Can Ranil avoid confrontation prepared by fascistic forces?

By Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-11-23

There is an understanding between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena in the Yahapalana Government's attempt to change the Constitution, though they have been facing a series of obstacles. In spite of Maithri's commitment to his Sri Lanka Freedom Party some leaders are not enthusiastically backing the reforms initiative.

In spite of Malwatte Mahanayake and Asgiriya Anunayake with many learned Buddhist monks giving their blessings, the section of the Maha Sangha under the influence of Mahinda fascism are opposed to any constitutional change. The Yahapalana constitutional reforms project envisages the abolition of the presidential system and return to empowering of Parliament and replacement of the proportional representation system of elections and preferential voting with a mixed system, and greater devolution of power to Provincial Councils.

This is the only attempt to change the Constitution with public participation and debate. In all attempts before this, the Tamil people did not participate. In the same manner in 1977 then President J.R. Jayewardene enacted the present system, Chandrika Kumaratunga as President initiated a reform process in 1994, which ended in failure in 2000. JVP at that time became a hindrance to reforms based on devolution. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in 2005 and 2009, promised to change the Constitution, but did not take concrete steps apart from appointing two committees to make recommendations. These committees, in particular the LLRC, made progressive recommendations. Nonetheless, Mahinda Rajapaksa continued in the path of fascist politics and finally did an unusual thing by amending the Constitution in 2010 in order to enhance, not reduce, the powers of the President, despite the fact that 'Executive Presidency' was the darkest feature of the Jayewardene Constitution.

Some analysts say: "History appears to repeat itself. The most ardent opponents of the reform initiatives now are Sinhalese nationalist forces, led by Buddhist monks. Parliamentary opposition, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, is in the forefront of the secular campaign against constitutional reform. The opposition by Buddhist monks revolves around two points. One, further devolution would amount to giving in to the demands of the Tamil and Muslim minorities as well as appeasing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam diaspora and foreign powers. Two, abolition of the presidential system would weaken the Sri Lankan State. The Maha Sangha leaders are also worried that the new Constitution might drop the 'foremost place' position that is accorded to Buddhism as per the current Constitution.

This is incorrect. The present opposition is much more political than the emotional explosions that signified the opposition to devolution or any change in Constitution in the past. Those emotional aspects are removed to a large extent by political education and praxis of Desa Premi revolution of 88/89. Today, domination of a well organized fascistic political network is creating the real challenge to the Yahapalanaya. Do the Yahapalana leaders recognize this threat and are they prepared to defeat it. Even if Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is aware of all this, which is why, he has adopted the strategy of drafting the new Constitution through the Parliament acting as a Constitutional Assembly and the proceedings of the Constitutional Assembly were conducted in a low-key fashion with little controversy, can he avoid the confrontation prepared by the fascistic forces?

White van abduction was just plain-clothes officers making arrest Jaffna police claim

22Nov 2017

A 'white van style' abduction of a Tamil youth which sparked fears in Jaffna was an arrest made by plain-clothes officers, Sri Lankan police have said.

A Tamil youth waiting at Jaffna bus stand was bundled into a white van on Tuesday evening. The incident which took place at rush-hour following the end of the working day had sparked fears in Jaffna, exacerbated by reports of spates of arrests in the run-up to Maaveerar Naal.

As news of the abduction spread, Koppay police announced on Wednesday morning that the alleged abduction was a case of plain-clothes officers making an arrest.

Koppay police said they had received tip-offs that 17-year-old Kajabalasingham Nitharsan was a member of the ‘Aava’ gang and an informant for the group.

“We had tried several times to arrest him, but each time he would escape,” a Koppay police spokesperson said.

After receiving a tip-off that he was waiting at Jaffna bus stand on Tuesday evening, plain-clothes officers arrested him in a van and brought him to Koppay police station, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that with Mr Nitharsan being investigated, police had been able to gather a lot of information on the Aava gang. Koppay police claimed to have recovered a motorcycle and a sword used in a recent attack in Manippay from a search of Mr Nitharsan's home.

Despite the police denial that the incident was an abduction, Jaffna residents have criticised the manner of the arrest and other police activities, which local groups have said are designed to intimidate Tamils in the run-up to Maaveerar Naal.

Related Articles: 

22 November 2017 : Sri Lankan police conduct vehicle checks in Maankulam ahead of Maaveerar Naal

20 November 2017 : Special Task Force ramp up patrols in Jaffna claiming increased gang violence

19 November 2017 : 41 arrested in Jaffna over sword attacks

In Light Of Dr Nalaka Godahewa’s Speech At The UNHRC In Geneva – Part IV

By Lionel Bopage -22November 2017 



[Part 3 of this series was published on Monday, the 20th November 2017]
More on the Points Dr Godahewa has raised
Post-independence Sri Lanka offered equal rights to all citizens and communities; no minority is discriminated by any constitutional, legislative or judicial provision in Sri Lanka; all are citizens of equal rights in a unitary state; even after the war, bulk of development expenditure were routed to the north and the east;

 

Education

Under the colonial rule, English was the language of instruction, the language of the elite[1]. This benefited the English speakers, but the majority could not enjoy the benefits. As mentioned earlier, students in the north and east, mainly Tamils, regardless of their socio-economy strata had access to English-medium education through missionary schools. When universal franchise was introduced in 1931, 84,000 studied in English schools and 476,000 in vernacular schools. On the eve of independence, some 180,000 were in English schools and 720,000 in vernacular schools. The curriculum of English schools included standards and examinations for every grade through to high school, whereas vernacular school standards stopped at the fifth level. 1942 saw the establishment of the University of Ceylon. Many English-speaking Tamil and Sinhala students enrolled in universities, especially in following science, medicine and engineering courses. With a policy to promote universal literacy, education became free in government schools. Elementary and technical schools were set up in rural areas and vernacular education received official encouragement.

In 1946, Minister of Education Late C W W Kannangara introduced government funded free education in all government educational institutions. Free education became available from kindergarten through to the university level. Despite the gross ethnic, geographic, and gender inequalities, the island by 1948 had a well-developed modern education infrastructure. Since independence, a university degree was primarily seen as a qualification to serve the government. The preferred field of study among the small student community was a Bachelor of Arts. By mid-sixties, university exams were held in Sinhala and Tamil. This opened the door to tertiary education to a vast student community, whose medium of instruction had been either Sinhala or Tamil.

Neither the public sector nor the private sector could absorb this increasing number of university graduates. By late sixties, this situation led to three major issues: the difficulty in dealing with an increasing number of university admissions; lack of employability of the graduates; and the consequent barriers for their advancement. This represented nothing but the failure of the policy framework the government has followed. While expanding the opportunities for arts education, no plans were made to find employment opportunities for the new graduates. Sinhala youth became the biggest losers, contributing to the crisis situation in the south.

It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of students attended vernacular schools over the last fifty to sixty years of the colonial period, speculating that most did not even complete fifth year examinations.[2] It is also said that during the colonial period and the two decades after independence, the number of Tamil students in secondary schools and universities was higher than the number of Sinhala students.[3] With the growing Sinhala Buddhist nationalist influence, employment opportunities for Tamil youth in the public sector declined. However, Tamil schools used their science curricula to better prepare students for engineering and medicine streams. By the 1960s, there were more Tamil students in the engineering and medical faculties looking forward to a lucrative career. Sinhala nationalist forces started agitating for lowering the number of Tamil students in engineering and medical faculties.

