Monday, October 23, 2017

Federalism made a dirty word by politicians - Wigneswaran

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan-2017-10-22

Descending from the family that produced Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, C. V. Wigneswaran is also a celebrated Sri Lankan.

Lawyer, Supreme Court Judge and now Chief Minister of the Northern Province, he is also a man unafraid to voice his opinion.

Recently recovering from minor surgery, Wigneswaran emailed answers to a series of questions around the debate over the proposed new Constitution.

Here is the third part of that email:

How can you face your Sinhalese friends in Colombo after advocating federalism, since they oppose you and oppose your thinking and federalism?

A: This is the typical minority mentality. We are a minority, they are majority. How could we hurt them? We are talking of solutions to problems between the majority community and the so called minority community. If you start by saying 'might is right' then there is no purpose in pursuing any path towards reconciliation and peace. We sign dignified covenants in the international arena saying every human being is equal to any other human being and when it comes to discussing such equal rights, you give way to the 'might is right' syndrome.

I must confess it did happen to me after my Trilingual speech in the Supreme Court which was about Tamil rights and discrimination by successive governments. Very close Sinhala Judge friends ignored me for a few weeks. I was amused. I needed no help from others. I could stand alone. Others needed my help. We got back to work as usual!

You must realize that the intelligentsia among the Sinhalese see the goodness in Federalism. So do others who are not so learned when the meaning of Federalism is explained to them.

I was told my reply to Hon' Dinesh Gunawardena about Federalism was much appreciated by many Sinhala friends. I knew Hon' Philip Gunawardena. I was the first Royalist to invite a Minister from the SWRD cabinet of 1956 to speak at one of our associations.

In my reply to Dinesh, I said if Comrade Philip and his wife who owned their Mulgedera in Boralugoda, occupied the entire estate and if Dinesh and his brothers came of age and married and had children and Comrade Philip gave portions of the Mulgedera to his children to put up houses and live in their allotted portions of land, Comrade Philip will continue to occupy the Mulgedera but the children will put up new houses for themselves in their allotted areas. They will visit each other and have the best of relationships. But each son would be entitled to special rights over the plot allotted to him. 'That is federalism,' I said. Centre sharing its power with the periphery!

Federalism has been made a dirty word by our politicians for their own political benefits. My Colombo friends do know the benefits of Federalism. Do not worry. I will manage them! You should realize as soon as proper federalism is granted, this country will jet towards prosperity, the hatred and suspicion among the various communities will disappear and reconciliation and peace will be established. If Sinhalese leaders feel it is a come down for them to agree to federalism for the North and East, let them suggest federalism for the entire country giving federal rights to each province with the right to any one or more provinces to merge with another.

Aren't you upsetting the apple cart with your statements and actions?

A: Certainly not. I am adding sanity to the constitutional process. Truth is important. Not opinions. Truth of what happened in the past and why it has become necessary to put right, what went wrong. Actually the British should have given a federal constitution instead of what they gave us. They thought, due to the noble and enchanting words used by Hon. D. S. Senanayake and others, the Sinhalese will treat all minorities with dignity and decorum. In fact, Lord Soulbury regretted what the British did, when he spoke to B.F. Farmer about ten years later. He had heard of the atrocities committed against the Tamils in 1958. He was privy to the discriminatory laws brought against the minorities.
In Switzerland, the Government deems it its duty to strengthen and give special concessions to minorities. Eg. the insignificant Romansch speaking people among them.

Here in Sri Lanka, the majority law makers deem it their duty to discriminate against the minorities because it goes well with their political electorates. I am trying to bring about a permanent solution to our constitutional ills by pointing out the truth. If we have a proper Federal constitution tomorrow, take it from me our Diaspora will help not only the North and East of Sri Lanka, but the whole of Sri Lanka because then they would consider Sri Lanka as their own country and not any more the country of the Sinhala Buddhists only. If the Sinhala Buddhists walk with us hand in hand, the applecart will roll along famously!

Getting the fight against poverty righ

Monday, 23 October 2017

Household income and expenditure is perhaps the best and most transparent litmus test for an economy. Sri Lanka, caught between moderate real growth, low entrepreneurship, high inflation, complicated tariff systems and inconsistent policies, faces an extremely tough challenge in reducing poverty. However, one certainty is that poverty cannot be battled by reducing people’s economic freedom.

Eight years after the war ended there is persistent poverty in the north and east while incomes remain far lower than in other parts of the country, the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) released last week shows.

