to the extent that there are anxieties that the IS might be able to ignite unwelcome changes within Saudi Arabia. It is a fact however that Saudi Arabia is probably the single biggest source of financing for the IS. It is also a fact that Saudi Arabia is the biggest force behind the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the world today. As for Pakistan, fundamentalist movements have much appeal there though fundamentalists have not been able to take power at the level of the state. A significant fact is that Pakistan has been promoting fundamentalism abroad through the Jamaat –e- Islam. Further significant facts are that it was Pakistan that created the Taliban, which spawned Al Qaeda, which in turn spawned the IS. I think that Todd’s prediction has proved to be substantially correct. We must hope therefore that fundamentalist fervor will die out both in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan around 2222.

I must make a clarification at this point. I have drawn material for this article from a chapter in Todd’s book After empire because the focus there is on exposing the myth of universal terrorism., a myth spread by the US to serve its imperialist purposes. It is important for Sri Lankans to understand the truth behind that myth because that will enable us to counter the Islamophobia which has been spreading in Sri Lanka. For a full exposition of Todd’s thesis on Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism the reader should turn to the book he co-authored with Youssef Courbage the title of which reads in translation The Rendez-vous of civilisations (2007). It was written in explicit refutation of Huntington’s thesis on the clash of civilisations.

How would Todd’s theory of the transition to modernity apply to the Sri Lankan Muslims? They have certainly made the cultural transition through a high standard of literacy along with our other ethnic groups. But there are doubts about their demographic transition. The problem is that some of the population statistics put out by the Department of Census are quite definitely wrong. I must mention that some Muslims even believe that the statistics were deliberately distorted to give the impression that the Muslims will become the dominant majority in Sri Lanka before long. In this situation we have no option but to go on impressions. My impression, formed after several inquiries, is that the average Muslim family consists of two children both among the middle class and the poor. The situation could be different where there is heavy Wahabi influence, particularly in the Eastern Province. My commonsense tells me however that that Wahabi influence is an extraneous and adventitious factor and that the universal trend, the universal inexorable trend, towards two children per family will assert itself in the EP as well. It seems very doubtful that Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka will lead to Islamic terrorism.

I will conclude by pointing to an irony. The US is supposed to be the exemplar of modernity more than any other, the country in which the Enlightenment ideology, which is at the core of modernity, is enshrined in its very Constitution. That ideology is secular and rational, tolerant of religion only in the vague and abstract form of Deism, and is therefore the very opposite of all that is implied by fundamentalism. But paradoxically the US is the country where fundamentalism has thrived most of all. It is known that at the time of the Declaration of Independence only a small elitist minority was devoted to the Enlightenment ideology, whereas ninety per cent and more of the American people were staunchly Calvinist. Since then the American people have produced a whole series of fundamentalist movements. Fred Zimmerman’s classic Hugh Noon is enlightening in this connection. It is not just a Western but a political film that matches the best work of Wajda and Pontecorvo. At the end of the film Gary Cooper throws down the Sheriff’s badge and lights out for the frontier with his wife. Both of them are Quakers, that is to say the practitioners of a fundamentalist form of Christianity. The film exemplifies the myth of the frontier, which has nothing to do with the Enlightenment ideology and everything to do with seeking renewal through religion. A proper reading of that film should enable Americans to reach out towards an understanding of the complexities that there might be behind Islamic fundamentalism.

izethhussain@gmail.com

Civil organization chameleons gone crazy ! Then against hate speeches now for with devil incarnate Weerawansa

⦁ Nothing untoward in the proposed laws –senior HRC lawyer Weliamuna

(Lanka-e-News- 19.Dec.2015, 6.40AM) While the government is preparing to introduce two amendments pertaining to  hate speeches and publicising hateful ideas against any race , religion or a minority group and make them an offence under the Penal code , some stupid leaders of civil organizations with an ignominious reputation   and know-alls have begun issuing media communiques against it.