 

Standardisation

In 1953, Ceylon had a total of 6,480 schools and 19 Training Schools. Of them 3,778 schools and 10 Training Schools were Sinhala schools, 2,055 and 8 Tamil, 647 and 1 English. The system was biased towards the English medium and then to Tamils. Adequate resources for science, medical and engineering education were only available in Jaffna, Colombo, Galle and a few other regional cities. Instead of diversifying the fields of education to provide better employment opportunities and providing better facilities in rural areas for science studies, the government choose to discriminate against Tamil students.

Instead of prioritising government expenditure to provide necessary human and physical resources for science education, the SLFP-led coalition instituted a policy of standardising university entrance results as a political strategy. According to Education Minister at the time, Late Badi-ud-din Mahmud, this was an affirmative action to assist geographically disadvantaged students to gain tertiary education. In 1971, university admissions to science streams were made proportional to the total number of students who sat the examination in each language. Obviously, Sinhala students benefitted from this policy, while Tamil students who had demonstrated their ability at the exam had been penalised simply because they were Tamils.

The 1971 results indicated that Tamil students from Jaffna and Sinhala students from Colombo largely benefitted from standardisation. The results were not hard to perceive as Professor K M de Silva put it: “In short, students sitting for examinations in the same language, but belonging to two ethnic groups, had different qualifying marks”. He added that by doing this in such an obviously discriminatory way, the government caused enormous harm to ethnic relations.

In 1972, the government added district quota as another parameter to the language based standardisation formula. This was administered by a parliamentary sub-committee led by Peter Kenueman. As a result, 30 percent of admissions were allocated on an island-wide merit base, 50 percent on a comparative scores base within districts and another 15 percent for students from under-privileged districts. The table below shows the significant effects standardisation^[4] had on Sinhala and Tamil student communities.

	Engineering Faculty Percentages		Medical Faculty Percentages
Reference Year	Sinhala	Tamil	Sinhala	Tamil
1969, pre-standardisation	51.7	48.3	50.0	50.0
1975, post-standardisation	83.4	16.6	81.0	19.0

This has obviously favoured Sinhala students as the dominant majority. The system of selecting students according to their individual merit was mostly thrown out of the window. Yet, Tamil students’ admissions continued to be higher than the percentage ratio for some time, and then began to decline. This controversial quota system was more equitable in terms of distribution of educational opportunities population wise, but detrimental to the future of many bright Tamil students that merited to enter university. They saw this as a clear form of discrimination, pausing a challenge to their basic right to prosper and sense of belonging.

Read More

Our Education:-Prisoner of a long, largely undeclared war

Part I: From Presidential Immunity to Immunity of Presidential Appointees

By Rajan and Kirupaimalar Hoole-November 22, 2017, 10:01 pm 

The subject given was the effect of the internal war on Higher Education in this country with special reference to the region mainly affected by the Tamil insurgency and its suppression.

Addressing a Science Faculty forum on university recruitment, Professor Tharmaratnam told the audience, "At least in the recruitment of academics, you must be honest and responsible so as to nurture students who are morally and intellectually sound. After all you are the ones who are going to raise our future teachers. If you abuse this process to bring in favourites, they would in turn be paranoid about recruiting those with superior ability and character. Then you are doomed for thirty years, as Jaffna College is now doomed."

The universities have followed our presidential system and the immunity the holder of the office enjoys. The courts have now come to treat this immunity as blanket immunity; Likewise, the vice chancellors of universities. The ministers, the courts, the University Grants Commission and the University Services Appeals Board, treat this state of affairs as sacrosanct. The result is a crippling incidence of malpractice; I refer in particular to the recruitment of staff and the exclusion of competent scholars who might rock the boat. Behind a façade of activity, the universities have tended to a state of intellectual torpor. I submit that the problem of universities is one of contempt for the law, for which we have for decades, happily blamed terrorists.

Where it began, goes back to the surrender of rationality to nationalism. The earlier emphasis on classics helped us to think meaningfully about the human condition. The ideology of humanism which the classics communicated was healthy; such as Cicero’s, "There is a true law, right reason, agreeable to nature, known to all men, constant and eternal…Nor is there one law at Rome and another at Athens, one thing now and another afterwards; but the same law unchanging and eternal, binds all races of men and all times."

The first disaster that followed on the heels of Independence in 1948 was the Citizenship Acts, whose effects have continued as a long undeclared war.

Criticism of what was accomplished by the Citizenship Acts from our universities barely touched the surface. Deepika Udagama observes in her contribution to the volume Fates of political liberalism in the British post-colony, "The court was not keen to examine the practical realities of the application of the laws, nor the motives for enacting them." On the Privy Council’s support for the Act the contribution quotes its reference to the alleged ‘migratory habits’ of Indian Tamils. This was mere dressing up, not argued fact. The essence of the Privy Council’s stand is contained in, "the court will not be astute to attribute to any legislature motives or purposes or objects which are beyond its powers." That is a sovereign nation has the right to enact its own positive laws – the French Jurist Jean Domat used the term arbitrary law.

The important point for us is that the Privy Council was part of the British Imperial system and how it viewed legislation in the Dominions. British jurists were fine with slave laws in Virginia and Trinidad, but were astute to block any trace of slavery or racial discrimination in British law. That was how they viewed Ceylon and that is not very flattering to us.

The main point is that we got used to doing business with arbitrary law. The 1978 Constitution with its Section 35 on presidential immunity became a rich source of arbitrary law. The spirit of it became the bane of universities by translating vice chancellors into kings and queens with little concern for the law. We briefly view this.

Presidential Immunity, Arbitrary Law and Effects on the Judiciary

On this question, the Judiciary has been on the horns of an unresolved dilemma. The first was the interpretation given in 1983 by a bench presided over by Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon. The relevant part of the interpretation written by Justice Sharvananda reads: "Though the President is immune from proceedings in Court party who invokes the acts of the President in his support will have to bear the burden of demonstrating that such acts of the President are warranted by law."

Sharvananda reversed this interpretation in two judgments during 1985 which practically made the president above the law. The first related to the proscription of the JVP on 30th July 1983 under cover of the anti-Tamil violence in a piece of downright deceit over the so-called Naxalite Plot. The action was justified by Presidential immunity, that it protects "the person holding such high executive office from being subject to legal process or legal action and from being harassed by frivolous actions."

The second related to the Mahara election petition, where Sharvanada ruled "Article 35 gives blanket immunity to the President from proceedings of any kind whatsoever..."

Justice Mark Fernando reversed this in a judgment in December 1998. But ‘blanket immunity’ became entrenched when Fernando was overlooked in favour of Sarath Silva for Chief Justice in 1999. In a case filed by Victor Ivan and others challenging President Kumaratunga’s appointment of Sarath Silva as Chief Justice who was facing ongoing inquiries into his conduct, Justice Wadugodapitiya covered this under Presidential immunity. He chose the authority of Sharvananda over that of his colleague Mark Fernando.

The long term result of this was that presidential immunity – translated to impunity – extended to presidential appointees from chief justices to UGC chairmen and vice chancellors. The courts succumbed, leading to anarchy in the higher education system where rules were held in scant regard.The period 2000 to March 2006 may be held to be a transition period of relative judicial independence, where public interest cases, or from another standpoint, ‘harassing busy people in authority, with frivolous actions’, still enjoyed some traction.