The median income in Sri Lanka is now Rs. 43,511. But in the estate sector, it is Rs. 29,134 – and this is much lower than the overall urban and rural sectors. But in the Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Batticaloa districts, it is even lower at Rs. 25,526, Rs. 27.050 and Rs. 28,297 respectively.

The HIES is produced by the Census and Statistics Department. Median household income, as distinct from average household income, is the amount which divides the household income distribution into two equal groups–half having income above that amount and the other half having income below that amount. On average, there are 1.8 income receivers per household in Sri Lanka.

This is more or less constant throughout the country. The median income receiver in Mullaitivu gets Rs. 12,864, which is almost half of what the national median income receiver gets at Rs. 23,260. The Jaffna District median income receiver earns Rs. 16,000, less than half of the Colombo District at Rs. 33,000.

Such low incomes are reflective of the high levels of poverty in the war-affected districts particularly Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi, with a double-digit poverty head count of 10%, 11.3%, 12.7% and 18.2%. In Kilinochchi, the poverty head count has almost increased by 43% from the 2012/2013 HIES survey when it was 12.7%.

It is interesting that this data comes in the backdrop of the Government taking, in some ways, the most serious step in limiting the economic freedoms of people. The key example of this is attempting to severely reduce the import of three-wheelers and increasing the driver age to 35 years. On the surface, proponents of this proposed policy argue that it will reduce road accidents and force youth to seek jobs in factories. But road accidents should and can be minimised through better law implementation and drivers above the age of 35 are not infallible. People should have the right to do whatever job they wish. Sri Lanka’s fleet of about 1.5 million tuk-tuks provide huge assistance to the rural economy and bridge a massive dearth in accessible transportation, especially for women.

When an economy has affordable transport it benefits the entire economy. If companies want to attract more labour then it is their responsibility to provide attractive opportunities or diversify into areas higher up the value chain. Keeping people trapped in jobs they do not want is not the answer.

Additionally, with few factories scattered across the island there is no guarantee that all youth will have work that suites them if these selfish and elitist policies come to pass. The public sector, which employs over 1.5 million people, could be reformed to provide extra labour but policymakers are wary of the potential political fallout from such a move.

Sri Lankans are clearly moving towards ever higher aspirations and as such will want well-paying jobs. That is not a crime. The Government must ensure that its policies provide for these aspirations through investment and technology advancement rather than short-sighted protectionist policies.

1 year on, Jaffna University remembers two students killed by police

Staff and students at the University of Jaffna paid tribute on Friday to the two students killed a year ago by Sri Lankan police.

Media faculty students Nadarajah Kajan and Vijayakumar Sulaxan were shot dead by Jaffna police officers in Kokkuvil on October 20th 2016, sparking protests across the North-East, further around the island and internationally.

The tribute event on the first year anniversary of their deaths was organised jointly by students, academic staff and non-academic employees at the university.

MMDA Reforms: Ulema Insists Women Must Play Second Fiddle

OCTOBER 22, 2017

All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema (ACJU) in its latest submission to the Muslim Personal Law Reforms Committee Chaired by Former Justice Saleem Marsoof, rejected any key changes to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act of 1951 (MMDA) instead bringing in strong theological support to the first report which came into severe criticism from the Muslim intelligentsia.

The new 37 page document, outlines the position of the ACJU with regard to the proposed changes, all of which have been rejected on the grounds of non-conformity with Sharia.

Rizwe Mufthi

The ACJU is an unelected body with its head Mufthi Rizwe holding the post of chairman for over a decade. The submission by the ACJU renounces all theological and interpretational advances made in Islamic jurisprudence and instead used pre medieval comprehension to assert its view, again.

Rizwe in repeated Jumma sermons had insisted that females should wear the Nikab and has been a strong opponent of any reform to the MMDA Insisting on ideals such as marriage at the age of 6 being permissible.

Rejecting the need to introduce females as Quazi’s (judges) into the Quazi Court System, the ACJU is of the view that as per all major Islamic schools of thought “it is not permissible for a woman to be appointed as a judge, and if she is appointed, the one who appointed her is sinning, and her appointment is invalid, and her judgements carry no weight, no matter what ruling she passes.”

They further quote the hadith “No people will ever prosper who appoint a woman in charge of their affairs,” which according to the ACJU “is general in meaning and applies to all positions of public authority. So it is not permissible to appoint a woman, because the word ‘affairs’ is general in meaning and includes all the public affairs of the Muslims.”