They are the  one and only Director  of CAFFE organization who is an obsolete  permanent fixture of the organization who issues a communique even when a bitch with an infectious  itch  is knocked down by a bus , and two other leaders  of the Free media movement . Based on our inquiries , it is learnt the other members of the committee have been kept in the dark by these two leaders when issuing these comuniques. 

Their argument is , by this proposal those who are expressing anti government views are being stifled, citing as an illustration , the  10 years jail sentence delivered by court  against Tissanayagam under the Rajapakse regime . In this connection Lanka e news sought the opinion of Chrishantha Weliamuna , the most famous senior lawyer on human rights .

According to him , Tissanayagam was sentenced under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and added that this law is over 100 years old and applicable even now under section 291 of the  Penal code . However a clear ruling on its interpretation had still not been given hitherto , and these amendments are to elucidate the legal position. 

Therefore , this will give relief to those who express their ideas freely while  disallowing them from being made victims . Any legal provision can be interpreted in many ways , but with the introduction of the new amendments the interpretation is crystallized whereby hate speech against a race , religion or aminority group is clearly and cleverly defined. 

Weliamuna went on to state that such a provision is incorporated in the UN Human rights convention , and in the LLRC commission report too it is recommended that such a legal provision shall be introduced. Hence those who are antagonistic to it are betraying their ignorance. 

Lanka e news delved further into this ….

During the Rajapakse era hate speeches against race , religion and minority groups were the order of the day. Gnanassara and Wimal Weerawansa headed the campaign with self serving agendas. These same civil organizations at that time made a  big din that because of the hate and provocative speeches of these rabble rousers the society is being driven into a holocaust. As they predicted so that happened in Dharga town. 

It is on this account prime minister (P.M.) Ranil Wickremesinghe on behalf of United National Front, before the parliamentary elections  incorporated the relevant provision  when the agreement was signed with most Ven . Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera  of the National  movement for just society and 110 civil organizations .This is mentioned in the third clause of the agreement. The cruel irony of it is, three chameleons  of those civil organizations who signed that agreement then are today opposing the same clause when the government is seeking to give legal muscle to it. Is there a better description than ‘absolute hypocrisy, villiany  and treachery’ for  this uncouth base conduct of these chameleons ?

The other rabble rousing group that is mainly opposing this is the political party of Wimal Weerawansa’s who is the devil incarnate, and therefore the practitioner of all the cardinal sins on earth including passport frauds. Sadly the other  three chameleons  of the civil organizations are being kept trampled under Weerawansa’s  feet like how a satan tramples  when performing a satanic ritual.

The contention of the three civil organizations leaders is –the already existing  laws are adequate. If the laws are adequate , why weren’t the laws enoforced against Gnanassaras  and Weerawansas at that time ? Why didn’t you take action against them invoking the laws when they were arousing and inciting racial and religious hatred ? Perhaps ,the answer is , ‘under the Rajapakse regime filing legal action is useless. Hence we stood idle and watched .’

If that is their argument , several decades ago before the ethnic war began , there were two rabble rousers and racists out and out. They were K.P Rajaratnam of the South ,and Mangayarkarasi , the wife of Amirthalingam of the North . Rajaratnam said , ‘until I have made shoes out of the skin of the last Tamil in the North , and worn it , I will have no sleep.’ To this , in reply Mangayarkarsi of the North said , ‘until I have made shoes out of the skin of the last Sinhalese  in the South  , and worn it , I will have no sleep.’

If the old laws were strong enough as these civil organization chameleons claim ,both these rabble rousers could have been jailed and punished under the law. None can gainsay  ,at that time there weren’t people who were opposed to racism , or  weren’t social sphere  activists who could have enforced the laws . Indeed if truly that happened , we could have averted the 30 years old ethnic war . Yet, it did not happen that way. Why ?  Obviously , the old laws were not strong enough . 