The Citizens Movement for Good Governance or CIMOGG, which Elmore Pererarepresented with senior activist A.C. Visvalingam, got around them a group of outstanding persons to act as appellants in public interest cases. During the years 2002 – 2005, they exposed through a series of appeals the astounding rot that had set in at the country’s two leading universities at Peradeniya and Colombo.

In September 2005 CIMOGG’s case against the President’s appointment of the Colombo University vice chancellor was heard in the Appeal Court. Given the complexity and interconnectedness of the charges, the appellants had torely on getting the court to order the University to produce documents.

It should have been routine as in the Poulraj case below. M.A. Sumanthiran with Viran Corea instructed by Mohan Balendra, who represented Colombo University,accused in their motion the CIMOGG, Prof. S.R.H. Hoole (of the UGC), Elmore Perera and the petitioners of abusing the process of court and violating various laws under the guise of public interest. It said the petitioners had ventured to speak untruths, half-truths and even diabolical falsehoods and this could be demonstrated from their affidavit itself. Alleging that they were engaging in the vilification and defamation of the Colombo University Vice Chancellor, it called for deterrent action. 

Justice Sripavan castigated the petitioners in the same spirit. The case was thus aborted, sparing Justice Sripavan from overtly resorting to presidential immunity.

Saraswathie Poulraj, the Colombo Law Faculty, and a Follow-up

Mrs. Saraswathie Poulraj was one among 25 candidates who responded in 2003 to an advertisement by the University of Colombo for Probationary Lecturers in the Faculty of Law, of whom 7 or 8 had second class upper degrees.

The University shortlisted 8 candidates for interview, of whom 4 had 2nd Upper and 4 had 2nd Lowers. About 4 who had 2nd Uppers were not called for the interview. One 2nd upper and three 2nd lowers were selected. The University Services Appeals Board’s (USAB’s) Justice DG Jayalath, who heard Saraswathie Poulraj’s complaint of discrimination, duly affirmed the interviewsas contrary to the intention of the Circular 721, which obliged the University to consider first class and second upper candidates, who formed Category (1) separately, before considering second lowers – Category (2).

Unfortunately, the Law Faculty that should set an example in respect for the law and even go the extra mile in that direction, resorted to tactics that increasingly brought the university system into disrepute. Encouraged in all likelihood by the Law Faculty, the selected candidates went to the Court of Appeal and requested it to stay the inquiry by the USAB until the decision by the Court of Appeal. This was obstruction of the course of justice; perhaps they felt the Appeal Court was friendly territory. Justice Jayalth of the USAB declined to hold up proceedings there because of the Court of Appeal matter, as there had been no decision of the USAB to appeal against, and moreover not all the facts before the USAB have featured in the Appeal Court action. The fact that the USAB called for documents from the University to test Saraswathie’s allegations, is relevant to the aborted case by CIMOGG againstthe Colombo University VC.

By calling for documents, Justice Jayalath also faulted the way the University had tampered with marks at the interview. He ordered the University to advertise and call afresh.The disease is common to the system.

The North

Up to about the early 1980s, JaffnaUniversity had a strong democratic tradition and students were active. It held out hopes of high standards. However with the July 1983 violence and the onset of war, there was a recession. The rot started in the Arts Faculty while, by 1990, Science and Medicine remained largely unaffected. The LTTE’s assassination of Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, who stood for internal accountability, was the signal for the illiberal tide. Favouritism in the Arts Faculty gathered new momentum.

Jaffna University in 1990 was the leading centre for most students from the North-East. From the nature of events, it is evident that a complaint was made to the LTTE about favouritism and academic jobs being given mainly to favourites from Jaffna. The LTTE told the university authorities to recruit staff from all districts of the North-East. This directive applied mainly to the Arts Faculty. Several then recruited were persons designated by the LTTE. However local corruption thrived unabated, while the LTTE tolerated and perhaps, unintentionally, provided cover for it.

Court stays LG delimitation gazette till 4 December

BY KAVINDYA PERERA-2017-11-23

The Court of Appeal yesterday (22) issued a Stay Order preventing the implementation of the Gazette notification on the delimitation of the Local Government (LG) authorities till 4 December.

The Gazette notification deals with the precise number of members that could be elected to all the LG bodies.

The decision was given by the Court of Appeal (CoA) following the hearing of the petition filed against the delimitation of LG bodies by a group of voters in six LG bodies.

The petition was taken up before a three-Judge bench comprising the presiding Judge President of the Court of Appeal, Justice L.T.B. Dehideniya, Justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Shiran Gunaratne.

The CoA bench also ordered Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Musthapha and the Secretary to the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government to appear in Court on 4 December.

The petition was submitted by six citizens with voting rights including Wathugedera Wijeratne, residents of Colombo, Kandy, Hali-Ela, Matara and Embilipitiya, while Minister Musthapha and the Secretary of the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government were named as the respondents in the petition. The petitioners have claimed that the Extraordinary Gazette notification (2006/44) issued on 17 February 2017 by the Minister had disregarded the recommendations of the Subcommittee appointed to carry out the demarcation of LG bodies. They have pointed out that such actions are unlawful and that the Minister has no authority to do so. Therefore, they request the Court to issue an order invalidating the said Gazette notification.

Budget 2018: Will it help realise goals and targets of Vision 2025?

If the enabling environment for investment could be drastically improved, Sri Lanka could emerge as a sought-after location for investment – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Thursday, 23 November 2017

The Budget 2018, besides being a budget for the forthcoming year, is another declaration of policies and plans of the Government in power.

Goals 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) approved by the UN have been accepted as the goals of Budget 2018 (B18); the major SDG goals are no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being,  quality education, clean water, sanitation, decent work and economic growth.

The objectives/targets

The medium term objectives of B18 as stated in the Vision 2015 as well are: a per capita income of $ 5,000, one million new jobs, FDI inflows of $ 5 billion and exports of $ 20 billion.

Focusing of strategies

Achieving these need proper focusing and efficient implementation. As for proper focusing, an example could be cited. If a patient suffers from cancer, the treatment has to be correctly focused. Similarly the Sri Lankan (SL) economy suffers from severe indebtedness.

How is SL to earn the foreign exchange to pay especially the external debts? Poverty and destitution and inequality of incomes are not low in SL (those earning less than $ 2.5 per person were 32.0% of the population in 2012/13, World Bank).

For proper focusing of strategies, Key Result Areas (KRA). The KRA, which can be defined as the implementation of those 10% or 20% of strategies that could determine 90% or 80% of results desired according to the Pareto’s Principle, could be indicated possibly as follows and get the ministries and agencies concerned to stick to their implementation and monitoring efficiently without any distraction:

1. Attracting investors especially those providing Foreign Direct Investments (FDI)

2. Upgrading the export competitiveness of the country

3. Improving the productivity of the rural agricultural while protecting the natural environment

4. Creating an effective leadership with integrity, a people centred vision and passion

(Reference: Yapa Lloyd F, Export Competitiveness and Poverty Alleviation in South Asia, with special reference to Sri Lanka, 2016).

Attracting investments 

Regarding attracting FDI, B18 says: “Our processes must be relooked at and bench marked against the best”. The B18 then lists the processes regarding import and export of goods, like setting up of a ‘one stop shop’ to speed up approvals and registrations or for improving the ease of setting up a business (Ease of Doing Business Index ranking SL 110 out of 190 countries, World Bank, 2017), a ‘national single widow’ for improving logistics (Logistics Performance Index ranking SL 90 out of 164 countries, Index Mundi 2014), etc.