Rejecting the appointment of females to be appointed as marriage registrars, the ACJU expresses that the appointment of a woman would lead to compromise on important “shari’ah concerns” since marriages are recommended to be held at Mosques and are conducted in the presence of males. The document does not specify the “Shari’ah aspects”. The document further notes that in the case of a marriage happening outside a mosque “the traveling of women alone, the mingling of women with non-mahram men and processing the registration will no doubt have practical and Shari’ah concerns.” A Mahram male is one who falls within the prohibited degrees of marriage for a woman as per Islam.

Further, according to these submissions, for a valid marriage to happen, Islam requires four people, none of which includes the bride herself. The four accordingly are the guardian of the bride referred to as the wali (usually father, uncle, or brother of the bride), the bridegroom, and two Muslim male witnesses who are familiar with the two contracting parties.

Unlike the rest of the country where the bride herself signs her marriage form signifying consent, the MMDA requires the guardian of the bride to sign for and on behalf of her. Women’s groups have been demanding for the right to be given to the bride herself, however, the ACJU in its document recommends the brides signature in addition to her guardians signature stating “in no circumstance it should indicate that without the consent of Wali, a bride on her own free will, can proceed with her marriage”.

The requirement is in line with pre medieval practices in which women were betrothed by men who believed they were chattel of men.

The ACJU further notes “the father is generally the Wali of the bride, and he may marry her off without her consent, if she is a virgin, provided certain conditions are met. It is, however, Mustahab (recommended) to acquire the consent of the bride prior to marriage”.

The MMDA unlike the General Marriage Law of the Country does not recognize 18 as the minimum age of marriage. Under the MMDA a girl below 12 years can be wedded off with the authorization of the Quazi. This practice has been criticized at various forums for not being in line with international standards. The ACJU in their submissions recommends the minimum age to be raised to 18, however lays out that approval should be obtained from a Quazi for marriages between age 16-18. It further states that marriage below 16 if occurred, should not be invalidated under the MMDA. Thereby stating that the status quo of child marriage should remain intact.

Rejecting that limitations should be placed on entering into polygamous marriages the ACJU opines that a proper reading of the Quranic verses on polygamy permits the practice without exceptions of circumstance. The ACJU sees no reason to place restrictions on such practice “due to few unfortunate situations that arise in polygamous marriages”. Some Muslim countries have banned this practice as outdated and women’s groups have been lobbying for the same in Sri Lanka.

What does the country need?

Expressways or rurak roads

October 22, 2017, 9:05 pm

It’s heartening to note that the subject of rural development has hit the center stage again. Not many moons ago President Maithripala Sirisena launched the "Gramashakthi Peoples’ Movement" aimed at strengthening the rural economy to alleviate poverty in the country. Ambitious enough, it envisages fulfilling the requirements of the people living in 15,000+ villages across the country. Further, it expects to boost rural agriculture and industry.

Dr. Siri Gamage, writing to "The Island" (on 17.10.2017.) argued a case for rural development vis-à-vis foreign funded mega projects in the context of development in Sri Lanka. His thought provoking article entitled "Rural reawakening to solve socio-economic problems" elaboratively analyzed the merits of rural development as opposed to the demerits of foreign funded development.

Harnessing of rural talent and collective intelligence of people for the greater good of society within a spiritual atmosphere Dr. Gamage identified as the main merits of rural development. This in fact is far-reaching than the mere materialistic, physical development that is thrust on us by the politicians and the foreign development partners, working hand in glove. In contrary, some of the delimits of the latter model Dr. Gamage identified include dependence on foreign sources of funding, expertise, potential for corruption and ideology that it creates, i.e. idea that we don't have necessary intelligence to conceptualize the problems and solutions. This has provided with enough food for thought for the development planners of this country and their critics.

Mega Projects – Sri Lankan experience

It is equally heartening to see that now at least some segments of the population have come to question the worthiness of some of the mega development projects that were carried out in this country, lately. Needless to say, these were carried out at the expense of colossal sums of money, where the ordinary citizen of the country is the ultimate payer. These include the disastrous Uma Oya and Oluvil (harbour) projects, which in fact are real engineering debacles. The government has now decided to shut down the Oluvil harbour, only four years since its opening in September 2013. Recently, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources minister Mahinda Amaraweera announced that maintenance of the harbour, which is a "white elephant", is unfeasible.