The new enactment is necessary to preclude another war breaking out. Under the new law , hate speeches directed agianst a race , religion or minority group can engender a two years jail sentence based on the Penal code. That is an inescapable liability.

In the world of culture , what is paramount is not ‘free speech’ but ‘disciplined free speech’

May we make a humble request to these civil organization chameleons when they visit civlized countries on tickets received from abroad, to stop and read the instructions on the passenger routes at bus stops and railway stations .On them there is a permanent clause which reads thus : ‘If any wrong is committed against you by anyone even by word because of national , racial , lingual , gender , class or color  difference, please notify.’ Several phone numbers too are displayed to communicate. It is what the government of good governance is proposing to do that is displayed by that notice. 

Across the whole world what exists is ‘No hate speech’ campaign , whereas these frogs in the well still with tree climbing loin cloth (amude) mentality are trying to introduce ‘Yes hate speech’ campaign.

In the circumstances we request these chameleons and frogs in the well to study the proposed amendments thoroughly and dispassionately before springing to wrong conclusions. They will be well advised if they can get legal advice if they are ignoramuses on the subject. 

 ( The Gazette notification containing  the relevant amendments is appended herein ).

---------------------------
by     (2015-12-19 01:16:14)

Buddies for Budget


By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent-Saturday, 19 December 2015

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) lawmakers yesterday commended Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for agreeing to establish 16 out 25 post Budget requests the group presented to the Government.

Addressing the media last evening at the Parliamentary complex, the MPs listed some of the agreements with the Government. 

These included pledges the EPF/ETF will not be amalgamated, the Samurdhi fund will not be taken out of National Savings Bank, fertilizer subsidy extended to tea, rubber, and coconut smallholders, fertilizer subsidy extended to fruit and vegetable farmers, stop importing coconuts, stop the transfer of government deposits in state banks to private banks, continue issuing vehicle permits, letting commercial banks to continue with leasing business, cancelling the 2% on every cash withdrawal over Rs.1 million and stop the privatisation of Sevanagala and Pelawatte sugar factories.

Meanwhile, Reuters yesterday reported that the changes could raise concern over Sri Lanka’s efforts for fiscal consolidation as the government is expected to start negotiations next year for an IMF standby arrangement. The final vote on the reformist budget is scheduled for Saturday. It initially aimed to boost revenue 38% and cut the deficit to 5.9% of GDP next year, from an estimated 6% in 2015.

Since Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presented the budget on 20 November, the government has amended several revenue proposals, including an increase in fees on vehicle emission tests and valuations and vehicle permits for public servants. On Friday, the government extended fertiliser subsidies for plantation crops, a day after dozens of paddy farmers wearing only loincloths protested against a subsidy cut.

Karunanayake told the parliament that the revenue lost by the amendments would be only Rs. 7 billion (USD 48.80 million), less than 1% of the estimated budget deficit of Rs. 740 billion.

He told Reuters the revisions would not affect the revenue target. Many analysts say the resulting fall in revenue and increase in expenditure could swell the deficit.

“Public finances remain a key credit weakness for Sri Lanka,” Sagarika Chandra, Fitch Ratings’ associate director for Asia Pacific Sovereigns, told Reuters.

She said there was a risk of missing the 2016 fiscal deficit target, due to the trend of very low revenue in recent years but ambitious economic reforms to boost foreign investment and private participation could be positive for the economy, if Sri Lanka reduces external borrowing to finance growth.

Strong protests by trade unions have prompted the government to withdraw a proposal to revise public sector pensions.

The IMF last week warned Sri Lanka of an uncertain economic outlook, while a top IMF official raised questions about its ambitious revenue and capital expenditure goals.,

Kyran Curry, S&P’s director of sovereign ratings, said Sri Lanka’s sovereign rating could be lowered if its external liquidity deteriorated markedly or growth and fiscal consolidation prospects worsened significantly.