It is mainly due to a negative enabling environment that SL is unable to attract FDI and other investments for creating jobs and producing mainly for the export market. Though the title of the section concerned is ‘Enabling Environment,’ it is only the processes that have been listed, not the entire enabling environment to induce the FDI to come to SL.

Why should we attract FDI? They could bring with them locally-scarce capital, modern technologies and access to global markets. The SL domestic market is too small to attract market-seeking FDI. Other FDI look for the least risky locations (political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, % rank, Sri Lanka 33.8, Singapore 91.9, Malaysia 56.2, World Bank, 2014) for projects and where the profitability of business could be high.

SL could do better by differentiating its enabling environment against the best locations to avoid competition from them. Otherwise SL may be only ‘one of the beauties on the beach’.

FDIs have most probably avoided SL mainly due to the tensions arising from the ethnic conflict particularly the 30-year war. Even after the war was over in 2009 the environment has not improved. This is because most Sri Lankan politicians are not only utterly corrupt and adept at robbing the taxpayer, but also are propagators of tribalism for obtaining election victories.

Where will such mischief take Sri Lanka? Frightening the investors away will be the least of the consequences. The frequent acts of violence directed against minority communities that have occurred recently could escalate again, leading to extreme poverty and much suffering among the people.

The extent of the suffering may be gauged by looking at what is happening elsewhere in the world, such as Yemen (where a million people are reported to be suffering from hunger and disease like cholera), due mainly to the tussle for power between the Shias and the Sunnis in the Middle East. This is the result of dividing communities/nations on ethnic, religious and caste lines.

What is needed is to develop a consensus regarding effective means such as a new constitution on the lines of that of South Africa to achieve reconciliation among the communities in SL to avoid the situations described above and to attract investment, particularly FDI. To be fair the B18 mentions reconciliation among communities in the country in Section 262 without referring to the means of realising it.

However, even that may not be sufficient to allay fears of investors; the very poor law and order situation has to be improved, rampant corruption that may affect their businesses has to be drastically reduced, the independence of the Judiciary has to be restored and many other barriers like the non- availability of dependable infrastructure and hard and soft skills, etc., have to be rectified. Some of these are dealt with in passing in the B18.

If the enabling environment for investment could be drastically improved SL could emerge as a sought-after location for investment. An added bonus would be the gradual return of SL citizens (as it happened in India after 1991), some of whom are persons with various skills and professional qualifications as well as experience.

The tool preferred by the B18 for increasing investment appears to be mainly entrepreneur/SME development. It may increase employment but may not help to produce competitive goods and services for the global market as they cannot realise scale economies to reduce unit costs and add value to satisfy discerning customers in the rest of the world.

The strategy resorted to for entrepreneur development is the adoption of the traditional ‘top down’ approach with tax incentives and assistance measures. Whether the numerous public sector agencies to be involved would be able to cope with the task is doubtful. (One chapter has been devoted to the subject of an Enabling Environment for Investment in the above mentioned book and another describes how Dubai attracted FDI and became the miracle economy of the Middle East.)

What else, is the next question. SL produces the best tea and cinnamon in the world and has the best quality graphite, apatite and precious stones. There should be plans for converting these to multibillion dollar industries after thorough cost benefit and feasibility analysis.

Tea perhaps could earn as much as Coca Cola ($ 45 billion, net p.a.), Starbucks Coffee, $ 21 billion, net p.a.). Another sector that has such promise is the IT sector which appears to be a favourite of the B 18 for grant of incentives; Business Processing Outsourcing and related enterprises could earn several billion dollars for SL, as in the case of India if the skills required could be found even by resorting to importing the workers.

Improvement of competitiveness

The SL economy has been described as an open economy. This is incorrect. Import tariffs are very high and businesses are constrained by numerous regulations, making it a highly-protected economy (all products, share of tariff lines with international peaks, Sri Lanka 41.18%, Malaysia 13.03%, Singapore 0.0%, World Bank, 2013-2015); the anti-export bias in the economy is therefore quite heavy.

The abolition of para tariffs will solve the problem only partially. Reduction of import duties/tariffs will not only get rid of this bias but also promote competition among firms which is required to pressurise firms to innovate to add value to goods and services on the basis of customer needs (as the B 18 acknowledges). But reduction of tariffs will reduce the capacity of the Government to earn revenue as most of the taxes are imposed on imports; this should not prevent the Government from preparing a plan for reduction of tariffs in a controlled manner.

It should also resort to the alternative of moving strongly for improvement of productivity. Unfortunately a strategy of improving productivity has not been taken up in the B18. Another alternative is the reduction of costs by reducing Government expenditure. It is surprising that this is not detailed in the B18.

There is a passing reference to encouraging Public-Private Partnerships. Obviously there is no political will to restructure the loss-making State-Owned Enterprises as they could be used as a dumping ground for party supporters even without the basic management skills and qualifications and as tools of robbing the taxpayer. (A detailed chapter in the book mentioned above deals with the subject of competitiveness).

Improvement of productivity

Productivity (greater outputs per unit of input) can be realised by adopting various measures for improving the efficiency of production. In SL output per employed person happens to be $31,692, whereas in Singapore it is 133,915, according to the Conference Board Data Base, 2017. Productivity could be improved by enhancing the skills of employees through education and training.

There is a fairly detailed section on this subject in the B18. But there is a mention of improving only hard skills relating to the STEM subjects or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (not medicine). Soft skills like creativity, management and leadership ability, teamwork and communication especially in English are demanded by FDIs and local businesses alike. SL’s education system has been unable to impart such skills.

Section 249 in B18 refers refers to the inability of our bureaucratic structures to be efficient in service delivery. In other words, its productivity is low. However, no effective strategy for resolving it has been mentioned. The main required strategy for this purpose is placement and promotions of officials purely on merit by an independent public service commission. It is also heavily bloated and the numbers have to be reduced for improvement of productivity.

In fact the efficiency/productivity of all factors of production such as land, labour and capital have to improved; such reforms are referred to in passing in B18 (three chapters of the book by the writer, mentioned earlier, have been devoted to this topic). The growth rate of Total Factor Productivity in SL during 2010-2014 has been minus 1.48%.

Agriculture, on which 17 million people in SL depend directly or indirectly, receives scan attention in the BS 18. Productivity in this sector in the form of value added per worker has been extremely low (agricultural value added per worker in Sri Lanka was $ 1,487, and in Singapore $ 76,144, World Bank, 2014/15).

There are two ways of improving this. One is developing a strong manufacturing sector for export. Investments to be attracted should be diverted to this sector. While introducing the latest technologies, it could help to absorb excess employment not only in the agricultural sector which has 27% of total employment but also in the public sector; it could also reduce those going abroad for employment for menial jobs.

The other method is consolidation (and re-plotting) of land holdings as fragmentation has reduced these (45% of holdings less than ¼ acre in size, Agricultural Census of 2002) to loss-making enterprises. Granting of ownership to holders of leased land by the State, after careful analysis would set in a sort of revolution in increasing real (inflation adjusted) incomes and help in reducing poverty and inequality of incomes as well.