The devastation caused to the social life of the people in and around Bandarawela and its environment by an ill-conceived Uma Oya project is now well known to the people of this country. Enough and more had been said about it in the media. (Environment & Society carried a special edition titled "Uma Oya disaster" on 15.05.2017.) Although now the engineers seem to have embroiled in a never-ending sealing exercise to check the water leak, which to this day had led to the wasteful flow of insurmountable volumes of ground water, according to some "the worst is yet to come".

The impact of Southern Expressway had on the worsened flood situation in the south of the country last May-June is undeniable. Further, the Colombo Port City project has come to have its telltale effect on the western coast, which again as for the predictors is "the worst is yet to come".

Now the people having made to swallow the bitter pill of "development" over and over again by the authorities, have got their act together, in asking unpropitious question "Development, for whom?"

Against this backdrop, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has pounced hard on the controversial Central Expressway project. "The Island" reported last Saturday the Minister claiming that the country would have to bear an additional debt of Rs. 1,644 billion for the construction of the 356 km highway.

The Minister, himself an engineer, doing some number crunching, equated building of one kilometer of the proposed expressway (at Rs. 5 billion per km) to providing sanitary facilities for around 20,000 families in Colombo or to build flats for around 1,000 low income families or to construct condominiums for 5,000 poor families or to rehabilitate 50 hospitals in rural areas. He had further said that with funds to be spent on the expressway 30,000 new technical jobs, a luxury bus service to reduce congestion, construction of the second runway of the Bandaranaike International Airport, a 200MW power plant, construction of east and west terminals of the Colombo Port, the renovation of Sapugaskanda refinery, the construction of two water reservoirs to supply water to Colombo and flyovers and tunnels and new roads for Colombo to ease the traffic congestion could be undertaken.

What Minister Ranawaka had said cannot be taken lightly. After the devastating floods in the south last May-June, he was among the first to point the finger at the Southern Expressway. Had been the minister of Environment and Power and Energy for two back to back terms during the last regimen, undoubtedly, Ranawaka knows well about the nitty-gritty of these mega projects.

Sri Lanka is infamous for the corruption associated with expressway building. Two weeks ago "Environment & Society" ("The Island" of 09.10.2017.) went to town on this aspect quoting the World Bank and University of Oxford estimates. All expressway constructions in Sri Lanka except the Kottawa – Godagama sections of the Southern expressway have been much higher than the recommended maximum accepted cost per km of USD 7.8 million (approximately SLR 1 Billion).

Expressways at Rs. 5 billion per km vis-à-vis Rural Roads at Rs. 2.5 million

The National Physical Plan (NPP) provides the blue print for the country’s physical development agenda from 2011 through 2030. It proposes adding 1,000km more to the highway system of the country. This will further replenish the existing 11,600+km national highways that include the existing Kadawatha-Matara expressway, while connecting it with the Colombo-Katunayake expressway. The low end of the expressway building estimate stands around Rs. 5 billion per km.

As ever, despite the building of highways and superhighways, the fruits of "development" are yet to reach the people. (On the contrary, it has brought in death and destruction to their doorstop, as we saw following the deluge that affected the south in May-June).

One important reason for this developmental paradox is that the expressways lie miles away from the country’s all important and widespread economic foci – the rural areas. According to the 2012 Census and Statistics, 81.8% of the country’s population lives in rural and estate areas of the country. Farming along with home-based and other small scale industries take place there. (And also the biggest contributors to the country’s economy – the women folk. They include the women employed in the gulf, who stitch garments in the factories in the big cities and who toil in the tea, rubber and other plantation industries). Pathetically, almost 70 years after the country’s independence, those areas still remain very much underserved, and the rural road system is a classic case in point.

Rural Roads

According to the National Road Master Plan (2007 – 17) of the Road Development Authority, there are 115,862 km of roads dispersed across the country. Of these 11,671 km roads are termed national roads and come under the central government. They comprise the inter-provincial trunk roads connecting major cities and ports and inter-provincial arterial roads connecting major urban centres. All these roads are well paved.

Provincial roads, which are the second tier of roads, are 15,532 km in length and are administered by the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government and maintained by the provincial administration. By function they connect settlements with markets. Of these, only 67% of these are paved.

The third tier, local authority roads, spread through 64,659 km of length and breadth of the country, is the longest network of road structure. While they too come under the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government, the relevant local government bodies maintain them. Only 13% of these roads, which in practice traverse through the real economic heartlands, are paved. In other words, 87% of the country’s rural roads still remain unpaved.

In addition, a fourth category termed "unclassified" roads is found in the plantation, irrigational and forest areas in the country and it accounts for approximately 24,000km in length.

Rural Road Development

An Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project named "i-road" (for Integrated Road Investment Programme) is underway since 2014 to improve the rural roads in the country. While an estimated 3,000km of rural roads in Southern, Sabaragamuwa, Central, North Central, North Western Provinces and Kalutara district in the Western Province will be improved by this project, it also expects to maintain these roads for three years through civil works contracts. At present this project is underway in the Kalutara, Kegalle, Rathnapura, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Matale districts.

Most importantly, 1,200km of rural road development in the first phase of the project is expected to take place at Rs. 35 billion, just a fraction of what is spent on expressway construction.

According to the ADB’s environmental consultant of the project Mr. Athula Priyantha, this particparticular road buildingproject takes cognizance of manym aspects related to rural development including social and environmental aspects.

This project undertakes to develop the existing ROWs (road of ways) in the selected provinces. These are the roads that come under provincial councils.
The first phase of the project "i-road 1" is now underway in the Southern,
Sabaragamuwa, Central, North Central, North Western Provinces and in Kalutara district. Once that is over the second phase of the project "i-road 2" will be implemented in the Northern, Eastern and Uva Provinces.

Priyantha stressed, "Social and environmental components are two important aspects of this project. The project has taken all measures to minimize the negative impacts on the social life of people and the environment. For example,roads are widened only if there are safety or severe space issues. Land acquisition, if absolutely needed only,
will take place only with the concurrence of the land owners. There is no
forcible eviction of people. And there is a special grievances redress mechanism embedded in the programme to take care of the communities’ concerns".

Priyantha further elaborated on the grievances redress mechanism in place.
"The people can make their complaints anytime. Even there are complaint boxes put up by the roadside for this purpose. The social and environment consultants, contractor and the RDA, which is the client, comprise the lowest level of the mediation board. If the issue is not redressed at that level, then it will betaken to a higher level where the Grama Niladhari heads the committee that includes a community representative and a women’s representative in addition to the other three. If the issue is not resolved there, then it could be taken to a further higher level headed by the Divisional Secretary."

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Priyantha identified the M&E component
of the project as a special strength."There is a special team to monitor the
progress of the project round the clock. Also they look into a number of social and environmental dimensions and complaints received from pubic".

Safety of the people is one aspect that the project design has given high priority to. "The number of accidents, their nature and awareness programmes conducted for the communities are monitored and evaluated on monthly basis. The project is also equally concerned about the safety of the workers and has taken all precautionary measures to minimize the risks to the workers," said Priyantha.

Priyantha, commenting on the environmental aspect of the project, said: "Felling of trees are minimal throughout this project. For each tree that is felled, three saplings should be planted. The project takes special precautions not to pollute the waterways and ground water. It also monitors if there is any soil erosion as a result of road construction".

Even the supply of earth and boulders for the construction of roads needs
proper licenses.

Refuse disposal according to Priyantha is another aspect that has received top priority under the project. "The earth removed should be well taken
care of. It cannot be left alone by the roadside, and needs to be disposed of at the identified disposal yard. The disposal sites should also have a special restoration plan and it is the responsibility of the contractor to see that the restoration has taken place duly before he is paid. The Pradeshiya Sabha has to issue a clearance certificate to this effect."

Roads are needed for the country’s development and more so at places where the economic activities are vibrant and masses live in the backyard of development. In this regard the rural road development project funded by the ADB is a jewel in the crown, and there is many a lesson the bigger projects can learn from it.

Need for tax reforms: Government should not lose it this time but go for them early

An unfulfilled promise of reforming the tax system

Monday, 23 October 2017

In the first economic policy statement, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made a number of pledges related to taxes and tax reforms. One was that the Government would review whether the tax concessions given to investors have really delivered the expected outcome. Instead of tax concessions, he promised to put in place a low tax regime which would be enjoyed by all investors, whether they were local or foreign.

Another was to improve the tax revenue of the Government commensurate with the increase in the country’s Gross Domestic Product or GDP. In the past, that ratio had fallen disappointingly from around 18% in 1980 to 10% in 2014.