Leadership development 

It is now no secret that the present predicament of this country is due the absence of effective leadership of the calibre for instance of Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore (dealt with in chapter 9 of the book mentioned above). Most of our leaders have in fact been engaged in robbing the State and greedily taking bribes even from investors, while engaging in divisive and dangerous tribal politics; they have also failed to develop a vision of taking the country to prosperity by making the people aware of the means involved.

The above analysis of B18 may show that it could be done by focusing on creating an enabling environment plus suitable policies for attracting mainly FDI that could set up manufacturing industries to produce goods and services for the global market. The other important strategy suggested especially for poverty alleviation is the conversion of fragmented land holdings to consolidated farms.

Despite its shortcomings, B18 refers to all the required strategies. There is doubt, however, whether its goals and targets could be achieved. The reasons for this are that its strategies are not focused properly, while some are not worded as strategies but as mere references; the main reason is actually the inefficiency of implementation.
(The writer is a Development Economist.)

All forces would be united against move to postpone elections

November 22, 2017

The present government is carrying out various manoeuvres to deceptively postpone the local government election and despite there are various contradictions, the JVP would unite with all political forces to defeat the reactionary move says the Leader of the JVP and the Chief Whip of the Opposition Anura Dissanayaka.

While Mr. Dissanayaka was making the speech the President entered the parliament and Mr. Dissanayaka continuing his speech said it was a faction of the government that was carrying out the move to postpone the election and mentioned several names of the SLFP Ministers who were involved in the sordid act.

Speaking further the Leader of the JVP said whatever political differences exist his party would give leadership to the struggle to win the election and said his party would not hesitate to unite with any party in the struggle to defeat the manipulations to postpone the election.

Mr. Dissanayaka said the Minister of Provincial Councils is deeply involved in the conspiracy to postpone the election and added the Minister without appearing for the case and making submissions has gone abroad. He revealed that the counsel representing the petitioners is a junior lawyer trained under the Minister’s father and added the case has been filed by Musthapha against Musthapha.
Mr. Dissanayaka said close associates of Ministers Dilan Perera, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, Dayasiri Jayasekera were the petitioners and it shows who is behind the conspiracy to postpone the local government election.

He said all legal measures would be taken to defeat the petition in Court and his party would not hesitate to take to the streets and warned the government that his party would take all measures to win holding the local government election.

Reduce corruption to boost FDI - EU Ambassador

Ambassador Tung Lai-Margue at the event Picture by Roshan Pitipane

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Sri Lanka should try to reduce red tape and minimize corruption to bring in more foreign direct investments to the country, said Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Tung Lai-Margue.

He was speaking at a seminar on the current of state of affairs in terms of EU policy on Government of Sri Lanka’s commitment to comply with international conventions.

He said that corruption too has to be eliminated and the business community can play a major role by not offering ‘bribes’ to get their matters attended to.

“One of the most important things that can be done to eliminate corruption is to severely punish wrongdoers which would be an example for others to refrain from doing so.”

He said that in addition foreigners must be allowed to purchase land in Sri Lanka for their investment.

Sri Lanka should also look at offering long-term visas to investors and also charge less income tax from them at least in the initial stage of the investment. Foreign entrepreneurs investing in Sri Lanka should be given tax holidays for at least three years after starting their businesses.”

The EU Ambassador also said that some of the recent steps and targets set and taken by the government are very encouraging. “This includes the Vision 2025, National Export Strategy, new Inland Revenue Act and the proposals for a new constitution.

There have been positive accomplishments such as the passing of the Right to Information Act, establishment of the Office of Missing Persons, and commencing a process of constitutional reforms. However, reports from various UN agencies and national and international civil society committed to supporting reforms indicate that the reforms have not progressed as expected and desired. He said that after the lifting of the fisheries ban, exports to EU has been increasing and similarly apparel exports too are increasing.

Meanwhile Deputy Minister Policy Planning and Economic Development Dr. Harsha De Silva said that the regaining of GSP Plus and the lifting of the fisheries ban have resulted in an upturn in order books for the European markets.

He said that world labour laws and working conditions are changing and in Sri Lanka too this is happening especially with extended working hours and also flexi hours which has already started in Battaramulla. “We observe that Sri Lankan women workforce of 35% is one of the lowest in Asia and we hope that new labour laws would help to increase this figure.”

ETHNIC CLASH IN GINTOTA, GALLE: WHO, WHAT, WHEN AND NOW

22/11/2017

There are contradictory information and claims being made out in the public sphere in relation recent violent incident in Gintota, Galle as what was ignited the clash between Sinhala and Muslim people living in the area. What follows  is a  verified account by a human rights defender.

On 12th Nov. a mother and 1 and 1/2 year old infant (Muslims) were knocked down by a Sinhala motorcyclist who was drunk. The infant got injured when the mother had fallen by the roadside. Since the motorcyclist did not stop and tried to run away, a group of Muslim men blocked him. After assaulting the Sinhala man these Muslim men took away his motorcycle.

Thereafter the person who knocked down the mother and the infant went and mobilsed men from his village. Then there was confrontation between them and Muslim men who took away the motorcycle and after some agreement of a settlement to the victim the Muslim men handed over the bike to the owner.

On 13th there was a football match at Gintota Zahira College and there were about 1000 spectators. Near by this ground is a Sinhala village and when some of the football players and students went passing this village they were attacked by a group of men. This incident was reported to police immediately. The police arrested Sinhala and Muslim men including a former politician Mr. Kiyas Hussain.
Following this incident STF was deployed from 13to to 16th in Gintota.

On 17th the police protection was withdrawn at about 5pm. However some Muslims had observed a meeting taking place in Gintota Thuparama Pansala (from 5 to 7 pm) while STF was withdrawing. After this meeting, when it was getting dark a group of Sinhala men started the attack on Muslims.

Due to this attack following damages have been caused:

About 60 Muslims houses have been broken and some burnt,

03 shops have been burnt and a few shops have been robbed.

04 Muslims have been injured include the above mentioned infant. No one got killed (there was a rumor that 2 got killed which is not true)

The house of the Sinhala person who claimed the motorcycle from Muslim youth after the road accident on 13th was attacked by Muslims. One Sinhalese owned shop was burnt down too.
An eyewitness says when the vehicles were burnt on the roadside the STF and police were present but did nothing to stop.

Till 10pm on 17th the police did not do anything to curb the violence. Curfew was declared on the nights of 17th and 18th.

On 18th one Muslim house and a fiber factory have been burnt while the curfew was in force.
To date there is tension and Muslim community there feels insecure. Therefore the law and order authority must step in and ensure that there are no further rumors or violence and ensure protection to all communities.

a note by Shreen Abdul Saroor.

Photos are taken by Mujeeb R.

Gintota violence : Report behind the story !

(Lanka-e-News - 20.Nov.2017, 10.40PM)  Following the violence that erupted   in Gintota recently , 74 houses were damaged due to  attacks by hurling stones though no house was set on fire. 8 shops were burnt down and 8 vehicles including a motor cycle , three wheeler and Dimo Batta Van were set on fire.

About 20 victims following the  attack were hospitalized , but what is  most intriguing in this incident is , none of the casualties are from the area where the violence was unleashed meaning that it is outsiders  who had come to create mayhem. 

20 suspects who were identified as having caused  the riot were  arrested   by the police . Of them 16 belong to one race and the other four belong to another.

It is two vehicle  accidents which have   led to the riots. However it is a political leader of the area of a main political party who had initiated the violence. He is now in police custody. Since elections are around the corner , political leaders of the area are trying to become heroes through  all kinds of ploys. It is also reported,  as usual it is the robed  monks of a nearby temple who had provoked the public , and are  now moving heaven and earth to rescue their rowdy sidekicks involved.

Though it is two   minor vehicle accidents that triggered the violence , the police lethargy had added fuel to the fire. Because the law was not enforced duly and impartially the violence had escalated. 

The situation has now been defused and the STF are continuing to provide security to the people. The people who suffered from this violence have lost faith in the police , and are  reposing  implicit faith in the STF.

After the visit of the Prime Minister yesterday , and his announcement that compensation will be paid to the victims , the situation had calmed down. Yet some others who suffered damage due to other reasons are seeking to dupe the government and collect compensation , and a political leader of the area is on the sly giving support to them , based on reports.

It is to be noted , the P.M. on this tour did not visit any place of religious worship , and met with only the two factions that  had suffered damage  and losses . Those who are neutral and impartial greatly admired and lauded this move of the P.M. 

By an inside information reporter of Lanka e News.

Translated by Jeff

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by     (2017-11-20 17:16:29)

Deporting British Tourist with a Budda Tattoo a case of acting without knowing the law

Coleman receives compensation, claims will never return to Lanka

2017-11-23

Tourism is one of those sectors that immensely contributes to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country. Immediately after the war, several plans were implemented to boost tourism in Sri Lanka and from then on wards, this island was marked on the world map as a tourism hot spot. Naomi Michelle Coleman was one of 144,168 tourists who visited Sri Lanka in 2014. Contrary to pleasant memories gathered while in Sri Lanka by other tourists, Naomi’s encounter was unpleasant and horrible. Naomi or any other tourist for that matter wouldn’t have expected a sporting a tattoo of The Buddha on the right upper arm would take a foreigner to the point of being deported from the country. 

The Supreme Court announced that Naomi wasn’t at fault and she was awarded compensation amounting to a figure between Rs. 800,000 – Rs 600,000 another Rs. 200,000 to cover costs

But three years later, the Supreme Court announced that Naomi wasn’t at fault and she was awarded compensation amounting to a figure between Rs. 800,000 – Rs 600,000 another Rs. 200,000 to cover costs. During the case, a magistrate issued a notice for her deportation without the consultation of the Subject Minister nor the Embassy. The judgment further specified that there had been a breach of fundamental rights and that a magistrate couldn’t take such a decision. “I don’t think I will ever return to Sri Lanka as there may be people who would want to harm me,” Naomi told the Daily Mirror.

The incident 

Naomi had just arrived in Sri Lanka after travelling from India. She was expecting her friend, who was arriving from the UK. She therefore had to collect her from the airport that afternoon. According to Naomi, this incident obviously wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t have to obtain the services of a taxi driver, who she identified as Kelum Chaminda, and a bystander, who had picked her up. Things had got a little unpleasant when he observed the tattoo and he wanted to take her to the Police instead to the airport. But she had managed to send her friend a text which she fortunately saw when she had arrived. They were then supposed to travel to Maldives after a week in Sri Lanka. 

According to her, the duo had taken her to Katunayake Police Station where the Acting OIC had confiscated her passport and produced her in court without specifying charges. She wasn’t afforded an opportunity to communicate nor inform the British High Commission about her arrest. 
She said she was introduced to an Attorney by a prison guard, but she had no opportunity to give instructions to the Attorney. However she was asked to pay Rs. 5000 as the fee.

According to her, the prison guard who was in charge of her, while being behind bars at the court room, had made several lewd, obscene and disparaging remarks which were sexually inclined. When her case concluded, her attorney informed her that she would be deported, regardless of her entreaties. She was also told that she would be permitted to leave for Maldives and till then would be detained at a deportation centre in Nugegoda.

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“I will never return to Sri Lanka” -Naomi Coleman

Naomi Michelle Coleman has been working as a mental health support worker in Coventry for the past 16 years. She travels on a regular basis and has attended Buddhist retreats in India, Thailand and Nepal. She has also undertaken volunteer work with disadvantaged children in these countries. Her last visit in Sri Lanka, back in 2014, was her third in the island. 

I am happy with the outcome of the case and it proves that I wasn’t at fault. The whole situation was handled badly and I was very frightened

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Naomi shared her experience and what she felt about the verdict. 

Q As a tourist, how do you feel when recalling the incident and what it turned out to be in the end?

I am happy with the outcome of the case and it proves that I wasn’t at fault. The whole situation was handled badly and I was very frightened as I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. I am glad that it has been acknowledged that the police officers are at fault and they have been asked to pay a fee.

No one spoke with me in English and I was relying on a taxi driver to communicate. The next thing I knew was that I was just taken to a court after waiting for hours and seeing my passport being taken away from me. I thank the rational thinking people in Sri Lanka for their great support and the lawyers JC Weliamuna, Vishwa, Thishya and Hafeel for offering to take my case without charging legal fees and fighting the case for over 3 years. 

I am unsure why the verdict took so long. Initially the judge presiding over the case was taken ill and then another judge was assigned. The case had been heard over several times during the past three and a half years. 

Q Have you had similar encounters in other countries as well?

I have never had an encounter like this in any other country. My tattoo is a symbol of peace and compassion and represents my travels to Buddhist countries and the lessons I have learned from Buddhist monks. 

Q Are you still being harassed?

I know of one person who is making an issue out of the verdict on social media, but I know in my heart that I wasn’t in the wrong and I follow a Buddhist path. These people don’t know me nor do they know what kind of person I am.

I know Buddhist symbols should be above the waist and that’s what I have done

Q What is your message to fellow tourists and Sri Lankan authorities?

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, however I won’t be able to return due to the small percentage of people that would still wish to harm me. I know Buddhist symbols should be above the waist and that’s what I have done as well, so I’m not disrespecting the Buddhist culture. 

Fellow tourists, just be mindful if you have a tattoo of The Buddha as there is a small percentage of extremists who could create a huge problem. Also if you take a picture in front of a Buddha statue that seems to create an issue in Sri Lanka, but not in other Buddhist countries. Other than that the beaches and Buddhist sites are must-visit places.

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“Police officers should follow the judgment and study the laws” - Ruwan Gunasekara
According to Police Media Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara, once a Supreme Court judgment is given it becomes a binding law. “From there on wards Police officers have been asked to follow the judgment and study the laws accordingly. We can’t train Police officers every time a judgment is given. There are two parts to a law: Ratio decidendi – the point in a case where the judgment is given and Obiter dictum – a judge’s expression of opinion stated in courts. This isn’t the official decision. So usually the Ratio decidendi becomes the law and we have trained Police officers to abide by the law during these circumstances,” the police spokesman said.

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“The dignity of a person is of utmost importance” - Dr.Prathiba Mahanamahewa
Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, Human rights lawyer and former Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Council, said that when the Police conduct investigations they should consider the dignity of a person. “When dealing with tourists we also have to think about the country’s image. Therefore before Police officers take action regarding an issue which has legal consequences, they should consult Senior officials and carry out their investigations accordingly.
We see Buddhist symbols everywhere and then in that case even wearing a Dharmachakra is an offence. People wear tattoos depending on their preferences and we can’t take it as an offence. She had no intention of degrading the religion and therefore she can’t be at fault. It’s only if someone is intentionally defaming a religion that some action should be taken against it. In this situation, the Embassy should have been informed and they should have been consulted, but everything was blown out of proportion. The Police should learn to treat people in a humane way,”said Mahanamahewa.

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“Everybody is equal before the law” - Thishya Weragoda
Speaking to the  Attorney-at-Law Thishya Weragoda, one of the lawyers who appeared for Naomi, said that three years is relatively an improvement when compared to other verdicts which drag on for five years or more. “Regarding this incident a random person had created havoc and the Policemen seemed to have acted irresponsibly. What the Police should have done first was to disperse the crowd and made her explain what had gone wrong. They could have escorted her to a hotel, but instead they decided to deport her. I believe this is the first such case where a foreigner was involved,” said Weragoda. 

Regarding this incident a random person had created havoc and the Policemen seemed to have acted irresponsibly

Speaking further Weragoda said that everybody is equally treated by the law. “We followed Articles 11, 12 and 13 which addresses freedom of speech and equal treatment to all. The Police too has misrepresented facts in court which has resulted in the story being twisted in different places. It’s only if a person is convicted that a magistrate can deport him or her. I believe that the magistrate too should be more cautious and must understand the situation first. Also the Police too should train their subordinates to handle situations in a diplomatic manner without trying to earn extra bucks. It’s disrespectful to see such occurrences and in this case it involved a tourist.

Therefore all Police officers have to be properly trained before a badge is pinned on them. We also have a Constitution which is 40 years old and that too should be revamped immediately,”said Weragoda.  

Omni-Channel Synchroniser for banks and financial institutions: An vision to simplify banking

Changing consumer needs and preferences: Convenience and accessibility at the fingertips around-the-clock

Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Today, as a society we are noticing a historical shift from cash-based transactions to digitisation of financial transactions, and from the use of traditional banking channels to e-channels. Cashless transactions are becoming more of a norm rather than an exception. A notable shift in our mind-set has transpired in the last 10 years.

Technological innovations and changing consumer appetite (such as the demand for convenience and around-the-clock access to banking services) have driven a shift in consumer demands and usage patterns away from traditional banking channels and methods.

Bank cards such as credit, debit, and loyalty cards have become a ubiquitous item in our daily lives. Last year (2016), the number of credit, debit and prepaid cards is 19.50 billion. This is expected to increase 24% to 26.09 billion by 2021. Card based transactions for goods and services worldwide reached 257.17 billion in 2016 for Visa, UnionPay, Mastercard, JCB, Diners/Discover, and American Express (Nielsen report).

A similar trend can be observed in Sri Lanka. Over the last decade, financial services have been clamouring to gain market share by enticing potential consumers by way of special promotions for credit/debit card usages and incessant advertising campaigns for their products and services. They appear to have certainly achieved this objective since according to Visa International there are presently over 17.73 million debit cards and 1.31 million credit cards in circulation in Sri Lanka; that is over half of all Sri Lankans owning a debit card (end of 2016).

In recent times we have observed newer and more sophisticated payment channels being offered to consumers; namely, internet and mobile banking. An increasing portion of consumers is now comfortable performing routine transactions, such as utility payments, fund transfer and balance checking, via online services provided by their respective financial institutions.

Though mobile banking and internet banking has been around for over a decade, its adoption rate and popularity have grown over the last few years. Customer attitudes towards mobile banking have become positive due to the emergence of advanced mobile and smartphone technology, advancements in functionalities and security features, and an overall increase in the use of smartphones by the banking public.

Mobile financial services not only fill the need for “anytime” banking for customers, they also have the potential to reach out to a large unbanked population. Low operating costs and higher penetration rates of mobile phones across all demographics make this particularly attractive in developing markets. While mobile financial services offer an enhanced value proposition to current and future banking customers, the medium also provides a viable business case for banks through reduced operational costs and increased revenues.

With the emergence of technologically-advanced mobile phones, there has been a significant surge in the demand for better mobile banking services. Mobile banking is fast approaching a tipping point due to increasing demand from customers supported by faster adoption cycles for mobile banking. Banks that embrace and develop a holistic mobile banking strategy are expected to be better positioned to drive customer acquisition, improve profitability, and increase customer retention.

Increasing bank branches – Is it the viable solution to attract and retain today’s customers?

The natural tendency for providers of financial services has been to rapidly expand their branches and offices in order to cater for the increased customer base. Branches have always played an important role and remain a key banking channel. However, it’s imperative that banks adapt to the changing needs and preferences of today’s customers in order to remain competitive in the market. Retail banks today are under pressure to improve their quality of service, while also reducing costs to remain competitive in an extremely volatile and uncertain market.

Improving customer service is crucial for banks in the current market and economic scenario, where product and price no longer provide a clear competitive edge. Distribution channels play a key role in delivering an enhanced customer experience as customer interactions begin and end with channels. Banking customers are increasingly expecting more convenience, accessibility, personalisation, and reliability across the distribution channel network.

Banks need to deliver these features by leveraging innovative technologies and solutions for a seamless and personalised experience. There is a clear demand for banks to invest in their channel networks to make them more customer-centric and user-friendly, while in the process improving the channel efficiencies for a better return on investment and increased profitability.

As branch networks typically constitute around 75% of a bank’s total distribution costs, the key challenge banks face today is to justify the high branch-operating costs at a time of lower branch-driven revenue growth. It is not uncommon to hear of banks conducting campaigns with slogans such as ‘100 branches in 100 days’, ‘200 branches in 1 year’, etc. Outwardly this may appear to be an effective way of servicing their consumers better, but at a functional level this incurs sizeable capital and operational expenses to that particular institution.

Each location requires its own hardware/software infrastructure, personnel and other recurring overheads. And in actuality, physical visitations by customers to these branches might in fact be marginal, and the services rendered even less so. Overall this is not an efficient and realistic method of servicing customers spread throughout the country, and certainly not a sustainable operational model over extended periods. If banks can effectively transition their customers from higher-cost to low-cost channels such as the mobile and online channels, they can reduce their overall cost to serve while also improving their return on investment.

Practical alternative to branches – Mobile branchless banking

A realistic solution to the impediments of maintaining hundreds of bank branches is the deployment of mobile branchless banking services to authorised agents. This is implemented using mobile POS terminals and/or smartphones with snap-on card reading devices. An authorised agent has issued these terminals and they will be able to provide services such as cash credit, account opening, fund transfer, etc. at a fraction of the cost of operating a fully-fledged office complex. This also extends the service rendered to the consumer as the agent is now able to provide a ‘banking-at-your-doorstep’ type of experience.

Key challenge – Incompatibility in heterogeneous banking systems and channels

The key challenge banks face today when adopting new product/channels are their existing legacy applications, systems, and bank processes which often operate in silos. Systems are designed rigidly, and are virtually impossible to integrate with any type of 3rd party service with the core systems without engaging the core solution provider – and this generally means exorbitant fees for the bank. In certain situations, the costs are so prohibitive that the new product/channel is abandoned altogether.

In a more holistic perspective, all financial institutions today face an almost crisis-like fracture across its service channels connecting to their core banking systems. ATM switches, POS terminal management, card management services, public/private key infrastructure, etc. are all provided by an assortment vendors, causing heterogeneous integration a nightmare at best. In fact in many cases institutions have had to undergo complete backend system overhauls, at stupendous expense, simply to introduce a new service channel. Investments in new hardware, software licenses and employing domain experts in respective verticals add an undue stress on the institution’s bottom line.

Consequently, this results in an unstructured allocation of HR components causing the formation of different groups for different products; that is, a different cluster of IT teams for core banking, card management, mobile POS and disaster recovery, etc. This invariably causes vertical dependencies across domain experts since each team works independently of each other and not under a unified umbrella of governance or policy. The scarcity of specialist resources occasionally leaves the institutions in the hands of its IT departments! This is certainly not an acceptable scenario for an institution to who the image of public trust and reliability is of paramount importance.

A new concept – Omni-Channel Synchronisation of all front-end services

A viable concept to overcome this present impasse is to build an Omni-Channel Synchroniser which is common to all front-end services, and thus provide a single point of interconnection to the core banking and other back-end services. The Omni-Channel Synchroniser will communicate with all different listener channels and route the respective messages to the core banking system via a secure pathway. Thus, a single platform will provide the ability to integrate ATM, card issuance/acquisition, mobile device transactions, dispute resolution/reconciliation and fraud management services with the core banking systems without having to implement changes to the back-end.

Ideally, an Omni-Channel Synchroniser would provide four essential services mandatory for any payment platform.

1. Multiple front-end channel integration

Omni-Channel Synchroniser will provide a unified medium for all external channels to communicate with the respective internal systems, and vice versa, using industry standard/specific protocols. This is the keystone to transparency between the front and back end services permitting varied systems to integrate seamlessly. Back-end systems could be local middleware (such as SLIPS or LankaPay), core banking system, card management, access control system, etc.

Front-end channels could be ATM, mobile or internet banking, mobile wallet, etc. Irrespective of the front-end channel and the back-end system, the Omni-Channel Synchroniser will be a ‘hub’ which provides a common point of integration for all services to interconnect. A vendor only has to expose their system(s) to the channel listener in one instance. The advantages of such an implementation are obvious and substantial, as noted in the following sections.

2. Security

Each of the front end services connecting to the Omni-Channel Synchroniser would require its own secure communication channel. This signing and encryption functionality will be provided by Omni-Channel Synchroniser using PKI infrastructure. MAC authentication and military grade encryption will ensure that each message from each channel is authentic and valid.

Since the Omni-Channel Synchroniser provides a common gateway for all systems to integrate, financial institutions are now empowered with the capacity to introduce a common security strategy across the entire network. No longer are they shackled by having to adhere to varying security policies or restrictions of differing vendors. The institution themselves sets out the security policy that each system has to adhere to in order to ‘plug-in’ to the channel listener.

Since the security layer is common across the entire enterprise, all solutions can use the same security algorithms and policies highly effectively and with increased simplicity. Customers are free to choose their own authentication methodology based on their preferences and convenience. For example, single or multifactor authentication can be chosen based on the type of the transaction or the transaction value. For instance, instead of supplying a customer with multiple PINs for different products, the institution can now readily deploy a one-time-password (OTP) solution where a verification code could be sent to a mobile device for the customer to complete the transaction.

Moreover, Omni-Channel Synchroniser supports multiple authentication techniques such as PIN based authentication, and biometric authentication such as face ID, touch ID and voice recognition .This serves a considerable benefit from the perspective of customer experience to a consumer who now no longer requires memorising several different codes; just one password or biometric feature to access the mobile device. This scenario is prohibitively costly to implement in a multi-vendor multi-platform environment where different channels operate across its own channel, resulting in the consumer having to change his/her behaviour in order to better suit the requirement of the institution.

3. Resolution and reconciliation

A key shortcoming in heterogeneous systems is that it is an arduous task to reconcile suspense/intermediate accounts from different databases and data streams. A single point of transaction logging will ensure that all batch/pending updates can be accurately and efficiently reconciled with the intermediary accounts. This additionally provides the mechanism to identify unsuccessful, duplicate and reversal transactions irrespective of the front-end channel initiating it, which can then be actively communicated to the consumer either via call-center or mobile device. This form of ‘we’re–on-the-ball’ approach only serves to bolster the customers’ confidence in the dependability and trust in the institution.

4. Fraud management

Since all channels are communicating through Omni-Channel Synchroniser, fraud management can be deployed at a single point instead of operating a different FMS for each of the channels separately. And since the resolution and reconciliation is also in a unified state, the institutions can take a more active, rather than passive role in the preventing of fraudulent transactions from transpiring even before they have occurred.

Key benefits – Core transformations that lead to tangible savings

1. Less integration cost, time and effort

The Omni-Channel Synchroniser provides a substantial advantage in reducing integration complexities that are prevalent today. New channels can be added or removed according to business requirement without having to interfere with backend changes. This translates to visible reductions in software upgrade/ modification expenditures. This provides the institution with the leverage to implement a ‘test-bed’ for ongoing innovations and to fine-tune their product line up to better align with the customer experience.

2. Easy to innovate and deploy new products

Reduced integration effort and time directly translate to the ability of the institution to deploy new and innovative products to the market without being delayed by external dependencies, such as vendors’ delays to roll-out patches and updates, etc. In a nutshell, rapid time-to-market of products and services.

3. Strong security policy across all services

Omni-Channel Synchroniser allows a superior and strong security policy to be deployed to all the channels of the institution. This will include strong user authentication techniques, message/media signing and authentication and secure channels of communication. A single instance of public/private key infrastructure can be used to deliver this enhanced level of protection across all the products and services of the institution.

4. Reduced HR assets

The unified nature of the Omni-Channel Synchroniser inherently implies fewer types of systems to manage independently thus requiring less staff to maintain the entire solution suite – there will be no different IT groups or any dependencies across varied systems.

5. Enforce new controlling mechanisms

Since the Omni-Channel Synchroniser provides a common gateway to all the front end channels, it allows financial institutions and regulatory bodies to enforce controlling mechanisms aligned with the country’s lawful requirements pertaining to electronic payment and settlements, payment devices and consumer privacy and authentication. This specifically relates to Sri Lanka’s Electronic Transactions Act and Computer Crimes Act of 2007 which can now be effectively implemented and imposed across the electronic transaction landscape of the country thereby cultivating the necessary foundation for a digital economy.

An achievable vision – The Omni-Channel Synchroniser

Omni-Channel Synchroniser is a proven solution that provides palpable value by reducing the total cost of ownership across multiple services by introducing layers of transparency between the core system and the new channels. The industry as a whole needs to embrace the concept of being able to deploy new channels as and when the market dynamics require it, quickly and effectively.

In an increasingly consumer-driven environment, it is the institution that has the agility and adaptability to change that has the first-mover advantage. This conviction needs to trickle down from the top of the corporate pyramid across all tiers to all the actors in the organisational fabric.

In a very real sense, it is the developing nations that would find it easier to embrace newer technologies and concepts due to the reduced maturity levels in the regions-mature institutions operating on archaic concepts and systems need to incur far greater costs to change the plethora of interdependent systems that have been integrated over time. Adaptability is and will be, the key to survival in times ahead.

(The Writer is a well-known payment solution architect and industry veteran. He is the Group Director and Chief Executive Officer of Epic Technology Group, the premier and award winning regional technology leader. Viraj is a founder member of Epic, which has an impeccable track record of over 20 years serving corporate organisations.)